Dear Edwards Church Community,

On Sunday September 11 we re-gather for the coming year.  We renew contact with friends and pew mates, with church school classmates and teachers, with choir members and many others we encounter less often over the summer.  It is good to re-gather.  Just as it is good to let the fields lay fallow at the appropriate time in the life of a farm, it is important to plan your crops and work the soil.

Paul wrote to one of the congregations he served: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose …. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field …” (1 Cor. 3:6-9)

Our shared work as a gathered community is to till the soil of ourselves in an ongoing effort to realize as fully as possible our potential fruitfulness for God. Toward that end, David, Deb and I plan worship and involve others (individual children and youth, adults, choir and the whole congregation) in making a joyful noise, sharing a solemn prayer and being open to God. After all, liturgy means the “work of the people.” We offer special faith formation opportunities like book groups and workshops on spiritual disciplines, monthly hymn sings and other gatherings outside of Sunday worship as ways to cultivate our individual spirit and its connections to others and to God.

Of course, not all of our efforts will be as fruitful as we hope when planting, watering and weeding. At those times, it is comforting to recall that Jesus taught his followers to let the weeds grow alongside the wheat, for what should be kept and what discarded would become clear in time. (Matt. 13:24-30) He spoke of the Johnny Appleseed abandon with which God keeps reseeding us. (Mark 4:1-20) And he reminded us that all of our enduring growth, as individuals and a gathered community, depends on our rootedness in God: “ I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:5)

Jesus said where two or three gather in his name, he would be in their midst. So plant yourselves in each other’s presence, and plant yourselves in God’s presence. “Gathering at the crossroads of ancient faith and contemporary culture, we are a Christian church asking God to open us to a new way.”  Come, re-gather. And with God’s help, we can all grow together.

Blessings,
Michael

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