October 21, 2022
This week’s cool temperatures seem more like October in the best ways. When I was a boy the cooler temperatures, the autumn palette of colors that carpeted the hills and valleys in my homeland all pointed not only the end of summer and first gasp of Fall, it ushered in a whole new rhythm of life. It was high school football on Friday nights, JiffyPop popcorn and watching television with family, the World Series and intramural crab soccer games after school, and anxiously awaiting the Holy Grail of gift dreaming, the Sears “Christmas Wishbook.”
It wasn’t all pleasant however. Sometimes it meant disagreeing with your parents about whether you needed to wear a snowsuit under your Halloween costume — “but no one else is going to wear a snow suit under their costume.” Oftentimes it meant being warmer than your friends while trouncing through the snow on Halloween, and feeling glad you were, but never admitting it to Mom and Dad.
But one of the memories that might be unique to me among those with whom I grew up was the season of caring for others around the world. I fondly remember gathering on the Sunday afternoon before Halloween with friends—Jewish, Christian, Catholic, Protestant friends—to “trick or treat for UNICEF.” I always thought this was a special Fall event. The film-strip presentation they showed before we were dispersed into our small city showed children about our age with much less than we had. That was the before picture. Then they showed how much UNICEF was doing to help these children, to learn, to eat, to stay healthy, and to have hope. It gave me a sense that I was helping someone in a concrete way, and that felt good. And it was fun to do it with my friends.
But that was the first of two “feel good” collections. It was just about Halloween time when we would get a soup can label that looked like a Campbell’s Soup can label, but said “Covenant” instead of “Campbell’s.” It also came with a yellow plastic lid with a slot in it. What was otherwise an empty soup can, ready for the trash, became the bank in our house where we put all of our spare change in November. We would then take our bank to church on the last Sunday in November to support World Relief. In 2013, Campbell’s withdrew their permission for the Covenant church to create a label like theirs.
As you can see the new label isn’t quite the same. Though, I don’t know if it matters any more. When was the last time we had any “spare change” anyway? But what matters is the needs of children and people around God’s world persist. In that spirit we will open a portal on Breeze (on our website) in the month of November. It will be to collect an offering for the missionaries we support. The monies we collect will be divided equally among those we support and be given to them as a Christmas gift and ‘thank you’ for their service on our behalf this past year. Those of you who heard Erika Clauson in September learned how multi-dimensional and challenging ministries of our missionaries are. This is an opportunity for us to both support these people who serve around the world, and to remind ourselves of how broad the reach of God’s Reign in the world is, and the deep needs it seeks to meet. May it also remind us to pray for those who serve in this way on our behalf.
On another note, this season also reminds us of Halloween, trick or treating, costumes, and even “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on TV. Here at First Covenant that means Fall Fest, “trunk or treat,” food, games, and apples. Please mark October 30 on your calendars for special food and events that Sunday after worship. Better yet, contact Ann Knutsen for information how you can contribute to this event. Volunteers are still needed.
On yet another different note, and more trick than treat, the national Executive Board of the Covenant church has voted to bring the removal of two Covenant churches to our Annual Meeting for a vote in the Spring of 2023. This includes Quest Church here in Seattle. The ripples of this decision are just beginning to spread through our denomination. Those ripples are real and affect the leadership in all Covenant churches, and in Conference leadership. I invite you to pray for those who serve in our Pacific Northwest Conference and their meeting this weekend. I also invite you to pray for me as I negotiate this fraught season within a ministerium with whom I am just beginning to become reacquainted.
The seasons are changing in many ways. But the reason for hope remains the same, and so we trust the work of God’s Reign to continue in the world to unify, reconcile, and redeem that which is broken, damaged, and divided. That is something you can bank on.
Pastor Todd