"I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go to...Trunk or Treat'"?
We had a wonderful day for Redeemer’s Trunk or Treat, yesterday! With a high of 61 degrees and just a light breeze, the weather was perfect for those who wore costumes as well as for those decorating their trunks (last year’s wind kept taking apart some of the displays).
There were games and candy for all, as well as some interest sessions for both the children and their parents. There was also the firepit for making smores!
We’ll have some things to consider for next year – our parking lot got too full and two of the neighbors to the north had people parking there and walking down. As a result, some of our trunks ran out of candy. These are good problems to try to solve.
Also, after two years in a row, it’s time for me to find a costume other than a cowpoke for the event!
Thank you to all who participated. Now, on to planning Advent and Christmas…
Consequential years
What is the most consequential 2-to-4-year period in your life? That question came to mind as Jami and I have had the opportunity to watch young Hudson Winter grow these past few months. An argument could be made for the period between infancy and four years of age. The verbal development is remarkable, from zero to hundreds of words in comprehension. Then there are both the gross and fine motor skills coming on-line.
Or think back on the development from sixth grade to ninth grade. For many of us that was the span awash in puberty. We also got to navigate the change from one school to another, and what a joy that can be.
High school was a period of transition and skill acquisition. College follows for many,
while others enter the work force. Either way, that four-year period sees a person taking on greater responsibility, having the opportunity to vote in elections, and becoming an adult.
Then again, those first four years of marriage bring tremendous change. You get used to making a new home with someone and, as is often the case, you get to bring other new lives into both the world and your home!
Even as you get older there are changes. You become empty nesters, then in-laws. And sooner or later you get to be a nana or a pops.
While our Lord Jesus didn’t experience every one of these changes, each phase of His life was important. It was of consequence in the life that He would offer into death to forgive the sins of the world.
His infancy and the flight to Egypt were fulfillment of prophecies. His growth in the home established by Mary and Joseph was one like ours, enabling Him to empathize fully with us. His discussions at the age of twelve with the scribes and teachers in the Temple are telling.
The period of the public ministry is by and large the content of the Gospels: talk about a significant set of years! And that Last Day is on the way, one which will reveal eternal consequence due to faith in the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord.
Truly, all along life’s way God is at work. He was in the life of Jesus, and He is in yours! Each day is of consequence as you live in His calling.
One encouragement for these present, precious days is St. Paul’s call to continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nave
Throughout the ages there have been specific terms used for portions of the church’s architecture. The name for the place where most of us sit, stand, and take part in worship is the nave. The word nave is a direct spinoff form the Latin word navis, which means ship. From the same root come words like navy, naval, navigation, and the like.
There are comparisons of the ship itself to the nave and the church, one of them being the cross formed by the mast and its crossbars. But the strongest image is that the ship is the only thing that will carry you on the water – and nobody will deny that it is better to be on the water than in it (as Rev. Dean Myers once put it – much of what follows is prompted by his sermon “Stay with the Ship”, as well).
What an example the stalwart St. Paul is to all of us. Do you remember when he and the other prisoners were being taken on the long and hazardous voyage to Rome and the ship was endangered (Act 27:27-44)? It is a terrific sea story. What he said to the frightened and panicked Centurion and prisoners was, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” Stick with the ship was his advice.
It is here, in the ship, that we are baptized and called children of God. We worship here, singing Hosanna and shouting Hallelujah. Some of our deepest and most poignant prayers are said in the nave. We confess our sins there and are forgiven. And when we die it is in the nave that we are committed to life everlasting as assured by Jesus Christ.
Life has its heartbreaks, griefs, and sorrows but relief is ever in the nave, which also can be carried in the heart. Life has its joys, ecstasies, and triumphs and they can be celebrated in the nave as well as in the heart.
The church is a holy place, this ship. God himself is here as everywhere; His Son Jesus Christ is here with His promises of redemption and deliverance and the Holy Spirit is surely overall.
Perhaps on some Saturdays and Sundays our greeters could say, as you pass through the doors from the narthex, “Welcome aboard!”