I am thankful for many things. I am thankful and overwhelmed at the response to our Reverend in the Rafters campaign. We closed out our mortgage, saved the bell, and I’m looking forward to sleeping in the tower. Seriously! The Property and Grounds guys and Terry Rhodes have done a great job preparing the space.

People from all parts of my life showed up and donated. My hometown. My family. My friends from college, seminary, and here in Medina. We were supported by a newly elected councilperson. Folks from inside the church and outside. We launched this on Facebook, but many sent in checks. In fact, 44% came from Facebook, 56% from offline. The old ways still work in this digital world, but the digital can add to the old ways. It’s not an either/or, it’s a both/and.

What this campaign uncovers is a network of love. A love for this place and this building. A love and appreciation for me, and our work and ministry together. It is an image of the invisible. The invisible love that carries us made visible by the outpouring from this campaign, and I am thankful.

There are a few times when this happens. Maybe it will happen around your Thanksgiving table. Folks showing up and eating turkey, or whatever will be on your tables. The hosting. Putting out the china and fancy silverware. The preparation for the day… that is love made tangible. Our gratitude for living, for the harvest, for the land that supports us… the God that loves us… a day to pause and take stock and say to one another in word and deed, “I love you.”

It happens in big holidays like this. It happens in handwritten notes in the mail. Phone calls. Messages and tweets and tags on social media. We are always trying to express the invisible. We can make the invisible visible consciously, but I’m more surprised at when we do this unconsciously.

I have 2 examples which are both Dungeons and Dragons related. I make no secret of my love for that game. It’s called D&D for short. It’s a role-playing dice game that’s been out since the 1970s. Some religious circles objected to the game at first, as they purposely misunderstood it. The forces of good battling evil, sometimes literally demons… What’s there to object to?! There has been renewed interest as a new edition has come out and shows like Stranger Things have featured it.

I started playing back in Sylvania. After a side comment about D&D in a sermon, a guy walked up and said, “If you want to play again, my house 7 p.m. Tuesday.” I went and rediscovered my love for this game I hadn’t played since high school.

There I met Rich. Rich was a wizard. Well, in game. In real life, he was a life flight helicopter pilot and worked at Davis-Bessy Power Plant on the graveyard shift. This meant he was always tire and always asleep during our games. And for the first three years, he was.

Until one game, we were walking down an imaginary street and this imaginary dog runs up to attack us in the game. Rich, who normally is asleep during our gaming sessions; goes absolutely berserk! He casts a sleep spell and carries the unharmed dog to the owner and unleashes a stream of profanity that made me blush. Which is something, because I worked construction! He’s so upset. In four years of playing with Rich, I never experienced him this way. The rest of the group is puzzled as well.

And he leaves. He is so mad, he gets into his truck and leaves. Which really puzzles his wife who now wonders how to get home.

Two weeks later, we get the story. Rich grew up in inner-city Toledo. He had a beloved dog, a beagle mix that would walk him to school and would pick him up on his way home. The dog slept with Rich, and Rich adored that dog. Until one day, Rich found his beloved dog dead on the curb. The throat was ripped out. He figured out that it must be this neighbor who would let this other big, ill-tempered dog roam the streets. Sometimes Rich and his friends had to huddle together and throw stones at this mean dog. So he put two and two together and figured that dog killed his beloved dog. Rich hated that man and that dog. That is what triggered Rich.

When the dog ran up in the game, Rich was back to being 8 years old. All his grief and rage from his beloved dog’s death was made visible. This grief this 60-year-old man has carried since he was 8 was suddenly made visible. I had a new appreciation for Rich. We had a shared love of dogs. Yet it took this game to unlock this fact. And the next three years, Rich was more awake and present in the game.

I took my love of D&D and went to the Medina library. Here in Medina, some 50-70 school-aged kids show up at the library after school. When school lets out, the library is filled up 5 minutes later. Through the efforts of Nicole Harris, the social worker at Garfield; the elementary aged kids are covered. We have come alongside the library and are providing snacks to them.

Shannon Connely Kurjain approached me and wanted to know what we could set up for the middle and high-schoolers. Instead of making this huge program, I thought about D&D. It can promote basic math skills, story-telling, reading, and teamwork among other things. I love putting in ethical quandaries, so morality and ethics will be another aspect I can teach the kids, and they’ll learn but won’t know they’re learning! In October of 2018, Elijah Walker and I began playing this game with the teens. We kept this quiet because we didn’t know if it would work. Or if it would have any staying power. Just an experiment we figured we could try.

Last year, we had 6 kids come on the regular. There was one that was an outsider. He didn’t quite fit in. He was disruptive all around. I wondered about him. What was his deal. I tried and often failed, not to be annoyed with him. Yet in one session in February, something happened and he stormed from the room and slammed the door. I followed and asked what was up. That’s when everything poured out. He has ADHD. He is being raised by his grandparents. He’s been bullied to the point that he has contemplated suicide. As he told me more and more of his story, I stood in awe of all that he was carrying. A freshman in high school. He’s carrying so much. Compassion flooded in. In that moment, someone I took as a disruption turned into a child of God. We were transferred to the kingdom of God.

Because of that young man, we developed a group covenant. The kids came up with it and they police it. Since then, our little group has turned into a community. Those kids brought their friends, and we now have 14 in our group this year. This young man has brought two of his friends and they have really put their all into developing the world.

There are times when the invisible is made visible. D&D is one place for me. Holiday gatherings is another. And church.

It is a privilege to learn your stories and what you are carrying. We are a community. We are a group that has gathered with a purpose. For we believe that the invisible God, creator of all things, has been made visible in Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. All things were created through Christ. He is the head of this gathering, the beginning, the first born of the dead. Our faith is that God is like Christ. Standing with the outcast. Healing the sick. Blessing the grieving. Lifting up the lowly. Showing compassion to neighbor, every neighbor; no matter if they are Jew or Gentile, man or woman, or any other line or label we claim for ourselves.

In Jesus, God was pleased to dwell and reconcile all things to God.

And you my friends. I’m so thankful for you. For this gathering. For each way you try to make love visible. And we as a community, we try to do what Jesus did. Feed the hungry, tell stories to one another, and find God already active in our lives.

Jesus said to his disciples, “These things I can do, you can do and greater than these…” I’ve seen great things. I’ve heard great dreams. I have seen Christ in you. I can only pray you have seen Christ in me. Let us, together; be thankful for this gathering. And may we continue to make the invisible visible. The invisible love of God made visible in our lives, in our community, in our words and actions.

The Good News of Jesus is that you are loved and forgiven. That peace has been made and you have been set free. Or as Richard Rohr says, “Remember, the only thing that separates you from God is the thought that you are separate from God.”

So spend time with people. That’s what makes love visible. Whether at a thanksgiving table or a game table. Make the invisible visible. When you feed people and give of your time and talent and treasure here and to a local charity or project. That’s what makes the invisible visible. Talk theology, attend a bible study, for these things are trying to make the invisible visible.

Do these things. At thanksgiving and beyond. For your invisible love is enough to put a Reverend in the Rafters and fill this building with love.