The days are growing shorter, leaves are beginning to change color, and school is starting:  sure signs that summer is over and autumn is here.  To me, this is always a time of possibilities.  With a new school year always come new clothes, new school supplies, new teachers, classes, and friends.  I have not been in school for many years, and yet this time of year still brings that same sense of a fresh start. 

At Christ Lutheran Church, this fall will also bring new things, specifically, the beginning of the weekly celebration of Holy Communion at each service.  Each time we gather on Saturday night and Sunday morning, the Lord will be present with us in body and blood.  We will be fed with his Word and Sacrament every week.  I believe that we will be spiritually enriched beyond words by this great gift. 

Holy Communion does many things for the believer.   Lutherans believe that the Lord’s Supper forgives sins, nourishes our bodies and spirits, and brings us into communion with Christ and with each other.  It builds us up in faith and reminds us of how dependent we are on God’s saving grace.  Holy Communion unites us with Christians in every time and every place. 

That sense of unity and up building is something that we need, as individuals and as a community.  Even if we disagree with one another, we are one in Christ through this sacrament.  We are reminded that we all share one bread and one cup, as St. Paul has written, and that we are all a part of one body, which is the Body of Christ.  The body is made up of many parts, but each part needs the others and cannot exist on its own.  Each part has its own gifts and abilities, but it is the union of all the parts that makes the Body of Christ.

I pray that your faith will be built up as we begin this weekly sharing of Holy Communion.  Christ will be present with us, to heal and renew us.  It will be a time of new beginnings.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?   Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.  

1 Corinthians 10:16-17

God's Peace,
Pastor Katherine Douglass