We Do! Once Again

Post date: Aug 02, 2019 3:46:49 PM

Grace and peace to you!

After worship this Sunday we will have the 14th Annual Lt. Dennis W. Zilinski, II Youth Group Memorial Scholarship BBQ and Picnic where we will remember and honor our beloved Dennis, who gave the ultimate sacrifice for his country. In addition, we will award seven $500 scholarships to our continuing and beginning college students, and enjoy LOTS of food and wonderful conversation on the Great Lawn of the church and inside the air-conditioned Education Building. A special thanks to Jo-Ann LoSapio and the Scholarship Committee for their good, hard work that has made this day possible.

As many of you know, this event is always a special time in the life of our church. Not only do we get to worship and break bread together, but we also get to live out, once more, the vows we made to these young adults so long ago. The Memorial Scholarship BBQ and Picnic helps us to remember the promise we made to them when we answered the following question at their baptism: Do you promise to love, encourage, and support these brothers and sisters by teaching the gospel of God’s love, by being an example of Christian faith and character, and by giving the strong support of God’s family in fellowship, prayer, and service? At that moment in their lives, we responded with a joyous “We do,” and we continue to say we do when we encourage them through our financial support, love, and prayers for the next step in their life’s journey. I am convinced that our young people know that they are unconditionally loved by God, and also loved by this church. And MRC beloved, I hope you understand what an incredible gift you are to them. I am very proud to be the pastor of a church that has committed so steadfastly to our young adult’s lives. So, thank you. Thank you. I am grateful for your witness to Love in the world.

Come this Sunday at 10:30 AM to worship with your church family. Judith Daugherty, Director of Music, will play a special piece by Chopin called Prelude (Raindrop) Opus 28, No.15 in D-flat Major. I will be preaching from Hosea 11.1-11 and Luke 12.13-21, the Parable of the Fool. My sermon title is Don’t Be a Fool! We will celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper around God’s wide-open-welcome table, and after worship we will gather around the picnic table to continue the feast of God.

I look forward to welcoming you to God’s house where we will bless our scholarship recipients as they go into the world. 

May the rhythms of your creation be the heartbeat which sustains our very life. May the lamp of your word guide our feet on the unsure paths of each day. May your breathing be the winds which lead us across strange new oceans. 

Go in the name of the Spirit who moves across the surface of the waters and in the beating of the human heart,

Go in the name of Jesus, the God-Man who died, rose and lives on for us,

Go in the name of the Creator and re-Creator, the mother of grace. Amen. 

In gratitude for the joy of being your Pastor and the holy call of loving you,

Pastor Trish