Hello, Friends!
    Each year our garage sale leaves me with a few priceless, indelible images of our community that delight and bless me with some new reflection of who we are, as part of Christ’s body.
     Here are just two—if you were around, I’m sure you have your own, that I hope you’ll also celebrate, remember, and share.
     There was this really cute little dining table that we were offering at a “steal of a deal,” and just when we were wondering why it hadn’t sold, this adorable young couple from down the street saw it, loved, it bought it, and also bought some wine glasses.  They were all excited about the dinner they were going to fix and serve on that table, the obviously new life together they were going to celebrate that night.  Since they didn’t have a truck, they just decided to carry the table down the sidewalk and around the corner—and behind them, carefully and cheerfully toting their “new” wine glasses, was none other than our own Dick Barrick.
    Folks driving by were pausing to look, and smile, at the image of that little parade—what a delightful image of neighborly cooperation, and Christ’s hospitality!
      The other one is of two fellows, sharing a common love with fervor and focus, in a somewhat unlikely but equally joyful way.   Our sale happened (again) to take place on that other high holy day—OU/UT game day.  So all the tv’s for sale were tested, and finally the oldest one was hooked up to an outside outlet, and placed up on the wall beside the church sign.
      Two of our hardworking fellows, Frank our young faithful acolyte and servant, and Gilbert, our dedicated groundskeeper, were glued to that spot for much of the game.  When the final moments (which went UT’s way) were building to their climax, those two were equally animated, downright ecstatic, and their voices could be heard from a block away, in unified celebration of their (and for many, I know, “our”) team’s triumph.
     Not a religious (or is it?) experience, per se, but such a great image of shared joy, comradeship, fellow feeling, right there on the church lawn for all to see—doesn’t God delight in all the aspects of life that bring us together?
     I think so.  I’m glad to have been together with you this past week, and to be with you in and around our church this Sunday, and all our days to come.

Shalom,
Sarah