St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, Epc

One of the things I know for certain is that we are more shaped by stories than anything else. I grew up in a home that was Christian, with deep roots in the stoical South. My early communities were more stoical than Christian but I saw and heard much the same thing. They were about Jesus and hard work, in that order. The men around me emphasized working hard and playing hurt. If hurt, we didn’t cry but “rubbed dirt on it” and “plowed to the end of the row.” We thought pleasure was suspicious and we were more virtuous when we were suffering. That shaped my early life more than anything I ever got from school or a textbook.  Along the way, when I really got to know the Author of the story personally and realized that he really liked me (even when I was not so good), it was like breathing rarified air. When a community of people took me by the hand and said, "Look! Taste and see, the glory of God is playing all around you!”, it felt like I was getting closer to the great Story we read about in the Bible.  I say