Faith in Progress

Easter 6 John 14:15-21 May 29, 2011 A few weeks ago, my kids were thinking ahead to future holidays and Memorial Day came up. Sophie asked what it was all about. And so I said something vague about how it is a time to remember people who had died. Dylan, our wanna-be rock star, got excited. “You mean, like Nirvana?” (thinking of Curt Cobain). “Uh… not quite like that,” I said. “He wasn’t really someone to remember as a role model, was he?” And I segue-wayed into a discussion about how drugs are bad and can kill you. Sophie wasn’t impressed with that topic of conversation and got back to Memorial Day. “So who are we supposed to remember? People like your mom? Or like Jesus?” Holden stepped in to set the record straight about this weekend’s national holiday. “Memorial Day is a time when we remember peoplevwho have died in wars,” he said. When he said it, my head went straight to World Wars I and II and Vietnam. Long past wars that affected different generations than my own. I hope ...

In my sermon on Sunday, I handed out paper and pens to the congregation and asked them to write down their answers to two questions.  I've assembled the answers and they are not only interesting, but hopefully the beginning of a fruitful conversation. First, how might our reading from Acts 2 about the early Church's joyful worship, fellowship, prayer and sharing inspire you to think differently about how you live out your own faith?  Is there something that you could do differently to live out more fully our baptismal promises?  The Answers: Do good, pray, work, hope Participate more in the activities and learning opportunities of the Church. Get here more often during the week. I can first turn to members of the community to share who we are and work toward what we can be. Then – harder – reach outside the closer, easy-to-reach circle to talk about these things. Need to stop my own concerns from being the center of my focus. Be more aware of the good...

Easter 4, Year A May 15, 2011 Acts 2:42-47 If you were wondering, these colorful papers stretching above us are the Alleluia butterflies that each child in the Day School colored for chapel on Ash Wednesday. They disappeared for Lent and then emerged from the empty tomb at Easter. They have now spread their wings to fly, just as the stories about Jesus and the joy at his risen life began to spread after Easter. I was worried that you all might feel left out of the fun, and so each of you should have received a piece of paper and a pen when you came in. In a few minutes, I’m going to ask you two questions. If you would consider sharing your answers anonymously, I invite you to put your piece of paper in the offering plate when it goes around later and the papers will be part of what comes up to the altar as our offering to God. But we’ll get to that part in a few minutes. First, let’s think a little bit about our reading from Acts for this morning. We hear that the fledgling ban...