It started with the mice.
We noticed hints of mice activity in a church closet, and took action to clean and seal the possible entryways from the gardens. Centuries-old buildings are not known for being air tight!
Then we started cleaning all the church closets. What treasures we have found! Crayons by the thousands, halloween decorations, cassette-copying turntables, even a wooden cutout of “Pilgrim Sam” Newman was found napping on top of a pile of unused shingles and bookshelves.
We also found large sheet-metal signs celebrating the 353th anniversary of Newman Church. What should we do with something so specific and now thirty-years gone by? A few Sharpie markers and duct tape have helped them to speak to our current moment again, in the 383rd year of Newman Church.
Being a Christian is like this process of closet cleaning. We are blessed with an incredibly rich and dynamic religion that has been built over the course of millennia. Finding our way to Jesus sometimes involves finding something old from the tradition and making it new again! We make it speak to our moment, and in doing so we find Jesus again “for the first time.”
Glad to be with you all in this tradition of worship, and service, and making all things new again!
Traveling together,
Sam
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See you at Sunday worship this coming Sunday at 10:00 a.m.