A Talk: “Living Stones”

Ladera Community Church, May 2014

Today would have been my dad’s eighty-fourth birthday. I found he was one of three significant men in my life who informed this sermon, and I’d like to both apologize and thank them as I begin.

When I told Jordan that I was giving this sermon today, he first said, “WHAT?” So, I told him again. “Why would they ask you?” he said. I had no answer other than Pastor Lindsay was out of town at a family reunion. At first Jord said he thought our pastor had been gone a lot until I clarified that it was US who’d been gone a lot. He thought on this. “Maybe,” he offered after a minute, “this was her way to get you back in church.” We laughed at this, and at the series of preachers that might subsequently follow me, until he realized the next horrifying thing. “What if there are visitors?” he asked. I had no answer. “They’ll have no idea what our church is like,” he said. I was silent, my kids are pretty wise, and to me, he’d made all irrefutable points so far. “Well,” he finally said, “maybe they will. They’ll realize we let any old hoodihah into the pulpit.”

So here I am, any old hoodihah, bringing you today’s sermon. As such, I’d like to begin by rearranging pieces of today’s lessons into a sort of entry meditation and a prayer. I’m going to ask you to try something while you listen. Some of you may find it a weird California thing, but I’m still going to ask you to try. What will you lose?

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Oil Painting, Courtesy of Jane Tracy