SUNDAY MORNING

From the pastor

 

May 4, 2008

 

            The paperboy has just tossed the thick roll of the Sunday paper against the front door.  The car windows are thick with dew this morning.  The grass is thick and in need of mowing.  The lilac bushes are thick with bouquets.  And I’m even feeling a little thick myself—having made a big pot of chicken and dumplings yesterday, and sampling several times a rhubarb pie I bought in Effingham the day before. 

 

            Yesterday was the annual church garage sale.  I counted about 40 church members who were involved in working the “floor” yesterday.  And I have no idea how many made contributions of items.  Special thanks go to Rosemary Woods, Wanda Adams, and Doris Roush for taking the leadership of this year’s event. 

 

            As I strolled through the various rooms, I was often caught off guard by the aggressiveness of my own church members:  sweet old ladies and meek elderly gentlemen suddenly become carnival barkers.  And if Jie was anywhere within earshot, that was the song that got sung:  “Buy the beautiful lady a….” 

 

            In fact, she did buy several items:  small decorative pictures, some shoes for herself and her mother, a basket of artificial flowers, and some clothes.  Unfortunately she also bought two books:  Cats are Smarter than Men and 100 Things to do During a Boring Sermon.  Plus someone talked her into buying a gigantic rabbit costume—or sleeping bag.  And I am hoping that this is not one of the 100 things to do during a boring sermon.  If she brings it to church today, I’ll lose all control.

 

            We heard that the church down the road also had a yard sale yesterday—outside—and that everything blew away in the wind.  So I suppose that if you didn’t come across that special ‘find’ yesterday you could stroll a couple corn fields outside town and check out the stuff.  In the Bible, the word for “wind” and “spirit” is the same.  Yesterday’s gales weren’t exactly the winds of Pentecost blowing through the upper room and causing people to speak in tongues—but once in a while I guess we can settle for the wonder of a competitor’s yard sale blowing away. 

 

            We began another round of our aging seminars—this time at the Sunnycrest retirement facility.  I was pleased that 16 people participated in our first session.  Our topic this week was housing.  As people get older, it sometimes gets harder to find the right place, the one that ‘fits.’  About one person in twenty (over age 65) moves each year.  The primary six reasons are:  health, loneliness, tight money, downsizing to match energy levels, finding a facility more friendly to physical disabilities, and needing to move on after a major loss (death or divorce) in life. 

 

            As I listened to the participants share their experiences of moving into a retirement facility, I was struck by how many missed having their own yards and gardens.  Apartment living seems a little too far removed from Adam and Eve’s original vocation:  to tend the earth and take authority over it.  For all the housing options available today for older people, we still have work to do to find better answers.  Lord, have mercy.                               --Mike