It’s not always easy to navigate the shock for how much companies will spend for 60 seconds on television to sell a product, while also recognizing that in that one minute of time amidst one of the most watched events for the whole year, can come a soul-reaching message that many of us worship leaders cannot always pull off in much more time allotted than that. And it happened again this past Sunday, not only amidst most of America’s favorite game, but also amidst the larger backdrop of uneasiness, fear, uncertainty, worry, and an unwavering wish-could-do-more but not-willing-to-risk-it-ness.
As with many Christmas-celebrators, one of the standards for every holiday season (almost as if it may not quite be Christmas without it?) would be watching Home Alone and Home Alone 2, the films that somehow made a heart-felt and laugh-out-loud comedy about a child being left at home or lost in the biggest city in the world, respectively. Unfortunately, the one who played the mother in both movies that have managed to stand the test of time for over three decades, died last week in Catherine O’Hara.
There are a few instances in life in which one word can be mentioned, and the hearer can automatically remember where they were to watch it all unfold…usually in front of a television screen in the last half century, at least. Forty years ago, today, was one of those shocking moments that caught a nation and a world off-guard, and the video and corresponding images haven’t left our heart and mind memories since: Challenger. Just over a minute after take-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, after NASA set off its next space exploration team, the space shuttle appeared to explode for numerous many to see (whether live or tape-delay), including children in schools around the country.
There was one other pastor in my family, who I didn’t get to see all that much during my growing up years. He was serving a congregation in another state, but every once in a while, especially when his in-laws (my grandparents) were still alive, he and my aunt, would make the trek back to the home farmland. So, I may not have been all that close to him, but there was always a little more curiosity about him, a little more interest. Because the only pastors I knew would be the ones I only saw on Sunday. I wasn’t sure what they did beyond those morning hours. I guess I really didn’t care all that much then anyway.
This weekend, we will celebrate the Confession of Peter, which, in the wider church calendar, tends to fall at the beginning of the third week in January to commence the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. But, for this upcoming Saturday and Sunday at Divinity, the focus will be Matthew 16:13-19, particularly Peter’s proclamation: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Those verses and the day of recognition as a whole usually bring me back to my seminary graduation. The choir sang an arrangement of the above Biblical passage called, “Upon this Rock,” including a portion of the lyrics:
