I’m looking for a welcome mat that actually has the word “welcome” on it. I need to take a picture of it with children’s shoes around it for the worship background this Sunday. Does anyone here in Coffeyville have one? It doesn’t have to be in great shape, it just needs to be legible.
Voice of the Day: Craig Barnes
I’m not certain that there are such things as measures of our spirituality, but if there are, then gratitude is probably the best one. It indicates that we are paying attention.
— Craig Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet: Texts and Subtexts in the Ministerial Life
Regardless of whether or not there are such things as measures of our spirituality—and I think it’s probably best not to try to measure our spirituality, or else spirituality becomes but one more thing we strive after and grade ourselves on—there are few truer statements then the observation that gratitude indicates that we are paying attention.
Sunday's Sermon: Matthew 19.13-15
This Sunday, I’ll be preaching on Matthew 19.13-15 on the subject of welcoming children (I don’t yet have even a working title). If you want to read and meditate on the other scripture readings for the day, they are Isaiah 42.1-9, Psalm 29, Acts 10:34-43, and Matthew 3.13-17.
Trustees Meeting Postponed
A reminder that the January meeting of the Board of Trustees has been postponed until January 19, 2010 at 5:15 pm in Room 102.
About the Tie
I wore a necktie today and got quite a few comments. I promised to explain it and then I forgot, so I thought I would offer the explanation here. The answer has four components:
- We were celebrating Epiphany, the third holiest day of the Christian year (it used to be the second holiest, but Christmas day benefited from what I like to refer to as “the Hallmark effect.”
- We were celebrating Holy Communion.
- Since I started dieting, my metabolism has slowed and a tie helps keep me warm.
- My favorite white polo was stained by a candle last week.
You can come to your own conclusions about the relative merits and weight of the above factors in my decision.
A New Year
It’s a brand new year. Today seems a particularly appropriate day to post Jenny’s recent article for The Coffeyville Journal today. Here it is:
As we get ready to begin a new year, many people are busy making New Year’s Resolutions. The beginning of a new year provides us with a reminder that we can start over. It provides us with the incentive to give up a bad habit or to take on something new. Of course we can make a change and start down a new path in life anytime, but sometimes it takes something bigger to give us the incentive to make a needed change, and often that comes at the beginning of the year.
My United Methodist heritage offers a wonderful prayer adapted from one by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, for use in the Covenant Renewal Service. The Covenant Renewal Service is a service where people recommit themselves to the covenant they have made with God. The covenant prayer below is a prayer that reminds us that when we enter into a relationship, or a covenant, with God, we begin to live a life that is shaped by God. When we renew our covenant, or renew our baptismal vows, we remember the vows we once made and we recommit ourselves to that covenant. While we have times during the life of the church that we do this together as a faith community, the covenant prayer is a prayer that we can pray at any time to help us remember the covenant we have made with God and to help us listen to what God is calling us to do and be. As the new year begins, may we take the opportunity to renew our covenant with God, to renew our commitment to our faith. And may we have the courage to follow wherever God is calling us to go.
A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition (United Methodist Hymnal #607): “I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”
It's Still Christmas
If you’ve stopped by the church building this past week you’ve probably noticed that the Christmas decorations are still up even though the “after Christmas” sales are long over. This is because of a discrepancy between the church calendar and the calendar of the dominate culture. In the church’s reckoning, Christmas is not just a day but a season beginning December 25 and lasting for twelve days until Epiphany on January 6. The fact that January 6 falls on a Thursday this year makes things a little more confusing. We’ll be observing Epiphany Sunday this Sunday, January 2, 2011, but technically it’s the ninth day of Christmas.