A Prayer of Blessing for the Season

March 11, 2014

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

With Daylight Savings Time upon us, and temperatures hovering into the sixties yesterday (Hallelujah!), I know many of you are already thinking about the arrival of Spring.  In my seven years as a resident of Iowa, I have come to enjoy this season more than any others.  The longer daylight, the thawing ice and snow, and the return of the color green to our landscape palette is just plain good for the soul. 

But no contingent in our community is more earnestly anticipating the coming of Spring than our farmers.  Soon, they will be out firing up their tillers, preparing their soil, and laying each precious seed in a pattern of precision and depth that they hope will produce a bountiful harvest in the Fall.

Life in the Midwest has illuminated for me this predominant biblical truth:  Our relationship with God is uniquely expressed through our relationship with the land.  Time and again, the people of God felt both the blessings of their faithfulness and the trials of their waywardness through their experience with the earth.  Rain, drought, harvest, barrenness, bounty, wilderness, fruit, and flood --  the Bible uses these images to describe not just the agrarian life, but the faithful life as well.  

Listen for how the Torah states it:

The Lord will command the blessing to be with you—in your barns and on all the work you do—and he will bless you on the land the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as his own, a holy nation, just as he swore to you, if you keep the Lord your God’s commandments and walk in his ways.  (Deuteronomy 28:8)

A PRAYER OF BLESSING FOR THE SEASON

It is in this context that we are eager to offer the Cherokee community a unique worship opportunity.  Pastor Larry Ostercamp of the Meriden Evangelical Free Church, Pastor Ethan Sayler of Memorial Presbyterian Church, and I are co-sponsoring “A Prayer of Blessing for the Season” at the Cherokee County Fairgrounds on Saturday, April 12. 

It will begin with a brief, 15-minute worship service, featuring hymns, scripture, and a prayer of blessing.  Then we will enjoy a free meal for the community, including pork sandwiches from the Cherokee Pork Producers, along with sides and beverages.  There will be antique tractors on hand for people to enjoy, and we encourage farm families to bring photographs of their farmsteads to put on display.  If you would like to help at all with the event, please let me know.

We want to be clear that this prayer of blessing is not some magical talisman we hope will ensure a bountiful harvest, or some enchanted incantation that we expect will bring the right mix of rain and sunshine.  Our deeper desire is that this service will reorient our lives and our perspectives around what really matters in life.  It will remind us of our invaluable connection to the earth, our dependence on its yield, and our responsibility to be good stewards of its sustainability.  It will give thanks for those who toil long hours and days to bring forth food from its depths to feed our citizenry, and we will pray for their health and strength throughout the year.  Most importantly, it will draw our attention to the One who causes all things to grow, both in the earth and in our hearts. 

Consider joining us on Saturday, April 12, for this important community event.  And let us give thanks to God together.

Grace and Peace,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

531 W. Main St.

Cherokee, IA  51012

Ph:  712-225-3955

Email:  mdevega@sp-umc.org