Dear Faith Des Peres Community,

There's an old saying that goes: "Shake the dust from your feet and move on."

It comes from Jesus.

And it's good advice.

He tells the disciples in Matthew, Mark and Luke, "There will be people who don't like you.  Shake the dust from your feet and move on." It's so matter of fact, but so hard to do.  I don't know about you, but sometimes my feet are caked in dust.  

So this week in preparation for Sunday, I encourage you to pull out your dust clothes and think about the dust you need to shake off.  What's keeping it there, and what do you need to do to clean your feet?  What do you need to do to move one?

In other news:

On October 6, we'll celebrate World Communion Sunday.  Our focus that day is the story from Jeremiah that likens us to clay and God as a potter.  It talks about how God shapes us and molds us.  A real live potter (thanks, Eric Ludlow!) will throw a pot during the service.  We'll see the story come alive before our very eyes!

On October 13, we'll celebrate the baptism of Ellis Ludlow, son of Eric and Sarah.  I hope you'll join us for this special occasion!

And, on October 27, we'll dedicate our new hymnals with a special hymn festival Sunday.

There's a lot going on!

I pray that your weekend is filled with blessings, and I hope to see you in church.

Annie

Dear Faith Des Peres Community,

This Sunday our focus scripture reading is Luke 6:39-49, Jesus' famous parable about removing the log from our own eye before trying to remove the speck from our neighbor's eye.  The image is laughably hyperbolic.  How could someone not notice the log in his or her eye but be so audacious as to point out the minor flaw in someone else?  And yet, we all know someone like the guy in the cartoon pictured above.

The story concludes Jesus' Sermon on the Plain.  The Sermon on the Plain contains a series of blessings and woes, calls us to love our enemies, tells us not to judge others, and to forgive and to show mercy as God has shown mercy to us.  Jesus then uses the log/speck image to help us see how far we are from the faithful life God intends.  

In preparation for Sunday, here are a couple of questions to consider:

1.  What "log" impedes you from being the person you want to be?

2.  What "logjam" in your heart, mind, or actions would you like to whittle down, freeing you to be more Christlike?

I hope to see you in church!

And, mark your calendars for two upcoming special services:

On October 6, we'll celebrate World Communion Sunday.  Our focus that day is the story from Jeremiah that likens us to clay and God as a potter.  It talks about how God shapes us and molds us.  A real live potter (thanks, Eric Ludlow!) will throw a pot during the service.  We'll see the story come alive before our very eyes!

On October 13, we'll celebrate the baptism of Ellis Ludlow, son of Eric and Sarah.  I hope you'll join us for this special occasion!

And, on October 27, we'll dedicate our new hymnals with a special hymn festival Sunday.

There's a lot going on!

I pray that your weekend is filled with blessings, I hope to see you in church, and I leave you with this prayer to greet you in the morning:

Dear God, this morning the day is bright with promise.  As the sun brings clarity to the contours of my room and the world outside, so shine your light upon the contours of my life and habits.  Grant clarity so that I may pay attention to the ways I interact with others.  Help me to show love and mercy to all according to the measure of their need.  Clear my eyes so that I may see you in unexpected ways today.  Then, in your mercy, grant me grace as I learn to love others as you love me.  In Christ's name, I pray.  Amen.

Dear Faith Des Peres Community,

It was nice to see so many of you last Sunday at Rally Day.  It was great having Sunday School, the Adult Discussion Group, and the choir back in full swing.  I don't know about you, but for me Fall always signals the start of something new more than January 1 does.  And, as much as I love summer, I'm ready for the change in season and schedules.

This Sunday, our focus scripture is Luke 8: 26-39, a story about change and how it came too soon and too fast for some people, and they reacted in fear.  In the story, Jesus came and shook things up and changed peoples' lives for the better, but they didn't like it.  Odd as it may sound, we often prefer the devil we know to the freedom we do not.  

I encourage you to read the story before church.  When you do, take time to pray about this question: Think of the many ways in which people are "chained".  What specific constraint is in your own life for which you might pray that the Holy Spirit show you a path toward freedom?

I hope to see you in church!

Don't forget, there is Sunday School for grades K-3 and the "tweens" (grades 4-6) this Sunday.

There is NO Adult Discussion Group this Sunday.  They'll resume September 22.

Blessings,

Annie

Dear Faith Des Peres Community,

This Sunday in worship we'll focus on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech".  I have a hunch that leading up to Wednesday's anniversary, we'll hear much about the speech. We'll hear stories about how some people went to Washington DC out of curiosity, while others went with a friend. 

But I also have a hunch that missing from the news reports will be the stories of people of faith, the ones who marched because they had a deep and abiding faith that one day, just as the prophet Isaiah said and King himself proclaimed that day, “that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” 

As we continue our short series from the book of Hebrews, we'll hear about how ordinary people of faith are called to run the race and to keep the dream alive.  Those ordinary people are you and me.  

I hope I'll see you in church on Sunday.  Bring your friends, bring your children, bring yourselves, as we honor the legacies of people of faith and find encouragement to keep the dream alive.

See you in church.

Annie

Dear Faith Des Peres Community,

I'm looking forward to this Sunday and hearing Jed Koball, one of our mission co-workers in Peru, talk about his work there.

Jed is a facilitator for the Joining Hands (JH) network in Peru.  JH is an initiative of the Presbyterian Hunger Program that fights the root causes of hunger by sparking the formation of networks in developing countries.  These networks lead the struggle against hunger at a local level while working with PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations to address global hunger.  

Faith Des Peres does so much for hunger here in St. Louis, who isn't to say we can't expand our outreach to Peru?  Now that would be exciting!

I hope you'll make an extra effort to be here Sunday to welcome Jed and to learn something new.

See you in church!

Annie