Paying Attention?
Paying Attention?
Things we hear all the time—even important things—can become so familiar to us that we stop really paying attention. Seriously. Think about the last time you actually listened what the flight attendant said just before takeoff. For most of us it’s just the drone of background noise that accompanies taxiing to the runway. (Cue trombone “adult sound” from Charlie Brown.)
The problem with familiarity, of course, is not necessarily that it breeds contempt, but rather that it breeds just that: familiarity. We stop paying attention.
About 75% of Sundays throughout the year we hear the first part of this week’s Gospel lesson read as part of our liturgy. This is often referred to as “The Summary of the Law” or “The Great Commandment”, and in historic Christian liturgy it’s been said week after week, year after year, century after century, for millennia. It’s very familiar to us.
But rather than letting these words drone past, it’s good for us to regularly slow down and genuinely pay attention.
See you Sunday.
Steve+
Church Workday Tomorrow!—9:00am–noon. Our conference room and admin offices are moving to open up a third children’s classroom, and we need help to move furniture to new spaces or an outside dumpster. Also, gardeners, if you’re not so much “into” schlepping stuff to the dumpster, we will put the pollinator garden to bed for the winter. It should take an hour or less to cut back dead foliage and thin the crops. The garden has thrived in its first year, with plants to be given away to anyone who wants them.
October Vestry Meeting—Sunday following worship.
Maryland State Boychoir Concert—Sunday, November 15, 5:00pm. The Maryland State Boychoir is one of the nation’s premier choral programs, inspiring boys and young men through exceptional musical training, performance opportunities, and character development. For four decades, MSB has enriched audiences locally, nationally, and internationally through artistic excellence and a commitment to lifelong learning. This is a great chance to invite a friend to attend. Flyers will be available this Sunday at the table at the rear of the Sanctuary.
Election Day: Tuesday, November 3—Christians in many parts of the world face oppression and persecution. They live under governments they are powerless to change—governments that oppose their faith, silence their voices, and make preaching the gospel a risk to their lives.
By contrast, Christians in our country are blessed with the freedom to speak about our leaders and help choose them without fearing for ourselves or our families. Yet according to Barna Research, only 56%—fewer than three in five—of self-professed Christians voted in the most recent general election.
Many today seek to remove the name and message of Christ from the public square. Voting gives Christians an opportunity to promote, protect, and preserve godly government.
The leaders we elect—or fail to remove—exercise significant influence over:
our constitutional freedoms;
our First Amendment right to religious liberty;
our freedom to proclaim the gospel; and
the moral direction of our nation.
Those leaders can defend these liberties or work to restrict them. They can guide our nation toward righteousness—or toward moral peril.
Redeemer Annual Meeting—Sunday, December 13, following worship.
Weekly:
Youth Formation (ages 10–13)—Sundays, 9:00am, in the Parish Hall.
Around the Table—A prayer time for women, Thursdays, 9:00am, at the Wishart’s. Email Lauren for details.
Morning Prayer—Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 8:00–8:30am, on Zoom.
Men’s Bible Study—Thursdays, 7:00am, at 1309.
Photo: Bao Menglong on Unsplash
