Becoming Together - Fall 2026

Have you ever had one of those days where you’re trying so hard to do the right thing: to be patient with the frustrating person, to show mercy to the person who’s done you wrong, to do the things you said you’d do but now don’t feel like doing? But it just doesn’t work: angry words are said, a grudge is held, and you binge Netflix instead of working on the project you need to do. We’ve all had those days. Sometimes we have those days more often than we’d like to admit! And we think: Why can’t we just get it right? On those days, I like to remind myself of this quote from Martin Luther: “This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”

This life is not being but becoming. We’re never going to get it right all the time. We are human! But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t at work, continually inviting us into a vision of kingdom life that transforms us and draws us ever nearer to the heart of God.

This fall, we’ll be engaging with gospel texts from Matthew that are all about becoming. We’ll read some tough parables that remind us that we do not always forgive as widely or as deeply as the Lord’s Prayer calls us to. We don’t always say what we say we’ll do; we don’t always treat our neighbors well; sometimes God’s mercy frustrates us.

But these stories from Jesus don’t just hold a mirror up to show us where we’ve gone wrong. They also cast a vision of something far greater: life in God’s kingdom. Christ gifts us with more grace and forgiveness, more compassion and mercy than we would think possible. The abundance of God’s blessings transforms us, and helps us learn to translate our internal faith into external action.

We’ll never be perfect. We won’t “arrive” at some enlightened state. But we are becoming: becoming more loving, becoming more caring, becoming more Christ-like.

And at Muhlenberg, we’re becoming together. On August 23, we resume two worship services and welcome the return of our Faith Formation hour. Groups that took a break for the summer are up and running again, and familiar fall favorites such as the annual church picnic, the Diamond Jubilee, and Jazz Vespers join new opportunities like “Funday Night Church.” These opportunities to grow closer to God and closer to one another give a glimpse of all that we are becoming. Join us on the journey! - Pastor Lauren