from the pastor

August 18, 2002

I’ve been sitting on the back patio drinking the day’s first cup of coffee and sampling a toasted piece of my daughter Alison’s homemade oatmeal bread. The sun is about to rise. Thunder rumbles faintly in the distance. The animal kingdom, normally frisky this time of day, is observing a moment of silence. The neighbor’s apple tree is groaning under all the apples this summer--but I’m not close enough to hear it groan. I can just see that it is. And a solitary orange tomato in my own back yard is giving me a come-hither look.

Some of my congregation is up and dressed and waiting until it is time to leave for church. Others are still asleep, but fast approaching "rush hour," and it will be a miracle that they will be in a mood to worship at all--given what they will have to live through just to get out the door at home and into the door at church. It feels like a rich morning.

This has been a week of rich mornings for me. Yesterday morning I got up and went to the Farmer’s Market first thing. Alison and I each bought a cranberry piroshki for breakfast. (A Russian dumpling filled with fruit) We loaded up on peaches, eggplant, squash, peppers, green beans, and blackberries. And we finished off the market with an armful of gladiolus.

On Wednesday morning we got up and went to the state fair. The politicians were all there--complaining about each other. And the Corriedale sheep were bleating at their owners for pulling them through the sheep judging. It all sounded the same. But we did get to see the Illinois State Corriedale Sheep Queen. I didn’t even know such royalty existed.

On Thursday we got up early and went to Chicago to see the Cubs win the only ballgame they won all week. I’ll write more about that in my newsletter article this week. And on Friday I enjoyed sleeping in and listening to the rain and rolling thunder--a rarity this summer.

One of my favorite hymns is "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," from a poem written almost 80 years ago by Thomas Chisholm. The refrain includes the words, "...morning by morning new mercies we see..." There are mornings when I am overwhelmed by new mercies. But there are other mornings when I only know of those mercies by faith. Sometimes the evidence abounds. And sometimes the evidence is unseen, and the conviction hangs by a mere thread of faith. But in the end, faith, hope, and love remain.

And finally, a quote from today’s sermon (Mt. 15: 21-28): "This story from the Bible is an exciting story. It is about foreign travel, demons, wrestling, and dogs. It is about wasted resources, men who are unresponsive to human need, and a bodacious woman. It is about crumbling religious traditions and spiritual revolution. It is about a new and refreshing openness between men and women. It is about how God’s reality is evoked--not by arrogant command from God on high, but from the synergy that takes place in a relationship between two persons who care deeply about a better future." --Mike

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