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Today we continue with our current worship series, “Come to the Table.”

The table of peace can take almost any shape. Our table this week is a conference table, perhaps depicting where two or more parties meet to negotiate the terms of a contract, a settlement, or a ceasefire. For Jesus, peacemaking was often found in the act of sharing a meal with people who would have been considered “outsiders.” We like to imagine Jesus in perfect harmony with everyone who gathered with him at the table —but perhaps sometimes even he held his breath when he brought people together with opposing viewpoints. Today we come to the table of peace, ready to practice patience and compassion, even when we disagree.

Scripture of the week – Colossians 3:9b-17 & Matthew 18:18-22

Later this week, on October 24, our sister Billie Kennedy will turn 99! If you’d like to send her a card, you can get her address from the church office or the latest directory.

Come to the table of grace
Come to the table of grace
This is God’s table, it’s not yours or mine
Come to the table of grace!

Welcome to our new worship series, “Come to the Table.” At the table of grace, there is always more than enough to go around.

Everybody makes mistakes, and we have all needed forgiveness at some point and gentle guidance to adjust and make amends.

Grace doesn’t keep track of how many times we’ve messed up, and it doesn’t hinge on the condition that next time, we’ll do better. Grace exists outside of time and says we are enough, right now and always, no matter what.

Weekly scripture – Matthew 20:1-16

Laity Sunday is a day set aside to remember and lift up a constant reality: the priesthood and ministry of all. Every person on the planet is invited to share in God’s community of healing, love, justice, and world repair.

Laity Sunday is a special Sunday defined by General Conference “to celebrate the ministry of all Christians.” Laity Sunday is one way we express the core Christian conviction that all are called to participate in God’s mission to create healthy, flourishing life in the world.

This year, the emphasis is on discipleship and healthy words that encourage love and abundant life together.

But first, we need to acknowledge the pain and distress we are in over the violence erupting in what we call the Holy Land.

Jerusalem means the City of the Peace of God. And once again, there is out right war in its streets and environs.

Weekly Scripture: Matthew 6:24-34 & Matthew 10:1,5-14

This is the final installment of our Season of Creation theme “Let Justice and Peace Flow Like a Mighty River,” it is the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Francis, and it is World Communion Sunday – the occasion for our special denominational offering to support racial and ethnic students in achieving their educational goals and transforming communities. Your generosity continues to provide scholarships, grants, mentoring, and training for leadership development. Fifty percent of the offering provides scholarships for graduate students from the U.S. and other countries. Thirty-five percent supports racial and ethnic scholarships scholarships pursuing ordained ministry and includes a mentoring program. Fifteen percent funds Ethnic-In-Service Training Grant for leadership development, recruitment, training, and retention of ethnic United Methodist persons in leadership positions in every level of the church and its ministry.

Weekly scripture – Romans 15:14-21 & Ezekiel 36:8-12

This week our church faced a tremendous loss. Rev. Juli Reinholz has been a pastor, district superintendent, coach mentor, and friend among us. Together we have felt the tremendous impact of grief and loss.

Today, we light this candle in remembrance of Juli as we continue to hold her family, our church family, and her friends in our prayers.

While we face this loss together, we know others among us have faced other losses – family members, colleagues, and friends. Loved ones we know even more intimately and grieve this day too.

So, we light a second candle in remembrance of those beloveds.

Our time of grief will take many forms in the coming weeks, months, and even years. Grief isn’t something that just dissipates with time. It is something we are invited to engage, to feel, to grasp, to name, to make manifest through the arts, and to share with one another. Healing through grief will require our participation. That will come in storytelling, making favorite recipes, or eating favorite foods, going to favorite places, shedding tears, sharing in laughter and in holding space for one another.

As we take but one step in the journey today, I offer you these words from Jan Richardson:

Stay

I know how your mind
rushes ahead
trying to fathom
what could follow this.
What will you do,
where will you go,
how will you live?

You will want
to outrun the grief.
You will want
to keep turning toward
the horizon,
watching for what was lost
to come back,
to return to you
and never leave again.

For now
hear me when I say
all you need to do
is to still yourself
is to turn toward one another
is to stay.

Wait
and see what comes
to fill
the gaping hole
in your chest.
Wait with your hands open
to receive what could never come
except to what is empty
and hollow.

You cannot know it now,
cannot even imagine
what lies ahead,
but I tell you
the day is coming
when breath will
fill your lungs
as it never has before
and with your own ears
you will hear words
coming to you new
and startling.
You will dream dreams
and you will see the world
ablaze with blessing.

Wait for it.
Still yourself.
Stay.

—Jan Richardson

Weekly scripture: Ezekiel 36:8-12 & Romans 15:14-21