Beloved Community,
Blessings for this month of October. I look forward to a joy filled month with all of you. In addition to Worship this October we invite all middle school and high school youth to join us at Day’s Bowl-A-Dome on October 5th at 1:30 p.m.
On October 19th the kids will sing in church with their VBS recap, and this will also be the first day for our Noisy Offering (all donations will go to Share Your Holidays). Then on October 26th we will commemorate reformation & witness our most recent class of confirmands affirm their Baptism through the Rite of Confirmation!
As most of you know, October is an important month for the Lutheran church, because of Martin Luther starting the reformation. The reformation officially started on October 31st 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther felt inspired to do so, as he was upset about many things in the Catholic Church, one of them being the sale of indulgences and wanted them to stop. Luther believed in the freedom found in God’s Word and the freedom found in God’s grace, sharing we are justified not by our works, but by God’s grace through faith.
By the grace of God, reformation is still alive today. Every Sunday we have the opportunity to come together, to hear God’s Word, to be challenged, changed, and created new – birthed from the love given to us in Christ, through the mysterious workings of the Holy Spirit.
May this season of fall and this season of reformation stir the Spirit’s presence in our midst. May we continue to come together discerning where we are being challenged, where we are being called into reformation, and where we are being called into grace. Grace as we continue to make space for our merger conversations with Immanuel, and as we all come together united as one in Christ’s love. Amen.