Yesterday, we had a leisurely Sunday morning for the first time in a long time. But it was different in a way; we knew we needed to be on the road by 11:30. Faith Lutheran Church in Bristol, Tennessee, where I am a Synod Appointed Minister, had only one service yesterday at 2:00.
When we got there and plugged in some lights, the church looked like this, with sun streaming through the red glass windows in the front:
The candles couldn't really compete, but it was beautiful in its own way. The service went well. Everyone was in a good mood, and most things went smoothly. I did get tangled in my words when I consecrated the bread, but I corrected. And this congregation is fairly unflappable as far as I can see. I get the idea that if I'm making a good effort, they won't cause a ruckus. Part of it is because I'm temporary, and part of it just seems to be the congregational personality.
I do feel lucky. I think about my younger self and how judgmental I was and how I wanted so much more than I was getting from church, whether it be sermons or fellowship or volunteering opportunities. Then I got the kind of job that made it difficult to take advantage of those things, the 45-60 hour a week job in education administration, which gave me a different view. And yesterday, when I got tongue tangled, I thought about my younger self who would have said, "You say these words week after week--why can't you say them without screwing it all up?" Now I know.
My sermon went well, and I'll post it on this blog site at some point soon. When I was writing it, it seemed rather radical at first, and by the time I was done revising it, I thought it was blah. That's often a trajectory with my writing, whether it's sermon writing, poetry writing, academic writing, or something else. The congregation stayed focused, and no one seemed outraged or bored or eye rolling.
We mingled a bit after church and then headed out. Some of the church folks planned to come back after sunset, re-light all the candles, and then take pictures. I thought we were heading home to veg out and go to bed early.
Instead, my spouse started thinking about going to the 7:00 service at the Lutheran church just minutes from our Lutheridge house. We put our dinner dishes in the dishwasher (left over pot roast that had turned into beef stew), threw on our dressier clothes, and headed over. This sanctuary is very different than the little country church in Bristol:
It was great to be back at that church where we have so many friends from so many different stages of our life: Create in Me friends, choir friends, quilt group friends, neighborhood friends, and even friends of my nuclear family, meaning friends from the time my mom was a camp counselor in the very earliest days of Lutheridge.
Today is likely to be a rainy Christmas, which is fine with me. We are not traveling, and any cooking that we're doing can be done either indoors or out. We have no one coming over. We will make at least one phone call, but mostly, yesterday was our big holiday celebration. Some years I might feel sad about that, but this year, a low key Christmas day sounds good.
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