A few weeks ago I performed a story at church, in collaboration with my pastor, about the apostle Paul being shipwrecked on an island. My pastor, the incomparable Reverend Todd (he hates being called that, so here ya go Todd), is a lover of improv theatre, and we share a common bond when it comes to trying out “different” storytelling techniques that engage and involve the audience.

So, when Todd asked me to perform the story as part of his sermon (about 20 minutes before the sermon) I eagerly took on the role, even bringing in my packed suitcase and backpack to illustrate Paul on a journey. The journey was symbolized by the congregation - by me walking through the entire congregation, row by row, through each row, shaking each person’s hand. Todd distributed index cards ahead of time to selected congregants, each index card summarizing some random calamity that would befall me when I met them.

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Today we start a discussion series on “stories of a reckless God,” where we become familiar with the Bible as a collection of stories of messy people interacting with an equally messy God.

Well, that was the plan anyway - today we woke up to 8 inches of snow and more falling steadily! So, we postponed the grand start of the group until NEXT Saturday…

We were supposed to meet at a local pizza place - Kiro’s Pizza, the best pizza in Belchertown! I will still go there - it has been a while since I talked with Alex, who owns the place, and his brother Hany. They have been looking forward to the discussion group being at their place so that they could participate in community - running a small pizza place in a small town takes a lot of work on their part, they work 16 hour days 7 days a week.

In the meantime, here are a couple of outlines that I wrote up for the discussion group:

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“Where’s the library?”
“There’s Dunkin’ Donuts … and there’s the road to Amherst …”
“Here’s the common… so, let’s see, the police station should be …”
“Aha! Which means the Quabbin Reservoir is here …”

“A whale! Cuz, I’m hoping all this random drawing we’re doing has SOMETHING to do with a whale, right?!”

Good question – what, indeed, is a whale doing in the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts? And what does that have to do with prayer?
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Quick – name three key elements of what Christians mean when they say “Communion.”

Regardless of your faith background – religious or non-religious, Christian or not – chances are you probably thought of at least “bread” and “wine.” You might have also heard of the phrases “body of Christ” and “blood of Christ” in connection with Communion.

If you’ve been to some kind of mass or church service that involved communion, you’ve probably experienced it as a rather somber affair. Even upbeat contemporary evangelical services tend to play somber hymns during their once-a-month communion services.

I remember when I first encountered Communion when I was probably about twelve years old. It was in a small town in deeply Islamic Yemen, at a Christmas Eve mass conducted by the Sisters of Light, the Mother Teresa group. I was a young Hindu boy then, but my mother had a deep friendship with several of the Mother Teresa sisters, since many of them were from the same part of India as my mother. So, we attended this service at the house where the sisters lived.

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Seeking prayer as a conversation often raises expectations of a dynamic dialogue between us and God. Sometimes, though, the dynamic involves large amounts of stillness, and that’s something we’re not quite used to.

Especially when God asks us some rather awkward questions in that stillness.

In our exploration of reckless prayer, we enter the story of Elijah, who experienced such a stillness during a particular crisis in his life. We enter his story at 1 Kings 19 …

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