Sunday evening and I'm just back from dinner with my in-laws - Pam's mom, her brother and his wife. This morning was church at Celebration, my first time back in several years. I know that because several of them were surprised I now have hair. It was great to see dear friends, catch up, however briefly, on life since and to worship together. Plus, the kid can preach!
It is FREEZING here! I had to scrape a thick layer of frost off the car windows this morning before driving to church. I don't think we hit 30 degrees today even though the sun was shining.
Along with my "long" hair people commented on my tan. Everyone here still wears the pallor of winter.
One of the segments on Top Gear (at least the BBC version which we watch) is "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car." Each season they have a basic car to which they've added a roll cage for safety. Then they bring in somebody famous, either from the entertainment world or a well-known political figure, and have them drive the car around a course laid out on an old airport tarmac. They then post the times of the stars from fastest to slowest, adding each week's driver to the rankings.
I'm driving a Kia Forte, a reasonably priced car. I am not a star, and I'm not normally anything close to an aggressive driver. In fact, I'd describe myself as a very conservative driver because I want my cars to last as long as possible. I accelerate very gradually and brake the same way. But the combination of a rental car with surprising performance and a head full of Top Gear "Reasonably Priced Car" segments has me enjoying myself. The speed limit on the freeways here is 70 mph, and nowhere does it say how much time you should take to get to that speed. Turns out if you smash your foot to the floor a Kia Forte will get there rather quickly. It corners well too, at least if your point of comparison is a '67 VW Beetle.
And the car has Sirius radio. I could get used to that! I'm enjoying the Met Opera channel. Yeah, I know. That's geeky.
I had a too-short opportunity to talk with Pastor Paul at lunch about preaching. We agree that finding the balance between exposition and application is one of the challenges with which we struggle. The Bible should change our lives, so "bringing it on home" should be a key element of any sermon. But application not based on the truths and teachings of Scripture is hollow and without lasting value. What does the text say? Then, what does it mean for our lives?
Next Sunday at Pathway we're going to take the next section of the Joseph narrative - his interpretations of the dreams of the baker, the cup bearer, and then Pharaoh himself. I thought about breaking it up into two sermons - first the dreams of his two fellow prisoners and then Pharaoh's dreams - but after reading them over several times they seem to be grouped together as a single unit. The problem: how do I cover that much material AND give the application its due. To make matters more challenging, I think there are two important connections between the dream events and our 21st century lives.
This may be one of those sermons where I talk real fast, like the guy reading the legal stuff at the end of a car ad on the radio. Except without the "Must take delivery..." part.
Did anybody choose any of these teams to make the final four??
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