An off and on rainy Sunday with 39 in attendance.
The key word of the sermon was "expectant gratitude" with the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman. She came to Jesus asking him to relieve her daughter of a demon. She wasn’t a jew and was ignored at first in her plea. "But this woman– because she was pleading for her daughter—was not about to give up. She continued this conversation from a place of expectant gratitude….Lord, I am coming to you with the hope and expectancy that you can heal my daughter. And I will be grateful for whatever you do for me.” Her faith led Jesus to heal her daughter.
"How do we live with expectant gratitude in the midst of the aggravating and death-dealing situations that all of us face in our lives? We Christians find that we can live with expectant gratitude when we have faith." A recent Washington Post article was read where people had found banquets of joy in simple things. "Because when we can see God’s goodness in a small thing, we know that God’s goodness is also in the big things that we can’t control. We need to search the crumbs under our trables where we might find our banquets." The full sermon is here . The readings for the week are here as well as the bulletin.
We celebrated Mike’s birthday and he explained the new ECM’s initiative "Transportation in Need" to enlist volunteers to drive people to medical appointments and for other needs when they cannot drive. We have 8 people signed up as a result.
We also donated food today and Fred will deliver school supplies to social services on the 15th.