Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Thank You Bar B Q

Thank you.

Yup, thank you.

In just over 24 hours people will be lining up at the doors of First Presbyterian Church just as they have for the last 30+ years wanting not only food but also fellowship.

To see this barbeque come alive is really something. Everyone always rises to the occasion to help raise the tent! I mean that figuratively and literally. The week leading up to the barbeque, the event of the summer, our church becomes like a beehive. If it isn’t Charlise and Debbie, with their worker bees Keith and Ken, then it is the rest of you dropping off cakes and pies, as well as community folk buying tickets. Usually when they stand in the office purchasing their tickets they say something along the lines of “This bar-b-q is something I look forward to every summer.”

Tomorrow will be here before you know it. We’ll be serving slaw and que while the community listens to live entertainment and we all share a meal together.

While in some ways the preparations have become routine and though this event may causes a little lot of anxiety in some of us, it truly is a gift. There is something holy about a community coming together to break bread and share stories.

It makes me think of the Psalm we read the other night at our session meeting, Psalm 133. The psalmist declares, “How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!”

Isn’t that the truth?

In some ways, tomorrow isn’t just about an annual event, nor is it just a fundraiser. Tomorrow is also a demonstration of sorts.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Tomorrow we as a community will dine together and in so doing make a statement of how goodness and love can and will prevail against evil and hate. In our unity as a community, even if it is for a brief moment in a tiny town like ours, we demonstrate to the larger world that there are people who not only find time to be together but take the time to catch up and be present with one another. Tomorrow we will show our community and others just how wonderful and lovely it is when brothers and sisters get along.

I know many of you won’t be able to sleep because of how excited you are for the barbeque! As we stay up late thinking about all the things that can go right, may these words help shape our time together tomorrow:

Good is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours, through him who loves us…Child of God, known by name, and whose very hairs are numbered. Praise and adore God and thank him forever and ever.

~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Church, let us break bread together, on our knees, on our knees!

See you at the kirk house.

Oh, to all of those you have helped and will help, thank you!

Adam