Jesus wasn't invited.

He invaded.

He wasn't expected.

He appeared.

And someone who invades without an invitation and who appears without an expectation invariably adds some inconvenience to your life.


In the case of Jesus, many of the inconveniences land in Joseph's lap.

We're going to look at those this Sunday.  Is it OK if I say I really like this message and can't wait to give it?

I like the excavation of Scripture in it.  I like the patterns that emerge.  I like the props I'll use.  I really like the bottom line and the many ways it intersects with our lives.

And, just for good measure, I like that I will be delivering just after we are led in in music by our Worship Choir -- a full on, full color, full note celebration of sound.

Sunday.

8:30.  10.  11:30.

Here I am with Latino Ministries Pastor Sammy Gonzalez at last weekend's Two Year Anniversary of our Spanish-speaking worship service.

I was able to murmur a few words in espanol before turning the program back over to Sammy who is blessedly and thankfully bi-lingual.

Here are some facts about our Latino worship community you may not know:

• It is not a separate church.  It is the fourth worship service of Good Shepherd.  Sammy and I preach essentially the same messages using the same Scriptures.  He probably edits out my tennis stories and replaces them with his basketball stories.  Whereas in the English services we "invite all people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ," in the Corner Campus they "invitado a todas personas a una relacion viva con JesuChristo."  It is the same thing.  Or, in Spanish, "es lo mismo."
•  Latino communities are hardly monolithic.  In our own congregation, for example, we have Cubans, Ecuadorans, Argentinians, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Hondurans, and more.  The different nationalities bring different customs, assumptions, and even dialects into our Latino community.  Fortunately, Sammy and his leadership team have done an excellent job at bringing disparate groups of people into one cohesive body.
• The worship gathering has grown from an average of 60 to an average of 100 just since August.  I actually remember the day earlier in 2014 when Sammy and I prayed for exactly that kind of increase.
• Part of that growth is because the Latino Ministry already has a unique multi-site -- we have leased a mobile home within a largely Latino mobile home community and from that site provide after school tutoring, refreshments, and invitations to church.
• When we finish building the Living Room, the Latino community will move across Moss Road to a spacious worship area adjoining the "English" Worship Center.  Parents will no longer have to dart across a busy street to check in and then collect their children to our KZone and nursery ministries.  We will all be connected.  A truly "all people" moment will occur.

If you attended Good Shepherd on Sunday, you knew something was up with my voice.

As in going, going, GONE!

So Monday was laryngitis, doctors, Augmentin, and Prednisone.

And being home alone.

These don't happen very often, but what takeaways emerge from a sick day?

Here are five:

1.  It CAN be more productive than work.  Because I wasn't "sick in the bed," just too sick to mingle with people, I could get a lot done.  There's always another sermon to prepare (after all, February 1, 2015 is just around the corner!), so I was able get some books, some notes, some prayer, and do some deep message prep in an environment with few interruptions.

2.  Colin Cowherd is really good.  OK, I found a couple of interruptions, most notably the Herd radio simulcast on ESPNU.  I now know that his wife went to a dog whisperer -- also known as an "animal communicator" -- today.  Cowherd is witty, irreverent, and extremely smart.


 3.  When you're bored, you eat.  I never have mid-afternoon snacks.  Except for today.  Extra food, combined with what Prednisone does to body weight anyway . . . and there goes all those good results that are a by-product of Good Shepherd's season of fasting.

4.  People understand when you have to cancel.  Even in the case of urgent appointments, people would rather delay the meeting than get what you have.

5.  Something's going around.  People were literally lined up outside at the urgent care I went to this morning.  They could all talk, though, which put them one step ahead of me.