Still working on ordination papers

but being completely distracted because of my (late) Christmas present. He's black and fuzzy and about 5 months old -- the kids have named him "Johnny Cat, cat in Black." (like Johnny Cash, get it?)

He really is totally black -- black fur, black whiskers, black claws with startlingly green eyes. He's gorgeous. And very timid -- a real scared-y cat. I'm in love! He's too timid for me to get a good picture. I'll post it as soon as I do.

Little kitty, by the way, is not impressed. She wants us to take him back from whence he came. ASAP. Pronto. Bye-bye now! (Not going to happen, Little Kitty).

We are having to keep them separated. Johnny Cat upstairs, Little Kitty down.

So today is going to be like this -- write a page or two, love on a cat. Write another page, love on the other cat. Totally fun.

(BTW: I am really either stuck or just really dry. All I can think to write about evil and sin:

Sin is bad. Evil is bad. God is good. Yeah, God!

I think I probably need to get a little more in depth than that.... Off to write some more...

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Writing and writing and writing and writing

I'm still writing. The papers are due on January 8th -- and I sure hope I make the deadline. Either way, I'm finished with them on the 8th and then maybe things will be back to normal.

I'm giving my sermon to be evaluated by the BOOM (Board on Ordained Ministry) on Sunday -- I'm going to preach the Matthew 2 Epiphany text. I've got the sermon mostly finished. It's the transitions that usually give me trouble and so I'm working on them right now.

Then I have a 6 week Jonah Bible Study to finish and the 18 or so Theology and Practice of Ministry questions to finish. It's all started and in process, but I'm encountering some unease -- I never read any of my peers answers until very recently and mine are quite ... different. I wrote them like I write -- in a narrative fashion rather than a seminary paper. I hope my style will be OK; I'm a smidge bit anxious about it, but it will be as it will be. These papers are to reflect MY theology and my style of ministry -- and they certain will do that.

Edited: I just looked at what I've finished and what I've NOT finished. EEEKKKK!!! Off to write.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

It was a good day -- too much food and stuff (as usual). Not as many presents this year (because we don't need that much!) but nice and thoughtful things. Best of the day -- the Loving Husband gave me 2 gig of memory and a 250 gig hard drive for the computer. He's going to pimp my computer. Yeah!

The kids got Nerf popguns and have been shooting Nerf balls at things... And Chaos got a viola. We now have a full quartet of instruments -- and the nephew received a violin, so he can join in the fun as well.

Best part of the day -- seeing friends, spending quality time with close and extended family, watching "Amazing Grace" with them all. Good conversations. Lots of hugs and snuggles from the kids -- and for the very first time EVER (in 19 years of life) the cat slept in the bed with us last night.

I wonder what the kitty is going to do when the "last" Christmas present gets here (on Friday). He's about 12 weeks old, black and fuzzy and goes by the name of "Johnny Snugglecat." Hmmm....

Dearest and most Gracious God
Bless this Christmas season with Hope, Love, Peace and Joy,
Ridding each and every heart of grief and distress, loneliness and pain,
The sorrows of yesterday and the fears for tomorrow.
Fill us with Hope, as you filled the world with Hope so very long ago,
Fill us with Love, the Spirit of Love that has filled hearths and homes of times gone by
Grant us Your Peace, The Peace given to us with the birth of the Christ Child,
And may we rest in Joy in Your everlasting love.
In the precious name of Your Son, we pray, Amen.

Ratios

I've been thinking about 1) stewardship and 2) ratios recently.

The Loving Husband and I are working on getting our spending, savings and giving in line with what they should be. If I get appointed to East PoDunk next year, the Loving Husband may or may not be able to maintain his current employments and so we need to get all things in balance. Easier said than done. He's reading Dave Ramsey's book; I'm contemplating ratios.

For instance, we spend about a third of our income on housing. Not too bad; some people spend up to two thirds on their housing. Then comes the uh-oh. We've been spending a third on food. That's a lot of money -- too much going out to eat. So we've been cutting down on that -- and budgeted $125 or so a week for food. It's really not been too hard, but I hope that number will go up shortly. We been giving pretty generously -- as we ought, but I realized that I've been giving "encumbered" funds -- funds for my pet ministries. I wonder if that's an OK thing to do. The money should be the church's to do with as it needs to do. I'm going to have to think about that for a while.

I was reading somewhere that there is more money spent on Lipstick in the U.S. of A than there is spent at NASA yearly. Interesting. I wonder what giving really is like in the larger communities? What is the ratio of giving to what we spend on our schools or maintenance of our roads and bridges? How much money is given for the Church to be as the Body of Christ as compared to our military budget? More things to research and think about.

This I know -- I spent too much money this week on Baklava. A full fifth of the weekly food budget went on Baklava. Yes, Baklava is one of the world's most perfect foods, but it makes me go hmmm.....

T-minus Three Days

Christmas presents purchased.
Decision to send NO CARDS made.
All packages taken to Post Office.
Tree -- done.

Today:
Pick up house.
Make cookies.
Drink coffee/chai (depending on the hour.)
WRITE ORDINATION PAPERS. (oh yeah, that.)

I've a start on all the questions, the sermon (that I will preach the Sunday after Christmas) and the Bible Study (Jonah, with an emphasis on 1) how to use study tools and 2) music.) But for some reason this is the hardest writing I've ever done....

Must. Write. Papers.

Christmas update

Between the very flakey internet connection and the ordination papers, the blog is falling way behind.

In fact, I'm about writ out. I can't write anymore ... or rather, not what I need to write. I've been writing every single day since November 1 and now I've writer's block. I've written:

• 10,000 words on a novel
• Ordination Papers
• 6 week Bible Study
• Sermons
• a Cantata

The novel is now on the back burner -- and can stay there for a while. The next sermon is researched and percolating, the Bible Study is being polished. The Cantata is over and done with. (Rant on: And about Cantatas -- I have a pet peeve. Why do churches do cantatas that don't match their polity, theology and doctrine? I don't ever want to do one of those again, so I tend to put together my own Cantata. I want it to be tight with nice musical segues and I want more than one voice for the narration. For this one, I took anthems and linked them together with passages from both the KJV and The Message -- the Nativity narratives. John 1 was the Call to Worship. A little interpretive verbage, lots of Bible. We used 6 narrators, to vary the pacing and put congregational singing in the middle of most of the anthems, using very common and familiar Advent and Christmas hymns. We had the kids dress up and act it out as we all sang. It was wonderful -- not professional and smooth, but as it ought to be. Rant off.)

I'm now going to try to clean up enough for guests, do the purchase presents thing and write ordination papers.

Oh yeah, and breathe. Y'all have a Merry Christmas, OK?

Mr. Murray is Dead

Wil Shipley's beloved kitty slipped away today. He wrote this beautiful tribute.
You have my condolences, My. Shipley, and know this -- John Wesley would tell us that you will meet Mr. Murray again.

A Prayer Based on the Antiphons of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

O WISDOM, God breathed You, He spoke You, You reach from end to end. You bring me forth from my chaos, You order all things mightily and sweetly: thank You for teaching me the way of prudence.

O LORD AND RULER of the all the Houses, the Houses of Israel and Judea, the Houses of all the world, but especially the House for those who cannot find harborage, the House for those who yearn for Home, the House for the homeless -- O Lord and Ruler who appears to me in the flame of the burning stars, in the gentle breath of a baby, in the breaking of the bread: thank you for redeeming me with arms flung open wide.

O ROOT OF JESSE, You spring forth again and again from this brusied reed, You spring forth from the stump of my felled trees, You spring forth in the broken rose cane again and again. Before You I can only keep the silence and before You I shall be waiting in anticipation and supplication: thank you for delivering me.

O KEY OF DAVID, and Sceptre of the House of Israel, You open and no one can shut, You shut and no one can open: thank You for bringing forth this captive from her prison, for bringing light forth from darkness and the shadow of death that always haunts me.

O EMMANUEL, God with us, My King, My Lawgiver, My Saviour, My Lover, My World -- the Word made flesh -- thank You for Your gift of life, thank You for Your gifts of bread and wine, help me to hold the baby close to my heart this Christmas, help me treasure Your Word in my heart and be a witness to Your light. I pray in the name of my Holy Infant, my Holy Child – Amen.

Busy

• Life if busy, and so blogging suffers.
• BrownBlog has an interesting conversation started here about Second Life and the response of the Anglicans Online community article. Interesting stuff
• Preparing for Christmas (is that a surprise?)
• Cleaning house, sorting and giving stuff away. I gave away my Cappuccino machine, a blender, a food processor and a Crockpot this last week. Still selling books and eBaying.
• Here's a what if: What if a female Muslim teacher moved into your neighborhood, started teaching at a local Muslim sponsored school, in which some are Muslim but most are Christian. Then the teacher allows the class (kindergarten or so) to name a teddy bear "Jesus" - what would happen? I don't think there were be thousands called for her execution and marching on the Capital, or would there be?
  

Working in His Orchard

3-5Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can't quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.

5-8The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn't diminish or weaken over time. It's the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you've been hungry for more. It's as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He's the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.

9-12Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

13-14God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

Col 1: 3-14, The Message.

Sunday Morning

This is the first Sunday Morning in a long time I will not be in church. Our plans for Thanksgiving were seriously altered as Chaos had a C. Diff. infection this week. We stayed home this week; I don't know that we've been outside since we got Chaos home from the hospital. So I have been exploring alternate ways of doing church -- on Second Life.

I began exploring SL quite a bit about 18 months ago, but never did much with it. It certain has come a long way since then. There is still an overwhelming amount of true dreck there; stuff I avoid vigorously. However, there is much more interesting content as well, including a Myst-like Adventure game (very complex), a community based on Dragons and a community called "Chronicles of Narnia." There are also very interesting exhibits about the history of Spaceflight; exhibits by the Weather Channel complete with videos; an incredible NOAA building and so on.

John the Methodist posited an interesting question about a month ago about virtual communion. I had never thought about it -- so this last month or so, I began to explore the faith communities of SL.

I spend a good deal of time at the Anglican Cathedral, the UCC Church and the SL Mission (UMC). I started with a worship service at the Koinonia UCC church. (Another picture above.)


Here is tonight's service at Koinonia. The two worship experiences I've been to were lead by an ABC pastor and an UMC pastor. It's a good place to go, with gatherings 6 times a week.

I also have attended worship experiences at an Unitarian Church and a meeting at the Society of Friends. Both were very worshipful. I've always enjoyed the meditative experience of a Friends Meeting -- but I'm too much of a talker. I have a hard time with the just being quiet. It's a area of growth for me. Here's a picture of the Friends Meeting.



The service at the Abundant Life Church was much more like today's contemporary worship services; lots of music and energy. There are worship poses to download, as well: a prayer pose, an Orans pose and a "lift up your hands" pose. I liked it and it is better attended than the other churches -- much nondenominationals are in real life.



The Abundant Life sanctuary is set up more like a traditional sanctuary, with rows of pews. The other worship service set up that way was the Anglican worship at the Cathedral.


This service is a completely liturgical service using the Book of Common Prayer. Very quiet and contemplative. After the service is a coffee hour and Bible study on the RCL reading for the next week in the Edwardian structure next to the Cathedral.

I've also attended a Bible Study at one of the Catholic centers in SL. It too was based on a lectionary reading, but it was not the RCL. It was a more international study, with attendees from around the world.


All this bring to the forefront questions of what is virtual and what is real. They are questions that are not new. They are the questions that were asked when radio ministries began: Can the word of God be distributed over the airwaves? Was it as efficacious as the Word preach in a congregation? It definitely lacked the interactive flavor of a live service. Was a true service? And the question was asked when the radio evangelist moved to the television -- is this real worship? Again, television "church" lacked the interactive element.

Today worship services are telecast from one location to another -- two separate congregations, one preacher. Is this "real" worship? One congregation is getting the flesh and blood preacher -- the other a virtual preacher.

How about a preacher on SL? She or he will use their own voice via a headset. The congregation hears her; they can interact with worship poses and text messages. Is this real worship? In a way, it is as incarnational as the telecast preaching. Can this be worship in spirit and truth? For some, it may be the only experience of worship they may ever have. How many furries have ever showed up in your congregation?

Questions to think about.

Peace, y'all.

Edited to add:
Lorna,
Yes, it meets a need. Especially for those who cannot, for one reason or another, leave their home or join in worship in community.

And Jen, it's more of an online MySpace -- social networking -- than an online RGP. The kids were into Runescape and Neopets for a long time: it was at first a game for them, then it was where they hung out to be with their friends. This skips the games completely and goes directly to the social networking.

I'm doing a 2nd Life fast today -- it's also a temptation to run off into SL to avoid RL. I saw that yesterday with a few people; when RL is so bad that they cannot cope or when it's so boring or whatever, the compulsion to escape into SL becomes the same energy that causes addictions. (And then there are those who genuinely go into SL to seek out those people and do ministry.)

SoF could be subsumed into SL, and have room to spare. Koinonia is nominally UCC, but could be seen as nondenominational (or multidenominational) as could the SL Mission -- there is a community of professional counselors forming that will be a resource for those who need the service.

Still thinking about all this... When I was working, I was "forced" to host Starfleet Academy (the Star Trek club in Atlanta) because I was the one working on Saturday. After a few meetings, I was with William Shatner -- I felt like yelling "Get a Life!" I have some of that same feeling this morning about SL....

The Baptist View on Blogging, Georgia Style.

It seems that at the annual meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention earlier in November, a resolution was passed denouncing blogging. From the rhetoric surrounding the resolution, there has been some strife in the Convention that has fueled personal attacks and it appears that the intent of the resolution is unity. However, this is a unity that seems, at the surface, a false unity because it silences voices.

We Methodists have had problems and strife in our own denomination, however vigorous conversation about all things theological and related to church are not discouraged; indeed, they are encouraged. We have this beautiful passage in the Book of Discipline called "Our Theological Task" that I have quoted before.

Our theological task includes the testing, renewal, elaboration, and application of our doctrinal perspective in carrying out our calling "to spread scriptural holiness over these lands."

While the Church considers its doctrinal affirmations a central feature of its identity and restricts official changes to a constitutional process, the Church encourages serious reflection across the theological spectrum.

Uniformity is NOT unity. Unity is when all the differing parts of the Body of Christ (the church) act in concert, in harmony. Vigorous discussion on doctrine does not reduce that harmony. It can only strengthen it, as each part can sing clear and true. This is unity.

Buy Nothing Day

We are, indeed, buying nothing today. I actually don't want for anything -- except for salt, I need some salt. And I'm running low on flour. But other than a handful of groceries, I want for NOTHING. And those groceries are not necessary for my continuing existence on this planet, at this point, it's just something that would be nice to have.

The young'ns have been window shopping at Amazon today, but interestingly enough, it was not very easy for them to come up with a "Wish List" for Christmas. Chaos wants a Wacom Tablet so that she can do more animation and drawing. Entropy couldn't think of a single thing except for maybe a Wii game. We want for nothing.

I wish the same could be said for the others on this planet. There are those who want for basics: food, shelter, clothing and clean water. I'm sending my list to people who ask: I want a Llama for a Peruvian family or a hive of bees for a family in Mexico (Heifer International.) Or a sink for a Habitat family, or clean water for someone in Bolivia.

Other than that, I want prayer and your presence at a Christmas service somewhere. I want people to live into that pledge to give God of their prayers, presence, gifts and service.

So I'm bagging up some clothes to give away and I'm going to put some labels on books to give away at the hospital.

Peace out, y'all.

Be Mindful, O Lord

Be mindful, O Lord, of those who travel by land, by sea, and by air; of the old and young, the sick, the suffering, the sorrowing, the afflicted, the captives, the needy and the poor; and upon them all send forth Thy mercies, for Thou art the Giver of all good things. Amen

Looks as if we will not be going to WV today. Chaos has a bad stomach ache/ GI infection called C.Diff. Bad news.

Morning Prayer -- Dante Rossetti, Jude 1

Autumn Song

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
Laid on it for a covering,
And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf
Knowest thou not? and how the chief
Of joys seems--not to suffer pain?

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

-- Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Woe to them!
For they walk in the way of Cain,
and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error,
and perish in Korah's rebellion.

These are blemishes on your love feasts,
as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves;
waterless clouds, carried along by winds;
fruitless trees in late autumn,
twice dead,
uprooted;

wild waves of the sea,
casting up the foam of their own shame;
wandering stars for whom
the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever.

It was of these also that Enoch
in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying,
"Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads,
to execute judgment on all,
and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness
which they have committed in such an ungodly way,
and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners
have spoken against him."

--Jude 1:11-15

Morning Prayer -- Gratitude by George Washington

Almighty God, and most merciful father, who didst command the children of Israel to offer a daily sacrifice to thee, that thereby they might glorify and praise thee for thy protection both night and day, receive, O Lord, my morning sacrifice which I now offer up to thee; I yield thee humble and hearty thanks that thou has preserved me from the danger of the night past, and brought me to the light of the day, and the comforts thereof, a day which is consecrated to thine own service and for thine own honor.

George Washington

I found this prayer a while ago on Beliefnet. I love the fact that GW prayed this prayer -- that our founding fathers (blech on the non-gender inclusiveness of that phrase) -- that our founders were people who could and would pray. I know GW had some real problems, but he knew the land. I think we are slipping away from people who know the land -- we loose something by it. I don't think we can understand the Israelites fully because we are people who have lost that connection to the land.

I was raised on a working farm for the first few years of my life. I have a deep abiding connection to the land. It grieves me when I can't have a patch to live on -- to grow things and to connect. As I contemplate becoming an itinerate minister, I realized that I will not be owning any piece of land -- of all the things to rub, this has been the one to blister. To not have connection to the land, except in a parsonage that is owned by the church. Wow.

And maybe it will be freeing. Sacrifice can be the willing offering of that we hold most precious to God. Maybe this indeed will be the big sacrifice.

More prayer, more thinking.

Peace.

Morning Prayer

Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Romans 8:12-17

12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!* Father!’ 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness* with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Blessed are You, O Lord our God,
Wellspring of all that is.

You are the sea on which we float,
You are the wind that fills our sails,
You are the storm that buffets us,
You are the calm that brings us peace.

Open our ears to hear Your word,
Open our eyes to see Your beauty,
Open our hearts to be warmed by Your love.

Free us from our lonely prisons of fear and selfishness,
And make us over, day by day, into bearers of Your peace.
-- richard rosenberg (from the World Prayers Prayer Archive)

Nostalgia

I'm still sorting boxes from my parent's estate and I've moved on from bank statements and old bills to more personal bits of paper that were left behind. Correspondence of all sorts, letters and cards and old photographs.

Photographs and memories. This is a picture of me and "my baby" (as I called my little sister.) I still remember the feel of the necklace that she's wearing. Funny how memory can be. I am in the throes of nostalgia -- homesickness, but not for a place, more for a time. It used to be considered a disease.

Nostalgia describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form. Nostalgia may or may not also be known as homesickness... The term was newly coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer (1669-1752), a Swiss medical student. The word is made up of two Greek roots (nostos = returning home, and algos = pain/longing), to refer to "the pain a sick person feels because he wishes to return to his native land, and fears never to see it again". From Wikipedia

My dad loved to take pictures. Here I am wearing a cross that I used to wear every single day. It was given to me on my 6th birthday by my grandfather I called "D." I still have the cross, but I wear a different one now daily. And I still have the baby doll that is being tortured in the background. I tried to give it to the girls to play with - they call it "scary." Hrumph.

All this sorting causes an odd sort of tenderness. Yesterday on the way back from a meeting, I found myself driving through the old neighborhood -- I haven't seen it -- really looked at it -- for years. I haven't driven down the street recently. I don't know if I want to. I think I want to remember the old house the way it is in my memories, rather than see what it might look like now.

The News

I cannot believe this news story.

The long and the short of it (and yes there is humor in there).
A man converts to Judaism. He decides (as the custodial parent) to circumcise his 12-year-old son. (Actually, I would imagine he would have a rabbi or other person do it and not do it himself.) This is against the wishes of his Russian Orthodox ex-wife.

My take? Shouldn't the kid have a say in all this? Ouch!