Today is mostly about establishing the discipline of thoughtfully reflecting each week. My hope is Monday morning, but I'm blaming the fact that the internet wasn't working well at CPC this morning; that's why I'm posting on Monday afternoon.
Yesterday was a fun day for me, and I hope for the rest of the CPC family. I know that numbers don't tell the whole story (and actually a small part of the story), but it felt like the church was full yesterday. It was certainly full of life and energy.
Kellie Becker, in her children's sermon, talked to the kids about what it means to belong. We all belong to different things (our families, Tiger Cubs, checkers clubs, Husker fans) - but we also belong to God's family. You might not acknowledge it (or even be aware of it), but I believe that God has a claim on everyone's life. The joy (and admittedly) the challenge is to live into that claim. We also gave bibles (Harper Collin's Study Bibles) to the members of the new confirmation class (which begins on Wednesday) and talked about recognizing that you belong enough to God's family to take your faith seriously. It was great fun for me to see the entire church family surround the kids around the baptismal font to rededicate themselves to the baptismal promises of care, nurture, and education. I really can't wait for LOGOS, Teen LOGOS and Confirmation to begin at CPC on Wednesday. (And the potluck fellowship following worship was also a good time!)
As I reflect on yesterday, I am mindful of the very obvious blessings of God among us. They are always there when I look back at what has happened. I'm going to try to look for God's blessings in the everyday and in the coming week. Where will I see God at work in and around me?
One of the scriptures we read in worship yesterday was Matthew 22:34-46. A Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?" Jesus answers with two. The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus boils down all of God's commandments to love.
I was going to take a small step towards interactive worship yesterday, but I chickened out at the last minute. I was going to ask folks to list some ways that love has overcame evil in their own personal life. I was also going to ask people to name times in their lives in which they acted as if they loved their neighbors (especially when they were being particularly unloveable). I think that is the secret to keeping Jesus' number 2 commandment (Love your neighbors) is to act like you love them (even when you don't or can't) because the act of loving someone will work internally on your attitude. And eventually you will love them, in spite of yourself.
I chickened out because I couldn't figure out how to get people to share. Shout them out? Write them on paper? Put them in the offering plate? I knew that there would be a bunch of teenagers in worship (because of Bible presentation) so I really wanted to figure out how to get people to pull out their phones/ipod/etc and log onto the church's facebook page and post responses. I thought maybe I could look at them during the next hymn and use them in the Pastoral Prayer. But I didn't have time to do a trial run...I'd never done it before...I know, I know...I could come up with lots of excuses. The good news is that Sunday comes every seven days, so there will be time for me to keep experimenting.
So - I'm still seeking; seeking a way to use the technology among us to connect us to scripture, to church , to each other, to the preaching event.
And...I'm seeking a way to end this post. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'd love to hear from you. Community Presbyterian Church; Plainview, MN is on Facebook.
I'm @jocurtiss on Twitter.
God bless -
Pastor John
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