Thursday, May 12, 2016

Mother's Day at a Presbyterian Church

Last Sunday, I visited a Presbyterian church.

It was Mother’s Day, so the pastor gave people in the audience the microphone so they could share thoughts about their mothers.  A young man talked about how his mother taught him not to have credit card debt, and he benefited from that teaching.  An old lady talked about how her mother taught her to love people, and she said that she was still sad that she lost her mother at an early age.  Another lady, the church secretary, talked about how her step-mother accepted her years back.  Someone else talked about how his family would move a lot when he was younger, yet his mother made sure that they knew the value of education and graduating, wherever they moved.

The pastor also talked about his own mother.  He told a story about when he was little, and he was watching his mother iron.  He really thought ironing was cool, so he asked his mom if he could try.  His mom let him iron the sheets, while she watched him doing so.  The pastor also talked about when he was rebellious, and his mother loved him even then.

In the sermon, the pastor was continuing to preach through the Book of Acts.  He discussed Acts 2:42, which states that the early Christians devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching.  In light of Mother’s Day, he introduced us to that topic by referring to Proverbs 1:8 and 6:20, which exhorts people to forsake not the torah of their mother.  The pastor said that torah, in the Hebrew, means teaching.  The pastor referred to the teaching that people in the congregation received from their mothers, which they had talked about earlier in the service.  The pastor also discussed how the teaching in the Bible is corrective.

After the sermon, someone from the congregation was making an announcement.  He was talking about the church’s coming service project.  He mentioned someone who said that he especially felt God when he was doing service work.

I’ll stop here.  Today, I’m in more of a descriptive mood than an analytical mood.