It was a family ritual, always repeated as the car crested the long hill and began the descent into the city where my grandparents lived.  As soon as we crested the hill, the combs and mirrors came out to ensure even the nastiest of Dennis the Menace cowlicks were corralled.  Shirts were tucked in, shoe laces retied.  It was the ritual; always the same.  Later in life I learned that Grandma and Grandpa loved us with or without hair combed, shoes tied, and shirts tucked in their proper place.  Even later still I learned the ritual wasn’t so much about Grandma, as it was teaching a ragtag trio of children something about respect and honor. 

How do you prepare for worship on Sunday?  What is your unspoken ritual?  How do you prepare to enter into the presence of the living God?  What are your rituals of respect and honor?  Our ancient forebears sang songs, “psalms,” we call them.  Their songs of preparation we now call “Psalms of Ascent,” for they were sung as pilgrims walked the hills to finally ascend to the Temple mount.  In doing so they were preparing themselves for worship, for the encounter with the living God who speaks through hymns, prayers, meal, bath, preaching, and silence. 

This month, take a look at your ritual of preparation for worship.  Is it helping you prepare to enter into the presence of the living God?  Does it involve honor and respect as you come into the presence of the living God and God’s people?  If it does, great.  If not, consider trying something different?  You see, we live as we worship and we worship as we live.  If we don’t have practices—personal rituals—that honor and respect God in worship, how will we do so in our daily living?  Don’t know what to do?  Ask your pastors.

Oh, if for some reason you ever share the ride with me as we crest that hill in central Oregon, will you please look for the comb?

See you in Church!
 

SUNDAY October 7 Give Me More Faith (19th Sunday after Pentecost)

SUNDAY October 14 Gratitude (20th Sunday after Pentecost/7th Graders presented for Confirmation)

(Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19)  Leprosy is a disease you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.  Ten lepers were healed of this wasting flesh, exclude you from human community, die one piece at a time disease.  Restored to new life.  Ten were healed. Completely.  New life.  New flesh.  Raised from a sure and certain death.  One came back to give Jesus thanks and praise.  What do you call the other nine?
 

SUNDAY  October 21 Wrestling with God (21st Sunday after Pentecost/Baptism Sunday)

(Readings: Genesis 32:22-31; Psalm 121; Luke 18:1-8) 
Jacob wrestled with God’s messenger at Jabbok.  Long into the night they wrestled.  Until his very name was changed to, Wrestles with God.  In Hebrew?  Israel. If you think faith is a fixed proposition, get ready for some wrestling.  Mats are optional.
 

SUNDAY October 28 Perfectly Free (Reformation Sunday)

(Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 46; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36) 

A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all. Martin Luther penned these words, and then spent the rest of his life living into them.  These days we know all too well the cost of freedom.  It is paid for in blood, sweat, tears, and faith.  The freedom Christ offers is worth all we can muster.  Come; sing the songs of freedom…in Christ.