Sunday, Sunday... oh wait I got that wrong!

This Sunday is going to be a full and beautiful day - makes me think of that old Mommas and Poppas tune, "Monday, Monday" with those sweet, close harmonies.


+ First, we will have some playful fun in worship with a hard idea: sin. Using my dream sequence involving St. Augustine, jazz singer Peggy Lee, Protestant Reformer John Calvin, rocker Bruce Springsteen and Jesus, we'll talk about how so much of our thinking about "original sin" has been confused with sexuality when it is really about alienation and estrangement.

+ Second, we'll have a visiting youth group - and old friend - from Brockton with us. After worship we'll meet with potential new members to our church and then have a free flowing conversation about how to do church in a context of great change - in our case, economic and social change after the departure of GE in the 1980s.

+ And third after the youth group departs for home, I will head over to the new theatre in town at the Beacon and watch a play based on the Vietnam War - as a part of the city's "Big Read" event - and then be a part of a panel concerning war and morality. What an ambiguous and nuanced subject, yes? (I got a call late this afternoon inviting me to be a part of the panel of Vietnam vets.)

I was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War - draft board awarded me non-combatant status - and then the draft board lost my paperwork and had me report for a pre-induction physical. I had fallen in love with a gorgeous young woman - and dropped 100lbs in the process - so my blood pressure was crazy. The draft board thought I was playing games to avoid the draft, so for a whole week I had to show up for tests at odd times of the day to prove that I wasn't a phony. And then their lost paperwork trumped my CO status and I was in limbo for 6 month - and then ineligible give the lottery.

Over the years I have spent some time with Vietnam vets with PTS syndrome - and been the pastor to families of active duty service people in all of the Gulf Wars - so it will be a fascinating panel... That means tomorrow will be a full blown SABBATH for Di and myself... and then onward to Sunday, Sunday.