So here is what I have experienced as we have gathered on Wednesday evenings to share a meal, shared in Evening Prayer, and answered A Call to Prayer.


We have experienced holy time.


Sure, anytime we worship we experience the holy (at least I hope this to be true). But something more has been happening on these Wednesday evenings. I sensed it at that first Evening Prayer service in this Lenten season. Even as we were singing the Evening Hymn (Joyous Light of Heavenly Glory), one could sense God’s presence with a greater immediacy. It was at that moment that I realized, God is gonna do something with this, something way beyond my initial expectations.

It felt like I imagine people may have felt when they stood in his presence, when they were healed, and glimpsed who Jesus was. At least in a small way. But that’s the kind of power I’m talking about. Power to heal. Power to transform. Power to make us new.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Romans 8:14-16

Maybe that’s the way to describe what is happening on Wednesday evenings: the Spirit is bearing witness with our spirits.

I suspect this is just the sort of thing hoped for when the ELCA issued it’s Call to Prayer:

Objective One: Call the Church to Prayer ". . . pray for the renewal of this church so that every member, congregation, synod, churchwide unit and institution might bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ." -- From The EvangelismStrategy, ELCA, 2003

Goal: "Activate and mobilize this church to pray for renewal that is grounded in the Word." -- From The Evangelism Strategy, ELCA,

+++

On that first Wednesday night, I recounted how at Monday Night Bible Study Mr. French would always pray for renewal, within himself and within this church.

It is happening. By the power of the Spirit, it is happening.

And so, with eagerness to see what God will do as we continue to answer this Call, I leave you with these words from Ephesians:

I pray that…he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. (3:16-17)

In Christ,

Pastor Julianne Smeck