Easter and Celebrations

It's been an amazing 2 weeks here at Countryside. Easter morning was wonderful! There were 45 visitors that morning. If we see 5 in the coming weeks we'll be excited. Actually, one family told a great story about how they arrived at our door the second week. They said they got ready to go to church, not knowing where they might end up. When they got into the car, they looked at each other and said "Do we need to go anywhere else?" They directed their car to our doors and joined in the combined service celebration that was a great departure from anything we've ever done before. We clapped with the praise team and reveled to the organ. We "combined" but did not "blend" giving space for both types of musical expression, and we changed the order of service so that it was neither one or the other, but a wonderful stand-alone service of worship. Many asked that we do it on a regular basis; some once a month, some four times a year. But very few seemed to be upset about having to share "their" pew with someone else, and overall it was a great success.

Yet, I'm not sure whether we were all excited about the service because of the potential for getting closer to God, or whether we were just excited to see the church full and perhaps have the opportunity to meet those who we don't see often. Not that the latter is a bad thing -- doing mission together is much easier when we know who we're working with. But the idea that we need to know everyone who comes through the doors is a very limiting one. Even I as a pastor don't know everyone. There are Boy Scouts and Quilters and people who come through these doors all of the time that I don't know. Somehow though we have gotten the idea that if someone worships in this space on Sunday morning that we should be one big, happy family.

I think that's exactly what we are. My family of origin is a big (6 siblings, spouse, kids, kids of kids, etc.) happy family. We come together for family gatherings a couple of times a year. And yet I would daresay that even though we know each other in one sense, in everyday matters we probably really do NOT know one another. We communicate electronically from time to time, but that is not a substitute for really knowing one another in the way that we get to know co-workers or close friends or our immediate family. As we live our lives in separate places with separate careers and ways of looking at life, we are all playing our part in the world. Do we love each other any less because we are not together all of the time? I don't think so. I have a brother who is in need of a kidney, and if I am declared a match you know I will donate it. But I haven't been a part of his day-in and day-out life for more years than I want to admit. But I still love him.

Perhaps the analogy doesn't completely work. However, we should be no less loving and caring for those we don't see week in and week out than those at "our" service -- or for that matter, than for those at "our" church! There are many better opportunities for getting to know each other than worship, which is essentially God's time to communicate with the community through the community, not simply our time to communicate with one another. Yes, part of what we are here for is mutual support and accountability, but we don't have to be intimately acquainted to be supportive, and our closer sisters and brothers can keep us accountable.

I loved the combined service, but I love our individual services too. They meet a special need for those who enjoy a particular style of reaching out to God and having God touch us back. I count it a blessing that they ALL reach me! I believe God has called us to provide more than one way to worship, even though we could, at present, accommodate everyone under one roof at the same time. What do you think? If a church can provide different worship styles, should they? Or should they be good stewards and "bunch up" and either blend, combine or force one style or another?

Thoughts?

Resurrection Sunday

To all those who are planning on becoming ministers -- and based on who is following this blog, its both of my readers -- what a fantastic challenge you have ahead of you. What I'm referring to, of course, is preaching on Easter.

Now, when you're a lowly associate (which just means you get less pay for doing extremely varied and sometimes difficult things) you don't have to worry about this in the least. No senior minister is going to let anyone else get into the pulpit on what is the most important Sunday of the year. But someday, somehow, you will be asked to preach an Easter sermon. No preassure.

Any given Sunday you will have people in the pew who know more about the subject than you do, people who think they know something but aren't sure exactly what they know and people who don't have a clue. To whom do we preach? Well we're preaching to them all, but to whom do we target our thoughts? I've always opted for those who don't have a clue, but it must be nuanced, because you don't want to bore those who are more than likely the pillars of the church (i.e.-- those who could make your life really miserable should they choose to do so.) It's a task each and every Sunday. But Easter Sunday -- well this is the big time, since this is one of the 2 Sundays of the year that some "Christians" show up within the walls of a church (excluding weddings and funerals.)

So what exactly can you say? And what do you say if your own theology is in a state of flux most of the time? (I wish this weren't true; it would be easy to be black and white about these things, but I live in the land of gray.) It's a treat to see what gets put down on paper after study, prayer and reflection. But it's always a challenge.

It's all on paper now for this coming Sunday. I'm always open for something new though. Who knows.... maybe I'll learn something between now and then!

Have a great Easter!

April Fools Day

It's been a year since my hysterectomy. (That's not a joke -- I really did let a doctor operate on me on April Fools day.) I went in today for a check up, and my doctor (not the surgeon) said that it was a dangerous thing to have let someone operate on me on April Fools day. I knew that she was kidding, but I half expected that after her examination she would tell me that it was all still down there!

I haven't explored the origin of April Fools day recently, so I don't know exactly how it got started and why it continues. I like a good joke as much as the next person, but wonder a bit about a day that is set aside for us to intentionally make 'fools' of someone else. The essence of the April Fools' day joke is to try to pull the wool over someone's eyes by telling them a story that, while it sounds true, is just far-fetched enough to catch someone off guard. "Did you hear that Barack Obama made all of his staff stand up before him and recite the entire Emancipation Proclamation?" Sounds like it could be possible, but is on some level a bit disconcerting; we don't want to believe its true, but we also don't want to belittle the person telling us the story by not believing her. (If this little sentence about Obama becomes an internet hoax I'll feel really bad that I started something!) But if you buy into it, and then someone says "April Fools!" then you are the one who has been belittled.

In my life I have honed sarcasm to a fine point. I can't imagine ever being willing to let go of it entirely. But the more I try to follow the ways of Jesus, the more I'm convinced that he never had fun at someone else's expense, except perhaps vicariously. If he saw someone pull a good prank I imagine he laughed the same as you and I would. But I don't think he would be the prank puller. I'm pretty convinced that Jesus was a fun-loving guy, but not fun at the expense of another person. And no matter how much someone laughs when they are at the cutting end of a sarcastic remark, it's still cutting nonetheless.

There's no reason we can't have fun without being sarcastic. It may take me a lifetime to learn, but hopefully I will master the skill someday.

And that's no April Fools.