A Note from Pastor Bill

Dear Saints:

You have a long weekend of food, football, and family ahead, and if you get your fill of all of those, I encourage you to slip away for a little bit by yourself and work on your faith by finishing your reading of the John Ortberg study book. This Sunday we hit the last chapter, “The King Has One More Move.” Even if there is no way you can cover all the other chapters, please take the time to read that one.

It coincides with the final Sunday in the church’s liturgical year, a celebration of the Reign of Christ the King.” (Our new liturgical year always begins with the four Sundays of Advent that precede Christmas, and thus the church year actually begins a month before the calendar year.) Always following Thanksgiving, Christ the King Sunday gives us the opportunity to remember our gratitude for the grace of God in Jesus Christ and his reign in our lives. While the idea of the monarchy, with its absolute power is an anachronism in our post-modern world—even in England the Queen is more symbolic than anything else—we still understand the concept of ultimate sovereignty.

The final chapter of the book is about the “D” word: death. Ortberg writes that when Mel Blanc, the longtime voice of Porky Pig for Looney Toons died, his family put “That’s All, Folks!” on his cemetery marker. And Johnny Carson wanted “I’ll Be Right Back” on his. I once read of a man who could never convince his family that he was sick, and when he died they put “I told you so” on his headstone.

In a way, the Christian faith experience relates to all of these epitaphs. The world thought that death meant “That’s all, folks,” but Jesus said before his own crucifixion, “I’ll be right back.” And the witness he made to the doubting disciple Thomas was a compassionate “I told you so!”

No matter how death much seems to have what looks like the final word, the final move, the King always has one more. Paul’s letter to the Colossians is our text for Sunday in all services. Read in advance Colossians 1:11-20 as well as chapter 21 in the study. The verse from Colossians that really speaks to me is this one: “…he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.” (vs 18) Come give thanks for the place the one with all the moves has in your heart!

With faith, hope, and love,

Bill