Hello, Friends!
      Throughout the past few months, really since Pentecost Sunday, we have been blessed with (and, yes, at times  bombarded by) messages from Scripture that call us into awakeness before the mysteries of God.
     How does God manifest Godself to us?  How can we know if we’re on a holy path? How in the world can Christ’s self-giving example be one we can actually integrate? Where can we find some signs of hope? How should we pray?
      With fear and trembling, with willingness and resistance, by fits and starts, the People Israel have journeyed with God through wilderness and exile, in and through captivity, in and out of alignment with God’s laws of justice and mercy. 
      From the road and from prison, with patience and urgency, with encouragement and chastisement, Paul has written to his friends, trying to help them stay true to the way of Christ.
       In comfort and in lack, with support and with condemnation, with understanding and impatient urgency, Jesus has journeyed among his beloved people (and they include lots of unloved and unloveable folks), healing, feeding, teaching, scolding, comforting, reminding and revealing all who can take receive the wisdom of his life giving way—its costs and its benefits, its mysteries and its reassurances.
      I hope you’ve been reading these scriptures, listening to our reflections together (in person or online), and giving some careful, prayerful consideration to your part in our faith community’s journey.
     All through October we’ll be celebrating how good it is to be together, and to learn how best to grow fully into our loving, vibrant, joyful and engaged identity as individuals, and as a church family.
      Each Sunday we’ll focus on one component of our membership vows, which promise that we’ll love God, support each other, and care for our church— through our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service. Newcomers and those considering membership are especially invited, too, to join me at the Sunday School hour (9:30) throughout October and into November, for conversation about our essential beliefs, traditions, and practices as contemporary United Methodist Christians.
        Here’s a powerful prayer for us to use, together, to get centered for this phase of our journey.
        I look forward to journeying with you this Sunday and all our days to come.

Shalom,
Sarah

Giver of All Good Gifts
You are the God who feeds and nourishes.
You are the God who assures that we have more                     
     than enough,
     and we do not doubt that
     you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Even in such an assurance, however,
      we scramble for more food.
      After we have filled our baskets with manna,
     we seek a surplus—
         enough education to plan ahead,
         enough power to protect our supply,
         enough oil to assure that protection.

And in the midst of that comes your word,
        that we share bread and feed the hungry,
            even to the least and so to you.
We mostly keep our bread for ourselves,
                                                 our neighbors,
                                                 and our friends.

It does not occur to us often,
       to feed our enemies,
       to share your bounty with
             those who threaten us.

We do not often remember to break
        vicious cycles of hostility
             by free bread,
             by free water,
             by free wine,
             by free milk.
Until we remember that you are the giver
         of all good gifts,
         ours to enjoy, ours to share.

Stir us by your spirit beyond fearful accumulation
      toward outrageous generosity,
    that giving bread to others makes for peace,
    that giving drink to others makes for justice,
    that giving and sharing opens the world
          and assures abundance for all.

We pray this even as we ponder
      the gift of your Son
      whom we ingest as bread and wine,
         and tasting, find ourselves
                  forgiven and renewed.  
Feed us ‘til we want no more!

 Walter Brueggemann,
      Prayers for a Privileged People