A time for grief, a time for joy

It has been a horrific week. Last Saturday morning a long-time member of the congregation died unexpectedly. Sunday morning another - a woman in her 70s who was just baptized last Easter. Monday after spending time with both grieving families I had to take my beloved bunny, the Reverend Samuel T Rabbit, to the vet where he was eased out of this life. Tuesday I could barely function.

What I faced Tuesday morning was what was already going to be an unusually busy week. I had to finish writing a grant for our preschool which was due on Friday and I had to prepare the monthly newsletter so our members could receive the paper version by September 1st. Luckily the web version is easy to do once all the writing is completed. Then there was the usual bulletin preparation and general office stuff. And on top of these, planning a funeral and doing my own grieving while working with the two bereaved families.

I cried out in despair as the psalmist did, first to God, then to friends. I shared my grief, my anger, my concern that I wouldn't be able to do what I had to do. I received consolation and strength, the assurance that God was walking alongside of me. I cried and worked, and cried some more.

Tuesday afternoon I received a phone call from a friend, who had a bunny she wanted to give me. I agreed to see how Mr. Whiskers and I would get along. Tuesday and Wednesday my friends surrounded me in person and virtually, and prayed with me. By Thursday all the work I had to complete was finished and I was able to go to the church to truly celebrate the life of one who has gone home.

I feel good - able to sing praise songs in the morning as I used to do. The grief over two humans and one bunny is still there, but no longer paralyzing. Mr. Whiskers and I are getting along well - he's a glutton for being petted, and has started looking excited when I come out in the morning, and coming over to nuzzle my face. He's not my Sammy, but he's really helped me get through the pain of loss.

Thank God for friends and prayers and bunny rabbits.

MR. WHISKERS

Friday Five: Word Association, Redux

It's a while since I played Friday Five on Revgalsblogpals

This one is patterned off an old Friday Five written by Songbird, our Friday Five Creator Emerita:

Below you will find five words. Tell us the first thing you think of on reading each one. Your response might be simply another word, or it might be a sentence, a poem or a story.

1. vineyard
Growing up we had a grape arbor and some of my favorite times were spent sitting under the vines by myself eating those thick skinned Concord grapes. I especially liked peeling off the purple skin to see the pale green fruit inside. Do you suppose this could have something to do with why I like to be outdoors surrounded by green growing things for prayer and meditation?

2. root
vegetables - potatoes, beets, carrots.

3. rescue
The Utah coal miners - just this morning news came that 3 of the rescuers were killed and others injured trying to reach the trapped men. Someone on the news said what better way to die than in the attempt to save lives. Sounded kind of biblical.

4. perseverance
endurance with a hint of stubborness

5. divided
Christianity - hence the Disciples' motto "Unity is our polar star"

An Unexpected RevGal Meet

We have one or two visitors most weeks, but today's worship was already going to be something special, with many visitors expected. Twenty-some members of one family were coming from all over the world (literally) to see a baby blessed and dedicated to Christ! I made sure we had twenty worship bulletins over and above our usual number of extras.

Half an hour before worship I welcomed two young men dressed all in black and metal, as the regular greeters weren't on duty yet. I was delighted to learn that they had looked us up on the internet and checked our website before coming. They were looking for a church that celebrated diversity. One of them said he was completely new to "the whole church thing."

Just as the prelude began I saw a woman I didn't recognize walk in the back door and straight up the aisle to the 2nd pew. Wow. By the time we stood for the call to worship one side of the church was nearly full and the usual latecomers hadn't yet arrived! We ran out of bulletins, and the deacons quickly made up an extra tray of cups for communion, which are two of my favorite "problems" on a Sunday morning.

When I stood up to greet our visitors during celebration and prayer concern time I introduced the 2 young men, invited the large family to introduce themselves, greeted some "regular visitors," then turned to the woman in the front. Suddenly I realized "I know that face." It was Mother Laura, a RevGal! What was she doing sitting in my 2nd pew when I knew she had an unfinished paper and a trip to England on her plate for today?

It really was a wonderful service. The sermon seemed to go well, the parents were beaming, the baby was beautiful in a long white satin gown, She even seemed to enjoy having her forehead anointed with fragant oil. The young men said they would come back, the family provided a lovely lunch, and Laura and I got to spend a little time in conversation before she headed back to her computer.

There were some little weirdnesses, of course. The pianist played 2 verses of the hymn on the wrong side of the page before she realized her mistake. My microphone kept cutting in and out. But that's just the kind of normal Sunday stuff that helps me remember that I'm not in charge.

The blessings always outweigh the weirdness and today was a perfect example of how that happens. A beautiful baby was blessed and dedicated and will be part of my church family from this day forward, even though she and her parents live in Australia. Two young men may have found a place of worship where they feel welcome. Mother Laura and I got to meet in person, and she hopes to be able to come back again. And she got to spend time in worship to renew her spirit before finishing her paper and getting on the plane.

This has truly been a day of new beginnings and many blessings.

Friday Five: Hasty Edition

Reverend Mother of the Revgalblogpals says:
Whoops! I have been in a family-induced haze these few days, with the July 4 holiday and taking time off while relatives are visiting. So I literally lost track of what day it was!

So rather than make you guys wait even one minute longer for the five, I'll dig up an oldie:

Today, what are you:

1. Wearing
My day off favorites - denim skirt and tee shirt with sandals

2. Reading
A member of the congregation lent me a bagful of mystery novels by Steven Saylor whose stories are set in Rome during last century before Christ.

Also, Being Disciples of Jesus in a Dot.com World by Foot and Thornberg

3. Eating
I'm really trying to eat less as I prepare for vacation so I'll look good in my summer clothes, doncha know. Luckily there are lots of fresh fruits and veggies available to go with the chicken and fish. Now if I could get my congregation to send fruit home with the pastor instead of cakes!

4. Doing
Day off or no, I have to go up to the office for a few minutes as my secretary is on vacation. Somebody has to let the Developmentally Challenged cleaning crew in. After that shopping for a room airconditoner (it's REALLY hot in So Cal and the bedrooms aren't airconditioned!) then settling down on the couch to return to ancient Rome in the pages of one of the books above.

5. Pondering
In large part because I'm preaching on Hearing and Doing the Word (James 1:17-27) this week, I'm seriously pondering why it is so difficult for us (me included) to really listen to anything for more than about 15 minutes. Once upon a time Christians could sit and listen to stories about Jesus, letters from Paul, sermons, etc. for hours on end. Now anything that lasts more than 15 minutes is too long. I even choose scripture readings for worship that will fit on 1/2 a sheet of paper so the reading doesn't last too long! Is it the dot.com-ness of our world where everything comes in bytes? Are we conditioned by the length of time between commercials in TV programs? Which, incidentally, keeps getting shorter. . . Hmm

Before Faith Came

Galatians 3:23-29
On Friday a dear friend of mine graduated from college. As we celebrated at a party Friday evening I looked around at all the people – babies, children, and adults of all ages – I looked at all the stages of life present – and I considered the differences between childhood and adulthood.

When we are young, we are surrounded by rules! Don’t leave the yard without telling someone. Never swim alone. Don’t cross the street by yourself. Clean your room. Don’t eat candles. Put away your toys. Don’t take toys away from others. Don’t hit people.

And we’re surrounded by people who check up on us to make sure we follow the rules – parents, older siblings, babysitters, teachers . . . Who discipline us when misbehave, or don’t follow instructions.

As we get older we have more freedom to make our own decisions. The new college graduate had no one standing over her to make sure her papers and other assignments were completed. She disciplined herself, knowing what had to be done and doing it, taking responsibility for her successes and failures. She didn’t have many failures, mind – she graduated Magna cum laude! – while working full time.

It was much the same way in Paul’s time. Among the Greeks and Romans of Paul’s time, children were put in the care of a tutor, a disciplinarian, who was often brutal in his treatment of the children in his care to ensure that they would learn and obey. In this passage, the law is being likened to this kind of disciplinarian.

"Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith."

When Paul wrote this letter to the Galatian Christians, one of the major issues in the church was the conflict between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. Many of the Jewish Christians in Galatia were insistent that Gentiles must be obedient to the laws of Moses in order to be accepted as Christians – in order to justify that they were worthy of God’s love and forgiveness. This was, after all, the understanding that Jews had held for over 1,000 years, since Moses brought the tablets of the law down from Mt. Sinai. These Jewish Christians saw themselves as superior to the Gentile Christians because of their obedience to the law. Here Paul speaks to the Gentiles, encouraging them, and assuring them that they were equally worthy, equally justified, continuing his argument that Christians are justified by faith, not by obedience to the laws of Moses.

Paul was not saying the laws were no longer of any worth, but that obedience to the law was not the primary focus for Christians. Christians – whether Jewish or Gentile - showed their worthiness of God’s forgiveness through faith – not so much faith in Christ, as faithfulness to Christ. The disciplinarian is no longer needed, for faith has given the Gentiles the freedom of adulthood.

"As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise."

Today, anyone can wear anything they like. Rich people shop on Rodeo Drive in raggedy clothes, and poor people buy designer knockoffs at Ross. When I look at you, I can’t tell just from your clothing whether you are poor or wealthy, well educated or illiterate, or even where in the world you might come from. In Paul's time, clothes really did make the man. The clothes a person wore were determined by class and social status, and governed by laws. Just because you could afford a toga didn’t mean you could wear one – you had to be a member of the nobility. The color purple was worn only by royalty, although members of the Roman Senate could wear a tiny stripe of purple on their togas. Anyone could tell with just a glance where you stood in society based on what you had on.

For the early Christians, the image of clothing themselves in Christ had a very specific meaning. At their baptism, every new Christian received a new robe as they emerged from the water, identical to every other baptismal robe, a very tangible symbol of the new life they were entering. For those early Christians, the image evoked with the mention of their baptismal clothing was the image of equality. Just as they were all clothed the same in baptism, so as Christians they are equal – Jews and Greeks, equally Christian. Men and women – one in Christ. Slave and free – equal in status, equally loved by God, equally forgiven. As Christians, as members of the body of Christ, they are now to relate to one another in perfect equality. They were to relate to one another in perfect equality in the community that is the Christian ideal – in the way that God intends for all people to live in the world to come.

Now when the individual members of this community of Christians left the place of worship to go back to their places in the world, they were, of course, still Jewish and Greek and male and female and slave and free. They did the same work they always done, they still held whatever status or lack of it in the world that they held before. What changed, what was expected to change, was how they treated each other – as equals in every way. What changed (and what attracted others to this new religion) was how they treated their neighbors – these new Christians reached out to help the sick, the poor, the oppressed – not just other Christians, but anyone in need.

While they continued to wear the clothing required by the laws of the world on the outside, on the inside they were clothed in Christ. They were dedicated to one purpose – to carry the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness to all the world. To spread the teachings of Jesus, and to do that by embodying the commandments to love God and all of God’s children. To share everything they had with each other for the survival of the community.

We are called to that same purpose, that same equality, that same commandment to love, that same community. Consider the church to be like the network on those Verizon wireless commercials on TV. As a member of the body of Christ, you have all that huge crowd of people standing behind you, giving you support, each contributing his or her own special skills. And you are likewise one of those people, freed by Christ to recognize the gifts and graces of all the others. Held up and nurtured by that body of saints who have come before, and who walk along with you.

The path on which our faith takes us, each of us individually, will be different. We are each called to a different ministry, a different path through life, a different way of serving the children of God. Whatever path we follow, whatever decisions we make, let it be the one that Jesus sets before us.

Hymn: I have decided to follow Jesus

Friday Five: Hot Town, Summer in the City...

Revgalblogpals invite us to talk about summer

Hot Town, Summer in the City...or town, or suburb, or hamlet, or burg, or unincorporated zone, or rural area of your choice---pretty much anywhere but the southern hemisphere, it's summer. (Australians and others, consider this an invitation to take a break from winter for a while.)

1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)

Fresh fruits and veggies! I grew up on a farm and summer meant harvesting our kitchen garden - watermelons and corn and string beans and tomatoes and asparagus - yum!

Perennial favorite summer beverages - water, iced tea and iced coffee. New favorite beverage - iced green tea

2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)

Summertime ( . . . and the living is easy) Somebody want to remind me who the artist was?


3. A childhood summer memory

When I was about 5 I had my first, very own watermelon patch. I checked it every day for a melon and on July 4th found a Miracle! A huge, ice cold watermelon was sitting next to the vine! It was a while before I figured out that Daddy had bought the watermelon and put it in the spring house to get cold, then put it in my watermelon patch as a surprise. :-)

4. An adult summer memory

Worship in the Woods in Indiana. We all went to a member's house who lived on a large property with lots of trees and flowering plants. We set up chairs on the lawn for worship, music was old favorites sung a capella, the pastor and student minister (me) dressed in jeans and Guatemalan stoles to lead the service. Worship was followed by a steak dinner that couldn't be beat!

5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities)

I'd really like an early morning (like, Dawn!) walk on the beach. Then a breakfast featuring fresh fruits, a wander through a small town with lots of shops. Lunch somewhere, spend the afternoon in a big chair to read and nap in, dinner somewhere. Hmm - food without me making effort seems to be a large part of this wonderful day. :-)

Optional: Does your place of worship do anything differently in the summer? (Fewer services, casual dress, etc.)

I'm in So California - dress is always casual. :-) Traditionally here nothing changes in the summer. But this year beginning in July we will be starting worship 1/2 hour later, choir will be on break, and Monday Bible Study will take a vacation. Even the church Board will not meet in July. (Yippee!)

Spring Cleaning

There are just a few days left until summer begins so it's time to do Spring Cleaning at the church. Not one of those big church work-days, but the one-person-only sorting and clearing out decades worth of broken crayons, unused education materials, outdated posters and stacks and stacks of songsheets that haven't been used since the 1960s. It's time to sort out the CDs and put them on shelves instead of randomly stacked on the floor. And to trace all the wires and plugs in the choir loft to see which one goes to which electronic device, if indeed they go to anything. You know, the kind of sorting and cleaning that comes with changes in our education and music staff. I can't wait!

That's not the only spring cleaning I need to do, though. I need to do some serious self examination and clear out the things that keep my soul cluttered. I need to look at the kinds of tasks I do and determine if I really need to be doing them. What is really important, and what wouldn't matter to anyone if it wasn't done? I have to examine my calendar and see what the best use of my time really is. Do I leave time for prayer and meditation, for study, for spending time with The Husband? (I already know the answer to that one - No!) Do I spend enough time with individual members of the church when they're NOT in the hospital? (Also No!)

It seems that as each year progresses I find myself bogged down in the details of administration and forget all about the larger picture of what I have been called to do. In June, my anniversary month, I look back over the year and invariably discover that, once again, I have slid back into the same rut. Office hours, paperwork and meetings take up the majority of my time. How does that keep happening?

So . . . it's time to do some Spring Cleaning. May the Spirit blow through my life and clear out the spiritual clutter that keeps me from moving forward.

When we are living

Galatians 2:15-21

I didn’t go to college until later in life. I entered Chapman University as a freshman in 1995 – I was 44 years old. And while I was pretty determined to have a college experience as much like that of my much younger classmates as possible, I had pretty much figured that I was not going to be in a sorority. Who would want a 44 year old married woman? One of the most surprising things that happened to me, therefore, was having a group of young women come to me and ask me to be part of a new sorority that was opening on campus – a Christian (Lutheran based) sorority. I did join that sorority, and through my sisters I learned a lot about other Protestant churches and their beliefs. Some of them came with some pretty serious rules for living. One of my sorority sisters always wore long skirts, because her church taught that God hated women who dressed like men, so she wasn’t ever allowed to wear slacks. Didn’t even own a pair of jeans! There were a whole lot of things she couldn’t do that the rest of us could, and we made adjustments in scheduling and in the activities we planned so she would not be excluded. I spent a lot of time being grateful that, as a Disciple, I didn’t have to deal with rules like that. Because you see, the thing about all those church rules is that we get to a point when the rules are the most important thing, and we forget that what God wants most of all is our love.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul said to other Jewish Christians like himself
“we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

This teaching was really tough for people like Paul, who had spent their entire lives studying and interpreting and living by the law of Moses. Strict obedience to the laws had been the framework of his whole life – and now that framework was unnecessary. He could no longer say, as the Pharisee praying in the temple said in Luke’s gospel (18:12) “Lord, I give you thanks that I am not like other people, thieves, rogues or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all my income” and believe that this was enough.

19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

Jesus said he came to fulfill the law, and taught his followers that all the laws could be stated in the two greatest commandments “Love your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” These two laws created a new framework for Paul and other Jewish Christians. All those laws that had bound their lives were – not irrelevant exactly – but no longer the be all and end all of their existence. New Christians would not have to be circumcised before baptism. Gentiles and Jews, men and women, slaves and free persons could all come together for worship and for meals. The laws that had separated the Jews from everyone else were no longer the most important thing in their lives. Now their primary focus was faith in Jesus Christ – in obedience to his teachings, especially the teaching that love for God and the neighbor took precedence over all the other laws they had lived with for so long. The important thing – the most important thing – was living to God – allowing Christ to live within us.

Which brings up a question I was asked recently. Someone came to me and wanted to know “How do I let Christ into my heart?” That’s a tough one, really.

There is series of children’s books by CS Lewis you are probably familiar with, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia.” The first one, “The Witch, the Lion and the Wardrobe,” was recently made into a movie. Near the end of the final book the end of the world comes to Narnia, and all the people and creatures are judged by Aslan the Lion, who is really Jesus. One man, who had done good all his life in the service of an evil god, was embraced by Aslan as one of his own, and the man said “Lord, I am not yours. All my life I have served that other god.” And Aslan said “My child, when you did the good thing, the loving thing, even for though you thought it was for that other, you were doing those things for me.” All his life this man had Jesus in his heart, even though he wasn’t aware of it.

So maybe it’s not so much about getting Jesus into our hearts – he’s already there. It’s about letting him out. When we are being our most noble, when we are living in such a way that God’s love seems to shine through us, we are letting Christ out of our hearts to be a blessing to the world.

A clergy colleague suggested that perhaps instead of asking “What would Jesus do?” we should ask “What is Jesus already doing if we just give him room to live?” Maybe we should ask “What can I do to get myself out of the way and allow Christ room to work?”

And she told this story: There was once an especially tense church meeting in which two men, both good men and respected leaders, found themselves passionately advocating opposing viewpoints. In the heat of the discussion, both men became ungracious toward each other, and Matt, one of the men, stormed out. Everyone was shocked because this behavior was so out of character. Fifteen minutes later, Matt returned with a basin of water in his hands, a towel over his shoulder, and tears in his eyes. He knelt before his opponent, removed his shoes and socks, and began to wash his feet. When he’d finished, he said, “please forgive me. I’ve treated you very poorly. I realized after I left that, if you were so passionate about this issue, there must be a good reason, and I need to at least listen.” 

Once that man let go of his tightfisted effort to make his religious point, he discovered the presence of Jesus Christ already there, ready to change the tone of that meeting, and ready to reconcile two brothers in the faith. The "Christ in him" drove him back into that room.

And truly, the Christ in the other man allowed him to accept the foot washing – to accept the offer of reconciliation.

Paul said “I have been crucified with Christ; 20and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”

Wouldn’t that be great? To be dead to all the things that separate us from God so that Christ could always live in us? To always be loving, generous, merciful, kind, forgiving and compassionate?

I'd love to be dead to self – to be crucified with Christ - so that Christ could always come out of my heart through my words and actions, but that's just not reality. In reality, I can be judgmental, quick to jump to assumptions about other people, ready to gossip, selfishly concerned with what I want or think I need, or just plain unkind. Sometimes I’m afraid that if I give generously I won’t have enough. Reality is the constant struggle to put self behind me - to be kind and generous and forgiving. Reality is knowing that I'm going to fall short of the ideal, but being willing to keep trying to get out of the way so Christ can work through me.

How do we let Jesus out? Focus on him. Call on him. Read the gospels and try to do what he taught us to do. Look for the blessings in our lives, even the smallest. Whatever we focus on is what will be present in our lives – so if we focus on blessing, if we focus on the good, if we focus on helping and forgiving, then these are the things we see, experience, are enabled to do.

We let Christ out when we are drawn to do even the smallest blessing for another and then do it. When we aren't worried about what others will think or if doing something good for someone else will leave us with less - time, money, whatever. To live for Christ, serving God’s children, who ever and where ever they may be, seeking always to act in love. When we are loving, we are living. And when we are living, we belong to God.



Hymn Pues Si Vivimos (When We Are Living) 536

Friday Five: Books, books, books!

Revgalblogpal Sally writes:
I've just returned from a meeting in Cambridge so I'm posting this late here in the UK (it is 3:45pm).. because I took the opportunity of a free afternoon in Cambridge's wonderful book shops... I only bought a few- and they were on sale- very restrained for me!!!


So with my head full of books I've seen and a long wish list in my mind, I bring you a Friday Five on books!!!


1. Fiction what kind, detective novels, historical stuff, thrillers, romance????

Very favorite - sci fi and fantasy! Dragons, wizards, knights with magical swords and/or futuristic (space travel, humans living on other planets, life here on Terra in the very distant future, etc.) Harry Potter, of course. Anything by Mercedes Lackey, Anne McAffery, Terry Pratchett, Elizabeth Moon. The Narnia Chronicles. I once owned everything every written by Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. It never ceases to amaze me how many clergy and theologians write sci fi and how often the underlying themes are commentary on our society. :-)


I also enjoy getting lost in detective novels, with special favorites taking place on the Navajo Reservation. There are now several authors following where Tony Hillerman led, like Aimee and David Thurlo.

And historical novels, especially Irish and other Celtic histories. When a mystery is included, as in Sister Fidelma, I'm really happy. :-)


2. When you get a really good book do you read it all in one chunk or savour it slowly?

Slowly?? What is that?

I'm a reading addict - I have to do it all at once. This does sometimes get in the way of things I should be doing, but I tell myself that relaxing with a good book is "self care." Besides, so many are social commentary that, theoretically, my relaxing reading can double as "work related"

3. Is there a book you keep returning to and why?

That's hard. I have a whole bookcase filled with my favorite "read over and over again" books.

Why? For the reasons above - I actually got part of a wedding sermon from a Mercedes Lackey novel!


4. Apart from the Bible which non-fiction book has influenced you the most?

"Close to the Bone: Life Threatening Illness and the Search for Meaning" by Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD.

When I was diagnosed with cervical cancer a professor recommended this book and I truly believe that it saved my life, or at least, my sanity. Dr. Shinoda Bolen seemed to know exactly what I was feeling and fearing and dreaming. I was blessed a few years ago with the opportunity to meet and thank her. I recommend this book to everyone who is diagnosed with a life threatening illness, especially cancer.

My #2 choice is pretty much anything written by Parker Palmer.


5. Describe a perfect place to read. ( could be anywhere!!!)

Anywhere is indeed a perfect place to read. :-)

My favorite place is curled up in the corner of the love seat in my living room. The coffee table is placed at the perfect spot for putting my feet on, and the pillows have taken on my body shape.

Success on the Web

I did it! With help from Apple, of course. I got the church website published just this morning. I am really quite excited about it, and so grateful to Songbird of Revgalblogpals who helped me learn how to navigate around bloggish things, especially vocabulary. :-)

Now to see how it goes over with the members.

Website Woes

I have a new MacBook and new software! Yay! This morning I spent hours designing a website on iWeb with a welcome page and other pages for photos and sermons. Then I hit "Publish" and ran into all kinds of problems. I knew it was going too easily! :-)

I think the problem stems from having upgraded from Trial Version of the .Mac software to Full Version - silly computer seems to think I have 2 different user names or something and it's trying to publish using the wrong one. Anyway, I've contacted Apple for help and am waiting as patiently as possible for a response.

Patience is not one of my more obvious virtues. I'm just going to keep telling myself that the website is up and ready to go as soon as the software is properly explained to me. After all, I've been trying to get someone, anyone, to design a website for our church for 4 years and now I have one. I can surely wait a few more days to see it online.

Plus, now I can spend more time working out how to get the newsletter on it. Since the newsletter is composed and laid out on 2 different computers (my secretary does half and I do half) I think scanning will work best. AND my new MacBook came with an HP printer/copier/scanner so I have all the tools I could possibly ask for.

Maybe I'll go buy a digital camera so I have something else to fuss with. Tomorrow is going to be a big day at chuch saying Aloha to our Associate. Just thinking of all the great photos I can publish on the website to share with all our members and friends around the country (world!) is really exciting! :-)

Friday Five - Island Getaway

If I were told to pack a few things for a day away, and I could go anywhere I wanted to go. . .

I'd be whisked to a beach on the Atlantic Ocean, ideally Key West. I'd stay in a small pension-like hotel on the beach (yes, I do have a specific one in mind.)

1) What book(s) will you bring?
I'd escape with sci-fi/fantasy, maybe Mercedes Lackey or Melanie Rawn or Anne McAffrey. Or Terry Prachett for a really good laugh. Anything but "work" books - no theology, nothing that is intended to improve my mind. :-)

2) What music accompanies you?
I'd pack some CDS I have of local artists playing dulcimer and guitar.

3) What essentials of everyday living must you take (as in the health and beauty aids aisle variety)?
Hmm - For one day? I'd have to take shower gel and perfume in my favorite summer scent (verbena and lemon), sunblock lotion, toothpaste and brush, a comb.

4) What technological gadgets if any, will you take with you or do you leave it all behind?
I'd take my cell phone in case of emergencies (turned on silent, of course) and my PDA because I have the alarm in it set to remind me to eat breakfast and lunch.

5) What culinary delights will you partake in while there?
Ooh - Cuban food! Conch fritters, black beans and rice with squid, and for breakfast - huevos con frijoles y bistek con limon (eggs with beans and steak seasoned with lemon - it's yummy!).

As a bonus question, what makes for a perfect day on vacation for you?

Staying with the dream of Key West - If the heavens cooperated, the weather would be greyish, overcast with a hint of drizzle to keep the tourists off the beach. I'd have a Labrador retriever with me to play in the waves and chase sandpipers as we walked the beach. Since I don't actually have a dog right now I'd have to borrow one. :-)

When I got tired of walking the beach I'd walk the town - visit Ernest Hemingway's house to play with the cats, look in shop windows, and sit in a sidewalk cafe half reading and half people. The Husband would be with me as he likes this kind of day also.

In real life, since Key West is over 3,000 miles away . . . I haven't really found a place or activity I absolutely love here on the West Coast. Of course, I don't get out much. Hmm - I'll have to work on that.

Saying Aloha

My friend and mentor and church musician and minister of education and youth is leaving. She's moving to Hawaii with her daughter who has been called to serve a church there. I've known for a few months now, but the day is getting closer and closer. Sunday we will celebrate her ministry with our congregation and 10 days later she'll get on the Big Bird to fly across the Pacific. I'm happy for them, but not so happy for me.

We've known each other for about 11 years now. We were separated for 4 years by half a country while I was in seminary. We stayed in touch through email and saw each other at General Assembly. When I was called to the church where she already served it was such a comfort to know I wouldn't be all alone in a strange place. And now she's going away.

One day last week, as I was busy feeling sorry for myself, I realized that what had actually happened was that she had been sent out as the disciples were sent out. Her daughter was called to Hawaii and she wasn't, but just as Jesus sent his followers out in pairs to preach the good news, heal the sick and cast out demons, these two are going out together to do ministry. I don't know what the ministry will be for the two of them together, but I do know that where those two are, ministry is guaranteed to happen.

Knowing that helps. I'll still miss her. I'll miss our Monday morning phone conferences about everything. But we will still have email and Assemblies and her twice a year trips home to visit her doctor and her grandchildren. And ministry of a new kind will be done in Hawaii in Christ's name. How can I complain about that?

Holy Wisdom

It’s Trinity Sunday - the day when we celebrate God in three persons. The Trinity has been problematic for Christians from the beginning. Scholars and theologians argue over how the Trinity works, exactly. Members of other faiths say that our insistence on the existence of the Trinity means we are really worshipping three Gods, that we’re not really monotheistic as we say we are. And then there’s the task of trying to understand the trinity for you and me. I’ve told the story before of the young woman who asked me to explain the Trinity during her coffee break from work. It simply can’t be done. People have been trying to explain it for nearly 2,000 years. Alexander Campbell, one of the founders of the Disciples, served as a minister in the Baptist church for a while until they invited him to leave because he just wasn’t orthodox enough for them in his understanding of the Trinity. Many of my clergy sisters and brothers won’t preach on the Trinity - some don’t consider themselves Trinitarian at all. And that’s ok - as Disciples we get to agree to disagree on the finer points of theology, we aren’t held to a creed, a statement of belief that we all agree on.

In one of the versions of the Doxology, instead of singing “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” the words are “Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost.” I was told by one of my seminary professors that these words - Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost - weren’t Trinitarian, that use of these words somehow denied the Trinity. It seems to me that he was limiting his understanding of God by limiting the range of the words he would use to describe God. People do that, you know. Try to limit God to something within the range of our very small understanding. Theologians argue over the specific ways we are supposed to understand the Trinity - they put limitations on what is or is not accepted, orthodox belief. They say “Jesus is divine in just this way and no other” or “these are things God can and cannot do” or “The Spirit is limited to this and that kind of action.” Instead of seeing Three in One, they try to make the One into Three as if there were walls between the different aspects within God.

Naturally, We think of the Trinity as a purely Christian concept. Yet, according to Scripture - Old Testament and New - The Trinity - God in three persons - has existed since the very beginning. Genesis tells us that God created - with a Word. God said “Let there be Light” and there was. God spoke the Word and a universe sprang into being - earth, sky, waters, stars, moon, and sun. God said “let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness. . .” To whom was God speaking? Many scholars believe that God was speaking to Godself - Creator, Word and Spirit. “so God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them” and breathed the breath of life into them, filling them with God’s own Spirit. Creator - Word - Spirit - all present together from the beginning. Named in that order in Genesis, just as in our understanding of Trinity we speak of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In our daily lives we turn to each of these three persons in different ways, for different reasons.

We give thanks to God - Creator, Parent, provider of the earth‘s bounty. We say grace at our meals, ask a blessing on whatever we’re doing, maybe stand and just look - at a perfect flower, at a baby - and know that the miracle of life can happen only through a power so great we can’t even guess at what it must be like. On Sundays we come here to worship God. In the Bible we study the works of God, and God’s Word as taught us by Jesus. We speak to God as a child speaks to a parent, asking for blessings, asking for help with daily life. When things go well, we say “Thank God” or we might say “Thank you Jesus!“ But when things go wrong in life, we don’t say “Jesus why did you do this, or Spirit, why did you do this?“ We turn to God in anger or frustration or pain, even as Jesus did on the cross, saying “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And God is there, always there,

Spirit - the guide, the feeling - the one who helps us understand and remember the Word that Jesus brought us. The still small voice that speaks to us as we make decisions and choices. The breath of life within each of us, that helps us turn toward God, toward blessing and life. The feeling that rises within us when worship is just right, when the words to a prayer touch our hearts in a particular way, when music lifts us up beyond normal experience, when we are moved to act in a way we normally wouldn’t. The Spirit doesn’t get a lot of attention most of the time. And yet, the Spirit is part of our daily life. There’s a news article from a Christian news source I’d like to share with you about the Spirit. (Read article from Lark)

Mike may go a little beyond “Normal” in his relationship with Holy Spirit. Most of us don’t walk around having a latte with the Holy Spirit. But in each of us, in every human, there exists that breath of life that is God’s Spirit, present from humanity’s very beginning.

The Word - Holy Wisdom
Hear the words from the Book of Proverbs that describe Wisdom, and the part Wisdom played in creation (Read Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31)

Lady Wisdom, the Word, present at the creation, part of God from the beginning and always. Some 2000 years ago a child was born, and into that Child God poured wisdom - filling him with the Word - with full knowledge of God’s ways, God’s desires for his children, God’s forgiveness and unconditional love. John’s Gospel begins with a description of the Word, similar to the words from Proverbs “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That Word became flesh in Jesus, the Christ. How was the Word made flesh? I don’t know. I don’t much care about the mechanics of it. I just believe it to be true. Not that Jesus, the human being, was present at the creation, but that the Word which was present became imbedded in Jesus that he might teach us, that we might come to know God as he does.


We turn to Jesus, to the Word, for knowledge - for an understanding of God’s will for humanity. We find this Word in Scripture, in the words and actions of Jesus. We use the Word, the teachings we have received, to guide our lives and actions. We turn to Jesus for His understanding of human pain and joy and sorrow, to stand beside us in good times and bad. We know that Jesus lives, eternally, in and with God, The Word of God made flesh.

Today we celebrate the Trinity - we celebrate God’s presence and action in the world and in our lives through Creation, Life Giving Spirit and Wisdom. Let us invite the Spirit to be part of us as we sing of Wisdom’s part in all of this.

Hymn: Holy Wisdom

Mother's Day

On Saturdays I spend a lot of time engaging in an online conversation about Sunday’s sermon. This week my colleagues, mostly women, spoke a great deal about their hesitation to “celebrate” Mother’s day because of the pain some of their members feel around this day - indeed, because of the pain some of the preachers experience around Mother‘s Day. Some said they would speak to Mother’s day only in their prayer, others were going to do their best to just ignore the whole thing. Some said, because they have no experience of being a mother, they felt inadequate to the task.

Because some feel pain - ignore the day? Perhaps that is a good idea. We, as ministers, aren’t supposed to intentionally cause pain to our congregations. And yet, Motherhood is about pain - and Joy, but first and foremost, it’s about pain. I’ve never done it, but I know that bringing a child into the world is a painful experience. Raising a child, allowing that child to go forward and get hurt - fall off a bicycle, experience that first broken heart, make their own decisions, live their own lives - each pain the child experiences brings pain to the mother, even in a healthy, functional family.

Then there are those whose mothers don’t live up to the ideal of Hallmark cards or even the book of Proverbs - mothers who abandon them, either physically or emotionally; who put the new boyfriend ahead of their children, or whose addiction to drugs and alcohol makes them unavailable in every way; mothers who are abusive or inattentive. So many children these days are raised in foster care because their mothers are simply unable, for whatever reason, to live up to the standards the state has set. Children whose mothers cannot care for them often blame themselves for their mothers inabilities. That’s painful!

There are those whose mothers have passed on - whose grief does not allow them to celebrate a day set aside for Mothers. And those who desperately want to be mothers, but whose bodies are not cooperating - and those mothers who have outlived their children: whose children had been kidnapped and murdered, children who died of illness, or in an accident, or in a war, or who are lost in a fog of drugs and alcohol. Mothers Day is one of the saddest days in retirement communities, where some mothers will sit all day long waiting for the visitors who don’t come.

As the day progressed, more and more stories appeared about why it was so difficult to celebrate a day set aside for mothers. And I understand the pain, I understand the hesitation on the part of pastors to avoid occasions of pain for the members of their congregations.

I also remember how the church helped me heal from my own pain around Mother’s Day. For many years I experienced pain on Mother’s Day because my body had not cooperated - I could not be a Mother, so I felt less than the other women around me. My first church-going Mother’s Day after 25 years away from church I dreaded going - I knew they were going to celebrate Mothers and I didn’t want anything to do with it. As I entered the church that Sunday I was offered a carnation, and I tried to turn it down. “I’m not a mother. I don’t deserve one.” I said. And the woman handing them out said ‘We all mother someone in our lives - take one. You deserve it.” I cried tears of gratitude. I had just experienced the radically inclusive nature of the Christian Church.

We see another example of that radical inclusiveness in this reading from the book of Acts 16:9-15 (Read)

Paul and Luke, the author of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, went to Philippi. As always, they first sought out the Jewish community to tell them about the coming of the Messiah. On the Sabbath day they went outside the city gates to the river - And there they found women praying, observing the Sabbath. Why just women? Jewish Men and women couldn’t worship together - not in the temple in Jerusalem or anywhere else - Paul had had arrived at the women’s worship. Among the women there was Lydia. Lydia was the head of her household - a wealthy woman, a merchant who dealt in the most expensive dye in the world, most probably a widow who had worked side by side with her husband and inherited the business. Sitting out in public with women was bad enough - Jewish men and women who were unrelated just didn’t do that. Now in the days before his conversion, Paul would never have stayed there - he wouldn’t have been able to stretch the rules that separated men and women that far. Nor could he have accepted Lydia’s hospitality, and indeed, the passage tells us she had to convince him to do so. But with no male head of household, Paul would have found himself sharing a meal with women, and for an observant Jew, this was problematic. Or it had been, before the radically inclusive message he had personally received from Jesus on the road to Damascus.

What a preacher he must have been! There were no gospels to read from. There were stories about Jesus’ life and preaching, but nothing set down on paper yet. He would have told the stories he had learned from the others, from people who had heard Jesus preaching and teaching. But most especially Paul would have shared with them what happened to him on the road, the event that brought to his knees, and brought him to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the chosen of God, who had come to transform the world. Imagine, Paul sitting on riverbank, and saying “Even me! Jesus accepted even Me! Who persecuted his followers, sent them to prison, even helped stone one of them to death! If he accepts me, if he loves Me, a terrible sinner, one who actively worked against him, then surely nothing you have done in your lives can keep him from loving you. Give him your love, believe his words, enter the water of repentance, and come out prepared to live a new life in his name.”

Notice though, that the passage doesn’t say “Paul convinced her.” Rather, it says “The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said to Paul.” Just as God opened Paul’s eyes, just as God reaches for the heart of each of us, Lydia’s heart was opened, and her life was changed.

And here’s one more thing we should keep in mind about Lydia - and about the widow Dorcas, whose story was told a few weeks ago. It is likely that, not only were they widows, but that they also childless - or at least, son-less. Whether they had outlived their sons and grandsons or had never had any isn’t known. But scholars suggest that, if they had sons, they would not have been in charge of their households. If there was a son, he would have been head of household. Lydia could not have extended this invitation - she wouldn’t have been known as a merchant in her own right. Lydia, while not a mother, became the founder of a church in the city of Philippi - the mother of the Christian community there.

We speak of the church fathers, yet the book of Acts makes it clear to us that there were also mothers of the church, women like Lydia and Dorcas, who were financially able to care for others, independent so they could offer the use of their homes as places of worship, as places where those in need could be cared for. Women who could extend the hospitality of their homes to traveling preachers like Paul and Luke without seeking permission, or worrying about what the neighbors would say. Women who had embraced the message Paul brought to them, who accepted the radical message of God’s love and forgiveness, entered the water of baptism, and emerged changed forever. Indeed, what is there to fear from the neighbors when we know that God accepts us - that these acts of love, compassion and radical hospitality are pleasing to God.
The gospel reading tells us Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them.” The Spirit of God comes upon us when we love our Savior, and loving, obey the teachings we have received. When we love, and are open to God, the Spirit of God brings us the gifts of love, joy, and peace - the greatest of all the gifts we can receive. Let us give thanks today for the mothers of our church, and for these gifts of the Spirit, so freely given.

Hymn: Of All the Spirits Gifts to Me

Loving into the Kingdom

Our first reading today comes from the Book of Revelation. I know that we tend to read Revelation in horror and trembling - it’s filled with war and plagues and dreadful things happening. The first time I read it I decided that if Jesus, the Lamb of God, can order such awful suffering upon the people he was supposed to love then I didn’t want anything to do with him. Luckily I met a wise Disciples minister who told me this was a vision, a dream, that one man had during a particularly trying time for Christians. She encouraged me to focus on the gospels to learn about Jesus, his teachings, and his love, and study Revelation later with a teacher who could help me understand it better.

In our Monday night bible studies we often talk about the vision of heaven that can be found in the book of Revelation - streets of gold, houses made of precious gems, fountains pouring out the water of life, the believers, dressed in robes of white, singing unending choruses of praise to God along with the angels and all the other inhabitants of the New Jerusalem. This is a place that represents all the most wonderful images that John of Patmos could use in describing his vision to the churches. And many even today believe that this is what heaven will be like.

The book of revelation is, quite frankly, a dangerous book, as all books of prophecy are. People can and do use it as a threat - a stick to beat people who don’t believe as they do. And yet - the book of revelation is intended to give hope, as all the biblical books of prophecy are.

Hear the passage again : Read Revelation 21:1-6

After pages and pages describing the awful things that will happen - to believers, to non-believers, and to people who haven’t made a choice about what they believe, John speaks to what the final outcome will be. Rather than trying to figure out what form the number of the beast will take, or worrying about the exact date of the end of the world, or thinking the end will come immediately after a world currency is agreed upon, we might best understand the book of revelation as saying “bad things, even unimaginably horrible things, will come into our lives. But if we are faithful, if we obey the commandments we have received from Jesus, we can live in the Kingdom of God. We can bring the Kingdom of God to earth.” We can bring about a world where there is no suffering, no pain, no hunger, no disease.


The passage from revelation tells us what will happen.
Today’s gospel reading from John tells us what we must do to make it happen

Read John 13:31-35

Love one another. Love is one of those complicated words - it can be really hard to define. I suspect you have all heard, at one time or another, someone pontificate upon the meaning of the three Greek words for love - I’m not going to do that today. I will remind you that love is not a warm fuzzy feeling we can sit back and enjoy. It’s a verb - an action word - something we do. When I say “ I LOVE those shoes” or chocolate or a TV show, I am misusing the word - as I suspect we all do from time to time.

We all know how to love someone we consider loveable. Because I love my husband, I don’t sit back and assume he’ll know I love him - I do things to let him know that. I give him gifts I think he will enjoy, I cook things I think he’ll like, I tell him that I love him. In fact, since 9/11 we do not leave each other, even for just a trip to the market, without saying “I love you.”
It seems harder to love someone we find unlovable, or whom we do not know. That is probably because we think of love as a feeling, rather than an action. When we love, as Jesus directed us to, we act.

Because I love God, I try to do things that will be pleasing to God. I try to care for God’s children, whoever and where ever they are. I try to care for God’s earth and all the creatures in it. I work at forgiving those who I think have hurt me. And I try to discern what is the best way to love others.

That’s not easy. Some decades back a group of American women wanted to reach out and help the poor women of India. They discovered there were no shelters for battered women. So they collected money and built shelters and found people to work in them. And the shelters stayed empty. In India at that time, women who left the home for a shelter, no matter how abused, would then have no where to go from the shelter except back into the home. They couldn’t get jobs, they couldn’t live independently - by law and by tradition. Shelters did not help make their lives better. These American women had done a good thing, but not the right thing, because they hadn’t taken into account the culture they were interacting with. They had not taken into account that the establishment of battered women’s shelters here came as the result of a long process toward women‘s independence. The end of that process will come when there is no longer a need for such shelters anywhere - when the kingdom of God is established in every household, and violence is no longer a way of life.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul tells us more about love. Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

“Love does not insist on its own way.” When we love, we do not try to make those we love over. We do not try to change who they are. We accept them as they are, as beloved children of God. We do not decide that our way of loving, that our understanding of what is needed is the only way.

As Christians, we can and must work toward justice with mercy and compassion for all the people of the world. How each of us loves - what actions each of us take - is a matter between ourselves and God. Each of us must take a hard look at the world, and at ourselves, and prayerfully discern which of our actions are truly love - and which are not. Remember always that the Kingdom of Heaven, New Jerusalem, can exist in bits and pieces here and now, when we are find ways to end suffering - hunger, homelessness, violence - even in a small way, for one person.

A couple of weeks ago, this note was left in the offering tray:
Dear Church: Over the years we have been united as one. We have been united with love. But I do not feel the same way anymore. I feel as if the love has died. Therefore, instead of giving an object (money) I choose to give you more love. By doing so, my intentions of resurrecting the love are more likely to come true, hopefully. Jocephyne

How perfectly Jocephyne speaks of love. “I feel as if the love has died - therefore, I give you love.”

Her words reflect the way our God speaks to us through scripture. Over and over, God spoke through the prophets and through Jesus, assuring us of love and forgiveness, and inviting us to respond to that love by loving God and all of God’s creation.

Let us respond to Jocephyne’s words, and to God’s words, and to the final commandment Jesus gave to his disciples, by seeking ways to act in love. Let us take the spark of love which God has placed in each heart and pass it on, that the world might experience God’s Kingdom on earth.

Hymn: Pass It On

Ye Toothe Faire

Cheesehead and Reverend Mother are both suffering dental woes this week. In honor of them we celebrate Ye Toothe Faire:

1. Are you a regular patron of dentists' offices? Or, do you go
a) faithfully, as long as you have insurance, or
b) every few years or so, whether you need it or not, or
c) dentist? what is this "dentist" thing you speak of?

Growing up we went as a family every 6 months. I loved Dr. D. and would have continued that practice forever but then in high school I had braces and went for tightening once a month (we lived far away from the dentist) so the pain was intense. Ever since they came off dentist = torture. Also, what is dental insurance, exactly? I've never had any. So, my answer is really

d) whenever I am in so much pain I can't stand it anymore.

2. Whatever became of your wisdom teeth?
They were removed in my mid-twenties because of D) above. :-) The silly things also pushed all my torturously straightened teeth crooked again!

3. Favorite thing to eat that's BAAAAAD for your teeth.
Peeps (ok, so I still have a basket full of Easter candy on the dining room table).
Also apples - I have to cut them up in little pieces because biting into them might break off the "temporary" front tooth that's been in my mouth for 20 years.

4. Ever had oral surgery? Commiserate with me.
Does having teeth pulled count? 4 to make room for braces, 4 wisdom teeth, and 4 because they hurt so much I couldn't stand it any more. (see D) above)

5. "I'd rather have a root canal than _________________."
I'd rather have a tooth pulled than a root canal!

Bonus: Does your dentist recommend Trident?
Dentist? What is this dentist thing whereof you speak?

Friday Five: Holy Week, Batman!

Reverend Mother says "Well, the Clergy Superbowl is almost upon us, and so, I offer up this Friday Five (with apologies for the irreverent title):"

1. Will this Sunday be Palms only, Passion only, or hyphenated?
Palm and Passion, narrated by Salome. Yes, a dress up event! Beginning by dancing in singing the Hosana from Jesus Christ Superstar and giving out palms, ending with uncertainty in the face of Jesus' death, wondering what will happen next?

2. Maundy Thursday Footwashing: Discuss.
Because we are doing Palm/Passion this year I've chosen to replace the congregation's "traditional" tenebrae service with footwashing preceding our final Lenten supper. I'm told they've "never" done that before, and I did it only once in my student church Hopefully at least one person will allow me to wash her/his feet. Even better, some will choose to both wash and be washed. We'll see.

3. Share a particularly meaningful Good Friday worship experience.
Good Friday at our church is a prayer vigil, each one taking an hour to pray either in the sanctuary or at home. Sitting in the dimly lit sanctuary from 11 pm - midnite my first year as pastor was the best so far, helping me really prepare for Easter by allowing myself to be calm and open to God for that one hour at the end of my very first experience of the insane busy-ness of Lent.

4. Easter Sunrise Services--choose one:a) "Resurrection tradition par excellence!"b) "Eh. As long as it's sunrise with coffee, I can live with it."c) "[Yawn] Can't Jesus stay in the tomb just five more minutes, Mom?!?"

D. None of the above.
I've attended only one and was blown away by the way the sun rose over the trees behind the outdoor Lord's Table just as the pastor spoke the words of institution. Perfect timing!

My congregation does not hold sunrise service and, even if I wanted to, the sanctuary is in use that time of morning by another congregation's praise band for practice. (It's hard enough to get them all there at 10 am for worship!)

5. Complete this sentence: It just isn't Easter without...
Lamb for dinner! Followed by becoming unconscious for 2 days.

Friday Five: Whatcha doin'?

It's Friday! Time for RevGalBlogPals Friday Five. And today's invitation to play is:
Well friends, this is one of those weeks when I simply must work today, which is normally my day off. I know, I know. We may tut-tut all we want, but the fact is, some weeks are like that. So, this week's F5 is simple.Name five things you plan to do today.
Bonus: If today is about "have-to" for you as well, share up to five things you'd like to be doing today.

Gee, I'm not the only one working on my normal day off. It's ok though. Since I enrolled in Spanish for Ministers Class I switched my day off from Friday to Wednesday. Normally, during this 12 weeks of Spanish class, I would go to class in the morning and work in the office in the afternoon. But today I will:

1. Skip class and go to the office for a few hours this morning. The reason for skipping class is #5 which will keep me out of the office in the afternoon. (Don't look ahead, be patient.)
In the office I will:

2. Call to check up on some members who had medical procedures during the week (Why do they always happen on the same day and time in different cities?)

3. Contact our Brownie & Junior Troop Leader to prepare for a belated Girl Scout Sunday Celebration as I was in Arizona performing a wedding on the official Girl Scout Sunday last weekend

4. Get everything I need together for Sunday's church board meeting

5. at 2:30 pm (PDT) visit my ob/gyn oncologist to find out if the 10 weeks of treatments got rid of the precancerous growths. I'm nervous. I've already had 4 surgeries and don't want to face another one. Please pray for me!

Bonus:
I'd LOVE to
1. Go to the malls to take advantage of the many Spring Dress Sales
2. Get a facial
3. Spend some time writing the definitive answer to "What they didn't teach us in seminary"
4. Spend hours on the phone with my friends in other states
5. Anything but go to the ob/gyn oncologist!

Dancing the Weekend Away

I am spent and blessed and spiritually full. What a huge weekend I had, dancing with God the entire time.

First there was the two day Disciple Women's Convocation. What a banquet of blessings we received. We had music that wouldn't let us sit still, speakers who brought us from laughter to tears and back again, young women whose Step routines brought tears of joy, seminars that taught, touched and healed . . . we truly did live our theme - Dancing to the Rhythms of Grace!

RevGal Katherine did a fine job with what she called her "speech sermon thing" during our Saturday evening worship. And the many opportunities for prayer during the Sunday morning service brought special blessings to my heart. Women could light a candle, write a prayer, or have a clergywoman pray with them and anoint them. I was blessed to be one of those clergywomen and I haven't come down yet!

From there I came home to get The Husband and then to an ordination. I am taking a class in Spanish for Ministers, and our teacher was being ordained in the United Church of Christ. I'd never been to a UCC ordination, but everything in the order of service was quite familiar. The service was in Spanish and English, again the music was uplifting and made me use my whole body. The laying on of hands was, as always, an experience direct from the Spirit. Why is it that is so difficult to describe?

And one of my classmates said "I'm part of RevGalsBlogPals and I just figured out who you are!" How cool is that? :-)

So now it's Monday morning and I just want to keep this feeling going. I sure don't want to go in to the office and deal with the administrative stuff. Ah well, I feel so good that even paperwork will be a blessing today.

Friday Five: Artsy Craftsy

1. Would you call yourself "creative"? Why or why not?

For most of my life I would have said No. My mother was an artist and as my ideas of color and composition were very different from hers, she always told me I had no talent. Sad, but true. I wonder how many creative people have been stifled in early childhood just because they saw the world differently?

Today I can say Yes. Partly because other people say I am and partly because I realize that just because the way I perceive things isn't always the "traditional" way that doesn't mean my way is wrong. I love beautiful things and try to create beauty even in such mundane tasks as arranging my dinner on the plate.

My father was an early computer expert who was disappointed in my lack of math skills, and my mother was an artist who felt I wasn't artistic. Now I use the gifts I inherited from them both to create artistic things with my computer. :-)

2. Share a creative or artistic pursuit you currently do that you'd like to develop further.

My two-pastors-ago predecessor had paraments made to match the carpet, not the season. In not very much time at all I made some fairly simple liturgically correct paraments for the church using computer graphics for the designs. They're kind of flat though I would love to have the time to learn how to achieve more complexity designs, using quilting techniques.

I recently made a baby quilt and pillows out of old blue jeans. The recipients love them, but it would be nice to know how to really quilt instead of making it up as I go along. :-)


3. Share a creative or artistic pursuit you have never done but would like to try.

Painting. It's not that I've never done it, but I gave up trying when my less than perfectly realistic paintings and drawings were relegated to the basement. I even registered for a painting class my last semester in college but was forced to change my class schedule when, just before the beginning of the semester, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and was scheduled for a hysterectomy during spring break.

4. Complete this sentence: "I am in awe of people who can _____________."
make drawings that actually look like the thing they are drawing. :-)

5. Share about a person who has encouraged your creativity, who has "called you to your best self." (I'm pretty sure that's from the Gospel of Oprah.

There are so many now. The first was Maggie, a friend back in Florida. She is the one who taught me about a loving God instead of the punishing one I grew up with, and convinced me that God gave me gifts in order that I might use them. All I had to do was figure out what they were. She encouraged me to try anything I was drawn to do in the pursuit of those gifts. Not to worry about being perfect, or pleasing my mother, or being just like everyone else, but bringing out beauty wherever I saw it, in whatever form was pleasing. Now I try new things and continue working with them if I enjoy them, whether or not my first efforts are "successful." She also encouraged me when I was called to the ministry and was sure I couldn't possibly succeed in college at age 44! She told me I couldn't know what I was capable of if I didn't try and that God wouldn't have called me to do something I wasn't capable of doing.

Thanks to Maggie and others, I know that I am a work in progress, and that God isn't finished with me yet.

Friday Five: Companions on the Way

Dante had Virgil as a guide. Before he had younger siblings, my oldest child had an imaginary friend named Patrick. Betsy had Tacy. Laura Ingalls depended on her brindle bulldog, Jack. All of them were companions on the way.As we take the beginning steps of our journey through Lent, who would we take as a companion? Name five people, real or imaginary, you might like to have with you as guide or guardian or simply good friend.

First, my constant companion, The Husband, who when I said "I think I have to be a minister" replied by saying "I have been called by God to go where ever you go." He's traveled across country with me three times! and been there through college and seminary and in my first call to encourage and support me in every possible way. Is it any wonder I sometimes call him Ruth?

Revgals, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. I really don't know how I got along before I found you all. Thanks to Dona Quixote for naming these as the cloud of witnesses.

My support group of first call pastors and mentors who are always available for venting and advice.

The Preachers Kid who was my academic advisor in college and is still always there to take my phone calls, have lunch and generally keep me balanced - humbles me when I need it and lifts me up when I need that.

Liz Curtis Higgs, author of Bad Girls of the Bible and Really Bad Girls of the Bible, whose writing continues to encourage and inspire, especially when I am feeling unworthy.

Friday Five: Tourist Edition

In the spirit of tourism:
1. What is one place you make sure to take out-of-town guests when they visit?
The beach, of course. Most of my friends are from the East Coast or Midwest and being able to stand in one place and see ocean and mountains at the same time is amazing! And then there are all the "strange people" that show up regularly in movies and tv shows. Yes, there really are buskers and roller skaters and strangely costumed folks at the beaches every day.

2. When visiting another city or town, do you try to cram as much in as possible, or take it slow and easy?
That kind of depends on how long I will be there, but I'm usually a slow and easy kind of tourist. My mindset is "If I don't get there this time, maybe I'll be back."

3. When traveling, where are we most likely to find you: strolling through a museum, checking out the local shopping, or _________________?
It's all about the shopping and the foods! Museums are on the list only when my hostess or The Husband insists. :-)

4. Do you like organized tours and/or carefully planned itineraries, or would you rather strike out and just see what happens?
How about 1/2 and 1/2? I like a "tour of the city" to get an idea of where I am, followed by wandering as I desire.

5. After an extended trip, what do you find yourself craving most about home?
My own bed and bathroom! No matter how nice the hotel (or friend's house) there really is no place like home.

The Great Equalizer

Evil exists where ever people oppress each other. Perhaps the greatest evil is when people are oppressed in the name of religion. One of the places the church has sought to oppress is in scientific advancement. If it were up to the church we’d still believe the sun revolves around the Flat Earth. We would all have a life expectancy of maybe 35 years, most of our children wouldn’t have made it past age 5, no medical research would ever have taken place. Performing anatomical research on corpses was considered heresy, even witchcraft. If the church had its way in our past, there is no way the testing made available today through our doctors and agencies such as lifeline would be possible - and these tests help our doctors extend our lives and improve the quality of our lives.

One way to fight the oppression of science and medical research in the name of religion is to speak out publicly. Today, the 189th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, some 586 churches in every US state and five nations are participating in Evolution Sunday. Over 10,000 clergy have signed a letter stating that religion and science can and should co-exist. The letter and information on the Clergy Letter project is available on Awareness Table.

Jesus is the great equalizer. Who stood on level ground to speak to oppressed and oppressor - comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Healing all who came near with the power that flowed out from him.
Poverty - I have some disturbing Numbers. 37 million Americans are poor. Not “can’t afford a 46 inch HD TV” but “Can’t buy food and pay the rent” poor. A large percentage of America’s homeless persons actually have jobs - often minimum wage jobs. Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of minimum wage earners are not teenagers working part time during high school. ¾ of the minimum wage earner work full time, 1/3 of those are the sole support of families, earning about $10k a year - $6k below federal poverty level for a family of 3. $8/hour brings a family of 3 up TO the poverty level. (California’s minimum wage is $7/hour. We pay our preschool teachers $8/hour) Corporate CEOs average 821 times that - over $8million per year - about $4k per HOUR!

Blessed are the poor, for you will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
Some Christians hear these words, and the words Jesus spoke when the woman with the alabaster jar anointed him “The poor will always be with you” and believe that we don’t need to find ways to alleviate the dire conditions under which so many of our brothers and sisters here and world wide must try to survive. Some even preach a pie in the sky kind of gospel “you’re poor now, but you are going to be rich in heaven.” Others, like us, do great work in providing food and shelter to the poor. But is this enough?

Poverty, systemic poverty, has a profound and negative affect, not just on the poor, but on all of us. There are people who are praying for our safety because this church is located in the middle of one of the most violent gang communities in Southern California.

Violent, criminal, Street gangs have existed as long as there have been cities. The desperately poor, the hopeless, the children who grew up without parents, banded together in family groups, caring for each other as there was no one else to care for them. They preyed on those around them, anyone foolish enough to come to their neighborhoods or so poor they to have to live there. Human Life meant little to them, as they know their lives mean nothing to the people who keep them there, generation after generation living in extreme poverty. The only real differences between the street gangs in Ancient Rome or Dickens’ London and the Street Gangs in our city are the quality of their weapons and the addition of racism to the reasons for their violence - Hispanic and black gangs are pitted against each other, for each sees the other as a threat to their livelihood. Seeking a way to end to gang violence, to give hope and family to those hopeless, family-less children, is Gwen’s new passion.

Jesus is the great healer. The one whose name means “God Heals” Who came to teach us about love, directed us to react to hatred with love, to violence with a kiss, Who came to heal the world.

Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Just preaching the gospel is not enough -we must live it. If we do not work against the evil of oppression, we are participating in it. When we leave here today, let us seek to be on that level ground along with Jesus, speaking and acting in his name with love for all persons, as healers, as active workers against oppression of every kind. As the power flowed out of him to heal all who came to him, so let it flow out from us in his name, to make the wounded whole. For He is the balm in Gilead.

What did he say?

Matthew grew up here. Many of you have known him pretty much his whole life. What would you think if he came here a few years from now, and stood up in front of us all, read these words from the prophets and said “these things are fulfilled in me.“ (expect responses from congregation)

The folks in Nazareth had a hard time believing Jesus was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. Jesus was not what they expected of the Messiah that was to come.

Dreams from our Jubilee - they were in the newsletter, Linda read them.
There’s one dream that you haven’t seen or heard. One person wrote “ help me believe in Jesus.” Since October I’ve been struggling with this. How can I help? I felt inadequate - how can I bring someone to believe?

And then, yesterday, I realized the person did not ask just me by myself to help. These were dreams for the congregation! This was a plea sent out to all of us

If I asked everyone here what they believe about Jesus I’d get a lot of different answers. I have shelves full of books by different theologians saying what they believe about Jesus - containing lots of disagreement! Different denominations teach different understandings of Jesus. We are separated by the What’s.
What did Jesus really say? What did he really do? and Why?
In what way was he the son of God? What were the circumstances of his birth?
What about miracles?

All day yesterday the Discovery channel ran programs that asked these questions and many more. As theologians, congregations and denominations we disagree about a lot of the What’s around Jesus - but we are bound together by our belief in Jesus.

And anyway, the dream offered up at Jubilee wasn’t help me believe about Jesus - it was help me believe IN Jesus.

A woman I met in college was raised in the Baptist church but converted in Judaism. I asked her how she could stop believing in Jesus and she said “I didn’t stop believing in Jesus. I just don’t believe the same way I was taught to.”

For me, believing in Jesus is like believing in air. I can’t remember ever not believing. I was raised to believe that God was judgmental and punishing and hated me for not being perfect, and that Jesus loved me. As I got older I began to think there was something wrong with that picture. If God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit were all together one God, then how can Jesus be loving and God not be? If Jesus is the son of God, then he must be like God, and so God must also love, as Jesus does.

That is what Jesus came to teach the world - that we should not see God as the judgmental, punishing, war-loving, death-dealing being that appears in so much of the Old Testament, but as a parent, loving, merciful, compassionate, and forgiving, who may be disappointed in the behavior of us kids, but who always loves us. Who celebrates our joys with us, and shares our pain, and is always home to kiss the boo-boos and feed us the comfort food that makes us feel better. And Jesus is the one we turn to in all those times, like a big brother who helps us get home after we’ve fallen off our bicycle, who stands ready to defend us when the schoolyard bullies are circling, who takes the blame when we’ve transgressed.

As Christians, as believers in Jesus as Lord and Savior of the world, we are to do our best to be like him. And because Jesus was the only human who has ever been able to perfectly understand and obey God, we can understand that individually we will not be perfectly like him. That doesn’t mean we aren’t to do our best. It does mean we can be assured that our mistakes will be forgiven when we ask God for forgiveness. To be a Christian is to be part of the body of Christ - to be part of a congregation of believers.

Hear what Paul said about the body of Christ: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

To be part of the body of Christ means we are all brought together for one purpose
to tell the good news to the poor. to announce freedom for prisoners,
to give sight to the blind,
to free everyone who suffers,
and to say, `This is the year the Lord has chosen.' "

If this is the scripture that is fulfilled, then y’know? as a Christian, Matthew could, indeed, stand up and say “This is fulfilled in me” because he does these things - as do we all.

As Disciples we have no creed but Christ. We are not required to make a statement of particular ways in which we believe about Jesus as a test for membership. We do have a statement of affirmation - things we confess to be true. That affirmation is in your hymnal on page 355. Let’s turn there and read it together. And if, for whatever reason, you find yourself unable to affirm any part of this, please don’t feel that you must. This is not a test for membership - Disciples don’t do that. It is simply a statement of faith and of what we understand our role and mission as Christians to be.

As members of the Christian Church,
We confess that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of the living God,
and proclaim him Lord and Savior of the world.
In Christ’s name and by his grace,
we accept our mission of wines
and service to all people.
We rejoice in God,
maker of heaven and earth
and in the covenant of love
which binds us to God and one another.
Through baptism into Christ
we enter into newness of life
and are made one with the whole people of God.
In the communion of the Holy Spirit
we are joined together in discipleship
and in obedience to Christ
At the table of the Lord,
we celebrate with thanksgiving
the saving acts and presence of Christ.
Within the universal church
we receive the gift of ministry
and the light of scripture.
In the bonds of Christian faith
we yield ourselves to God
that we may serve the One
whose kingdom has no end.
Blessing, glory and honor
be to God forever. Amen.

As a congregation, as Church, it is our mission first and foremost to carry the Good News of Jesus Christ to the whole world - beginning right here. In this congregation is someone who wants to believe. Who perhaps already does believe but thinks they don’t believe enough or in the right way. I don’t know. I do know that we, together, as church, have as our primary responsibility to reach out to every person. To strive to be Christ-like - in our words and our actions in every situation. To be part of the body of Christ, using our individual gifts and talents to help others believe. To always be there when someone cries out “Lord, I Want to be a Christian”

Back from Vacation

Vacation was good. I slept a lot, wore my favorite sweats most of the time, and pretended I don't even own a computer! I spent most of the week either on the couch or in the kitchen. I cooked a turkey and a ham and chili for watching football and split pea soup and even baked a cake! (Mind you, there's just me and The Husband to eat all of this food!) While I find that trying to figure out what to prepare for every-day dinner in 30 minutes or less is crazy-making, spending hours preparing special meals is fun or maybe even therapeutic. And we just won't talk about calories or exercise right now. :-)

I woke up yesterday morning wondering why I was even going back to the office. I really didn't want to! I wanted to call in sick, or manufacture a crisis, or anything but go to work. My secretary had handled pretty much everything - she always does - but there's always something that no one else can deal with. She gave me my messages and mail, and reminded me that we have to set up new files for 2007. The annual report was sitting on my desk waiting for me to fill in all the membership and outreach stats, and there were dozens of church newsletters to read - and how did I get on all those mailing lists anyway?

In the afternoon I spent several hours with our computer guy playing with the computers and talking about some stuff he's going through. I arrived home "for dinner" in time for a phone call from a clergy sister, mostly about finalizing details for the regional Martin Luther King Jr Celebration and partly about just needing someone to share with. Then I went to teach the Bible Study, which ran late because we got so engaged in the text we forgot to check the clock!

Later, as I locked the door behind me on my way home for the day, I remembered why I keep coming back after vacations. I do so love the preaching and teaching and counseling and studying and writing and sacramental parts! And I love my small church, so I guess I'm kind of stuck with the administrative stuff too.

Festive Foods

How delightful - Friday Five on Festive Foods. Seems very appropriate as most of the gifts under my tree so far are edible - cookies and candies and petit fours and cheeses and TWO hams . . .

1. Favorite cookie/candy/baked good without which, it's just not Christmas.
Mincemeat pie - For as long as I can remember, my family had mince pie for breakfast on Christmas morning. When I introduced The Husband to this tradition he was delighted!! It's his favorite holiday baked thing too.

2. Do you do a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, both, or neither? (Optional: with whom will you gather around the table this year?)
Actually, neither. It's just the two of us and our families are scattered very far away. So our tradition on Christmas Day is to feed the homeless. We were thrilled when we came to this church to learn that the congregation prepares dinner plus a sack lunch for the next day at the Cold Weather Shelter nearby every Christmas!

3. Evaluate one or more of the holiday beverage trifecta: hot chocolate, wassail, egg nog.
I LOVE hot chocolate! Especially with those little marshmallows or whippted cream on it.
The Husband is an Egg Nog Lover and thinks it should be available all year - he'd drink it by the gallon if we could afford it! He even puts it in his coffee. I haven't caught him putting it on cereal yet. (Note: we drink the store bought kind straight from the bottle - no alcohol added)

4. Candy canes: do you like all the new-fangled flavors or are you a peppermint purist?
I keep trying the other flavors, but I really like the peppermint best

5. Have you ever actually had figgy pudding? And is it really so good that people will refuse to leave until they are served it?
Is figgy pudding like plum pudding? We used to have brandy-laced flaming plum pudding with hard sauce at one aunt's house when I was growing up. I suppose people might insist on staying for it if there was enough brandy. :-)


About Fruitcake - the original object of "re-gifting" One was passed around my family for about 6 years until the original recipient finally got it back and broke the chain. :-)

And one other "without which it is not Christmas" food - Tangerines! My mother used to put a tangerine in the toe of our Christmas Stockings and I keep up the tradition. To this day the smell of a tangerine makes me think of Christmas.

Have a very Merry Christmas of eating and cooking and May God Bless Us Every One!

Advent Friday Five

Here are five questions about Advent for this first of December:
1) Do you observe Advent in your church?
Yes A different couple or family group comes forward at the beginning of each Sunday in Advent to read a meditation on the Candle of the Day, light the Advent candle(s), and sing the appropriate verse to "One Candle Is Lit."

And we sing Advent hymns (much to the dismay of the congregation who really think we should be singing Christmas Carols beginning on Thanksgiving!)

2) How about at home?
Growing up we always had an Advent calendar but I haven't done that in years.

3) Do you have a favorite Advent text or hymn?
O Come O Come Emmanuel

4) Why is one of the candles in the Advent wreath pink? (You may tell the truth, but I'll like your answer better if it's funny.)
That's one of those "how did this tradition begin" questions, isn't it? I think it's because the store only had 3 purple candles one year so the worship committee had to buy a pink one. Ever since then it has traditional to use 3 purple candles and one pink one.

Last year my worship committee couldn't find blue, purple or pink and came back with 4 green pillar candles for our home-made advent wreath! Acckk!

5) What's the funniest/kitschiest Advent calendar you've ever seen?
I saw a Charley Brown one once - I think it was the same year "The Gospel According to Peanuts" was published. :-)

In Honor of Not Shopping

In honor of not shopping on Black Friday (except for greens for The Reverend Samuel T. Rabbit)

1. Would you ever/have you ever stood in line for something--tickets, good deals on electronics, Tickle Me Elmo?
No. Just standing in line waiting to check out is enough for me. I don't even go in to the store if there are too many cars in the parking lot! :-)

2. Do you enjoy shopping as a recreational activity?
I didn't used to but when we were dating The Husband introduced me to the joys of window shopping - his mother is a gold medalist in window shopping! We enjoy looking at all the things we don't need and rejoicing in our freedom to NOT buy anything. Of course, being broke helped - window shopping is free entertainment.

3. Your favorite place to browse without necessarily buying anything.
Oh it's so hard to pick a favorite. High end furniture and design stores, kitchen stores, garden shops. I really like going to any mall and watching the people at least as much as much as I enjoy looking at the displays.

4. Gift cards: handy gifts for the loved one who has everything, or cold impersonal symbol of all that is wrong in our culture?
Yes. :-)

I like getting gift cards, especially from people who feel obligated but don't know me well so that I don't find myself with shelves full of Precious Moments but I don't give them.

My gifts for some years now have been either from the Women's Bean Project or our Alternative Christmas Fair, where folks can either make a donation to Habitat for Humanity, Heifer Project, or Church World Service and give a donation card as a gift or purchase items from a church sponsored anti-gang program or Third World Handarts. I like being able to give gifts that can really make a difference in the lives at both ends. Many of those I've given these gifts to also became interested in doing social justice work through shopping. :-)

5. Discuss the spiritual and theological issues inherent in people coming to blows over a Playstation 3.

The need to possess the newest, biggest and best pervades our culture - the whole attitude that "He who dies with the most toys wins." Greed and the willingness to hurt others in order to "win" has become almost synonymous with being American. TV shows and advertising encourage us to not just desire Stuff, but to be willing to hurt others in order to get Stuff (Survivor comes to mind.) Prosperity Gospel preachers even tell their folks that Jesus wants them to have all the best Stuff and if they are faithful enough they will receive worldly goods in abundance.

Yet Jesus tells his followers just the opposite. He encourages us to give up our attachment to possessions. He said we could not serve two masters - we have to choose between God and the World, for we can not simultaneously serve both. The letter of James expands on this, reminding the churches that if they conduct themselves according to the standards of the World they were not living in God's kingdom.

Sadly, our churches today still have problems with this. We want to have the most members, the most generous "giving units" (I HATE that phrase!) the record in outreach giving, the most attractive buildings and grounds, the newest techie toys to spread the word.

Would that those fighters over PlayStation III were so anxious to worship God that they would camp out on the doorsteps of the churches!

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Thanksgiving was always one of my favorite holidays. I loved the food, the football, the fall season, the football, the listing of all the things to give thanks for, and the football!

Then I married a Navajo and everything got different. Politially aware American Indians don't celebrate Thanksgiving because they know the history of the holiday. In fact, some of the more radically political demonstrate against Thanksgiving, as we saw on the news just yesterday when Indians protested a group of Pilgrims on pilgrimage to Plymouth Rock.

Briefly, the "Pilgrim and Indian" event that Abraham Lincoln lifted up as the model for a national holiday to bring North and South together wasn't a Thanksgiving, really. The first harvest meal with Pilgrims and Indians did happen, but it wasn't a Thanksgiving celebration. The first colony wide declared Thanksgiving celebration occurred some 40 years later as a celebration of victory, when the descendents of those first Pilgrims attacked and massacred the descendents of the Indians present at the harvest meal - the ones who helped them survive the New World! The women and children who escaped death were sold into slavery in Cuba and Hispanola. Many Indians view our Thanksgiving as a celebration of genocide. (for more details, look up King Philips War).

So for the last 15 years we haven't celebrated Thanksgiving with everyone else. We didn't even eat turkey during November. We did volunteer to feed people, and trade shifts at work so others could enjoy the holiday with family. But we didn't celebrate. While I understood his viewpoint - it is simply wrong to celebrate genocide - I missed the holiday, the family gathering, the meal, everything (except the football - I watch that anyway).

This year a member of the church who has suffered some real trials recently said she wanted to invite us for Thanksgiving dinner but knew that The Husband didn't celebrate. I told him about the invitation - and he said yes! Let's go.

Why? I dunno. Maybe compassion for the member? At any rate, this will be the first time in 15 years that I get to celebrate this holiday with family and turkey and semi-public prayers of gratitude. And for that, I am so grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Playing dressup

I knew when I realized that Hannah's story was a lectionary reading for today that I was going to play dress up and become Hannah for 15 minutes or so. I surprised myself at the emotions I was going through as I told "my" story to the congregation - the pain of being barren, the worry about what would happen to me when Elkanah died and I was son-less, the feeling of being less than a whole woman. The incredible joy and pride I felt when I spoke of my son - Sam-u-el. And the amazement at God's grace and love; the gratitude I felt for all the blessings I receive each day. and the admission of gloating just a bit in my prayer, since I had Penninah in mind as the arrogant one. :-) Wow - talk about totally getting into a role.

The whole idea of the dramatic presentation was to be able to get really serious about gratitude to God and the desire that should spark in us to be willing to give our lives to God. It was also supposed to bring our stewardship campaign to a close on a really high point. The congregation's response told me I did what I hoped to do. I hope they felt just a piece of the gratitude I felt as I stepped into Hannah's life, and I hope that I will be able to hold onto that for a while.

My Gratitude List

What a great Friday Five! Every day I pray a gratitude list, which sometimes includes things like "Thank you God for letting me catch this cold so I have to slow down and rest!" Sometimes it's a long list, sometimes short - but here is my list of the five things or people I am most thankful for this year -not necessarily in order of importance. I want you all to know it was not easy to stop at 5!

The Husband. Although he often makes me crazy, being a male creature, I give thanks daily for his constant love and support in my ministry. He spends nearly as much time working at the church as I do and is nearly always cooperative when I must be left alone. Without him I would long ago have made myself crazy.

Women friends outside my congregation who help me stay on track, remind me to care for myself, and call me on obessive and/or selfcentered behavior. It is really good to have a group of friends with whom I don't always have to be "a minister" - I can just be Maria, in all my unspiritual glory.

My congregation, who demonstrate their love for me all the time, even and especially when we are busy disagreeing on whatever. Right now I am especially grateful for their lifting me up during worship on the 5th Sunday of October and presenting The Husband and me with $500 to show their appreciation for the work we do for the church. :-)

Revgals! It has been so affirming to participate in the 11th Hour Preacher party, and to "speak" with other women who deal with so many of the same issues I do. Thanks to all of you!

God, who helped me find all of these people and gave me the wisdom to appreciate them