During this season of summer in northern New England and of Ordinary Time, the Season after Pentecost in the church year, gardens and farmers’ fields are producing flowers and produce that feed our souls and our bodies.So how is the garden of God’s mercy and love growing in your life this summer?  How do you see the garden/structure/body of Christ growing in our community and in the world?

     As was written to the Ephesians (2:18-22, based on the NRSV) two thousand years ago and still speaking to us today:

“through Christ we have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone, the keystone. In Him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together in the Spirit into a dwelling place for God.”  

Some of the ways our congregation describe how God’s love is growing  include:  like “a well-tended garden”, “an opening rose”, “a vine”, and “the weeds in my garden”. Others speak of knowing God’s love by “sunrise & sunset each day”, “family & friends”, “simple acts of kindness”, and “an unexpected smile from a friend”.

Praise be to God for these (and so many other) ways we know of God's work and growth, pruning and nurture in our lives and in the Church!