HELLO!

I have heard from several people how moved they were by Lori’s preaching and singing this morning. If you missed it, here is the online service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHeVAgzovE4

Please keep the following persons in your prayers: 1) Hazel Rolfe, new to Woodlawn, has requested prayers about her very serious medical challenges. Hazel and I are in contact daily 2) Betty and Roy Rozee, their grandson Gavin has died. I spoke with Betty today. Gavin has lived with very challenging health issues for a long time. Obviously, Betty and Roy are devastated. And 3) Ken Nauss, I have been in conversation with Ken to arrange a Committal service for his father Bruce. This has been a very emotional time for Ken. I thank those who have visited Myrna at Oakwood Terrace. I know there are many others living with challenges. These are folks I have received permission to share their need for prayer.

Do you ever experience flashbacks to moments that changed the direction of your life? I had one this morning. I was remembering fifty years ago, I had recently been confirmed as a member of J. Wesley Smith Memorial United Church in Halifax (my family church). After the Sunday service ended, my mother would take me with her to long-term care facilities, where many members of the church lived. There was no online opportunity to watch the service, and our church did not make cassette tapes of the service and distribute them as many other city churches did then. My mother would take me to these residences and have me repeat the Sunday sermon to the residents. I have vivid memories of standing in a large room at Northwood, filled with residents, some from our church, some not, and summarizing the minister’s sermon. I brought no notes with me. I did my best to take the sermon and distill it to words and examples the residents might appreciate. Later, my mother would lead the gathering in a short hymn sing, usually including “Amazing Grace”.

As I look at my life today, I still spend my Sundays summarizing what Biblical commentators have written about lectionary texts and attempting to frame the message to those who are in the room with me. I should add, before we would go into the “Common Room” with the 25-40 residents, my mother and I would go to individual rooms and visit with members of our church. Those visits informed the way I would summarize the sermon I had heard earlier that Sunday. Again, the parallels to today remain, the visits I have with new faces, familiar faces, people from our community whom I meet inside and outside the building, inform how I preach. To know the concerns, the joys, the questions, of those I am looking at, as I speak, helps me use examples and stories that make my words more effective. I am NOT, then or now, seeking to make people happy or scold them or even teach them. Instead, I want to share a message that can change us, mold us, guide us, into the mindset where we become whom we are intended to be. Sometimes it means affirming, sometimes it means making fun of our conceit of certainty (humility is a feature of Jesus’ teaching), and sometimes it means sharing moments when the “kin-dom” has come near (Jesus’ words). These flashbacks help remind me who I was, who I am, and who I want to be. I hope you experience flashbacks, that remind you when God was/is changing you.

Peace, Kevin