27-August-23 (Matthew 16:13-20)

The people of Jesus' time had a lot of ideas about what the Messiah would be like. When Peter says to Jesus, "You are the Messiah, the Christ." he was saying that he was beginning to understand the way that Jesus was messiah. He was beginning to understand that the Messiah's job was to show people that God's love was freely given to all people.
Even within the Church, there are a lot of ideas about what our job is, but it all comes back to that: How do we show God's love, freely given to all, in our words and our actions.
In addition to figuring out how to do that in our particular time and place, we also need to find the resources we need to get that done. As we come to our time of offering today, consider how your time, your abilities, and your money could be put to use supporting that work.

Prayer:

God who truly loves all of us, we pray that the message of your love would reach out to the whole world. Help us to be part of that answer to that prayer as we give of ourselves and the resources you've given us. Bless these gifts so that people will see your presence through us.
We pray in Jesus' name. AMEN.