Drummer Sunday Quotes

We often behave as though Jesus is only interested in saving and loving a romanticized version of ourselves, or an idealized version of our mess of a world, and so we offer to him a version of our best selves. With our Sunday school shoes on, we sing songs about kings and drummers at his birth, perhaps so we can escape the Herod in ourselves and in the world around us. But we've lost the plot if we use religion as the place where we escape from difficult realities instead of as the place where those difficult realities are given meaning.

even though this is often how we treat Jesus, like we are trying to shelter him from reality. We often behave as though Jesus is only interested in saving and loving a romanticized version of ourselves, or an idealized version of our mess of a world, and so we offer to him a version of our best selves. With our Sunday school shoes on, we sing songs about kings and drummers at his birth, perhaps so we can escape the Herod in ourselves and in the world around us.

The work was mind numbing yet somehow important. I was a tiny contributor to a large thing, bringing my offering under the watchful gaze of Almighty God. Chasing dust motes wasn’t as poetic as the gift of the little drummer boy, but it was the gift I had at the moment. I’m not sure what the elders would think of my musings. Daddy had always said the people were the church, but with it all empty and lemon-fresh scented, it felt more holy than it did on the usual Sunday, when it was full of powdery-cheeked ladies and men wearing suits. The quietness soothed me more than any choir. The stillness let me focus and actually see the play of light on stained glass windows. Without light, the windows would be as blank and lifeless as plain old regular, unsanctified panes.