I've always liked this country diner in Ola, Arkansas. I had my camera last time I went to Little Rock.

Champion of cuteness vs. the ugly ducks

Preparing to Confirm

This coming Sunday I'll be baptizing two "tweenagers" and then confirming them and three others in our Sunday service. Look for pix after the event on the church website. This is the third time I've taught or helped to teach confirmation, but the first time I'll be serving the "priestly function." For some reason, confirmation has always seemed very important to me. It is the time when kids take some time to consider an adult decision, and then most likely return to being kids. The event is usually understood better in retrospect, like when the two disciples who walked with Jesus to Emmaus thought after Jesus had disappeared from their midst, "How our hearts burned within us when he was walking with us and opening the scriptures."
With my own confirmation, I remember sitting in my dad's office at Sequoia UMC in Fayetteville. I don't remember much of the content. I remember going to a Shabbat service at the local synagogue and being mystified, then bored when the entirety (or what seemed like the entirety) of the service was conducted in Hebrew. I remember the Rabbi taking the scroll around the small congregation of people, and the way the people's eyes followed the Torah. I remember standing outside after the service was over and seeing a satellite drop out of the sky. I think I remember seeing it so clearly that I could actually make out the shape of the satellite. That's all I remember about confirmation. I don't remember any of the content. I think I actually remember the service when folks in the church lay their hands on me. I remember that being powerful and feeling really good. I remember feeling the pride and prayers of the people there coursing through their hands and into my hair and spine and shoulders. It really is a empowering feeling.
I suppose that's what I'm looking forward to most about this weekend. I hope that my confirmands remember that ritual. They can forget the content of the lessons we have had (I did), and they will probably remember the same things. We'll be visiting a Catholic, Episcopal, and Shabbat service this coming Friday, so they'll probably remember that and the service. Who knows? Maybe something will drop out of the sky and stamp the event in their mind too.

OKLAHOMA

Here's why I haven't posted in so long--We've been in the process of getting information about my new church in Morris, Oklahoma (south of Tulsa and right outside Okmulgee) I just received the directory the other day--looks like a great church with lots of life and fun. I knew I'd fit in when I saw a caption of one of the pictures of the congregation re-painting and carpeting the sanctuary. The picture had a kid painting a wall with a grown up behind him--the caption read, "Paint the fence, Daniel-son." I laughed and then delighted that someone else brings up a Karate Kid reference 20 years after the move came out.
I really like the guy who is presently my DS, but he's moving to Tulsa to a church. He promises that the incoming DS is very competent and even better looking. I like Okies. We had a bang up Easter Sunday--107 in worship--that's the best in years I think. Everyone was really proud of the worship service, and we had a full-blown processional. See the church blog for pix.
Lara and I haven't begun to pack yet--too busy. I recently coordinated a regional conference for the NCC in Little Rock on the subject of Climate change, Creation, and the Church. It was a hoot. And now that we're getting close to 100 degrees in April, I doubt many will find the subject that laughable.

Rubber duckie, you're the one.

yum

Birthday cake boy, with moms and pops

St. Patty's day birthday boy. Surrounded by his weight in toys

A very hard thing to do

I told my congregation on Sunday that Lara and I would be moving this coming June. We're really excited about our move, and sad at the same time because we're leaving beautiful people.
For all you preacher's out there--it is muy dificil. i remember standing there speaking and feeling like I was outside myself. I literally saw myself from behind nad heard myself talking, and being like "Okay, you've said enough, sit down and get to the worship service, that's why people are here."
Very surreal experience.
If you want to read the feeble words I was able to compose for that Sunday, go the church blog
peace

My happy little boyoyoyoyoy!

National Religious Partnership for the Environment

Great website for reference

Finally, someone said it!

"[T]he main objective of my writing today, is to nail the lie that to reject Zionism as it is practised today is in effect to be anti-Semitic, to be an inheritor of Hitler's racism. That argument, with the Holocaust in the background, is nothing other than moral blackmail. It is highly effective. It condemns many to silence who fear to be thought anti-Semitic. They are often the very opposite. They are often people whose heart bleeds at Israel's betrayal of its true heritage."


- Paul Oestreicher, chaplain at the University of Sussex, former member of the Church of England's general synod, and director of the Centre for International Reconciliation.



Oestreicher describes his heritage: "I say this as the child of a German Jewish-born father who escaped in time. His mother did not. I say it as a half-Jewish German child chased around a British playground in the second world war and taunted with 'he's not just a German, he's a Jew.' A double insult. But I say this too as a Christian priest who shares the historic guilt of all the churches. All Christians share a bloody inheritance."

Procrastinate? I don't think twice, Cause I'm livin' in a map geek's paradise.

Google Earth. My new procrastinating tool of choice. It is so cool. Zoom in on real photos of your car parked in front of your house from space.

I'm spying on you!

I've got a new page counter. Now I can see how big a loser I am.

Funeral Sermon for a Home-Maker

Scripture is the Gospel Lesson from the UM Book of Worship Service of Death and Resurrection:
John 14: 1-4, 18-19, 25-27

From speaking with members of this family and the friends of Pat, I’ve gathered that this woman whose life, death, and resurrection we celebrate today took great pride in being a mother, a wife, a cook. She was a home – maker. What a tremendous profession that is! To make a home, to be the one that turns four walls and a roof into a place where “family” happens….this is indeed a great gift and one that Pat had great expertise in sharing with the world. It is a testimony to her great ability with “making a home” that her children are here today, and that though separated by many miles they seem to have the ability to “pick right up where they left off.”
Pat’s life as one who took great pride in “home-making” is also a witness to this beautiful, powerful, “Living” God who makes a home in us. We celebrate a God who gives us life by breathing into our very bodies the “Breath of Life” as is said in our Creation Story. This Holy Breath or Holy Spirit makes our bodies into temples, and if we live our life empowered and motivated by this Power, we’re made into “members of the One Body—the Living Body of the one who revealed God’s love and mercy in a unique way on Earth—the Body of the Living Christ.” This man called Jesus was also a “home-maker” without a place to “lay his head.” This wandering Rabbi taught his followers how to make a home in their hearts for the Living Loving Lord whom he knew as Abba—or Daddy. This man named Jesus taught us to make a home in our midst for reconciliation, renewal, refreshment, and renouncing our lives of self-centeredness. This man called Jesus also assured us that he was going ahead of us into Death and was going to make a road through Death to prepare a home for us beyond death. Just in case we were worried about making the trip there on our own, Christ promises us to return again and take us there himself. Do not worry, he says, I will not leave you here orphaned. Christ indeed does not leave us orphaned. The Living Christ makes a home here among us, “where two or three are gathered,” and with us shares our loss, our heartache, our joy, and our celebration.
We gather today to celebrate the home that Pat made for her family, we gather today to celebrate the God who makes a home in our midst and who now draws Pat into her eternal heavenly home. God is a home-maker for us in this life and in the next. God is trying to burst through our barriers and walls to make a home for us in this life. Pat believed in a man named Jesus who brought that vision to Earth in a unique way. After pass through the doorway of death, we enter the home that God prepares for us in the mysterious life to come. This is the home that God is attempting to utilize us to create on Earth. This is the home that Jesus calls us to in this life and after this life. In our gospel passage, Jesus comforts us with the knowledge that Jesus prepares a place for us there, and there are many rooms—room for everyone!

Great Epiphany sermon

http://www.day1.net/index.php5?view=transcripts&tid=467

My sentiments exactly

This recent article by Newsweek's Anna Quindlen really sums up my thoughts on the whole idiot wind effort on the part of some Christians to boycott some stores for not using the words Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. I guess we'll start yapping about any old thing that will take the focus off of Christians coming to terms with the confronting reality of a vibrant faith. Christian Peacemaker Team is still missing in Baghdad while giving themselves as a sacrifice to the ideal of non-violent resistance which was inspired by some of our faith's greats (including the original), and instead of rallying around what they have brought to the world stage, American Christians get caught up in a bunch of bull-shit. When will we wake up and take the mantle?

"Birth of the Light" Christmas Sermon

Over the past weeks of the Advent season, we have looked into the faces of the cherished figures of the Nativity. During the first week, amidst the celebration of the Hanging of the Greens, the Angels were our focus. We asked ourselves what kind of signs we might be given by the angels we might knowingly or more likely unknowingly encounter in our own lives. The next week, we focused on the role that the shepherds and livestock played in our great story, and how they were open to God’s announcement of incarnation because of their willingness to “keep watch” and “listen.” Then we focused on Joseph, the silent guardian of God as a baby. We looked at his great witness to follow God’s promptings and the miracle of his belief and faith in the message brought to him by the angel. Last week we reflected on Mary’s Song of Magnification of the works of God. And today we turn our attention to the manger. That centerpiece to the nativity story—and what it holds: The center of the whole world.
John’s prologue is revered by many as the most beautiful words of the entire Bible. It tells the story of our Christ in a unique way in the Bible. Whereas Matthew and Luke tell the story of Jesus’ humble beginnings in the manger, and Mark’s hurried gospel doesn’t even reflect on the Christ’s origins, John’s Gospel tells that Christ as the Eternal Logos or Word was with God and Part of God before the Creation of the world.
It is from John that we learn that this man traveled around the lakes and mountains and cities of Palestine 2000 years ago was no ordinary man, but instead the “Word in Flesh.” It tells that how everything was created through the Word, and that therefore all creation was known by him and all creation has a connection to him. God creates by speaking, and the Word is the manifestation of that aspect of God.
We also learn that this creative Word is Light—as Isaiah says, the “people who have walked in the darkness have seen a great light” Isaiah goes on to talk about a child who will one day be born who will bear this light, and John identifies this light as the person whose birth we celebrate this day.
Last night as I read this scripture as our last lesson to the lessons and carols service, we enacted the scripture as it was read. We began in darkness, as we heard about the Word being in the beginning with God and nothing else. This was before the creation of anything, including light and darkness. And then I lit the Christ candle as we heard about the Word’s life being the light of all people. As the light went around the room and illuminated the faces of everyone present, I read the words that contain the whole Gospel in two sentences, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
I enacted this part of the service last night because I wanted us to hear it and understand it as being true and present in this moment with us. John doesn’t tell the story of something that happened a long time ago and is merely an occurence of the past—John writes about a light that shines in darkness. The darkness of time or place does not overcome the light that continues to shine.
This is the amazing thing about the Gospel. WE have walked in the darkness. We come from all walks of life. Some of us are old, some of us are young, some of us are hometown people, some of us are transplants from another place, some of us are rich, some of us are poor, some of us have loved, some of us have loved and lost. Here’s what we all have in common—we have all walked in the darkness. Though it would seem that some of us have sinned in greater frequency or greater magnitude than others, we have all been born with something missing in our lives, a “God shaped hole in our hearts” as some people call it. Isaiah and John calls it darkness.
But the good news is this, we have seen a great light, and furthermore, that Light comes to us to receive. Graciously, the Light has come toward us and continues to come toward us. As long as we reject the great filling light in our presence, we will continue to walk in darkness. As long as we refuse to forgive and love and share and make peace, that “God shaped hole” will continue to be a God shaped hole. Why? Because God loves us so much that God gave us freedom. The light is not invasive. It is persuasive, like a friend holding a candle toward you for you to light your candle on.
And if we do light our candle with the Light of God, IF we do allow our soul to be ignited with the awesome power of love and forgiveness and peace and sharing, our faces will become illuminated in the presence of the Living Christ. We will finally see ourselves and our neighbors as Children of God. This is the message that the Living Word would have us understand. After all of creation was spoken into being through the creative power of the Word and Breath in Genesis 1, there is a pronouncement that is as creative and life giving as our identity: God is happy with God’s creation and exclaims, “It is good!”
Yes, we are children of God from the very beginning, but we enslave ourselves to lesser parents. We walk in darkness and we look to other sources for parental comfort, don’t we? We make ourselves “Children of Exclusiveness” or “Children of Posessions” or “Children of Beauty” or “Children of Hollow Happiness.” Jesus says later in John’s gospel that “this is the judgment of the world, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light.” Why do we love the darkness rather than the light?
Because the light comes to earth in a feeding trough…The Light takes a cross on his back and asks us to as well. The Light asks us to change our direction in life. We fill the God shaped hole with other things, and we think we are full until the little cracks appear in our carefully tailored lives. God’s light continues to shine in our direction though, and it continues to come to us. All we have to do is dip our candle toward the one being offered to us. All we must do is dip our heads down and ask for forgiveness. All we must do is forgive others as God forgives us.
When we take on the light, our burdens are taken on by that little child laying in a manger. He is willing and able to carry our load. As things become lighter in our lives, we may even find ourselves sharing the light with others. We may turn to the person next to us and offer the Light of Christ to them.
In so doing, the brightness grows! God’s Kingdom is made manifest on earth, and more faces glow with the good news of the Word and Light. Just as we saw last night, the Light comes in the flesh because the Living Christ is alive in our flesh. The very enactment of the Christmas story in our midst is shown in Our faces glowing in the candlelight as we sing hymns declaring the wonder and mystery of God’s humble birth. The Light becomes brighter through our sharing, and more people in the shadows are able to see it. But for us to share the Light and be the Living Christ, we must walk toward the shadows. This is what Christ exhibited in a life in which he was reprimanded by the “holy men” for going into the houses of tax collectors and prostitutes.
This birth that we celebrate today is not just a birth in a stable 2000 years ago, it is a birth waiting to happen. Every moment holds the potential for this birth because this birth is the birth of the Light in the world of darkness. The darkness cannot overcome it, and as long as we hold the candle of our faith in front of us, guiding us, we cannot be overcome. Even in dying, the martyrs of our faith were able to shed light on the darkness. As we gather to share this sacred meal together, let us imagine ourselves receiving the light just as we did last night with candles. We take this meal for the same purpose—to bring more fuel for the fire, to help the light shine brighter through our participation in the Living Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Light of God wants to enlighten your life because God wants you to know who you really are—a shining faced Child of God! Amen.

Prayer Answered

Lately I have felt a little down, a little uninspired. It’s hard sometimes being the pastor of a church and coming up with some words of inspiration every Sunday. On Tuesday night, I had just wrestled with my son trying to get his diaper and PJs on, and I was sitting there holding him. I asked my Wesley, “You’re such an inspiration to me, but I need God to show me something that will inspire me to write a good sermon this week. I need God to give me a little something, letting me know that I am indeed called to be doing what I am doing.” Questions raised at charge conference about my salary have gotten me feeling defensive about my worth to this community. What is it that I do for them exactly? I don’t render any service but my presence in times of need. I don’t produce any product except for some words on Sunday, hopefully helping people deepen their relationship with God.
I took these questions with me outside to smoke my pipe in what had turned out to be a cold night. I lit my pipe and stood there focused on the shed in my back yard. As I was standing there, it suddenly grew brighter. The trees cast shadows on the grass. I looked up in the sky and saw a full moon. The low hanging clouds were moving rather quickly across the sky, and as they passed, the moon would peek out from behind them and illuminate my whole yard. The radiance of the moon lit up the contours of each cloud moving across the dark sky. I felt like I was on the bottom of the ocean looking up at silver gilded hulls of great ships, moving in from the north. From time to time, Mars or Jupiter would also peek through a small break in the clouds, framing the planet momentarily. It looked surreal, like a photo negative. As the moon drew my yard out of darkness and cast shadows of the fence and trees, the moment also drew my mind out of the darkness of self-doubt and worry. I went inside to get Lara, and she had just finished putting Wesley down for the night. I asked her to get a coat and come out with me. She was thrilled by the sight as well, and pointed out that the moon was so bright that as the clouds grew thinner at the edges, you could see the water vapors in little wispy rainbows. Rainbows at night! Symbols of God’s promise that aren’t restrained to the light of day. Even on a cold dark night, the moon reflects the piercing light of the sun to the extent that it can broken into colors by the prism of water vapor. What a miracle! I was overcome with joy, and took it as an answer to my prayer.