Things happen to set the tone and things kinda take off from there.
Like this Sunday.
During the announcements, Lenny bounced up onto the platform to get the men fired up for Saturday's Men's Breakfast - a bi-weekly time of fellowship, prayer, Bible study, and eggs.
And some kind of dead animal.
And coffee.
Lotsa coffee.
He talked about how it's now Spring and hibernation is over.
And how, he asked, did he know that hibernation was over?
Because the bears and the skunks are waking up and stumbling around.
And guess which one his dog found stumbling around?
Well.
It wasn't a bear.
And what does the dog do after making this new friend?
He brings it home.
And carries it under the deck.
Where it wakes up.
And realizes it doesn't really like the dog.
Yeah.
Hibernation is over.
Enjoy the smell of Spring.
After announcements and prayer it was time for some great worship, a glorious prequel to the first-Sunday-of-the-month Communion.
Communion is a great time of reflection.
A time to remember.
Especially with Easter just a couple of weeks away.
But we of my ilk and persuasion have an inherent problem with Communion.
It's not that we aren't reverent. We are.
We do not take God's Ultimate Gift lightly.
It's just that we sometimes lack the skill set to properly honor it.
You see, I go to a conservative Fundamental church which belongs to a conservative Fundamental denomination.
Which puts us at a slight disadvantage as we partake of one of the Communion elements.
We're pretty good with the bread.
Looking around the sanctuary, you can tell we know how to eat.
The bread isn't the problem.
It's the cup.
Those little plastic cups full of grape juice.
Grape juice.
There's the first hint that we lack the skill set. Yep. We're pretty much a congregation made up of
tea-totalers.
You see, we're way out of our league with anything that resembles a shot glass.
If the cups were the size of a coffee cup, no problem.
One pull and we're good.
We know how to drink coffee.
Even 1/2 a cup would let us kinda sip it. Like iced tea. Or cola.
Yeah.
We could sip.
But with that little cup - there's only one thing to do.
Toss it back.
On Sunday, all heads went back - like cowboys at Miss Kitty's after a long and dry cattle drive - and about 25% of us got it down the wrong pipe.
There was some throat clearing, mild coughing, and one near-seizure amid the quiet clacking din of little plastic cups nesting into holders.
There's a big difference between knowing about something and actually doing it - (I think that's in James somewhere).
And we're much better at
"Hallelujah!"
than "Whoopee-ti-yi-oh".
Somehow last Sunday, by God's grace, I survived the near-seizure.
And eventually stopped wheezing about 5 minutes into the sermon.
It was still a great time of remembrance.
And thankfulness.
And worship.
But next month I might start practicing the week before Communion.
You know, like tossing back cough syrup.
It comes with its own little shot glass, right outta the box.
And that should help with the coughing.
One way or the other.