I stopped in the hardware store close to my house, Frattalone’s Ace Hardware, near the intersection of Eden Prairie Road and MN Highway #5. Zach, the assistant manager, came out to talk to me. I explained that we were gathering several specific items but needed them in a small quantity. I felt like Mike and Frank on “American Pickers” handing him the list of things that are needed to fill a bucket. I nervously awaited his response.
Zach looked at the list and said, “Sure we can do this. I have to take my lunch, but why don’t you come back in about an hour or so and I’ll have this put together for you and can tell you how much it’s going to cost.” I couldn’t believe my ears, I high fived the guy. I told Zach he had not just made my day, but my week. Zach said, “We like doing this kind of thing.” And that is how we got the stuff to assemble 25 cleaning buckets on “Servant Sunday.” By the way, we got a deep discount.
This Sunday is Servant Sunday; I hope you’ll be here. Worship as we usually experience it will be about 25 minutes; we will sing a couple of songs, have our prayers, my shortest sermon ever and our offering. And then we will have several “servant” opportunities that you can participate in.
On Servant Sunday, some of us will put together the cleaning buckets. Others will wash windows inside and hopefully outside of the church. If you need a sit-down serving opportunity, we’ll come up with that. Still others will clean a few Sunday school rooms. Somebody else is planning some fun and useful projects for the kids. There will even be a group whose service will be brainstorming about what other service opportunities we might take on at our church.
The idea for Servant Sunday is to demonstrate that every time we come to worship, we are “sent out to serve.” So come to worship in your servant clothes. I’m planning on my faded jeans. We will still have our fellowship time afterwards where we will pray over the cleaning buckets and other projects.
And by the way, as of today we have collected more than $3000 total for cleaning buckets. All of which will go directly to this program of our United Methodist Committee on Relief http://www.umcor.org/(UMCOR).
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan