Quasi Modo

This has been a morning full of online serendipity.

I've been doing some work for the General Assembly Committee on Representation that I used to serve on and wanted to check up on some facts before etching them into the proverbial stone of an informed opinion to be presented at our upcoming national meeting. I'll try to avoid the technical stuff, because some of it is technical, and just stick to the serendipity. Wish me luck!

First stop? The committee's staff person. I wanted to be certain that I had the names of our denomination's non-geographic presbyteries. We don't have a lot of them and they are primarily Korean language-oriented. Found out I'd missed one - a Native American presbytery that had been in existence since the 1800s.

That led the staff person to some beetle-tracking. She learned about the history of the presbytery and how it's managed to remain a non-geographic presbytery over the decades. Really interesting stuff and it speaks to how the Native Americans have interacted with the white culture, and shows how much we have to learn from them about diversity and relationship and "being one in Christ".

It won't change my approach to my particular project, exactly, but it has informed the task and overall work.

Next? A change of direction.

I decided to figure out what scripture I'm preaching on this Sunday. One of those "EEP! It's already Wednesday and I haven't even started yet!" moments.

So I wandered to one of my sermon prep sites. Because I hadn't been preaching from the lectionary, it had been a couple of weeks since I'd strolled that direction.

In case you aren't up on some of the historic liturgy, the Sunday after Easter used to be (and is now being reclaimed) Holy Hilarity or Holy Humor Sunday. A celebration of God's laughter at death through the resurrection of Jesus. I've never quite pulled it off on the Sunday after Easter, but have encouraged my congregations to give Holy Hilarity a try in the summer. (Not quite as Presbyterian-threatening then. *chuckle*)

And what pops up? Quasimodo Sunday!

I'd never heard of it! I'm still doing some online trolling to find actual liturgies, but I think it'd be interesting. I couldn't figure out how Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame figured into the Sunday after Easter. Turns out that the name comes from the first two Latin words of the Roman Catholic introit for that Sunday found in 1 Peter 2: "Quasi modo geniti infantes" 'As if now we are newborn infants' (a free-range translation).

As if now ...

There's a lot in my life that is "as if now". Seems like a pretty good serendipitous place to be!