Not an especially nice start to the day. We had a couple of inches of unexpected snow down in the valley and a foot or more of it in the foothills. The thirty mile drive to Dayton, WA was an adventure to say the least. Little Grace Church has a small congregation as it is, so the combination of weather, travel and illnesses meant an even smaller gathering of just eight, including me and my wife. My brilliant exposition on John’s gospel was received with warmth, if a bit on the luke side. What they really wanted to know was who the heck was Melchizedek, and how did he relate to Jesus? See, they really were listening to the lesson from Hebrews. It was a very sensible question, and it goes back to the obvious fact that we have a tendency to stop serious teaching after confirmation, if we were serious about it even then. They really do want to know. Our job is to find the right means and venue to meet that need. In a small rural congregation we can just switch gears in the middle of the service and do that, but it brings to mind that the greater church simply must pay more attention to adult Christian education.
I am surprised and pleased to hear that the tiny congregation at Grace Church, Dayton, was actually attentive and questioning about the lesson from Hebrews. I usually think that most listeners to the scripture readings in church put their minds in neutral and slip into a torpor, as they do in most college lectures! I was actually sympathetic to the methods of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in Chicago and his use of shock to make a point, which got candidate Obama in such trouble with the talk-radio rabble rousers last year, The young rabbi Jesus used similar shock tactics sometimes (which got him into trouble at the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth once!) Dr. B
iT SOUDS LIKE YOU ARE ENJOYING YOURSELF AND GRACE CHURCH! THE PROBLEM IS THAT I COULD NOT SPEAK TO THE LESSON IN HEBREWS JUST OFF HAND. THE SUBJECT FASCINATES ME!