MMC: A Little Late

Hello all

Due to Labor Day and then a cold that I've had all week I just realized that I didn't send out a Monday Morning Church email this week and I wanted to make sure some updates went out.

• Rally Day is NEXT SUNDAY, September 19th. And the goal has been set, to collect 102 food items for Redding Social Services as we kick off Bethlehem's 102nd year of ministry! Come starting at 8:45 for breakfast, fellowship, crafts, a parable telling contest. At 10am we will have a festival worship service which will be followed by our annual all church picture under the cross.
• Next Sunday is also the Worship Committee Meeting. If you are interested in planning worship services for the fall and winter, or would like to give your feedback about summer worship, please feel free to join us after worship.
• Tickets for the pasta dinner on September 25th are now on sale. They are $10 for adults and $5 for kids. Please see Frank to buy your tickets.
• The Finer Things in Life, a women's Wednesday evening Bible Study begins next Wednesday at 7:30pm at the parsonage. All women are invited in indulge chocolate, wine and scripture.

And since I didn't get this out earlier, I'll give you till noon tomorrow to put in your guess for this last Sunday's Book of Faith puzzzler: What trade did the apostle Paul work in?

Due to the aforementioned cold (though I'm mostly over it now, just the occasional sneeze), I haven't been able to spend much time studying the scripture for this week's sermon, which is very unlike me since normally by 1:40pm on Thursday my sermon is either written on in the process of being written. I'm am however focusing on the gospel Luke 15:1-10, the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Jesus asks "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?" And "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?" Do these question seem like common sense questions to you? What other things are Jesus asking us to do that does not seem like common sense? Are you the one sinner who repents or one of the ninety-nine righteous persons?

Please pray for safe travels this weekend for all the teenagers and their advisors throughout the synod who are gathering at Hammonasset this weekend for a youth gathering and all the women who gather in West Hartford for the New England Women of the ELCA Convention.