June 18 | Reflections on Nature
There is no video for this service.
Reflection | Cindy Fath
Like many of us, I grew up being outdoors. On our farm, we had a woodlot to explore, vast fields of crops, a large track of lawn and garden, pastures with animals and endless trees to climb. And if that wasn’t enough, we were also free to roam my grandparents’ farms, one who lived just a few minutes away. Since I can remember, I have preferred the outdoors over the indoors. My specialty was hiding in a tall tree, leaning my back against the trunk amidst the leaves and reading until my mom figured out where I was.
During my childhood summers, my next door grandpa, Grandpa Sommers, who didn’t do a lot of farm work anymore, appointed himself to stalk thistles and other undesirable weeds on our properties. With his trusty hoe, well-sharpened on a grindstone that made sparks fly, he’d “hoe and conquer.” I don’t know how old I was when I began accompanying him on his rounds. He liked the company and I liked skipping out on house cleaning and other such hard labor. We’d traipse the farm and fence rows, observing birds or eating nature’s gifts while attempting to reduce the thistle population before they could go to seed.
As we rambled, he taught me how to recognize the sassafras tree and the taste of its twigs. He taught me that hickory nuts and beech nuts were edible. He talked about the history of the land and what it was like when he had moved in. He taught me the names of the flowers, trees, birds and insects that he knew.
During my teen years, I sometimes took my favorite poem book and read poetry on a large sunny outcropping of rock. “This is my rock and here I run…
June 11 | Tie the knot and pass the pie
CMC Worship June 11, 2023 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.
Tie the Knot and Pass the Pie
Text: Matthew 9:9-26
Speaker: Joel Miller
The kin-dom of God is like a woman who went out and found a colorful piece of fabric. She called her friends who brought other fabric and together they cut the material into smaller pieces, mixed and arranged them into pleasing patterns. They sewed the pieces back into one whole cloth. They layered other material to that – one on the bottom for comfort, one in the middle for warmth, and the top piece for beauty. Then they called more of their friends, saying, Come, join in the making. Many friends, old and young, came and gathered around. They sat and conversed and laughed as they guided their needles and threads. At each intersection of piece meeting piece, through each layer, they tied a knot, binding together comfort, warmth, and beauty. At the completion of each new whole, they rang a bell and celebrated. Then they enjoyed a feast of soup and pie, leaving contributions for more materials. And the cycle began again.
This is, more or less, how comforters get made at CMC.
Practically speaking, it takes a lot of hands and a lot time to make one comforter. A year to make all the comforters here this morning.
Theologically speaking, the process is a pretty good picture of what Jesus called the kingdom of God, or the kin-dom of God. If you’ve ever been to a comforter knotting party, you’ve likely felt the goodness of it all in your spirit, not to mention your belly, even as you’ve offered your time and hands and perhaps dollars. The comforter making process is a parable you can wrap around your body,…
