The Perfect Sermon

I wasn't actually planning on making it to church this Sunday. I spent the weekend at an eco-community called Earthhaven working on a play and intended to spend Sunday morning helping take down the set and clean up. Earthhaven is about 45 minutes from Mill Spring if you're headed toward Black Mountain on Route 9 and is completely off the grid. They have solar power for heat, electricity, and hot water, use composting toilets instead of connecting to the sewer system, and require consensus of community membership to make any and all decisions. I had invited myself there once before to give feedback and be peripherally involved with an earlier performance. My hosts, Mike and Finn, who asked me to get involved with this second performance, live at Earthhaven without being members and are both interested in fostering the creative spirit within their community. Mike and I got together Friday afternoon to build the set and plan the skits that would be inserted between each of the acts the following night. We worked until delirium began to set in and after a Saturday full of last-minute changes and necessary improvisation, we put on a great show for a grateful audience that included my brother Dane, Lori, and her sister Melody. I felt especially thankful that the three of them were able to come share the experience with me and enjoy the fire-dancing, drumming, and other celebrations that followed. Sunday morning I was enticed by the opportunity to spend more quality time with Dane to attend a non-denominational church called Jubilee in Asheville. The sermons are interspersed with music and drumming, and it felt like a natural progression from the festivities of the night before. The minister reminded us that we are all servants to God and to each other, and that we are asked to decide each day "whom we will serve". On a morning where I had planned to help take down sets but was no longer needed for that task, it felt great to have spent that time with my brother, the person responsible for teaching me what it means to live a life of service to others. We leave this week for our mid-year retreat with the Brethren Volunteer Service, where I'm sure we will spend time talking about what our service has taught us these last six months. I hope Dane has learned that I am far from perfect, and that he will nonetheless aspire to be just like me.