Sunday, the 4th, was also a kind of milestone for Paul, who is completing a three-year internship in youth ministry at St. Paul's Church, Cleveland Heights (he also has a "day job" of course!).

He was asked to preach at the "early" (7:45 a.m.) and "family" (9:00 a.m.) services at St. Paul's. I sort of bootlegged this photo from our pew; it's not quite in focus, but I didn't want to be too obvious about it!

Andrew and Emily joined us for the service, and for brunch afterwards with Paul (eventually) at Night Town, a well-known Cleveland Heights watering hole with a lot of jazz groups appearing during the week and a killer Sunday brunch (the only Eggs Benedict besides his own that Bob will eat!).

It was the 7th Sunday of Easter, and the lessons are very tough ones to preach on. The Lesson is from the book of Acts, a description of events just prior to the Ascension; the Gospel is from John 17:1–11, a portion of Jesus' conversation with his disciples just before they leave to go to the Garden of Gethsemene, where he will be arrested.

A man's last words to his friends are important, but this passage is famously obscure. Paul did a wonderful job, starting by telling how he became a spotlight operator in high school and eventually trained others to take over.

The "glorification" which the passage speaks of repeatedly, is essentially "spotlighting" Paul said. Jesus spotlighted God's acts and revealed God's nature during his ministry, and the lesson makes clear the fact that, with his Ascension, that same ministry is now ours: our job is to spotlight, as Jesus did, the places on the stage of life where God is at work in healing, forgiving, feeding, and growing. He gave examples of where the St. Paul's community does all these things.

The sermon was very well-received and as we came back from Communion Sue Hollingsworth, our Bishop's wife, told Bob how proud we must be. We were!