Random Saturday Musings

Over at Think Theology there's a piece about the misleading and unhelpful word church. What I liked most was the 5 point definition of "church"

1. The multi-ethnic (Jew-Gentile) People of God,
2. intentionally gathered…
3. around Jesus as Lord,
4. announcing together the reign of God in Jesus –
5. and calling the nations (by teaching them) to follow Jesus as the world’s only legitimate King.

* * *

There was a moment last month that I keep thinking about. I was sitting on the back porch at my mother's house. We had been working hard, a group of us, getting the house fixed up and ready for selling. Then a brief summer storm passed over. It rained really hard for a few minutes and then the sun came out again. 

Well, some guys were putting up a pool shed in the neighbor's yard that day. A pretty good size and elaborate little building, much more than shed actually. All morning we could hear the pop of their nail gun and their power saw. During the rain they hightailed it indoors of course, but they got right back to work after the rain stopped. Everything was wet and the guys were just sort of getting organized, and then one of the guys, the oldest one among them, began quietly whistling Blue Skies, the old Irving Berlin standard. 

Well, you don't just hear that every day. What I mean is, you don't often hear the old songs on the air, floating over from the neighbor's yard. I was so very pleased to hear it. It was a moment of beauty and an evidence of the place an old song can have in our hearts.