Greeting from Pastor Pat

A Time to Gather

As you drive through the countryside, it is not hard to identify the season of the year. Farmers are busy harvesting their fall crops, making the last cuttings of hay, and harvesting their corn. The harvest will be stored away in barns and silos, made ready to see the animals through another winter.

Those of you who have gardens are busy as well, taking off the last of the vegetables and preparing  your home garden for its rest through the winter.

I am not sure how many people still "put up" produce from their gardens. I know that when Sharon  and I lived in Virginia we canned and froze lots of vegetables that we raised in our garden. The  three tomato plants Sharon and I planted on our hillside garden yielded abundantly, so much so that  we canned dozens of pints of soup.

Have you ever stopped to think about the concept of harvesting? Harvest is an important part of  life in a region where one experiences drastic changes in the climate. In most parts of the world,  if you live near the equator, the growing season is practically year-round. If there is sufficient  moisture, you can grow crops 365 days a year.

This is certainly not the case for this part of the world. There was a time, perhaps some of you  can remember it, when you had to store foods in order to have something to eat during the winter.  Vegetables were canned or frozen, and hogs and beeves were butchered and stored in smokehouses,  ready to feed the family during the cold winter months. This is not a present reality thanks to the  modern day grocery store.

Harvest time was an important part of the rural life. It was a time of preparation, a time of  celebration. It was a time when families worked together in a shared labor, preparing for the cold  months ahead.

Even though the majority of us do not need to engage in a physical harvest, we still need to be  concerned about our spiritual harvest. When times get tough and life gets cold, will you have  sufficient spiritual nourishment to see you through these rough times? There will be times in all  our lives when we will have to call upon the depths of our faith in order to endure the winters  that life has to offer. In order to endure, we all need to store up enough "spiritual food" to see  us through.

You may have heard people ask, "What is the point in going to church?" You may have even asked the  question yourself. As your pastor, I see the church experience as a "spiritual warehouse" where we  come and are fed, where we come and are nourished by God's Word.  Many times Jesus used the imagery  of eating to illustrate the importance of spiritual growth. The Lord's Supper is not only symbolic  of the sacrificial nature of God's love, but of our need as brothers and sisters in the faith to  stay in constant fellowship with one another.

My hope and my prayer for you is that you are being fed spiritually at St. Luke’s. I hope you are  finding all the nourishment of a spiritual nature that you are seeking. If you are not, please let  me know how I can help.

As we approach the season of harvest and thanksgiving, let us all be mindful of our own need for  spiritual nourishment. As we face the cold winters that lay before us, let us rest assured that we  will have the strength to endure.

God's Blessings, Pastor Pat