A Message from Pastor Kaji

Thank you to everyone who came for our fruitful informal talkback session with leadership! It’s always a treat to learn more about your ideas for our communal life. If you missed the first one, don’t worry; we have another scheduled July 9 after worship.

As I mentioned in worship, these next two Sundays I am called away for some important church business. First, I will be with a group of Manhattan interfaith clergy in Israel and Palestine. The following Sunday I will be en route from Tel Aviv to the UCC’s General Synod in Indianapolis. It’s a busy time, indeed!

Many thanks to the Elders for leading worship while I’m away. I’m excited for you to hear the word I’ve prepared for you.

Next week, I will not write a letter, so you’ll only see announcements in this newsletter. Can’t wait to see you again soon!

Pax Christi,
Pastor Kaji

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 (Year A, p. 393):

1 Now sisters and brothers, I could not speak to you all as spiritual, but rather as carnal, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you all with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3 for you all are still carnal. Given there is still jealousy and discord among you, are you not carnal, and going around as merely human? 4 For when one says, “I am Paul’s,” and another, “I am Apollos’s,” are you not merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Ministers through whom you came to believe, as the Messiah granted to each person. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God produces growth. 7 Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, rather it is God who produces growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters are alike, and each will receive wages according to their labor. 9 For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s cultivation, God’s construction.