By Pastor Tracey Leslie
Scripture: From the Book of Jonah

​Now that everyone – from the pre-schoolers to the grad students – are back at class, this morning I’m kicking off a new sermon series in honor of “back to school season” in which we’re going to look at some stories and characters from the Hebrew scriptures that are often popular with children… mostly because they’ve been made famous by Veggie Tales.  But also because the characters are loosely defined as heroes.  Cambridge dictionary defines a hero as a person admired for having done something brave or having achieved something great.
When I was a kid, my favorite story book was Pickles the Fire Cat.  The most memorable line was when Mrs. Goodkind told Pickles, “Pickles, you are a big cat with big paws.  Someday you will do big things.”  When we are children, we dream of doing big things, of achieving something great.  But as we grow up, we discover how difficult it is to do big things and how easily we can be intimidated and discouraged, or even distracted.  We doubt ourselves and we may even doubt God’s call over our lives.  As we grow, the hard knock school of life teaches us some lessons we’d be better off without – like prejudice and resentment; paralyzing fear and self-doubt.  And so those children’s tales of characters like Jonah have lessons even for more mature listening audiences.

By Pastor Tracey Leslie
Scripture:  Acts 2:41-47

It took me more than fifty years, but I can now say, “I’ve worked in a factory on an assembly line.”  I did it on my sabbatical.  I know; sabbaticals are supposed to be about rest, right?  So what was I doing working?  Well, I visited a Bruderhof Community in the UK where they manufacture wooden furniture and toys for toddlers and preschoolers.  My first morning at the Bruderhof began very early with a tour of the classrooms and childcare area so I could see the furniture… what it looked like finished, the ways it could be used.  Then I went down to the factory and got to work.  I don’t know the name of the machine I used my first morning there; but I drilled holes and assembled parts.  You can see a picture of me working during my 9:15 presentation in the Great Room next Sunday if you’re interested.  I enjoyed my job that first morning.  I felt a little proud of myself that I was using power tools to make something.  But, by the end of that first day, I was on to another job.

By Pastor Tracey Leslie
Scripture:  Genesis 18:1-16; Matthew 25:31-46

​This morning I am continuing with my post-sabbatical sermon series entitled “A Traveler’s Reflections.”  My sabbatical involved several trips, including three airline flights and my trip with my sister, Vicki, a Route 66 vacation, had a pretty stressful start.  Our connection to Albuquerque was supposed to take us through Dallas.  That day Dallas had terrible weather and closed the airport.  Our plane was grounded in Amarillo, Texas.  Now, I don’t blame the airlines for the weather.  They have no control over that.  And, as it turned out, they were more gracious than one might anticipate.  But their communication was so poor and so slow that it left many travelers – my sister and I included – in sheer panic-mode.