Leaves are falling, Autumn is calling!

Dear friends in Christ,

We are emerging into the season of harvest, the season of bountiful provision and celebration of all that we have received throughout the months of cultivation, farming and gardening. As we move into the late summer harvest, and prepare for the cooler nights of Autumn, it is the perfect time to share stories from the heart. Last year, we heard Jesus’ “Stories by the Sea”. This year, we will listen to another set of stories and parables that will evoke many emotions and shared experiences.

During the month of September, we will be using a lectionary-based sermon series entitled “Having Words with Jesus”. You may have already noticed that Jesus has a way of getting to difficult, hard-to-hear issues quickly and easily. Sometimes it is in a story where he is revealing to us our own secret sins; other times, it is the answer to a question that catches us in our prejudice or blindness. Sometimes, it is a teaching that we struggle to wrap our heads around. These are his words - words we believe are valuable, words with which we need to wrestle, words that we need, somehow, to learn to live by. Our Septe

-mber series is called “Having Words with Jesus” to reflect a variety of moods and meanings. Maybe we want to argue, or turn away, or give up. Or maybe we really want to know, to spend some time in his presence to understand and to explore, and finally, we hope, to hear. This series is a call to listen again, even to the more difficult passages that we sometimes want to skip over.

Join in this month as we have words with Jesus in worship, and in our mailed (and e-mailed) threads that weave us together.