Wesley’s Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.


GOD, IN THIS NEW YEAR, may I no longer be my own but yours. Put me to what you will; rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing; put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you.
Let me be full; let me be empty.
Let me have all things; let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God — Creator, Redeemer, and Inspirer — you are mine, and I am yours. May this promise that I hereby make on earth be ratified in heaven. Amen. [An adaptation by W. Paul Jones of Wesley's Watchnight vows.]

- W. Paul Jones
An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful

From p. 438 of An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful by W. Paul Jones. Copyright © 2006 by W. Paul Jon

HOLY INFANT, we treasure you and the gift of love that you bring to us today. Amen.

- Beth A. Richardson
Child of the Light: Walking Through Advent and Christmas

From page 89 of CHILD OF THE LIGHT: Walking through Advent and Christmas by Beth A. Richardson. Copyright (c) 2005 by Beth A. Richardson

Almost Christmas

Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
- Oren Arnold
American editor and free-lance writer (1900-1980)
(copied From Sojourners Verse and Voice)

Here at Park church the Advent and pre Christmas check list is getting checked.The choir cantata; the children's Christmas program, (Pastor Jeff hosted the Christmas open house this year again ..Thanks Jeff and Marianne!)....the order of services and sermons are almost done for the 5 PM and 11 PM Christmas eve , a host of other seasonal church program events are now over, and the Dec 27 bulletin is almost done. I could ramble on about another list of things to do; both work and/ or family related but who doesn't have a list like that!
So I wish you the blessings of late advent, almost Christmas.
May it be near and dear!
Rory

OFTEN I STAND on the edge of the light, afraid to believe, afraid to act, afraid that this story is too good to be true. But then in my better moments, when I listen closely to the story, move closer to the light, my fears seem to evaporate like an early morning mist, and I can believe again. I can believe that God who made all that is became clothed in our human flesh so that we might become clothed in God. I can believe that God claims me as a beloved child. I can believe that my days are in God’s strong and tender hands. I can believe that life is good, beautiful, and eternal. I can believe that not only my days but all days are in God’s good and able hands. I can believe, rejoice, and wait trustingly and expectantly for the unfolding of God’s promise given so many ways and most clearly in the Advent story. Thanks be to God!

- Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job
A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

From p. 24 of A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God, by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job Copyright © 2003 by the authors. All Rights Reserved
via Upper Room web site

Dec Rambles

Some Rambling updates. It was a joy to be at my nephew, Josh's, wedding in Sioux Falls this past weekend. It was one of those rare times when most of the family was together. Watching my dad dance with several of his grand daughters was a highlight of the heart. I look forward to getting to know more of Katie, Josh's wife. Do I get to now call her a new niece or a niece-in law? The church choir cantata was held at the 9:30 service last Sunday and Jeff took care of the 11:15 service that included a baptism.
We are involved with the Interfaith Hospitality Network this week so I have done a couple of transportation duties with an energetic family of four. Others from Park church have done overnight care, fixed suppers or doing activities, transportation and laundry. The big Candle light dinners are this Friday and Saturday so the church building is coming to its decorative peak! The new computers are installed at church so I am trying to learn Windows 7! My rambling could go on but I close with this quote that came from Sojourners today as the Verse and Voice

God does not wait for us to become perfect and in possession of only high, pure thoughts and unmixed motives before [moving] through us. God waits only for the sign of faith.
- Eugenia Price, American novelist and community activist (1916-1996

World AIDS Day

THE HIV VIRUS is a thief that steals life. In our rural AIDS pediatric center, we focus on preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child during childbirth. We struggle to get anti-retroviral medicine to children who have been forgotten by the world. We also seek to educate people about how to avoid becoming infected and infecting others.

Jesus never gave up trying to teach people about living abundantly. With God’s help, each of us must find ways to promote prevention, so that all people “may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

- N. M. Samuel, M.D. (India)
Prayers for Encouragement

From p. 20 of Prayers for Encouragement: Hope for Persons Living with HIV and AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and Other Serious Diseases. Copyright © 2007 The Upper Room. All Rights Reserved
via Upper Room

Prayer

URGENCY for the well-being of the earth is born in the heart of God. The divine desire moves through the world, seeking to make all creatures radiant with goodness and alive with righteousness. True prayer includes every desire of our own that helps align us with this loving movement of the Spirit. Once we realize this, we’re very close to prayer “without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).

- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life

From p. 203 of Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2003 by the author
via Upper Room website

The following is from this website of Thom M. Shuman
...http://prayersfortoday.blogspot.com/
book mark it !


crumbs . . .

that's what we think
you have given us,
O God,
when we look around
and see all that someone else has
and we don't.

but our covetousness crumbles
when we think of the broken bread
that has made us whole,
when we drink from the cup of hope
which is never empty,
when we stand at the foot of the cross,
which has emptied us of our sin.

so richly blessed . . .

why then are we only willing
to offer crumbs
to those who come to us
searching for you?

Amen.

(c) 2005 Thom M. Shuman

A recommended blog:
http://opensourcespirituality.blogspot.com/

Autumn is slipping through summer's branches
and I am listening.
I am listening to the dying
flowing forth from autumn's being.
I am listening to the life
hidden in the dying.

I am listening.

I am listening to the trees taking off their lush green garments.
I am listening to the leaves turning, turning, ever turning.
I am listening to the burning bush of autumn.
I am listening to the falling of this season.

I am listening.

I am listening to the song of transformation,
to the wisdom of the season,
to the losses and the grieving,
to the turning loose and letting go.
I am listening to the surrender of autumn.

I am listening.

I am listening to the music of the forest's undergrowth,
to the crunch of leaves beneath my feet,
to the miracle of crumbling leaves becoming earth again.
I am listening to the beauty and fragility of aging.

I am listening.

I am listening to the wheel of the year turning
to the cycle of the seasons,
to the call for harmony and balance.
I am listening to the circle of life.

I am listening.

I am listening to days growing shorter,
to the air turning crisp and cool,
to the slow waning of the light,
to the stars that shine in cold, dark nights.
I am listening to the growing harvest moon.

I am listening.

I am listening to happy harvest cries,
to hearts overflowing with thanksgiving,
to tables laden with gifts from the earth,
to baskedts overflowing with fruit,
I am listening to the bountiful gift of autumn.

I am listening.

I am listening to a call for inner growth,
to my need to let go of material possessions,
to my need to reach out for invisible gifts.
I am listening to a call for transformation.

I am listening.

I am listening to the death of old ways.
I am listening to the life force turning inward.
I am listening to the renewal of the earth.

I am listening.

I am listening to summer
Handing over autumn
I am listening to the poetry of autumn.

I am listening.

~Macrina Wiederkehr

A collection to collect or re-collect my forgotten thoughts

LET ME RISE
~ by Wendell Berry

When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird

When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.

(from Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer, Collected Poems


THE FIST
~ by Mary Oliver

There are days
when the sun goes down
like a fist,
though of course

if you see anything
in the heavens
in this way
you had better get

your eyes checked
or, better still,
your diminished spirit.
The heavens

have no fist,
or wouldn’t they have been
shaking it
for a thousand years now,

and even
longer than that,
at the dull, brutish
ways of mankind—

heaven’s own
creation?
Instead: such patience!
Such willingness

to let us continue!
To hear,
little by little,
the voices—

only, so far, in
pockets of the world—
suggesting
the possibilities

of peace?
Keep looking.
Behold, how the fist opens
with invitation.

(from Thirst, Beacon Press, 2006




Blessings
Blessed are those who are emptied of all that doesn’t matter, those for whom the riches of this world just aren’t that important.
The reign of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who wear compassion like a garment.
For they too shall receive comfort.

Blessed are the creators of peace, those who build roads that unite rather than walls that divide, those who bless the world with the healing power of their presence.
For they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are those whose love has been tried, like gold,
In the furnace and found to be precious, genuine, and lasting, those who have lived their belief out loud, no matter what the cost or pain.

–Macrina Wiederkehr



“If heaven is on earth, it’s hardly contradictory to love sunshine chevroned with tree shadows in the woods, plus the low-slung moss, a tiger-colored butterfly, the Tiffany glitter of a spider’s web after a gust of rain, and the yellow-spotted salamander emerging from under the nearest log—yet feel content to die.”
–from Curtain Calls: The fever called “living” is conquered at last by Edward Hoagland



ONCE A PERSON KNOWS
~ by Baal Shem Tov

It is therefore written: "Hide, I will hide my face."
That is, God will be hidden
so that they do not even know God is there.
But once a person knows God is hidden,
God is not really hidden.

(from The Path of Blessing, by Rabbi Marcia Prager, Jewish Lights, 2003




FEAR NOT THE STRANGENESS
~ by Rainer Maria Rilke

You must give birth to your images.
They are the future to be born.
Fear not the strangeness you feel.
The future must enter you
long before it happens.
Just wait for the birth,
for the hour of new clarity.

(Letters to a Young Poet, Transl. Stephen Mitchell,
New York: Vintage Books, 1986)

WORLDS ARE FORMING
~ by Meister Eckhart

All beings
are words of God,
His music, His
art.

Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps
in our
souls.

Every act reveals God and expands His being.
I know that may be hard
to comprehend.

All creatures are doing their best
to help God in His birth
of Himself.

Enough talk for the night.
He is laboring in me;

I need to be silent
for a while,

worlds are forming
in my heart.



IF YOU LOVE
~ by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

You might quiet the whole world for a second
if you pray.

And if you love, if you
really love,
our guns will
wilt.


(from the Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices
from the East and West, translation Daniel Ladinsky
- Penguin Compass, 2002)


PRAYER IS AN EGG
~ by Jalaludin Rumi (1207-1273)

Don't do daily prayers like a bird
pecking, moving its head
up and down. Prayer is an egg.

Hatch out the total helplessness inside.


(translated by Coleman Barks)

these and others can be found at http://www.faithhousemanhattan.org/faith_house

"WORD Jazz"

"WORD Jazz"

Advent, this Sunday

THIS SUNDAY, we celebrate the beginning of Advent, and pray that it may be a season of peace. We hover on the edge of our expectation — let the season of Advent begin. Let us prepare and relish our celebrations with the joy of God’s love in our hearts. We rejoice in our traditions, that they might renew our bonds of fellowship with family, friends, and church members. Let us consider what true gifts we might offer to each other and God. Help us to know when it is our faith, patience, kind words, listening ear, or time that would be needed and appreciated. Most of all, let us anticipate the arrival of the Christ child. We make a place in our hearts and homes. Let us look ahead to the coming weeks of the Advent season with joy in our hearts and our steps. We will live each day in the light of Emmanuel, as we follow the path of peace.

Alive Now

From Alive Now, November/December 2004. Copyright © 2004 by The Upper Room.
via Upper room website

For bare trees ...

THE SACRAMENT OF WAITING
~ Macrina Wiederkehr

Slowly
she celebrated the sacrament of letting go.
First she surrendered her green,
then the orange, yellow, and red
finally she let go of her brown.
Shedding her last leaf
she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.
Leaning against the winter sky
she began her vigil of trust.

Shedding her last leaf
she watched its journey to the ground.
She stood in silence
wearing the color of emptiness,
her branches wondering;
How do you give shade with so much gone?

And then,
the sacrament of waiting began.
The sunrise and sunset watched with tenderness.
Clothing her with silhouettes
they kept her hope alive.

They helped her understand that
her vulnerability,
her dependence and need,
her emptiness,
her readiness to receive
were giving her a new kind of beauty.
Every morning and every evening they stood in silence
and celebrated together
the sacrament of waiting.



(source: www.inwardoutward.org

November+23%2C+2009+%7C+The+General+Board+of+Church+and+Society

November+23%2C+2009+%7C+The+General+Board+of+Church+and+Society

Action and spiritual formation

You become what you do. We are shaped from the outside in ... So we do the Works of Mercy, we bend and we kneel, even when our head is clouded and our spirit is grudging. We cross ourselves even as our faith fails. We light candles and sing "O Radiant Light, O Sun Divine," even when the world seems dark.

- Mary Margaret Nussbaum, from her essay "Hope Is Our Means"
via Sojourners; Verse and Voice

These quotes are included in Journeying Through the Days 2009
(UPPER ROOM)
When the fountain of Love dries up, society disintegrates and all things lose balance.
Eternal Love, pour forth! Thou within me, well up! The spring of Love flows only within the spirit. God is perennially the Indwelling One, Eternal Love.
Toyohiko Kagawa

The longer we journey on the road to unity, the more the sense of belonging grows and deepens. The sense is not just of belonging to community. It is a sense of belonging to the universe, to the earth, to the air, to the water, to everything that lives, to all humanity.
Jean Vanier

God is always coming because[God] is life, and life has the unbridled force of creation.
God comes because [God] is light, and light may not remain hidden.
God comes because [God] is love, and love needs to give of itself. God has always been coming. God is always coming.
Carlo Carretto

WE ARE … praying all the time without realizing it. There’s a constant stream of hungers and needs, gripes and groans, desires and dreams that well up from the mysterious depths of soul and body, reaching out to connect with the life within us and around us. This semiconscious asking may not be addressed to God, but it is prayer nonetheless, deeper than and prior to any belief system.

- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life

From p. 203 of Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2003 by the author. All Rights Reserved
via Upper Room

From Henri Nouwen

Embracing the Universe


Living a spiritual life makes our little, fearful hearts as wide as the universe, because the Spirit of Jesus dwelling within us embraces the whole of creation. Jesus is the Word, through whom the universe has been created. As Paul says: "In him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible - all things were created through him and for him - in him all things hold together" (Collosians 1:16-17). Therefore when Jesus lives within us through his Spirit, our hearts embrace not only all people but all of creation. Love casts out all fear and gathers in all that belongs to God.

Prayer, which is breathing with the Spirit of Jesus, leads us to this immense knowledge.

Guest House

THE GUEST HOUSE

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-RUMI -

LOVE IS THE CAPACITY TO SEE both the good and evil in people but to love the good; to see both the excellent and mediocre but to encourage the excellent; to see the wellness and the sickness and to strengthen the wellness. Before all else, love is the capacity to see everyone and everything as interconnected, “held together” in one cosmic embrace.

- Robert Corin Morris
Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words

From p. 31 of Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words by Robert Corin Morris, Copyright © 2006 by the author. All Rights Reserved
via Upper Room

Prayer of the Day copied from Verse and Voice:
May this weekend be one of rest and recentering, refreshment and rejuvenation, and most importantly, refocusing on you. Give me eyes to see where you are leading, ears to hear what you are saying, and a heart that follows wherever you may go. Amen.

Veterans Day Prayer

On this day, we remember the peace accord that brought the First World War to a close. And as we honor and thank military veterans around the world for their service, we also remember those who have suffered great physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage as a result of such service, and we pray for their restoration. Moreover, we yearn for that day when swords will be beaten into plowshares, and we will make war no more. May it come to pass, Lord, and soon.

copied from Sojourners Verse and Voice

My Breathing Problem

I read the following and decided I am not breathing very well!

GOD INSPIRES US with every breath. New ideas, behaviors, and practices flow into our lives with each breath. Breathing within each breath, divine inspiration continually gives us all the resources we need to respond to every life situation. Pause awhile and notice God’s life-giving breath in your life.

- Bruce G. Epperly
Holy Adventurer: 41 Days of Audacious Living

From p. 48 of Holy Adventurer: 41 Days of Audacious Living by Bruce G. Epperly. Copyright © 2008 by the author. All rights reserved
via Upper Room

The wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
- Mary Oliver, from her poem "Wild Geese"
via Verse and Voice/Sojourners

God Images

WHAT ARE YOUR IMAGES FOR GOD? If you are a visual learner, you may be able to visualize and perhaps even draw your image or images for God. However, we have found that American mainline Protestants tend to experience God as a feeling (such as love or warmth) rather than an image (such as shepherd or fortress). If you are an auditory learner, you may sense God through music or in the sounds of nature. If you are a tactile learner, you may understand God’s presence throush lighted candles or incense or through items you can touch, like a cross. People experience God in a variety of ways, and no one way is the “right” way.

- Valerie K. Isenhower and Judith A. Todd
Living into the Answers: A Workbook for Personal Spiritual Discernment

From pp. 29-30 of Living into the Answers: A Workbook for Personal Spiritual Discernment by Valerie K. Isenhower and Judith A. Todd. Copyright © 2008
from Upper Room Daily Reflections

MOST PEOPLE … would probably be intimidated if asked, “How have you served God’s purposes lately?” because they immediately think of something “important” like missionary work, helping the downtrodden, or joining a protest against injustice. I’m convinced many, if not most, of us cross paths with one or more of God’s purposes each day, though we may not realize it.

- Robert Corin Morris
Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words

From p. 117 of Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words by Robert Corin Morris, Copyright © 2006 by the author.
(from Upper Room website)

We United Methodists talk about being a connectional system, but in my experience, it is rare for local congregations to actually connect and cooperate with each other in ministry. So I dangle this quote in front of us:
By Jean Vanier

Each community needs to be in contact with others. They stimulate and encourage, give support, call forth and affirm each other…. A community that isolates itself will wither and die; a community in communion with others will receive and give life.

Source: Community and Growth
as quoted at inward/outward

ALL SAINTS DAY

copied from Richard Rohr:
Question of the Day:
What am I dying to little by little?

All religions in their own way talk about “dying before you die”! They are all indeed saying that something has to die. We all know this, but often religions have chosen the wrong thing to kill, which has given us a very negative image. In almost all history it was always the “other,” the heretic, the sinner, the foreigner that had to die.

In most ancient cultures it was the virgin daughters and eldest sons that had to be “sacrificed;” in Biblical times it was an animal, as we see in the Jewish temple. By the Christian Middle Ages, it was our desires, our intellect, our bodies, and our will that had to die; which made many people think that God had created something wrong in us. Religion then became purity/separation codes instead of transformational systems.

Jesus did say very clearly that we had to “lose our self to find our self” in several different settings. For much of Christian history this was interpreted as the body self that had to die, and for some miraculous reason this was supposed to make the spiritual self arise! It did not work, and it allowed us to avoid the real problem. What really has to die is our false self created by our own mind, ego, and culture. It is a pretense, a bogus identity, a passing fad, a psychological construct that gets in the way of who we are and always were—in God. This is the objective and metaphysical True Self.

It seems we all live with a tragic case of mistaken identity. Christianity’s most important job is to tell you that you indeed and already have a True Self, “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3-4). If we but knew this—every day would be “all saints day”!

Adapted from On Transformation: Collected Talks, Volume I (CD):
“Dying, We Need It For Life”

Current Mantra:
Lord, teach me to choose life.

AND, this copied from Upper Room Daily reflections:
THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS can be more than just a doctrine as we imaginatively entertain the saints’ stories and presence among the heavenly host. …

I delight in praying the daily office in company with Charles Wesley, Mary Magdalene, Polycarp, John Donne, Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, and many more. Their persistence in holy practices encourages me, and they remind me that God did not stop raising up great holy men and women with the close of the New Testament. They prompt me to believe in what God seeks to do in changing me from sinner to saint. If they lived out their baptism in daily life; then so can we! In living with and praying with the saints, our sense of the communion of saints becomes a rich treasury of stories and a participation in a community of the living and the dead.

- Daniel T. Benedict, Jr.
Patterned by Grace: How Liturgy Shapes Us

From pages 53-54 of Patterned by Grace: How Liturgy Shapes Us by Daniel T. Benedict, Jr. Copyright © 2007 by the author


In the worship services today we will be reading 15 names in the Memorial Roll.
They too, are in our communion of saints.

By Rainer Maria Rilke

The leaves fall, fall as if from far away,
like withered things from gardens deep in sky;
they fall with gestures of renunciation.

And through the night the heavy earth falls too,
down from the stars, into the loneliness.

And we all fall. This hand must fall.
Look everywhere: it is the lot of all.

Yet there is one who holds us as we fall
eternally in his hands’ tenderness.

Source: Rilke: Selected Poems, translated by C.F. MacIntyre
copied from inward/outward

Late autumn, pointing to winter is a reminder that our life seasons too, will need a time of withdrawing, slowing, hibernating, resting, going inward. It too has its wisdom. Leaves must fall. Growth must become sabbatical.
So the Upper Room reflection today is fittng as I think of shorter daylights;

WHEN WE ENTER INTO … SILENCE, we are seeking — and eventually we encounter — something profound: the freedom of God. The silence of prayer separates us from our projects and our need to be in control of every aspect of our lives, and when we allow this to occur, we are free to let God do with us as God desires.

- Daniel Wolpert
Leading a Life with God: The Practice of Spiritual Leadership

From p. 18 of Leading a Life with God: The Practice of Spiritual Leadership by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2006 by the author. All Rights Reserved

speed kills..

speed kills..

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The copy of the day

from inward/outward:
By Jean Vanier

Mission is revealing to others their fundamental beauty, value and importance in the universe, their capacity to love, to grow and to do beautiful things and to meet God. Mission is transmitting to people a new inner freedom and hope; it is unlocking the doors of their being so that new energies can flow; it is taking away from their shoulders the terrible yoke of fear and guilt. To give life to people is to reveal to them that they are loved just as they are by God, with the mixture of good and evil, light and darkness that is in them: that the stone in front of their tomb in which all the dirt of their lives has been hidden, can be rolled away. They are forgiven; they can live in freedom.

Source: Community and Growth

By Thomas Merton

One’s solitude belongs to the world and to God. Are these just words? Solitude has its own special work: a deepening of awareness that the world needs. A struggle against alienation. True solitude is deeply aware of the world’s needs. It does not hold the world at arm’s length.

Source: Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Mystery

O MYSTERY, hidden in the stars, rooted in the trees, deeper than our knowing.
O Mystery, pulsing through our veins and every mountain stream.
O Mystery, bringing us to our knees in worship, filling our eyes with tears, breaking our hearts with the sorrow of the earth.
O Mystery, ablaze in sunsets, and shining like the moon.
O Mystery, calling forth a reverence for that which you have created.
O Mystery, God beyond our names and greater than our certainty or our doubts.
O Mystery, how wonderful you are, and holy is this day and this ground upon which we stand.

- Larry James Peacock
Openings: A Daybook of Saints, Psalms, and Prayer

From p. 149 of Openings: A Daybook of Saints, Psalms, and Prayer by Larry James Peacock. Copyright © 2003 by the author. All Rights Reserved

From Upper Room Daily Reflections

Just a little lunch time ramble
The Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey site made these two postings on the church. Good food for thought. I realize how secluded I get in the church life where I live with this language, its stories, and forget that others might not share this insider knowledge. I am thinking of a confirmation student this week who said he wanted to know more about the Bible and said that when he hears the scriptures being read on Sunday morning, he has no idea of what is being said. He probably speaks a lot of truth and I (and the church) need to get out more, or at least see how we are (or are not) coming across.
I don't want to just be "of" the church. I want to see Jesus in the church and beyond the church. I might need to get Biblical and see Jesus in
the hungry, the outcast. the sick, the prisoner...(the Matthew 25 Christ). I might have to get out of the church to see and be that church.

Church, Not of It
Often we hear the remark that we have live in the world without being of the world. But it may be more difficult to be in the Church without being of the Church. Being of the Church means being so preoccupied by and involved in the many ecclesial affairs and clerical "ins and outs" that we are no longer focused on Jesus. The Church then blinds us from what we came to see and deafens us to what we came to hear. Still, it is in the Church that Christ dwells, invites us to his table, and speaks to us words of eternal love.

Being in the Church without being of it is a great spiritual challenge.


The Church, God's People
As Jesus was one human person among many, the Church is one organization among many. And just as there may have been people with more attractive appearances than Jesus, there may be many organizations that are a lot better run than the Church. But Jesus is the Christ appearing among us to reveal God's love, and the Church is his people called together to make his presence visible in today's world.

Would we have recognized Jesus as the Christ if we had met him many years ago? Are we able to recognize him today in his body, the Church? We are asked to make a leap of faith. If we dare to do it our eyes will be opened and we will see the glory of God.


.....

MY PRAYER IS SIMPLE:
May we choose love, Lord.
May we choose love when faced with retaliation,
love when tempted by deception,
love when addressing poverty,
love when speaking to our neighbors,
love when lured by bad choices,
love when electing leaders.
In all the things we do,
in all the words we say,
and in all the places we go,
may we always choose love.
Amen.

- Ciona D. Rouse
Like Breath and Water: Praying with Africa

From p. 61 of Like Breath and Water: Praying with Africa by Ciona D. Rouse. Copyright © 2009 by Pray with Africa

Patient Trust

The inward/outward entry for today is this:

By Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually–let them grow,
Let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

Source: unknown

From Ty's blog..a must read

This is a copy and paste from Tys blog BrainerdtoBombay about the "slum tour" she and my wife, Beth, were on a few weeks ago. Read it with pictures at http://brainerdtobombay.blogspot.com/

but in case you don't do that..here is the story.

Slumdog Millionaire Part Two
Dharavi Slum

Population: estimated at 1 million but no one knows for sure

Income Generated:U.S. profit from Dharavi income is $650 million dollars per year

Toilets: one per 1,400 bladders and bowels

Water Supply: inadequate, polluted, and rationed

Electricity: sporadic and limited to a light bulb or two hanging from the ceiling

Economy: Recycling. MANY U.S. companies ship their garbage to be recycled at Dharavi. Cardboard boxes are collected from the U.S., shipped to India, damaged sections or sections with labels are cut off (by hand), the boxes are re-constructed, and shipped back to the same companies that used them in the first place. Used water bottles and other plastic containers are shipped here from the U.S., melted down into pellets, and then shipped back to the U.S. to be formed into bottles again. Many of those will be filled up again with fresh, filtered water that is denied to slum dwellers in Dharavi.

OSHA Standards: There are no unions, nor are there rules and regulations regarding labor laws. The average worker earns between $40 and $60 dollars per month in the "factories" of Dharavi. There are an estimated 15,000 of these single room factories in Dharavi that are no bigger than my master bedroom back home. We toured several of them, and we only saw one piece of equipment that actually plugged in. In India, people are cheaper than machines. These recycling operations would shock you. A man walks barefoot on a hot tin roof, in a bed of plastic pellets and shavings in order to "sift" them to dry out. If it rains, he gets a dock in pay for letting the pellets get wet. If it's 115F he's still expected to work. He will work six days a week, nine hours a day, on that hot tin roof. I see him working on Sunday.

The U.S. companies that drive this operation violate U.S. strict government standards so this man and everyone around him breathes in toxic fumes. I climb the roof next to him, stare down on thousands of hit tin roofs, and breathe in the toxic fumes. "How can this be okay?" I ask Salim, our guide. He looks down from the rooftop, pointing, "See those police officers? Down there? They are here not to protect you and keep peace like in the states. They are here to accept the bribes from the factory managers. They keep a portion of the bribe and the rest goes to the state inspectors. Because we do actually have some laws against polluting the air here in Mumbai."

Geography/History: The islands of Dharavi go back to the 18th century. It was a mangrove swamp, primarily inhabited by fisherman from Koli. The swamp areas eventually filled out, and the islands became one very muddy and low lying land mass. Soon the island city meshed into its neighbor Bombay. Then the fishing dried up with the swamp, and migrants started pouring in and establishing their trade. There were and still are potters from Gujarat, tanners from the Arab world, tailors from Uttar Pardesh, and many others transplants looking for a big city to sell their wares in. Dharavi is culturally rich and colorful. It's dubbed, "The Heart of the City", because it is heart shaped, lying between two main train lines. The property now is worth a TON of money, because it is located near the Bandra Kurla Coplex (Mumbai's new financial district). Hindis, Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians live together here peacefully. The newest wave of migrants are flood victims from Bihar.

The Tour: My friend Beth Swenson and I arranged a tour of Dharavi through Reality Tours (http://www.realitytoursandtravel.com/). It costs about 8 dollars for a three hour tour. We were hesitant about meeting our guide in a crowded railway station a bridge away from the slum. But Salim, our guide, found us easily. Beth is blond and I have freckles. We kinda stood out amongst the others. Okay, kinda sorta stuck out. Big time.

Salim, a handsome young man in his late 20's, was wearing tight jeans and a black cotton shirt. His smile melted into my heart immediately. He was passionate about sharing the story of Dharavi as we walked and he talked. Every few minutes his cell phone would ring or he'd get a text message. His girlfriend, he explained. She can only call on Sundays so he excused himself many times to chat with her. He shared with us that she is Muslim, from a caste well above his. He is Hindu, living in a neigboring slum. She wears the burka and they see each other ten minutes per week while waiting in a line somewhere.

They are hopelessly in love. Truly hopelessly because soon her marriage will be arranged to someone else and Salim will not be able to prevent it. His only hope is to somehow find a job soon, so that he can save enough rupees to buy a house that COULD convince her parents that he can support her. That is his plan. He said that his girlfriend will need to give up nice clothes and going out with her friends once they marry because they won't have the money. She says none of that matters if they are together. He says to us, "I never say anything out loud that I don't truly believe will happen. And I say today to you that I will find a way to marry her." I want to believe him just like I want to believe that there's a viable and timely solution to all this poverty and suffering in Dharavi.

Salim dreams of children, of becoming a teacher, and of living in a "love marriage" with this girl who has never shown her face to him in public. He can speak six languages and taught himself to speak English by watching American movies with the volume turned up and by reading Sidney Sheldon novels. "TyAnne, how do you mean 'what the hell???' and what word means 'heck'!?!?" I laugh and explain. Beth finds our conversation especially fascinating as we've been talking about literacy all week at school. She's in India as our consultant.

We walk and talk shop. Once he finds out we are teachers he has lots of questions. Salim is worried his accent is too thick and that we can't understand everything he says. We understand. His accent is practically non-existent. Beth asks, "How did you learn to speak so clearly?" He replies, "I practiced speaking English aloud in a big mirror. I listened to myself talk over and over, trying to sound like the movie stars in America." Salim is a teacher and a learner. In the states he would have no doubt been able to attend college and get his girl.

These are employees at Reality Tours (Beth and I are on the far right.)


We continue to walk through the slum, seeing things that shock you to the core. But everyone is happy to see us, waving, shaking our hands. Offering us food. Beth declines while I try it all ... tamarind candy, freshly baked pastries, and Indian sweets. The children shout out, "What is your name! My name is _______! Happy to meet you!!!" They are precious.

My mirrored sunglasses go up and down from my eyes to my above my forehead. I love these sunglasses. Not because they are prescription so I can see clearer. I love them because the coward that I am lets me wear them when I start to tear up. I don't want these precious lovely children to see my pity, my sadness, my pain. I cry because in Dharavi, in the midst of all this poverty, people are working hard, laughing, smiling, and making the best of a situation that I would find unfathomable. I cry because I got to stay in school and study, pursue a good paying job, and marry my boyfriend. I cry because tonight I will sleep, freshly showered, in a three bedroom three bathroom flat that has five air conditioners up and running 24/7 while a family of six will share one bed in Dharavi. If they are lucky.

The experience is exhausting. We are hot, tired, and sore from all the precarious walking over steps, climbing up and down rusty ladders, stepping over bricks, and dodging debris in the narrow alleyways that they call streets. We need water. (I gave mine away to some thirsty children prior to our tour - there is no begging in Dharavi). Beth has to get back to plan for tomorrow's training. So we shake hands, gingerly hug Salim, and head back to Bandra.

There isn't a "happily ever after" Bollywood ending for Salim, or for the million slum dwellers.

Fear of the Lord

Spirituality and Practice posted this today:
The original Pali word for a Buddhist monk or renunciant, bhikkhu, means "fear seer," one who can tolerate his own terror.
— Mark Epstein in Going on Being

Wouldn't it be interesting to read that along with the Bible verses about the fear of the Lord...(and I don't think that re-translating it as "awe" is a big enough response.)

This is fear ..of change..of being loved in mystery..of being beyond my ego self..of being ...not in control...of incomprehensibity..of transformation that is not of my own doing...facing those fears...fear of God.
could that be the beginnging of wisdom..as I face my fear?

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Welcome to The General Board of Church and Society | The General Board of Church and Society

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Only when enough adults practice and teach children love and respect at home, in schools, religious congregations, and in our political and civic life will racial, gender, and religious intolerance and hate crimes subside in America and the world.
- Marian Wright Edelman, from her book Lanterns

From Sojourners Verse and Voice

God is

WHEN I HAVE LOST MY WAY, God is.
When I am found again, God is.
When all around me is chaos, God is.
When all around me is peace, God is.
When I face tragedy, God is.
When I face triumph, God is.
Thank you, God. Amen.

- Beth A. Richardson
The Uncluttered Heart: Making Room for God During Advent and Christmas

From p. 56 of The Uncluttered Heart: Making Room for God During Advent and Christmas by Beth A. Richardson. Copyright © 2009 by Upper Room Books

church libraries

Follow my link to check out Dan Dick's blog entry on church libraries. What do you think? Or go to:

http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/ounited-methodist-liburies/#more-2206

Picasso:
“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.”

Image of God

Todays Sojourners quote:
To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.
- Thomas Merton,
from A Book of Hours

just another ramble

It was a good miscellaneous day; one of those mixed days off where I enjoyed a second cup of coffee at home, took care of some phone calls and note taking in preparation for a funeral tomorrow, stopped in at the UMW meeting to recruit (beg) for some help with a district event we are hosting; rounded up some plant stands for the new refugee plants I brought back from Thief River, even though I had decided to go mostly plant less for the winter . Sara had adopted the plants I was getting rid of. One of the plants I got from my mother is a large bushy parsley plant. I am trying to acquire a taste for it but its hot happening yet! My other miscellaneous deeds were a bit of laundry, yard work, bank errands, more salt for the water softener, and a failed effort to get a better cordless drill on sale. The one I wanted was sold out. Last Monday before taking Nick back to Perpich, I hastily hung up a new over’the stove- microwave oven. But it was crooked and my cordless drill was no longer up to the job. ( I will be recruiting some more skilled help to re hang the microwave.) I got a few other house and office projects done and had a nice phone call with Sara and email with Jason. Will try to call Nick yet tonight.
Had a blue jay tossing a lot of seeds out of the feeder today and the squirrels are packing up the acorns that are numerous on the driveway. Geese were honking away in the skies. I saw an eagle while driving back from Thief River on Saturday. They are not uncommon around here in Brainerd but I have not seen one in awhile.
That’s the ramble of the day!

World Communion

EUCHARIST AS A GIFT of God’s presence can convey many levels and nuances of meaning. Eucharist is surely a sign of light shining in the darkness, of Presence, and of Christ given “for you.” It reminds us of the church universal and the church triumphant, of inclusion in the family of God, of blessing and brokenness, of divine grace given during a time when the forces of darkness and fear were closing in.

- Tilda Norberg
Gathered Together: Creating Personal Liturgies for Healing and Transformation

From p. 58 of Gathered Together: Creating Personal Liturgies for Healing and Transformation by Tilda Norberg. Copyright © 2007 by the author



AND CROP walk today also!

Two quotes to ponder and practice

The human mind makes foolish divisions in what love sees as one.
— Anthony de Mello in The Heart of Enlightenment





LET ME describe what it means to be truly present. Being present involves letting go of our constant preoccupations, immersing ourselves in the here and now, and giving ourselves wholeheartedly to whatever is at hand. … It’s about becoming more aware, alert, awake to the fullness of the immediate moment. If we are with another person, it means engaging with him or her with all of our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength.

Such wholehearted attention requires patience, time, and disciplined effort. And it is one of the greatest gifts that we can give to those around us, especially our suffering neighbor.

- Trevor Hudson
A Mile in My Shoes: Cultivating Compassion

From pp. 30-31 of A Mile in My Shoes: Cultivating Compassion by Trevor Hudson. Copyright © 2005 by the author.

A favorite quote

By Howard Thurman

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive

From Sojourners Verse and Voice

To be human is to be responsible. That is the inner meaning of the "dominion" of Genesis 1:26, which is a dominion not of domination but of stewardship, taking care of the world's back yard ... God the world-maker is God the care-taker. Humans properly stand over other creatures only as they stand with other creatures, showing them love, giving them space, and granting them "rights."
- Kim Fabricius,
from his book, Propositions on Christian Theology

Spiritual Practice

THE IMPACT of our “spiritual life” … has to do with the spirit in which we approach people and events. That spirit displays itself as much in the moments of frustration as in the moments of inspiration. As we stew in reactive emotions, we are engaging in “spiritual practice,” however unhelpful, which affects our presence to ourselves and others. The way we live our life is our spiritual practice — no more, no less, nothing but, nothing else.

- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life

From p. 14 of Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2003 by the author
by way of the Upper Room web site this morning

Thought of the Day

WHY IS IT so hard for us to believe that God’s love really is unconditional and that we should imitate God’s love not only for others, but also for ourselves? Perhaps we have regarded self-centered behavior too harshly. We are unwilling or unable to give ourselves the same gentle grace that God offers us and that we believe should be offered to others. Leap from doubt to belief and remember that God loves you, delights in you, and yearns for your response.

- Rueben P. Job
A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

From pp. 389-90 of A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job. Copyright © 2003 by the authors
by way of Upper Room website....even though I keep a copy of this book on my desk

Back to the true characteristics of a "rambling" blog;
Beth returns from Mumbai tomorrow and is due back around 4:20(unless Delta airlines decrees other wise)and I hope to absorb some of her travel adventures.I want to ask more about the slum they "toured". Nick and Sara will both be home for the weekend and it is Beth's birthday on Monday. Tonight was the last night of the confirmation class and I saw some words in their affirmations of faith that made me feel that yes, all those chaotic classes were worth the effort. Confirmation is this Sunday. Also today I got the stitches out of my finger and all is well...just a common type of growth reaction from some vascular trauma...must have cut or or smashed my finger some time back in Australia. There is some chance of it growing back so they hope to have removed enough of the tissue. The experience was more inconvenience than anything else and the vicodin didn't get much use. I am thinking that getting to be almost 54 and just now getting my first stitches has to be unusual...finally another right of passage! Although I had a cut on my chin back in college that probably could have used a stitch or two!
Seasonally, the pine trees in the yard started dropping their needles right on the first day of autumn and a few yellowed leaves have joined them. I picked few nice red tomatoes from the flower bed which is quite remarkable since we were gone for two months. My usual Labor day weekend routine of puttng a fresh layer of black seal coat on the driveway, was done on schedule. Since the church put windows on the parsonage screen porch this summer when we were gone I am now spared the October tradition of getting the plastic on.

Enough for now, it is after ten. Last night I came home around 11 after 5 hours of evening cleaning in my office. Today was good day mixed with lectionary group, midweek communion, confirmation, conversations and office stuff and Wednesday night supper. Tomorrow brings some pastoral appointments. Park prayers and a meeting. Might have to do some prep for the Friday funeral and tidy up my notes for the Sunday sermon: "Shells, Glasses, and Tea cups" -object lessons for the confirmands and the rest of us. Enjoy the cool autumn mornings and the great afternoons.

God is good, life is sweet, and as I said,I am rambling on.

http://www.minnesotaumc.org/BishopsCorner/TheBishopsMessage/tabid/40439/Default.aspx

http://www.minnesotaumc.org/BishopsCorner/TheBishopsMessage/tabid/40439/Default.aspx

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Words from our bishop regarding this national debate on healthcare coverage!

Church Work

By Elizabeth O’Connor

The primary purpose of the disciplines, structures of accountability and mission of the Church is to build life together, to create liberating communities of caring. To each of us is given a gift for the building of a community of caring, a community in which we can learn to embrace our pain and to overcome all those oppressive inner structures that would keep us in bondage and make us protective and anxious for our own futures.

Source: The New Community
as posted by inward/outward

I think this is what I Corinthians 12 is saying, and Ephesians 4:12 when it speaks of our gifts "for building up the the body of Christ"

What a much needed perspective to counter our over-individualized, over-privatized approach to spirituality and faith that we tend to follow.

Tys blog

Beth is in Mumbai with the Rezacs at the American School of Bombay. I might be able to copy and post some of Beth's facebook updates inthe blog here, but a "must read" awaits you at the blog that Ty has at this address.

www.brainerdtobombay.blogspot.com

A Prayer by Bishop Sally Dyck

O GREAT AND GLORIOUS GOD,
who comes to us
in all the experiences of our lives;
help us to embrace your presence,
fixing it in our hearts and minds
so that we may grow
closer to you and others.
Amen.

- Sally Dyck
The Upper Room Disciplines 2010: A Book of Daily Devotions

From p. 53 of The Upper Room Disciplines 2010: A Book of Daily Devotions. Copyright © 2009 by Upper Room Books
(via Upper Room website..see my link)

The Dispatch

The local paper just got delivered. On Monday through Friday it gets delivered around 4:30 in the morning. For a long time the delivery car needed a muffler and I would often hear it making its rounds. The current car is quieter. Most mornings my routine is a combination of newspaper and coffee (and putting out the dog) before turning on the computer and reading some news and devotions; emails and face book updates. But on Saturdays the Dispatch becomes a Sunday edition even if it is the Satruday paper. It may arrive most anytime in the later afternoon or closer to midnight. Sometimes I have the paper read on line before the print version arrives. I get impatient. I tend to read the front page, the obits, and the local opinion submissions such as letters to the editor. I look for The biz buzz to see what business are coming or going. I scan the North Country section and look for familiar people in the celebrations section of weddings and anniversaries. I often see church member’s faces in there! Some people scour the sports page but since both kids are away from Brainerd and not in sports here, my skimming of local sports goes quickly. Of course we zoom in on school news and church news. I still wonder why the religion or church page gets tacked onto the back part of the sports section!

What I have always appreciated is the fact that local papers are local. I can’t count the number of times Nick or Sara were pictured, or noted in the paper and people who know us will faithfully clip and save or mail the article to us so we can have copies for grandparents and all. Last week a photo of me was used on the front page regarding the digital TV change over and how it might interfere with church wireless sound systems. I knew absolutely nothing about the topic, but they needed a local picture of a pastor holding a wireless microphone and I guess it was my turn. .And the photographer is from this congregation. (Don’t get me wrong. I loved the attention for me and the church) Over the years I have enjoyed being a contributor to church page articles and “clergy view” writing opportunities. I have not found that to be a common opportunity in major newspapers and it is getting to be rare. The Star tribune has yet to contact me! Will future pastors have such a chance?

Now don’t think I am all idealistic about this. I have to admit some real embarrassment about some of the Vox Pop and Letters to the editor that I read. I hope that we don’t feed too many stereotypes about small town gossip or politics. Last week a letter to the editor was from someone denouncing by name, the local Lutheran churches for not taking a stand against a recent denominational issue. If I were in the Lutheran’s shoes I would not have appreciated that attack and perhaps the paper should not have printed it. But then today I see someone else wrote a helpful response to that letter.
Anyway, I hope this form of the media can survive. The on line editions just wont feel the same if the print becomes extinct. So excuse me while I leave the computer world of news, blogs and face book., and take the paper out to the screen porch, to a rocking chair, with crickets and night sounds, to unfold the pages, feel the tactile nearness of this information in my hands, enjoy the pictures, and read the names of people I have come to know, whether I have met them all or not, in the local newspaper; from here mostly. Mostly just for us.

Rambling on

Prayer again from Upper Room website

CHRIST, MY SERVANT LORD, I seek to do your will, yet I am so often discouraged by what I see and what I know. What I experience often beats me down, driving out my joy and dreams and even the sight of you. But your faithful Spirit dwells with me, stirring my heart and my mind. And so I pray that you who are the Dreamer, the Joy, and the Hope of the Ages would sow in me dreams and visions of what is yet to be, that what is may never so fill my seeing that I am unable to see you, so conquer my knowing that I cease to know you, or so paralyze my doing that I fail to serve you. Amen.

- Minerva G. Carcaño
Rhythm & Fire: Experiencing the Holy in Community and Solitude

From p. 27 of Rhythm & Fire edited by Jerry P. Haas and Cynthia Langston Kirk. Copyright © 2008 by Upper Room Books.

The prayer from upper room website today

LOVING GOD, full of compassion and grace, walk beside me as I begin to listen to all the voices and to collect information I will use in discerning your longing for me. I am afraid that I will listen to the wrong voices or that I won’t hear the voices I need to hear. Open my ears to hear. Assuage my fears and help me resist blocking the voices I don’t want to hear. May the Holy Spirit grant me wisdom. In the name of the One who challenged me to hear, Jesus Christ my Savior, Amen.

- Valerie K. Isenhower and Judith A. Todd
Living into the Answers: A Workbook for Personal Spiritual Discernment

From p. 77 of Living into the Answers: A Workbook for Personal Spiritual Discernment by Valerie K. Isenhower and Judith A. Todd. Copyright © 2008 by the authors

From Nouwen

Keeping It Together


How can we not lose our souls when everything and everybody pulls us in the most different directions? How can we "keep it together" when we are constantly torn apart?

Jesus says: "Not a hair of your head will be lost. Your perseverance will win you your lives" (Luke 21:18-19). We can only survive our world when we trust that God knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. We can only keep it together when we believe that God holds us together. We can only win our lives when we remain faithful to the truth that every little part of us, yes, every hair, is completely safe in the divine embrace of our Lord. To say it differently: When we keep living a spiritual life, we have nothing to be afraid of.


These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

GOD OF ALL PEOPLES,
save us from the easy assumption
that those who share our citizenship, our race, our faith,
are those most likely to bear your love for us.
Keep us building bridges.
Amen.

- Brian W. Grant
The Upper Room Disciplines 2007

From p. 295 of The Upper Room Disciplines 2007. Copyright © 2006 by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved

SHINE BRIGHTLY, Holy Light;
shine brightly in my life.
Let your light in my light burst forth,
warming my heart
and the hearts of all I meet.
Let every breath be praise and every word be love.
In Christ’s holy name I pray.
Amen.

- Bruce G. Epperly
Holy Adventurer: 41 Days of Audacious Living

From p. 66 of Holy Adventurer: 41 Days of Audacious Living by Bruce G. Epperly. Copyright © 2008 by the author
from upper room website

Labor day quotes

WORK IS ULTIMATELY ABOUT CREATION. We apply ourselves to a particular situation in the world and our energy, our work, changes that situation and creates something new. Whether this is a physical creation, as in the case of construction, or an organizational creation, as in the case of management, or the creation of a more healthy, happy person, as in the case of the helping professions, work is about creation and creativity.

- Daniel Wolpert
Leading a Life with God: The Practice of Spiritual Leadership

From p. 81 of Leading a Life with God by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2006 by the author. All Rights Reserved. (from Upper Room)

and this from inward/outward;
By Booker T. Washington

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.


a prayer copied from verse and voice:
God who cares for the weary, we pray for all who work more than one job in order to provide for their families. We pray especially for single parents who labor in many roles; give them rest and support from their communities. May the dignity of all workers be honored, today and each day.




and some History too:
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=264135ad-9838-437c-a3cd-fd11a5bffe05

IF WE GIVE what we are to God and enter that divine relationship, no vocation is by definition holier than another. We do not need to become ministers or missionaries unless that is our specific guidance. One of the holiest men I ever knew was a microbiologist. One of the holiest women I ever knew was a librarian. If we belong to God, whatever our vocation, God will shine through us.

- Flora Slosson Wuellner
Miracle: When Christ Touches Our Deepest Need

From p. 93 of Miracle by Flora Slosson Wuellner. Copyright © 2008 by the author. All Rights Reserved.

from Upper Room

Maybe I’m not making big changes in the world, but if I have somehow helped or encouraged somebody along the journey then I’ve done what I’m called to do.
- Sister Thea Bowman
African-American Franciscan (1937-1990)


from verse and voice at Sojourners

from the Upper Room again

CREATED IN GOD’S OWN IMAGE — with the capacity to love — we seek to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Faith is the means to this loving end. In other words, built upon a firm foundation of trust in Christ, our lives move toward the goal of love — the fullest possible love of God and the fullest possible love of all people and things in God. What an audacious vision, to be immersed and lost in God’s love!

- Paul Wesley Chilcote
A Life-Shaping Prayer: 52 Meditations in the Wesleyan Spirit

From p. 31 of A Life-Shaping Prayer by Paul Wesley Chilcote. Copyright © 2008 by the author.
http://www.upperroom.org/daily/

From the Upper Room

TEACH US, O GOD,
to take the gift of a day
and give it back to you.
Help us walk in radiant faith and loyal service
with heightened awareness
that moments of spontaneous joy
can be found here
in the valley right under our feet. Amen.

- Nell E. Noonan
Not Alone: Encouragement for Caregivers

From p. 95 of Not Alone by Nell E. Noonan. Copyright © 2009 by the author

THE TASKS TO WHICH GOD may call us often seem impossible. Certainly this was true for Moses. Imagine how he felt when God called him to demand the release of the Israelite slaves from one of the great powers of the ancient world. Totally inadequate! No wonder he made excuses. Indeed, Moses’ story reminds us that one of the clearest marks of God’s call is that it leaves us feeling totally inadequate.

What matters, however, is how we choose to deal with our inadequacy. Several options face us. We can allow it to paralyze us. Our excuses then end up having the last word. Or we can let our inadequacy lead us into a greater dependence on God. This is what Moses chose to do. He took seriously God’s promise to be with him and began to follow God’s call, one step at a time. Let us resolve to do the same.

- Trevor Hudson
Questions God Asks Us

From pp. 43-44 of Questions God Asks Us by Trevor Hudson. Copyright © 2008

from today's Upper Room

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
is leadership content to ponder,
to listen, to wait,
to resist the temptation to know, assert,
and assuage every human anxiety and desire for certainty.

- Daniel Wolpert
Leading a Life with God: The Practice of Spiritual Leadership

From p. 52 of Leading a Life with God by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2006

church web sites

Some web sites etc of churches we visited...........


http://www.methodist.org.nz/index.cfm/home

http://wollongongmission.unitingchurch.org.au/

http://www.stlukes.org.nz/

http://www.christchurchcathedral.co.nz/

http://www.mmsi.org.nz/Church/DurhamSt_Methodist_Church.html

INTO YOUR STRENGTH, this day,
let me come again –
my heart undivided, my hope undimmed.
Set free my soul, unbind my love,
that I may serve you
serving earth.

- Sam Hamilton-Poore
Earth Gospel: A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation

From p. 90 of Earth Gospel by Sam Hamilton-Poore. Copyright © 2008

Stuff

Sara is having a garage sale today. In preparing for it we were frustrated by all the "stuff" we had....and how to simplify. And then this also came today at inward/outward!
By Walter Brueggemann

Though many of us are well intentioned, we have invested our lives in consumerism. We have a love affair with ‘more’—and we will never have enough. Consumerism is not simply a marketing strategy. It has become a demonic spiritual force among us, and the theological question facing us is whether the Gospel has the power to help us withstand it.

Source: Christian Century, March 24, 1999, via Ministry of Money newsletter

I thought that being faithful was about becoming someone other than who I was, in other words, and it was not until this project failed that I began to wonder if my human wholeness might be more useful to God than my exhausting goodness.
- Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church

Home

Back in Brainerd...but the last two months went by so fast!

closer to home

We are in LA. Flew all night and got here before the time we had left....
We even got here with the decorative boomerangs...Auckland airport security had them confiscated but we got the airline to go and get them as checked luggage.
We have gathered way too much luggage..and heavy!!!!!
Would Dante have made eternal cramped airline flights as a ring of hell..that would sure scare the ...out of me!
Now I am ready for some warmth and longer days of sunlight. Did a quick dip in the hotel pool....but now the sky is overcast!!!!
Rambling closer to home!

journey

We leave New Zealand today..a beautiful land with progressive people...Australia too...never again will it be the other side of the world... I will always pick up a globe and hold it differently know...its simple spin and turn will be more familiar now....we come back with suitcase and hearts full of moments and memento's..
God is goodness and the goodness is there in the diversity of peoples we have met in the mingling of this journey, the ancient like palm Fern , massive pines and gums, the volcanic rocks, endless gifts of sea shells...the mountains, oceans; and creatures as incredible as whales and kiwis and wombats. We have been to sacred services that paused us into silence, caught our holiest imaginations, brought our tears to surface, dreamed of shalom and welcome;in grand Gothic architecture and classic organists... or pastors trying to keep the faith which is the love of God...today.. or with peace banners and Japanese choirs recalling Nagasaki,, and peace lanterns floating down the river.... We have tasted the thrill of pressing into our fears..and we have listened to ancient wisdoms... Maybe; what will be longest remembered are the times of being a family..walking, talking, eating..watching.. being....knowing this too will be rare and exotic as Nick and Sara more and more grow into busy lives..but to see them talk and laugh now in these we've had...gift...gift...gift...
God is so Good. A good journey always bring you back home..to a deeper home. It has been a good journey.


Tonight we fly back to the United States..
and this fromthe Upper Room. to close
WISDOM VIEWS the rising sun and the majestic silences of nature as daily messages from God. God is patient; God waits for us to get it right — or continues to work with us, despite our every error and lapse of conscience, in the sinews of every prayer and doctrinal attempt, every compassionate act, every encounter with stone and wind, every effort to read scripture and remember the Creator.

- Ray Waddle
Against the Grain

From p. 147 of Against the Grain: Unconventional Wisdom from Ecclesiastes by Ray Waddle. Copyright © 2003 by Ray Waddle

Rambling on, in many ways
"Good on you!"
Rory

O Holy Power who forged the Way for us!
You penetrate all in heaven and earth and even down below . . .
Holy Power, blow wisdom in my soul
and -- with your wisdom -- Joy!

- Julian of Norwich

Fair Time

Thanks to all of you helping at the Fair Food Booth!!!!

GOD, IF I COULD BE A PAINTER FOR YOU, what would my scenes look like? The drama of light and dark, surely; but do not make me paint literally. I think I would prefer using some blue the shade of nostalgic yearning, some grays of knowing sadness, and some splotches of mischievous yellow. Amen.

- W. Paul Jones
An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful

From p. 255 of An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful by W. Paul Jones. Copyright © 2006 by the author. All Rights Reserved

Another from Sara

Sara reports!
8/3/09

Hello friends and family members!

Bother, I said that I would be better about keeping up on my writing, and here have I failed yet again. Almost a week has passed since my last post, and with that week, so many beautiful details and memories, that I am not sure where to begin. I think I will do what has become a confusing and anti-Aristotelian habit of mine, by recording my week backwards. That way, it really is easiest for me to remember (though probably not quite so easy for the rest of you to follow. My apologies!)

Today (Monday) , Nick, Dad, and I took a couple of different buses down to Mission Bay beach. The Mission Bay area is clean and somewhat touristy, with the old beach front feel best exemplified by the fact that there were four different ice cream shops on a single two-block stretch. It was lovely to get away from the city, to be free from the rumbling of highways and the bustling of pedestrians. We spent a good four hours there, strolling up and down the beach, picking up seashells. That’s how we usually start on these little jaunts of ours – picking up one or two off the shore. But we never come home without at least a plastic bag full of opulent chippings, fans, and snail shells. It’s impossible to overlook them. Coming from a landlocked state, I daresay the ocean will never lose its charm to us. One of the greatest extravagances I have noticed here is that people use seashells in their concrete and plant mulch. We, too, had to come to terms with crushing these precious beauties, as virtually all of the beach shore at both Mission Bay and Devonport have been comprised of a crushed-sea-shell sand, in every smooth-edged shell and glittering sunrise color imaginable. Stepping on seashells! I feel like the native man in that old story – whose tribe dealt in a special type of stone for money. When he visited a very distant land, those stones were all over the fields, and he went about picking them up and shouting that he was rich, while all of the local villagers stood by and wondered if he mightn’t have been suffering from sun exposure.
We went to a gas station and bought some bottled drinks just for the bottles. Then we had lunch at a place called “Burger Fuel” which had all recycled packaging, donated its cooking oil to hybrid vehicles, and ran its own delivery vehicles on cooking oil. Then we chased seagulls, sunned on park benches, watched an old man with feed the birds with fistfuls of crumbs (oh, how he smiled! And they were eating out of his hands. He must have been there for hours; he was there whenever we passed the benches). And we combed the beach for seashells of outstanding color, cut, or texture. What a wonderful feeling to have your skin smooth with dried sea salt and your mind in the sky. We had nowhere to be, nowhere else to go, and were relieved of all social expectation.
On our way to the bus stop in downtown Auckland, Dad and I spontaneously decided to get haircuts. There was a small barbershop that had just opened up near our usual bus stop, run by an Iranian immigrant couple. The haircut prices were $15 for a “quick cut” and $20 for a “quality cut.” Dad and I both got “quality cuts” just to be safe. The barber was a thin, gregarious fellow who told my father that he had, “Very good hair – two, three months worth. It take more than the usual ten minutes. We call this place ‘Quick Cuts’ but for your hair it takes longer. Very thick. Good hair.” His wife, who cut my hair, was more of a stoic, but she did a fantastic job chopping my hair up, and played Iranian music in the background. I was done a lot sooner than my father, so I got to sit back and watch other customers. There was an Islamic girl who came in for a haircut, and asked if they had a barrier they could put up, because there were men in the shop. The woman who cut our hair was very kind and took her to a back room to do the cut. I hadn’t thought about it before – knowing the Muslim tradition for girls to keep their hair covered – of where Islamic women could go for haircuts. It was an interesting consideration for me, and I’m glad I got to witness the exchange.
We got a little lost using the bus system back, but we found our way around and Nick got a lot of knitting done while we were waiting. I suppose I should mention that, too. Last night, I taught my brother to knit, and he is a natural! Already he is halfway through a very long and lovely brown scarf. I am quite proud of my young student, as it took me weeks to get to the point he has reached in mere hours.
Aside from teaching Nick to knit, yesterday was an easy-going day. We woke up early to attend church at a local progressive Presbyterian church that is doing great things in this area. Dad befriended a man who used to be involved with the Methodist council in New Zealand, who was extremely intelligent, well read, and highly progressive. It was refreshing to meet someone else with a forward thinking attitude about Christianity, one that I will shamelessly say needs to be replicated if the church expects to do any good in a world that is in desperate need of a lot of good.
After teatime at the church, we went out for lunch at the mall, very much enjoying our respective teriyakis and curries. Walking home, Dad and I went up to visit a small supermarket up the street to pick up milk and jam. The owners are a very friendly Indian couple, who were playing Indian music in the shop and speaking to one another in Hindi. When the woman rang up our order, we noticed that her hands had been died yellow with curry and turmeric powders, we assumed from her cooking. Human beings can be quite beautiful.
Because my dad’s ankle has been giving him a hard time this week, the rest of my family went home to rest and regroup. I picked up my ipod and strolled a few miles down to the National Museum to check out the winter greenhouse. Walking is a great release for me, and I enjoyed my solo adventure dearly. There was a fernery in the museum, and I explored that, too. I had never realized how many kinds of ferns there were in the world, much less New Zealand alone. Some of them were great, elegant plants, as tall and slender as palm trees, while others were fat, gnarly, and jagged (I supposed that’s what happens when you are given a name like “creeping slugworth fern”). I also wandered through the Senses Garden, which was planted with heavily perfumed flowers and strongly scented herbs, so that at any given breath you never knew if you would be smelling lilac, mint, or oregano. Before heading home, I found a tree to lie beneath. I closed my eyes, turned up Woody Guthrie, and soaked up as much sun as my skin could hold. When I opened my eyes again, I couldn’t tell the difference between fluttering fall leaves and fluttering sparrow’s wings. It seems the tree I had been resting under was dropping good nuts, and the sparrows were eager to get to them. When the thought I was asleep, the crept up on me, and when I sat up, a small flock of twenty of them took flight all around me. I felt like Snow White, without the dwarves.
I arrived back at home just as a heavy rain began. The rain lasted through the rest of the evening, so we all settled in to our various projects, and enjoyed watching “The Pursuit of Happiness” together before bed.
Saturday was also a lovely, slow-paced day. Mom doesn’t visit schools on weekends, so she was able to join us in a wander about the Auckland area. Initially we had planned to take a ferry over to Waiheke Island, which is a highly industrial little volcanic island known for its mining towns. Unfortunately, with the heavy rains (it was a rainy week), we decided to call off that adventure and stick to more familiar grounds. We revisited the Victoria Marketplace that Nick, Dad, and I had discovered on Friday, and took cover in the various shops of the market. The marketplace is in an old railway building, with a large open area in the center of the market, and dozens of small craft and trinket shops snaking back around the old hallways, each with an open wall to the center of the market. Nick and I picked up jewelry and souvenirs, while Dad and Mom purchased gifts for her coworkers. An old, soft-eyed man in a shepherd’s cap sold Nick several unpolished greenstones. He stands out in my mind because of the intricate bird tattoos that he had in the crook of each of his thumbs. The other person who stands out to me is the large, flowery British woman who sold me my Indian tunic. Her shop was so jammed with racks of skirts, shirts, dresses, and kimonos that the walls were covered and one could hardly breathe without inhaling a mouthful of cotton. She had great, brown hands that always seemed to be fluttering to correct some loose string or crooked hanger, and moved like she was operated by a series of dropping sandbag stage weights. When I asked my mom to look at the tunic, and my mom started examining the seams, our shopkeeper carelessly flipped back one hand and said, “You like it? I been traveling too, I know, it’s hard to decide on what to buy when you got no room in your suitcase. Five dollars off, if you like it.” I liked it. And I found room in my suitcase.
There was also an elderly couple there who looked just like Jack Spratt and his wife – he was a long-legged grasshopper of a man, and she was a wide, curvaceous woman with dramatic eyes and a flashing red scarf wrapped twice around her neck. He played the fiddle while she sang French love songs. They had taken over an old performing stage at the center of the courtyard, and no one contested their claim. Even when the rain down-poured, they kept up their performance, and soon every one of the rusty wire lawn chairs in front of them was drawn near.

After Victoria Market, we all hopped a ferry up to Devonshire, a place that Nick, Dad, and I had also been to visit earlier in the week. We explored a few of the quaint shops and bookstores around the area. All of us took turns getting massages in a water machine at the ferry stop. At first we had just stopped to look at the strange, tanning-bed like contraptions before us, but we were quickly and comedically drawn in by a woman whom my brother described as, “being the type of person who should be selling motorcycles or jet engines.” I think it as her language, the way she fanned her fingers out and said, “Hey! How’s it going? Let me show you how this works… You need a rest. Oh, she’ll try it? You all should try it. You look like you could relax, honey, and this is just the thing for you…” She even tossed on an extra ten minutes for my mom and my dad each, “because they looked like they could use it.”
We had dinner at the same Fish and Chips place that Nick, Dad, and I visited on our last trip, partly because we were in love with the owner, and mostly because the food was too fantastic to pass up. The restaurant, “Riba” is run by a Croatian man and his New Zealander wife. Same as last time, we ordered too much food, and he told us so. He said, “two scoops chips? You never finish. I give you one and a half.” Indeed, if he had given us two, we never could have finished them all. Just like last time, he brought the fries out first, in a mound on a huge slab of paper, and set that papered mound down on the center of our table. Mom’s fish was tossed in the middle, on top of the chips, and our hamburgers/veggieburgers came out last – huge creations, with layers of beat, fried egg, and pineapple, in addition to the face-sized buns and patties.
While we ate, the owner and his wife came out and bantered with us. The conversation went something like this.
Owner: “I’m sorry. She put mushroom on your burger. After twenty-seven year, she cannot read my handwriting. You think I should leave her now? Or give her a couple more year to figure it out?”
Dad: [Laughing] “It’s fine, it’s fine. Give her a couple more years, what is marriage for.”
Owner: “Okay, okay. I give her second chance.” [Goes to kitchen, returns with wife. They sit at a table opposite ours.]
Dad: “So you’re Croatian?” [Referencing the poster of Croatia on the wall.]
Owner: “Yup!”
Dad: “What brought you here?”
Owner: “I break my leg.” [Rolls eyes and points thumb at wife. Pretending to whisper]: “I thought she was rich!”
Dad: [Laughing] “Well, now she’s rich, she has you, right?”
Wife: “I imported him. See what I put up with?”
Owner: “See? Twenty-seven years! I leave her now.”
That’s the kind of couple that makes me believe in marriage. And to boot, they were both great cooks.
After lunch, we strolled by The “Wild and Woolly” knitting shop to pick up more wool for scarves, and a couple of knitting needles so I could teach Nick. We bought our wool, but they were out of size 12 needles, so the cashier (a friendly Scottish woman – noticed a certain theme of cultural diversity here?) sent us to “Ike’s Emporium,” a store that looks exactly what it sounds like. Stacks of yarn, boxes of cheap jewelry, souvenirs, and mannequins in neon wigs leaned against every wall, shelf, and table. I bought some more yarn there ($3.20 a ball. I couldn’t resist) and we stopped by the grocery store for oranges. While the rest of us waited on a bench outside (Mom went in to get the oranges), we were treated to the talents of a young Avril-Lavigne looking street musician who played and sang covers of Neil Young songs with her guitar. We were also befriended by a well-behaved mutt, who was apparently quite used to being temporarily abandoned outside of grocery stores. She came over and plopped her head down right in Nick’s lap, looking for love and attention. I suppose that is unique to this area – leash laws don’t apply in many areas, and a lot of people run around barefoot. Teens, old men, and children alike come and go on the bus, in restaurants, and grocery stores, scampering along with nothing to cover their soles but their skin, and no one seems to look twice. (I count this among the positive reasons to consider moving to Auckland!)
After a long day, we hopped the ferry and bussed home, where I cooked a light dinner and we all settled in for our nightly movie ritual. Plus knitting.
Thursday and Friday need little describing, as, on each day, Nick, Dad, and I went to visit Victoria Market and Devonshire, described above. Aside from visiting the same places we did on Saturday, Nick bought a scarf at the market, and the three of us also spent time exploring a sketchy/artsy part of town, where I bought a great coat at a second hand store, because we hear it is to be quite cold in Christchurch, where we are flying tomorrow. We also had dinner at a cute pizza/burger place called “Ketchup” where we were served by a young Indian man in a full cook’s uniform. The food was great, and so was the Ketchup. Must have been the total lack of high fructose corn syrup…
Wednesday I did some more walking on my own, and we mostly took it easy, because of Dad’s ankle-troubles, though we did all still climb the huge old volcanic hill behind our hotel, and explored some more shops and side-streets around our area. I organized pictures on the computer, wrote, did some research for upcoming classes, and took a long time making dinner. It was nice relaxing, and the weather was really glum, but we all enjoyed a brief “vacation from our vacation.”
I’ll admit, I’ve completely lost track of my days, actually, so what I wrote for Thursday might have happened last Tuesday, or vice versa, but the important thing is that it happened, and that life is good, and that we are all having a fantastic time here and enjoying one another’s company.
Tomorrow Nick, Dad, and I are catching a flight down to the South Island’s largest city, Christchurch, which is about half the size of Duluth, and known for its flowers. Mom will be joining us on Friday, and we’ve got all sorts of adventures planned. I can’t believe how fast this trip is flying, as we’ve only got a day left when we come back from Christchurch, then it’s three days in L.A. and I’m home again! It seems I’ve just gotten into the traveling mindset, and, Dad and I agree, we are ready for another few months to finish exploring the world! Still, it will be nice to be home and see all of you. Hope summer is going well. Love to all! More later.

-Sara

P.S. Again, excuse grammar and spelling! I’m not going to reread this, because it is midnight, but I want to post it because I’m not sure what kind of internet we’ll have in Christchurch. Thanks!

New Zealand church

I met retired Methodist minister, Keith Rowe, when we went to an excellent service at St Luke Presbyterian church today. He is also in this copy of the New Zealand Methodist church newsletter.
http://www.methodist.org.nz/index.cfm/Touchstone/Full_Issues/May_2009.html/May_2009.pdf
For a good read check out the other monthly newsletters too. Esp. the Aug issue on the Fiji Methodist church that is being blocked by the military govt there. News here carried some of it but don't know if it was noted in the USA media. (We get much better international news coverage here than we do in the USA...do we even know how much we are missing?..our US news has become too much personality and opinion entertainment.)

This a blog post from Dan Dick. Give it a read!

http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/cranky-christians


I plan to add Dan Dicks BLOG AS A LINK.
http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/
Dan is UM church consultant and one of the voices helping us rethink church.
if you are in any church leadership...read his stuff!

Rev. Mark Sargent - The Thunk, the Gap, and the Six A's - Day1.org

Rev. Mark Sargent - The Thunk, the Gap, and the Six A's - Day1.org

Shared via AddThis

Progressive Christianity

While looking for a church to attend here in Auckland I came upon these helpful descriptions of "Progressive Christianity." The phrase was used on several church websites and I got to thinking of how we get into our church speak with words like scriptural, Bible based, traditional "family oriented" (That has to be the most confusing and coded!) Others use the word emergent or emerging church. Even a simple and essential word like "welcoming" has different meanings! I get frustrated when one camp of the church takes a word or phrase and then tries to be the sole interpreter of its meaning or packs it with some hidden agenda.For example, shouldn't all churches be evangelical and welcoming? Or...if a church is not inclusive should it then proclaim itself as exclusive? Would the "uninitiated" have a clue of what we are talking about?
We use language strangely. Back in Albury we saw a cafe sign that advertised "Breakfast Served All Day Until 2 pm" I understand what they are saying but why not say "Breakfast Served until 2 pm." "All Day" just doesn't fit here! All Day but not after 2! Do we do that in our church talk? Bible believing...but... not about how to treat the poor. pray...forgive..etc. All welcome, but...
So keeping in mind,that too often terms and labels get bantered around without sharing definitions or conversation, I borrow this from St Luke's Presbyterian as they reflected on there ministry.

"....The Centre for Progressive Christianity and adopt the eight points of the Centre as reflecting the position St Lukes takes. The eight points are:

By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who…
1.Have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus
2.Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God's realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us;
3.Understand the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus' name to be a representation of an ancient vision of God's feast for all peoples;
4.Invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to):
◦believers and agnostics,
◦conventional Christians and questioning skeptics,
◦women and men,
◦those of all sexual orientations and gender identities,
◦those of all races and cultures,
◦those of all classes and abilities,
◦those who hope for a better world and those who have lost hope;
5.Know that the way we behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what we believe;
6.Find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty - more value in questioning than in absolutes;
7.Form ourselves into communities dedicated to equipping one another for the work we feel called to do: striving for peace and justice among all people, protecting and restoring the integrity of all God's creation, and bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers; and
8.Recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege.

(PS whether you support all these principles or not, I think life in Christ will be progressive....progressive Christianity...making progress..to advance..to go forward.
Is anybody claiming Regressive Christianity?

Rambling on...

creating the conditions....?

By Dawna Markova

There is no such thing as finding one’s purpose. It’s about creating the conditions, for six months or six minutes, where your purpose can find you. It’s not about asking what is the meaning of life, but rather asking what your life means. It’s being willing to receive the truth of what you hear.

Source: I Will Not Die an Unlived Life
from inward/outward site

Reports from Sara

AUSTRALIA UPDATE NO. 7Share
Yesterday at 11:32pm
Hello World!
I realize that it has been positively ages since my last general post. Actually, since our first day in New Zealand. Over a week and a half has passed since then, so I will do my best to inform you of all our activities. I will lump them together, though, instead of breaking them all down into individual days. This, I believe, is the best strategy to use in approaching New Zealand, as we have been doing a lot of lazing, bonding, and strolling here, break some location visits down into two or three days’ worth of visits, like the National Museum, which we have been to visit twice now, Cornwall Park, and the harbor area.
The first few days we were here, we focused on settling into our hotel, adjusting to yet another time zone (we are now 17 hours ahead of U.S. CST, in the first nation to see the sunrise every morning), and exploring the neighborhood. An interesting fact that my mother shared with us just yesterday is that this whole neighborhood is actually owned by a farmers’ trust. A hundred years or so ago, a crew of Irish bachelor farmers came and tilled this land. Having never married, they had no one to leave their beautiful acreage to, and so formed a trust fund for a school for orphaned boys. That school, Dilworth, was constructed of fine bricks and laid out with open playing fields for the boys to romp in. Family members of orphaned boys can petition to have their boys’ sent on scholarship to the school. The money for the school is collected by rent from all of the surrounding hotels up and down our street.
That gives you some starting geography of our area. We are in the Dilworth Newmarket neighborhood (a suburb of Auckland), staying at a Best Western hotel that is one of thirty plus hotels all built lot to lot next to each other up and down Great South Road. Further down the road, the hotels stop and the car lots start. There are an additional ten used and new car lots door to door with one another up and down the road, until one reaches the shopping neighborhood. From there on out to downtown are wall to wall restaurants, shops, and malls, with two movie theatres and an Olympic swimming pool tossed in for taste and variety. Going the other way down Great South Road, the neighborhood fans out into side streets full of antique shops, family owned restaurants, and residential housing. It seems everyone has a flowering garden and front gate, with at least one tree growing straight up out of the front yard. On that same end of town is an enormous park – Cornwall Park – complete with an extinct volcano, monument, working farm, and Eucalyptus grove that was planted in the early 1900s. I have gone on many walks through that park, as it stretches out for miles in all directions. Closer to town are the thick tree groves and winding walking paths, with great, ancient volcanic stonewalls that have been worn smooth and black from decades of rainstorms, and having thousands of people climb over them. The center of the park fans out into rolling hills and pasture. Flocks of sheep and herds of cattle graze together by the old stone fences, resting in the sun. The grass here is so thick and plush that it is almost marshy with dampness. It is a brilliant green color, too, as if it has absorbed so much sunlight over the years, that the grass itself has started shining. The trees are thick and towering, with trunks so wide that four people could wrap their arms around them at once, and still not touch fingers. The branches and roots alike rise and drop, gnarled and twisted with such waves that it seems they have been aesthetically influenced by the nearby sea.
Parts of the park are well groomed and planted. On our walk, my father, brother, and I experienced the surreal sight of passing through a trail that had both autumnal, falling leaves and brilliant spring daffodils growing from the ground. Anything is possible, on the underbelly of the equator, it seems.
At the very heart of the park is One Tree Hill. It is an ancient Maori holy ground, and an extinct volcano. Years of overgrowth and erosion have worn it down into a sloping, grassy hill, but the great volcanic craters are still apparent in open-mouthed hollows at its sides. I had made the climb before, on my own time, accidentally scaling the back of the mountain. I didn’t want to take the time to find a road or trail, so I literally pawed and clawed my way up the back of an almost vertical slope, before swinging myself Mission-Impossible-style over a fence and onto the road.
Dad and I took a different route the next time we went up. We followed the visitors’ guide trail and stopped to read the signs about the volcanic history and Maori legends. It was a much different walk, on the paved road, but both of them were equally good experiences, and the arrival at the top and the monument were just as satisfying, both ways.
At the top of One Tree Hill is a monument similar to the Washington Monument, but smaller, and made of black volcanic stone. It is wildly windy up there, but you can see for miles. All of the surrounding islands, ocean, and Auckland are laid out before you.
Back at the bottom of the hill is a visitors’ center and restaurant. Nick, Dad, and I stopped there before and after our climb – enjoying some hot chocolate and coffee while waiting for the rain to die down (it seems every afternoon here demands its ten-minute shower). Then we explored an early settlers’ cabin – the oldest wooden one left in Auckland – and hiked back to our hotel.
Other major events and sites here have included the National Museum, the maritime museum, and Rangitoto Island. (As a side note, Nick and I also went to one of the downtown theatres on our own one night to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Good old J.K.)
The National Museum, which we finished visiting today, is a classic, large building on top of yet another hill (noticing a certain geographic theme? All of New Zealand is built on extinct and dormant volcanoes, so hills and mountains are about as common as birds and flowers). The first floor is a broken into rooms each with their own motley theme – full of ancient chest drawers, clothing, wet suits, pickled sea creatures, taxidermied zoo animals, old children’s games, European instruments, and casts of Greek statuary. The second and third floors make up for the oddities of the first, however. The second has a fantastic display of Maori weaponry, clothing, pottery, ships, and architecture; not to mention a display surrounding Sir Edumund Hillary’s climbing axe, and details on his infamous first climb up Mount Everest. So, too, does it have a room about volcanoes, on Earth and other planets, and a film about Auckland’s own relationship to its nearby dormant volcanoes… the floor shook. It was fantastic. As the largest city in New Zealand, and home to over 1/3 of the nation’s population, Auckland MUST have a viable evacuation system in case any of these volcanoes decide to wake up…
We visited the third floor today. It was a singular memorial floor to all of New Zealand’s veterans, and history of the wars New Zealand has been involved with. I had never realized until today just how expansive the World Wars were. I didn’t realize that small nations like New Zealand and South Africa had been involved, nor that these wars had stretched far into the middle East. The whole world really was at war. And for nations like New Zealand, it was ruinous. New Zealand lost 1/8 of its entire population in men during World War I, and nearly that many again just two decades later for World War II. So, too, there were displays on the Anglo-Boer War, and the Maori-Anglo civil war. I thought it was especially interesting that it was known as a civil war, when in so many other nations – like Australia and the United States – we STILL don’t recognize the original rights and sovereignty of our native people. To call that time a time of civil war acknowledges the equal rights that all New Zealanders had to their land, and the current peace and equanimity under which both cultures now live. I think we all have a lesson to learn from New Zealand.

The Maritime museum was also enriching. Built right on the harbor, one of the exhibits involved several of the old sailing boats, tug boats, and steamers that were sitting in the very bay outside. They had extensive exhibits on the whaling industry, Maori life and exploration, and the first settlers’ trips to the island. I especially enjoyed learning about the creation myth behind the New Zealand islands. I won’t retype the myth here, but I really encourage you, readers, to go out and read some of the Maori myths and legends that can be found online. It is a deep, complex, and interesting culture that is very much alive today. I still can’t believe some of the things the original Polynesian settlers did to get to this land! Crossing thousands of miles of open water by canoe to settle uncharted islands? Incredible.

Two days ago, we took a harbor ferry cruise around Auckland and got a little history of the place. We saw several of the Americas Cup racing sail ships out and about, learned a little about some of the local islands, watched bungy jumpers leap off of the Auckland bridge, and just happened across a large pod of black dolphins on our way back into the shore. Our ferry operator and tour guide was a kindly, gruff old fellow with a dry sense of humor and a warm heart. He stopped to let us see the dolphins, giving us an extra free fifteen minutes of photographic opportunities of the leaping porpoises.

Yesterday we took a ferry out to Rangitoto island, which is Auckland’s nearest and newest volcano. It started erupting just 600 years ago, and stopped a mere 250 years ago. The island is still covered in heaping piles of black rocks from the volcanic explosions. Through the rocks have grown several rare types of trees – one variety has grown in such excess, that Rangitoto Island is home to the one forest of this tree variety. The only forest like it in the world. On the ferry across, I met a lot of interesting travelers, including two boys from California that are here with their university; one woman who moved here from Texas; a young German fellow; and a British boy named Luke. Luke was traveling alone, having just graduating from college, and enjoying a summer adventure before heading into graduate school. He was blond, boyish, and about my height, with a thick farming English accent that he attributed to his Salisbury upbringing. I invited him to hike with my brother and I, and he spent the whole afternoon with us, wandering into dripping caves, hiking the rim of the main volcanic crater, and picnicking back on the shore. We talked about the differences in our nation’s sports, colleges, politics, and histories. He is studying Computer Science, helping to make programs for the iphone and working to improve hospital x-ray technologies surrounding osteoporosis detection. Someday, we both hope to be college professors. It was fun making a friend, and the three of us enjoyed one another’s company on the jungle-like, ferny mountainside. Someday, I would like to take a trip like he is – spending the whole summer hopping trains and staying in backpacking hostels, just exploring another country and meeting all sorts of people, by keeping an open mind.

Last Thursday or so, Nick, Dad, and I also went up the Sky Tower, which is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. We took an elevator to the top, and enjoyed the incredible helicopter-height view out over Auckland and the islands. On our elevator ride up, we met a girl who was going to bungy jump off the top of the building – something which is apparently very popular to do. We watched her jump AND land, admiring her gumption. I, meanwhile, was struggling to make myself stand on the glass floor looking down, even though I had already been skydiving just a few weeks before. Funny how the human mind works like that.

That covers many of our greatest adventures – although I’m sure I’ll remember another great place that I forgot to mention, and I’ll remember it as soon as I climb into bed to go to sleep. Aside from those great adventures, we have enjoyed visiting a number of international food courts, tourist shops, and smaller, local parks. The country is beautiful, the people are friendly, and the sun is warm. We’ve enjoyed the continued attention to environmental issues and food quality --- nearly everything is organic, the eggs are labeled both “Cage eggs” and “Cage-free” so there can be no confusion; food courts use real plates and silverware for all eat-in meals; public buses run on natural gas; and 70% of the nation’s electricity is derived from sustainable energy. We are the very first Americans to stay at this Best Western motel, so the staff here is friendly, curious, and accommodating, always keeping us updated on good places to visit and how to find good bus passes. The manager, Laurence, is masterfully helpful in this, and makes a point to talk to us every morning.

As a side note, we have also discovered a fantastic little restaurant called “Hell’s Pizza” with great themes and character. You can check it out for yourselves: https://hellpizza.co.nz/

Mom has been enjoying her school visits, too. She has met some of the most powerful leaders in Reading Recovery both from New Zealand and from the Philippines. She loves the people she has met and is working with, and comes back every night enthusiastic and refreshed. She says she is learning more here than she could have learned in a year back home.

Needless to say, we have enjoyed lots of family bonding time, too. This has been a great trip, and is going by very quickly. As it is now 11:30 p.m., and we have to wake up early tomorrow for another ferry trip over to a different part of the North island, I am going to say goodnight, but I promise to do a better job of posting updates. Much love to all! Best wishes!

- Sara