Grace is with you! Grace is for you! You are God’s Grace!

Dear People of Grace,

Grace is with you! Grace is for you!  You are God’s Grace!

I love this play on words: when I call you “People of Grace” I mean both “people of Grace Lutheran Church” and “People of God’s Grace.”  You are both!

God’s Grace is at the center of everything we do.  “Grace” is God’s loving choice to choose us, forgive us, be with us, and use us to change the world.  We aren’t chosen because we’re somehow perfect, or even better than anyone else, but because God loves.  You and I are pretty clear that, left to our own devices, our own human nature, we aren’t very good at changing the world, living in community, or, heck, even living our own lives!  But Because God has washed us in Grace, in our baptism, and feeds us Grace every week in bread and wine, and breathes Grace through each other, we are able to do so much more!  We are able to become the people of Grace.

Centered in God’s Grace- God’s radical acceptance of us- we extend the same acceptance to each other, and to everyone we meet.  That’s how God’s Grace to us makes us Grace Lutheran Church.

You, the people of Grace, are so full of Grace!  So we have to celebrate!  September 25th is our day to party in God’s Grace.  It will be an amazing worship service- part Homecoming Sunday, part Rally Day, and 100% Grace Day!  I hope you’ll join us as we celebrate God’s Amazing Grace.

Our welcome, our acceptance, our Grace for everyone who walks in our doors is legendary in this synod.  You all know you’ve been welcomed because of God’s gracious love, and I’ve never seen a church with so much desire to welcome, love, and accept others.  We’ve totally got the intention to welcome down, but we can always work on fine-tuning our welcoming skills.  How do we help others feel our welcome?  I hope you all join us after the potluck on the 25th for a “Skills for Hospitality: or “How do I know if I should shake or hug?” workshop. It’s all about being, and spreading, God’s Grace.

You, people of Grace, are amazing.  I love being your pastor.  I love living in God’s Amazing Grace with you.

Pastor Lura