Pastor’s Corner: Messages on the Wind

Have you glanced at our church’s sign board lately? Did you know it changes?

In theory, it changes every week, sometimes between Tuesday morning and Friday afternoon. The bottom two lines stay the same – “Sunday Worship 10 AM” – “Pastor Eric S. Anderson” – but the top three lines spell out a message. They’re usually close to the main point of the upcoming Sunday’s sermon.

Here are some examples from the last few months:

“To accept a blessing is also praise”

“How will you satisfy the thirst of your spirit”

“Creator, Christ, the Holy Spirit speak all aloha”

And the current message, posted before I went on vacation: “How will you bear witness to grace”.

I have no idea how many people read that sign. Folks who’ve seen me doing it, in fact, have usually confessed that they’d never noticed the sign was there!

I think of these messages as some of the seeds Jesus described in the Parable of the Sower. I’m casting them onto the wind, hoping they land somewhere that they’ll grow – or perhaps, they’ll help something else grow. I try to cast them further afield, too. In imitation of others, I take a picture of the sign and send it out electronically. I know there are people in this church who see it on Facebook before they ever see it directly. Every once in a while (it happened today!), I hear from someone who appreciated the message, or found it challenging.

It’s another way to share our message of God’s grace, peace, and love. It’s a way to answer the question, “How will [I] bear witness to grace?” It’s a way to show that we ask questions, that we value aloha, that we seek to quench spiritual thirsts here. It’s a way to show that we’re here, and we live, and we care.

Take a look at the signboard sometime as you’re driving by. And let me know: did it help you understand this church as a community of God’s love?

Blessings,

Pastor Eric