We Interrupt This Sermon To Bring You...

...the definition "syncretism."

Our pastor is an actor at heart. He introduced his series on Jeremiah by appearing in full O.T. costume and giving a monologue as the prophet himself. He is going to appear as Scrooge in a community theater's production of "A Christmas Carol" this year. And so it was not too surprising when last Sunday morning, as he was introducing another series, this one on Colossians, a student stood up (miked and with clipboard in hand) and interrupted him to ask him to fill out a religious survey for a course he was taking. This was just a setup for describing syncretism rather than giving an academic definition of it.

All well and good, until the student himself was interrupted by an elderly parishioner way in the back of the church who stood up himself and demanded that the two of them continue this conversation in the pastor's study so we could all get back to the sermon! I actually thought that this was part of the setup, but I was wrong. I guess the man felt that if one person could interrupt, then so could another. Pastor R. had to think on his feet (good improv practice for his budding acting career, I guess) to salvage the situation. Of course, a certain young daughter of ours, who isn't shy about speaking up even at inappropriate times, thought she could interrupt the sermon too. She asked a question (at least she stayed sitting) about something (I don't remember now, but then I can easily suppress moments like this). Was it a puzzle, she wanted to know. And R answered, yes, all these various views were sort of a puzzle but not one with nice even edges, and kept on going.

Never a dull moment at Northview Alliance. I anticipate that Colossians will be just as compelling. There's been a fire in R's preaching these last few weeks as he built a foundation for this book study.