A new room’s already been added to the commons.
Although we’re pretty cramped for space, I’ve been impressed all
year by the way folks work to share our new center for ministry. Our Sunday
School teachers have about ten percent of the space they had at Corpus Christi,
and the dividers they share are not nearly as soundproof as we’d hope
- but they set up every Sunday morning before most of you get there and then
swap it all out for coffee and conversation before you leave worship. That deluge
of rain drove part of the Easter Egg Hunt indoors, and Tapestry’s Tea
and flower sales were big affairs, but by Sunday morning everything was spic
and span and back in place. I see that kind of thing all week long, from Al
Anon to Bible studies to work groups, I see the same work to share space, to
clean things up, to put things back, to make the campsite a little better than
the way you found it.
What delights me is that we still know how to camp out, even though we have
a building now to camp in. What we’re doing is practicing the Kingdom
of God, practicing life together the way Jesus called us to live together. It’s
a tough way to live: to share space with courtesy, to share territory without
being territorial, to constantly make room for each other. It’s a way
of life that runs counter to every rule of physics: we actually live like we
believe that the space inside a finite building is infinite, that there really
is always room for one more, that no matter how many people you pack inside
there’s another parking space, another seat, another plate at the table.
There is always more room - not because we think there is, but because Jesus
says there is.
That new room off the commons is a little hard to see - it’s a bird’s
nest in the sprinkler head, in the bump out between the sanctuary and the commons.
In a building where every inch counts, I’m astounded that the Grounds
Committee would simply let it be - just as they mow around the Killdeer nests
in the lawn. Yet that’s what we believe, isn’t it - that Christ
made room in God’s heart for us, like we make room for all of God’s
creation.
Pastor Jim
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? John 14:2
From the Shepherd's Song Newsletter -- June 2010
Copyright 2010 by Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
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E-mail your comments and questions to Pastor Jim in care of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church at good.shep-holland@sbcglobalnet.