So, it is a Small World After All

Sometime ago, I was invited to provide Pulpit Replacement for United Church of Christ in Sun City. The regular pastor, Pastor  Hal Lingerman was taking the month of August off, and the church was looking for someone to preach, hence, provide Pulpit Replacement.

I like to preach, and I appreciate the challenge of preaching from the Lectionary… So I agreed to preach on Sunday August 15^th. The Lectionary readings for that day included Hebrews 11:29-12:2… a discussion on the Faith of Ancient Israeli Heroes. So, I decided that “Heroes” would be an appropriate title, and I decided to talk about how our Youth Workers (including Youth Ministers, Youth Group Advisors, Youth Directors, Youth Counselors, Camp Counselors, etc., etc.) are heroes in their own right, as well as being a chief contributor to helping develop new heroes. So, yesterday was the day, and my daughter Annalise and her friend Nicki (who sometimes seems to be one of my daughters) joined me at UCC Sun CIty

I had been asked to provide a short bio so the congregation would know who I am… So I included that in the beginning of my message.  I included in the bio that I was born and raised in the town of Greenfield set in Western Massachusetts.

During the course of my message, I was drawing connections between a Youth Leader in my life (Bill Salt) and how that relationship profoundly affected my participation in Youth Ministry.

My message seemed to be well received by the good people of UCC Sun City (or they were just very gracious). As I greeted people after worship, I heard a number of “good sermon” and “great message” until one very nice woman who introduced herself as Ruth said that she too was from Greenfield, MA! She was very surprised and delighted to hear that I was from there.

After worship, the church was celebrating the birthdays of three members of the church who were all turning 100 years old! Wow; that is so awesome! Anyway, the celebration included lunch, and I was invited… so, as I was making my way to the fellowship hall, I ended up in several different conversations with folk on a variety of subjects. The very nice woman from Greenfield (Ruth) offered to fix me a plate, but I declined knowing that I would get a chance. Eventually, I sat down with Annalise and Nicki and some women from the church. Ruth joined us as well, and we chatted some more. As it turns out, this very nice woman, Ruth is the mother of a fellow that I graduated High School with, none other than Rand Folta! Rand is one of my friends on Facebook!

Ruth Goodwin-Folta (Rand's Mom)

Later, as we were making our way to leave, Ruth was talking with these two gentlemen. As it turns out, they are brothers, and one lives in Sun City, and the other in New Jersey. They asked about Bill Salt from my sermon… So, I told them how Bill had entered seminary later in life, and attended Bangor Theological Seminary which at the time had a program that allowed you to earn your M.Div. even without a BA, and finish your BA later. Once completed, you could move on to ordination… Anyway, these two brothers, Jim and Bill Wilson and Shirley Wilson were very excited, because after Bill was ordained, he took a call to a church in New Jersey and lived very close to these brothers!

These events really remind me of just how small and close our world can be. Also, we should always speak well of others because we are unaware of the relationships that exist out there, and you never know when you’ll be talking to someone’s son, brother, neighbor, mother, father, and on and on.

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