Purchase Your Tickets for the Ninth Annual Birmingham Hospitality Network (BHN) Auction!

Thursday, July 29 - B&A Warehouse, 1530 1st Ave. South Doors open at 6:00 pm - Live Auction - 7:15 pm

$25 Donation

5 levels of sponsorship for this event are also available!

· Bronze $125.00 - includes 2 tickets

· Silver $250.00 - includes 4 tickets

· Gold $500.00 - includes 6 tickets

· Platinum $1000.00 - includes 8 tickets

· Double Platinum $2000.00 - includes 10 tickets

Tickets may be purchased at Saint Luke's on Sunday mornings or by contacting Anne Rand (asrand@yahoo.com or 591-7889).

Click here to learn more about Birmingham Hospitality Network.

55th Place Needs Volunteers!

JULIET's will go out to eat on Thursday, July 29 to Arlington Antebellum Home. Lunches are only offered on Thursdays in the summer, so please take advantage of this opportunity. We'll leave the church parking lot at 11:00 am.  Reservations are needed by Tuesday, July 27. Contact Jeanna (jspeegle@saint-luke.com or 802-6218).

Lend a Hand For Hands-On Birmingham Weekend, Saturday, September 11

SPAFER Presents The 17th Mid-South Lecture Series Featuring

Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor

Body & Soul: What the Body Knows About God

September 24 & September 25 - St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

Go to www.spafer.org for ticket information or to learn more. 

The second weekend of June marked a happy and memorable time for the DeGweck family as we gathered to celebrate our newest granddaughter's baptism. Reading together the Liturgy of Baptism, we stood around the font in the cool morning light of St. Luke's nave, and welcomed this precious little one into the family of Christ, her proud grandfather (me) baptizing her at the font where her older sister received the same divine welcoming at my hands a little more than two years ago. A joyful time, made more joyful still because my mother, father, younger brother, and sister-in-law were able to fly down from New Jersey to be with us, my aunt and cousin came from Atlanta, and my oldest son flew up from Ft. Lauderdale to join in the celebration. Elizabeth Louise is the second daughter of son Ben and daughter-in-law Allison, whose parents, along with other members of her family and several dear friends rounded out the gathering. It was an altogether grand day! Afterwards, my father remarked, "You know, the older I get, the more I realize life is finally all about family." Well said, Dad.

It is, finally, all about family, isn't it? These are the people who know us best, stand with us at times of joy and stick by us in tough times, celebrating all the happy and memorable moments with us, and forming a permanent backdrop to the unfolding and unpredictable twists and turns of our lives. Jobs and homes come and go, friends enter and leave our lives (hopefully a few stay), fortunes rise and fall, but family remains. Friends are those we choose. Family is who we are, where we come from, what we're made of. I love my friends, but my friends have not made me what I am. That's a family's work. The other day, courtesy of Google Earth, I found myself looking at a current picture of the little house in New York that was home to my maternal grandparents (long deceased) for four decades. I was instantly transported to mental pictures of a little boy playing in that tiny backyard, riding his tricycle around his grandfather's basement workshop, and sitting in wonder in front of dazzling Christmas trees with bright ornaments on a cozy front porch on cold December nights long ago. I knew every inch of that house. I still do. I do not know who lives there now, but it was neat and well-kept, and so I prayed a prayer that whoever dwells within those precious old walls knows something of the warmth and security that surrounded me there in times far past. Yes, it's finally all about family.

Why do we so often live as if it were not so? I know

people who take better care of their cars than they do of their children. I know people who spend more time making money than they spend with those who will one day inherit most of it. I know people for whom the status of an impressive home is more important than the quality of relationships which exist in that home. No, I'm not perfect either, far from it, but I've long since learned that when the world comes crashing down on us, we don't retreat to the club or the golf course. We go home.

So the questions for us this month as we take honest looks at our families and our roles and places in them are these: am I loving my family as I should? Husbands and wives, are you loving and respecting each other? How, specifically? Parents, are you taking an active role in your child's spiritual development? Do you pray with them, answer their questions, talk about values, and help them understand how we please God? Be honest: does the way I manage my time reflect God's priorities and honor those family relationships? Does anything need to change? If so, how? And when?

None of this is meant to force us to dig our way out of a pit of guilt. We lay our sins and our brokenness at the foot of the cross each Sunday, and by God's grace, leave it there. No matter where we are with our family relationships -- spouses, children, extended family -- tomorrow is always a new day and a chance to begin again. It's said that the only true failure is the one who never tries. Your family isn't perfect and neither is mine. But in the mind of God, there is an image of the kind of family that you and I can have, an image that God is calling each of us towards. No, we're not perfect, but each of us can say to God, "Father, thank you for the precious gift of my family. I know I need to do better, I just don't always know how. Help me." Then trust God to lead you and give you insight and opportunities to be the father (mother, son, daughter, etc.) that you were meant to be. Obedience to Christ in your home and trusting God in all things -- it's the key to happiness in this life, trust me.

How do I know? Well, it strikes me that, as I spend these last few years of a long career here at Saint Luke's (as fine a place as I have ever served), looking back at a long list of places, people, jobs, accomplishments, joys and sorrows, etc., the thing I'm most proud of today is not the places I've been or the recognitions I've received or the positions I've attained, modest though they are, to be sure. Plaques and certificates are just things to store in an attic. No, what stands out in my mind today, on the eve of my 62nd year, is that I've been privileged to baptize each of my children and grandchildren. Now how cool is that?