In some churches you can count on the service going “by the book” - literally. The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, the Roman Catholic Missal, and the Lutheran Book of Worship all contain the prayers, responses, and readings that make up a Sunday morning worship service - every Sunday. Our church comes from a different tradition, sometimes called the “free church” tradition. Although our services follow the same general pattern from week to week, the exact words, songs, and prayers vary. When the planning is done carefully and skillfully, the service has a kind of unity, usually built around the scripture lessons for the day. Sometimes, like this week, it doesn’t.
On Sunday, the children of the church are presenting a musical called “It’s Cool in the Furnace,” telling the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, and how they escaped death in a fiery furnace; it’s a story from the book of Daniel. The young people have worked hard, learned lots of songs, and are excited to share their talents with the congregation.
Curiously, the show has nothing at all to do with the church calendar, which marks this week as Palm Sunday. Our congregation, like many others, has a tradition of a palm procession, and our Eco-palms (grown in an ecologically and economically sound manner) are already in the refrigerator. It wouldn’t be Palm Sunday without a Palm Parade.
And just to keep things lively, we also have five members of our congregation who are leaving next week for a mission trip to Nicaragua. The Sunday School children have been collecting toothbrushes for the team to take with them. So we will also take a few minutes on Sunday morning to commission the volunteers and bless the toothbrushes.
Which brings me to the matter of “stump the minister.” Every week Lynn Rosetto Casper has a segment on her public radio program called “stump the cook.” Listeners call in with 5 ingredients from their refrigerator or pantry, and Lynn thinks up something good to make out of the combination.
Well, this Sunday feels like that to me: I have been given three ingredients (children’s musical, palm parade, and toothbrush blessing) and I am supposed to make something tasty out of the combination. I confess that I am still searching for the common thread that would make that possible.
The truth is, there isn’t a common thread in these events - and that’s even more true if you throw in (as we will) several prayers, the offering, and a few announcements. What will hold it all together is not a common theme, but a common community. These are the things we do in our congregation, and they often jumble together - not in a tidy sequence or a unifying theme - just bumping into each other on any given Sunday.
I know all of this is hard for the people whose hearts long for worship by-the-book; sometimes it is even hard for me. But eclectic Sundays like this remind us what treasures we have in the gifts of our members and friends, and that the Holy Spirit is just as inclined to work through disorganization as through liturgical tidiness.
The New Testament tells us a lot about Jesus — but even so, we really only get the highlights. In this sermon for March 30, 2008, I reflect about what makes a story worthy of being a “highlight.”
Most of the angels in the Bible greet humans by saying “Be Not Afraid.” These are hard words to hear — especially in our world where there seem to be new things to be afraid of nearly every day. Easter has something to teach us about living without being controlled by our fears. That’s the theme I explore in this sermon for March 23, 2008.
Someone who read my description of our service last Sunday was uneasy with the idea of “blessing toothbrushes.” She couldn’t tell for sure whether we were serious or not about praying over the toothbrushes that our volunteers will be taking with them on a mission trip to Nicaragua.