October 2008

Dear Neighbor,

We have just enjoyed another very successful Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Festival at the Kempton Community Center. Thanks to MAREA and all the people who organized it! It has grown a lot in its first three years. May it keep on growing and serving more people.

Sustainable Living certainly has a spiritual aspect. The more we align ourselves with our Creator’s priorities, the more wisely and sustainably we will live, with each other and with the earth.

We are created with three universal loves: love of heaven, love of the world, and love of self. Love of heaven is the love of doing good, useful things that serve the Lord and the neighbor. Love of the world includes the use and enjoyment of all the good things the world provides. Love of self includes the love of taking care of ourselves.

The Lord creates us with all three of these loves. We need them all. The key to sustainable living is to let the love of heaven be the head, love of the world the body, and love of self the feet. Then love to the Lord and the neighbor rules us; love of the world supplies the means to be helpful to others; and love of self puts us in a position to be of service. But if we put love of self or love of the world in first place, we turn our truly human nature upside down. We let greed and lust for power rule us instead of love of what is really useful. The current crisis on Wall Street is an example of unsustainable living.

We need the love of heaven to govern our earthly loves. We need to let what is really useful determine what we really “need.” That is a sustainable spiritual life, and it allows the Lord to guide us into sustainable ways of natural life too. Imagine the enormous boost to the economy if five percent more of our workforce did their work each day as justly and faithfully as they could.

Jesus said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who remains in Me and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing… In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you shall become My disciples.” (John 15:5, 8)

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We are holding our “Autumn Weekends” on Saturdays and Sundays, October 18-19, 25-26, and November 1-2, from 11:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m. You are cordially invited to stop by for something to eat. Join the picnic, or take home your lunch or supper. We have homemade soup, sandwiches, pies, apples, cider and other good things. And you are welcome to try the spiritual food at services on Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m., and on the website at KemptonNewChurch.org.

Sincerely,

Rev. Lawson M. Smith