Worshiping with children.

Our "perfect" children with some of their cousins.

I was reminded this past Sunday of a song by Victoria Williams about a family getting ready for church and the background chorus repeats “and...us kids are fighting."

            I have always found it interesting that the older my siblings and I got my mother's memory of us changed.  If we were by a screaming child in a supermarket she would say "You guys never did that."  Siblings wrestling in a parking lot, play ground...you pick the place, "You guys never did that."  When I first started hearing these statements my initial reaction was to believe her but then I would think "Yeah, I am pretty sure we did, as a matter of fact I know we did."

            The funny thing is that now that my children are older I find myself saying the same thing "You guys never did that."  Whatever "that" is.  How funny is it that the further away from our children's younger years we get the memories of noise, and bickering and running and crying seem to fade and what remains is the best of times?

            This brings me to children/youth in church, considering the age of most congregations, we know there are a handful of people saying or thinking each Sunday "My kids never did that."  Well...yeah they probably did or at least something like it.

            I can remember my own daughter and her friend while in middle school being told by a pastor on his last Sunday, literally one of the last statements he made leaving the sanctuary was "Girls sit up in church." They had taken to lounging in the front pew during the service. 

            Susan Bock wrote-"The only thing worse than all the racket in church (from children) is a church without children."

            The tornado in Oklahoma this week had a few of us anxiously waiting for news of the safety of a couple from our home church.  Dot and Don are now in their 90's and a friend and I wept as we received the good news they were fine.  The slow hours before the news had me remembering many things about them and many included our children.  When we first arrived at our church with three small children, 6, 4 and 3 years old, Dot and Don greeted us and promptly invited our whole family to a camp event.  They became a constant presence in our life; they taught our children to line dance, to belly laugh and were a reliable source for school papers about earlier times. I imagine that when asked today about how the children behaved in their church 20 years ago, Don and Dot might say "They were perfect."

            Children are noisy and squirmy in church; it is hard work learning to sit while surrounded by so many people you don't know.  Adults in church are sometimes noisy and squirmy as well, it is hard to sit surrounded by so many people you don't know while planning your shopping list or balancing the checkbook.  We have more in common than we think!  And because we share so much in common, church is the perfect place for children to learn not only about God but about being part of a community.

            I laugh to myself as I think that the children in our congregation are, through our memories, literally on their way to perfection!  

Matthew 19:14--But Jesus intervened: "Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me.  God's kingdom is made up of people like these. (The Message)

Remnant Living

     

     

From Spinnakees Farm

These feathers are left over from a visit to a parishioner’s farm.  I collected them for a project and promptly forgot I had them until the next cleaning of my car.  When I found them they made me smile, I thought of them as remnants of my living. 

     Yesterday was Ascension Sunday; we shared the scriptures of Luke and Acts that described Jesus rising to heaven leaving the disciples behind.  The disciples stand looking to the heavens in awe, wonder and/or fear.  They are the remnants of his life; we are the remnants of Chris’s life of his living. 

     Take a look around your room, car, office and what would someone think or learn about you?  I sit in my bedroom typing and I look and see a couple of tops size 2 folded on my dresser, this says I have a child I care about in my life (my grandson), I have about 20 books on my night stand (it has a nice lower shelf for stacking) ranging from devotionals to my latest book club choice, I see photographs, flowers, crosses and a pile of laundry to iron (I know, I know, I know...but ironing is relaxing to me). I hope these things say I love to read and learn; that my family is important to me but that because none of it is perfect I hope it also says that I love my time outside of this space.

     I think of all the homes I have visited as a social worker or as a pastor and I am always humbled by people sharing their lives with me, because there is a little nagging feeling in most of us that knows new eyes see our leftovers from life a little more clearly. 

It is not the messy kitchen that most of us are really concerned about when unexpected guests arrive, it is all we have shed from our lives that we are unaware of.

    The angels come to the disciples and tell them to get moving from this space, yes this is a wonderful moment but you have got to move on.  This event happened on Mount of Olives and there is what is thought to be the right footprint of Jesus. This is a physical remnant like my feathers, or the items listed in my room, things that can be held or captured in time.  However this foot print will not bring the grace, love, healing and compassion to people, the pieces of Christ's life meant to go on and on.

    Carrie Newcomer sings in Bare to the Bone:

So, when I rise, I rise in glory

If I do, I do by grace

Time will wash away these footprints

And we'll leave without a trace

Between here and now and forever

Is such precious little time

What we do in love and kindness

Is all we ever leave behind.

     Take a look around and think about your space, what do your remnants say about your living, what did you bring in from the outside that is a blessing and testimony to your living and what needs to be let go of in order to get moving? 

The Color of Joy!

YELLOW!  Yellow is the color of my joy! Whether it is the pale yellow of butter cream frosting, the mild yellow of the daffodils or the bright yellow of the forsythia pictured, yellow (Not GOLD!) brings me joy.  Lemon bars, lemonade, lemon cake and my friend’s homemade Lemon Meringue pie also bring me joy.  The only thing that lets me down about yellow is that I can’t wear it, though I did give it the good old college try which was captured outside my parent’s house in the 1970’s.  My grandmother made me a yellow gauzy dress, really it was just perfect, especially with the white and yellow striped socks I found (sarcasm intended), though perfect on me it was not. 

 Nehemiah 8:10 says “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Strength from Joy?  We think of strength like the building of muscle picture Popeye and his spinach.  We also may feel strength from knowledge, being part of a group, having protection of some sort.  But strength from Joy?  Yes…what is more powerful than being able to find joy in the midst of all that is troubling in this life?

            Joy is this amazing this that creeps up on us slowly or busts in our face without notice, it is unpredictable and can show up in the strangest of places.  Joy can slowly beat the troubles of the day away, like a smile that starts slowly, turning one corner of a mouth at a time until pop there is a dimple and a twinkle in the eye and in this there is new strength.

There is the bust out loud with a whoop or a laugh kind of joy, weddings and babies, love old and new, life old and new, laughter and tears, words like “Hey!” You’re kidding?!” “Amazing!” or no words---speechlessness.  It is the private or public snort while laughing, or the simple act of getting up each day feeling the rug, tile or wood beneath your feet.

What is the color of your joy?  What distracts you to see and feel God’s blessings in this life?

 If you are not sure or think this too simplistic remember what Alice Walker wrote in The Color Purple:

            “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.” 

 The joy of the Lord surrounds us; the joy of the Lord is ours 

and makes us strong!