75 Years

As a congregation, we just celebrated 75 years of existence.  It was a wonderful weekend.  We ate together, worshiped together, laughed together.  It was very good. 

And that’s an interesting way to finish the paragraph.  We find those words in Genesis 1,  “and God saw everything that he made, and indeed, it was very good.”(NRSV).   Throughout the weekend we reminded ourselves of the grace of Christ and the faithfulness of our God.  Throughout the stories of our past, the one refrain we would say is: God is faithful. 

No church that existed so long is without the many moments of pain: Family pain, tragedies, broken relationships, sickness and many other moments we would all rather forget.  No church exists so long without the reality of wonderful moments to celebrate: baptisms, professions of faith, ministries which thrived, people who were wonderful saints whom people loved.  Throughout these experiences one thing remains: God was present among us - Emmanuel.  God was busy creating us all over again.  His Spirit brooded over the chaos of lives we call our own.  And so we could say “ I see Jesus” amid it all.

That was and is worth celebrating.   

It is amazing. 

And today we look forward with confidence because God continues to be a faithful keeper of promises.  He said he would go with us.