This entire service was children's songs. The Sermon was based on singing The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly.
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I know an old woman who
swallowed a fly I know an old woman who swallowed a
spider I know an old woman who swallowed a
bird I know an old woman who swallowed a
cat I know an old woman who swallowed a
dog I know an old woman who swallowed a
goat I know an old woman who swallowed a
cow I know an old woman who swallowed a
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Jesus taught in parables, stories that held a meaning. In the last few decade Jungians have been teaching us about the importance of fairy tales in telling deep truths to our spirits. Today I want to talk about a fairy tale about health and joy. It begins with:
This isn't about an old woman, but the old woman inside us
Keep things neat (Mom - don't eat that there might be germs, wipe your feet)
There is always a bug in the ointment. mess up ordinary life.
mystery that crashes in and perhaps you'll die (spiritual as well as physical) from it. Most of the time, we don’t die from swallowing flies.But the Old Woman can't be happy with bugs, so what does she do?
Spider makes a living catching flies. webs, caution against life
(my feet were burned when 5 months old, and I always have radar for bumps.Another me junion high school, smashed in the face with a basket ball by a girl I had a crush on , now I have radar for women with basket balls.
can't settle with radar, so flit from thing-thing to be healthy, joyful. Peck. If you just keep moving, then the bugs don’t settle (Computer industry and do we really need all this technology?)
independent carnivore, kills all it can catch, (yellin at the kids "get out of my yard", security over community)
Eat anything, pretend your happy. Addiction Aesop’s fable about the dog and the bone. This is where we are in our culture now, happy in addiction, grabbing everything.
Eats anything, goes where it will (story goat standing on top of the car so it could be on top) "This is the way I am and I don't want it any other way". Not just a thing of aging, we all do this.
No emotion, just sits there and eats. But we are learning ecologically that cows eats more than they produce, completely out of balance. And this puts the world at risk. No end, no life, Dull, emotionless. Scared to paralysis by a fly.
Notice: The Song keeps coming back to death – perhaps she’ll die. Fairy tale hints all the way through where this will end.
and song ends.
For the gospel John , we can abundant life when we recognize
who God is in our lives.
I did an amazing bible study once to look at the whole and joyous
spiritual life, and do you know what I found. Sheep. No sheep in
an old woman song – I wonder why?
Recognition of shepherd is really important -- I don't know sheep
but I see this in my dog Chachie. Dogs go nuts at the sound of
their "master's voice".
Health and life isn't just about correcting what is wrong, or
what might go wrong. We don’t get it in trying to make
ourselves secure. Endless/Fruitless
We do get it in recognition of our maker.
I know this. I have an odd smile. Someone comes to me as their
pastor with this huge horrible story of a terrible time in their
life, everything is falling apart. In the course of the story, I
find myself smiling because I see the hand of God changing
someone is a wonderful way.
Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. Who’s the lamb??
Everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go. following Christ or is it Christ following us around.
Followed her to school which was against the rules - here we get the fly – principals will come get her. Big stink, everything is going badly, and then the song takes a marvelous turn.
It made the children laugh and play, children know better. They recognize the joy of creation and that funny little surprise is an act of grace. .
Don't swallow any more animals to correct the mystery of life. Listen for the voice of the shepherd, who does not eat us but comes to find us.