Well, when you come to the “sex” lesson in a marriage unit in Sunday School, you’re never going to have completely frank discussion, and maybe smaller settings are better for truly personal sharing on that subject anyways.  However, I am continually encouraged by the open spirit that most folks have, and the lighthearted laughs we can all have while doing that sharing. I think we did a good job of balancing some of the practical issues of sex-in-marriage with the more theoretical, theological analysis of sex as a reflection of God’s desire for his people.

I’ll share one lesson that I personally will take away from it: I think that if nothing else, we should at least occasionally experience passion and excitement during worship.  This is when God is reaching out to us - pursuing us - and if we aren’t excited by that, then our hearts are truly cold.

Dave D will once again be back in the saddle this Sunday as we continue in our marriage unit.  I admit I think the marriage-finance “mini-unit” was great.  For those of you who weren’t there, a fuller class on the topic may be offered soon, though probably not before January.

I see that the school of discipleship is going to have its own unit on marriage this fall on Wednesday nights - for those who don’t know what SOD is (and it may well be renamed), I believe the general idea is a Wednesday night communal supper followed by a variety of hour-long classes, lasting for about two months.  I believe it starts in late September.

As always, I’m brainstorming for the next unit.  Ideas include another “Life of …” series like we did with Elijah, and another comparative religion unit like we did with Islam (perhaps this time with say Mormonism)?  I am always open to ideas and welcome all suggestions.

I wanted to pass along this email from Margaret Frothingham about an opportunity to help Sarah Fink:

“Dear Friends,
As many of you know, Sarah Fink is pregnant with twins. She is 26 weeks along and has begun having problems. She’s been placed on bedrest. Graham is two, and they have need for childcare and a few meals, especially in the next two weeks, when Sarah’s mom comes to help. We’ve set up a nifty Care Calendar. It is an efficient way to match their needs with people’s offers. If you’d like to help please follow the guidelines below.

The HELPER logon is used by family and friends that would like to sign-up to help a loved one.

To access Sarah and David Fink’s personal CareCalendar site, visit http://www.CareCale ndar.org and enter the following information in the appropriate spaces:

CALENDAR ID : 5731
SECURITY CODE : 1314

Thank you for loving them in this way. Their hope is that the babies will wait another 6-8 weeks before meeting you all. Let’s pray together for that. I am the coordinator for this.”

Click on this post to see the bibliography Dave provided this past Sunday. If I knew how to post the Word Document, I would.

Here’s the syllabus:

June 1 What is Marriage? Matthew 19:1-12, Genesis 2

8 LEAVE: The Goal of Marriage (Gen. 2:25) Covenant & Vows

15 LEAVE: Exclusivity/In-Laws

22 WEAVE: Sex Roles/Gender Differences

29 WEAVE: Talking/Listening

July 6 NO CLASS

13 WEAVE: Finances: Rick and Mimi Every

20 WEAVE: Finances: Rick and Mimi Every

27 WEAVE: Practicing Forgiveness

August 3 CLEAVE: Sex

10 CLEAVE: Sex and God

17 Children

24 “Unequally Yoked”

31 Divorce

I wanted to express how pleased I am that, while the group has grown pretty large for this latest unit, we are finding that people are sharing “real” comments (as well as occassional funny one-liners) about the topic of marriage.  I hope that we will continue to see that, because it is through these comments – at least for me — where real “learning” occurs.  I also liked what Dave did this past Sunday where he told us a little bit about his and Kim’s “story” - I hope that we will get to know some of each other’s stories, whether in class or perhaps out of class over lunch, ultimate frisbee, etc.

Ultimate Frisbee has been moved from 3PM to 6PM on Sundays in a vain attempt to avoid the oven-like conditions out there.  It’s still at Forest Hills park off University Dr.  Email Matt Wallace if you have any questions.

Because of high attendance, the class will meet in room 402 during the summer. If we should bust out of that room too, we will make a later change.  For those who came last week, that’s the same class as we eventually moved to.

We had a tremendous crowd for the marriage unit that started this past Sunday. The adult education committee is considering the logistical issues now and I will post where we will meet once a decision has been made about where to meet.

In the meantime, IF YOU DID NOT COME LAST WEEK AND INTEND TO COME IN THE FUTURE — please email me and let me know so that we can plan our room assignment accordingly. mrcommodore at yahoo dot com

Looking forward to seeing everyone there.