Random Thoughts on Sunday evening

Well, it seems it might be time to catch up. Rather than try to remember (and find time) to post multiple times on multiple topics, I’ll try to do several topics in one post (he says, trying to remember all the things that could have been earlier entries).

Summer – yes, it is summer in Mobile, and very hot. Looking at the temperatures for Mobile and other southern cities, they don’t seem very different, but if you can find and compare heat indexes, the true story comes out. We are coping, but I think acclamation would take a number of years.

Vacation – not only does this week bring us a holiday, but also vacation time. We will leave on Thursday for an escape to the mountains of North Carolina. Hopefully, cooler temperatures will prevail. The reason for going is my grandmothers’ 96th birthday. We hope there will be more, but we get together each year just in case there are not.

Internship – what a busy time! Our supervisor has been on vacation for the last three weeks, so we have been in charge. It has been a wonderful opportunity to experience ministry together, and to put to use the many skills we have accumulated. It has also been a time of finishing our LDR presentations and beginning to wrap up our Congregational Preparedness program so we can hand it over to someone else. Our last two presentations were to the Mobile District Attorney’s disaster response task force and to the South Baldwin Amateur Radio Club (SBARC). Both of these were interesting, as they were not congregations and were not presentations we instigated. In both cases, they invited us after hearing about us elsewhere.

One of the most interesting things out of the presentation and interaction with the DA’s office is that they have developed a preparedness program called Erik’s Shoebox. It is a great program to help people have important documents in a safe place and ready for evacuation. We are going to help LDR set up an Erik’s Shoebox day in Bayou la Batre later this month. Staff and volunteers from LDR will help residents photocopy and/or scan to CD important documents such as Driver’s License, Social Security card, titles to cars or homes, and other important papers that could be lost in a storm or that are needed to apply for aid after a storm.

Sunday after-the-sermon thoughts – today was my turn to preach, and Paul’s letter to the Galatians played heavily in my sermon. Various discussions this week played off the idea that our freedom in Christ (Gal 5:1) can somehow be tied to our freedom as Americans (being the Sunday before the 4th of July and all). I had trouble with this, even though I did write one version of a sermon that attempted to address that issue. The problem is, even though we are called to be radical disciples of Christ, and Christ has set us free so that we can be radical disciples of a radical Gospel, it has nothing to do with the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Needless to say, my sermon focused more on being free in Christ so that we can be radical disciples. Someday, I will go back and explore the other sermon option, but on internship, while the supervisor is gone, was probably not the time to pit patriotism against discipleship. Or at, that was my decision on Saturday night.