37 came to St. Peter’s on a wonderful fall weather with the leaves are beginning to turn on the sycamores for a Feast Day.
However, eight verses of "For all the Saints" were almost impossible to keep together as someone skipped two verses during the rendering. As Catherine said, "We will all get there in the end."
It was a special service as our oldest parishioner (almost 90) Genevieve Davis was here with her daughter Jena. We also remembered those who saints who had died over the past year
This was the Sunday to handout the pledge cards (due Nov. 20) as well as a kickoff for the UTO (due Dec. 4). This year we have some children participating in the latter which is wonderful.
The lectionary was on preparation for the second coming. Mathew in Chapter 24, 25 deals with 2 major questions, "When Will Christ return ?" and "What can we do while we wait?". Preparation was the issue with the "Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids" who carried lamps to await a wedding party coming to a feast at night. Five of them were wise and carried extra oil and five did not.
Catherine demonstrated the possible lamps that could have been used from a home lamp from Israel that Edward carried and a torch that Kimberly handled.
The foolish bridesmaids are presented with a harsh reality – the door shutting into the wedding feast not letting them into the heavenly banquet and Christ, the bridegroom exclaiming "I don’t know you." "The frustrations of this life can distract us, just as the five foolish bridesmaids must have been distracted…so we find ourselves unprepared for the coming of the bridegroom. "Our goal is to keep our hearts on fire with love for our Lord and Savior, even in the darkest of times… How do fill our hearts with Jesus and stay filled with his love? We can seek Wisdom, and spend time in the company of others who are also seeking Wisdom.
The sermon discussed the Wisdom tradition. "The promise of the Wisdom tradition for us is that when our deepest desire and longing is to be with Jesus, and we seek him, Jesus will come to us. Jesus will meet us in every thought, and will take up residence in our hearts, radiant and unfading. And in this radiant and unfading light, we come to a foretaste of the heavenly banquet when we come to the altar today. At this table, we are united with our Savior, and bound in love to one another. Here we join company once again with the saints who have gone before us." The sermon is here and the bulletin. You can find the published readings.
Coffee Hour was presented by the Longs and Newmans. Nancy and Alex made both potato soup (enhanced by butter!), meat balls and Marilyn and Mike presented a fruit and vegetable platter.