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Civic Engagement and Loving Kindness

by ELCA Bishop Elizabeth Eaton

We are less than two months from Election Day. Nov. 5 is a significant day in our country as we exercise our right and responsibility as citizens to vote. Aside from the presidential election, which has dominated the headlines, we will also vote for state and local leaders — decisions that directly impact our communities. Voting is an important first step in our faithful civic engagement and one important way we can involve ourselves in our community and country.

Civic engagement through political and nonpolitical processes is how we live into our baptism and share Christ’s love as we work to make a difference in our communities and strive for justice and peace across the globe. During this election season, there are many ways for you to participate: volunteer at your local polling station, become an election judge, assist with getting out the vote, and help organize candidate forums. And we thank all of you who are already engaged as volunteers or workers.

With all the tension and division in our country, we are called to be both a prophetic presence and a reconciling and healing presence in the world. Let’s remember the importance of respectful conversations and debates that seek to understand each other’s positions without the often-distorting media hype or political campaign spin.

Our involvement in the political process should be marked by loving-kindness, especially toward those with whom we disagree most vigorously. When Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, he made it clear that hate should have no place in the life of a Christian.

As Lutherans, instead of focusing our prayers for our candidate or party winning, let us pray for discernment about how, no matter who wins, we might be agents of God’s work of love, healing, justice, and reconciliation in our country and our communities.

Our political involvement, however, must begin and end with prayer—individual and collective. This reinforces the role of faith in shaping civic engagement and promotes a more spiritually grounded political process.

We pray for the future because the future is in God’s hands, and God’s wisdom transcends the limits of our minds, imaginations, fears and expectations. No matter what, God awaits us in the future—because God is faithful, and because God’s love is not contingent on our works, nor on any political candidate, political party or political arrangement.

Let us pray:

Holy God, out of your great love for the world, your Word became flesh to live among us and to reconcile us to you and to one another. Rekindle among us the gift of your Spirit so that we seek to live in unity with all people, breaking down the walls that divide, ending the hostility among us, proclaiming peace to those who are near and to those who are far away; through Christ Jesus, in whom we all have access in the one Spirit to you, both now and forever. Amen.

21th Sunday After Pentecost – 10 a.m. on Oct. 13 --  Worship with Communion

Announcements

Favorite Scripture of the Week: “Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come.”

--Mark 13:33

  • New Member Welcome: We are pleased to welcome new members Terri Watson and Keilley O’Hara on Sunday.
  • Fellowship Time: Plan to join us after worship for coffee and conversation. Church Council meets after worship downstairs in the Fellowship Hall, all are welcome.
  • October 20: Vicar Lisa will attend seminary Oct. 21-25, and Becky McNeil will preach and lead worship on Sunday, Oct. 20.
  • Weekly Bible Studies Continue Oct. 16 & 19: The Rev. Dr. Becky McNeil will lead a Bible Study entitled, The Bible from Scratch, The Old Testament for Beginners by Donald L. Griggs. The books to accompany the course are available on Amazon. We are going to meet two different days of the week, Wednesday and Saturday, which gives us more flexibility. Even if you missed the first session this past week, please consider joining us this coming week. Please note that on Wednesday, Oct. 16. Bible Study will begin at 11 a.m. instead of 1 p.m. so that our members can attend Willa Mae Gartside’s funeral service.
  • November Newsletter Deadline: Zion’s November newsletter deadline is Oct. 22. Please contact Jo Moss to make submissions or updates
  • Lutheran Disaster Relief: Hurricane Helene hit the coast of Florida as a Cat 4 hurricane on September 26 and Hurricane Milton is on its heels. Please support hurricane relief by clicking here to donate to Lutheran Disaster Response to help.

E-formation – 21th Sunday after Pentecost, October 13, 2024

In the gospel reading on this coming Sunday, Jesus tells a questioner to sell what he owns and give the money to the poor. What does this mean for us? Come to worship to hear the word and to receive grace from God.

Mark 10:17-31

Mark’s gospel here summarizes the intercommunal commandments from Exodus 20:12-16 and Deuteronomy 5:16-20. First-century Christian eschatology is evident (a) in the priority, not of obeying the law from Torah, but of following Jesus, and (b) in new world order that rejects traditional Jewish expectation that wealth is a sign of divine blessing. “Teacher” indicates Jesus’ role as similar to a rabbi. The detail that Jesus loved the man reveals his saving care even for those who cannot follow him. Believers are promised connection with each other as if they are not strangers but family members.

Amos 5:6-7, 10-15

Amos, active during the first half of the eighth century bce, was fierce in his condemnation of injustice and disregard for the poor. Crafted in elegant Hebrew, the poetry focuses on the faithlessness of the northern kingdom (“the house of Joseph”), where Bethel was a royal sanctuary. Wormwood is a bitter plant. The gate was the site of the public square where elders sat to hear and decide legal issues. Translated “God of hosts,” Sabaoth appears frequently in the Prophets and may refer either to the hosts of Israel’s armies or to the heavenly bodies and beings in the skies.

Hebrews 4:12-16

According to the author of Hebrews, writing about the time of Rome’s destruction of the temple, Jewish temple sacrifices have been replaced by the death of Christ. In this passage, Jesus is likened to the high priest, who alone entered the innermost sanctuary of the temple to approach God and confess for the people. In the new situation since Christ, everyone must be laid bare before God, and everyone can approach God to receive grace. Several places in scripture compare the powerful, even potentially destructive, word of God to a sword.

Zion's Lutheran Church

zionsluth@gmail.com

719-846-7785