Summer

I was a lifeguard for six years as a teenager. It was, hands down, the easiest job I’ve ever had, and its bad parts—cleaning days, really really hot days, watching one guy sit in the pool when it was seventy degrees and drizzling—were far outweighed by its good. So for six years, the summer was marked in my brain as beginning the week before Memorial Day. And starting Memorial Day through Labor Day, that was summer, until nine p.m. on Labor Day when we’d lock up everything and then refuse to do end-of-season cleaning, as was the tradition at the company I worked for.

Now, I realized summer doesn’t really start for me until Pentecost. That means it can be as early as May 10, and as late as June 13, thanks to a lunar calendar. So even though it’s hot out, and June, summer doesn’t start in my brain until we bust out the red and celebrate the Spirit. Summer does, however, end in my mind on September 3, which is sometimes Labor Day but always, and I admit my own ego’s complacency in this, my birthday.

 

I have heard from other pastors, and I have served at other churches, where the congregation “takes the summer off.” That hasn’t been the case at Midway Hills, at least in my experience of… one summer, and I thank you for that. I am excited about what’s happening in the life of the congregation this summer, and I hope you are, too.  Here’s a preview of the sermon series for the summer—

 

Beginning June 15 – “Raising the Roof”
For a building, the roof is the absolute top—it is the highest and farthest out it can go. Too often, the church (the body of believers united in the good news of Jesus Christ) is mistaken for the church building. In these instances, God has a very clear and unique tendency to raise the roof—push limits, test boundaries, and unsettle what is settled—so that God’s will is done. We’ll be looking at three texts that specifically deal with roofs, and see that all three stories speak to God’s holiness through grace pushing people past where they’re comfortable, where they’re content, and where they expect God to be.

 

For most of July – Science Sundays

Neil DeGrasse Tyson said, “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” The universal church has not been the friendliest towards science, with folks on one extreme adamantly denying it and on the other shouting, “Yes we do! Yes we do!” This series in July will look at three (historically) major theological friction points with science and show that faith and science are mutually compatible and sharpen one another like iron sharpens iron.

 

And in August, “Before the Exodus”

The story in all of Scripture is one of faithful covenant, liberation from oppression, and love winning. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the God who liberated the Chosen from Egypt is again and again invoked as a reminder to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. The beginning of this story speaks as much as the signs and wonders that happen during it. We will look at the first four chapters or so of the book of Exodus to see holy origins and a call for the church to follow as well.

 

We’ll be announcing big stuff in the coming weeks as well, so watch this space! I look forward to seeing you all Sunday (and don’t forget to wear red!).

 

Shalom y’all,

 

Arthur