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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
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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 |
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© CREATE IN ME ENTERPRISES, LLC 2008 |
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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 |
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FOREWORD — Sunday by Sunday III
Yes, God's Word does have something to do with our everyday lives. You will be reminded of this regularly as you accompany the congregation of St. Timothy on their journey toward understanding what it means to be a community of Christian disciples. You may find yourself asking with the members of St. Timothy, “How do we live with that disconnect between how we want God to be and how God really is?” In these pages, you are sure to find a community whose journey is one of “discipleship in fits and starts.” Faith is surprisingly evident even in the characters’ doubts as they are challenged with the trials of suffering that come their way as a result of death, addiction and difficult pasts that never cease to rise to the surface.
We are introduced to the congregation by one Rose Harris, a winsome octogenarian whose musings are sometimes pious, other times sassy, but always authentic. Rose claims that “despite our best efforts, examples of imperfection in communal life abound” and yet admits the wonder and joy of a congregation that “on any given Lord’s Day includes quite a variety of saints/sinners and a potpourri of reasons for being there.” Just when you think Rose is the quintessentially sanctimonious church lady, she challenges traditional theological claims and opens herself to the changing world around her. The younger set may say that Rose is “hip.” Combine that with her empathy, insightfulness, candor and independence, and you’ve got one intriguing protagonist.
I am especially grateful for two of Rose’s tendencies. She has a knack for pointing out the sublime that is embedded in the mundane experiences of life (and unabashedly credits the Holy Spirit for providing such recognition). Second, Rose is exemplary of one who “prays without ceasing.” Out of moments of action and reflection comes a sudden need to speak to the divine. And so she does. Interspersed in her weekly musings are tender and direct prayers to a God who, she trusts, is listening. Rose appropriates other elements of the liturgy (e.g., engagement with scripture, hymns, confession) into the liturgy of her own life. We can learn from Rose.
Of course, behind Rose Harris is the ecclesially savvy author, Cristy Fossum. Fossum is a lay person in the church who impressively does her biblical exegetical work and then does the homiletical work of translating the text’s trajectory of meaning for the immediate context. The result is a narrative that insists that God and the Shippensforgians you are about to meet are working together. With the development of sensitive relationships, regular cameos of wit, and a picture perfect representation of how spiritual convictions are never picture perfect, Fossum adeptly presents the possibilities when scripture, individual and family life situations, congregational life and world events converge.
This final novel in the series of three that arises from the appointed texts for Sunday morning worship is an invaluable conversation partner for congregations that follow the Revised Common Lectionary. Here, life’s salient theological questions are contextualized in a way that invites any reader to enter the conversation. Because the story is especially attuned to the rhythms of the every Sunday preacher who has the challenge (and, of course, opportunity) to help church members understand the connection between their lives and God's Word, this will be a helpful addition to the preacher’s library.
Delve into the lives of these characters and their joys and challenges as Christian disciples. Doing so is sure to cause you to move beyond their lives to your own as you explore the ways God's Word transforms your thoughts, your moments of living, your journeys of discipleship. You will be blessed as you join Rose in “finding the divine most readily in the details of life.”
SHAUNA K. HANNAN Assistant Professor of Homiletics Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary Columbia, South Carolina |