First Day of Forever

I heard a good sermon this morning while visiting a church in a town up the road. The preacher blithely reminded us that Christians live in time and out of time, both in this world of death and in a redeemed state where death has lost its sting. He said that one of the reasons we go to the Word is to live into tomorrow. In this, we are an Advent people even as we are an Easter people.

Afterward, a parishioner asked me what I thought the sermon was about. I said something like what I've written above. She said, "Huh. I thought it was like all his sermons--trying to get us to move this church out of downtown to the suburbs."

Yet I oppose everything.

The Rock and Roll Craft Show

One of the ways that we know that we are still hip is that we go to the Rock and Roll Craft Show. Nicely hand-crafted goods from the local crafty-DIY crowd are on display for a weekend in a local art space with live music.

Our two older kids, Tom and Lily, picked up some silk-screened t-shirts, and we got a Christmas gift or two for friends. Some of my favorite creations this year were a series of old-fashioned looking paintings of pastoral scenes upon which a new artist had painted a great big orange monster; a white ceramic serving platter with a well-executed black skull painted on the surface as decoration; hunting trophy magnets that featured the heads of plastic toy animals and Star Wars characters; and several very beautiful scarves.

Being in the neighborhood, we ate at Duff's, a family favorite.