Dear Caldwell,
As we begin this week’s journey from Sunday to Sunday, what an abundance we take with us.
Yesterday was as full as a day at Caldwell can be. The ACE Class started with a great new study of living faithfully in a culture of excess. The youth led us in meaningful and memorable worship. Great thanks to all of our youth and their adult leaders! Then, later in Belk, our Trans Education Series hosted 7 trans neighbors who shared their powerful stories with us, teaching us yet one more way to stand in the gaps that our society creates between different types of God’s children. Our cup runneth over yesterday.
This week offers a lovely mid-week stop for your soul. On Wednesday at 12:30 pm in The Third Place, the CPCC Early Music Consort , including our own Henry Trexler, offers a free concert entitled, Yesterday and Today: New Music for Old Instruments. Why not come by, have lunch and enjoy the show?
As our week rolls on, we can be on the road in yet one more way – by looking ahead at next Sunday’s scripture, Luke’s story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus just after the first Easter. It’s a story that recounts every part of the Christian walk, as my friend Jill Duffield, editor of the Presbyterian Outlook writes: “doubts, despair, the inability to believe the experience of others no matter how much we wish we could, inklings that something bigger is happening, ignorance, revelation and the shock of divine presence in the midst of the ordinary.”
The Emmaus story reminds us that we are just past Easter. Along with the disciples on the road that day, we are invited to think anew, as they did for the first time, about what God’s grace in Christ means for us. If you have any thoughts or questions about the scripture, please be in touch as I think about my sermon!
On another front, each of us has vowed to raise our children in the light of Christ. How are you doing with that? One great way to fulfill that promise is to help teach the Godly Play class to our toddlers on Sundays. Give God two hours this Saturday morning for quick and easy training – and then have a blast with our young kids a few times a year during worship. The training is Saturday, 9:30-11:30 a.m. in Children’s Education Rooms, behind The Third Place.
In closing, congrats to Tracy Hewett, whom Gov. Roy Cooper named as Mecklenburg’s newest District Court Judge last week, and prayers for healing for youngsters Ellen Martin (broken wrist) and Gabe Shell (tendon surgery).
May the Lord be with you there.
In Christ, John