Pastor’s Email Devotion The Week of Pentecost 15 September 21, 2014 SCRIPTURE -- And (Jesus) said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3, NRSV) REFLECTION -- Two weeks ago, we finished singing the hymn of praise in the opening moments of our morning liturgy at church, and in the few seconds of silence between the conclusion of the singing and the start of the Prayer of the Day, I heard a tiny voice cry out from the pews, “Yea!” Last Sunday, the setting was the opening hymn, and as we finished singing I heard what I am sure was a different tiny voice cry out “All done!” as she learned to apply what I presume was a mealtime conclusion to setting for a whole different kind of meal. Today, it was simply a rattle of what I guess might have been plastic keys being shaken almost in time to the meter of the Hymn of the Day. Ahhhhh … our blessed kiddos in church. Would that we all had such a level of excitement for the gathering of the faithful when we offer our praise to God. Would that we could bottle that enthusiasm, and feed it back to these same kiddos in twelve years when they are brooding teens, bored to tears by public worship. Are our children ever a distraction in church? … sure. Are they sometimes noisy at less convenient times? … of course. Have I ever sensed someone sigh in annoyance? … absolutely. But, maybe the disconnect is not the over-enthusiastic outbursts of those members who are learning to process all that it means to be involved in Sunday worship, but the under-enthusiastic engagement of the rest of us. Applause breaks out occasionally, and while some find it an expression of joy over music well presented, others dislike it. Once (and maybe even twice) in my twenty-eight years here, I heard a Lutheran actually speak out a verbal “Amen” to something shared in a sermon, and their enthusiasm for what they saw as a proclamatory blessing received the hairy eyeball from people around them. It has even been known to happen that an overly enthusiastic usher has occasionally invaded the personal space of a member hunting for just the right pew, and pushed them to a location in the sanctuary they were not terribly excited about. To one individual … any of these moments might be a distraction. To another … it might be a moment of elation. One person sees such an instant in time as the in-breaking of grace upon a waiting world. Another finds it an alien intrusion in a coveted environment of stability. Call it what you will. This preacher sees them all as signs of life, and as reminders that we are a living, breathing, and human community. I’ll sign up for that kind of community every single day, over a place that is so dead that nothing surprising, annoying, delightful, or puzzling ever happens. Now … what about praying this week? Who knows? Let God lead you. Maybe a prayer for openness … or patience … or curiosity … or tolerance … or excitement … or wonder … or, dare we say, thanksgiving? Oh, and if you get the urge to pick up a ring of plastic keys, I know where some can be found. PRAYER -- Dear God … Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so; little ones to Him belong, we are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so. Amen. ~~ Drawn from the original 1860 poem by Anna Bartlett Warner
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 03:21:07 +0000
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