Dear Caldwell,
On Sunday we delved into a topic that not everyone welcomes – the matter of life, death and what comes next. I offered the perspective that we may be best taking a balanced view of both life and death; we can take life seriously as a gift to be relished joyfully every day and, in the same way, we can take death seriously as the end of this life, but not too much so, because we claim a victory of death in Christ. As for what comes next, we all have our ideas but, more important, can trust those details to the God who has promised to recreate us in ways that reach beyond our limited human understanding.
As I mentioned Sunday, you should receive a packet in the mail from the church this week. It includes some resources we hope will facilitate thought and conversation about your wishes at the end of life, specifically about your memorial service. This is gently offered as a way to help you plan for a service that celebrates your life, though we all pray such a service is many years away.
This coming Sunday , we will continue thinking about all of this as context for this initiative by our Congregational Care Committee. I am thankful to those who have already shared their ideas and questions on the end of life and I would welcome hearing from anyone else, even those who have a very different opinion or perspective than the one I shared Sunday. My email is pastor@caldwellpresby.org. If you would like to see what I offered on Sunday, the sermon is posted now at
http://www.caldwellpresby.org/docs/sermons2013/120505_Hope_in_Death.pdf
And, no, we haven’t forgotten that this Sunday is also Mother’s Day. So we will take time to celebrate that, too.
Finally, we are delighted to welcome three new members who joined Caldwell last Sunday. Please learn their faces in the picture and make a point to introduce yourself to them Sunday.
I will be in touch again soon.
In Christ,
John