Thank you, thank you, thank you – for the generous giving you displayed on Gratitude Sunday! Compared to last year, the amount received was significantly greater for the first Sunday. The older I get the more I realize that the secret to the joy Jesus preached and lived is measured by gratitude and generosity, not any of the conventional terms of success the world teaches us. I continue to give thanks to God for your faithful and generous stewardship. If you have not turned in an estimate of giving card yet, please try to do so during the next few weeks, so the Session can move forward with adopting a budget for our ministry and mission in 2020.

We are moving into one of my favorite times of year: Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas. I love Thanksgiving because family and friends gather to celebrate and enjoy the many blessings God has given through the past year, and to remember whose we are and what God has called us to do: live a kind and loving life. Old relationships are renewed around the table and in the living room, and new ones are made. I hope you will be able to join us for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner at church on Sunday, November 24. This year our Children’s Choir will sing a preview from their upcoming Christmas Joy Pageant.

Right after Thanksgiving, one of the church’s greatest two seasons begins, which celebrates the birth of Jesus the Christ. Scripture teaches that, “when the time was right” God sent Jesus into the world to save the world and to usher in the Kingdom of God/Heaven. This event was so significant that it reset the western calendar. After Jesus’ birth, most of the western world defined history as the time before and after his birth.

Please join us for the many extra events to celebrate Advent this year. We will decorate the sanctuary with greenery on November 24; our Children’s Choir will present their Christmas Joy Pageant on December 8; the Chancel Choir will sing a Christmas Cantata on December 15; we will go Christmas caroling to homebound members on December 22; and we will have our Family Bell Service (5:00 p.m.) and traditional candlelight communion service (7:00 p.m..) on Christmas Eve. And, of course, we are currently collecting gifts for children through our Angel Tree.

I hope you will be in worship on Sunday, when I will preach on God’s love. Of all of God’s attributes, love is the most powerful and transformative. Paschal once wrote that “the heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing about.” That an all-powerful, all-knowing, Holy God should love and forgive a sinful humanity may be unreasonable, but the good news is that it is true! Come join your voice to ours as we sing glory to our loving God on Sunday.