The Future Unites Us

September 30, 2008

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

It has been over a year since I first arrived in Cherokee, and I have met many new people along the way.  First-time interactions with new people tend to follow the same script:  they ask about my family and what I do for a living.  But they often begin with the inevitable question:  

“So, where are you from?”

I’m never quite sure what answer people are expecting with that question.  Sometimes, if they are really asking about my ethnicity, they will draw the question out with inadvertent hilarity, speaking slowly, and loudly, in case I don’t understand them.

“WHEERRE  ARE YOOU  FROMM?

In those moments, the playful side of me....okay, the irreverent side of me....will often respond:

“FORRT  LAUDERRDAALE.”

Which typically surprises them, since they’ve never heard of that country.

It’s true:  you can find out a lot about a person by asking about their past.  But if you really want to get to know them – I mean really get to know who they are deep down inside – don’t just ask about their past, find out about their future.  Don’t just ask them where they’re from.  Ask them where they’re going.

In answering that question, you would find out a lot about me:

About where I hope to see myself twenty years from now.
About how I hope to grow old with my wife.
About how I want someday to see my daughter’s graduate from high school, and dance at their weddings.
About how I want to feel, at the end of my life, that I served the church to the best of my abilities.

The past may identify me, but the future is what defines me.


WE ARE THE CHURCH TOGETHER

As true as that may be for us as individuals, it’s even more true for the church.  My favorite contemporary theologian, Marjorie Suchocki, writes about the nature of the church:

Consider the unity that is created if many people share in an identity formed through faith in Christ.  The unity we see in a family group stems from its past:  brothers and sisters, by sharing the same parents, share the same family identity.  Their common past, whether by birth or adoption, defines them as family.  For the family that is the Christian church, unity comes primarily from a shared future.  Just as the sharing of a past creates a real kinship, even so the sharing of a future creates a real kinship.  If John’s identity is formed through Christ, and if Kwasi’s identity is formed through Christ, and if Ti-Fam’s identity is formed through Christ, then all three share in the same identity and become brothers and sisters to one another even though they live so widely scattered in the world.  Christ, as the source of their identity, is also the ground of their unity, creating in them a bond as real and as close as family, creating them as the community of church….In an orientation toward service, unity will become apparent, almost as a byproduct of responsiveness to the one God, leading us in ways of well-being.  The future, not the past, clarifies the unity of the church.

So what is that shared future that unites us as the church?  I like to point toward Revelation 7:9-17, our text for this Sunday:

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’  And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’
 
This is our common purpose.  To join with Christians from around the world, throughout all time, overcoming our earthly differences to fulfill our created design:  glorifying and celebrating God with word and deed.  

This is where we are going, and we are on the journey together.  No greater idea defines us as the church.


WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY

Join us this Sunday as we observe our global connection to Christians around the world, affirming our common destiny as joint-worshippers of the Lamb who sits on the throne.  Our World Communion Sunday observance will feature delicious breads from around the world, prepared once again by Judi Klee, owner of The Spice Rack downtown.  For more information about her products, visit www.homemadepizzelles.com.  Let us come with renewed spirit and dedication to the mission of God in the world, and let us so live as we pray:

“Pour out your Spirit upon us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine.  Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we might be, for the world, the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.”

So, where are you from?  And more importantly, where are you going?

It’s still great to be the church!

Magrey   

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA  51012
Ph:  712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org


Revelation 7:9-17
9  After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
10  They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
11  And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God,
12  singing, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’
13  Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’
14  I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15  For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16  They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
17 for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’



PORK FEED THANK YOU
Thank you for your generous response to our pork feed last Sunday, particularly to those who brought sides and desserts, worked in the kitchen, and to the Parker family for their delicious main course.  Your donations brought in over $1,000 toward the Next Generation Fund, which supports future opportunities for growth in the church.

YOUTH OUTINGS THIS SUNDAY
Senior Highers grades 9-12 are invited to the Wilkie’s for a fun bonfire and games from 6:30-8:00pm.  Mid-Highers grades 7-8 are invited to the Dagel’s from 6:30-8:00 for a similar time of fun and fellowship.  

CHEROKEE PEACE PROJECT
St. Paul’s is joining with the Ministerial Association to explore installing a peace pole in a visible place in Cherokee.  There are thousands of such poles in cities around the country, and are inscribed with messages of peace in languages from around the world.  We are meeting to make initial plans this Thursday, so if you are interested, please contact Magrey.

BIRTHDAY EVENT
The family of Joyce Phipps  Pyle invites you to join them for coffee & dessert, honoring Joyce, on  Sunday, October 5th from 1:00-3:30pm in the Fellowship Hall.  No gifts, please.