This is from Ralph Milton who writes an on-line newsletter called Rumors.

Absolute darkness. I’ve only experienced it a few times. Most recently in the Kartchner Caverns in Arizona. At one point along the tour through those magnificent caves, the guides turns off all the lights. And the group just stands there. In total darkness. Your eyes strain for any scrap of light.
And it’s scary. Because we almost never experience total darkness and when it happens it touches some deep and unexplored anxiety.
The same is true of absolute silence. I’ve only experienced that in specialized recording studios designed to deaden all sound. If you stay there in the studio all by yourself it also becomes frightening. Your ears strain for a sound, to the point where you can hear your own heart beating.
Total darkness – total silence – is alien to most of us. I asked a totally blind friend once, what it was like to have total darkness and he began to talk abo ...

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday.  The key lesson is the first chapter of Genesis.  This is the first of the two accounts of creation.  It goes as follows-

Genesis 1:1 - 2:4
1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
3Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and the ...

I think I will call the sermon this week- Earth, Wind and Fire. The wind and the fire come from the Pentecost story but the earth is what stumps me.

I love the Pentecost story as long as it is a story from scripture. When I try to fit it into my reality on this earth I have trouble.

This morning I was thinking about the Acts passage on my way to work. Then on the radio I heard about Clinton and Obama and I wondered what the Spirit has to do with the election of a president. Then I heard about 20,000 dead bodies floating around Myanmar and living people still floating waiting to be rescued. What does the wind of the Spirit have to do with the wind of a cyclone? Then I thought about this awful war we are stuck in and how the people of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth would really rather have us stay away. What is the Spirit saying to the church today?

So maybe the sermon title should be Wind and Fire ...

It is amazing how three people can read the same passages and hear different things. I guess I just tend to skip over the speaking in tongues. People I love and respect claim it as a true spiritual gift. I do not have that gift. In the context of scripture it makes more sense for me to understand it as the different languages. The amazing thing at Pentecost was that everyone could hear of God’s deeds in a language they could understand. The message of God was comprehendible to all. That is a message of inclusiveness and diversity.

We have been trying to help Mekonen Wube (from Eritrea) get his driver’s license. The BMV allows to have the test translated, but they don’t provide a translator and they must certify all translators. Around and around and around we go with newcomers to our country, our language and our processes.

We can exclude people, or make them feel like outsiders, unintentionally. Loui mentions wearing red on Pentecost. We decide ...

Well, we did not have a lot of discussion last week but let's keep trying.

I have decided not to post the sermon resulting from this BLOG each week.  It is already posted at http://dnn.northminster-indy.org/Worship/Sermons/SermonsbyDrTeriThomas/tabid/155/Default.aspx

If you want it here as well, just let me know.

This coming Sunday is Pentecost- the birth of the church.  It is also our Ground Blessing Sunday.  And it is also Mother's Day but that is not a church holiday so we leave that celebration to brunch after church.

There was an old tradition in the early church of cutting a hole in the church roof on Pentecost.  Boys would be placed on the roof and at the appropriate time they would light pieces of straw and drop them thr ...

It seems appropriate that the current debate on race and politics should take place in the midst of Holy Week.  Much of what has been said and written has been helpful, faithful and thoughtful.  Much has been just plain sinful and ignorant.

I have no need to add my own ignorance or racism into the mix.  I have been reading a BLOG with contributers much wiser than I, and I offer it for your consideration.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/03/healing-the-wounds-of-race-by.html#comments

May the celebration of the resurrection bring us all to a better place.

If you recall the day I mis-spoke in church, check this one out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vs5nZYq1hY

This week turned everything upside down for the disciples of Jesus.  Can it do the same for us?  Check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsPBVNecOMo

Happy Easter!