Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

This is a special musical presentation of Listen Here, Listen Here with a solo from Christopher Lewis at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Advent is a season that is counter cultural. We can get busier and busier as we approach Christmas. Yet when we gather together for worship we talk and sing about slowing down and waiting. We sing those Advent hymns in minor keys, that some people don't like. We don't even sing a Hymn of Praise and instead we sing only a Kyrie.

The ceremony of the candle lighting is added in every Sunday service as well in our Christmas Eve services. This year we are using something new that I suggested. It is entitled – "God is Near". This may be the message that we need to hear this Advent season.

In order to hear that God is near, we may have to stop and wait, to be alert and pray. No matter whether you think something good will come out of the craziness in our country or not, it can become loud. Hearing God may become more difficult.

The people that Luke was writing to were probably becoming confused as to what he was talking about also. Jesus said there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the seas and waves. The Son of Man will be coming in a cloud.

Now when these things take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. I'm sure if we saw this we would raise our heads, and our mouths would be open. Whether Jesus comes this way or not, the point is he will return. This is our future hope.

He also said that heaven and earth may pass away, but his words will not pass away. Another word of hope. Jesus talks about the fig tree and the growing cycle. Things come and go. Sometimes things will be crazy and not make sense to us, but God in Jesus Christ isn't going anywhere. God always promises to be near.

Thankfully this is one part of history that does repeat itself. Thus, we know that this will not change and so we are challenged to be in the moment. Even for the people that Luke was writing to, Jesus had told them to be alert and pray for the strength to make it through their craziness. It is no different for us.

Advent is about paying attention so as not to get caught up in the craziness. Be alert, wait and pray for the strength to stay focused on Jesus. Our culture for the most part does not observe Advent. I believe at least if not before Halloween, we can begin to start finding Christmas things in stores.

Advent pulls in the reigns and reminds us that Jesus will return. Too often there are Christians who like to use the second coming to scare people to be a Christian their way. This is not what advent, and the second coming are about.

It is to remind us that Jesus has come and on one hand is still here and also will return physically again. Jesus may have confronted people when he was here, but his goal was never to scare them. He tried to teach what God expected, but people always had a choice. Just as we do.

Jesus was always teaching about how to live in community. During advent we might reflect on how we interact in the community with our neighbors. There are many scared and anxious people in our world today. What message do we hear and have that we can share with them?

How do we get ready to do this? While we wait our Psalmist today prays show me your ways, O God; teach me your paths! I wrote about this in my Pastor's Corner. Do we trust God enough to hear the answer and act on it?

We will not know what God wants us to do until we ask. In my experience, God loves each one of us as individuals, but then asks us to share that love in community, in different ways. I would dare say that the answer to our petition will have something to do with how we treat our neighbor. Even the ones we don't agree with.

After the Psalmist has asked God to show them the way and teach God's path, they ask God to remember how merciful God is and God's steadfast love is for all people. They ask God not to remember their prior sins, but to remember them according to God's goodness.

Could it be that Psalmist is thinking even though they are asking to know God's will, that they will probably have trouble with the answer? Thus, they are asking God to remember that they are not perfect, and that God has promised to love them and have mercy on them. Maybe we can relate?

Here is the key, I believe, the Psalmist prays, you lead the humble in what is right. It is only when our I bends enough that we are able to hear God's answer in our waiting. This is when we are ready to be taught.

The Psalmist finally comes to the conclusion that all of God's paths are steadfast love and faithfulness. We are able to see this as we keep our baptismal promise with God in Jesus Christ. In our waiting, it is only when we are able to release ourselves to God that we are able to hear and be taught how to love our neighbor.

Advent may be a penitential kind of season, but it doesn't lack hope for today and tomorrow. Hope for tomorrow is that even though things continue to turn and turn around, Jesus will return.

Our hope for today is that God's word will never pass away which means God is near. As we experience the craziness in life we are challenged not to get caught up in it, but to remain focused on Jesus. Be alert, wait and pray for wisdom with the Psalmist. This is what we are called to practice during this Advent season. This is counter cultural.

Even though we are challenged to be alert, to wait and pray to hear God's word, we are assured that we can wait in hope and that God is near. Waiting is not so bad when we know that we are not waiting in vain. We can have hope that God is near.

Let us pray, God of hope, we long for your word of hope in our lives. The craziness of our world and season get in the way of being able to hear your word of hope. We ask that your Spirit help us to be alert, to wait and pray that we may be able to hear your word of hope, that you are near. In Jesus name, Amen

Today is Christ the King Sunday or Reign of Christ Sunday. Pope Pius XI in 1925 began this festival which was around the time of World War I. He felt that the followers of Christ were being lured away by secularism. They were choosing to live in the kingdom of the world and focus on themselves and not the kingdom where God reigned where the focus is on others.

Christ the King Sunday was declared to counter nationalism. People at that particular time were getting the 2 kingdoms blurred. Could this be what we are experiencing today?

The worldly kingdom, nationalism, is about gaining power and control to benefit only a certain group of people. It is about making one race, gender and sexual orientation superior. Jesus' kingdom is about making sure everyone is taken care of. It is about recognizing that every person is part of God's creation, and are equal. Each person has gifts and abilities that the kingdom needs in order to function.

Jesus' kingdom is about loving our neighbor, which is the person living next door to us, across the parking lot, all over our country. Exclusion begins when we become jealous of what others have. It is when we decide someone is not worthy. This is not what Jesus' kingdom looks like.

Jesus' kingdom is about realizing that no one is really worthy of anything. This means that everything we have is a gift from God and we are called to care for them. So, this then ties in with Stewardship Sunday which is also today.

This Reign of Christ and Stewardship Sunday have appeared at a time in our country and the life of our church to remind us of what Jesus' kingdom looks like. I believe that Jesus is looking for grateful followers who are willing to let him reign. But his kind of reigning is not about just saying yes Jesus, but actually doing what Jesus commands us to do.

Jesus reminds us that we are commanded to love God with all of our hearts, souls and minds and our neighbor as ourself. We know this, so why do we have to keep being reminded. Because just as in the time of Pope Pious we are being lured by secularism. Our country is taking a direction that could be destructive, and I know not everyone sees it that way. It seems that our country is headed away from Christ reigning.

Our lessons for today instruct us about the difference in the 2 kingdoms. They describe for us what power and control look like. What we learn challenges us to look at where our allegiance lies and how to be followers in this time of the blurred kingdoms.

In our Gospel lesson we have Jesus being interrogated by Pilate. This is the trial narrative where Pilate confronts Jesus about being the king of the Jews. The Jewish leaders had accused Jesus of treason. Thus, they handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities.

Pilate represented the Roman authorities and not the Jewish people. He was kind of in the middle of it. He was being asked by the Jewish leaders to declare Jesus guilty of saying he was the messiah, and they didn't believe it. The church and the state were working together. They like to keep each other happy.

Jesus is no different here than any other time that he was confronted. He did not answer anything directly or sometimes not at all. Pilate's first question to Jesus was "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus turned it back on Pilate, "Are you asking this on your own account or did others tell you this?"

Pilate responds. "Well, Do I look like a Jew? Your people have handed you over to me. Tell me, what have you done?" Jesus responds, "I'm not really from here. My kingdom doesn't exist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn't be handed over to the Jews. But I'm not that kind of king, not the world's kind of king."

Then Pilate said, "So, are you a king or not?" Jesus answered, "You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice."

In the gospel of John, the truth is not just a piece of information, it is the person, Jesus Christ. Jesus is asking us to listen for his voice, which is the truth. The more the kingdoms may seem blurred, the keener our hearing needs to be. Then once we believe we hear the truth, Jesus, what will be called to do with it?

First of all, let's talk about ways to hear the truth. I believe we are called to listen and observe how power and control are carried out. Is it used to control people or empower all people?

Nationalism is about singling out one group to be in power and control. Christians are involved with this also. We are given the ability to see that this is not what Jesus' kingdom is about. So, when we see this going on in our country, we will be called to stand up for the truth, Jesus.

Nationalism is about putting people in their places, defining for them what their place is in our country. Christians are saying that this is spelled out in the Bible, and this has been written into Project 2025. A number of the authors will be on staff in our new government.

We have come here today to offer our allegiance to Jesus, to remember that everything that we have is a gift from God, and be part of Jesus' kingdom. On this reign of Christ Sunday, we are being reminded that there are two very different kingdoms. I have said earlier that the kingdoms may be blurred, but I wonder if when we work on hearing and observing the truth, Jesus, that the difference will become clearer and clearer.

Faith Lutheran Church has taken a stand on who we believe to be part of Jesus' kingdom, Jesus accepts all and we are all equal. We will all be challenged to listen and observe as things change, whether it looks like Jesus' kingdom or not. If it doesn't is when we will be challenged to clarify as to how we see and hear the truth of what Jesus' kingdom is to look like.

What will Faith Lutheran Church do if what is being done does not reflect what Jesus' kingdom is to be like?

Let us pray, We gather on this day to recognize you, Jesus, as our king and remember our role as grateful stewards. We often find that difficult to live out in our lives. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see you, the truth. Give is your wisdom to know how to stand up for you when your kingdom and the worldly kingdom get blurred, or when we see stark differences. In Jesus Name, Amen

This is a special musical presentation of Will Give You Thanks with the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of Leaning on the Everlasting Arms with the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of God Will Make a Way, a solo by Bob Nelson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Jesus has called each one of here this morning and we have answered that call. He wants to speak to us today and give us a message of trust and hope. Through word, sacrament, and each other we are reminded of Jesus' love for each one of us and then he calls us to share that love with others and then encourage them to share it.

Through times of happiness and joy as well as times of disappointment, anxiety and anger we can come here to experience Jesus though word, sacrament and each other. Many of us are still trying to process the election. Each of us are at a different place. Wherever we are emotionally, we can bring it to Jesus.

Here at Faith, even if we don't always understand each other's views, all our welcome. Our welcoming statement reads: We welcome you as God's beloved child, "for in Christ Jesus… [we] are all children of God through faith." (Galatians 3:26). No matter your age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, marital status, neurodivergent status, faith background, political leanings, or mental, intellectual or physical ability – you are welcomed here just as you are. In this church, we commit to pursue gender and racial equity in all that we do, and to support one another as chosen family, being parents and siblings for each other regardless of who we have as biological family (Mark 3:31-35). For we are all one in Christ Jesus and rely on the unconditional nature of God's love and grace to be our help and guide as we strive to serve our world.

Our second lesson from Hebrews addresses the importance of drawing near to Jesus to receive his acceptance and love, and the author reminds followers of Jesus that we can have the confidence to this. It is only through Jesus' work on the cross that we are able to do this. The author of Hebrews encourages us to meet together and experience Jesus and then encourage each other to love and do good deeds.

But who is the author of Hebrews and who is the audience, to whom was this letter written? Scholars have not agreed upon who actually wrote this letter. The letter was written to second generation Christians, thus an established church. At some time, this church had suffered persecution. It was a church that was marked with generosity and liberality.

Scholars believe that it was written by a great teacher, one who had a great knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures, to a small group or college of Christians in Rome. The author wrote this letter as they were separated from them, and it seemed they were drifting away from the faith. The teacher reminds this small group of the new covenant or agreement that Jesus had now made with all people.

The author reminded them of what Jesus had accomplished through his death and resurrection and fulfilling what had been promised in the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus represented a new way of living in freedom and love. A new way that was not about power and control. It was a new way that Jesus welcomed all people.

This is what we have attempted to define to the best of our ability who "all" means in our welcoming statement. Not all people including some Christians agree with this and that is their opinion. We want to be a safe place for all people here at Faith.

We are entering into unchartered territory in our country with all new leaders. Some people are excited, others very fearful. I believe Jesus is telling us today that our focus needs to be on him as he is the only one who offers us freedom from sin, death and power of the devil. Jesus is the one that we can trust and have hope in. Jesus and his followers are then called to provoke one another to love and good works.

We are very thankful for everyone at worship today and especially those who chose to visit us today. As I have been saying we welcome all people into a safe place to experience Jesus and his love through word, sacrament and each other. I firmly believe that Jesus has called all of us here today to hear his message of trust and hope. He stands ready to receive us at any time and in any place.

Even as followers of Jesus, we often look for him in the wrong places. We have and will continue to hear things that are God's will. People who are vying for power and control will have skewed versions of God's will. This is when we need to take these things and our feelings to Jesus. We are in a safe place, but hopefully all of us have other safe places too.

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus tells his disciples that they will hear many people saying that they are acting in his name. These people will use fears, such as wars and rumors of wars. Jesus told them not be alarmed.

Jesus tells his disciples not to fear, just he tells us not to fear. Remember these things have been going on for many years. We see this through all of the Hebrew Scriptures. This is still going on today. Wars, people vying for power and control. Low self-esteem causing people to show disrespect for others.

It is happening now and unfortunately will continue and we may wonder where God is. It may become more difficult to follow Jesus' teachings. Just as the author of Hebrews encouraged his students, we are encouraged. The Message puts it this way:

19-21 So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God in Jesus Christ, into "the Holy Place, the safe place." Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice on the cross, acting as our priest before God. The "curtain" into God's presence is his body which was broken for you and me.

22-25 So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out because of Jesus' work on the cross. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. In Hebrews we are reminded that Jesus will never walk off and leave us.

Jesus always keeps his word. With this kind of support, let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on to love, not hate and to do good works as long as we are on this earth.

The message of trust is stated in Hebrews that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Also, that Jesus never fails. I believe our hope is in our working together to love our neighbor, encouraging each other. Faith Lutheran Church is a safe place to do this.

Let us pray, Jesus, thank you for calling us here today to experience you through word, sacrament and each other. We have answered your call and have come to hear a word of trust and hope. Thank you for your work on the cross that we may approach God in your name. May your Spirit spur us on to share your love and to do good works and encourage each other to do the same. In Jesus' name.

This is a special musical presentation of Days of Elijah with the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Have No Fear, Little Flock

Have no fear, little flock; have no fear little flock, for the Father has chosen to give you the kingdom; have no fear, little flock! ELW 764

For many of us, though not all of us, this has been a very hard week. For many of us, though not all of us, the path ahead looks frightening. For many of us it looks especially frightening for the lives of the poor and marginalized. In Jesus' day, this included widows, orphans, strangers, lepers, and anyone else considered unclean. In our day for those of us who are worried, it is hard not to believe that many, many people will experience greater suffering, except for those who like the rich man in the text from Luke 12 will do well, at least for a time…though the story is clear about a day of reckoning…

Hear again the soliloquy of the rich man: I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

We may wonder about the fate ahead for those we serve through the food pantry; or about the fate of supplemental government programs meant to help the poor: single parents with children, working married parents living below the poverty line; or about the fate of pregnant women, who for many except for relatively wealthy, face serious health crises. We may wonder about the fate of non-citizens like the six young men living in our parish house; or about up to estimated 20 million undocumented folks who may be deported. We may wonder about the future for the LGBTQ community…All of these people above are, we confess, like us, children of our heavenly Father.

If these wonderings, these worries soon do come to pass, then if ever there was a time for us to be supportive of the ministries of the food pantry and the parish house, it is now. If ever there was a time for us to be supportive of the ministry of Faith, this little flock, this Reconciling in Christ congregation, it is now.

Jesus says to us, do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

We together are that little flock, that little flock cared for, loved, and protected by Jesus, who is the good shepherd. Before we can seriously think about selling our possessions, we need to know, we need to believe and trust that we are loved, that we will be protected, that we will be led beside still waters, that our souls will be restored…our souls and the souls of our children and our grandchildren.

"Have no fear, little flock... for the Father has chosen to give you the kingdom…." [Please sing it with me, ELW 764]

Jesus is saying to us," I understand your fear, but do not be afraid. Absolutely nothing can separate you from my love. No matter how awful the future might be, especially for the least of these, my sisters and brothers, I who suffered and died and rose again will be with you and with them. Little flock, Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos Michigan, I will be with you."

Do not be afraid…sell your possessions, and give alms. This word is from the lips of Jesus who elsewhere also said to the worried and the weary, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." But his words here in Luke's gospel about selling possessions and giving alms seem anything but easy or light.

This is a hard saying, to be sure. But I wonder if Jesus is not speaking here so much about earthly possessions as about making room for the creation of a very rich heart, about a heart that is not afraid, a heart that knows it is deeply loved, a heart set free from defining our worth by our numerous possessions. That heart is a very rich heart. It is a heart content with simple things. It is a very generous heart.

God knows we need food and clothing. God knows we need a shelter for ourselves and for our families…as does every person on earth. And God wills that all should have not only adequate food and clothing and a place to call home, but also a just government, access to health care, and good and trustworthy friends. Our true worth is not how much of those things we have. Our true and lasting treasure is measured by the priceless, unfathomable love God has so richly poured into our hearts, hearts so full of love that we cannot help but give it forward to both friend and stranger.

Do not be afraid…sell your possessions and give alms…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Hear again these words from Psalm 146 we read responsively this morning: Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help…who gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger…The Lord cares for the stranger; the Lord sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked.

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help. In the next couple of weeks, hopefully we'll all be thinking and praying and deciding about what portion of our hoped-for income in the coming year we want to give for the ministry of this little flock. Mindful that when our fears are day by day allayed by the good shepherd, and mindful that in the words of scripture God loves a cheerful giver, we will boldly declare our generous, joyful, even radical intentions.

We hear in the story of today's gospel in Mark a way of radical giving:

[Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples [including us] and said to them [and us], "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

In a way I am confounded by Jesus' words. I don't think Jesus meant these words to be woodenly prescriptive for all of us. I do think they mean that radically loved people who belong to the kingdom of God are not afraid to give away everything they are and everything they have to express this radical love and mercy of God dwelling so abundantly in their hearts, in your heart and in mine.

Jesus Cries with Us, Jesus Cries Out for Us

Last Sunday afternoon Jamie, Laurie, Phylis and I sitting at a large round table visited with Anna, Ashley, Alison (from Panama), Fatima (from Venezuela), three little people, and a faithful member of St. Christopher Episcopal Church.

St. Christopher is a sanctuary church in El Paso, Texas, a safe place for migrant people to live until they can travel on to a more permanent safe and caring community in which they could live and work and thrive. Many take dangerous and often illegal risks. Many are filled with great anxiety and uncertainty, exacerbated by antiquated immigration laws and processes that can mean months and even many years of waiting. Many are filled with fear both of countries they have fled and of our country because they know we are a deeply divided nation given to fear and even hatred of these aliens, these sojourners, these strangers.

But Sunday we all were in this safe and sacred place. Except for the little ones we introduced ourselves, shared little bits of our life stories, either in Spanish or English or both. All of us children of God, all of us on a journey, though for Alison and Fatima, a much more dangerous and harrowing one. We talked together, prayed together, sang a little together, ate a meal together, held babies (the best part!) and hugged one another…

A couple thousand years ago, Jesus too was on a dangerous journey. In John 11 we read of his crossing the Jordan River, going to Judea where he knowingly faced threats of stoning, persecution, and death. On the way there he received a message from beloved friends, Mary and Martha, that their brother Lazarus was ill. Jesus, the Son of God, knew that Lazarus' illness was terminal. In fact, Jesus knew, he had already died. Yet Jesus stayed where he was for two more days…

And then came the account from the Gospel of John for this All Saints Sunday. In it we learn what God is like when we suffer, when we die. We know what God, is like, revealed most fully to us in Jesus, when Bob and Joy and Walter and Dale and Chip and David, whom we remember this morning, died during this past year. Jesus, the Son of God, wept with and for their families and friends. Jesus cried with them.

Jamie and Laurie and Phylis and I spent five days with Border Servant Corps guides, mostly with Ashley, a young woman about to graduate from college and then after a gap year on to law school. With her we visited border patrol folk, spent time with "guests," always these migrant people were called guests, in processing centers and shelters on both sides of the Rio Grande River, talked with criminal court Judge Ritter presiding over cases against those crossing the border between legal points of entry. Perhaps most moving for us was our visit with Amanda, a federal public defender. With all of them we could see Jesus. We could see Jesus "greatly disturbed' and crying with these guests and with those so committed to accompanying them on their journeys toward some semblance of mercy and justice.

We saw Jesus in Gracias, a feisty, self-proclaimed activist who is the shepherd of the shelter we visited in Juarez, Mexico. In, I think, more than a coincidence for us sojourners from Faith, Okemos, her call to this ministry came years agowhen she mourned the killing of two LGBT people at the border. At times Gracias has provided a safe haven for as many as 370 guests in a clean but very dilapidated five-story building. Last Monday we prepared and served a meal for 60 men, women, and children currently living there. We saw Jesus in Gracias and in Cesi with us that day, who translated my mini-sermon proclaiming God's watchful care for these his beloved children. Cesi walks step by step with guests when they are able to fly or take a bus from El Paso to a new home somewhere in our country. We saw Jesus in the guarded but gently smiling faces of these guests, perhaps especially in the faces of the children.

But the gospel for today is not only about people for whom and with whom Jesus wept, for Martha and Mary and their friends. It is that, Jesus, the Son of God, the incarnation of God, was also for them the resurrection and the life. Jesus was and is God making of death only a transitory experience. Jesus, the resurrection and the life, cried out, now not with tears, but with a loud voice, to a man dead for four stinky days, "Lazarus, come out!"

To Walter and Dale and Bob and Chip and Joy and David, Jesus said, perhaps more gently, "Come, dwell with me now in my Father's house. There you be forever safe, forever free, forever whole, forever loved and in love with all the children of God from Michigan and Texas and Mexico and Panama and Venezuela, from Sudan and Ghana and Mauritania, from Palestine and Lebanon and Israel, from Ukraine and Russia…"

On this All Saints Sunday remember. Remember that Jesus cries with you and Jesus cries out for you. Remember that Jesus cried with the family and friends of Joy, Chip, Dale, Walt, David, and Dale. Remember he wept for the LGBT people killed at the border. Remember he wept for those who bodies were and are still to this day found in the deserts of Mexico, bodies of souls striving in desperate, vain attempts to find a better life in our country.

But remember too and above all that Jesus cried out for Lazarus to come out, to rise from death. Remember, as you come at his invitation to dine with him at the communion table this morning, that he suffered and died for you and that he rose again for you and for all whom we remember this day.

I think of these beautiful words from Romans 6: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Phylis and I, Laurie and Jamie, we did see Jesus at the border. With the eyes of faith, we see him here too, with our congregation in our worries, with us in our pain, with us in our losses. We see him here in the hearts of so many here who care deeply about each other and about strangers, about people on difficult journeys, people God has called us to walk with in love, to "walk in newness of life." We see Jesus speaking through the work of the call committee, "crying out" to us to come out of any dark tombs of worry, of any paralyzing fears about the future well-being of our congregation. And, especially this week, may all of us see Jesus crying with us and crying out to us, "Come out of your dark tomb!", no matter the outcome of the election on Tuesday.