Sleeping under the computer desk
Sunday is past; the sermon has been preached; reflection is setting in. The day after the sermon is sometimes called the preacher”s blue Monday.
The preacher’s text was Luke 13:1-5 with a sermon on “Other People’s Sins.” The sermon was practical and persuasive, and at the beginning I was fully engaged. But at the end I suddenly awakened and realized that I had probably missed the most important part of the sermon.
But in the part of the sermon that I heard the preacher came down hard on the pleasure of judging other people’s sins. I remember judging the deacon who slept every Sunday morning through the sermon and then wakened to say “Yea, and amen” to the sermon. Now, I feel guilty that after 86 years and having preached many sermons and passed judgment on the people who slept through them, I had just slept through half of a sermon.
The last person I talked to before leaving the church was the lead pastor, the preacher. I asked his forgiveness for sleeping. He assured me that sleeping in church is no sin, that when I sleep I need it more than I need the sermon.
On Sunday afternoon I went with the family to the 22nd Annual Mennonite Youth Choir Festival at the Goshen College Music Center. Approximately 155 youth, grades 3-9, from approximately 50 sponsoring churches and organizations presented a concert pursuing the theme verse, “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord” Ephesians 5:19. I had two great grandchildren in the choir.
I came home to spend the evening pondering the links from the minutes of the Creation Care Committee of College Mennonite Church.
The links reminded me that some scientists believe that the earth and its living inhabitants are beyond the point of saving. However, a large inter-religious movement is calling all religious leaders to a combined effort to call their congregations to actions that may save the children of the choir from suffication.
This brings me back to Goshen College. The college has a large and unique project called Merry Lea which could make a major contribution to the revival of the social and economic mid west.
Those of you who follow The Old Fool know that in these posts he is concerned about the role of the pastor in preaching. A pastor is presumed to speak for God, the unknown. But on this blue Monday, The Old Fool wonders if a pastor should also speak for what is known?
