King Tut & the Other Guy
Word From Wiese
November 12, 2025
Last week, my friend Elias was there. The official opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt. (Elias runs the tour company helping COS venture to the Holy Land and St. Paul’s Footsteps . . . and maybe someday Egypt?) While several royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings are featured, accentuated in the $1 billion + museum are treasures buried over 3,000 years ago with a boy king named Tutankhamun. His tomb, discovered in 1922, was astonishingly intact. (As a boy in Chicago, I remember visiting King Tuts traveling exhibit. How about you?) Over 5,000 artifacts including golden chariots, jeweled daggers, furniture, food, even jars of wine — all placed there to accompany King Tut into the afterlife.
Every possession, every ounce of gold, was meant to ensure the king’s comfort and power in eternity. Yet despite all that preparation, as visitors see first-hand, King Tut’s treasures never left the tomb. They sat sealed away in darkness for millennia. Maybe, it was the ultimate reminder of the old adage “you can’t take it with you.”
In striking contrast, Jesus, our true and timeless king, taught us a completely different vision of the afterlife and treasure.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,” he said, “but store up treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19–20). Christ our King does not need our gold. He invites us instead to use what we have now, our time, our gifts, our generosity. To bless others and grow God’s earthly kingdom of hope and love.
Therefore, at Christ Our Shepherd, our Growing Hope series is an act of that faith. Each gift, each generosity intent, each invitation to others is not buried treasure — it’s living hope. Every offering becomes a seed God can use right now to grow community, compassion, and faith in our midst.
In the mail this week, you should receive a special Growing Hope packet.
The brochure explains our congregation’s goals, the Seeds of a Hopeful Giver, and our three fun challenge goals and rewards. After prayerful discernment, please use the Faith Giving Intent Form (or QR code) to share your decisions of generosity. During this Sunday’s services, you’ll have a chance to bring your FGI to the altar as an act of worship. (If you mail your FGI or fill it out online, alternative cards will be available so all may participate in the act of presenting our commitments.)
And see the links below to our brochure and faith giving intent, in case your packet doesn’t arrive in time.
Read our Growing Hope Brochure
Print Your Faith Giving Intent Card
Pledge Your Faith Giving Intent Online
King Tut prepared for an afterlife filled with things.
We prepare for joy and life with Christ and our neighbors now! We share because Christ first shared with us. Jesus is the king who already has everything we will ever need, now and in heaven.
Reflection Question:
Where might I be holding onto something as if I’ll need it later, when Jesus is calling me to share it now?
In Christ’s hope,
Pastor Fritz
Let us pray: Gracious Lord, you are the King of all creation, and yet you gave everything for us. As the old saying goes, teach us to hold our possessions lightly and your promises tightly. Bless all faith communities everywhere, that they might thrive in their work and ministry completed in your name for your purposes. We want our children and grandchildren to grow up where healthy faith communities like COS exist and continue to offer clearly your grace and gospel. As we pray at COS about our Growing Hope commitments this week, send your Holy Spirit upon us, that we may feel your joy and delight which comes with alignment with your perspective. Guide each one of us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.