Connecting on the Road

I'ts amazing what a better night of sleep will do for us!

After arriving at my sister-in-law's house, yesterday, I called a second cousin who lives close by. I went over for coffee and a chat. Although we met as children, probably at my grandmother's funeral when we were 12, we didn't know each other until three years ago when I ate dinner with her. We're the same age and the same MBTI type. Different paths. Her dad was my father's favorite cousin: my Mick, her Nick. It's interesting how for both of us our fathers were the most admired people in our lives. My father died fifteen years ago on August 4. Her father died about 4-1/2 years ago, shortly after my mother's death. Her mother is still alive, but with Alzheimer's. She has one brother as I do. We both have an awareness that there's not a lot of family left so we need to stay in better contact.

Forgive me, Atkins, for I have sinned. I ate two ears of delicious corn on the cob. Otherwise, I have been doing well resisting the carbs.

Oh, for a good night's sleep!

Three nights on the road thus far. First one was in a bed, but with our son sleeping on an air mattress in the same room. Heard everytime he turned over almost all night. Last two nights on a couch (not a sleep sofa) just wide enough to lay down on.

Even as I write these words of complaint I am aware that I am entirely blessed with so much abundance. There are folks who would think these accomodations were truly palatial, folks who would be grateful for the eggs and bacon at Dig's Diner in Warsaw in the morning. I give thanks for these blessings.

BTW, Dig's is up for auction. We don't know if it will be here next year when we come back.

Travels with Harry

We've had a great trip so far across PA, OH, & IN, listening to Harry Potter the whole way. Jim Dale does an incredible job of making all the characters come alive.

This is a true story of redemption without a sappy moment in it.

On the Road

While 3 of us are on the road, our older son is staying back with a friend whose mom is a member of my church. It's the first time we will have been away from each other for such a long time (2 weeks). I feel like this is a big venture in trust. I know he's in good hands, both human and divine. He's only 16.

I can remember the moment he was placed in my arms when he was just 10 minutes old as the pediatrician said, "He's beautiful, mom." Tears of joy as I carried him into the nursery where his new dad helped give him his first bath.

God truly gives us our children as a trust to love, and in the process learn just how much God loves us and them.

Thanks be to God!

At Long Last!

I was one of those who put Falls Church in first place in pre-ordering Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Wow! What a wrap-up. I won't go into details now so I don't spoil it, but Rowling did herself, and us, proud.

Come, Get a Drink at the Well

As I write, I hear the voices of the children from daycare outside my office window squealing with excitement in their Splash Day. There’s nothing like water for good play times.
I just took our younger son to soccer camp with two water bottles to help him cope with the heat of the day. There’s nothing like water to quench the thirst.
We finally have the kitchen sink and new dishwasher hooked up at home so we can actually clean our dishes in the kitchen rather than in the tiny bathroom sink. There’s nothing like water to get cleaned up.
Our front yard is basically a perennial garden or a meadow, but with the hot dry days some of the newer plants begin to droop. After a rain, or after my husband waters them, they perk right up. Tomatoes are growing larger. There’s nothing like water to keep life going.
A well can be a wonderful source of water, but if it is left idle for too long the well can dry up. During the hot dog days of August, or even during the cold days of winter, and even during the beautiful days of fall and spring, we may have a tendency to neglect the well.
Spending time with God is like drawing water from the well. The water quenches our thirst, keeps us alive, cleans us up, and allows for joy in our life. When we don’t spend time with God, we neglect the source of that life-giving Water and we may well find that we have become dry and parched.
During August, why not use the Psalms as a way of sipping from the well of living water? You’ll find them readily available right smack dab in the middle of your Bible. Or if you like to use the internet, here are some sources for you.
NRSV
Almost any other translation
Upper Room resources for praying the Psalms
Allow the Living Water to drench your spirit so that you may live, quench your thirst, get cleaned up and have joy!
The Peace of Christ be with you

The Boy Who Lived

Yesterday, we saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Not bad. While they left out a lot from the book, some of my favorite scenes, I think they did a good job of getting the overall story across. And Dumbledore's protrayal was not nearly as dismal as it was in The Goblet of Fire, so seemingly plaintive much of the time, twisting his hands in anxiety. That's not Dumbledore by a long shot. Of course, I think they didn't make Umbridge as toadlike as she is in the book. We only really heard her little coughs, ahem, ahem, at Harry's hearing. And we didn't get to hear, in her office, as she complained that the dementors she had ordered to kill Harry had failed.

Of course, we are waiting with bated breath for The Deathly Hallows to come out. Will Harry live or die? Whose side is Snape really on? Do the Malfoys change sides? Will Harry see behind the veil where Sirrius vanished when killed by Bellatrix? Will Fawkes rise from the ashes once again? Is there redemption?

Questions, questions. And soon there will be answers.

Quilting Angels

What fun! Our Sisters in the Spirit group has been working on the design for paraments for the Communion table and the baptismal font for Advent. Tonight, we saw the fabrics we will use to piece together the background and use for the angel appliques. We got the idea and angel designs from Adoration Quilts by Rachel W.N. Brown of Rachel's Quilt Patch in Staunton, VA.

The three angels will be about 15 inches high each. Maybe we can work on other pieces in years to come. After the angels, shepherds? Camels? The Manger?

Not only will we create something of beauty for the sanctuary, we will also have great fellowship in the process, just like the old quilting bees.

Remember Who You Are

In Will Willimon's blog of July 2, he recorded his notes from First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Burkingham and Curt Coffman. The note that caught my eye was: "You succeed by trying to capitalize on who you are, not by trying to fix who you aren’t." In the book, the authors evidently are making the point that the best management style is to go with a person's strengths, not try to retrain their weaknesses.

When I work with people with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, I try to emphasize that our dominant function will always be our strongest function. While our inferior function begins to develop more in our middle years, and we may get a real boost of energy using that inferior function, it will never be as strong as our dominant function. So when our life depends on it, always go with our dominant function. In MBTI terms for me, that means while I may get a kick out of using my sensing function, when a matter is really important I need to go with my intuitive function.

Theologically, what does it mean to capitalize on who you are, not try to fix who you are not? Does this mean I stick with my broken self, and not seek wholeness through God's grace? I'm not sure I want to do that, or say that to people. But if I look at the question in terms of my baptism, then who I am is a redeemed child of God covered with grace given certain gifts for sharing that grace experience with others.

Water, Water Reflections, Water Remembrance

My younger son and I went to the pool this afternoon. He played in the huge pool that's for anyone who just wants to play, and went down the big water slides, while I swam laps in the lap pool. I love the play of the water reflections on the bottom of the pool. It is so comforting to me. I can feel the stress easing out of my body as I see the reflections made by the ripples in the water from the stroke of my arms and the kick of my legs.

As far back as I can remember, I have loved water. When I was only 9 months old, I've been told, I made my first trip from TX to AL to my grandparents' lakehouse. I hadn't gotten the shots necessary for swimming in lake or river water since my parents weren't planning on me being in the water at such a young age. Evidently, I put up such a fuss on seeing the water and everyone else in it that they got a galvanized steel tub, filled it with water from the house, and then floated it in the lake with me happily splashing about in it.

As one ordained to the celebration of the sacraments, all the connections with water are so important to me. Not only is this the water in which I swim, it is also the water with which I baptize, the water of my baptism, the water of Jesus' baptism, and the water of creation.

Thanks be to God for glorious water!

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. (Isaiah 43:2).

Camping Out @ Home

Our family likes to camp. Well, 3 of us like to camp. Okay, maybe 2-1/2 of us like to camp (I'm not really up for tent camping anymore). Now, we are getting to camp out at home. It's not as bad as 3 years ago when we truly had to camp out in the basement while the renovation on our home was being completed.

It's the cooking and eating part, this time. We are having a couple of new cabinets, a dishwasher and new countertop installed in our 1950s kitchen. And the old remaining metal cabinets will be refinished/repainted. Since the Fourth of July, we can't even get a glass of water in the kitchen, let alone wash dishes.

Sometimes, doing things in a more simple way can help remind us how few thing we really need in our lives. I confess that I get overwhelmed by all the stuff and it tends to distract me from what is truly needful. I get in more of a "Martha" mode, while I really need to be more of a "Mary." I also confess that I really like gadgets. I'm writing this on my MacBook Pro, while my newish Treo 755P is charging. I played with the iPhone yesterday at the Apple store. All cool stuff, but does it really help me relate the good news of Jesus in people's lives? While I'm not giving it all up and going back to the stone ages, I do need to keep it all in perspective as I seek the one thing that is truly needful in my life.

Anyone Can Cook!

That's a key phrase in the new movie Ratatouille from Pixar. That was the contention of the famous chef Auguste Gusteau (in the movie). But then he clarifies that by saying that anyone can cook, but only a few are great. It reminds me of something my mother used to say about cooking and sewing: "anyone who can read, can sew (cook)." I took her at her word since she taught me both cooking and sewing. Neither task seemed too difficult to me. Then I met a colleauge who used to sew as a teenager. After a year as an exchange student, mainly speaking French, she said that somehow her brain had changed and she could no longer sew, try as she might.

I think that anyone with a modicum of reading ability, spatial reasoning and a bit of dexterity can "cook" and "sew," but not everyone has the true gift. What does that mean in terms of the spiritual gifts ( 1 Corinthians 12 & Romans 12)? Not everyone has the same gift of healing, preaching, teaching, etc., but there is a greater gift--LOVE. Is this gift of love given to everyone? I would think so, but I'm not sure that everyone opens themself to the full expression of the gift.

The colony of rats in the movie couldn't really cook on their own, but they did discover that led by a "master cook" they did indeed learn to "cook." Maybe we can't love all on our own, but led by the "master lover" we can indeed learn to love!

An Exciting 4th!

Last night, our younger son and I went to see the fireworks at our local high school. We had already set off our own fireworks display in the backyard with the neighbors as an appreciative audience. Fortunately, the wind cooperated and no one outside had the smoke blow over them. The community fireworks were a lot of fun. In a way, I missed the music we had had with the fireworks at Wolftrap the night before Memorial Day, but in another way, I was reminded of simpler celebrations where the audio component was the "oohs" and "ahs" of the crowd. The finale came at about 35 minutes into the display. We all clapped appreciatively. Later, I found out that our older son was also at the display, in the same parking lot! I thought he was off setting of the fireworks he and friends are purchased out of state.
The pictures are from my camera phone.

Evan Almighty

We went to see Evan Almighty the other evening. Some of the comedic bits seemed mighty slapstick and sophomoric, but it was actually an enjoyable film. And the theology was quite good, emphasizing God's love--not anger.

16 years & a GED in hand!

Okay! I know I didn't post anything for 2 months, and now can't stop, it seems.

Our wonderful and challenging 16 year old son, who is totally brilliant but hates school with a passion, now has his GED in hand. Thank God for blessings large and small. Let us pray now for him finding a job, and for patience for his parents who love him more than he can ever imagine.

Our younger son just got home from his first week at away camp. He swam, canoed, gigged for crawfish, and more. He had a great time, but really seems to be enjoying having his Nintendo DS at hand again, and watching videos. Thanks be to God for camp counselors and CITs.

B-Side Project

Sunday evening, I had a wonderful time listening to the B-Side Project: 5 young musicians (trumpet, trombone, keyboard, double bass & drums). They played at the Extra Virgin Restaurant in Shirlington VA. No sleazy lounge music there! They were excellent, especially AnnaMaria Mottola. Wow! Her fingers can really fly over that keyboard! What a joy to witness such a gift!

6 years in ministry together!

This past Sunday was my 6th anniversary with my current congregation. This Annual Conference in June marked 27 years in pastoral ministry (29 since my ordination as a deacon, 26 since my ordination as an elder)! How does time fly so fast!

While I have loved all my congregations, the people here at Christ Crossman have challenged me and kept me on the growing edge. It's an exciting place to be in ministry with God's people. Now don't get me wrong! It's still not easy. We think that the tide has begun to turn, but we can't be sure. In a place with as much transition as Northern VA, we can never know for sure if our leaders will still be here next year, or will move on to a new place in their careers, or in their retirement.

Our prayer is to be a part of what God wants to bless here. Join us in that venture of faith!

Swingin' in the Pocket

Back in January, when AnnaMaria told the choir that she wanted to do a month of Jazz, it made me think, “What does jazz have to do with the Gospel?” So later that night, I googled “jazz gospel” which gave me lots of different links to particular gospel music sites. Then I added the word “theology” into my search, and found a blog called Reflections of a Jazz Theologian written by a pastor in Colorado named Robert Gelinas. He wrote, also quoting Brad Braxton:

“The beauty of a jazz musician, lies in their ability not simply to hit a musical note exactly, but to move around the 'margins' of a note, thereby increasing the vibrato and resonance of the sound...When one too precisely hits a note or too accurately defines a reality in black and white, some of the color that captivates and motivates may be lost."

Gelinas concludes, “I believe that to know God is to embrace tension, not necessarily resolve it. Classical theology seeks precision, jazz theology lives and thrives in the ambiguity.”

Less than 36 hours later, at the Bi-District Leadership Training Day, Tim Craig had with him a book called Blue Like Jazz: Non-religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality, by Donald Miller. I picked it up and read the author’s note at the beginning:

“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside the Baghdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for 15 minutes and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.

I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.”

This did not feel like a coincidence, but a God-incidence. So I have begun to explore the connection between Jazz and the Gospel--not that U2 has been displaced from my favorites list by any means. But I have discovered that jazz is not just a particular genre of music; it is a style of approaching the art of making music. Within the boundaries of jazz, the music can sound very different, so different that you didn’t even know it was in the same genre. Isn’t that similar to our Christian life? Within each person of faith beats not only a physical heart, but also the heartbeat of God. It is this heartbeat in a sense that binds us together, but the lives empowered by that heartbeat certainly don’t look like the same from person to person.

When we were trying to figure out what to call this series, I asked AnnaMaria to talk about some of the terms used in Jazz. That’s when I discovered “in the pocket.” Almost off-handedly she said, “you know what that means,” and started to move on. But no, I didn’t know what that meant, so I asked.

“In the pocket” means that you’ve got the beat right; that you’ve got the time almost in your bones. Maybe all the rest of you already knew that in jazz the time is actually very strict. But I didn’t. Jazz always seemed so free flowing, so improvisational, so offbeat, as it were. But no, the time, the beat provides the base for all the improvisation to happen. When jazz musicians play “in the pocket,” they are united at the very base, at the beat, so that they can play their own instrument to help create the whole piece.

And that’s what it is like in living the Gospel as well. The heartbeat of God provides the base for all the different improvisations in individual lives. When we live “in the pocket,” we are united in the heart of God so that we can live and use our own gifts to be a part of the whole Body of Christ.

Evelyn Underhill, a 20th century Christian writer, said that “a spiritual life is simply a life in which all that we do comes from the centre, where we are anchored in God: a life soaked through and through by a sense of [divine] reality and claim, and self-given to the great movement of God’s will.”

Augustine of Hippo, a Christian from the 4th-5th centuries, wrote that “we humans, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you….You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.”

The closer we walk to the heartbeat of God, the more we live “in the pocket.” But how can we find ourselves walking and living close to the heartbeat of God? By keeping close company with the Incarnation of God, Jesus, and allowing his Spirit to infuse our own hearts and lives.

The Apostle Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus, and we take this prayer to our own hearts as well:
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”

Being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ is being connected to the very heartbeat of God which beats so deep that our bones, our very fiber vibrate to this love. This becomes our song, sung in glorious praise to the One who out of overwhelming love set all the Creation into motion.

Then Paul went on to pray “that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

The strings of a bass, or a guitar, or a violin, or a cello mean nothing when they are sitting idle in their case. The top skin of a drum means nothing as it sits idle. But when the fingers of the musician set them to work, they vibrate with the note and play the song.

It is when our lives begin to vibrate like those strings or the tautly stretched drum-head that the song begins to play. When we begin to vibrate with the deep-rooted love of God in Christ, the very fiber of our being sings out and the world becomes filled with the heartbeat of God. And our hearts and lives begin to look and act more like the heart and life of Jesus, “who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.”

As we live close to the heartbeat of God as revealed in Jesus the Christ, our lives truly begin to look more like his as we begin to live out and act out his love for the world. As our lives begin to vibrate with the very heartbeat of God, the song of love will begin to transform not only us, but the world.

This is living “in the pocket.”

Holy Saturday

Bishop Will Willimon, North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, preached this sermon when he was Dean of the Chapel at Duke University in 1998.

Passage: I Peter 3:19

Where is Jesus now, this night, in this present darkness? Where might we seek him? He is dead. “He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He emptied himself freely accepting death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6). Where is Jesus? You know the words of the Creed: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, and was buried, he descended into hell....”

That’s why this Chapel seems peculiarly dark, dismal, and empty tonight. The one for whom this great arched room was built, the one whose presence draws us on Sunday, is not here.

“Crucified died and was buried, he descended into hell.” Nineteenth Century Methodists removed that portion of the Creed, claiming it unbiblical. But it’s not. The First Epistle of Peter speaks of Christ’s descent into hell, called by the Church, “The Harrowing of Hell.” It’s from the Old English hergian, to harrow, to deposit. Tonight, Satan’s territory is being despoiled.

After his death this afternoon (at the hands of us good, Bible quoting religious people), when he breathed his last, Jesus, ever on the move, descended to hell. Having harassed us, the living, he descended to the dead. Tonight, he is there, preaching to them, cajoling, enticing those who had not the benefit of his life and words during their lives.

How did the church come up with such a notion? This “harrowing of hell”?

It was inconceivable to a church which had been the beneficiary of the intrusive, relentless, incursions of Jesus — the way he was forever speaking to us, prodding us, invading our settled world with his words, touching our wounds with his hands — it was inconceivable that some, so many, shall by their deaths, be excluded from his relentless, probing love. So for Virgil, and Plato, and the myriad who, by their deaths, had missed the advent of God with us, he came to them who could not have come to him.

He is there tonight, doing what he does so well, preaching, teaching, touching, relentlessly seeking, persuading, inviting, announcing the love and mercy of God. Psalm 16:10, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell....” Byzantine art depicted Jesus, in the jaws of hell, giving a hand to those who had died lifting them up, out of the darkness.

And though he is down there, and therefore not here, there is something to be said to those of us he has temporarily left behind. That word is this: Because I am there, tonight, descended into the deadly darkness, confronting the enemy on the enemy’s own turf, you have hope.

If he is there, then know well that nothing — no darkness, bereftness, or pain you experience, is immune from his gracious presence. If he, though he was God, is able to risk all, to wade deep into the death we so fear and avoid, then what might he risk for you?

Tonight, this usually gracious Chapel is rather cold, empty, cavernous, and dark. And, life being as it is, there will be nights for you that are cold, and dark, and alone. Hell is dark, bereft, and void. The Good News: Tonight, hell is being harrowed, emptied by the word and work of a relentlessly seeking savior who will not leave us be. He told us stories of the seeking Shepherd who forever seeks the one lost sheep, the faithful father who awaits the return of the one lost son, the relentless woman who does not rest until she finds the one coin (Luke 14). He meant what he said. There is no place where you languish, no darkness so dark, which places you beyond his seeking, searching, reach. He is willing to go all the way to Hell to bring his harvest home.

On a warm, Galilean day, he sat down on a hill and taught us to pray. You know that prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven....”
Tonight, he teaches us to pray a prayer you shall need on some dark night, a prayer which can give you infinite hope, even in the dark. That prayer: “Our Father who art in hell....”

[The orginal of Will’s Sermon is here.]

The powers and the principalities cannot prevail. The darkness cannot hide. The light has come, and nothing, NOTHING, NOTHING can overcome it!

Father, Forgive them...

Our local ministerial association offers a community Good Friday service at noon where we each preach on one of the 7 Last Words of Christ. This is my word from today.

Father, Forgive Them
Good Friday
April 6, 2007

The first words Jesus utters from the cross, at least in Luke’s account, after he has been raised upon the bar, are, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

I’ve always seen this request as showing Jesus’ graciousness. I haven’t really thought about it much before, but who is Jesus forgiving here? Does he ask God to forgive the soldiers who have nailed him on the cross and raised him up? Is he asking God to forgive the Jewish leaders and crowds who called for his crucifixion? Or is he asking forgiveness for all humanity?

Biblical scholar Raymond Brown raises the same question, and decides that the forgiveness is requested for the specific group at the scene of the crucifixion, not for all humanity. He says we can theorize that it extends further, but that’s not Jesus’ original request.

Actually, there’s another question that raises its ugly head on the sidebar: why should Jesus ask forgiveness for those who were just doing what God demanded? In other words, if, as some believe, God required Jesus to be sacrificed in order for salvation to happen, then why do those who are simply the actors accomplishing this requirement need to be forgiven? Why shouldn’t they be commended for following orders, or at least given a pass?

Because that very assumption is askew. God did not demand that Jesus be sacrificed to atone for our sins. We did. From the very first pointing finger, we have been a people who make others into our scapegoats. Whenever there is discomfort, disorder, discord, we cannot rest until we find one to hold responsible. “There. She’s the one who started it.” “Over here, he caused it all.” We point the finger and move all our discomfort, disorder, discord onto the shoulders of our scapegoat. Then, we at least shun, and perhaps even sacrifice, the goat so that order, accord and comfort may once again reign in the land and in our lives, at least until the next time things begin to get out of whack.

We have practiced this art throughout the centuries until we brought it to perfection in Jerusalem, and have continued trying to practice it for the nearly 2,000 years since. But when we pointed the finger at Jesus, he was the One Person in all creation who had no culpability. He was without sin. But still we demanded his sacrifice, the sacrifice of One for the people. And so, he was arrested, beaten, mocked, scorned, nailed and raised on the cross so that all who passed by could point their fingers at him, and relieve themselves of their own culpability.

When the sinless One was raised on the cross, the power of sacrifice was broken for all time, no matter how many more times we have tried it since. No peace or order will ever reign again, not when scapegoating and sacrifice rule the day. Peace will reign only when we begin to live into the reality of those words Jesus uttered from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

So back to my first question: who does Jesus ask God to forgive? He asks God to forgive the soldiers who carry out the execution. He prays God’s forgiveness for the leaders and people who pointed their finger at Jesus. And here, I disagree with Brown, Jesus asks God to forgive us, for every time we point our finger and seek a scapegoat.

René Girard said, “What makes our hearts turn to stone is the discovery that, in one sense or another, we are all butchers pretending to be sacrificers. . . . One thing alone can put an end to this infernal ordeal, the certainty of being forgiven.”

Forgive us, Lord, for we do not know what we are doing.