Sunday, July 10, 2005
St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church
This morning we attended St. Anthony Park Church in St. Paul where our daughter, Kristine, is a member with our grandchildren. The low point, just before the service started, was a woman looking for a seat while carefully guarding her Caribou latte. Also, I'm not going to get into dress codes, except to say that it seems like it's only old fogies like me that wear ties & jackets on Sunday mornings.
For me the high point at St. Anthony Park is usually the liturgy; today we chanted a portion of Psalm 65. The Epistle lesson from Romans 8, particularly verse 6, was convicting: To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Where is my mind set most of the time?
Pastor Amy spoke on the Gospel lesson from Matthew 13: the parable of the sower. She made an interesting point. We are not to be repotted - we are not to worry about fertilizer - Jesus tells us just to LISTEN. Listen, because there is nothing we can achieve by ourselves. Listen, because there is good news - the good news of the Gospel.
