First the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear.

Body: They began as little green shoots before the first snows of winter '08 fell. As spring '09 debuted, these same infant sprouts reached for the sun, each growing with the seasons and the steady circling of the earth round the sun - fall, winter, spring. And then came summer, and the green ears, full and promising, matured into "amber waves of grain." Now fall cycles back, one year of holy history later, and each head of grain, harvested, lies in a box ready to be threshed in preparation for Lana, our church baker's, skillful hand.

Maturing, it strikes me, takes time. Fall planting is three seasons from late summer's harvest; a loaf of bread is almost a year from the sowing of seed. But with patience and tending and an element of faith, comes the bread to nourish body and give flesh-and-blood life. Perhaps we'll have enough flour for our two fall festivals this year which celebrate the gift of God's good earth - Salmon Sunday during the Wenatchee River Salmon Festival and Autumn Leaf Harvest Sunday during the Autumn Leaf Festival. Bread goes well with both the salmon from our rivers and the fruit and veggies from our valleys.

Soul: "Spirit" has intersected with "body" in a marvelous way lately at Community United Methodist Church. The wheat in the garden has been maturing and harvested, moving us towards that communion loaf representing the body of Christ, even as our lectionary groups have considered John 6:35, where Jesus says "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." How important these weekly small groups have become for us that we might regularly feast of Christ Jesus through encounter with the Word, so to become more like him.