Today is World Communion Sunday, and as such, all of our thinking about God’s purpose and call for us will be tied to God’s larger purposes for all the families of the earth. What does God want for our world? Where could we perhaps be used in our little corner of that world to accomplish His purposes?

We continue on in the Narrative Lectionary today and come to the story of Moses’ call to go to Pharaoh (one of the highest and most powerful leaders of the world in his day) and demand that his people be set free from slavery. With the help of God of course! How do we respond when we encounter God and God’s call in surprising and scary ways? How do we reconcile the fact that perhaps we feel unworthy of such calls, but that God calls us anyway, just as He called Moses?

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This Sunday, we continue through the story of God’s first chosen family. Where last week, we saw Abraham almost sacrifice his son Isaac, this week we see a bitter conflict erupt between Isaac’s own twin boys Jacob and Esau. How do we deal with our own rivalry, sibling or otherwise? What do we do when we are striving for our own blessing, maybe against other people? What is God’s plan for any of us and why do some people seem to be luckier than others in this world? These are all questions we will continue to think about together as a community.

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This week we continue on in the Narrative Lectionary and move into a key event with the family of Abraham, Father of our faith and of God’s chosen people. God chose this one man and his household to be the focus of God’s blessing and even of God’s discipline. This story today is a disturbing story of a threat to what seemed like a done deal: God’s promise fulfilled. Abraham had a son who had been promised to he and his wife Sarah for years in their old age after years of waiting for a family. And all of a sudden, Abraham hears God asking him to do an impossible thing: to sacrifice this child and let him go. How do we handle such calls to sacrifice? How can we discern when it God calling us as opposed to other voices from our world and our culture?

In acknowledgement of our Jewish brothers and sisters who just celebrated their high holidays, I highly recommend you learning more about this powerful story that we share with them (which they call the akedah) through a resource created by many of their wonderful leaders. It is called The Akedah Project and shows many commentaries and sermons on this complicated story at the root of our faith.

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This week we return to the fourth and final year of the Narrative Lectionary cycle, a schedule for reading the Bible that begins with the Old Testament in the Fall, Gospels in Lent and the New Testament until summer. The goal of this reading schedule is to help us connect the dots between our stories and the larger Story of God’s love for all of humanity. We begin at the very beginning this week: Genesis 1. Our creation story. Did you know there are actually two different creation stories? Three, if you count the introduction to the Gospel of John! We are going to consider what it means that God created everything we see, stood back and took time to rest and look at it all and call it all “good”. Also, what does it mean that this Genesis chapter talks about God creating in community (“let US make humankind in OUR image”)? Let’s dive back into the Bible together this Fall! All are welcome!

This also is such an exciting day for our church every year because it is the Sunday when many of our programs restart for the Fall season. In the coming weeks, look for more information about FUN-Day School for kids, nursery for little kids, Adult Sunday School and other small groups. Today we celebrate coming back together with an outside picnic after the worship service hosted by the Deacons and featuring our contemporary band playing music. Again ALL ARE WELCOME!!

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This week is very special and bittersweet for COA because it is the last day for Mike Jarjoura as Assistant Music Director after 21 years of wonderful work for our community. Included in this service is a special video tribute to him from various members of the congregation who love him so dearly. That can be found towards the end of the service.

Also this is the final week of our summer sermon series “Never Stop Growing”, and this week we come to the final Fruit of the Spirit of Self-Control. So many of us associate this with mundane, everyday things like weight loss, but it is much larger than that. What does it mean for us to order our choices, our energy, our emotions and our relationships such that our world around us most benefits? This last Fruit is intimately connected with the first Fruit of Love. It has been a wonderful journey with you all through all nine flavors of this Fruit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.

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