May 2007

Via Sojourners

“Religious silence is silence that is undertaken as an act of worship. Whether I hear God or not makes no difference.”

See the previous post below.

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The organ is being tuned today. Organ music is beautiful, organ tuning … not so much. I’ll be working from home to avoid the racket. Feel free to call.

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Vacation Bible School will be held from June 18 to June 22 from 9:00 am to 12 noon.

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The church office will be closed tomorrow in observance of Memorial Day. It will reopen Tuesday at 8:00 am.

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From Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner:

“Science is the investigation of the physical universe and its ways, and consists largely of weighing, measuring, and putting things in test tubes. To assume that this kind of investigation can unearth solutions to all our problems is a form of religious faith whose bankruptcy has only in recent years started to become apparent.
There is a tendency in many people to suspect that anything that can’t be weighed, measured, or put in a test tube is either not real or not worth talking about. That is like a blind person’s suspecting that anything that can’t be smelled, tasted, touched, or heard is probably a figment of the imagination.
A scientist’s views on such subjects as God, morality, and life after death are apt to be about as enlightening as a theologian’s views on the structure of the atom or the cause and cure of the common cold.
The conflict between science and religion, which reached its peak toward the end of the nineteenth century, is like the conflict between a podiatrist and a poet. One says that Susie Smith has fallen arches. The other says she walks in beauty like the night. In his own way each is speaking the truth. What is at issue is the kind of truth you’re after.”

I think much the same could be said of perceived conflict between the Genesis stories of creation and evolution. The trick is to know what kind of truth you’re after. By the same logic, those who try to prove the truth of the Genesis accounts by scientific standards do an extreme disservice to the book of Genesis and the Creator it reveals.

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Two new trees were planted at the parsonage several weeks ago. In case you were wondering, they are white buds.

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As you may remember, Jenny was up at Independence First United Methodist Church the last time we celebrated communion. Independence First was also celebrating communion that Sunday and Jenny saw that although the majority of people communed through intinction (breaking off a piece of bread and dipping it in the cup), they also had the small pieces of bread and juice in small cups available. Jenny and I thought we would adopt this practice and the communion stewards have agreed. Adopting this practice will also make it easier to kneel for those who so wish.

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If you heard the church bells tolling about 5:00 pm yesterday, it was not for anyone in particular, but simply a result of the fact that I had received a key to the Carillon system (which reproduces the sounds of bells) and was teaching myself how to use it.

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At the present time our recycling program can no longer take paperboard (cereal boxes, etc). The materials we’re still taking are:

• Shredded office paper
• Glass: must be rinsed out.
• Aluminum Cans: must be rinsed out.
• Newspaper: in paper sacks or boxes.
• Paper Sacks
• Plastic Bags
• #1 Plastic bottles: must be rinsed out.
• #2 Milk Jugs: must be rinsed out.
• #2 Colored Plastic bottles
• Magazines and Catalogs
• Cardboard
• Ink Jet Cartridges
• Cell Phones

You can take your sorted materials down to room 001 (where the Tri-M class used to meet).

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