It is great to be back at St. Peter’s with you all. While vacation was good, and it offered us
some quality time with my aging mom, our siblings and other relatives, the pace
was rather hectic. Going home to India
used to be a relaxing experience as soon as you hit the ground. Now it takes a
while to get used to the frenetic pace of life there to be able to relax and
reflect. One evening I went out for a
walk to say hello to folks in my old neighborhood to find it has completely
changed. New buildings, strip malls and
houses have replaced the old ones. The two-lane narrow road, which I used to
walk to school, is now swallowed up by a new 72 foot-wide highway, completely
changing the landscape of my idyllic village. My old friends are not there
anymore, some have moved away and some have died. I didn’t meet a single person
I knew during my walk. It felt like I
was a stranger in my own place. Suffice to say, I didn’t complete my usual
round. So it is good to be back home.
Vacation also gave me a brief respite from the nastiness of
this year’s presidential election. It is
hard to fathom the deep divide among the electorate. However, I hope that the
nastiness of the election process won’t deter us from exercising our sacred
duty to vote. As a church I hope we can
engage our people listening to each other rather than shouting at each other. Many
issues we care about as a church are at stake in this election. Regardless of
where we stand on issues, I hope we will find a way to bridge our differences
and work together as one people again.
November is the month when we as a nation celebrate the Day
of Thanksgiving. While I am happy that we set apart a day for thanksgiving, let
us not forget that for us, as Christians, every day is a day of
thanksgiving. We are thankful to God for
our very existence. Among the many blessings, we also thank God for our church
and its many ministries and missions. Stewardship
Committee has designated November 13th as the ingathering Sunday,
the day we, as a church, gather all the first fruits of our labor in pledges
for the work and mission of our church.
When we make these pledges of time, talent and treasure to the church,
we are acknowledging that all that we are and all that we have is a gift from
God. Our pledges are our personal
statements of faith. Pledging is
different from fundraising. Pledging is giving to church in grateful response
to the gospel.
November is also the month when the new church year begins
with the first advent that sets off the holiday season. There is something reassuring about the
cyclical nature of our calendar. While time is linear it is also cyclical; for
every ending there is new beginning.
Let us be assured of God’s loving and unchanging presence in
our lives even as we go through periods of unsettling changes and divisions in
our day-to-day world.
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