Faith in Progress

April 29 Acts 8:26-40 As I’ve continued recovering from my broken arm, I’ve found myself saying no to fun things that I would ordinarily say yes to.  Some things just haven’t been possible, like basketball and bike riding.  But other things I think I just said no to because I’ve gotten used to that being the only realistic response.  In the past couple weeks, my daughter Maya at various times wanted to make slime, and rock crystals, and plant a garden.  And each time, something about the mess and gathering the materials made the projects seem like too much.  And lately it hit me that I’ve missed out on a lot of fun moments over the past three months.  Moments that I can't get back.  Somehow that realization combined with our reading from Acts this morning to bring me back to a piece of a book that caught my attention a while back. A few months ago I read Between the World and Me , a book written by Ta-Nahesi Coates to his teenage son as an a...

April 8, 2018 Easter 2 John 20:19-31 Today in the church world is often called Low Sunday because of the generally low attendance.  After all, everyone came last week and heard the biggest story of all! So church can be crossed off the to-do list for a while. Have you heard the joke about the man who came out of church on Easter and the minister pulled him aside and said, "You need to join the Army of the Lord!" The man replied, "I'm already in the Army of the Lord."  The minister questioned, “Then how come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter?" The man whispered back, "I'm in the secret service."   I recently heard a name for today that I much prefer to Low Sunday - Holy Humor Sunday.  Apparently, the early church had a tradition of observing the week following Easter Sunday as "days of joy and laughter" with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.  And so there is a (small but grow...