Homecoming
25 May 2022
Have you ever left anyone behind?
Years ago, on a civil rights faith pilgrimage in Alabama, our intergenerational church group spilled out of the restaurant after a tasty meal. We piled into our two vans and hit the road for our next stop. Upon arrival we realized one of our teens was missing! Furthermore, it wasn’t his mom who noticed! Back to the restaurant one van sped to pick up our wayward teen.
Luke’s gospel notes that Mary and Joseph suffered a similar tale. Even Jesus could be left behind? The holy parents proved they were “one of us,” realizing Jesus called an audible and stayed at the temple instead of joining the caravan homeward to Nazareth.
My sweet, kind and mature wife LuAnne admits to this childhood story: her grandparents took her and her little brother David to a fun restaurant. After dinner, she got in the car’s back seat when her grandparents pulled out unaware her brother had yet to emerge from the restaurant’s bathroom. Like any “devoted” sister in the height of sibling-rivalry days, my sweet LuAnne stuck out her tongue and tormentingly waved to her brother as he chased the car! Better angels prevailed and about 10 seconds later, LuAnne instructed her grandparents to turn around and retrieve the brother left behind.
Sometimes people choose to be left behind. In hiking Colorado’s 14ers, sometimes one or two in the group might say, “you know, I’m happy to wait here while you guys make the summit. My ankle is killing me, but I’ll see you on the way down.” I remember at our last trip to Universal Studios, I reluctantly told my family, “I’m going to stay behind. My stomach can’t take these roller coasters like it used to!” Oftentimes, people share good reasons why they want to opt out of a race, course, opportunity, or life plan.
But in these post-Covid days, congregations world-wide struggle as we realize some of our faith friends haven’t come back to church . . . . . and sometimes . . . . we’re not sure why. It’s often heart-breaking and emotionally draining. One large church shared that their weekly attendance is down 57% compared to pre-Covid days. Many other churches say most Sundays they are at half-strength. Praise God we’re doing better than that at Christ Our Shepherd but the lower numbers still hurt.
Dear COS friends, while we can’t control the final decisions of others, we can control how we lean into our baptismal promises to encourage each other! We can’t control the new American realities of Sunday morning sports/clubs and other societal pressures discouraging attendance. But we can control how we reach out to our faith friends and let them know that as we move into God’s future in 2022, we don’t want them to be left behind. Let’s let them know we value them, enjoy them, and know we’re stronger as a worshiping community of Jesus’ joy and life when THEY are with us! That we want them to “come home” to do life and faith with us at COS!
Love of our faith friends that we haven’t seen in a while amid this Covid chaos is why we’ve planned our “Homecoming: A Service of Return” on June 5 at each of our three Sunday morning services.
Check out this video of invitation:
HERE’S THE DEAL:
You should have received a SECOND email, arriving in your inbox adjacent to this one. It will include a brief welcome and link to the video above. PLEASE FORWARD THAT EMAIL with some words of personal encouragement to some COS faith friends that you haven’t seen in a while.
Why not complement sending that email with a personal phone call inviting them to you at church so you can sit together?
On June 5, we’ll do our best to have vibrant worship. We will serve refreshments. The Holy Spirit will be present!
Many soldiers pledge “leave no one behind.” As the weeks turn into months, let’s put our faith in action NOW to do our part ensuring that everyone in the COS faith family knows they are wanted, treasured, and invited to move forward into Jesus’ future together!
Let us pray:
Dear God, please stir in my mind right now the face or name of a faith friend I haven’t seen in a while at COS. Give me the courage to send an email or phone call inviting them to our Homecoming June 5 and/or some other event. Sometimes I feel awkward reaching out like that. So guide me. Guide the friends to whom I reach out. And guide your church and mission around the world. For we deeply need your love and the community it fosters. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Striving with you,
Pastor Fritz