Greetings, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

      In our September newsletter, I wrote rather frankly and to the point about our financial crisis as a congregation.  By now, the entire membership of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, North Weissport, should have received a letter from Mr. Byron Long, Church Council President.  The letter discusses several different scenarios and options to improve our budget and financial situation in the coming year.
More recently, I have discussed in sermons what I named “the elephant in the living room.”  For those not familiar with the phrase, it means “dancing around an issue” or “talking about everything but the issue at hand.”
In my sermon of September 25th, which was also our celebration of St. Matthew, the Apostle, I discussed how Jesus called Matthew to be one of his disciples.  Matthew was not the perfect candidate for the job of disciple. Ruthless tax collector that he was -- the last thing he probably expected that day while going about his regular job tasks of collecting taxes, was for Jesus to join him for a meal.  Jesus said to him, “Follow Me”; and Matthew did just that!  
My point being that we never really know what God has in store for us, and at this time of financial hardship in the congregation, the last thing we want to do is “dance around the issue” or go on existing with the elephant in our “church” living room!!!
At the end of my sermon on “St. Matthew Sunday”, I held up the letter sent to each member and made a plea.  The plea was not for money, it was for something much more than that…it was for prayer.  And so I ask you again, my sisters and brothers in Christ, to take the letter and place your hand upon it; and at the end of each day, pray for God’s will and plan for us.  Pray that God’s will be shown to us for all the options discussed within the letter.

Pray…listen…and pray again.  Do this each night before you close your eyes to sleep until our Special Congregational meeting set for Sunday, October 2, 2011, immediately following worship. We need all of us to be present on that day with courage to face the elephant in our “church” living room. Friends, God will not abandon us in our hour of need.  Pray…listen…and pray again. And one more thing, trust & follow…just as St. Matthew did!

The Reverend Nancy L. Moore, Pastor