"Understand"

So, 

Halloween is coming and with it our Trunk or Treat. If you haven’t been in the past, it is a really cool event, with all kinds of monsters, princesses, clowns, superheroes, construction workers, and more visiting!

And that is just the adults!

On Sunday at the “Potluck in the Park” downstairs, we had such a wonderful time! Part of the fun was a Family Feud event put together by Kelly Dolson where one of the questions was “What are the eight most popular Halloween costumes?

Have some guesses? Number #1 – Pumpkin – yeah weird I thought!

Anyway, we will see all kinds of the costumes on Halloween night as children and parents from all over Mount Hope and nearby communities stop at the church parking lot to visit all the car trunks decorated for Halloween and get a treat at each one. 

Yes, the Trunk or Treat event has returned, and we are doing it with the Town of Mount Hope who did one last year down at the town park.

You are invited to decorate a trunk and come (applications are coming) or if that’s not an option, to grab a bag of goodies (individually  wrapped goodies) during your trip to the store and drop them off here so that all those trunks don’t run out of loot!

Look for those orange milk crates!
But here’s the most important part, even more important than all the families in the community seeing that our church loves families and is open to families, and has a plan for them to come and worship!

And to get boatloads of sugar!

You know what it is?

That we get to see, all of us, that it doesn’t matter what costume you are wearing, that you are still a child of God!

That each and every child and each and every adult is made in God’s image and beloved by God.

And that no matter what team you are playing for or rooting for, even the Miami Dolphins; God loves you and we have been commanded by God to love you too!

Even if you are a Republican or a Democrat, happily married or divorced, a migrant, an immigrant, or a lifelong citizen, black or brown or red or yellow or white. A clown, or a princess, or even Dallas Cowboy fan!

Because it doesn’t matter whether you are Catholic or Unitarian or Mormon or Russian or Ukrainian. We are to love you! Even if you are North Korean, or Chinese, or even Scottish or English or even French.

Because God loves you! Jesus loves the little children, and all the adults!

And we are commanded to see God’s presence in others. All others!

To see that even a Samaritan woman was made in God’s image. 

You know she was a sinner?

The disciples knew it. The townspeople knew it. Jesus knew it. 

But he also saw what we often choose not to see. That she was made in the image of God and is a child of God and a sister to Jesus!

She unfortunately, in her world, had three strikes against her. She was a woman. She was a Samaritan. She had many “husbands”.

But Jesus loved her anyway, and invited her into the Kingdom of God, not the physical one so many Christians have tried to build and failed, but the one created within us and among us when we live and serve God. 

Jesus never suggested we build a kingdom of stone and mortar! The kingdom Jesus desired was one built of hearts, all of us together.

And he saw that kingdom and knew she could be part of it!

And so he spoke of it and invited her into it, and while was cautiously optimistic about him and his questions, she was a bit fearful.

But Jesus knew her and invited her to enter the kingdom, and she did!

Jesus knew her just as God knows us no matter what costume we have on, what color our skin is, what we do at work and play, what team we paly for or root for. And God loves us.

Jesus was doing exactly as we are to do - invite others into the Kingdom of God. It is our most important calling. Not to take sides. Not to decide that that costume is better than the other one.

But to invite every little monster in to meet the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Halloween approaches and pumpkins are everywhere. 

And soon children and adults in costume will all gather across the street. 

And we will have an opportunity to meet them and love them, just like Jesus met and loved the Samaritan woman, and invited her into the Kingdom.

Come and join us. Wear a costume. Decorate the trunk of your car or truck, or join a team and do a trunk together with a fun theme!

And most importantly, show this community that we love them, all of them, in Jesus’ name.

Amen.