Lovie

So here is what was in the box this week...a lovie!

What parent hasn't had a child frantic with worry over a lost blanket, stuffed animal or toy, no matter how many others are safe at home?


Luke 15:1-10

We rejoice over what was lost!

First Chapel

Today was our first chapel of the school year. Just a few pictures for you. The first is of our first acolyte team who did a terrific job today!

The second of what was in the box...a loaf of bread!

Blessing of the Backpacks

We love to start the school year by inviting all our children to bring in backpacks to be blessed.

The backpacks are filled with school supplies for those in need and each backpacks receives a tag with a Bible verse on it.










This year's verse is:


Serve the Lord with celebration! Come before him with shouts of joy! Know that the Lord is God- he made us; we belong to him. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 
Psalm 100:2-3

Dirty Bird

I love Halloween. I mean really love everything about it. I have always loved dressing up in costumes. I love decorating the house with fake cobwebs and spiders. I love carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. And we love the tradition of booing our neighbors. For those of you who are uninitiated, when you boo someone you fill a bag or pumpkin with treats, candy, spider rings, anything small, then leave it on the doorstep while you ring the doorbell and run away. The family who has been booed puts a sign on their door and then boos someone else. It is a fun way to pass along the sugary holiday cheer. This year Halloween fell on our Wednesday chapel, and I felt that fact should not go unnoticed and with that thought into the box went a large black bird.

The Bible is the best storybook ever, and I have always loved what I call, the creepy Bible stories. Elijah was a prophet. He was one called by God to tell the people the truth, and since people don't often like to hear the truth, prophets were typically disliked. After the death of Solomon, God's chosen people had become so wicked Elijah foretold there would be a terrible drought, lasting many years. God then sent Elijah to live in the wilderness near a spring in secret. Elijah survived only because every morning and evening ravens appeared with bread and meat in their beaks for him.

I find this story disturbing and can't imagine eating meat that came from the beak of a bird. I don't even eat sushi. To the people of the Old Testament this would have been disturbing as well. Biblical law said that ravens were unclean and could not be sacrificed. In spite of this, God used ravens to feed Elijah. The most humble of creatures was used to further God's will. And while I'm sure poor Elijah thought the wilderness meals were as disgusting as I do, Elijah obeyed God and God provided for him.

Following the will of God is not always easy. No one likes the person who states the truth. Life in the wilderness is hard. The service is bad and the food is worse. But if we listen for and follow the call our Lord will provide for us.

Bad Days

I am always struck by what the editors choose to include in Bibles designed for children. While it does make sense to focus on the more dramatic stories, and skip the generational lists in between, it can make some Bibles read more like a series of short stories than a seamless history. And it is telling what stories are omitted. I have several different children's Bibles on my shelf and not one of them mentions Job. Adam and Eve, check. Burning bush, got it. Man having a very bad day, loses everything and not so much as a mention. I think that is why I brought a broken bracelet in my box today. 

This bracelet is special to me. I like it. I received it when I was in Cuba. I am not sure if it can be fixed and I doubt it can be replaced. And one moment in a frenzy of animated conversation I smashed it against a door frame. That was a bad day. 

We all have bad days and we all have bad things happen to us. And while most of us would not blame God for a broken piece of jewelry, we are tempted to question the meaning behind other bad events in our lives like a lost job, a sudden illness, or the death of a loved one. And then we have Job. Job lost almost everything, his livelihood, his home, his children and his health. And yet he did not blame God. Even his wife said to him "Are you still continuing to be faithful to the Lord? Speak evil things against him and die!" (Job 2:9) Job's friends assume he has done something wrong to bring all this disaster on his head. They encourage him to repent and seek forgiveness from God. In the face of all this, Job remains steadfast. 

Job is difficult. It is not an easy story for adults, and I understand why some might think it doesn't quite fit with the exciting and uplifting Bible stories usually told to children. However Job reminds us that bad things happen to good people. We will experience illness, and grief and loss. I think it is important that children be taught that we may not always find meaning in the tragedies of life. That the bad days in life do not happen because we are bad. They simply happen. And in the midst of our worst day, when we are sitting with nothing left, the one thing we will always have, is God.

Visionary

Last week a dear friend of mine and of many, Betty Adams, passed away. Her funeral was on Monday and it was as beautiful as she was. In giving the homily the Reverend Neely Towe reminded us all of Betty's great gift, the gift of vision. And so in honor of Betty I put a pair of glasses in my box today.

One of the experiences that almost anyone who has ever worn glasses has had is the memory of getting that first pair and realizing that we weren't really seeing the world clearly. In an instant shapes become letters and words, green blurs separate into leaves on a tree and the details of life jump into focus. I am not sure that vision is appreciated as much by those who have never had it impaired, but being able to see God's creation is a wonderful thing.

Contemporaries of Jesus must have thought his disciples a ragtag group. They probably thought he was blind to choose the type of companions he did. Instead of  teachers Jesus chose those without education, instead of temple leaders Jesus chose fishermen and instead of those who seemed to live a righteous life Jesus chose tax collector and prostitutes. He saw these men and women not for what they were on the outside, but for what they could be, and over time they became the vision he had of them. Jesus said "Blessed are you. Simon, son of Jonah!...You are Peter. On this rock I will build my church." (Matthew 16:17) and Simon Peter did become the rock and foundation of the church.

We all have been given gifts and talents. Betty was a true visionary. She saw the world and everything in it not as we really were, but as what God called us to be. She was able to look into our hearts and see the best in us and we worked to become exactly what she saw.

Take some time to develop the gift of vision. Christ lives in the hearts of our children, in the hearts of those with whom we work and with whom we worship and in the hearts of strangers we meet during our day. Put your glasses on. Be a visionary. Seek to see the world Christ wants it to be.

Taking Pictures

I have missed our past two chapels together as my husband and I have been celebrating our anniversary in Italy. It was a wonderful trip, which we faithfully documented with several cameras of all shapes and sizes. One of my friends used to joke that with her husband if he didn't take a picture of something to him "it was as if it never happened". I was thinking of that this morning as I put my camera into my box.

The first part of our trip was in Rome. It is a fascinating city and we loved getting to walk around the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. It was awe inspiring to think about how many people had once lived in that spot, and see the ruins of structures I had learned about in school. Paul lived in Rome for two years, preaching the gospel of Christ, spreading the message of God's love to the Gentiles. We took lots of pictures.We then visited St. Peter's Basilica, where there has been a church since the 4th century as St. Peter's tomb is supposed to be deep below the altar and when we were allowed, we took pictures.

We are so obsessed with snapping pictures of everything these days, our activities, children, pets, even our food, that it seems strange that we have no pictures of Jesus. No instagrams of he and the disciples healing the sick. No portraits of Jesus with Mary and Martha for them to proudly display on the mantle. No travel album from Paul to accompany his many letters. We have no way to see anyone who existed at the same time as Christ. I reminded the children today that faith is believing in what we can't see, or as Jesus said to Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me but have still believed". (John 20:29)

When we were down in the crypt at St. Peter's our guide told us a story. She said like many things in Rome, the current crypt was built over the foundation of an older church and that church was built over the location of several ancient graves and had been guarded by Christians for centuries as the place where the apostle Peter was buried. And while church after church was built on this site, there was no way to really prove that the story was true. That is until modern times when further excavation and dating were done on several of the bodies found there and one was identified as very likely belonging to St. Peter. It is a wonderful story. And if I had been allowed to explore that ancient area below the crypt and take pictures I am sure I would have. However my faith depends not on the proof of the existence of the bones of an ancient apostle, but on the belief in the life of a living Christ.