Faith in Progress

It may sound strange, but for me, the most meaningful Lenten services have become the kids' services at St. Aidan's.  We had a wonderful interactive pre-Holy Week service last night. Our children's Holy Week service walks through the main events of Jesus' last days from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Older kids take roles that help us place ourselves in the scene.  We begin outside and hear a story about Jesus coming into Jerusalem in triumph and one kid finds a "donkey colt" that we follow into the Church while waving palms.  Then we hear about how Jesus and his friends were coming to celebrate Passover and remind them of the story of Moses leading the people of Egypt out of slavery.  When we look for someone carrying a water jug who will lead us to the room where we'll have our Last Supper, a kid dressed the part comes to lead the way.  We sit at beautiful tables to have a kid-friendly meal together (usually mac and cheese, carrots and grapes). Duri...

March 15, 2015 4 Lent (Year B) Numbers 21:4-9 “But the people became impatient on the way.” I love that line from our Old Testament story this morning because it helped me to get past the weirdness of this snake on a stick to see that this story is my story, our story together here at St. Aidan’s, and the Church’s (with a capital C) story. When we meet the grumbling people in the desert this morning, they have had an incredible history with God.  Their stories are so rich that we have been continuing to tell them ever after.  They have forebears that received incredible promises of God.  They would be God’s people, and God would be their God.  When God heard their voices crying out in slavery, God saved them through miraculous plagues, which passed over them and washed over their captors.  God helped them to escape from Pharaoh’s army by parting the sea.  God made food to fall from the sky for them to eat, and water to gush from rocks for th...