Parting the Red Sea

Each week on Wednesday mornings we have Chapel for the Day School kids. Roughly 100 little 3-6 year olds gather together for 25 or so minutes. John is in charge of the music and I've been telling them some of the great Bible stories. This morning was Moses leading the people out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land. It turns out that Halloween season is a great time to find cheap frogs and bugs to rain down from heaven. I had to tone down the story a bit -- this group isn't quite ready for the killing of the first born, and while the Red Sea parted for the Hebrews and closed for the Egyptians, we didn't talk about all the army drowning. I have to admit, I like the story better this way. All the promise and redemption and deliverance without all the blood and gore. If only all of life and faith could be that neat and tidy.

Comments

Gospel as Stand-Up Comedy

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...

Ascension Day for Modern People - the Overview Effect

May 8, 2016 Ascension Day The Ascension of Jesus into heaven is a tricky story for us modern people. We imagine, maybe, the medieval religious art that shows Jesus wearing his white robe floating up into the sky above the astonished disciples, emerging above the clouds. Or, maybe instead, we imagine it more like a scene from Star Trek: “Beam me up, God!” In the early Church’s world view, this story would have made more sense. Back when people understand the world to be flat and hadn’t yet explored the heavens with space shuttles and satellites and telescopes. It’s harder now to take this story seriously. We’ve been above the clouds - we know what’s up there. Luckily for the modern Church, the Feast of the Ascension falls 10 days before the Feast of Pentecost, which means it’s always on a weekday and is pretty easy to skip. We can go straight from Easter and the post-resurrection stories to Pentecost and never...

The Trinity: More than Bad Math

Trinity Sunday May 22, 2016 I speak to you in the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Or, wait, I speak to you in the name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Or how about in the name of God: Rock, Redeemer, and Friend. Or maybe God: The One to Whom, the One by Whom, and the One in Whom we offer our praise. Or should we just keep it simple: I speak to you in the name of the Trinity, one God. Whatever that means. Amen. If you didn’t see it on the bulletin you’ve probably caught on by now that it’s Trinity Sunday. The only day on the Christian calendar devoted to a doctrine rather than an event or person. Today we celebrate that the Christian Godhead is one God in three persons: traditionally termed Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, 1+1+1=1. This week my clergy friends on Facebook have been bemoaning their sermon-writing. As one put it: “The Trinity Sunday sermon is like the story of...

Faith in Progress

Search This Blog