Goodbye to Summer

On my way home yesterday i sat on the Kingston/Edmonds ferry reading my book when i looked up and saw a woman and her child standing outside on the deck, enjoying the sunshine. I felt compelled to put the book away (rarity) and take the stairs to the top of the boat.....so glad i did.......it was a perfect summer day - sunshine, little wind and calm water...i tend to be a bit melancholy at this point in the season - i want to savor the last bit of summer but i don't want it to leave. i don't want change, even though i love autumn. Maybe it's because there was so little summer to be had this year for us Northwesterners........but whatever the reason i'm glad i crawled out of my head where i spend way too much of my time for that half hour of heaven onboard the walla walla!

Dominus Vobiscum

In the catholic church of my youth the mass was always celebrated in Latin. I can still recall some of the phrases used by the priest who had his back to us. "Kyrie Eleison" and "In nomine Patris, et Filii, + et Spiritus Sancti. Amen." are two that i remember but the most familiar would be "dominus vobiscum" to which we would reply, "et cum spiritu tuo"...as a kid i thought we were saying etcum spirit 2-2-0!!!! ("the lord be with you" & "and also with you")...

So why am i writing about this? because i long for fresh views of what these prayers mean that we find in the liturgy. As a child they were rote and spoken in a dead language but in my new home of the Episcopal church the collect is read by the celebrant before the readings of the day. I recently picked up a book of collect prayers in a used bookstore and was amazed by how beautiful they were and read that "collective prayer is an inclusive event". I'm still learning what that might mean but i found it interesting that there is more than one translation for the exchange that occurs before the collect. In the catholic church which used latin, DOMINUS VOBISCUM did sound a bit like a spell out of a harry potter book! Besides "the Lord be with you" which connotes something that will happen in the future i discovered that it can be translated as "the Lord IS with you" or better yet "the Lord is HERE, His Spirit is with us." And i need to know that God is here, right now, in this place...and when the celebrant ends with "let us pray" before the reading of the collect i will be thinking "collective prayer"...we're all in this together!

It is Finished

at approximately 3:45pm today, july 27th, i finished Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. what can i say except that i loved every one of the 759 pages! i kept away from internet news, tv news and websites that held even a whiff of telling me how the book ended. so for the last 3 days i've lived in harry's world and am now trying to return to the muggle world.....thank you JKRowling! well done!

Lydia Joy

my five year old granddaughter, Lydia Joy, has become a vacation bible school junkie this summer. she's had her first bus ride from the baptist church, her first foot washing from the lutherans and i haven't heard from her yet what the episcopalians are offering! she has loved every minute of her time with all the wonderful & caring women who have been busy planting little seeds in her inquisitive little head...she has especially liked the family day presentations for she is an actress at heart who has informed her mother that someday she will be moving to new york!
lydia has told me how much she loves jesus and has serenaded me and her mom and dad with her renditions of jesus loves me, & we are fishers of men!

as i perused my favorite blogs this morning i came across another VBS story from jan edmiston's site which is worth a view!!!!:A Church for Starving Artists: What Presbyterians Always Talk About (the picture is of Lydia and Blake)

Luke and Harry

It’s been over a week since I last posted. Harry Potter is finally out, I’m on page 46 and reading very slowly because it’s the last book and the last time I’ll be able to spend such quality time with his story. Sigh............today KP preached on Martha and Mary and she was very good but before I go there I have to say a word or two about last week’s sermon on the Good Samaritan.....how many sermons have I heard on Luke 10 over the years? Countless.....and almost always the same....don’t be like the Priest or the Levite but be like the Good Samaritan who it turns out was never even referred to as “good” by Jesus.....that was added!

So E+ turned this parable upside down for me..........I learned that “in most of Jesus’s parables, the way they’re constructed, the really central character is the one everyone else comes in contact with.” And she focused on the wounded and powerless victim who was lying in the ditch. Looking at this story from the victim’s point of view made everything new. We can all identify with that point of view as we’ve all been wounded at some point in our lives....His/Her dilemma centered on being able to accept help from someone that would have been considered to be an outcast, or someone who might be unclean or a social reject. E+ stated that “the mercy and healing of God came not only from an unexpected source, it came from a despised source.”..........what if God comes toward me as someone or something I fear? Will I be able to accept such help? Such grace? Such love? Lots to ponder there.

And then today KP preached from Luke 10 & Genesis 18 on hospitality - which is showing love to strangers. My experience of this passage has been the age old question of “are you a Martha or a Mary?”..........as if all women can be categorized into only one of these categories (not to mention where men fit in here.)...Just as Abraham had invited the 3 men in for calf and cakes, Martha followed suit by inviting Jesus and his followers in for a meal. Jesus of course told her that her sister Mary had chosen the better part by sitting at his feet which must have been confusing to say the least. But KP said that “Jesus is telling her to stop and be hospitable to herself, to love the stranger in herself.”.....thus exhibiting a new form of hospitality......one in which we start with our own hearts, making way for a new creation - in order to love our neighbors as our selves.........I like that. But I also like to stick with what I know and God never seems to allow that.....which is why we are hopefully, with God’s help, always becoming a new creation..........

I Love Harry!

With all the harry potter hoopla in the air i thought i would voice my dilemna. i have listened to all the harry potter books on discs which i've borrowed from the sequim library and i have enjoyed them all thoroughly! i'm 18th on the list for the new release which means it will take a bit of time to even get to listen to the deathly hallows and with all the talk about whether or not harry dies in this book i'm certain that some media outlet will ruin it for me! so do i rush out and buy the book and have a marathon reading to discover the fate of harry on my own? or do i move to a cave in order to avoid all media mention of the ending? what to do! what to do! in the meantime i did take a harry potter quiz:

You scored as Albus Dumbledore, Strong and powerful you admirably defend your world and your charges against those who would seek to harm them. However sometimes you can fail to do what you must because you care too much to cause suffering. Albus Dumbledore 100% Harry Potter 80% Sirius Black 75% Hermione Granger 70% Ron Weasley 60% Remus Lupin 55% Draco Malfoy 55% Ginny Weasley 50% Severus Snape 45% Lord Voldemort 10% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

Marinade vs. Glaze

I've been working my way through "what is anglicanism?" by urban t. holmes III & in the chapter on pastoral care i came across this paragraph:

"a sacred principle of anglican pastoral care is that it is sacramental. here, i refer initially to a theological premise. it is this. christian conversion, a turning to Christ,is the result of a marinade rather than a glaze. we are transformed by being soaked in the gospel, rather than having it brushed on at the last minute. the sacraments are focal points of a life lived in relationship to all that conveys the humanizing grace of god in Christ. when we let them, the sacraments reach deep within the self to touch and shape those primordial images by which we live life at the deepest. the passion of Christ becomes, in this process, the prevailing icon on all life for each of us." p.61

i am not a foodie, but i love this picture of conversion as marination. the purpose of marinating is to add flavor and/or to tenderize the cut of meat or fish or veggie we are preparing.....and isn't that what Christ does for us? he flavors and tenderizes us with his love - and as we are soaked in this love it permeates everything and everyone around us. yum........

lord, my heart longs to be tender & i don't want to walk around like an Easter ham - covered in a sugary glaze....i need your flavor to seep from my very pores - and that can only happen through the continuous marination of your grace and love......amen.

in the beginning...

good afternoon! it's sunday and i've just returned from st. paul's episcopal church in port townsend, where i spent the better part of this day. if you ever visit port townsend i'd recommend visiting this quaint and beautiful church which has been in the community since the 1860's. on many sundays i think about "the communion of saints" who sat in these same pews that i now find myself in - wondering about their stories, their sorrows and their joys. i feel connected to them as i kneel at the communion rail, waiting to receive the the precious body and blood of christ.

so the purpose of this blog is to give me a place to write about something new in my life - the discernment process. what am i called to? ordained ministry? lay leadership? or something else? just what is the next step that God is asking me to take? well this morning i met with KP who is on her own journey towards the diaconate. we had a very spendy latte in uptown and she listened to my fears. she told me that if this is truly a calling it will not let me go. for the last couple of months i've been secretly hoping that it would. i've been scattered in many directions but at every turn i bump into it again. damn.....and yet while singing in church today these words from hymn 474 pierced me, "love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."

today's gospel reading, Luke 10:1-12, 16-20 was the sending out of the apostles in pairs. this has always been a difficult text for me for instead of focusing on what jesus called them to do i have focused on what i considered the more distasteful aspects of the passage - jesus telling them to wipe even the dust off their feet if they weren't welcomed. how could the apostles take back their blessing? but i heard a different approach in Rev. Elizabeth Bloch's (hereafter known as E+) homily this morning. she spoke of God's desire that all of us bless one another. it's not just the apostles who were given the power and ability to minister - it is for all of us! the apostles freed themselves from bags, sandals & purses. so what am i to free myself from? hmmmm