Oh crap...

Well, it took over three years to happen, but tonight it finally did.

Kiddo pooped in the bathtub. While I was on bath duty, no less.

There we were, making his toy ducks sing Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head when all of a sudden, he looks up at me with panic in his eyes and says "uh oh, Daddy...uh oh!!!"

He and I both looked down at the same time, at the same place, and well...there it was. Just a couple of little pieces.

"No problem," I think, and I pick him up to lift him out of the bathtub, and there in midair he drops the Atomic Poop From Hell. I kid you not, this thing was almost as big as my fist and he let 'er fly from about two feet above the bathtub. And it landed with FORCE. Ever see a someone do a really good cannonball off a diving board? Picture that, only with poop.

Impressive, it was.

Not knowing what else might be coming, I quickly got Kiddo on the toilet and did what most dads would do in this situation: I called for my wife. I don't know why...there's nothing really she could do (or needed to do) by this time. The situation was under control. Maybe I just needed reassurance that there wasn't anything else obvious that needed to be done right away that my little pea-brain had overlooked.

Besides cleaning the bathtub, of course.

After Kiddo got off the toilet, Sweetie took him into his bedroom to dry him off and get his pajamas on. I looked at the bathtub, where the Kiddo Droppings had already begun to break down and spread out.

I'll spare you the rest of the details, but fear not, our bathtub is now clean.

On a completely different subject, we sang Sing of the Lord's Goodness at our contemporary service this morning. While rehearsing it this past Wednesday night, our praise team's bass player pointed out another song that it reminds him of--Everything's Alright from Jesus Christ Superstar. And you know what? He's right. Of course, there's not a whole heck of a lot of songs out there written in 5/4 time, so when you run across one that is, it's bound to remind you of either Take Five or Everything's Alright, but there ya go.

We also had our first go at a new liturgical setting at the early (traditional) service. This congregation switches liturgical settings about every 3 or 4 months, so they're used to switching. This was something new, though. We're technically using Setting 6 from With One Voice, but if you look at it, that's the one that basically tells you to use various hymns as the parts of the liturgy. This congregation has used settings 1 and 2 from LBW, as well as setting 5 from WOV, but this was their first crack at something other than those or LBW's Service of the Word.

It didn't go all that great, to be honest with you.

It didn't go badly either, but the pastor got confused in a couple of spots and completely skipped both the hymn of praise (which I had a cantor up in the balcony with me all ready to sing the verses of) and the entire Great Thanksgiving before the words of institution. In his defense, thanks to the snowstorm this week we hadn't had the opportunity we had planned on to run through things, but eek. I just hope folks are willing to give it another go next week.

I'm excited about the songs we're using for the parts of the liturgy, but since it's not all there in a real linear form, it can be a bit confusing at first for the average person in the pews. When you add in parts being skipped, it can be very confusing, which can easily turn to frustration, which isn't exactly worshipful.

We'll get our act together, and I'll fill you in on how it all goes next week.

I realize I've begged the question, "so what are you using for the parts of the liturgy?" I'm writing this at home without the aid of hymnals, so I'm going off the top of my head with the hymn numbers, but here's the order of service for the communion liturgy...the parts that have music, at least:

• Kyrie: Kyrie by Marty Haugen (ELW #157, I think). It's the Kyrie from his Now The Feast And Celebration liturgy. We had it as a bulletin insert.
• Hymn of Praise: Now The Feast and Celebration (#789 in WOV???) One of my favorite hymns ever, but the verses can be tricky at first. I had a cantor lined up to do the verses, with the congregation coming in on the chorus...unfortunately, it got skipped.
• Gospel Acclamation: Lord, Let My Heart Be Good Soil (WOV #713), by Handt Hanson. GREAT hymn to introduce a scripture reading.
• Offertory: As The Grains of Wheat (WOV #705).
• Holy Holy Holy: Holy, Holy, Holy Are You from Marty Haugen's Now The Feast And Celebration liturgy (we had it in a bulletin insert...on the back side of the Kyrie page...it's also in the ELW hymnal). Sensing a theme here? I tried to keep a relatively unified sound. Unfortunately, this also got skipped this morning.
• Lamb of God: Lamb of God from Marty Haugen's Mass of Creation. It's in the Service Hymns section of WOV, not sure of the hymn number.
• Post Communion Canticle: Praise To You, O God of Mercy, from Marty Haugen's Now The Feast And Celebration. WOV #790.

I think all the pieces are there for a good service that flows well and through which God's word is proclaimed to the congregation. I'm not so stubborn as to insist that we keep doing it for 3 or 4 months if it's not effectively reaching folks, but I am stubborn enough to insist that we do it for at least a month. We'll evaluate then and see where we're at.

If I wanted to be all theological and everything, I'd go back to Kiddo's crap story at this point and say something about our own crap as human beings (even when we try to worship), and how all we can do is muddle through it all and how God reaches his hands into the dirty bathwater of our lives and cleans us up out of nothing more than sheer fatherly love. And in a way that we'd never be able to do ourselves, because we are, quite literally and figuratively, full of crap.

I could say all of that. But it's late. It's time for bed.

And tomorrow, there's work to be done.

LH