Hey Glen Mar,

Have you ever done this? I’ll be looking around the house for my car keys, checking the counter (where they should be), the end table, the kitchen, asking everyone if they have seen them, and then realize they were in my pocket the whole time.

I was looking all over for them, but there they were. In my pocket. The whole time.

I think this is relatable because sometimes we can miss what is right in front of us, or in my case, what’s on us, because we are looking for something else or looking for it somewhere else. Perhaps even where we think it should be.

This idea of missing something right in front of us caught my attention from the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 21:33-46).

Jesus tells the story of what we call the parable of “The Wicked Tenants” to the religious leaders who had questioned him a little earlier in the chapter. The story is about a vineyard, some tenants who work the property, and a landowner who keeps sending people to collect the fruit from what belongs to him. As the religious leaders listen to the story, they don’t fully understand what Jesus is saying.

They are standing there, listening to Jesus, and they do not realize until it’s too late that the story is about them.

It got me wondering: Can we be so close to God and still actually miss God and what God is doing right in front of us?

This question is not just for the religious leaders in the passage. It’s a question for all of us. We can know the Scriptures back and forth, come to worship and praise God all Sunday morning long, serve the church week in and week out, and think we have a pretty good idea of what we think God is supposed to look like…

But what happens when God shows up differently than we expected?

That is where we are headed this Sunday as we continue in our Fall sermon series, Another Way: The Countercultural Path of Jesus, with this week’s message, “The Danger of Missing God.”

I hope you’ll join us on Sunday at either 9:30 or 11:00 am for worship, Communion, and an encounter with the One who wants to meet us right where we are.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Chris