Sunday, October 27, 2013

Daughter's Confession and Sunday Morning Weirdness

Daughter's blood sugar was high this morning.  She insisted, of course, that she hadn't been into anything.  She said it was because of the supper she had last night.  Of course I didn't believe her, so she was mad.  Her blood sugar was still high at lunch time. 

I just got off the phone with her.  She explained some of her high blood sugars.  Friends at her program have been giving her food.  She also told me that the weekend staff had not counted her carbs.  I believe her.  She's promising to do better and be honest.  For right now, she means it.  We'll see how long it lasts. 

This morning everything was just a little bit off.  The computer in the sanctuary wouldn't connect to the internet.  At first, they were blaming the modem, but my computer could get on without any issues.  I gave them my slides on a flash drive since they couldn't get them online.  The remote I use to advance slides wouldn't work.  Then the computer wouldn't record.  They finally rebooted the computer, which solved some of the issues.

 Super Usher was late.  He is always one of the first to arrive.  We commented on how strange it was, and finally became concerned enough that we called to check on him.  He's an older man and lives alone, so we wondered if something had happened to him.  He had turned his clock back a week early.  He got here before the service began, but was out of his routine, so he forgot to get me fresh water, which was a minor inconvenience. 

Pianist was late, too. They didn't have time to run through the singspiration numbers.  Administrative Assistant and Daughter were the song leaders today.  Daughter was horrible, but AA's husband had been told he had to be on the soundboard and be prepared to turn off Daughter's microphone.  He did, and I thanked him.  Pianist raced through the first number, which didn't help Daughter. He always speeds things up when he's nervous. 

There were several people who needed to have significant conversations with me prior to worship.  We had forgotten to put the mission minutes on the website for tomorrow evening's board meeting.  A retired regional church staff member wanted to talk to me about some concerns she had with regard to the regional church.  Unfortunately, her concerns are justified, and she doesn't know everything that is going on.  With all the things that were just a little off, I forgot to turn on my microphone.  AA's husband told me as he headed to the choir, so I was able to turn it on prior to the Scripture and sermon. 

This morning I shared an insight I'd gotten at the conference I attended in July.  Today I was preaching on the golden calf in Exodus, and I had suddenly noticed that the people had given up on Moses, not God.  I realized that the golden calf wasn't their first idol, Moses was.  I then realized that many congregations (and pastors) get in trouble when they idolize the pastor.  This congregation idolized the founding pastor.  I didn't talk about him specifically, but people got the message.  The comments were interesting, "They really needed to hear that."  (We preachers love that comment, often from the people who most needed to hear it.)  "That sermon needed to be preached here years ago."  "I was worried when I realized where you were going to go with the sermon, but it was okay."  "That was the best sermon ever." 

In the discussion following worship, members named other idols the congregation had had.  It was a good discussion.  I'm pleased with the way God is at work in the congregation right now.

In other news, they don't need me to work in the concession stand at the football game next Saturday, for which I am very grateful.  They have 24 workers lined up.  We had a Taize worship service tonight, and I played keyboard for it. We had 3 vocalists, keyboard (set to harpsichord), guitar, flute, and cello.  The service was very nice.  The daughter-in-law of the previous owners of my house was there.  I'd met her a couple of times before.  It was good to see her again.  We had some other people from the community who came for the service.  I was not involved in planning it, but the selected Scriptures went well with this morning's sermon.  I wasn't the only one who noticed. 

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