Labor Day Weekend....

What a great Sunday. I started the day in Walnut Creek hearing my dear friend Ralph preach at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church. He, as always, did a splendid job. His delivery and voice quality is so easy to listen to. His message, about our task to overflow in our lives, was engaging. I still think he should have shot the marshmallows. (inside joke with Ralph and I). My perceptions of the message was that I need to make sure that my fountain pump is turned on. Living in Vegas, water that stands stagnant does one of two things...it evaporates or it becomes green, slimy and filmy. Every two days or so we pour a couple of cups of chorine in our fountain to get rid of the muckiness. Within minutes...when the pump is running, the water clears up...and then flows easily from one tier to the other. The other result is that water that stands stagnant evaporates quickly in the desert. Then, the pump can be ruined if it is on a timer, comes on, and their is no water. Things to think about...would love your feed back.

Last night, I went with two friends to the Mission Bay Community Church, PCUSA. The pastor is the moderator for the entire Presbyterian church in the US for the next two years. As it was Labor Day weekend, they had a guest preacher, who....GET THIS...lived in my dorm room for 5 years, finishing his DMin. How weird is that? Anyway, very intriguing message. He works directly with the labor forces and unions for the hospitality industry in San Francisco in Health care refrom issues...His sermon title was..."Pre-existing Conditions." His premise...our Christian conditions that pre-exist....GRACE...WE ARE MADE IN GOD's IMAGE....WE ARE CALLED TO TAKE CARE OF THE SICK. His text was Ezekiel 34:1-16.

My personal impressions...I think about the times that I am at a gated community. I punch in the code, the wrong code and get the message ACCESS DENIED....I try again with a different code....ACCESS DENIED. The third time, either their is a car behind me wanting in or the gate mechanism has locked out me trying another code. It is so frustrating...but not nearly as frustrating as those who need medical care and get DENIED. Or even those of us who have health care, PTL, and pay our premiums, submit a claim and get DENIED! REALLY?!

The passage in Ezekiel is a wonderful text...charging the shepherd to take care of the flock...So it seems that either the government is not doing its job or God's people are not doing theirs. Again...questions to chat about.

Have a great rest of your weekend. I will be writing a paper....but thanking God for the blessings that enable me to be in seminary. Many of those blessings are you!