Birds of a feather.....

Have you ever had one of those moments in church, where you hear a gasp go out across the congregation? Or, maybe hear somebody speak out with "surely he wouldn't do that in here"? Well, we had both of these things happen this morning in our worship service. Our preacher, Jerry, spoke this morning about the sin of "Gossip". He started by showing a video clip from the movie "Doubt". In the movie, the priest tells a story about a lady who came to confession and sought penitence for gossip.

The dialogue goes like this:

Father Brendan Flynn: "A woman was gossiping with her friend about a man whom they hardly knew - I know none of you have ever done this. That night, she had a dream: a great hand appeared over her and pointed down on her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest, Father O' Rourke, and she told him the whole thing. 'Is gossiping a sin?' she asked the old man. 'Was that God All Mighty's hand pointing down at me? Should I ask for your absolution? Father, have I done something wrong?' 'Yes,' Father O' Rourke answered her. 'Yes, you ignorant, badly-brought-up female. You have blamed false witness on your neighbor. You played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed.' So, the woman said she was sorry, and asked for forgiveness. 'Not so fast,' says O' Rourke. 'I want you to go home, take a pillow upon your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me.' So, the woman went home: took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to her roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed. 'Did you gut the pillow with a knife?' he says. 'Yes, Father.' 'And what were the results?' 'Feathers,' she said. 'Feathers?' he repeated. 'Feathers; everywhere, Father.' 'Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out onto the wind,' 'Well,' she said, 'it can't be done. I don't know where they went. The wind took them all over.' 'And that,' said Father O' Rourke, 'is gossip!' "

Jerry then used texts from both Leviticus and Romans to show that gossip is in fact a sin, covered the different types of gossip: rumors, being nosy, prayer requests given as gossip, etc. Then, in an effort to make his point memorable (and maybe to spur on a little gossip also), he called 3 kids up front (my Amber being one of them). Jerry took a big feather pillow, cut the top open and handed it to Amber. The two boys behind her picked up a fan and power cord and that is when the "gasp" went across the church and several said "he wouldn't". Well, he did, or should I say, Amber did. The entire sanctuary was covered in feathers and Amber did a great job of showering people with them too. I'd have to say that many people were horrified by the site. As he concluded his message, we moved into a communion service and he asked us to imagine the feathers as representing our sin that Christ came to die for. Only Christ could cover our multitude of sins.

Yep, all three aisles. By the time Sunday School was over afterwards, there were feathers in the foyer, hallway, Sunday School rooms and fellowship hall, etc. I'm sure some mothers will be cleaning them up in their vans and cars this week too. Last I knew, Jerry was still at church with his shop vac trying to sweep them up. EDK