09/10/2019
I am still celebrating a wonderful outdoor worship experience on Sunday. The music was outstanding...a little jazz, a little contemporary Christian and bluegrass all in one day. The food and fellowship were what we had hoped to have. Then of course, all praise to our God who answered many prayers lifted asking that the clouds be parted to take the rain away from Carmel...at least for that time!!
A beautiful tent was arranged to the south of the main church building for the worship experience last Sunday. The beautiful white tent is a perfect metaphor for God’s church. What a perfect visual as we launch the upcoming sermon series “Won’t you be My Neighbor”. The church worshiped under a tent that had no walls.
-No sides to keep us inside to simply care for ourselves to the neglect of others.
-No sides to keep others out.
-No sides to prevent those of us from under the tent to go outside of the tent.
That is probably the very best metaphor God desires for His church. God desires of his church to love and care for its members. God desires for His church to grow in discipleship. But most of all, God desires all of that to serve as preparation for His church to go out into the world. God desires for us to make the world one large neighborhood. Yes, God wants us to ask the question of everyone…”Won’t you be My Neighbor?”
Yes, a wall-less tent is a good metaphor for God’s church.
Blessings, Rev. Patti Napier
Archived Posts
Gandhi and the Sugar
I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was. And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach. This famous illustration came to mind. It fits Jackie’s points quite well. Enjoy!
Not Just for Parents
Our current sermon series is about How To Talk Parent, but it doesn’t require any of us to be parents to appreciate the bits of wisdom OUR parents shared with us growing up.
If Not Higher
Here’s a story I wanted to use when talking about ‘what you do when no one is looking’ yesterday. It’s a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:1-6—do what you do because of who you want to be, not so that others will take notice and praise you.
The Perfect Church
There is an old joke about the perfect church. We talked just a little about the perfect pastor, but turnabout is fair play. It goes like this:
The Clothes You Wear
Sunday I talked about Joshua the High Priest having his filthy clothing replaced by a cleaned and beautiful garments. I also used the illustration of a boy becomes a dragon—who ‘wears’ dragon scales—and is stripped of those scales in order to be restored to a boy. In fact, I could have done the whole sermon around all the clothing imagery in scripture.
What just missed the cut for Sunday’s Sermon
Naaman’s servants may actually become one of the hidden gems of the sermon. They say, essentially: “If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it.”
One of the Longest Benedictions I Ran Out of Time to Share
Maybe you know the story of how Joseph and Mary accidentally left Jesus at the gas station on their way home from Jerusalem. Well, not the gas station bathroom in Jesus’ case. Joe and Mary are far down the road before they realize Jesus isn’t with them...