Our church believes in prayer and as we work together, it becomes clear that we also want to support each other and those who live outside of the church. To be a witness to others, what does it mean? How can we learn to be a witness in our daily lives even if sometime we are physically limited? These are some of the questions we are asking in our class.

When we share the bread and the wine, it is our belief as Lutherans that the bread and the wine empower us and strengthen us to go out into the world, our daily jobs, our homes, and

our neighborhoods and live a life worthy of Christ’s calling.  When we study the spiritual disciplines, we are studying the ways that we can continue to serve even when it hard and even when the way WE understand serving Christ may be different.

Advent 1A November 27

Is it REALLY Advent already? I’ve had the strangest feeling all week that we’d skipped a few days or that something wasn’t quite right. But no, it’s here. Advent is here! Happy New Year, Body of Christ! We’ve had our turkey day and black Friday and small business Saturday and soon enough cyber Monday. The wonderful, albeit often overblown and dripping in excess, journey to the Festival of the Incarnation is under way.

For many years, I shared an annual Thanksgiving tradition with my mother: watching her neighbors set up their outdoor Christmas decorations. The ever growing crew of the inflatable larger than life NASCAR driven by snowmen, giant candy canes, gazillion lights, and the bowing, under-inflated monster Santa would be set up on the lawn just as soon as leftovers were sealed in Tupperware. When we saw all of that, we knew Christmas was on…

Our discussion on Sunday, November 6, was about the saints since it was All Saints Day.

Our focal point to begin our conversation was the Prayer of the Day we would pray in morning worship. Below is the prayer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of American (ELCA) that was used. Pray it and then consider what it tells you about saints.

Prayer of the day – All Saints

Almighty God, you have knit your people together in one communion in the mystical body of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant us grace to follow your blessed saints in lives of faith and commitment, and to know the inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who love you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

The questions we begin to ask were these:

• What/who…