dual personalities

Tag: church

March 7, 2022

What then shall we say to these things?

by chuckofish

This weekend I stepped out of my comfort zone and ventured to an estate sale in a part of town that is terra incognita to me. Daughter #2 was in Jeff City so I had no trusty co-pilot…but I found the house without a problem. It was in Affton, a tiny house that would usually never tempt me, but the pictures on the estate sale website had led me to believe that it might be worthwhile because there were lots of Ehrman needlepoint pillows, finished, unfinished and unopened kits. A veritable treasure trove of the best kits from the U.K.! Even though I arrived within an hour of opening, a lot of the best pillows and all the kits were already gone. However, upon investigation, I soon discovered that the woman who had made all the pillows and sewed all the kits was not a very accomplished needlepointer. They were all trapezoidal, not square, and nothing had been blocked. Her stitching was terrible. What a shame!

I bought one that had not yet been made into a pillow in memory of the devoted needlepointer, but I am uncertain pretty sure it can’t be salvaged.

I also bought a good book…

…which happened to have the woman’s name in it. It sounded vaguely familiar and I was curious, so I googled her. It turns out she went to my old Episcopal church! Zut alors–the world is so small.

We had another great sermon in church on Sunday. It was on Romans 8:31-39, one of the greatest passages in scripture.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As usual, I cried during every hymn. All these tears made me think of what Frederick Buechner wrote about tears…

Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention.  They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next. 

–Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark

Nevertheless, it is kind of embarrassing and I need to stop wearing mascara to church.

The boy and his wee family joined us at church and then came over for brunch. The sun wasn’t out, but it was warm enough to do a little exploring in the yard after our meal…

…and I put the wee babes to work picking up sticks after a very windy winter…

This is a game they enjoy. (Lottie made believe we were going to have a bonfire. Make-believe bonfires are the best.) I went out and bagged it up later.

How was your weekend?

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as now.

Elvina M. Hall, 1865
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January 24, 2022

Hey, baby. There ain’t no easy way out*

by chuckofish

Mood. Life just keeps getting weirder, right? But we try to persevere in our own small way. Chin chin.

Happily, daughter #1 came home on Friday and we spent a nice weekend doing what I like to think of as normal things. We went to our new favorite place for happy hour and then came home and listened to music. The OM provided dinner. On Saturday we went to two estate sales and bought a few books and a couple of other do-dads. We went out to lunch. On Saturday night we watched the first part of The Ten Commandments (1956) which, between Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and John Derek, features a lot of old fashioned male pulchritude.

As I’ve noted before, the film really holds up and we will watch the second half at a later date (we know how it ends.)

Sunday morning I made a tater tot casserole to serve for lunch after church. Then we all met up with the boy and his petite famille at church where we sang our Presbyterian hymns lustily and listened to a long sermon on Acts 20: 28-38 by the youth minister about being attentive to yourself (in respect to grace), to one another and to the Gospel. I am so happy to leave church feeling joyful and not annoyed as was previously always the the case. (The boy was annoyed because we sang Rock of Ages with the alternate tune, but this is a small price to pay for doctrinal satisfaction in my opinion.)

Lord, how delightful ’tis to see

A whole assembly worship thee!

At once they sing, at once they pray;

They hear of heaven, and learn the way.

With thoughts of Christ and things divine

Fill up this foolish heart of mine;

That, hoping pardon through his blood,

I may lie down, and wake with God.

(Isaac Watts)

After church we finally celebrated daughter #3’s birthday which was delayed from earlier in January because she was sick and then quarantined.

It had been almost a month since we had seen them! The wee laddie got a chance to drive the Raptor so he was a happy camper.

I suppose this may all sound extremely dull, but for me it was lovely and I am thankful. I am thankful that my husband went out in the cold and brought home a fast food dinner. I am thankful that my daughter spun records for me. I am even thankful that my grandson said he didn’t want to come over to my house after church because it is weird and ugly, but then he did and ate conversation hearts and a donut and was quite content. Life is weird and ugly, but there are also donuts.

Anyway, I am now a certified nerd because I actually understood these two Babylon Bee “stories” and they made me laugh out loud.

*Tom Petty

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December 20, 2021

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation

by chuckofish

The last weekend before Christmas has passed and I am ready for the big day. I got the tree up and decorated with the help of the boy who came over twice–once after work to put the tree up and once before work to do the lights. I then put up the decorations by myself. Voila–not the best shaped tree ever, but who cares? It’s pretty. I also put up my stained glass collection.

The boy and his little family were in Kansas City this weekend and daughter #1 stayed in JC, so the OM and I went to church unaccompanied–twice. We went in the morning and again at 6:00 pm, because the farewell party for our senior pastor followed the evening service. After 15 years he is moving on to a bigger church in McLean, Virginia and they are lucky to get him–such a good preacher! It is typical that this is happening when I have just found a great new church (and denomination), but I trust that we will get a new senior pastor that is equally gifted.

In a funny way I am thankful that the Covid shutdowns happened, because it forced me to go online to find somewhere to worship and in turn that got me looking seriously at alternatives to the Episcopal Church. I mean, finding a church in Charlottesville, VA did me no good once we were back in church. I had been listening to Tim Keller sermons on YouTube for a long time, but my learning curve really went into hyperdrive when I discovered R.C. Sproul on Ligonier.org. Since Ligonier emphasizes the importance of the local church, once things reopened I felt a strong pull to find a Reformed church in St. Louis. I did more research, and remembering the PCA church I passed on my way to chemotherapy all through 2019,

I tried Covenant on Easter Sunday. I felt instantly at home although I knew not a soul there. In our newcomer class I met a man who had the exact same experience with his online search–starting with R.C. Sproul videos. He was coming from the Roman Catholic Church and we bonded over our shared positive searches. Tim Keller! R.C. Sproul! Alistair Begg! Clearly we are not alone in our endeavors.

This is the upside of the internet– teaching resources like Ligonier’s can now be easily accessed all over the world. You can go to YouTube and watch endless hours of excellent teaching for free. (I love the Q&A sessions where you can hear a variety of these learned men answering questions.) Indeed, Ligonier has over 2,500,000 YouTube channel plays per month! I encourage you to check it out!

There is usually a silver lining in every negative situation, if you look for it, right?

Be of good cheer.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33
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April 5, 2021

Postcards from the weekend

by chuckofish

Kilroy was (t)here. (We missed you!)

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend. Mine was exhausting! SO much social activity after weeks, months, a year of not much going on.

I was busy on Friday getting ready for Saturday.

Mimosas are a good start to any party.

Liz got emotional opening daughter #1’s handmade baby blankets. After a yummy lunch (chicken salad, of course) we sat outside in the sun and watched the wee babes frolic on the driveway. After her husband picked Liz up and daughter #3 went home with the babes, we went to pick up margaritas at Club Taco. We finished Ben Hur, which we had started the night before.

On Easter morning we got up early and went to the 8:00 am service at an actual church. It felt great to sit in a pew again and sing hymns. God-honoring worship with the Word of God faithfully preached and the Lord’s Supper celebrated was much appreciated. It will take awhile to get used to not kneeling and to drinking grape juice at communion, but I think I can manage.

When we got home, I made Episcopal Souffle (ironic, yes) and then the boy and his family came over. The babes opened their Easter baskets.

Daughter #1 gave the wee laddie a book on Porsches (estate sale find), which he opened to squeals of joy. He carried it around for the rest of the day.

Note the book in back of the Cooper (ingenious)

We had a super fun egg hunt.

Once again we sat on the driveway in the glorious sun and watched the world bicycle/drive/stroll by. Two days of beautiful spring weather and a little social interaction can do wonders for one’s spirits.

And now it’s Monday. What the…

“Make no mistake: if he rose at all
It was as His body;
If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit,
The amino acids rekindle,
The Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
Each soft spring recurrent;
It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the
Eleven apostles;
It was as His flesh; ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes
The same valved heart
That—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then regathered
Out of enduring Might
New strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence,
Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded
Credulity of earlier ages:
Let us walk through the door.”

— from John Updike’s Seven Stanzas at Easter

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