You know it when you encounter it

At the community meal on Saturday (about which much more another time)  a little guy wandered into the kitchen, followed by his grandma.  Spying a couple of apples on top of the microwave , he staated that he wanted one. I guess his grandma didn't want him to, because she said, "They're plastic, Bubba."  Bubba may not be the most academically gifted kid in the crew, but he did not skip a beat beforei  asking, "Then why is there a fly on that one?"

On some level or another, we know what's the real deal, even when those we trust are doing their best to take that away from us.

So practice and share. Where do you see God working?

Share a quick answer,

then visit God is on the loose! on YouTube and God sightings in the Northeastern PA sunod on facebook. Then share some more!

Bible Study at Helfer's resturant, Tusday at 4

Well, it in't really a Bible study at the moment. We're reading--well, I'm reading aloud--C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. I first read it when I was young & impressionable, and hte idea of bus trips from hell to heaven still charms me. It is a rich & multilayered book: I don't read it quite the way I did when I was 14, but I love it still/.  We're getting near the end, but you can still jump in.

We pray, too--probably spend about half our time gathering up the needs that have been presented to us and lifting them up/ Oh, and coffee--let us not forget the coffee....

Come join us! Helfer's is at Lloyd & Ferguson Sts. in Shenandoah. (Marcella--right next to whre Shirley used to live!)

St. John, who baptized

     Of course I should have mentioned in my last post that we do prayer around the cross every Friday at 9:30 p.m. The church is at 119 W. Cherry St. in Shenandoah. You mau come in your jammies or dancing shoes, whichever suit your plans for afterward.

     And this week, it is on St. John;s birthday. How  I love him, the last of the OT prophets! Back at St. Johns' 125th anniversary, when we were deciding which St. John to claim as patron, my father lobbied strongly for this one, and suggested that we remame ourselves, "Ye Brood of Viper
sLutheran Church." (Luke 3:7) footnote: at the end of the day we decided to claim the patronage of every St. John, hence "St. Johns'."

    He was not a mincer of words, this saint. He spoke his truth, and it was always about Jesus, from thei first meeting before they were born when he jumped in his mama;s belly with the joy of recognition. He tol his followers of someone greater coming after him, when Jesus arrived, he and God both acknowledged him.

     He wasn't at the crucifixion--he'd already been killed. But Matthias Grunewald painted him there. And to do what? To point, with that long finger, to Jesus.

     What a calling! Never part of the inner circle, but so much more--the one Jess called the greatest of those born of women.

     Come out tonight and we'll celebrate his birtday.

Praying around the cross...outside

     So a couple of  Fridays ago there was not a big crowd gathered at 9:30 for prayer around the cross. In fact it was just myself, the Yangster (about whom more later) and Thea.Well, two or three, the Bible says, and Thea is a force. She comes when she is able, and that is not a throwaway sratement from her. Thea is dying rather mor quickly than most of us, but her determination to do what is to be done in the meantime is, as they say, a witness.
     In the event, it was one of those perfect, silken late spring evenings, and we decided to carry the cross outside the red doors. We stood it upright and put the candles where we could and just got on with the singing ad the praying and the chanting. Then we talked for a sweet long time. A blessing.
     Thea was there the first night we did prayer around the ctoss a few months ago.So was the Yangster, my 11 yea rold, who is a boy scout kinda guy and good with fire. There, too, was a somewhat challenged but extremely game fella. I said a few words of introduction, we talked about those for whom we were praying and prayed for them. I invited people to light candles and place them on or around he cross, then settled into some chanting after I lit a candle to show how its done. Pasta, especially vermicelli, makes a fine candle lighter,so I took a light from a candle already on the cross and lit a tea candle.  The Yangster lit a few, then our somewhat callenged but game brother started in. He apparantly thought the idea was to light all the candles, and he went at it with great gusto and little success. Pasta is a good lighter, but if you take a light from a candle at one ed of the cross and arc it toward a tea candle on the table at the other end...well, the Yangster observed the next day, "I never quite gt it before about insanity being doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." He moved in to assist. And then I glanced over at Thea, who was bent double in her motorized chair. Oh, dear thought I, tere's no better place to meet God and all, but....  I went to her and put a hand on her back. She was breathing. I was delighted. So I got down on the floor, peered up in her face, and whispered, "Are you OK, or do you need a little push?"
At which point Marilyn, who is rather more attuned to God's time than mine strolled in, assumed I was hearing a confession, and made to leave. So I tried to call her back quietly (foolish, she is a bit deaf) while pushing Thea to upright,  and holy laughter ensued.
    I may have told you all you need to know about St. Johns' already. We'll see.