Lost my email again!
Bern showed me how to get it back--and I did.
Today at Trinity we had a long conversation--after a short communion--about the guy who covers for me one Sunday a month.
He may not come back--surely won't.
We have to come up with a plan.
Don't have one yet.
Time will tell.
Bern got my internet back--my email, I mean.
I didn't ask how she did it since I wouldn't understand a word she said....
I had 134 messages and it took me half-an-hour to go through them, though most of them I didn't even open--just deleted.
So, email me if you want.
I may open it or delete it....
Try as I could, I couldn't get it back.
Bern will try tomorrow. She is a internet genius, compared to me--an internet dope.
We'll see.
I have 123 messages I can't see.
Most of them are garbage.
But some might matter.
We'll see tomorrow.
For the first time since being at Trinity, Milton, I preached without a manuscript.
I used to do it a lot--but as I got older I decided I should 'write it down' so I wouldn't forget something.
But today I knew the lessons so well that I knew what I wanted to say.
It started like this: "Sometimes God says to us: 'Pay attention!'"
Then I told the story from Samuel where God speaks to Samuel four times.
The first three times, the boy runs to his master, Eli, and says, "Here I am for you called me."
The first two times Eli tells him he didn't call him, to go back and go to sleep.
The third time, Eli says, "if he calls you again, you shall say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.'"
That works.
The rest of the sermon was about God's call to us in the Psalm and in the Epistle.
Finally, in the Gospel from Mark, Jesus says, "The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath."
He is telling us that religion is to enlighten us to be the hands and voice and ears and energy of God in the world--not to be limited by religion or made a servant to religion.
I also ranted for a while about the Evangelicals who try to shame people into 'obeying' the church rather than 'being' the church.
But I'll leave that out here.
I don't know what went wrong--but I can't read my emails.
My computer tells me I have 56--but when I go to the new emails, I'm told the page doesn't exist.
Most of them are probably useless--but some may be vital./
It'll be Monday before I call and see if I can regain access.
A long and lonely weekend.
Alas.
We had 9 people at Bible Study today--a record!
That's a lot for a parish that gets 15-25 on Sundays.
We're nearing the end of the Gospel of John and the discussions have been spirited, inter-active and inspiring.
I told them today we'd read Acts next--though I kind of dread it.
Lots of Acts looses me.
But with this group it should be fun and informative.
Bern and I went to an afternoon picnic at a good friend's house.
It was a great crowd and wondrous food.
But before all that, I fell down.
My knees make stairs difficult--especially going up.
I went down to the porch to get some wine (first glass, so that didn't make me fall.
There are five stone steps from the porch to the back yard with nothing to hold on to.
The fourth step got me and I sprawled on the walk and some gravel, spilling my wine.
Bern came--put a bandage on my bloody elbow and helped me up.
It was more embarrassing than painful.
I should take my cane when I go out.
