Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!   Amen.

During the past weeks and months I have talked about our building project in countless formal meetings and informal conversations. In each of these discussions I heard expressed in many different ways how Rehoboth is a sacred place of worship and refuge for everyone. In the year that I have been your pastor I must say that I already feel that way about Rehoboth.  This lead me to reflect on all of the other sacred spaces in my life and one that is still of great importance to me, the bonfire circle at Bear Creek Camp.

To a first time visitor this bonfire circle would appear to be nothing special, just another place where people can gather around a large fire.  But because of the history I have at that particular spot in the woods, to me it is a sacred space.  I used it as a place where I could find solitude and time to worship alone; it was also the place where I gathered with the entire camp to worship every week, it was where I meet some of my closest friends for the first time, and where I said goodbye to them.

A space can become sacred by the occurrence of one major event, or the repetition of many events. From my conversations with the people of Rehoboth our worship space had become sacred to us for both reasons. Rehoboth is the place where many of you were baptized, where your children were baptized, and for some of us where our children will be baptized. It is also a place where the Eucharist has been celebrated over and over again for decades.

We all need to have these sacred places in our lives.  Often we have more than one, and they do not need to be formal places of worship.  A quiet room or shady tree can be made into a sacred space, a place of refuge from our hectic lives.  But sacred space is more than just a place - it is also time.  What good is a place of refuge if we allow our busy lives to prevent us from ever using it?  Sacred space should also be space made in our schedules, a time of Sabbath.  Allowing ourselves to get into a rhythm of devoting part of each day and each week to God and our selves is difficult but rewarding.  As we remember all of God’s children in need let us also remember to make sacred space in our lives. 

Brothers and sisters this is why we are undertaking all the challenges of this building project. It is easy to get caught up in the stressful details of everything that has to get done. It is all too easy to reduce everything to a set of architectural drawings and financial numbers.  We must all remember that what we are doing is ensuring that our sacred space will be accessible to more people and that it will be around to serve future generations. We are joined together to ensure that the mission and ministry of Rehoboth Evangelical Lutheran Church will remain in Economy Borough serving the people of God.  The unknowns of construction and debt often can be scary but I am confident that together with God our Father we can overcome these challenges. The end result of this project will be a sacred space that will better serve the needs of our congregation. It will be a place that offers refuge from daily life, a place to worship God, and be built up by the Holy Spirit to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So let us continue to find sacred space in our busy schedules to come together in Rehoboth's sacred space to worship God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Please pray with me:
God of Grace, it is too easy to get caught up in our busy lives and to forget to remember and give thanks for all you have given us.  Strengthen our resolve find space in our surroundings and time in our lives to dedicate to you, so that we may be strengthened to carry out your work in the world.  Amen.