When I came to Bethlehem in the summer of 1980, which is just a few blocks from here, the

Metro Dome was under construction.

And the first game was in September of 1982.

And so I came when it was being built and I will leave next year when it's being disassembled.

And I've been thinking about the implications of that.

But mainly I'm mentioning it because of the way I responded to that felt threat.

Not only when the dome was being built did it feel threatening to our church, traffic, parking, crowds, Sunday, will this work anymore when games are 12.03 and everybody's driving in.

But when that freeway, this big junction out here, 94 and 35,

when that was built in the late 60s, early 70s,

you can imagine what a devastation that felt like to a nice peaceful

community with streets that went across there and across nice little homes everywhere and they're

wiping them out. They're just wiping them out by the dozens

moving some of them and our church is 100 feet away and the thought can we even

begin to survive will this even be possible will anybody be able to get here so the point is how does one respond to threats because if you if you live anywhere near an urban center, change is what happens.

And maybe in little rural communities, the demands of the ministry are very different, but if you're in a city,

it is just one either exciting or threatening change or both after another.

And so here's what I wrote.

I printed out the September 14, 1982 article

that I wrote for our newsletter called God Through His Shoe on Edam or The

Dome is Dead. And the text was,

Psalm 108, 9, Moab is my wash basin.

Upon Edam, I cast my shoe.

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