Claiming the Blessing 2.0

We are just back from a long weekend-away at a family wedding in Boulder, Colorado. It was the "first of the next generation" wedding in Louise's family and on a wedding scale of 1-10 it was about a 12.5. We were honored to be included -- and have you ever seen a prouder-than-punch groom than "our" Brian?

Here's the happy couple again ... with the groom's mom, dad & grandpa. And no, the pictures aren't very good ... I just took them with my cell phone trying not to get in the way of the "real" photographers ... but since "mazel tovs" are in order, I figured a few pictures were, too.

Some of my reflections on the weekend will probably end up in Sunday's sermon ... I'm preaching again (uncharacteristically soon having just preached July 25, but that's how the schedule worked out) and the title is "Claiming the Blessing 2.0" -- and so I've been doing a lot of reflecting on what it means to be blessed in order to be a blessing ... and what exactly it is we do when we bless the union of two people ... what it means to vow "til death do us part" and to invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in center of a relationship.

I'm letting my Sermon GPS take the lead on this one so we'll see where it goes. But right now there are suitcases to unpack and email to download and ... well, it's good to be home!