Dear St. Lukers,
It’s been quite the week with four celebration of life memorial services so far and one more to go on Saturday. A huge thank you to our Care, Tech, Worship and Host teams for all of the work they have done making these services special for those on campus and those watching who were unable to join us. Each service has been powerful and moving as we have lifted up the lives of amazing disciples of Christ and faithful members of God’s church. Each person we have celebrated had stories that have moved us, challenged us, made those of us who knew them and attended want to live life more fully and faithfully. Brilliant, talented, creative people who were also people of great faith and conviction and who impacted so many.
This sermon series is about coming alive as those supporting characters who walk with the greatest hero, Jesus, and allowing our lives to continue His story of love, resurrection, generosity, and grace. I’ve been thinking about what we have experienced with each character we have learned about on Wednesdays and engaged with on Sundays: Stephen, Lydia, Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Each of their story lines in the book of Acts continues to tell the story of Jesus’ resurrection and love in unique, powerful ways, much like the stories of the people who we have honored this week. Gerald, Kendal, Civilla, Gary, Brad- each took very seriously their roles as Jesus’ “sidekicks” – furthering the themes of Christ through science, music, leadership, hospitality, art, golf, sales, and engineering, in the ways they loved and led their families, and truly offered light to other people.
I often hear after a funeral service “you all do such great jobs with these.” My response is always the same, as it was after each one this week – when you live a faithful life, you write your own beautiful funeral service. And that’s the role we play as secondary characters in God’s story – to write our part of the story so well…our lives write the story of our resurrection.
Join us in worship this Sunday as we engage the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch from Acts 8:26-40. There is a LOT in this story so I hope if you didn’t join us at our LEARN study on Wednesday night, you register and watch the recording before Sunday. I can’t get into all of the details but again – that’s why we LEARN in study and ENGAGE the story in worship! You can register to join us for in-person worship or worship with us on Facebook LIVE at 9:15 or 11:00 a.m. We hope to see you in-person or online because It’s Not St. Luke’s Without U!
Be blessed storywriters with Jesus,
Jenn.