It’s always a joy to lead worship and preach at Nathan’s church in Burns TN.  It’s a joy to do so anywhere these days.  The people there love their pastor and are happy that he is happy.  Though his straight faced dry sense of humor still challenges them.

He lists attendance in the bulletin and then adds, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Before the service, I called attention to that and then told the story of the seminarian who was assigned to write a paper on the Trinity.  He wrote, “Holy, holy, holy,” for ten double spaced pages.  The prof said he would have given him an A, except he put a period after the final “Holy.”  I also added that not only would the fullness of the Trinity be with us, but we should note that before we take “a foretaste of the feast to come” in Holy Communion, we  also invite “Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, and with all the witnesses of the resurrection” plus “angels and archangels and with the company of heaven” to join us.  Now, that many folks really fill the church and greatly challenges the ushers to get an accurate count of attendance.