School buses are criss-crossing the valley once again, taking kids to their classrooms for another year of learning. Though, I have to say, it almost feels like the summer we are leaving behind never really arrived in the first place. Sure, there were some sunny days and I saw many kids living it up on playgrounds and basketball courts these past few months, but this was by far the coldest and rainiest summer we’ve experienced since I have lived here. My wife, for one, likes her sunshine and she has reminded me many times that this summer in the Mission Valley did not deliver it for her!
I suppose that is how many things in life go, though – we have our expectations of the way things will turn out only to have everything end up far differently than we wanted or planned for. It could be plans for where your career would take you, who you might marry or how long you would stay with them, who your adult kids would grow up to be, or how the world would look as you aged. I have thought about that last one a fair amount this past year as I have done funerals for several people who were born in the depression years. Could they possibly have imagined what life in the 21st century would be like – with internet, driverless cars, social media, globalization, and cell phone shopping? It is pretty wild to think about how drastically the world has changed in the lifetime of one generation! Makes you rethink having expectations about the future at all, ever again.
So, what should we expect from our next year of church programming? (Hah, hah!) This year, we will be doing what Christians have been doing for centuries. We will worship on Sundays, preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, administer the sacraments, bear witness to the Good News to our neighbors, and do our best to pass the faith on to the next generation. Rain or shine, cold or warm, familiar world or radically different one – Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and will be forever. That is one expectation we can hang on to until the end of the age.
In Christ,
Pastor Seth
I suppose that is how many things in life go, though – we have our expectations of the way things will turn out only to have everything end up far differently than we wanted or planned for. It could be plans for where your career would take you, who you might marry or how long you would stay with them, who your adult kids would grow up to be, or how the world would look as you aged. I have thought about that last one a fair amount this past year as I have done funerals for several people who were born in the depression years. Could they possibly have imagined what life in the 21st century would be like – with internet, driverless cars, social media, globalization, and cell phone shopping? It is pretty wild to think about how drastically the world has changed in the lifetime of one generation! Makes you rethink having expectations about the future at all, ever again.
So, what should we expect from our next year of church programming? (Hah, hah!) This year, we will be doing what Christians have been doing for centuries. We will worship on Sundays, preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, administer the sacraments, bear witness to the Good News to our neighbors, and do our best to pass the faith on to the next generation. Rain or shine, cold or warm, familiar world or radically different one – Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and will be forever. That is one expectation we can hang on to until the end of the age.
In Christ,
Pastor Seth
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