Whither it is lightbulbs or anything else in our life, change can be challenging.  As we continue to move into a different political reality in the United States, the church finds itself in shifting theological territory. Change is not something that the church, a giant multifaceted institution, handles very well.

Has anyone ever successfully solved the Rubik’s Cube? Anyone who can solve it quickly? The Rubik’s Cube is one of the hallmark toys of my generation: children of the 80s. It was introduced in the U.S. in 1980 and has been frustrating children and adults alike ever since. The Rubik’s Cube was invented just 6 years prior in 1974 by a Hungarian architecture professor named Erno Rubik

The Mr. Potato Head toy was the brain story of George Lerner in the late 1940s.  His concept called for separate plastic facial pieces designed to be stuck into a real potato.  The Mr. Potato Head parts were originally included in boxes of cereal to promote sales.  Lerner sold the products to textile manufacturers Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who did business as the Hassenfeld Brothers later shortened to Hasbro. 

Have you ever tried to make something out of clay? I remember when I was in elementary school, we were given an art assignment to make a piece of pottery out of a lump of clay. All of the kids in my class were given the same size block of clay, and we were told to form this clay into a nice piece of pottery.

What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, And makes a slinkity sound? A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing, Everyone knows it’s Slinky. It’s Slinky, It’s Slinky for fun it’s a wonderful toy! It’s Slinky it’s Slinky it’s for fun for a girl and a boy!

How many of you are familiar with the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”?

The goal is to link any actor to Kevin Bacon through no more than six connections, where two actors are connected if they have appeared in a movie or commercial together. It was created by three students at Albright College in Pennsylvania who came up with the concept while watching Footloose. On September 13, 2012, Google made it possible to search for any given actor’s ‘Bacon Number’ through their search engine. 

Once upon a time a young family was having their second child baptized and had invited the child’s grandfather who was a pastor to baptize the baby.  The church was full of family and friends.  The service was joy filled as the tiny infant was brought into the body of Christ.  After the sacrament, the family returned home and was preparing to have a wonderful celebration lunch…

There’s a lot going on in today’s reading from John’s Gospel. And I mean A LOT! This passage, filled with images both familiar and odd, can be a lot to take in. St. Augustine chose an eagle to represent St. John because he felt the theology of the Fourth Evangelist soared so high above the other gospels, but sometimes it reaches heights that can be hard for many of us – both in the pulpit and in the pew – to follow…

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability…
We love happy endings, don’t we?
We love the bad guy losing.
We love the couple falling in love….

Are there things that you don’t like to do? Are there daily or weekly chores? Is there a to do list? We all have those tasks that we would rather not do, but we still must complete. Sometimes, we are give a job and it is a difficulty chore. It is no different for us or folks from past generations. Sometimes we get called to do something that we are unsure of, but are invited to serve none the less. A prime example is Ananias. He is aware of Saul. The church in Damascus has been talking about Saul and its members rightfully afraid of him — he has, after all, been dragging Christians out of house after house, throwing them into prison, and desiring their deaths.