From My Window…
I want to make God more alive to someone else this year.
To all the saints in Christ Jesus in Shiloh United Methodist Church:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Imagine if we were greeted that way as we began our day…as we ran into Kroger’s for last minute groceries…as we opened the door to our house. Sounds wildly improbable, doesn’t it? Admit it, sounds kind of extreme, doesn’t it? Sort of like we thought we were like those New Testament people. The ones we call saints.
Guess what? That is what we’re called to be. Most importantly, it’s what God gives us the power to be. I hope you will be with us in worship with us throughout November as we celebrate the saints in our lives. The people who “made God more alive” to you. We’ll hear stories from the heart of ways saints in this congregation have made each other’s lives richer in love, richer in meaning, richer in laughter and sorrow shared. We’ll also hear stories of times it looked like we were the ones pouring out God’s love, only to find it flowing over into us as well.
The reality of being the church at Shiloh United Methodist, being the saints who’ve loved each other and served God, is that we promise first, our presence and prayers and then, our money and our time. When we miss coming together in worship and fellowship, we miss the vital love that the Spirit of God uses to connect us to each other. It’s not our power that makes us saints to each other: it’s God’s. When we ignore the vital role that money plays in our ability to worship and minister together, we ignore the words of Jesus that where your money is, there your heart is also.
We can hold onto what we have, and find we have less.
Or we can open our hearts, our schedules and our checkbooks…
And find that the ‘someone else’ God is more alive to…is all of us.