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Our Lakeshore You have come down to… Our Lakeshore November 2020 Pastor’s + O e are now in the midst of a beauti- ful fall. The leaves are being N W painted brilliant colors of red and yellow D and orange. When the sky is bright blue E we are amazed at the beauty of the day R and we sing to ourselves, what a wonder- I ful world! Many offer a prayer of thanks- N giving to the Creator for such magnifi- G cence. Soon however, those leaves will be colorless and lying on the ground. We might have some fun playing in S them or we might try to catch a falling leaf so we don’t catch a cold! After a day of raking we’re please to be able to go indoors for some hot chocolate or apple cider. The cold days and the colder nights make us give thanks for the warm homes we are blessed to live in and the cozy beds we are blessed to sleep in. Many look at this onslaught of Old Man Winter as a time when everything is distraught and dead. But the coolness in the air gives us a lively spring to our step and we thank the Creating God for the gift of life. We give thanks for the shorter days when we spend more time in the evenings at home with our families. As people of faith, we are to give thanks for all things—for all things are a blessing. Everything should be seen as a blessing and a cause to pause, give thanks, to show the attitude of gratitude. Even the dark times of our lives, our winters of discontent, are blessings which may be understood in the fullness of time. As people of the resurrection, we know that this is not the end. There is new life, new birth, a new spirit that will spring up in just a few months. Let us give thanks. One of the words used for Communion is Eucharist and it is the Greek word for Thanks. We truly give God thanks when we re- ceive the gifts of life granted to us at the Table. This is but one of the theological reasons that we have weekly Communion. Give Thanks Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One, Give thanks because he’s given Jesus Christ his son. And now let the weak say “I am strong”; Let the poor say “I am rich” Because of what the Lord has done for us. Give Thanks! We truly need to be thankful. We believe in a God that is Love. At the end of this month we begin to prepare ourselves for God’s Love Made Visible! Our Theology Thursday will become a class instead of an open discussion. More information is on page 12. Advent begins this month on the last Sunday, the 29th. It begins Lectionary Year B—the Gospel of Mark. The information from our Book of Worship will continue next month. Because of concerns over Covid-19 we may not have an indoor Christmas Eve service. More information to come. As Lake County is now is Code Red, please stay home if you do not feel well in any way! Thank you. Peace and joy on your journey! Moderator’s e are in full swing with our Food u Bank. Thank you to all who have s W helped each Friday, shopped, or donated I food. N G Out of our bounty we are making and S offering 25 Thanksgiving baskets. Here is a list of what we’ll need: cans or jars of corn, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, cream of mush- room soup, fruit cocktail, and Cool Whip. We’ll need boxes of Jello, stuffing. Fresh celery and potatoes. Butter and rolls. Pump- kin pie. Please let me know what you’ll bring so we don’t have duplicates. A sign up sheet will be on the back table. Items may be brought in anytime before November 20. Perishable items on Sunday November 22. Baskets will be distributed on Tuesday November 24. If you know of someone who is in need let me know so we can include them on our list. I do have coupons for Stove Top stuffing, buy 4 get 1 free. See you in church on Sunday. For worship or for Theology Thursday or on Friday for Food Bank! The Church Year Reconciliation Sunday any Christians around the world celebrate the Reformation M on the Sunday the closest to when the legendary account tells us that one cool October 31st in 1517, Martin Luther, a Ro- man Catholic priest, nailed his list of 95 concerns to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. These 95 Theses, as they’re called were a list of abuses and errors that he understood were corrupting the purpose and mission of the Church. The Ninety-five Theses were most likely just sent to his Archbishop and weren’t so much a defiant protest as much as it was a sincere call for the Church to begin addressing some of its problems that Luther felt had obscured the Gospel message. In any case, Luther hoped that his Theses would begin conversation toward renewal of, by, and in the Church. His willingness to stand up to pope and emperor in the name of the Gospel of Christ changed the face of politics, history, society, and the very direction of the entire West- ern Christian Church. As a denomination within the Reformed Tradition, we UCCers look at what he did with thankfulness. However we don’t boast for we do not celebrate division, which is why this day is also known as Reconciliation Sunday. We celebrate the movement of the Holy Spirit in our Church and in our hearts. We celebrate that God continues to speak to each generation. It is this movement of the Spirit that brings us newness and renewal, both in our own lives and in the life of the Church. There is an important saying that emerged among Reformed communities: the church reformed, but always reforming. When we talk about reform, re- newal, and reformation we know that the entire Church is always in need of help, and each of us need to turn again to the Resur- rected Christ. The work of genuine reformation, whether of the church as an institution or of a human person, is never finished. Reformation means reform and reforming – in a word changing the way things are to the way God would have us live out the Way in Christ Jesus. Remember the original followers of Jesus of Naz- areth were simply called The People of the Way. As the Preamble to the Constitution of our UCC says: “We claim as our own the faith of the historic Church expressed in the ancient creeds and reclaimed in the basic insights of the Protestant Reformers. It affirms the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this faith its own in reality of worship, in honesty of thought and expression, and in purity of heart before God.” (Celebrated the Sunday closest to October 31.) All Saints Day he origins of this festival are T uncertain, Ephraim of Edessa composed a hymn around 359 which suggests that a commemo- ration of all the martyrs was held. By 411 in Eastern Syria the com- memoration of all the martyrs was held on the Friday after Easter suggesting a parallel with Good Friday: as Jesus died on Friday, so those who follow him in death imitate his passion, but in the light of the resurrection. It is still cele- brated on this Friday in the Orien- tal Churches. From a sermon by John Chrysostom (same time period) it ap- pears that the church at Antioch commemorated all the martyrs on the Sunday after Pentecost, and Massimo of Turin did the same in Italy. This is still the day of commemoration of all the saints in the Eastern churches, and it has a logic to it. The birth- day of the church, Pentecost, has its parallel in the birthday of the saints—their martyrdom. In the old maxim, the blood of the martyrs waters the church. By the seventh century the feast had been extended to include non-martyrs as well. Holiness is indeed the work of the Holy Spirit. By the 600’s November 1 is listed as the day of all the saints in most of the Western Church. Perhaps it was in response to the Pantheon being dedicated to All Saints and the Virgin Mary in May 609 or 610 in Rome. It is also thought that because there were large pilgrimages to Rome, it would be best to have the feast after the harvest to supply sufficient food for all the people making a pilgrimage. In the Christian Scriptures, the word saint is used to describe the entire membership of the community of faith. Many churches in our Reformed Tradition observe this day to remember all people of faith both past and present. Many do so on the first Sunday in November. It is held, not only to remember saints, but also to remember all who have died who were members of the local church congregation. lmighty God, you have knit together your elect in one com- A munion and fellowship in the mystical body of your son, Christ our Lord: Give us grace to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God in glory everlasting, Amen.
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