Biggest Thing to Happen at McMurry Today

And it is one cool copier! Thanks to Gene Claxton and his crew from UniSource! Our secretary Tammy is in orange and she is positively gleeful. This was taken in our storeroom.

Telling the Old Story Again

I am so happy. I am smiling a lot. I am also very tired, since I arose at 6:15 am to get ready to go to church and preach...wow, I am actually preaching again! I sort of preached this morning--I did a bio bit and then a short reflection on John 12:1-8. The Main thing is after all Jesus and his love. Despite a very froggy throat especially at 8:30. The people are lovely, so much giving and loving going on---on Thursday we didn't know if anyone was bringing flowers for the altar since no one had signed up, and three people ended up doing it!

This is the first time, except at the old Friends and Faith Sunday evening service at Broadway, that I have preached with a screen. Tammy our secretary and I happened to find the very same picture to use (yes I said picture not pictures...I will learn) for the sermon.

I know this is sounding more like a report than a blog entry, but to tell you the truth, just reporting that I am a local pastor again is miracle enough for me this night.

Thanks to Krise who made a box for me to stand on; to Shirley who took care of caring for me; to Mike the liturgist; to the flower bearers and to children who brought me cards they made; and most of all to Jesus Christ, whose love is new every Sabbath morning.

Ah, the joy of it all...

You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To

One of the coolest things about starting at a new church is to find out those wonderfully serendipitously joy-giving moments, when you discover something absolutely wonderful is part of the makeup of the church. Every pastor has experienced these moments---they mostly have to do with a particular person or group who so much have their fingers on the right spot---are really in touch with the transcendent that it just blows ones mind.

Sometimes those moments may be a little different. Last week I learned that Kansas City jazz bassist James Albright is a member of McMurry. He has a regular gig, I think, at Unity Temple on the Plaza on Sundays (that, by the way, being exactly two blocks and a half blocks from my condo ). You'll have to watch this YouTube video most of the way through to see him, but here he is in a combo from last September. He is amazing as an upright bass player and electrical bass. And you can imagine, my mind is just a-goin' with ideas. He really is considered about the best jazz bassist in town. I have heard him several times over the last 10 years---my heart is happy too!

There will be other of these moments at McMurry and I intend to share them!

Sunday's Coming

I have a feeling I am behind the times in that I have not seen this, but Mike Wright-Chapman put it on his facebook page and I could not help myself. Hope it gives you a smile.

The View Across the Pond

Just a picture I took this afternoon across the pond, while standing on the driveway at the new district office. The deer didn't at all look scared, just stared back at me, and sort of acted like our cats do when they're laying on my bed.

The new office is just a lovely setting, peaceful, green and it feels like home. I hope all you HNDers will get to see it soon!

Baking Biscuits

It's Friday night at 10:05 and I think I will go to bed soon. This is evidence enough for people who know me that I am still sick. Transitioning time, no matter how good the transition, is a stress thing--you know that if you have ever taken one of the polls which tally up your stress points. Made a little more stressful are two churches which still have not received appointments yet. And the fact that I am not sleeping and I have an "acute" cold---sounds more legitimate than just a "cold" Oh, enough about me.

I am going on record here that there are a couple of advertisements that are driving me batty, which air during Cards games. One is the talking hat in the Steak n Shake commercial. The other one is the Hardees commercial above where a bunch of guys are sitting around the TV watching NASCAR, when in walks their host from the kitchen with a freshly baked biscuits and says, "anybody want a biscuit?" The guys look at him like he is a total wimp and outcast, and the Hardees voice comes on and says, "guys don't bake" meaning real men eat biscuits at their place. Who are they kidding? Real men in Harders bake biscuits every day, the ones they are trying to sell with this commercial. Not to mention their total old-world mindset that men don't do women's work. Gee. And I would guess that a few of the guys reading this could and would bake biscuits if they wanted to. And besides someone needs to teach those guys around the TV some manners when they are in other people's homes and they are offered biscuits, no matter who baked them.

Where is Gloria Steinem when you need her?

Ok, time for bed and hopefully a more hopeful attitude tomorrow. And time to welcome home my son Caleb who is back tonight from six weeks with his grandparents at the camp. And Caleb does bake biscuits and a whole lot of other things. Be proud of yourselves, baking men! Follow your call to make that red velvet cake! Make the lasagna one that will live in your wife;s mind forever! Make those cookies and eat 'em all yourself! Be who you are and don't let Hardees take it from you!!! After all, Jesus was a baker of sorts, turning those few loaves of bread and providing enough for 5000 men (plus the women and children present!) Get those oven mitts out and spill that flour! I am proud of you!!!

The FIrst Pic of McMurry Folk

Today I met with Trish and Krise Richardt, McMurry folk, to talk with Trish about worship at our church. Krise is the SPRC chair. They were very helpful. 'Tis VBS week too so there were lots of folks at the church working on set-up and decs. Looks really good!

While talking with Krise and Trish, Krise told me that when he started coming to church, and when he moved from sitting in the balcony to the nave (he didn't say nave) after he had attended for a while, he and Trish too I guess, sat on a row with older women. He took on the task of getting these older women's hymnals opened to the right page...they wanted their hymnals on the right page for the singing of the hymns, even though most knew the hymns by heart anyway. This was before the time of the screen in the sanctuary. I think Krise said that some had eyesight that was failing, but they still wanted the hymnals turned to the page...

I get that. If you have been in worship all your life, and your body is growing old, and you are nearer death than birth, it is good to hold a hymnal. It is good to know that you can still hold the book that contains the songs you have sung all your life--and some new ones too. It is good to know that the hymns you sung while standing on the pew when you were 5, your father's arm about your waist, is there, reminding you that the Everlasting Arms upon which you lean, do keep you safe and secure from all alarm. It is good to know that that hymn which was being sung when you made a personal commitment to Christ is there, to help you remember the blush of first faith reminding you that you can come to those everlasting arms with no guile or pretence, but just as you are. It is good to know that the hymn you tried to sing at the funeral, in the darkness of your husband's death, is there, reminding you always that there is a help for the helpless, and that abiding love is Jesus.

To hold that book that contains the songs of your life is like holding not just your own memories in your hands, but to hold the marvelous assurance of One who has always and will always hold you, love you as youare, and who willl be there with you when the eventide is falling fast.

And to have a young man open the book, get you on the right page, to be honored by him in such a beautiful act, is the only way that holding the book, those memories, that assurance is made more beautiful still.