Dear St. Lukers,

Thank you to everyone who made our All Saints Celebration so beautiful this past Sunday. It was a glorious day and everyone felt the light and presence of our saints through worship and carried it with us the rest of the day. Our first Legacy Celebration dessert evening on Sunday was exciting as well. It was a night of fellowship, celebration and visioning. We celebrated the Kingdom ministry our current two endowments have created over the last couple of years, and shared information about four NEW endowments we are hoping to create (watch video below).

Endowments are created through special giving (whether through designated giving or end of life legacies) which when invested allow interest accrued each year to be given to support ministry ideas. The new endowment funds are for:

1) Education

2) Arts

3) Congregational care

4) Capital expenses

If you are interested in learning more about these funds or creating a legacy for St. Luke’s, please contact Executive Director of Administration, Scooter Leonard for more information.

This Sunday we dig deeper into the story of Jeremiah and ask ourselves what we place in the blank of the motto “In ____ we trust.” There’s an old story of a pastor sharing a children’s sermon one Saturday morning. He tells the children he is going to describe an animal and they have to guess what it is. He says “it’s brown, has a long fuzzy tail and lives in trees eating nuts.” The smart children all raise their hands quickly and he chooses one who is so excited she’s almost standing up. As soon as she is chosen, she immediately looks as if she is second guessing her answer. She finally responds, “I think it’s a squirrel, but since this is church and we are in worship…it must be Jesus.”

Like the child, we probably would put something else in the blank if we were honest, but since it’s church we often tell ourselves “of course, it’s Jesus.” But one good gut check to find our answer is to scan our calendar, look over our bank statement online, or check our online history or hours of usage on our phones. Sometimes what we think the answer should be and what our lives actually say the answer is are two different things. This Sunday, Pastor Corey and I will take a look at not only the obvious words that sometimes go in the blank above God, but some of the less obvious things as well – such as our health or people. Our Scripture lesson will focus on Jeremiah chapter 10. I love to read the headings for our Scripture passage in different translations. This week the NRSV heading for Jeremiah 10 reads: Idolatry has Brought Ruin on Israel but the CEB translation is even more interesting: Living God or human handiwork. Hmmm….great question for us to pray over, don’t you think? What do you put your trust in? Living God or human handiwork? Squirrel or Jesus? Whatever the answer – we will grow from there!

Grace and Peace,

Jenn.

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