Isaiah 59:7

It is a great feeling to enter a place and be greeted by someone who knows you. I am not referring to the sincere but generic welcome from desk clerks and Wal-Mart greeters. Those are nice. But I am talking about the greeting from a waiter who knows your name, your favorite place to sit, and even your favorite order. Or the welcome from the trainer at the fitness center who shares your favorite baseball team and your favorite player and wants to talk about last night’s game. Or the usher at church who knows you’ve been on vacation and wants to hear about it while handing you a bulletin and an envelope for the Sanctuary Improvement Fund.

Isaiah’s oracle envisioned no barriers to God’s house of prayer, not language, not ethnic origin, not political affinity, not mistakes of the past. Isaiah sees God’s house as being a place where everyone who enters finds a welcome from someone who knows them and cares personally for them.

We would like to think that our church is that kind of house of prayer. We certainly try to be warm and friendly, but we know we need to work on this. Sometimes we have trouble greeting the people we know, and are reluctant to engage someone who may be a visitor. What if they are actually a life-long member? What if they don’t want anyone to bother them? What if we have so much on our mind and heart that we don’t feel like visiting?

It seems that there is room for all of those feelings and situations in the house of prayer of Isaiah’s vision. This vision does not expect us to be something we are not. It welcomes us as we are and invites us to participate in worship of Almighty God.

This text is the theme of our Stewardship interpretation this year. It summons us to see the church as more than the beautiful building on Rogers Avenue, and more than those of us who worship there regularly. It calls us to expect people who are different to show up because God has invited them. It also reminds us of our responsibility to care for the people and the place that is our house of worship and prayer. It calls us to dream a dream of new ways our church can shine the light of Jesus Christ.

As our Stewardship theme unfolds, our Sanctuary Fund continues to grow. We are being asked to pledge our resources and participate in special events to fund the improvements in our sanctuary. We will be asked to also pledge to continue the programs and outreach of our church. These pledges will be in the form of monetary, time, and talent commitments.

We also have a unique opportunity to experience the house of prayer. On August 23 at 7:30 p.m. Jim Freeman’s play, “Sanctuary” will be presented in our sanctuary. This is an event sponsored by the Presbyterian churches in Cluster 6. We will have an opportunity for refreshments and fellowship during the intermission, and a “retiring offering” as it is called in Scotland, will be collected for the benefit of the Presbyterian Disaster Fund and the Theater Ministry of Westover Hills Presbyterian Church where the play originated.

Each of us has a different understanding of God’s house of prayer. During the coming weeks and month, we will be invited to explore those understandings and to continue to respond to God’s call in our lives.
Together in fellowship and faith we may experience God’s house as a house of prayer for all peoples.

Blessings,

Cathy