Not my best writing...

This week's newsletter article is not inspired prose...

Ponderous Thoughts

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. --1 Timothy 1:1-3 The Message

I’ve been thinking a lot about worship lately. Our evening service is almost 6 months old, and it’s time for us to take a look at how it’s going. I’ve been listening to all kinds of music to help the worship team come up with songs to teach the congregation, and Christian music is like any other kind of music. Some of it’s really good, and some of it’s pretty ordinary, and there’s some that’s just flat awful. It’s like any other kind of music: we need to listen carefully to what it says and where it’s coming from.
We’ve been listening to some modern worship music from revival communities in England and London, and their music reminds us to honor and give glory to God in reaching out to other people, and also to pray as part of our “everyday” worship of God. This coming Sunday, we’re going to have a slightly different evening worship service: we’re going to spend our time worshiping “simply, in humble contemplation,” with quieter music and some special time for prayer and meditation. It will be different from our normal Sunday night, but I hope it will be a time of real worship and calmness in the presence of God and one another.
Just to get you in the mood to join us Sunday at 7 in the fellowship hall, let me share with you something I read this week, and which I misquoted last night: Annie LaMott says that basically all prayers boil down to two phrases: Thank you, and help. As a good Southern girl, I mistranslated “help” as “please,” but I don’t really think we lost anything. The essence of prayer is that we can ask God to help, please, in whatever situations we are facing or know about, and have confidence that our prayers are heard, that there’s a “thank you, Lord” to be said. And there’s a lot to thank God for before we even get to the asking.
So this Sunday night, join us for our Evening Worship at 7. Bring your “help, please”-es and your “thank you”-s (yes, I know that is terribly fractured grammar) to our time of worship and prayer together. Everyone’s invited!
Anne


In other news, I have officially applied for a Doctor of Ministry program at Drew University's Theological School. It remains to be seen whether I get in; my application is not yet complete, but we're down to waiting for one last letter of recommendation. It's fixin' to take up whatever spare time I had left, but I'm excited about it. Think happy thoughts!

New photos

Random pics from the last month...

Cute puppy..."Mommy, does the box mean the cat's going away?"

Spooky Boo Cat: It's my computer bag, I tell you...Mine!

And these are my sandals, too...love the sandals.



Church sign I saw down east...pretty good.

The rest of Harry's story

JK Rowling told Meredith Viera what else happens at the end of Deathly Hallows.
I haven't even read it all yet, but at least now I know who Victoire is.

Some Harry Potter reflections

This week's Friday Five made me think about the one a couple of weeks ago on Harry Potter, and my later post on the 5th movie. Here were my predictions for the new book, which I have read once and am rereading before passing along:
What I want to see resolved in "Deathly Hallows":
Snape either vindicated or revealed in all his evil glory

Well, perhaps he's vindicated, but not because he was a good person. His evilness was "tainted" by love for Lily Potter, and that kept him from being unredeemable. I still don't quite see him as an ally to Dumbledore and the Order.

Harry and Ginny's relationship

Well, I got a look into that for sure!

Neville Longbottom's coming into his own

I am so good! Neville even earned his grandmother's respect!

Are Sirius and Dumbledore really gone for good? It is, after all, a story about magic

Yes and no...they certainly made an appearance when needed. But they are in fact gone for good. It turns out okay, though, I guess. More about that later.

How can the twins' "novelty" magic help the cause?

It's in there! But I'm in deep mourning; my favorite twin did not survive.

Can Voldemort really be vanquished?

I knew there would have to be a twist of some sort, but I'm glad to know he's gone. But the cost, dear Harry: an Unforgiveable Curse. More than one over the course of the book, in fact, which reinforces my notion that here is a complicated hero who is forced to make hard choices, and not simply the pure one who conquers by never making mistakes or having to do the needful yet wrong thing.

What's Luna's role in the story, and what about Moaning Myrtle--surely we'll see her again?

Go Luna! Good to learn about her father, too. And Myrtle...is that why Ron and Hermione went to the bathroom? Can't wait to reread that bit and figure it out.

Will Harry have to somehow absorb some of Voldemort to get rid of him? Remember, the evil one used Harry's blood to take corporeal form again...so a part of Harry's in Voldemort. In order to resolve the story, might Harry not have to take to himself a part of You-Know-Who?

Called it again, didn't I? Harry had a piece of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named with him all along, and that's the connection that had to be broken so that one could live and the other die. And a little redemption for Malfoy, but I need to reread that little bit of magical logic again, too.

So far I really enjoyed the book. I hated to see so many good friends die, and I'm not at all blind to the similarities between Teddy Lupin and Harry Potter. Guessing Victoire will tie that together in the not-to-be-written-future, huh?

Flood and Drought Friday Five

1. Have you experienced living through an extreme weather event- what was it and how did you cope?

I grew up in Virginia Beach, so hurricanes and nor'easters were just a part of life. We didn't have snow days off from school, but we did have storm days. The most recent and personally devastating was Isabel, which spent an agonizing 10 hours passing over us two days before my sister's wedding (outside, of course, on the beach). Mom's house lost about 10 trees and ultimately, the roof had to be replaced. Not having power for 5 days was particularly hard on my uncle, who was terminally ill with cancer. BUT, by an act of divine mercy, a refrigerator truck was called in, the caterers cooked with gas, the cake made it (we didn't know it would until it got there), and the power to the reception site came on about an hour before the wedding. Most important lesson learned: if the ice company doesn't have power, there will be no ice.

2. How important is it that we wake up to issues such as global warming?

It's important to be aware of them, but also to have some sense of perspective. One good volcanic eruption can create more greenhouse gases than years of human activity. We need to take a longer view. My undergrad major was environmental science and when I was in school, scientists were predicting a new ice age. We don't yet know enough to really predict or understand our impact on the environment in context with historical events. The earth is in a constant state of change...should we be careful? Sure. Should we be terrified? No way. But we do need to be educated and mindful...anyone know what the real cost of ethanol is? What "natural" source of methane produces up to 1/5th of greenhouse gases annually?(Way too much and cows...methane's a gas!)

3. The Christian message needs to include stewardship of the earths resources agree/ disagree?

Yes, as a way of understanding that we are a part of creation and that we are called to stewardship by God. But it is one more social justice issue, not even necessarily the most important one.

And because it is summer- on a brighter note....

4. What is your favourite season and why?

I love the Fall, especially late in the season when its cool at night and still warm during the day. Our chilly Atlantic takes months to warm up, so October's a great time for barefoot beach walking--low humidity, comfy temps, and no mosquitos. And I love to roam around in jeans, crocs, and a light sweater.

5. Describe your perfect vacation weather....

See above. Low 70s by day, cooler by night, maybe a little gentle evening rain or fog on the mountains. In fact, the coolest thing I ever saw was pea soup fog in one valley and clear blue skies on the other side of the ridge. That was a pretty day on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

spooky Boo cat

Ben has (finally) noticed that there are no pictures of his cat, Boo on this site, so here goes:

Fun email

Disclaimer: I don't ascribe to all these values...but I think a lot of them are pretty funny!

1. The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow. 2. Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.
3. If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all.
4. Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.
5. A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep water.
6. How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?
7. Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.
8. Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks?
9. Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job.
10. No one has more driving ambition than the boy who wants to buy a car.
11. There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.
12. There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 AM. It could be a right number.
13. Think about this ... No one ever says "It's only a game" when his team is winning.
14. I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.
15. Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it.
16. The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket.
17. Do you realize that in about 40 years, we'll have thousands of OLD LADIES running around with tattoos? (And RAP music will be the Golden Oldies!)
18. Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Corvette than in a Yugo.
19. After a certain age, if you don't wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead.

Very, very tired...

The news was not good this morning. While she shows some small signs of beating back the infection, the dementia is creeping back in, which is a very bad sign. Also, she's had to go back onto a special forced-air machine which sort of steps boldly into the gray area of her living will...so it can't continue indefinitely. Heart failure's also starting to be an issue.
More news later, when I've slept.

so here we are...

After a major scare on Saturday that left us seriously conisdering the implications of my stepmother's advance directive and how broad some of the gray areas can be, she seems to have rallied. She spent Saturday on a Bi-PAP machine that forced oxygen into her, and got her oxygen level back up where it needed to be. Today, she's been back to a "normal" oxygen mask and still done quite well. She's even eaten a little, which is more than she's done in weeks.
She's clamoring to go home. Tomorrow we'll have a conference with her doctor and find out what he thinks about all this. I don't know what to expect; we thought we'd lose her yesterday. If there is no downward change, I'll go home tomorrow and wait for the next thing...but I'm glad I could be here this weekend.

Today's Friday Five

Friday 5 Looking back, looking forward..

1. Share a moment/ time of real encouragement in your journey of faith

The first time I stepped into a pulpit that was "mine," at Harris Chapel, it felt like home...And as I've solicited recommendation letters for a D.Min. program, people keep saying wonderful, encouraging things.

2. Do you have a current vision / dream for your work/ family/ministry?

Yeah, but it's still taking shape. Once upon a time it was to come up with an ecumenical catechism (waiting for the movement to catch up). Now it has more to do with affirming our UM heritage and theology as a way of ministry in contemporary/postmodern/insert-buzzword-here culture.

3.Money is no object and so you will.....

Meet Christ by fulfilling the calling of Matthew 25: feeding the hungry, providing water for the thirsty, comfort for the sick and imprisoned...

4. How do you see your way through the disappointments? What keeps you going?

Some wonderful folks who see in me what I can't but God does, and remind me from time to time...and the sure and certain knowledge that I am what I am called to be now, and am growing into who I am called to be in the future.

5. How important are your roots?

Very, but as a Gen-Xer, I make my own. I only know my family back through my grandparents, who are mostly gone. But I have great friends-become-family who help keep me grounded and also help me grow.

6. Bonus= what would you like to add ?

Keep my father and stepmother (Mike and Bobbi) in your prayers, please. She's very ill and not expected to live very much longer. She's very ill, and it's hard to watch. We are praying right now for peace and mercy and an end to the misery of her illness.

I Must See This!

Buffy fans have created a musical experience in movie theaters, akin to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." It's based on a musical episode called, "Once More With Feeling," in which Dawn (Buffy's little sister) unwittingly summons a demon to town who causes everyone to sing about whatever strong emotion they're feeling. As with any Buffy mishap, much wackiness ensues. Everyone learns everyone else's secrets before Buffy manages to beat the demon at his own game.
I must see this. It was made for me.

Oh, joyous and rapturous!

My application to Drew has been producing more or less constant stress, but today we had news:
I had asked one of my Duke profs (yes, I know, 6 years later...I hoped I'd stood out to him) to write me a recommendation letter. I tried emails, with no success and then called the Divinity School. Couldn't reach him by phone, but a wonderful soul volunteered to print out my email to him and put it into his faculty mailbox...so I did...and today Ben talked to him and he's sent off what he referred to as a "glowing" recommendation. Yay! That's the last one...maybe my completed application won't be more than a month late.
Now here's hoping we get good news from Drew.

Ooh, look, I'm taking requests!

A comment from an earlier post:

DogBlogger said...
I really would like to know how this class meeting unfolded... if they respected your "off the table" topics, in particular.

Sunday School went very well, I think. I was concerned that my caveats (we won't talk about homosexuality or clergywomen) might not be respected, but in the main they were. I opened the conversation by saying that I knew they had had several sessions with the senior pastor on various topics, and that he rarely got to his planned comments, so I decided not to plan ahead. Instead, I would take questions or comments about the UMC ("Past, Present, And Future"). I explained the caveats by saying that I knew that they'd discussed them at length and that I could not really add anything to his remarks, except that he'd left Dorcas out of the discussion on the authority of female clergy, and I would have included her.
So the first question was about the decline of the UMC: why did I think we had lost so many million members over the last 30-40 years? This came from the head of the class, with whom I had discussed the caveats. I chose not to say simply, "well, many of them died." Instead I talked about the decline of the mainline churches, and that the nondenominational churches, which had been growing, were starting to show a little decline. I think that (and this is a gross generalization) the UMC in particular and churches in general have coasted for years on the post WWII high, when everyone went to church. Now we can no longer assume people will just show up, and we need to work a little harder at reaching out to them, especially those who have not grown up in church and don't share our familiarity with arcane terms such as offertory and doxology.
His response: "So you don't think it's because of the homosexual issue?"
Mine: "No."
And that's really the only time it came up. Basically, I feel that my conditions were well accepted, and I think most folks in the room were glad to have those issues off the table for the day. It was a good conversation about why people leave the church, questions about the episcopacy, and why I'm optimistic about the future of the UMC. I would do it again, with the same terms, of course.
Thanks, DogBlogger, for asking. Maybe one day the WonderMutt and I will come over and play with you and your person.

Chimes article for today...

I forgot to write this for the "real" deadline, but fortunately there's some grace and I managed to get it done. Made me nostalgic for summer when I was a child, but it's also a pretty romantic view...it was hot, and I didn't mention the mosquitos.

Ponderous Thoughts

“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.” --Garrison Keillor

When I was a child, summertime was almost magic. My sister and I spent many summers with our grandparents in west Tennessee, which was a strange and foreign land when compared to Virginia Beach. We woke up with the sun, and started our days in the garden, picking whatever was ripe and ready, and letting that determine the plan for the day.
Before it got too hot, we were out on the front porch, shelling peas, snapping beans, husking corn…and we knew what we would be having for dinner that day. In the afternoons we had the run of the town; it was a safe place to roam, with cousins everywhere, including the town drugstore, where we could go and get a lemon or a chocolate Coke, made with syrups and soda water.
Our Tennessee summers came to an end before I entered high school with the death of both of my mother’s parents, but the lessons we learned have stayed with us. There’s the famous “never eat a store-bought tomato” rule but there are also simple rules of courtesy and kindness we learned in that summer town. The First Methodist Church in Milan was the first place I remember going to Sunday worship, and we always went to VBS.
I don’t remember anyone ever making a particular fuss over us, except the first Sunday of every visit. Then everyone would speak to us, asking after our parents and telling stories of when they were young. I never wondered if I belonged in that church, because they made sure we knew from a very young age that we did. And that feeling of belonging has extended to this day: I know that church is where I belong, where my roots are, one place that determines my identity, and so every church I go to is, in a way, home. As we start our LOGOS children’s weekday ministry, I hope that those children too learn to feel that the church is their home, that they are a part of us, that here is where their roots are.
Anne

Lunch Break frivolity--Order of the Phoenix Spoiler Alert

Okay, so now I've seen the new Harry Potter movie. Here's what I think:
It was pretty clearly tasked with advancing the plot to get to the end. It was much more concise; in "Goblet of Fire" as well as "Order of the Phoenix" I was beginning to notice what had been left out, much more so than in the first three. It was not my favorite of the movies because it's really the darkest, dealing with Harry's sense of alienation much more fully than in the past. And in this movie,the family that Harry hopes will come together (Sirius and Dumbledore in particular, and the Order by extension) lets him down in a variety of ways, from death to simply trying to shelter him for his own good. He's really coming into himself in this part of the narrative, recognized as an expert by his peers in Dumbledore's Army and also sort of growing into himself as a wizard, and yet he's still very much a boy in this one.
The genius of the series is that even the hero is not good all the time. Harry struggles with impulses that may or not be his own, as the evil Voldemort seems to have an uncanny mental connection with him. In a moment that I could already see on the wall at contemporary worship or in a youth group meeting, Harry confesses to Sirius that his first impulse was to lash out, and that he made a difficult decision to do the right thing. Paraphrasing Sirius' response: "We all have light and dark in us, Harry. What makes you good is not that you have no darkness, it's that you choose the light."
On to more worldly observations: the twins are starting to distinguish themselves; it's Fred I've really got the crush on. All the young actors are beginning to show their age; Harry looks 17 more than 14 in Order of the Phoenix, but it's not a real problem, although knowing that Daniel Radcliffe had done "Equus" made me more aware of how Harry was maturing (he's got muscles now). That's the inevitable challenge of doing a series like this: how to cast an ensemble to grow up together, and manage the fact that the narrative progresses more rapidly than the movies can be made.
The long and short of it is this: while this 5th installment is not my favorite, it's still pretty good. Taking the long view, it does well at advancing the story and bringing up new plotlines, although I'd like to have seen a little more about some of the peripheral relationships. I know that's coming in "Half-Blood Prince" next year, and we'll get to know more about Harry father and his friends. I'm dreading Dumbledore's fate and anxious to see Snape's true colors, whatever they should happen to be.
What I want to see resolved in "Deathly Hallows":
Snape either vindicated or revealed in all his evil glory
Harry and Ginny's relationship
Neville Longbottom's coming into his own
Are Sirius and Dumbledore really gone for good? It is, after all, a story about magic
How can the twins' "novelty" magic help the cause?
Can Voldemort really be vanquished?
What's Luna's rule in the story, and what about Moaning Myrtle--surely we'll see her again?
Will Harry have to somehow absorb some of Voldemort to get rid of him? Remember, the evil one used Harry's blood to take corporeal form again...so a part of Harry's in Voldemort. In order to resolve the story, might Harry not have to take to himself a part of You-Know-Who

Bonus! The Friday Fives

Yay! There are two options this week, so here goes:

Option 1: Accio Friday Five!

1. Which Harry Potter book is your favorite and why?

So hard to choose; I think maybe Prisoner of Azkaban because Harry gets to know his parents a bit through Sirius and also begins to realize that he's growing his own family around him with the Weazleys, Hermione, etc.

2. Which character do you most resemble? Which character would you most like to get to know?

I don't resemble any of them...maybe Neville sometimes. But I have to admit I've got a little crush on the Weazley twins.

3. How careful are you about spoilers?
b) eh, I'd rather not know what happens, but I'm not going to commit Avada Kedavra if someone makes a slip

I prefer the surprise of finding out for myself, but it doesn't ruin the book for me. Half the fun's the little stops along the way. May be forced to reach the end of Deathly Hallows out of an insatiable desire to know if Harry and Ginny ride off into the sunset.

4. Make one prediction/share one hope about book 7.

I predict we'll see Dumbledore again, and Fawkes will again somehow save the day.

5. Rowling has said she's not planning any prequels or sequels, but are there characters or storylines (past or future) that you would like to see pursued?

More about the twins, of course. And what might Ron and Hermione's children be like?

Option 2: Please Mommy, Anything But Those Blankety-Blank Books!

And we do mean anything:

1. Former U.S. First Lady "Lady Bird" Johnson died this week. In honor of her love of the land and the environment, share your favorite flower or wildflower.

My all time favorite is the alstroemeria lily (white or cream; you can keep the yellows and pinks), closely followed by the snapdragon.

2. A man flew almost 200 miles in a lawn chair, held aloft by helium balloons. Share something zany you'd like to try someday.

It wouldn't be zany for everyone, but I'd love to dye my hair some really festive color...I just don't want to live with the growing out or consequences of showing up in my straight-laced church with really festive-colored hair. Yeah, I know, I'm chicken. Maybe I can make it a youth thing and go purple for the Relay for Life...hmmm...

3. Do you have an iPhone? If not, would you want one?

No, and no. Too much tech for me. Besides, look how much time I waste online already. Just imagine if I could carry it all around with me.

4. Speaking of which, Blendtec Blenders put an iPhone in one of their super-duper blenders as part of their "Will It Blend?" series. What would YOU like to see ground up, whizzed up or otherwise pulverized in a blender?

Good thing the question's not "who would you like to see". About half the time I'd pitch the tv; the rest of the time I'm loving the DVR.

5. According to News of the Weird, a jury in Weld County, Colo., declined to hold Kathleen Ensz accountable for leaving a flier containing her dog's droppings on the doorstep of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, apparently agreeing with Ensz that she was merely exercising free speech. What do you think? Is doggy doo-doo protected by the First Amendment?

I'm not sure really bad behavior should be protected, and I think that perhaps vandalism might be a more appropriate term than protected free speech. That said, there's a wondermutt here trying to help me write who'd be glad to contribute a missive or two to certain politicians and the occasional rude person. Good thing I'm better mannered than that.

Tiring day

I don't even know what I've done to be so tired. I worked in the office all day (slipped out for a few minutes to pick up lunch and ate at the desk). Maybe that's why. I worked on stuff for the contemporary service all day, seems like, but now that's mostly done and I can do other stuff on Friday...whatever that may be. At least there will be a new Friday Five.
So after getting excited about the Good Samaritan passage, I let Eric figure out that he needed to let me preach Sunday night, so now I can play with it. So far I'm sticking with the "Won't you be my neighbor?" idea...but stop & smell the roses wants to get in there too. And then there's Sunday School...I'm speaking to a class on the UMC, past, present, and future. I think I'm going to make a few introductory remarks and then take questions. The issue is that this particluar class has already talked to Eric at length about the two topics I think they want to talk to me about: homosexuality and clergywomen. I have told the teacher that these two subjects are off the table, and I will reiterate that to the class.
What I really want to convey to them is that our UM heritage gives us both the freedom and the tools to explore scripture and theology, while giving us the framework to stay within the bounds of orthodoxy. I think there's plenty of room for conversation and even for disagreement as long as we can be civil and Christian to one another. It'll be an interesting conversation, at any rate.

a little lectionary musing...

Thoughts about preaching the Good Samaritan text from Luke this week:
I owe many thanks to the RevGalBlogPals site for today's lectionary musing post.
grcgrl suggested "Would you be my neighbor?" as a title, which I love along with the nod to the departed Fred Rogers. His neighborhood was inclusive and someone would always have stopped to help...maybe there's something to that idea from Gladwell (that 'rushing' often stops us from helping someone in need). Maybe "stop and smell the roses" isn't a platitude but a life-choice that helps us see our neighbor in need under our noses rather than staring blindly up toward heaven. There's something to be said for engaging in the Kingdom right here on earth instead of relgating it to some far-off heaven...in fact, I think Jesus said some stuff about that. Now I want to preach...but as a lowly associate, it's not my turn.

(actually it is; I'm preaching this text Sunday night)

hmmm...

From the July/August Group magazine:

I really believe I need quality, meaningful, biblical, unscripted, somewhat raw, somewhat safe, thought-provoking storytelling; face-to-face and side-to-side worship with exposition; and exhortation that's handcrafted by a gifted person who knows and loves me well."
Liam Atchison

Pondering this one...

the church's imperative to evangelize

(with the caveat that evangelism needs to be done well...)
There's this great piece of logic Ben used to convince me to get the WonderMutt:
We need a dog, and we have a home. He is a dog, and he needs a home...
So this is the church's role as regards postmodern culture: we know Christ, and we have a spiritual home. They need Christ and a spiritual home.
You do the math.

Burning through time

After years of avoiding instant messaging for fear of what my roommate at Duke used to call "time-suckage", I have succumbed. And I was right...it lets me chat with by best friend in Germany, but boy does it burn through time!
Doesn't matter, though--it's better than not talking to her at all.

A Poem

This is not mine...it's copyrighted by Steve Hollaway.

Preacher Takes a Dive

He stands on the platform
almost exposed
hairless
focused
a wad in his mouth
he has chewed for a week.

He jumps
and twists in the air
as if escaping the grasp
of something invisible and
miraculous even to himself
he enters the water
at ninety degrees
and finds himself so deep
he fears the bottom.

He emerges
to polite applause
and can tell from the smooth surface
he has not made a splash.

Someday
he
will
cannonball
to sprinkle the judges
with what he has been immersed in.
For now he dries himself
and puts another page
on his tongue.

July 6 Friday 5

An oldie but a goodie, I'm told...

Today, what are you:

1. Wearing

Clothes. Just what kind of phone call is this, anyway? ;)

2. Reading

Many wonderful things: Group Magazine from January, Craig Kimball's The Emerging Church, and a novel on Merlin that I picked up at a yard sale. And Relevant Magazine online. And email.

3. Eating

Nothing at the moment, but had a very ill-advised meal at Taco Bell earlier. There's some truly great chocolate waiting for my afternoon pick-me-up and fresh Silver Queen corn for supper. Ben said something about steaks, but who cares...Silver Queen's better!

4. Doing

Blogging when I should be working. Compiling a reading list from the retreat I went on in May, contemplating Sunday night's sermon on Ephesians 1, and thinking about coffee.

5. Pondering

My "lesson" for a Sunday School class next week. I'm thinking of either a lesson on United Methodism's strengths, or on doctrine as an invitational gift rather than a club for beating folks over the head with.
Also thinking about the dear lady I visited in the hospital today. After I prayed for her, she prayed a lovely prayer for me. That happens so rarely that it was really a wonderful gift.

I preach like a guy...sometimes

Not only do I enjoy the Friday Five, I check out RevGalBlogPals on other days as well. Today I read a blog post from a woman who visited a site called Gender Genie and had some of her writing analysed.
It was an interesting experience. I used samples from my "normal" blogging, my newsletter articles, and sermons. I found that generally speaking, my sermons are male (2 strongly, 1 weakly, 1 strongly female); my church newsletter articles are also predominantly male; my other blog musings are predominantly female.
I wonder if this has to with sort of percieved intimacy in our language...sermons tend to be a little broader than my blog posts, but the Pentecost (female) sermon was strongly invitational. My newsletter articles, while chatty, tend to be a bit, er, controlled, because I know I'm writing for an audience. When I write for myself, my "voice" is female.
I'm a bit curious as to how the terms were chosen, and why my public voice, and that of many others, seems to be male and my personal voice female. I'm calling it a bias in the test...are we sure it's not a psych experiment?

Happy Fourth!

Four years ago, when I moved to Zion, the church's annual 4th of July celebration (which was also a community thing) was held on the day before my birthday (that would be Saturday, if anyone's paying attention). I told them it was so kind of them to have that party for me. Of course, the next year, Bo broke my toe...but it was all in good fun. Let's just say that me & inflatable waterslides don't mix, and when you add in a Bo who wants to tackle said waterslide while I'm trying to reach the top, it goes badly.
This is a difficult holiday for me. I want to be patriotic but not nationalistic, and I have my generation's sense that my loyalty is not to a flag or a government, but to an ideal...and one I'm not so sure we live up to all that well. But we do try, and we get credit for that.

Thought for the day

Ben and I have been having this conversation about how we speak to people whose understanding of church and gospel are different from ours. By different I mean mostly more fundamentalist, but that's not it alone. There are some wonderful, well-intentioned, good, kind, decent, faithful folks I know (my inner Pentecostal says they're "prayed up") who hang on to understandings about faith and the church, doctrines if you will, that I just don't agree with. From time to time we find ourselves talking about these issues, and Ben and I don't always agree on how we handle those people and conversations. But I did say something Ben wanted me to write down, and it goes a little like this:

Doctrines are for forming faith and drawing us closer to God...conforming us to Christ's image by the power of the Holy Spirit (ooh, look, there's the Trinity, right there). They are for creating, maintaining, and growing relationships between people and people and between people and God. Doctrines are life giving and love affirming, because they come from the Source of life and love. When doctrines become a way to fence people off from one another and from God, they are no longer the word and truth of God offered in love. Instead they are another example of how we are determined to remake God in our image rather than being remade in His...we want God to like who we like how we like them, to have a God who is limited by our understanding...to make an idol out of a god that doesn't push us, doesn't stretch us, doesn't call us outside ourselves to see our neighbors in his love. When doctrines become the standard by which we determine (note the pronoun there, it's important) who is godly and who is not, we have wandered off from what God determines to be true for us...we've got it just backwards.
More plainly put, doctrines are for inviting people into relationship with God, not telling them why they can't have one. Doctrines are holy because they are for the purpose of calling us to holiness. They are a blessing because they move us closer in love with God, and the into fruits of God's love in our lives. They are a gift, not a curse, and certainly not a weapon against others.

One criticism of some facets of the emerging church movement is they sometimes throw out the doctrinal baby with the hide-bound traditionalist bathwater, and we mustn't go that far...but we can reclaim the doctrines of our faith as a present from God for our good, and for the good of all God's children. Even the ones we don't like, and don't know, and wouldn't count. They are for us, for growing closer to God. So church, drop your weapons and let's face one another as neighbors.

Playing with my toys

I wrote an article for an online magazine recently, and they asked for a two line description to go along with the byline. Now, this is not a scholarly publication (and no fee, either, but at least I didn't have to pay them to publish it), so I didn't wasted time on my "credentials," such as they are. Instead, I said that I am a pastor, a wife, and mother to two furry children, one that barks and one that meows, and that I am just beginning to realize that I am supposed to be a grown-up.
This grieves me. I still think of myself as being 25, but sadly this next birthday is ten years past that. Getting older so far hasn't brought me any real wisdom that I'm aware of, and perhaps that's the point.
And I still really love to play.
I actually think play is essential for our mental health. A lot of the "artistic" people I know, from quilters to potters to musicians, etc., play with their hands and their artwork. Some play by singing or reading or playing or watching sports. I play with the computer (one of my favorite toys) and I'm pleased to report, as you'll see from the blog, that I've figured out how to add my own photo in to the title bar. The camera is one of my toys, too, and I love taking pictures in new places...this photo comes from an overlook at the Hatteras lighthouse, and the shadows are me and Tonya from our trip in March.
I like to travel, and I'm looking forward to Europe in the fall. I read all manner of fiction and like to watch movies, but nothing too scary or too silly. I walk the dog for fun, and cook and I'm beginning to write as play. And I work. A lot. And much of the time, my work is play to me too. It occurs to me that play, recreation, is really re-creation...a way of knitting body and soul back into something resembling the image of God again. A way of feeling like me, and feeling that "me" is someone God likes. And that is a very good feeling.