September 1, 2023
Dear Congregation,
September greetings! In this new month it’s nice to think that fall is on
its way with, hopefully, cooler temperatures.
It will be good to be back in worship you this Sunday after my
successful hip replacement surgery. Thank you so much for your
prayers, messages, and gifts. I am very grateful to God!!!
In this Labor Day Weekend Sunday worship service, we will be
considering a few of the Biblical scriptures on the importance and
meaning of work in our lives. As we each look back at the jobs we’ve
done throughout our lives, it’s important to reflect on how each one
has impacted who we are and how we are, and how our work has
affected others and the wider world. I would venture a guess that we
don’t often think in terms of how our Christian faith has entered into
our work, so we’ll be doing some of that on Sunday. I hope you’ll join us
in person or on Facebook.
We’ll also be celebrating Holy Communion on this first Sunday of the
month. If we think about it, without the labor of others, we wouldn’t
have the elements of bread and grape juice for the sacrament. I share
this reflection by The Rev. Mary Luti on that reality with you here.
God Bless You.
In Christ’s love,
Pastor Candy
“Gifts and Labor” Mary Luti
We spread your table with these gifts of the earth and of our labor.
(UCC Book of Worship, Service of Word and Sacrament I)
A friend of mine is a deacon in a church with a bread-making ministry
that provides fresh loaves for weekly Communion. They always freeze
some, too, for long holiday weekends when the team doesn’t bake.
One such weekend, he arrived early to pop a frozen loaf into the
microwave. But there were no loaves to pop. Somebody forgot to stock
the freezer. There was a grocery store nearby, so he dashed out,
snatched a loaf off the shelf, and was back in no time.
Removing the wrapper, it hit him. How lovely the bread-making
ministry was. How devoted the team’s labor. Their joy. Once he’s heard
them singing as they worked. And their bread was delicious. He
wondered about the people who’d made the store-bought bread, all
the workers who’d planted, reaped, milled, baked, packaged,
distributed, and stocked it. Did they feel satisfied, too?
The mass-produced bread bothered him. And it moved him. During the
service he was distracted, thinking about production and land use, fair
wages and working conditions, marketing and prices, distribution and
access. He hoped it wasn’t sacrilegious to be thinking about economics
right before receiving Christ’s body. He also wondered if it was
sacrilegious not to think about such things.
When the pastor lifted the loaf and said the usual words from the book,
“…gift of the earth and of our labor,” it stung him. He’d heard them
before, but not so clearly what they imply. Not so clearly what they
demand. He wondered what took him so long.
