Friday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon

It comes down to this;

The text referred to in the 2nd Chapter of Acts if from Joel and it suggests that "young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams."

It's all about visions and dreams.

When we're young we have visions. We are driven to fulfill our hopes. We are hurled into our future with the sense that there are things we must do and we have to get onto doing them. We have to make a difference in the world and time is running out. There is the flame inside us that flickers. We have a job to do and we have changes to make.

It's all about dreams when we age. It's about looking back to see where we've been. Some of the past haunts us and the dreams become our cross the carry. We wish things could have been different. We wanted things to be other than they were.

There were bad decisions.
There were times when we should have risen to the occasion and we lapsed into a failed attempt to accommodate the occasion.

We are haunted by our dreams; they are our cross the carry.
We are hurled by our visions; they are the flame that ignites us.

The cross and the flame has become a symbol for two groups that I'm aware of.

The cross and the flame is a symbol for racism; the KKK and the cross and the flame is a symbol for Methodism. Sunday is Pentecost. It's the birth of the church. The church is a place that helps us learn to carry our crosses and invites us to feed the flame of our imagination.

If you have thoughts about this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.

If you'd like a rough draft of the sermon let me know and I will be happy to send it to you.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster