from my sermon on 11/1/09, All Saints' Sunday, from Rev. 21:1-6a
Left Behind....have you read any 0f the books? I have. Not because they are great literature, which they are not. However, there is plot, character development, drama, a love story. Not because they are biblically and theologically correct, at least not according to what I believe. I read them because they were popular. Some 12 or 13 volumes have sold more than 60 million copies. I read them because people in the churches where I served were reading them.
What I didn't like most about the books is similiar to what I don't like most about the Halloween is going. Halloween seems to be about ghosts, goblins, and ghouls. In a word about fear. The Left Behind series seemed to be about scaring people into the faith.
The Revelation to John is about something else. In fact, I can tell what the book is about in one word. It's about hope.
Some people say that it is written in code language. It is not. It is not about trying to stay hidden. The very title says it about revealing, about unveiling. There are lots of symbols in the book, but most of the time they are explained right there in the text. Ten or multiples of ten are numbers of inclusion. Twelve or its mulitples are numbers for the people of God. So, when 144,00 are among those saved, it is saying alll of God's people are included, not left behind.
I took a course this summer with Mickey Eiford, a recongized scholar on the Reveleation to John. He confirmed what I had long felt about the book, really a sermon. He gave me confidence to preach from it this day, as it rarely comes up in the lectionary cycle.
He said that there are a series of visions. They are not predictors of the future, but bring hope for today. They repeat over and over again the message of hope. I had a member of my former church who happened to be an Aggie and who taught Sunday School. Bill said, "I've read the end of the book. God wins." That's the hope in a nutshell.
Today's scripture is the last vision in the REvelatkion. God makes all things new. Mickey said that new didn't mean to create, but to transform. In advertising language, we would say new and improved.
No more death. For the early readers, no more martyrs' death. No more mourning, crying, pain. for the early readers, no more persecution. It was dangerous to be a Christian at the end of the first century when this book was written. The text still resonates with those who are being persecuted for their faith around the world today.
We don't live with the pressure of being excluded from the social and economic circles like those early Christians. WE don't live with a death threat hanging over us. So how are we to appropriate these words?
The basic truth is still the same: Even when it seems as if things aren't so good, God is still in control; we keep on keepin' on, keeping on, doing the right thing, even if others don't; our reward is sure, if not now, in the age to come; evil is real and must be dealt with.
And the best news is that God dwells with us, and will be our God, and we will God's people. The word for home and dwells is literally, tabernacle. Remember when the Hebrew children wandered across the wilderness for 40 years, and God's presence went with them in the tabernacle. That's what it says here: God tents with us. God will be with us wherever we go. In life or death. Emmanuel, God is with us.
I actually got to know the 3 saints of this church who died this past year. Anne loved the mountains of New Mexico. She had a lingering terminal disease and used the time she had to prepare all of us for her dying. When she died, she was buried in Santa Fe, N.M. Carolyn was a church lady. She was our church secretary for many years. Edith was a charter member of this congregation, helping to mow the lawn in its early year. When her husband Tom died after 42 years of marriage, she continued to see him in their house. When I did her funeral service just one week ago, I talked about how they were inseperable. We who believe in the communion of saints, who's to say that they aren't.
The good news for today is that God doesn't want any left behind. God tents with us, in life and in death. That is our hope.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
a new vision
10/27/09 We got awful close last night. We (the church council) reviewed some 100 vision statements generated from our congregation. I challenged us to discover Christ's call upon us. Last night we kept refining those until we got a handful of phrases. The one I liked best was "Making Christ real for all." It is awful close. Keep praying for our discernment in this process.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Monday, October 26, 2009
we have met the enemy and he is us
from my sermon on 10/25/09 from Genesis 3:1-13
I learned Hebrew the old-fashioned way. We picked up the Hebrew text and began reading from Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. In beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Hebrew was hard. You turn to the front of the book...it's the back! Hebrew reads from right to left. That really scrambles your brain. The syntax is different, the grammar is different, the letters are different. The pronunciation has lots of gutteral stops. I once say a Jewish commedian on TV, who said that on the day of his bar mitzvah, when he was supposed to stand up and read from the scroll, he had a terrible cold. He walked up, coughed, cleared his throat, awful sounds and the rabbi said, "That's close enough. YOu pass."
And the story begins with a wonderful poem. God says, Let there be. And it was. God speaks and it happens. Light. Land. Water. Sky. Animals. Humankind.
In the second chapter, there is another creation story. It is so good, it is not told just once but twice. This story is probably the older story. It is very earthy, with God getting down in the dirt (adamah) to create humankind (adam). We are only a bunch of chemicals until God blows the breath of life into us and we become living beings.
Then there is the third chapter that we read today. We all knew it was coming in class. It happened to be a Monday afternoon. It had to be on a Monday. We were taking turns reading the Hebrew out loud and then translating into English. I don't know about anyone else, but this is what was going on in me, "STOP! Can't you see what you are about to do? " But they don't stop. A cloud outside the window blocked the sun. It grew dark in our classroom and in our souls.
It is called the Fall in classic theology. Although the word Fall is not used n the passage, we know that we have lost something. We are less than what God intends. The word sin is not used in the passage, yet it tells us a lot about the nature of sin.
Can we see that this is a story about who we are? I know some of you say that we Methodists don't talk about sin much, but today we are going to. Maybe you can find yourself in the story as we slow it down.
There is a sssssnake. I hate ssssnakes. I have been bitten by a sssssnake. The ssssnake is crafty. It is ssssubtle, ssssneaky, sssseductive, sssslippery. Most appropriate for characteristics for sin. The sssssnake doesn't make humans do anything. I grew up with the commedian Flip Wilson, who used to say, The devil made me do it. That's not the case here.
The ssssnake ssssimply talks to woman, and places doubt in her mind. Did the LORD say you can't eat? And the woman in reply adds to the LORD's words by saying, "Nor touch it." It is a dangerous thing to talk to the ssssnake and start adding to God's words, to go beyond God's authority. Some commentators say that this is the beginning of sin.
There is only thing the LORD has asked humankind not to do. And what do they want to do more than anything else? That one thing! When you can't have it, you only want it more. We have two sons. They used to fight over a toy. So we would buy them identical toys. What would they do? Fight over the one the other had. But yours is exactly the same, we would say. But I want his, they would reply.
The ssssnake says that humankind want die. They will know good and evil. What's wrong with knowing good and evil. If you read the start of the 4th chapter of Genesis, you will find that Adam knows his wife Eve and they conceive and have a child. To know means to create. We want to create our own standards for good and evil, make our own rules.
Adam and Eve both eat. I am sorry guys but we cannot put it all on the women. The Hebrew is pretty clear that Adam is a willing, passive, and silent partner throughtout the whole drama. I understand that this passage has been wrongly used over centuries to put all the weight on women.
When they eat, their eyes are open. They realize that they are naked, vulnerable, exposed. And they try to cover up. Do we hear this phrase today? Oh, almost every day. Someone does something wrong, and there is a cover-up.
And now we find some Jewish humor. With shat do they use to make clothes? fig leaves. Have you touched a fig leaf lately? They are scratchy like sand paper. Imagine wearing fig leaf underwear! Our attempts at cover-up are often ill-advised and painful.
They hear God walking in the cool of the evening, and they hid. I know you have never hidden your sin from God, run away from the One who made you. God asks, "Where are you?" I used to hear this as an accusation. As I have gotten older, I know hear the loneliness of God. "Where are you? I miss you. I made you for relationship." I know that there is a lot of sin in the world because there is a lot of loneliness in the world. This is not what God intends. Can you see that sin is more than they breaking of law? It is also the breaking of relationship.
"Did you eat?" the LORD asks. And the man says, "The woman gave some to me." And the woman says, "The snake." Blame assignment runs rampant even today. We point the finger at someone else, at something else. Only problem is that when you point the index finger at someone else, how many are pointing back at you? Three! We cannot avoid our culpability.
There was an old comic strip called Pogo, whose lead character was a possum. In 1953, Walt Kelley, the cartoonist, in a panel that was actually about taking care of the environment has Pogo say, "We have met the enemy and he is us." This is the story of sin. There is no one else to blame.
What are we to do? We are sinners. What does God do? Yes, there are consequences for our actions, but there is also grace. God makes clothes for the human beings, not out of fig leaves. God demonstrates fierce love, coming to human kind in Abrahan and Sarah to start a covenant people, to Moses who liberates, to the judge Deborah, to the prienst Samuel, to Ruth and Naomi, to King David, to the prophets like Jeremiah, and finally in God's own Son, Jesus, the Word made flesh. It is as if God says, "I will keep at this until I find a way for them to come home to me. I will not give up. I want you back."
It may feel like this to us today. Every Monday morning at our house in south Austin, I roll a big garbage container to the curb. Every Monday morning someone comes and takes it away. It doesn't matter how much it is or who generated it, it is simply gone. All the trash is taken away, and I get to start clean again.
In this house, it is every Sunday. God doesn't ask how much you haveor whose at fault. God simply takes it away. God wants us to be clean. God wants us back. That is the good news I have to share with you today.
I learned Hebrew the old-fashioned way. We picked up the Hebrew text and began reading from Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. In beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Hebrew was hard. You turn to the front of the book...it's the back! Hebrew reads from right to left. That really scrambles your brain. The syntax is different, the grammar is different, the letters are different. The pronunciation has lots of gutteral stops. I once say a Jewish commedian on TV, who said that on the day of his bar mitzvah, when he was supposed to stand up and read from the scroll, he had a terrible cold. He walked up, coughed, cleared his throat, awful sounds and the rabbi said, "That's close enough. YOu pass."
And the story begins with a wonderful poem. God says, Let there be. And it was. God speaks and it happens. Light. Land. Water. Sky. Animals. Humankind.
In the second chapter, there is another creation story. It is so good, it is not told just once but twice. This story is probably the older story. It is very earthy, with God getting down in the dirt (adamah) to create humankind (adam). We are only a bunch of chemicals until God blows the breath of life into us and we become living beings.
Then there is the third chapter that we read today. We all knew it was coming in class. It happened to be a Monday afternoon. It had to be on a Monday. We were taking turns reading the Hebrew out loud and then translating into English. I don't know about anyone else, but this is what was going on in me, "STOP! Can't you see what you are about to do? " But they don't stop. A cloud outside the window blocked the sun. It grew dark in our classroom and in our souls.
It is called the Fall in classic theology. Although the word Fall is not used n the passage, we know that we have lost something. We are less than what God intends. The word sin is not used in the passage, yet it tells us a lot about the nature of sin.
Can we see that this is a story about who we are? I know some of you say that we Methodists don't talk about sin much, but today we are going to. Maybe you can find yourself in the story as we slow it down.
There is a sssssnake. I hate ssssnakes. I have been bitten by a sssssnake. The ssssnake is crafty. It is ssssubtle, ssssneaky, sssseductive, sssslippery. Most appropriate for characteristics for sin. The sssssnake doesn't make humans do anything. I grew up with the commedian Flip Wilson, who used to say, The devil made me do it. That's not the case here.
The ssssnake ssssimply talks to woman, and places doubt in her mind. Did the LORD say you can't eat? And the woman in reply adds to the LORD's words by saying, "Nor touch it." It is a dangerous thing to talk to the ssssnake and start adding to God's words, to go beyond God's authority. Some commentators say that this is the beginning of sin.
There is only thing the LORD has asked humankind not to do. And what do they want to do more than anything else? That one thing! When you can't have it, you only want it more. We have two sons. They used to fight over a toy. So we would buy them identical toys. What would they do? Fight over the one the other had. But yours is exactly the same, we would say. But I want his, they would reply.
The ssssnake says that humankind want die. They will know good and evil. What's wrong with knowing good and evil. If you read the start of the 4th chapter of Genesis, you will find that Adam knows his wife Eve and they conceive and have a child. To know means to create. We want to create our own standards for good and evil, make our own rules.
Adam and Eve both eat. I am sorry guys but we cannot put it all on the women. The Hebrew is pretty clear that Adam is a willing, passive, and silent partner throughtout the whole drama. I understand that this passage has been wrongly used over centuries to put all the weight on women.
When they eat, their eyes are open. They realize that they are naked, vulnerable, exposed. And they try to cover up. Do we hear this phrase today? Oh, almost every day. Someone does something wrong, and there is a cover-up.
And now we find some Jewish humor. With shat do they use to make clothes? fig leaves. Have you touched a fig leaf lately? They are scratchy like sand paper. Imagine wearing fig leaf underwear! Our attempts at cover-up are often ill-advised and painful.
They hear God walking in the cool of the evening, and they hid. I know you have never hidden your sin from God, run away from the One who made you. God asks, "Where are you?" I used to hear this as an accusation. As I have gotten older, I know hear the loneliness of God. "Where are you? I miss you. I made you for relationship." I know that there is a lot of sin in the world because there is a lot of loneliness in the world. This is not what God intends. Can you see that sin is more than they breaking of law? It is also the breaking of relationship.
"Did you eat?" the LORD asks. And the man says, "The woman gave some to me." And the woman says, "The snake." Blame assignment runs rampant even today. We point the finger at someone else, at something else. Only problem is that when you point the index finger at someone else, how many are pointing back at you? Three! We cannot avoid our culpability.
There was an old comic strip called Pogo, whose lead character was a possum. In 1953, Walt Kelley, the cartoonist, in a panel that was actually about taking care of the environment has Pogo say, "We have met the enemy and he is us." This is the story of sin. There is no one else to blame.
What are we to do? We are sinners. What does God do? Yes, there are consequences for our actions, but there is also grace. God makes clothes for the human beings, not out of fig leaves. God demonstrates fierce love, coming to human kind in Abrahan and Sarah to start a covenant people, to Moses who liberates, to the judge Deborah, to the prienst Samuel, to Ruth and Naomi, to King David, to the prophets like Jeremiah, and finally in God's own Son, Jesus, the Word made flesh. It is as if God says, "I will keep at this until I find a way for them to come home to me. I will not give up. I want you back."
It may feel like this to us today. Every Monday morning at our house in south Austin, I roll a big garbage container to the curb. Every Monday morning someone comes and takes it away. It doesn't matter how much it is or who generated it, it is simply gone. All the trash is taken away, and I get to start clean again.
In this house, it is every Sunday. God doesn't ask how much you haveor whose at fault. God simply takes it away. God wants us to be clean. God wants us back. That is the good news I have to share with you today.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
rescue
10/22/09 My breath prayer today comes from Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues them from them all." Being a believer doesn't mean that things will go easier, or that we will have fewer problems. In fact, we may encounter more resistance, more temptations, more trouble. We may feel more empathy with those in pain in the world. I am glad that our God stand with us. For me, that is enough. God's presence is enough rescue.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
free time
10/21/09 I had a Board of Ordained Ministry meeting that began yesterday at 11 a.m. in Kerrville and was supposed to go until noon today. Thankfully, we got all of our business done by 7 last night. I drove on home and got to sleep in my own bed. I feel like I have been given the gift of an extra day....free time. I have really needed it as one of our charter members, EdithTombrello, died this morning. There have been some other issues that have popped up as well. My breath prayer for the day has come from Psalm 34:4, "I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears."
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Monday, October 19, 2009
role reversal
from my sermon on Children's Sabbath, 10/18/09, from Mark 9:30-37
I really enjoy doing the children's time in worship. I figure if little children understand that Jesus loves them, then that's a good thing. For my first 4 years in ministry, doing the children's time was my major responsibility in the worship service when I was associate pastor at St. John's here in Austin. Now there was a Dunkin Donuts on Burnet Road that was not too far from the church. They were my fall back position whenever I didn't have anything better to do with the kids. This is before Cathy and I had kids, and before I knew what sugar could do, so I often got donut holes to share. One Sunday this passage came up. I showed the children the donut holes. I asked them to line up and I would give them each a donut hole in order. Of course, after some scrambling and mild wrestling the 20 children lined up with one of the larger boys bullying his way to the front of the line. I opened the box. I went up to him and walked right past him. I went all the way to the end of the line where, I kid you not, his little sister was the last one. I gave her the first donut hole. Why? Because the first shall be last and the last first. The kids got it. Isn't that great? Jesus reverses all of our roles. He turns everything around. The last are most important.
What is not so great is what was happening with the disciples. Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem. We remember what that means in Mark's Gospel, as half of the book has Jesus moving through his passion, death, and resurrection. What are his closest friends doing? They are arguing who is the greatest. Who is number one. Who is first.
Jesus talks with them. You want to be the greatest? Then become last of all and servant of all. Then Jesus acts out a parable instead of speaking it. He takes a child--the Greek word doesn't indicate gender or age--it could be any child--it could be every child-- maybe that is the point. Jesus takes this child into his arms. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me and not just me but the one who sent me.
Here we want to go, Ah, isn't that sweet. We want to sing, Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world... I didn't know how radical it was for Jesus to do what he did until I read the commentaries this past week. Little children in that culture were non-persons, invisible, without power, considered examples of the least and lowliest.
This runs counter to our faith upbringing. Our Hebrew forbears circumcized little boys on the 8th day of life, claiming them as part of the faith community and precious to God. The Jews did not practice child sacrifice as some of the other religions did. If a couple was barren, it was a bitter thing. Children were considered a blessing. They provided economic security and passing on of the family name. In the early church, Christians rescued little babies that were thrown out to die. They took them in and raised them.
So when we hear that children were once counted as nothing, we say, Thank God, it's not that way today!
We love our children, want only the best for them, the best houses, clothes, food, education. We want them to go to the right pre-school so they can go to the right elementary school then middle school, high school, college, get the right job, and make a lot of money and be happy.
One of our ushers asked me if I was okay this morning. Why, I asked. You seem down. Ah, I said, I have some heavy comments to make in the sermon. People may not like them. A very perceptive usher we have.
What I need to say to you on this children's sabbath it that it seems to me we place a lot of pressure on our children to perform. Make good grades. Excel in athletics, band, etc. Grow up so fast, a book is called So Sexy, So Soon. There is no room for play, for creatity, for wonder, for failure.
In psychological terms, our children become projections of us. They are "mini-me's". In theological terms, children become idols. They become objects not persons. They become products, not persons.
I wonder if we are not closer to the culture of Bible times than we care to admit. We can make children into objects by expecting too much as well as ignoring them.
Is there any good news here? I give thanks for Jesus' patience with his followers. How many times do his closest friends not get it. How stupid, how clueless they seem. And yet he continues to teach them. Only here in Mark do we find Jesus "in the house" with them. He sits down to teach them, taking the traditional posture of a rabbi who is giving instruction. He welcomes a child into his arms and their midst. Maybe that's what we need to do also.
I am proud to be a Texan. I was born and raised in Texas. Spent most of my life here. But I am not proud about this next part, again a heaviness descends upon me. Texas is last when it comes to children who do not have health insurance. More than 1.4 million children, more than a in 5 don't have health insurance. I read an article from the James A Baker III Institute on Public Policy at Rice University on the economic impact of uninsured children. Economic....how about the emotional, or relational, or spiritual impact? They resurrect an old line, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Another great quote from Frederick Douglass, It is easier to raise a healthy child than to repair a broken man. When we talk about health care reform, we need to welcome child into our midst, maybe one who finds it hard to qualify for insurance.
I have a fantasy of childen sitting at the board room table. As we try to make business decisions, we could have children playing rock/paper/ scissors like they are doing here on the front pew. We need new bottom lines that welcome children.
When it comes to the environment, we need to welcome children. What do the native Americans say? Don't make any decision without thinking about how it might affect the next 7 generations. It not just about clean air, water, or soil, it is about the children.
When it comes to church, I would love to have children at the church council meetings, coloring pictures, reading stories, while we try to decide the vision that Christ has for this congregation.
I want to praise this congregation. You welcome children. You help at Any Baby Can. You host Interfaith Hospitality Network where homeless families with children live in our building. You make meals for Mobile Loaves and Fishes, where many of the people on the street are not just single men, but families with children.
I am glad that our worship services welcome children. Don't you like the children's time in worship about the best? I am glad that welcome children at this table. I love to serve children the sacrament of communion. I get right down on their level, and hand them a piece of bread, and say, This means that Jesus loves you very much. So many times, the response comes back, Thank you. May it ever be so. Amen.
I really enjoy doing the children's time in worship. I figure if little children understand that Jesus loves them, then that's a good thing. For my first 4 years in ministry, doing the children's time was my major responsibility in the worship service when I was associate pastor at St. John's here in Austin. Now there was a Dunkin Donuts on Burnet Road that was not too far from the church. They were my fall back position whenever I didn't have anything better to do with the kids. This is before Cathy and I had kids, and before I knew what sugar could do, so I often got donut holes to share. One Sunday this passage came up. I showed the children the donut holes. I asked them to line up and I would give them each a donut hole in order. Of course, after some scrambling and mild wrestling the 20 children lined up with one of the larger boys bullying his way to the front of the line. I opened the box. I went up to him and walked right past him. I went all the way to the end of the line where, I kid you not, his little sister was the last one. I gave her the first donut hole. Why? Because the first shall be last and the last first. The kids got it. Isn't that great? Jesus reverses all of our roles. He turns everything around. The last are most important.
What is not so great is what was happening with the disciples. Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem. We remember what that means in Mark's Gospel, as half of the book has Jesus moving through his passion, death, and resurrection. What are his closest friends doing? They are arguing who is the greatest. Who is number one. Who is first.
Jesus talks with them. You want to be the greatest? Then become last of all and servant of all. Then Jesus acts out a parable instead of speaking it. He takes a child--the Greek word doesn't indicate gender or age--it could be any child--it could be every child-- maybe that is the point. Jesus takes this child into his arms. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me and not just me but the one who sent me.
Here we want to go, Ah, isn't that sweet. We want to sing, Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world... I didn't know how radical it was for Jesus to do what he did until I read the commentaries this past week. Little children in that culture were non-persons, invisible, without power, considered examples of the least and lowliest.
This runs counter to our faith upbringing. Our Hebrew forbears circumcized little boys on the 8th day of life, claiming them as part of the faith community and precious to God. The Jews did not practice child sacrifice as some of the other religions did. If a couple was barren, it was a bitter thing. Children were considered a blessing. They provided economic security and passing on of the family name. In the early church, Christians rescued little babies that were thrown out to die. They took them in and raised them.
So when we hear that children were once counted as nothing, we say, Thank God, it's not that way today!
We love our children, want only the best for them, the best houses, clothes, food, education. We want them to go to the right pre-school so they can go to the right elementary school then middle school, high school, college, get the right job, and make a lot of money and be happy.
One of our ushers asked me if I was okay this morning. Why, I asked. You seem down. Ah, I said, I have some heavy comments to make in the sermon. People may not like them. A very perceptive usher we have.
What I need to say to you on this children's sabbath it that it seems to me we place a lot of pressure on our children to perform. Make good grades. Excel in athletics, band, etc. Grow up so fast, a book is called So Sexy, So Soon. There is no room for play, for creatity, for wonder, for failure.
In psychological terms, our children become projections of us. They are "mini-me's". In theological terms, children become idols. They become objects not persons. They become products, not persons.
I wonder if we are not closer to the culture of Bible times than we care to admit. We can make children into objects by expecting too much as well as ignoring them.
Is there any good news here? I give thanks for Jesus' patience with his followers. How many times do his closest friends not get it. How stupid, how clueless they seem. And yet he continues to teach them. Only here in Mark do we find Jesus "in the house" with them. He sits down to teach them, taking the traditional posture of a rabbi who is giving instruction. He welcomes a child into his arms and their midst. Maybe that's what we need to do also.
I am proud to be a Texan. I was born and raised in Texas. Spent most of my life here. But I am not proud about this next part, again a heaviness descends upon me. Texas is last when it comes to children who do not have health insurance. More than 1.4 million children, more than a in 5 don't have health insurance. I read an article from the James A Baker III Institute on Public Policy at Rice University on the economic impact of uninsured children. Economic....how about the emotional, or relational, or spiritual impact? They resurrect an old line, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Another great quote from Frederick Douglass, It is easier to raise a healthy child than to repair a broken man. When we talk about health care reform, we need to welcome child into our midst, maybe one who finds it hard to qualify for insurance.
I have a fantasy of childen sitting at the board room table. As we try to make business decisions, we could have children playing rock/paper/ scissors like they are doing here on the front pew. We need new bottom lines that welcome children.
When it comes to the environment, we need to welcome children. What do the native Americans say? Don't make any decision without thinking about how it might affect the next 7 generations. It not just about clean air, water, or soil, it is about the children.
When it comes to church, I would love to have children at the church council meetings, coloring pictures, reading stories, while we try to decide the vision that Christ has for this congregation.
I want to praise this congregation. You welcome children. You help at Any Baby Can. You host Interfaith Hospitality Network where homeless families with children live in our building. You make meals for Mobile Loaves and Fishes, where many of the people on the street are not just single men, but families with children.
I am glad that our worship services welcome children. Don't you like the children's time in worship about the best? I am glad that welcome children at this table. I love to serve children the sacrament of communion. I get right down on their level, and hand them a piece of bread, and say, This means that Jesus loves you very much. So many times, the response comes back, Thank you. May it ever be so. Amen.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
great
10/15/09 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 104:1, "Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD, my God, you are very great." I walked in the quiet beauty of the early morning, reveling in how Great Thou Art. It is good for me to feel small in the presence of God's greatness. In my preaching from Mark's Gospel, the disciples are bickering over who is the greatest, who's first, who's most important. All of that pettiness falls away in the face of God's greatness.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
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