Weekly Worship and Faith Formation

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 Dear Friends of the Milton Lutheran Parish,

As a child do you remember dreaming about what your life would be like in the future? Maybe you dreamed about how many children you would have, the kind of house you would live in, your job and so on. For me I could never quite make up my mind and I was always imagining a future that was different from the one I imagined before. 

Have you ever thought about the future people in the bible imagined for themselves? What about Noah, or Abraham, maybe John the Baptist or Joseph, what about Mary mother of Jesus or Mary Magdalene. As people just like us I’m sure they dreamed of a future that was better than their reality, they had hopes, expectations, fears, and joys just like we did. 

Over the next several weeks we are going to explore the promises that God makes to us as followers. This week we are going to focus on God’s promise for a future. That despite our brokenness God promises continued life for generations to come. 

There are two stories that I want us to focus on this week. The first is about Noah in Genesis 8:20-22 and the second is Abraham in Genesis 17:15-19. 

Noah had an interesting relationship with God. We all know the story of Noah’s ark and the flood. Noah, having received a warning from God built the ark to save as many animals as possible. In Genesis 8:20-22 God promises Noah to never flood the earth again as a result of Noah’s faithfulness. Abraham and Sarah were promised a son when they were both well past their child-bearing years. God also promised to build God’s covenant with the people through their son Isaac. 

You see, we all have expectations and hopes for the future. The reality is that many of those things will not come true for us. Often our expectations for the future are very different from God’s. At the same time, we can rejoice and give thanks knowing that God promises us a future with God in it. No matter what our lives may look like 1, 2, 10 years down the road we can know that God already knows, and that God promises to be with us throughout all of it. 

This week I wanted to remind you that we will be having our annual congregational meetings on August 1st at 100 Mahoning St. The congregational meeting will begin with worship at 9:30 A.M. in the sanctuary. I also wanted to remind you that our community meal will be coming up next Sunday on August 8th. Volunteers are needed from 3:00 P.M.-6:00 P.M. You can come for the whole time, or just part of it. We will be serving the meal from 1125 Mahoning St. in partnership with other area congregations. 

Blessings,

Gary Schaeffer, Pastor