Rave

I don't know what a rave is, but I went to one last night. 30 of our youth enjoyed what they always enjoy on Sunday nights - a Bible Study (Ephesians), food, and a great time. One thing I do know - a rave involves black lights, strobe lights, and a lot of fun.

The ABC at Lourdes

ABC is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Lourdes is where Bernardette saw the Virgin Mary 150 years ago.
This is the ABC's sermon.

This sermon (and his presence) has created quite a little wave. What do you think?

Mad Max

In 1982, the sequel to the Mel Gibson movie "Mad Max" hit theatres. This movie was entitled "Road Warrior" and was set in a post-apocalyptic world where gas was the most scarce and sought after commodity. This movie came to mind today when gas stations locally are out of gas the oil jumped $25 a barrel yesterday. What will gas prices be tomorrow? What about the stock market and AIG? Years ago C.S. Lewis wrote "The Screwtape Letters." "Screwtape" is a (obviously) fictional collection of letters between two demons - one seasoned and the other, a novice. In their correspondence is a lesson on the future. The seasoned demon, Screwtape, advised his novice nephew to cast his "patient's" attention on the future, instead of the present. The future is uncertain and unknowable. Who knows what will happen with gas prices and energy costs? We cannot afford to avoid, however, the present - the here and now. As we are worried about (and rightly so) about our brothers and sisters in Galveston and other hurricane devastated areas and our own futures, we can't forget our own spiritual status right now - our connection with God -right now. How we are treating others - right now. As Jesus reminds us - tomorrow will have it's own worries. Let us live today, in the here and now. Let us pray for those who are suffering. Let us be responsible with our energy. Let us not forget our need for daily bread.

Sermon for September 14

per a request. This is unedited (which means I think faster than I type and what was in my head and what came through my fingers may not always match, be spelled correctly or make grammatical sense).

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In a few minutes, after the sermon and after the Nicene Creed and after the Prayers of the People, the Confession, and Absolution, we’ll exchange the peace.

Friday morning I had a delightful conversation with some friends and this thing we do – the passing of the peace – came up. And this isn’t the first time that I’ve been asked about the passing of the peace so let me share a little bit about what we are doing and why.

First of all, if this is your first time with us at St Timothy’s and especially if this is your first time in an Episcopal Church, after we have come together and heard the readings and listened to the sermon and said the creed and prayed for the people in the church and the world, and after we have confessed our sins and received absolution, I will say “The Peace of the Lord be always with you,” to which you will say, “And also with you.”

It’s a lot like watching a Stars Wars movie, except we are not saying, “May the Force be with you,” but “the peace of the Lord.”

And then a lot of different things happen. Some folks will turn and face those around them and say “Peace be with you” or “the Peace of the Lord be with you” or simply “Peace.” Some other folks will go up and down the aisles greeting everyone, and typically I stand in the middle and say “Good morning, peace be with you!” which is my nice priestly way of saying, “sit down!”

When I was in the Methodist Church we had fellowship time. I would say “let us greet one another in the name of Christ,” and for five minutes we’d smile and slap people on the backs and glad hand and talk about the football game the day before or the potluck dinner that’s coming as soon as church is over. I know they have this in Baptist and Pentecostal Churches too.

Too many times we are running late to church and we have places to go as soon as it’s over, we’ve got company coming in or there’s a ballgame our kids have to go to, and it’s sometimes impossible to greet people in our church family. But that’s not what the passing of the peace is for.

Nor is the passing of the peace one of those things on our liturgical check list that we have to do. It’s not designed to be cold or informal and it’s really not designed to be a time of catching up either.

The passing of the peace used to be a kiss. In the early church newly baptized members were greeted by everyone by a kiss, not unlike the new baby that is passed around to aunts and uncles at Thanksgiving. Everyone gets to hold the baby and before they pass him down, that little kid gets a kiss on the forehead. The newly baptized, whether they are 6 months old or 60 years old, were passed down to all the spiritual aunts and uncles and before he was passed down, that little kid or very grown up person, received a kiss.

Over time the kiss of peace was exchanged by everyone all the time. It even had a hierarchy. The priest would kiss the altar, the place were Christ’s Body and Blood reside and would then kiss the deacon and the deacon would kiss the sub-deacon, and the sub-deacon would kiss the acolyte, and the acolyte would kiss the first person in the pew and so on until it was all passed down.

Nowadays we don’t typically kiss, we shake hands or nod or make a slight bow, but the point is still the same.
Now that we have come together as the Body of Christ, and we’ve heard the readings that proclaim the good news and the reconciliation and peace in Christ, and we’ve heard sermons sharing the application of this peace and we’ve confessed our faith in Christ, prayed for each other and received forgiveness of our sins, we are now called to put all that we’ve heard and proclaimed in action!

It goes back to what Jesus said in the 5th chapter of Matthew’s gospel: “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first to be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

If there is anyone here that we are at odds with, fighting with, or holding something against, we are called to make peace. Before we go to the altar, we are called to make things right.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Sunday before Lent begins, the church gathers together for evening prayer. On this night something incredible happens. Everyone there, including the clergy, goes to everyone in the church – everyone gathered that night – and asks for their forgiveness.

One person stands in front of another and says “Forgive me, a sinner.” The person responds, “God forgives.”

I tried this one time. It wasn’t the Sunday before Lent but it was on Ash Wednesday. After everyone had received the imposition of ashes we all snaked around the church and went to every single person and asked for their forgiveness. Husbands and wives were crying, having the opportunity to say things to each other that their pride would not allow them to do behind closed doors – here in the midst of a Church, forgiveness was taking place, ice was melting and hard feelings and bitterness and resentment was slowly, but surely, being replaced…by peace.

There was one person in that room that did not stand up. No one had to stand up and ask for forgiveness, this was a new and strange thing we were doing on Ash Wednesday and I didn’t expect everyone to participate. But there was just one. I think he thought no one else would stand up either, but when everyone else did, and people were being honest and real and sincere just by saying, “forgive me, a sinner” this one person was so overwhelmed with the need for forgiveness and the need to forgive that he left.

Of all the diseases that Jesus encountered, the one that he addressed the most was the cancer of a hard heart.

Jesus tells a parable about a king who wanted to settle his accounts. There was a slave that owed the king 10,000 talents. The slave could not pay. 10,000 talents was the equivalent of 100 million denarii. The average worker made ONE denarii per DAY! It would take him 100 million years to pay off the debt. The slave pleads with the king and the king forgives him his debt.

When that same slave, the one just forgiven 10,000 talents or 100 million denarii, sees another slave that owes HIM just 100 denarii or a little over 3 months of wages, the slave grabs him by the throat and demands that he pay up.

But the slave could not pay. He didn’t have the money. So he begs for forgiveness and mercy JUST LIKE THE OTHER SLAVE DID TO THE KING. But he would not have mercy and he would not forgive his debt and he threw the debtor into prison.

When the king heard about this he was furious. He seized the slave and asked him, “Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?” And the king had the slave tortured until he could pay his debt.

Now first of all, it would be impossible for a slave to have borrowed 100 million denarii, but Jesus wants to get our attention. He is comparing what God has forgiven us to what we are called to forgive others. God has forgiven us 100 million denarii and we are called to forgive 100 denarii.

God has mercifully restored us to new life and we could never even begin to work off our debts, but we are so many times reluctant to forgive the smallest infraction done to us.

If we do not forgive then we are stuck in one place, one time, and with one person. If we refuse to forgive we can never move forward. We are always thinking about, steaming about, complaining about things that happened back then and when we do that we can never fully enjoy and experience the here and now and we cannot look forward to the future.

How can we enjoy a life that has been forgiven when we do not forgive?

Forgiveness is a process. God can forgive and forget in an instant, but we are not God. It takes us time. It takes us time to work through it and gain perspective and to let go. If we refuse to forgive we are refusing to let go. If we refuse to forgive we are allowing other people and other events to have control over our thoughts and feelings, and if someone or something has control over our thoughts and feelings – then we are not free. And if we are not free – we do not have peace.

In a few minutes we’ll pass that peace. In other words, done right and with sincerity, we’ll pass forgiveness. We’ll pass freedom.

And the hope is that we’ll take the peace, the freedom, the forgiveness and spread it beyond the people in the pews in front of us, beside us and behind us. The hope is, and the call from Christ is, that we’ll take it to our homes and to our jobs and to our friends and to strangers. The hope is that we’ll always remember the unpayable debt that has been forgiven us – and that we’ll not pay it back – but pay it forward.

And pass the peace. Amen.

We are Growing in God's Kingdom

Yesterday we had our first "After Mass Bible Blast." 17 children from St Timothy's stayed after church and we learned about what makes us grow. Jesus frequently talked about seeds, soil, and growth and the children talked about what makes plants grow and what makes us grow - spiritually that is. I had great pictures from the camera but alas, the transfer to the computer is not working. BUT! I do have this one grainy picture from my cell phone of the children decorating planters and filling them with soil and seed.

PS: Below is the unedited version of the sermon from yesterday.

Last week I had a surprise in church. Actually I had two surprises. The first one was that my mother actually brought naked pictures of me to the ECW shower for Cherilyn. Frankly I do not know why pictures of me in my birthday suit are in any way relevant to Cherilyn and the birth of our son.

But the second surprise occurred at the 10:30 service right as I started to read the Gospel. In the back of the church, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jocelyn Scofield. Now, you don’t know Jocelyn, she’s not from here and before last week I’m not sure if she has ever been in Winston-Salem. And I haven’t seen Jocelyn in almost 20 years. But I remember her well.

You see, in all my years in school, I was sent to the principal’s office one time. And for that one time – Jocelyn was the reason. You have to understand my mother was, and still is, an elementary school principal. She would have weekly conference calls with teachers and principals just to make sure I didn’t have my name on the board or anything remotely considered misbehaving.

But Jocelyn was the reason. In all honesty it wasn’t her fault. We were in Mrs. Risinger’s glass and I was holding a pair of scissors and she had long blonde hair, and one thing led to another, and before I knew I was sitting in the principal’s office with locks of Jocelyn’s long blonde hair between my fingers.

And in that hot seat, sitting in a chair with the lights bearing down on my face, and a principal frowning at me across his desk, and knowing that my mother and father would not find my attempt at cosmetology funny, I wanted and wished so hard to be somewhere else.

There is a great scene in the movie “Forrest Gump.” Do you remember Forrest Gump? The simple Alabama boy who found himself in the most extraordinary situations? Do you remember the scene when Forrest and Jenny, his best friend – just like peas and carrots – took off in the corn fields trying to hide from her daddy?

Jenny wasn’t in school one day so Forrest, being her ‘very best friend’ went to her house to see if she was sick or out of town or whatever. When he walked up to her house Jenny bolted and took Forrest by the hand and together they ran off to the cornfield. Forrest didn’t know it then, but Jenny was trying to avoid her abusive father. All day long she had been cooped up in the house with her father. All day long she had been subject to abuse, and when she saw Forrest, they took off to the cornfields.

When her father heard the screen door slam as Jenny ran outside, he got up from his nap and started looking for her, calling her name, and he started for the cornfield. In an act of faith and desperation, Jenny took Forrest by the hand and they knelt down in the middle of the corn and Jenny prayed.

Do you remember her prayer?

Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far; far, far away.
Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far; far, far away.

Throughout time Jenny’s prayer has also sounded like this:
Dear God, if you would just get me out of this.
Dear God, help me find a way.
Dear God, let this cup pass before me.

St Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians while he was in prison. It is sometimes hard to put the events of Paul’s life in order and we aren’t sure if he was in Rome or if he was in Ephesus or really where he was but we do know he was in prison.

The book of Philippians is one of the prettiest books in the New Testament. It’s in the book of Philippians that we find the Christ Hymn, the song that includes the verses ‘that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’

But it’s also a book written by a man in prison. It’s written by a man who is chained. It’s written by a man who wishes he was a bird, so he could fly far, far, far away.

At least it seems that way. St Paul tells the Christians in Philippi that he would rather be with Christ – in fact if he had his druthers he would be with Jesus in heaven – but he knew that he needed to keep fighting to help the struggling, new Christian Churches.

St Paul says that he hard pressed between his two options – to be with Christ or to stay in the flesh. And it doesn’t take an advanced theological degree to see that St Paul really, really wants to escape from his present circumstances. He’s in prison. He’s chained. Who knows what might be in store? Who knows what his captors have in store for him?

In fact, some scholars have actually wondered if St Paul is considering taking his own life to escape from his own hardship. He argues with himself until his comes away with the conviction that he needed to stay strong, he needed to stay in the flesh so that he might be of help to the Philippians, the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Romans, and Christians everywhere.

The point is, the two most important figures in our faith both experienced times when their circumstances were so great, the stress was so incredible, they wished to be somewhere else. St Paul wanted to be with Christ and not in a damp, dirty, inhumane cell.
Jesus asked God to let his cup pass before him.
Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far; far, far away.

When I hear St Paul writing to the Philippians and when I remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, I know that the feelings I have are not just my own. I know that when there are times and there are places and I am with people when the circumstances seem too hard for me to handle, and when the stress feels like it is going to break me.

We all can nod in agreement with that. We’ve all had times when money or family or work or sickness or those inner demons pile on our souls to the point that we scream for an escape – and sometimes we do destructive things hoping we might escape.

But the most unique thing about our faith is that we don’t have a God who simply tells us how to handle our stress. We have a God who actually showed us.

Christ carried his cross. St Paul labored until he was executed. Neither one was delusional. Neither one had any misconceptions about what faced them ahead. And at their weakest point – they show us God’s immense strength.

Isn’t that funny to say? That at our weakest point, the point where we are the most vulnerable, where we are the most wounded – that we are also at our strongest?

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, British sprinter Derek Redmond tore his hamstring in a 200 meter semi-final. He fell to the ground. The hard surface of the track cut in to his skin. His race was over. His Olympics were over. Olympic officials raced over to Redmond and tried to take him off the track, but he brushed them off. He wanted to cross the finish line.

And then he felt the arms of someone familiar around him. It wasn’t an official, it wasn’t another runner, it was his father. His father after watching him fall, ran down the stands, evaded the security guards and put his arms around his son and together they limped to the finish line.

Do you remember watching that scene? No one really remembers who won that race and no one really remembers who won the gold medal that year. Because the strongest person at that race wasn’t the fastest.

The strongest person was the one that at the point of greatest weakness still marched on to finish the race. The fact that in the face of humiliation and disappointment and pain – he kept on fighting moved 65,000 people to their feet cheering him on. At that point the crowd didn’t care about the winner. They didn’t care about a medal. His story is the one we remember.

When we find ourselves in times, places, and people where everything is crashing in and we can’t seem to even stay above water and we wish, we wish with all our might that we could vanish or be whisked away to another place or even another time – let us remember that God’s strength is the most evident when we are at our weakest.

At that even if we do fall down and if the track we are running on does cut and scrape and if our dreams are dashed and our hopes are not realized, God is there to wrap us up in loving arms and walk with us across the finish line.

That’s a story people will remember.

Amen.

Here's the video of Derek Redmond:

We Never Want This to Happen

Pope Benedict: 'Accept Death at Hour Chosen by God'

"Unfortunately we know only too well: the endurance of suffering can upset life's most stable equilibrium, it can shake the firmest foundations of confidence, and sometimes even leads people to despair of the meaning and value of life,"
- Pope Benedict from the mass at Lourdes, France

Read the entire story here.

This can be hard. On one hand, Christ's suffering is an example to all of us. Pope Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, famously said as he was ailing and many were calling him to step down, "Christ did not come down from the cross."

On the other hand, it is very hard to watch a loved one suffer and many times methods used to make one comfortable can also speed up death (for instance, Morphine as I understand, reduces pain but also slows breathing).

What do you think?

Preview for Tomorrow....

...Forgiveness is a process. God can forgive and forget in an instant, but we are not God. It takes us time. It takes us time to work through it and gain perspective and to let go. If we refuse to forgive we are refusing to let go. If we refuse to forgive we are allowing other people and other events to have control over our thoughts and feelings, and if someone or something has control over our thoughts and feelings – then we are not free. And if we are not free – we do not have peace...

What a Day....

reflection coming soon!

Angels and Ministers of Grace

I know that (the above title) is a line from Shakespeare. For weeks I have driven by a statue near the local Starbucks of an angel holding a man. It wasn't until Monday that I actually walked up to the statue to see it up close. The statue is of an angel holding a man with a broken sword. The man does not look defeated but rescued in the arms of the angel. The broken sword suggests a battle and a battle in which there was a great foe. Did the man die in battle? Where is this battle in the first place?

And then I looked down at the plaque. The statue stands as a memorial to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

May their memory be eternal.

Sunday's Sermon

Matthew 18:15-20

I played football with Darrin and Gil. Our lockers were pretty close to each other. From 3:30 to 6 o’clock Monday through Friday we were around each other. We also had first period algebra together which meant we started the day together and we ended the day together. The problem was Darrin and Gil didn’t like each other. My job was to be in the middle. I sat between them in first period and unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I was between them in the locker room too.

I don’t know what it was that made Darrin and Gil not like each other. They had a lot in common. In fact, they had most things in common. They were the same age, had similar interests, and the biggest thing they had in common is that they didn’t like each other. The problem might have been that they were too much alike and the things they didn’t like about themselves were amplified in each other.

I didn’t know what the problem was. This was years before Dr. Phil ever came on television.

Somewhere around the third week of school, something happened. I don’t remember what it was, I’m not even sure I knew what it was then, but something happened to escalate the tension between Darrin and Gil. I know because I had to sit between them. I was the peacemaker. I don’t know about you, but that job has been given to me all my life – peacemaker. If there was conflict in the family, my job was to go and smooth things over. If friends in school were having problems, I was sent to mediate a truce.

But with Darrin and Gil, I decided to take a peacemaking vacation. First of all they were older and bigger than I was so I wasn’t going to get in the middle of them. If they wanted to throw angry glances at each other – go ahead. If they wanted to snort or grunt every time the other one said something – knock yourself out. If they wanted to fight – let ‘em fight.

And that’s what they did. Like I said, I don’t remember what started the escalation but something was said or something was done that changed the tension in the classroom to an appointment made for a fight. Which, by the way, now that I think about it, it’s simply amazing how they arranged the fight. They actually scheduled it.

“How about Thursday afternoon?”
”No, I can’t then; I’ve got to go to the dermatologist. What about Wednesday?”
“No, my mom is taking me to buy some new shoes.”

You would have thought they were scheduling a play date and not a fight.

I think they finally agreed on Wednesday. Gil got his mom to buy him shoes on another day. As soon as the bell rang, Darrin, Gil, and about 30 other people went out to some field to fight. I didn’t go, because I knew it would be my luck that the police would come and somehow I would be in the one to get in trouble. Uh-uh. Not me.

I didn’t have to go because I knew the next morning I would have the play by play. And I did. Gil came into first period with a black eye. Darrin didn’t look too hot either. Neither one of them said anything. And nothing changed. I sat between them and didn’t speak to each other. In locker room, they didn’t look at each other. And when they had to talk to one another, their words were not all warm and fuzzy. In other words, nothing changed between them.

Now this story is one of millions of after school backyard fights. It happens every day. It starts when we are in preschool and someone gets our spot in the sand box and we start to scream and complain and fight then. Then the issues change but the behavior does not. Even if we earn diplomas, things do not change. Even if we have careers, we are never too far from the sandbox. And even if our names are not Darrin or Gil, we still know what it feels like to not like someone.

We know what it’s like to cut our eyes and shoot daggers from our corneas and grunt or snort or roll our eyes when the say something or do something. We know what’s like to gossip and talk about them and secretly, or not so secretly, rejoice when they stumble or fail.

And even though we may no longer arrange for fist fights after school, our methods have evolved, or shall I say devolved, into passive aggressive swipes and attacks.

Friday morning I went outside while it was still cool and pulled out my lawn mower with the plan of cutting the grass before the Tropical Storm rains came in. Being the expert mechanic that I am (I’m pausing to let the absurdity of that statement sink in) I checked the gas, kicked the tires, and cranked it up. When I did every Roman Catholic in my neighborhood came outside because there was so much white smoke coming from the lawn mower you would have thought a new pope had been elected.

Well I didn’t know what the problem was, but the more the thing smoked the angrier I became. The old defective lawn mower, I said under my breath. I’m going to write a strongly worded letter to Sears about this, I ranted. Now I can’t cut the grass. Now I’ve got to get a new lawn mower, now this and now that, until it finally dawned on me that there is a reason the lawn mower is smoking.

One day after church years ago, a woman that was known for conflict and negativity was giving me an ear full about something. I don’t even remember what it was about but I do remember that it was so silly and insignificant that it couldn’t have been the real issue.
“Why are you so angry?” I asked.
And she didn’t know what to say.

Don’t you think we are like lawn mowers? We get all cranked up and start spewing smoke and sputtering and we get all hot or someone else is pouring out smoke and exhaust and we get angry or hurt and it rarely occurs to us to ask – what is causing the smoke? What is the real problem?

In the 18th chapter of Matthew, Jesus builds something incredible for us.

At the beginning of the chapter he says that we must become like little children. I used to assume that he meant we needed to have the simple and profound trust and faith as a child does – but now I wonder if he means we are to become like children in how we deal with each other. I’ve never heard a five-year-old gossip. Every toddler I’ve met has had the trait of honesty – it may be brutal honesty, but it’s honesty none the less.
Then Jesus says that we are not to be stumbling blocks for others. If there is something that we do or say that hinders another in their spiritual growth – don’t do it.

Next he tells the story of the lost sheep, remember the 99 sheep that were in the fold and one wandered off and the shepherd left the 99 to recover the 1?

And finally he comes to today’s lesson in dealing with people in the church who sin against us. At first glance, we can read today’s lesson as Jesus telling us how to deal with conflict, and it’s a good lesson: if someone sins against us, go to them. Talk to them. Don’t let it simmer, don’t stew. Deal with it. Face to face. In person. In private. If there is no resolution, then take someone else with you and try to resolve it. If that doesn’t work, then bring the whole church in. And if that doesn’t work, then let them go.

At first glance it seems like Jesus is saying three strikes and you’re out. If they don’t listen to you, strike one. If they don’t listen to two of you, strike two. If they don’t listen to the church, strike three and you’re out.

But in the context of the whole chapter, I think he’s saying something else.

If someone sins against us, Jesus says; if someone hurts us by their words or their actions. If they are gossiping or engaging in passive-aggressive warfare or if they are just down right mean and ugly – find out why.

Find out why there is smoke pouring from their hearts. Not because you’re trying to diagnose them, but because you love them. Conflict and anger and hurtful words and actions come from brokenness. Smoke coming from a machine is the result of brokenness.

And the entire 18th chapter of Matthew’s gospel is about Jesus saying to us – love each other. Love each other the way children love each other. Don’t do anything to bring someone down. If they stray away from the group – risk and go find them and bring them back. And if they are acting out – love them into mending the brokenness.

And of course, that goes for us, too.

When we act out, when we stew, when we gossip, when we smoke and sputter – there’s too much oil in the tank or there’s not enough. Something is not working right. There is brokenness.

It’s going to happen. It’s happening now. For all of us. That is the human condition. But the divine response is for us to love each other enough to seek healing in each other. My job is to help you heal what’s broken and you’re job is to help me heal too.

That’s part of our baptismal covenant with God and with each other. And that is the command from Christ.

I haven’t seen Darrin or Gil in over ten years. I don’t know if they are still mad at each other or not. I do know that their backyard school fight didn’t solve anything. And fighting, gossiping, and inwardly stewing never does.
If we love each other, then we’ll be open and honest. If we love each other we’ll work for peace and reconciliation at all times and between all people. If we love each other, then we’ll seek to see the brokenness in each other and work to be instruments of healing.

If we love each other.

And maybe that should be our prayer; not that we’ll know how to deal with conflict or difficult people or in other words broken people; but that we love.

And in our loving – may we care enough to ask. And in our asking, may we love enough to listen. And in our listening, may we be patient enough to understand. And in our understanding, may we be wise enough to love all over again.

Let us pray:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.

Breakfast/Sunday School Begins Tomorrow!

Hungry on Sunday? We've got two ways to be fed. Breakfast will be served in Drake Hall from 8:30-9:30. Once you've got your fill, don't leave! Sunday School for all ages will begin. For youth and children, it starts at 9:15. For adults, stay put in Drake and we'll start at 9:30.

Other things happening tomorrow - at the 10:30 service - the commissioning of choir members and Sunday School teachers.

See you then!

Wow! What a Wednesday at St Timothy's!

I don't want to ruin this by too many words! Instead I want to share with you some pictures of yesterday's kickoff Wednesday. At 8:15am we began the day with our study topic in the ECW Hall. At 9:30 we celebrated the Eucharist (with prayers for healing). At 10:30 we had an hour of games and fellowship and at 11:30 we broke cornbread with a fabulous soup lunch.

Mrs. Vi screams Yahtzee!
Jenga at 10:30am.

Soup Lunch.


Then....that evening phase two kicked off. Over 130 folks came for dinner, children's choirs (3 choirs in all!), youth Bible study, children's program, and the adult study - Does God Exist? The end the evening our choir warmed up their voices. Take a look and enjoy and remember: we're doing this every Wednesday! Come and see!



Children's Choir

The Language of Christianity

My mother, an elementary school principal, shakes her head in shame whenever I mention the following fact: I've never diagrammed a sentence. Never. Not once. Wouldn't know what to do if I had to. I can write a sentence and I can read a sentence, but I have never in my life been asked to break one a part and diagram it. Frankly, I don't know why. I might have been in school at the time when diagramming sentences was not en vogue; whatever the reason - I don't know how. My assumption is that the education trends at that time were for students to learn grammar by reading comprehension. The more you read, the thought might have been, the more you will just naturally pick up the nuts and bolts of nouns, verbs, and adverbs. And I think to a large degree that is true. The others in the class and I might have absorbed most of the grammar we needed, but if you asked me to explain it, to break it down, I would look silly (stupid).

My own feeling is that for a long time, the leadership in mainline churches has also assumed that members will just 'pick up' the vocabulary and grammar of faith. The more they come and worship and they more they are involved with this or that, the more fluent they will come in the language of Christianity. I think that is true. If we volunteer at Habitat for Humanity or go on a mission trip we will pick up some very important parts of the language of faith. If we sit in worship for years and years we will have absorbed an incredible amount of spiritual nouns, verbs, and adverbs. But can we articulate it? Can we explain it? Can we share it?

At St Timothy's we will not assume everyone knows how to diagram a spiritual sentence. And if we can't, it doesn't mean that we aren't spiritual or faithful or wanting to learn (after all, I finished college and graduate school and never learned how to diagram a sentence). We will seek to teach and live both by doing and by learning. We want to absorb the sentence of faith and we want to learn more about what we have absorbed.