Jack’s Winning Words 8/2/18
“People are more than the way they look.”  (From the movie, A Winkle in Time)  Not all churches have pews.  I read of one that uses chairs and places them in a semi-circle so that worshippers can see each other.  Jacob said to Esau, “To see you is like seeing the face of God.”  It is a biblical truth that we are the Face of God to others.  As MTM’s theme song puts it: “Love is all around…With each glance you show it.”  People really are more than you see.   ;-)  Jack

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  well spoken, Jack!   a women once accused A. Lincoln of being two-faced.  his reply:  Lady, if i had another face,  do you think i would still be wearing this one???  ===JACK:  Some people may not have two faces, but they often wear masks...and not always on Halloween.===PAUL: were there not at least a few Sundays when you put on your happy face and went to the church when in fact you would rather have slept in or perhaps you were sick but still well enough to lead the flock in worship?   we all have our masks===JACK:  Perhaps there were some, but I can't recall any.  I liked preaching and meeting the people.  It may have been part of my new church building DNA.  I could not expect the people to be enthusiastic and the church, if I were not enthusiastic.  Maybe that was the mask I was wearing.===PAUL:  or maybe it was not a mask after all.  i think i could count on one hand the number of really bad days i had doing parish ministry.  you would likely say the same...

FROM SA IN KW:  Indeed. I'm not the only one, no doubt, who 'sees' you every morning in WW. Thanks.===JACK:   Here is an interesting follow-up quote to what you have written: "Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought."  (Albert Szent-Gyorgyi)

FROM QUILTING CAROL:  This weekend we will bury a wonderful missionary pastor we became friends with after we moved up here.  One of the many things he shared with us was a greeting he and his wife learned in Senegal – “I see you.”  He said the native people greeted you in this way.  It does put the greeting in perspective – that you see the person as they are.  I often think about greeting people at church on Sunday mornings – what more do I know about this person – sometimes a lot because I’ve gotten to know them by working with them at the church, but sometimes the greeting is all I know as we have no other interaction.  Meeting people in smaller settings sure helps us to know each other better.  Guess I’m nosy and want to know what makes people tick – what did/do they do for a living, do they have children, grandchildren, what activities do they like to do, do they like to read, where did they come from or natives of the area, etc  Sometimes when you read obits about people, you find out a whole lot more about them than you ever knew.  Feel sorry for those whose obit reads – he/she was born/died, had children, preceded in death by.  There had to have been more to their life than that!===JACK:  Does "Peek-a-boo" precede, "I see you?"  I remember playing the PEEK-A-BOO game with babies.  Meeting people, and seeing them should be fun.  If I were still in the preaching business, I'd like to develop a sermon around the theme of "What do you see when you really see people?"

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Albert Camus said "Every great work makes the human face more admirable and richer, and that is its whole secret."  Likewise, I think we could say that every act of Love does the same!  Kindness and Compassion never go out of style, no matter how the facial image changes. We need to keep that twinkle in our eyes!===JACK:  Camus died in 1960, before the coming of anti-aging skin products that seem to work.  Judge Judy is a user.  A friend of mine is a rep for one of them, and she says that they really work.  But, I'm going with good works which may not get me to heaven; however, if Camus is right, they will make my face more admirable.===OAKS:  A book that my friend, Mary Ellen Ton, an AB Pastor's wife wrote after she was terribly scarred by a church fire where she worked, THE FLAMES SHALL NOT CONSUME YOU, was one of the
most life-changing, influential books I've ever read.  If your self  esteem is dependent or revolves around your attractive good looks, you need to read this book!===JACK:  Sometimes the blind are better at judging people than those of us who have sight.

FROM JT IN ST JOE:  Liked the winning words today especially.  People's Church in Bemidji where I was on the mission trip has movable pews.  They place them in a circle.  Looked strange to me but works for them.  Thanks for the winning words!===JACK:  I like the name, People's Church.  There an ELCA congregation in Dinkey, Pennsylvania called, Dinkey Lutheran Church.  I wonder how many members they have?