September 10, 2023 – The Rev. Katharine Flexer

Exodus 14:19-31<br /> Psalm 114<br /> Romans 14:1-12<br /> Matthew 18:21-35 So I have to start by confessing my disappointment. Here it is our Welcome Back Sunday, our chance to welcome members new and old to our program year. And after a year of working at it all, our church is STILL under construction. I would have liked today to be the day when the organ was unwrapped and John could play it again, the day when the first walkers and strollers could roll up the ramp into church, the day when we could all file out into our lovely atrium on our way to the new bathrooms and elevator. The day when as you made your way to the BBQ in our backyard, you could admire the lovely new plantings in our restored front garden. But, instead…it’s all still so undone. And what’s more, our kids had to start school this week in a heat wave, putting on their new school clothes and staggering through the humidity for ‘the beginning of fall.’ In our household we hadn’t even fully acquired all the necessary new school clothes, so the uniform for the first days of school had to be a mix of new things and old slightly-too-small things. When I was a kid, I remember having my shiny new school supplies lined up weeks in advance, marching off to the first day of school on a cool fall day in my new fall sweater. (Actually I think it was often too hot for that new fall sweater, in reality, but not in my rosy memory.) This scraped-together, oppressively hot September is not the new fresh start that I like to think of as back to school. I was feeling pretty glum about all this this week. I almost wanted to put it all off, postpone our Welcome Back Sunday for a few weeks and hide until fall weather finally rolled around. But as the staff here talked through the plans for the next few weeks, I began to realize that even if the external trappings weren’t all fresh and ready, the people inside of them are. We’re starting off today even though we’re in the midst of chaos and dust. It’s a new beginning even if we’re still wearing our sweaty summer clothes. The kids have made their way through the construction signage to their Godly Play classrooms, and they’re underway with their story even as we speak. Our full choir is back in the church, starting off their program year. Lots of people are prepping for the barbecue that we’ll enjoy in just a little bit. And our font is right there in its new location, full of water. Things are starting, things are happening, even if the container they’re happening in isn’t quite what we’d wish. So we’re blessing it all anyway, unfinished as it all is. We blessed the font’s new location, and then we used it to bless the start of the school year. We’ll bless the choir in a few minutes, and all of our music making this year. We’ll bless all of us at the end of the service, a