Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Surrounded by a Great Cloud of Witnesses


This summer, several laypersons in our own congregation have been and will be privileged to preach on the Gospel at Mt. Zion Lutheran Church. The texts for these weeks have some common threads that I hope this blog will comment on and maybe even, on good days, tie together. Thoughts, interpretations, words and fruits of the spirit, stories, metaphors will be offered by Jan Veseth-Rogers, Pam Shellberg, Keith Pignolet, Robyn McGuire, Dana O’Brien, and myself.

The texts seem to repeatedly address seemingly harsh words spoken by Jesus, our fallibility and the costs of human nature, and a repeated theme that “It’s Not About Us”, but something much, much bigger.

We will hear more than once that voice of Shoeless Joe Jackson say to Ray Kinsella “Are you asking what’s in it for you, Ray?” … and then warn him “You better stay here, Ray”.


Why?

Stay tuned … we, as a congregation, are a cloud of witnesses with our own individual stories and journeys. We can learn this summer that to the extent that we are willing to share them, we will become stronger, more mindful and closer to God collectively than we ever could alone.

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