Let’s face it, kids can be cruel. And no more so for me than during roll call one day in elementary school. Specifically, the teacher asked us to give out our full names – middle names included.
You see, I hated my middle name and guarded it jealously. It sounded old-fashioned and corny. I still remember the teasing from my classmates, both boys and girls.
So now, as I begin my very first sermon ever in a Methodist church, I’m obliged to reveal that name…Calvin.
Worse still, I’m named after my great-grandfather, The Rev. Thomas Calvin Leinbach, himself a preacher in the Calvinist tradition, in this case the German Reformed Church (now part of the United Church of Christ – my denomination).
Continue reading “A Hidden Longing for Home”