August 12: The Best Idea You Never Heard Of
Having trouble viewing this message? View it in your browser. http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=fH4YbM8ONZFuHAHzrsOspQ.. August 12, 2011 The Best Idea You Never Heard Of Jeremiah 3:14 “I will bring you to Zion.” Reflection by Donna Schaper I often tell people that our congregation is “the best idea you never heard of.” In olden days and ways, I would have said we are marching to Zion. Our congregation - and many others - remind me of nothing so much as the Isner/Mahut tennis match last year. It was the longest game of tennis ever played - and in it, everybody wins. You can’t possibly say that someone who stayed in that long a match LOST. When you last that long, you don’t lose. What congregations do is to last. We deserve so much better press than we ever get. We do a kind of prehabilitation, instead of rehabilitation. If anyone has ever done rehab, you know just how boring that can be. Instead of letting our bodies or those of our offspring get bent into an injured stated, we lean out the window towards the possibility of healthy spiritual posture. We lean against the injury and do spiritual rehab, bending ourselves towards each other and the world in a muscular way. Through Sunday School juice boxes and weekly bulletins, offering plates and hymn selection, intern contracts and board meetings that go too long, secrets safely shared and alleluias belted out, on or off key, we march to Zion. That youth group leader we chose will or will not plant the gospel in the heart of a sixteen-year-old, who may or may not build wells in Zambia or build a company that builds wells in Zambia. But every now and then, one will. He or she will be bent out of the shape of the world into the shape of Jesus - and will get the rest of us to Zion with him. Bend by bend, breath by breath, congregations march to Zion. They are the best idea you never heard of. Prayer O God, when we are deep in congregational criticism, lift us out of appreciation deficit disorder into an order that yields a path, all the way to Zion. You promised! And so have we. Help us keep the ball in play. Amen. About the Author Donna Schaper is the Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Her latest work is 20 Ways to Keep Sabbath, from The Pilgrim Press. Check out her work at www.judson.org. Ecommerce/1731154920?VIEW_PRODUCT=true&product_id=39561&store_id=1401 http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=saU09uj6XAGc_h6xZdZEFQ.. The Daily Devotional is now on Facebook. Become a fan! http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=6yQ—jK8rKpDcLXssQTBpg.. Sign up to receive Daily Devotionals http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=DI3nA6sx3cBBV-WjjE2lTQ.. More items written by the Stillspeaking Writers’ Group http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=Iuw3K_Vpkr1TgEZkx1oi9w.. Facebook Fan Page http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=_Ci7Pzh8f3GOiUywmXGsIQ.. Forward to a Friend http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=MpQ_wetpfnx7tyR05WeOSg.. Signup for the Daily Devotional http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=lX4yDBSCnOBPDwoUIkfI7w.. Writers Group http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=QwP6JH8PPoEhNQWan2EacA.. The Stillspeaking Daily Devotional is a free service and is supported by your gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission. Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America,adapted. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=cYquZ3JUCq2Ag7E4YOmQJw.. Unsubscribe or edit your settings http://act.ucc.org/site/CO?i=LsyUETdBukHgjhrBKZ6upQTimOXQNufH&cid=1072www.judson.org. Ecommerce/1731154920?VIEW_PRODUCT=true&product_id=39561&store_id=1401 http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=saU09uj6XAGc_h6xZdZEFQ.. The Daily Devotional is now on Facebook. Become a fan! http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=6yQ—jK8rKpDcLXssQTBpg.. Sign up to receive Daily Devotionals http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=DI3nA6sx3cBBV-WjjE2lTQ.. More items written by the Stillspeaking Writers’ Group http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=Iuw3K_Vpkr1TgEZkx1oi9w.. Facebook Fan Page http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=_Ci7Pzh8f3GOiUywmXGsIQ.. Forward to a Friend http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=MpQ_wetpfnx7tyR05WeOSg.. Signup for the Daily Devotional http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=lX4yDBSCnOBPDwoUIkfI7w.. Writers Group http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=QwP6JH8PPoEhNQWan2EacA.. The Stillspeaking Daily Devotional is a free service and is supported by your gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission. Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America,adapted. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=cYquZ3JUCq2Ag7E4YOmQJw.. Unsubscribe or edit your settings http://act.ucc.org/site/CO?i=LsyUETdBukHgjhrBKZ6upQTimOXQNufH&cid=1072
