Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Rocketing Forward

The Sunday after Easter has a few nicknames, none of them pleasant.  “Low Sunday” is one, based on the odd bit of embedded Church culture that everyone, including the Senior Pastor, should take the week off if they choose after a full and meaningful Holy Week.  After all, how many times can one hear about Doubting Thomas?  (I had the (fortunate?) pleasure of preaching each week-after-Easter for years, and wrote a new Doubting Thomas sermon each time.) 

But we’re not doing that at Midway Hills.  I invite you to come to service every week, and I especially do so this week, because some really cool things are happening to counter the Low Sunday Blues.  First, Amber Churchill will be preaching.  If you haven’t heard Amber preach yet, you’ve missed out.  Amber is an engaging and embracing speaker, with an astute and well-formed theology, and I look forward to each and and every one of her sermons. I know a lot of you do, too. So be there for that. 

Second, though we had hoped we could get together a jazz service for this Sunday, we’re going to put it off for just a little longer. I apologize to everyone who was looking forward to this (myself heartily included), but if we’re going to do something, we should do it fantastically and with excellence—like the choir and music in worship has been without fail for a long time.  So, we are looking at new dates, making sure we have musicians absolutely locked in, and all that jazz. 

Third, Easter is not the grand finale to our church year, but rather a gigantic, game-changing explosion that rockets us into the now and not-yet of God’s Reign.  The tomb is empty, Christ goes before us—now what?  In the spirit of that, we’ll be starting a new sermon series this Sunday called “The Lord’s Prayers.”  While the Pater Nostrum, the “Our Father,” what we traditionally call the Lord’s Prayer is a vital component of our faith, Jesus prays and teaches on prayer throughout his ministry.  What he has to say, and what it means for us, should challenge us all a little. So, in short:  I look forward to seeing you Sunday! 

Shalom y’all, 

Arthur

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