Communion

Since I haven't had communion in a while, I decided this would be the Sunday to return to hear my colleague and mentor preach. I got there just before worship to find that the heat was not on in the sanctuary, so they had set up the social hall for worship.

Several people from the choir introduced themselves. They didn't seem to recognize me even after I introduced myself. That's okay, most of our interactions would have been through special services sponsored by the ministerium.

The pastor decided that even though they were not in their normal worship space, they should process in. She was wearing her robe and stole over a dress. I'm not used to seeing the pastor in a dress, but I think it is her normal Sunday apparel.

The scripture was Matthew 5...the beatitudes. The children's message involved making trail mix. The message was recipe. Matthew 5 gives us a recipe and when we follow recipes, even for trailmix, things work out well. When we don't follow a recipe then the outcome is uncertain. Some of the kids seemed to get the message, others were more concerned with the ingredients they were given and what would be in their bags of trailmix when the message was over.

The actual sermon didn't focus so much on the  actual beatitudes, but again focused on the recipe Jesus wants us to follow in our lives and what that looks like.

Communion was served in the pews, not my most favorite way to receive. I'm not sure if this is their normal way of serving or if it was a concession to the location of worship. The wooden floors were very loud; they squeaked and echoed whenever any one walked.

It was quite distracting through out the service that people felt the need to walk around the space when it was so obviously loud. Also, the communion stewards had some confusion at the back of the room and burst into laughter as they tried to agree on what they were to do. I would be tempted to have some additional training.

Next week, I'm preaching again.