As I write this, my parts of the preparations for the Thanksgiving Service and the Dedication Service are nearly over. The celebrations, of course, are yet to come, and I am sure that everything will go off well. But this is a good moment to feel grateful (gratitude is good almost any time, but this seems a particularly good time!)

After all, I’ve been working with one group of people to plan the Dedication celebration (thanks to Kim Berche and the Dedication Committee) at the same time that I’ve been working with people to make sure that we have something to dedicate (thanks to Ann Wolfgang, Tim Schwartz, John Regner, and the Building Committee). Both the service and the building are complicated and involve lots of people doing lots of things, some of them separate, some together. There are problems in the electrical systems to be solved and inspections of the solutions, stairs and elevators and pumps and disconnects, all in place so that the building will work well and safely. And there are tables and chairs and bulletins and entrees and desserts and all of them have to come together at the right time (thanks Angie and Don Knepp!) The Sing and Rejoice Band is rehearsing the processional for the Dedication Service (they sound great, thanks Lisa Churchill!) and the Chancel Choir is preparing for the Cantata (they sound wonderful, thanks Jean Wolf!)

Meanwhile, back at the ecclesia, there are the ordinary joys of congregational life. First, there is communion training for Lindsay Walsh, Eucharistic ministry training for Ann Scopel, the confirmands plan and conduct a worship service that turns out beautifully. Tierney Guido’s Gold Award is a wonderful achievement we celebrate with her and her family. We’re getting our stuff together for Gifts of Hope and for food baskets and the Tree of Angels (thanks Kathy Dangin!) We’ll have a new pictorial directory for the New Year (thanks Amaré Merz), and also a new Cub Scout Pack (thanks Walter Merz!) I don’t know how we’ll get everything done in time to go off to Colorado to visit the grandbaby!

And I’m struck that this blizzard of preparation (don’t say blizzard, don’t even think it!), this rush of preparation for Thanksgiving and Dedication and Advent and Christmas is so like the people of God throughout history. The passage from Exodus that begins this column comes from the Israelites’ preparation for their journey in the wilderness. As a people, then and now, we’re at our best when we’re preparing to follow God where God wants us to go, thanking God for taking us and celebrating the journey. There’s a hum of activity, we can forget ourselves a little bit and prepare for the journey, a journey of which we don’t know the ending, but we know that God will go with us and now is a good time to prepare and be grateful and celebrate. Take a moment in the next few weeks, and maybe more than one, in the midst of your preparations, to thank God and to thank the people who work as God’s hands in the world for their part in our journey as a people. Advent and Adventure come from the same root (advenire, “to arrive”) and from the same place, our always faithful, always active God.

Pastor Greg