As we enter the month of November, we look forward to cooler weather and family gatherings. We will celebrate Thanksgiving later this month with family and friends. Along with family traditions and particular recipes, it is an opportunity for giving thanks and sharing gratitude!
One particular gathering will be Thursday, November 21 at 5:15 p.m. when we will gather as a family of faith in the Coleman Fellowship Hall. The smell from the kitchen and the fellowship around the table will be gifts to us all. Everyone is invited, and there is no cost. We are invited to RSVP by November 7 to the email: frontdesk@auburnfbc.org.
We express our gratitude because we are thankful, but our gratitude also leads us to the love of God. Karl Barth, the well-known theologian from the twentieth century, says that grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace leads us to gratitude, but gratitude can lead us back to grace.
We are thankful for the grace of God we find in community as a family of faith. This grace leads us to gratitude for the church. Our gratitude, though, leads us back to God’s love, where we discover even more grace. It is like the rhythm of the tides. The water recedes, but then it returns. Grace and gratitude move back and forth in our lives always revolving around the steadfast love of God.
We will celebrate this gift, which we find in the family of faith, by gathering to eat, fellowship, and give thanks! We will gather around the table and celebrate communion, where we will remember the love of God and where we will experience the love of God. We will express our gratitude for one another, which will lead us back to God’s grace yet again!
-Tripp