There is a fine balance between genuine lament and self-pity, and I don't always walk that line well. However, at the risk of sounding maudlin, I have to say that I do not recall a more challenging time for our nation or our world.

I think we are being challenged on two fronts as a society. On the first, the health crisis demands both patience and cooperation, and we seem deficient in both. On the second, we are in an election year, and with elections come hyperpartisanship. Our political opponents are cast as swamp monsters from the abyss, not as human beings worthy of dignity and respect because they, too, are children of God, warts and all.

Political theatrics may produce better bottom lines for social media, newspaper, and broadcasting corporations, but they do little to foster community and build a society of "responsible selves," as Wendell Berry puts it. When our neighbor is the enemy, our communities eventually become war zones. There is a convincing argument to be made that our present society is akin to a child growing up in the home of substance abusers.

So where do we go from here? The pandemic isn't going away anytime soon, and we are approximately 40 days away from a national election. Is it time to go into our bunkers and wait for the aftermath?

No. Never. This is not what Christians do. In the face of overwhelming challenges, we believe there is only one place to go, and that is to the Lord in prayer. We believe in a God who loves creation and loves us, God's creation. In fact, God loved us enough to redeem us at the cost of his Son. So we call out to God in our need, and we do it confidently because we know our pleas are heard for Christ's sake. This is the exact instruction James gives us in chapter 5 when confronted with any number of crises. We are to pray, James tells, because the prayers of the righteous, the prayers of those who are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21), are most effective. They are effective because God has purposed to deliver us through the Son, and whatever work God begins, God always finishes (Philippians 1:6).

So I am asking each of you, as the church, to pray daily for our community, our nation, and our world. I am not asking you to pray that your candidate win or that the "evil bums" of your political opponents be thrown out.

No, pray for our community, our nation, and our world, that God would have mercy on all of us and that God would lead us, as a society, in the paths that would honor Him. Pray for your neighbor with whom you have deep disagreements, that despite our divisions, compassion for one another may grow. Pray for all those in leadership, both present and future, that they would be given all wisdom and ability to do the good and turn from evil. Pray that God would give us the courage and the ability to change what needs to be changed about ourselves or our actions, and that God would strengthen us in all that we do that is right.

The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective only to the degree that they reflect the self-giving, humble, servant love of our Lord Jesus. Pray, and then pray some more in this way.

In Christ,

Pastor Sam

Kate Hill is one of our own, the daughter of Chris and Kelly Hill and granddaughter of Peggy and Eddie Hill. As the eldest daughter of career military parents, Kate was born in Japan and has lived in Germany and across the United States. Family visits home often brought her back to her home church, FPC Bristol.

Kate graduated from the University of Georgia in 2018 but heard God's call to stay there for two years to help disciple undergraduate students through the Wesley Campus Ministry that served more than 1,500 students. Through that service, Kate heard God's call to the mission field. She writes:

Missionary. What does that mean to me? Someone bursting at the seams to share the news of the radical love of Jesus. Someone willing to serve in a variety of different facets. Someone ready to love any stranger, neighbor, or friend. Someone who knows God as provider through the generosity and love of friends and family. There's a responsibility that comes with that job title, one I don't take lightly. I've honestly struggled to think it applies to me and questioned my equipping, my worthiness, but God never lets me stay there long. I am worthy. I am equipped. I am called. This yes is one surrendered in obedience and faith, full of joy and excitement.

We give thanks to God for Kate and the ministry to which God has called her. This Sunday, it will be our great joy to pray God's blessings upon her as the Lord sends her out to bear witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Please join us this Sunday as we celebrate another mission partnership emerge from the ministry of our church.

Our courtyard is a garden for all seasons, beautifully kept by a man who knows them all as old friends. But don't call him a man for all seasons. Bill Whisnant wouldn't appreciate the cliché. He spent eight years making all things new in our courtyard, and we owe him fresh praise, at least, as he retires. Here, now, we clear an acre of metaphorical new ground in gratitude to him.

Bill, the Building & Grounds Committee thanks you, the entire congregation of FPC Bristol thanks you, everyone with eyes to see thanks you; what shall we do without you?

As Bill exits the garden with summer on his arm, we enter a new season. Our task now is to find a new volunteer or team to care for the trees, shrubs, flowers, and small lawn in this lovely retreat. If you can help, please contact our Facilities Manager, Larry Connolly, by calling the church office at 423-764-7176.

If you come to church this first Sunday of fall, you will see that Ron Fox (Sept. 23-26) has prepared a treat for your eyes and, if you are among the free spirited, feet. Inside, you can give your ears a treat in, oh, so many ways, not least by lending them to the test of our sanctuary audio system during and after the 11:00 service. David Moore (Sept.-October 3) mows for World Communion Sunday, October 4.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and for vocal music such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Bach composed most of his preludes and fugues for organ during his tenure at Weimar (1708-1717), where he served as organist and Konzertmeister (director of music) at the ducal court. Our prelude for Sunday is his Prelude and Fugue in A major, BWV 536, which comes from a later, more mature period in his life. Lionel Rogg wrote: "A gentle luminosity and warm tenderness pervade the Prelude and Fugue in A major. From the brief prelude, which derives its vitality from the three elegant arpeggios set in a surrounding of silence, to the fugue with its delicately balanced subject making light of the bar line, the mood remains that of a pastorale."

"Kommst du nun Jesu, vom Himmel Herunter auf Erden" ("Come thou, Jesu, from heaven to earth") is one of the six Schübler Chorales and Sunday's offertory. These pieces were published around 1748 as Sechs Chorale von verschiedener Art ("Six Chorales of Various Kinds"). They are transcriptions of movements from several of Bach's cantatas.

The Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772-801, also known as the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, are a collection of 30 short keyboard compositions: 15 inventions, which are two-part contrapuntal pieces, and 15 sinfonias, which are three-part contrapuntal pieces. They were originally written as "Praeambula" and "Fantasiae" in the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a clavier booklet for his eldest son, and later rewritten as musical exercises for his students. Rob Griswell-Lowry has arranged Sinfonia #13 in A minor (Sunday's postlude) for the organ. Rob happens to be our own Chris Bingham's father-in-law.