REPAIRING THE PALACE

    I was surprised to learn recently how much Louis XIV and I have in common. While visiting at his palace at Versailles last week (and I needed only one article to mention my trip to Europe), I noticed that part of the palace was under repair. The requisite scaffolding and sheeting on a corner of a building could not be hidden. I asked our guide about the repair and she said, "Oh, there is always some work going on here. Something always needs to be repaired."

    And there Louis and I are alike. I have a house, too, and something always needs to be repaired, repainted or reroofed. Something always needs to be replanted or resodded, trimmed, planted, or cut down. You have a house, perhaps, and you know what I mean. You know that the mortgage, insurance, and tax payments cover only a part of the expenses of owning a home. "Something always needs to be repaired."

    And you know where I am going with this. In your house and mine, in your church and mine, and in your life and mine, something always needs to be repaired. We're doing a major renovation on our church right now because this place, some of it fifty years old, some of it thirty years old, needs some repairs. You've seen the Restore to Glory! pictures and maybe been inconvenienced in parking and finding your way around. But the church is being repaired in other ways, too. Every week we hear another creative idea for ministry. Every week lives are changed here. Every week a new young person shows up for choir or another child comes through our weekday ministry. Every week people find courage to face large issues. At this altar, in these pews, and in these classrooms, repairs are being made.

    School starts soon and the fall is a wonderful time to find a class or a study. I believe that congregational life, life in the faith community, is an essential part of our living fulfilled lives. No institution like the church can offer the long-term depth and development that are so desperately required by our souls.

    This is a good place to get repaired. And I'll see you this Sunday.

Middle schoolers are invited to Café 4:12 on Wednesdays at 7:45 a.m. at the Starbuck's across the street from the church. (Emily Kirby, ext. 7822)

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