Houston Trinity News

Friends,

This past weekend was my annual reminder of how wonderful it is to be part of a family. Now before you start saying “Pastor, only once a year?” let me clarify. I know how important family is. All family: our personal family, our friends, our church family, our worldly Christian family; all family. I just don’t always think about it as much as I do on our annual trip away with our children and grandchildren over the Labor Day weekend. We stay in one house where six adults and five children get to spend close time together. For me it is wonderful. I have an opportunity to visit with my girls to talk about life, to reminisce about their childhoods, to discuss their successes and their struggles. I have an opportunity to visit with my sons-in-law to talk about their interests and their careers. I have opportunity to spend time with my grandchildren in a group and one on one. Most importantly, I can watch Susan enjoy her family and the beach and I can share in that enjoyment with her. (This trip is the highlight of her year).

Don’t get me wrong, the entire weekend was not perfect. We had grandchildren meltdowns. We had parent meltdowns. We had a few thunderstorms roll over the beach. But that is life. Families aren’t perfect. Life isn’t perfect. What is important is what we do with what we have and what we face. We made it through the meltdowns and the thunderstorms and pretty soon we were all back at the beach enjoying being together.

The other part of my family wasn’t at the beach but was with me anyway. I want to thank each of you for allowing me to spend this time away. Thank you for carrying the load of preparing and conducting Worship this past Sunday. Thank you for being here to welcome Pastor Paul as he came to deliver the message. (Thank you, Pastor Paul, for delivering the message.) My time away from you reminds me how important church family is in our lives. We may struggle to truly understand how family works within the church, but Jesus makes it clear in Mark’s Gospel account.   31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” 33 And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Family is more than just blood relationship. It is about being together in pursuit of God’s work. This family is like all families. We have our times of joy, our times of comforting. We have times when we reminisce about our past and look forward to our future. And we have our meltdowns. But we always overcome those to arrive back in the place of love and grace and mercy. Houston Trinity, you are a great family.

Our September sermon series is also about family. It is about our God who does everything to make our family a success. It is about us extending our family into the community to others who may not believe that there is anyone who wants to listen to their story or welcome them in. Join us each Sunday this month as we celebrate our part of family.

God bless you. See you Sunday

Psalm 139:1-6,13-18 (NRSV)

¹ O LORD, you have searched me and known me.

² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from far away.

³ You search out my path and my lying down,

and are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue,

O LORD, you know it completely.

⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is so high that I cannot attain it.

¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written

all the days that were formed for me,

when none of them as yet existed.

¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18 I try to count them–they are more than the sand;

I come to the end –I am still with you.