Im part of a chaplain team at an Episcopal school (yep, still Baptist, go figure). Every Friday we have community chapel with 400+ K-8th graders, plus teachers and parents. It can be a real challenge to deliver a homily to that great a divide. It can also be quite hilarious. One of my favorites was the time we built a TARDIS (earned cool points with middle schoolers who love Doctor Who) for transfiguration chapel, but thats another story. We have chapel in our gym. Most kids sit in the bleachers while K-2 sit on the floor. I walk, talk and asks questions during my homily, and a few times have nearly fallen due to little ones grabbing my feet and legs over the years. Once when I was preaching a kindergartener sighed and said will she EVER stop talking. The funniest moment to me though came at the beginning of the school year last year. I was talking about God calling Abraham as he calls us. I asked if by calling, I meant a phone call. Most students said nooooo with giggles here and there. One kindergartner disagreed and yelled out: Yes! God calls me on the phone all the time. He called me this morning! I told my mom: this better be important, God is calling way too early. This is getting ridiculous! Yep, homily was officially over. I laughed to the point of tears. I think I managed to choke out a few sentences about being called to be in community, but Im sure they were pretty unintelligible due to the laughter in the house!
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 09:43:39 +0000