Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church     
 
Linda Pokrajac - "Golden Senior Sunday"

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Messages of Grace

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This Sunday
October 12, 2014

Sermon Title:
"Live to
BE Served"


Scripture:
John 13:1-17




Linda Pokrajac
October 9, 2014

 

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:

 

My husband and I spent last weekend in Gettysburg. I'll be the first to admit I'm so NOT a history person, and although I was looking forward to getting away, I wasn't sure I'd like Gettysburg. I can remember standing on one of the battlefields as a child with my parents on a very hot summer day, wanting to be anywhere else. It was anything but hot this weekend, in fact it was quite cold and windy as we stood on Little Round Top, hearing the story of the unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops against the Union on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The guide for our two-hour bus tour wove facts into fascinating stories as he described life in the 1860's, told stories of famous leaders and soldiers and battles, and helped us to picture the town as it was during the Civil War.

 

On Sunday, we attended Gettysburg Presbyterian Church's contemporary service. The church has stood in the same place on Baltimore Street since 1842, and President Lincoln attended a Patriotic meeting there when he was in town for the dedication of the National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. President Eisenhower and his family worshiped at Gettysburg Presbyterian Church when they lived on their Gettysburg farm. The church's associate pastor preached a good biblically-based sermon on John 15, one of my favorite passages, and we were drawn into World Communion Sunday from the very beginning of the service where children carried in breads from different countries to be used for communion to the closing song, "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands." I read the lead pastor's sermon from the previous week on-line as we were deciding which church to attend, and he is keeping his church members well informed of the conflicts within the PCUSA.

 

Two lessons from this weekend: first, although history is facts and I find facts "boring", I realized that facts are made real through stories of people and places that are shared through the generations. How can we continue to make the truths of the Bible come alive for generations to come? This Sunday is "Golden Senior Sunday," an October Sunday set apart every two years to celebrate our members who have belonged to MLEPC for 50 or more years. As we continue our "Live to Serve" series, know that our 67 Golden Seniors have shared much of their lives with this church and in turn have wonderful stories to share. Several of them continue to actively serve MLEPC in many ways!

 

Second, I was reminded that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are still wrestling with the issues facing the Presbyterian Church that we worked through as we left the PCUSA and became part of the EPC. Let us continue to remember and hold churches like Gettysburg Presbyterian Church, their pastors and members, in our prayers.

 

See you in church! Love, in Christ,

 

Linda Pokrajac

 

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