We are at the last two weeks of our series on listening. These two weeks we are considering what it means to listen to the world. I will be sharing a special message that is ripening in my spirit. It focuses on a piece of scripture that we hardly ever read in church: Romans 13. We don’t read it, because people think of it as a prescription for obedience that we don’t like anymore. I will be giving it a new twist that sheds new light on the current times. I hope you can come; I am excited. There is a deep personal history connected to this sermon and I can’t wait to share it.
As you will have noticed, it is election season. As I will explain on Sunday, I very much hope, in fact urge anyone who can to register to vote. Who and what you vote for will never be my concern. I think that the secret ballot is the Achilles heel of democracy. It is sacred. I can and do ask you to register and then later to vote. It is important for us to be participant citizens in our democracy. Not everybody can vote and I understand that. I could not vote until 2010 and then only after seventeen years of wondering through immigration processes. Now that I can, I never want to miss the opportunity and I hope you don’t either.
If you are not registered to vote, or if you don’t know if you are registered to vote, you can check that at this website: https://registertovote.ca.gov/
We will say goodbye this Sunday to a couple that is very special to our church: Kathy and Jim Flagstead. We will bless them in the service and say our goodbyes during coffee hour. I hope you can join us.
With all my heart,
Pastor Niels