Read the Foreword

FOREWORD— Sunday by Sunday — A Spiritual Journal

If you have ever gone to church, ever kept a journal or diary, ever sat on a bench and observed the peculiarities of people, ever thought spiritual questions that maybe you were afraid to speak out loud—you will find something in this book that resonates within you.

Rose Harris, the quintessential church lady of St. Timothy’s, invites us into her life, her family, her faith and narrates a wonderful story through the characters in her journal. Somehow we know Rose and her friends from somewhere in our lives.

Rose and the characters in her journal reflect the joys and struggles of our own ups and downs with life.

We walk our own long-term grief with Rose as she talks to her husband Charlie who has been dead for years. We know what it is to miss someone so much that we can still feel that presence in our lives long after they are dead and buried.

We laugh out loud at the on-going saga of the people populating the membership of St. Timothy’s. What is it with their tendency to blame it all on the pastor? What a motley crew they are! And, oh how many of them we have met before—the gossipers, the arrogant pious ones, those who are just there for appearance sake, the ones who swallow all that faith stuff hook-line-sinker, the doubters who will never believe any of it. We know these people—we are these people.

We wrinkle our brows at the dysfunction of Rose’s own family. A daughter who never bought into Rose’s devout beliefs and a granddaughter whose life reflects Rose’s spirit though her lifestyle itself is so twenty-first century. A son who struggles with divorce and alcoholism but who unfailingly shows up for Rose.

And then there are the vagabond characters who drop in out of nowhere. Garfield and Mindy do not fit within the boundaries that many of us set for people in our lives. Somehow these kinds of folks find their way nonetheless. And their presence certainly makes our lives more entertaining.

Perhaps the most unique part of this book is its organization. Rose’s journal entries are written every Sunday, Sunday by Sunday, and include her reflections on the lectionary texts and Pastor Sauer’s sermon for the day. There is, then, a devotional sense that ties all the stories and people together into God’s great story. And, ultimately, that is what binds the disparate lives and actions into one sweeping read. Not just for them, but also for us—their stories, God’s story, and our stories—you will find something in this book that resonates within you.

GINGER BARFIELD

Associate Dean, Adjunct Professor of New Testament

Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, South Carolina

These works can best be described as “serial novels related to the life and faith of the Christian church as set forth in the three year cycle of The Revised Common Lectionary.”

—Lawrence Hull Stookey

FOREWORD — Sunday by Sunday II

Appearing in 2009, Sunday by Sunday II is nearly unique. “Nearly” only because it is the sequel to a work of the same design entitled Sunday by Sunday I — A Spiritual Journal published in 2008. These works can best be described as “serial novels related to the life and faith of the Christian church as set forth in the three year cycle of The Revised Common Lectionary.” If the four words immediately preceding this sentence make no sense to you, the book may still have great meaning, but only after you read and absorb the next paragraph. (If you know what those four words mean, you may skip the next paragraph.)

A lectionary is an agreed upon program of scripture readings for use in an orderly fashion across time. For each Sunday or special weekday occasion (such as Christmas Day, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, or the Ascension) in this lectionary there are provided (1) a reading from the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament], except during the Easter season, when the Book of the Acts of the Apostles is used instead; (2) a psalm or portion thereof, (3) a passage from one of the twenty-three New Testament books that come after the four Gospels, and (4) a reading from one of the Gospels. In the span of three years a great deal of scriptural study is intended. If you do not worship in a lectionary-based congregation, you can nevertheless make sense of it all by studying the four passages from the Bible each week before reading Cristy Fossum’s commentary and reflections.

For each designated day Fossum offers us insightful stories and brings the practical truth of the Bible readings into our lives and times. If her mythical town of Shippensforge is not immediately adjacent to Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, it certainly can’t be far away!

I describe this as a “serial novel” because it is intended that you read for each occasion only short passages from the book. The sections to be read week by week are four to five pages long, on average. The material is alternatively light-hearted and poignant, familiar or distressing, as the author deals with all kinds of political, religious, and moral issues that confront us. This may be a novel; it has about it the ring of deep truth that characterizes any good novel. I found particularly gripping the material related to the church’s observance of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Day. That section alone brings issues of saying farewell to a pastoral family that is transferring to another parish, the frustrating behavior of a runaway young woman, the dismissal of a female pastor for behavior that may or may not be characterized by church people as immoral, the residual grief of a number of persons who have lost those dear to them, and much more. Even the village atheist puts his oar in, much to his later chagrin.

If you regard scripture readings to be something to be heard on Sunday morning and then forgotten for the rest of the week, prepare to change your opinion, and in turn expect to be changed by the gifts of grace the author relentlessly offers in the name of Christ.

LAURENCE HULL STOOKEY

Professor Emeritus of Preaching and Worship

Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC