An Enote from Rodney

Friday June 3, 2016

An eNote from Rodney

Dear Trinity Congregation,

The pictures of moms on Mother’s Day was a big hit so now it’s time to start thinking about pictures for Father’s Day. Andrew already has his dad up. Start rummaging through those shoe and cigar boxes and find a picture of your dad. Bring it in and put it on our board.

An Installation Service for our new District Superintendent, Beth Crissman will be held here at Trinity on Sunday afternoon June 5, at 3:00 pm. The Bishop will be in attendance and we will also honor John Boggs for his service to our district as he moves into a new area of ministry. Beth has asked the Trinity Strings to play and Nolan will be playing and there will be a reception in the fellowship hall after the service. Thank you to everyone who is helping to make this service happen. When you come on Sunday afternoon, if possible will you park in the Balm Grove lot or our lot behind Shook’s Garage? Thank you.

Sunday is the first Sunday of the month so we will take communion as part of the service. Several week ago I preached a sermon on the importance of the physicality of worship, how the physical items in the sanctuary and our interaction with them and each other is a rich part of worship. In that sermon I forgot to mention the most important physical element of worship, the blood of Christ. Jesus passed wine around the table to represent his blood but we use grape juice. American Methodism was influenced by revivalist movements that saw all alcohol as evil. Therefore, we put grape juice in the chalice, not wine. However, grape juice has a pleasant taste. A cheap watereddown port wine has an acidic, pungent quality to it. If physical things in worship speak to us, what do you think Christ’s death tastes like? A pleasant beverage or a pungent acidity that puckers the mouth?

The scripture lesson for Sunday is Galatians 1:11-24. In this passage Paul talks about how he had to change his insides to get his outsides right. Or was it his outsides to get his insides right?

I hope I can figure that out before Sunday and I’ll see you then.

Sincerely,
Rodney

A link to reply directly.
rodhagans@gmail.com

www.trinityWAVL.org