“Just think how much good you could do!”
Those enticing words also may be some of the most dangerous words around–they can open the door to extraordinary evil, perfectly disguised and cloaked with something that just looks so right.
Starting this Sunday, May 26, I will begin a five week message series on the necessity of learning as early as possible to discern that which is good from that which is not good.
Because even the youngest need to learn to develop that facility if they are to make wise decisions, I want to make this series as accessible as possible for them. To do so, I will use several primary characters from the Harry Potter series of books and movies to help us understand these concepts better. We’ll move from these characters to the biblical texts and work on making our own life connections with them.
These are the characters I will be using: Tom Riddle, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter. These characters run the spectrum from astoundingly good to astoundingly bad, and each made choices along the way that are similar to the choices each of us makes daily. Their stories also mirror many important biblical stories that we all need to know and understand. J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, is an active member of the Church of Scotland and wrote very much influenced by her Christian faith. The strains of sin, forgiveness and redemption flow from her work.
Please note: any visuals used on the screen will be good in nature. Although the Harry Potter books and movies do have some tough to read and view scenes, I don’t want any of those to be shown during worship.
Vicki Whitmer and Pat Nolan, who have together given a wonderful Sunday School experience for our school-aged children, will be taking a summer break. All children are very welcome in worship. What they see and experience there will be appropriate for them and might also help spur discussion later among families.
I so look forward to being in worship with you all again this week. And I give thanks to the excellent leadership of our worship teams and David Taylor and Jessi Soule while I was gone. I have really missed you!
See you on Sunday,
Christy
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