This weekend the Lake Wales High School Class of 1979 is having their 40th reunion. That caught my attention because I am also from the class of 1979. My reunion was last spring and we were too busy with moving for me to go, but I was able to see a lot of pictures and reflections on Facebook.

I have a lot of happy memories from high school. I had my struggles, too, of course, but on balance it was good. But there’s an aspect of high school for many if not most of us that gives us a path to understanding this odd parable.

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WELCOME!  We are celebrating Back to Church Sunday because so many people drift away from church for a lot of reasons and circumstances. We are thrilled you are here.

Or maybe you haven’t been part of a church before.  From the outside it may seem like we are a kind of a holy club that you’ve got to meet qualifications to join. Even if that may be true in some places, it’s actually backwards from what we are meant to be as Jesus’ Church, as we can see in today’s Gospel (Luke 15:1-10)

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Once upon a time there was a little fish living in a gallon-sized bowl. His life was ok. He had long ago and very quickly explored his territory. There was no cat around, so he was just fine. And he didn’t know any better or different. Then one day he and his bowl got poured into a small pool of about 10,000 gallons. It took some time, but he was able to explore that and thought, “Wow! I had no idea there could be so much!” Then the rains came and the waters rose. And the more they rose, the deeper and wider his pool became. He began to explore and explore, and as he did, the more the rain fell and the more the water rose. Then one day a great wave came and washed over the pool. As the water receded, it cut a channel to the ocean. The little fish swam through the channel. The farther he swam, the farther he knew he had to go.

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