This Sunday Rev. Mary Brown, an ELCA (that’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) clergyperson, will be preaching. Mary has preached several times at our church. She’s great. One of the important things that happens when Mary comes to preach is that she also presides over Holy Communion.
In the area of church denominations like ELCA and UMC, this is a very big deal. Encouraging one denomination’s ordained clergy to preside at the sacrament of another denomination is not really all that common. But ELCAs and UMCs have been doing it for a couple of years. It’s another way we practice being a Big Tent Church in a Small Tent world.
Something a bit different this year for Mary is that she is on staff at PROP. Mary does a lot with relating to the community and with churches. She is going to be preaching about a parable Jesus tells called the parable of the sower. It’s a story about a farmer who plants seeds, and like farmers of the day and in our day had little idea of what would come of this work.
I’ve heard that Mary will be relating this parable to the work of our Crops for PROP garden. For four years our garden has produced well over a ton (2,000 pounds) of fresh vegetables for people who come to PROP. And by the looks of it, this year promises to do the same. I’ve always thought that the significant thing to pay attention to in that number is not how well our garden grows vegetables, but how many people need them. And we are not the only garden in town like this.
It’s going to be a interesting day on Sunday… a day to celebrate and participate in a couple of ways in which we are in mission and ministry to Eden Prairie and to the world.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
In the area of church denominations like ELCA and UMC, this is a very big deal. Encouraging one denomination’s ordained clergy to preside at the sacrament of another denomination is not really all that common. But ELCAs and UMCs have been doing it for a couple of years. It’s another way we practice being a Big Tent Church in a Small Tent world.
Something a bit different this year for Mary is that she is on staff at PROP. Mary does a lot with relating to the community and with churches. She is going to be preaching about a parable Jesus tells called the parable of the sower. It’s a story about a farmer who plants seeds, and like farmers of the day and in our day had little idea of what would come of this work.
I’ve heard that Mary will be relating this parable to the work of our Crops for PROP garden. For four years our garden has produced well over a ton (2,000 pounds) of fresh vegetables for people who come to PROP. And by the looks of it, this year promises to do the same. I’ve always thought that the significant thing to pay attention to in that number is not how well our garden grows vegetables, but how many people need them. And we are not the only garden in town like this.
It’s going to be a interesting day on Sunday… a day to celebrate and participate in a couple of ways in which we are in mission and ministry to Eden Prairie and to the world.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
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