A Two Goal Lead is the Most Dangerous Lead...

Our little girl is learning how to smoke and use a cell a phone. What next?

In her book, Amazing Grace, author Kathleen Norris learned about waiting and about silence when she visited classrooms in North Dakota. She asked the students to sit still and to be as silent as possible – to listen, and not to make a sound. She then asked them to write about what they experienced in the silence. “It’s scary,” one fifth grader wrote. When Norris asked him why, he said, “It’s like we’re waiting for something – it’s scary.” Another child, a third grade boy, wrote that his quiet time made him think about being strong. Strength, he said, is “as slow and silent as a tree.” One little girl said this: “Silence reminds me to take my soul with me wherever I go.” In the cacophony of sound that surrounds us constantly, we rarely “have time” to be silent, we rarely “have time” to listen to the still small voice of God in our hearts. Which begs the question, where exactly, is our soul? Advent is a time of preparation, what does that mean for us? What are we preparing f...

I know I wrote this somewhere else, but I can't seem, oh yeah, it was my last weekly email, that was it. Anyway, I was struck the other day, when a certain clergy person made the distinction between WITNESS and EVANGELISM. We talk in the Episcopal Church left and right about how bad we are at Evangelism, and it turns out we are, but not because we don't want it. Well, that may still be the case, as we tend to value small family congregations over larger ones. Anyway, this clergy person, which I find myself surprised to be agreeing with, talked about how Evangelism is a particular spiritual gift. Not everyone has the gift of evangelizing. I think we could say fairly well, that, also, much to my surprise, I have a particular gift of evangelism, it is something I love to do, get people to come to Church. The problem is that I am the priest, and then it becomes expected that I will be the one getting people to Church. Anyway, I digress, not everyone has the gift of evangeli...

So tomorrow night we are celebrating our 150th anniversary here at the Church. I have had trouble getting any energy to focus on this event because I want to be sure we will actually make it to our 155th. Being a new church start in an old church has been a hard sell lately in the Diocese. I think people have generally forgotten that we are trying to do something new here at the Church, not renew the old standards and practices of a time long gone. In the midst of the work of the BCMS, the Bishop's Commission on Mission Strategy, I am finding it more and more important that we try to keep the focus on doing a new thing here at the Church, creating a community that recognizes God has a mission for God's people, and we are privileged to participate with God in that mission. That we are a people sent by God, and not sending God to others. We have uncovered behaviors and values that we hold as a Diocese that prevent us from seeing ourselves as a sent and missional people as a ...

The Rev. Aron Kramer Advent 1 December 3rd, 2006 How many of you have heard the story of Charlie and the MTA as told by the Kingston Trio? The chorus of the song goes like this: “Did he ever return? No he never returned, and his fate is still unlearned. He may ride forever beneath the streets of Boston; he’s the man who never returned.” You see, Charlie needed one more nickel in order to get off the train and because he didn’t have it, he was stuck forever, or until he paid, on the MTA. It is another of my favorite songs, I love the Kingston Trio in particular, and this song is sort of an advent song, a song of waiting, a song of anticipation, what will happen to Charlie, will he ever return or is he forever lost to us? Advent is a time of waiting, it is a time of anticipation, I have never really figured out what that meant, it has in the past been a penitential time, not on par with Lent, but penitential none the less. They way I understand Advent is that we are in the time...

My head has been underwater the last few weeks, to the point that even my sermons are not written down. Do you know how scary it is for me to do a planned off the cuff sermon? Anyway, the next posting is my sermon from today. Thanks for your patience! Be well, A+

Blessed are the CEO’s making millions of dollars, for they will accomplish the American Dream, receiving every material thing they have ever wanted. Blessed are the large companies of our time, Nike, Microsoft, Enron, Halliburton for they will perpetuate consumer culture, helping people mindlessly conform to their mores, values and norms. Blessed are our politicians, for they will show our strength by building empires throughout the world. Blessed are Professional Athletes, for theirs will be the ring, the trophy and championship and a giant paycheck. Blessed are the extremists, Christian, Muslim and all others, for they will cause fear in all they hate and bring judgment upon all they fear. Blessed are all our actors and actresses for they will pretend to see God. Blessed are the automobile, gun and airplane manufacturers, for they will destroy the earth. And blessed are those of us who are silent about the injustices of the poor, ignoring the signs on every corner of our city; those ...

My excellent and beautiful wife, beat me to the punch, check out her post about the upcoming investiture of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the National Cathedral. Unfortunately no Churches, are showing this in anyway to anyone, once more it is a tremendous oppotunity lost I think. If you want to watch the event, Sara's blog has all the details. I am going to watch what I can as I attend another conference on the future of the CHurch. Be well, A+

Here is the story I used, that I was afraid was way too cheesy, but couldn't figure out how to best end my sermon on Sunday so I used it anyway and people seemed to like it. It is from a sermon I heard preached by Jeremiah Wright in 1996 or so that he took from something that was circulated around the internet in those early days of making sure everyone would read the same story over and over again... Remember those days??? An 8 year old girl and her mother were at Cub Foods and at the checkout, down by the knees of we grownups, where the eyes of children tend to focus, the little girl spotted some green pearls. She begged her Mother to buy them for her begged and begged. Mom picked up the pearls and did what most parents would do, looked at the price, $1.98, with tax, $2.14. "Ok," Mom said, "but you are going to have to work to pay for these." The little girl assured her mother that that would be fine, she was after all, 8 years old. Sure enough she worke...

So here are the Beatitudes: (According to Matthew) Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. So as I have been trying to write my sermon, keeping in mind of course that next Sunday is the tremendously awesome, Sunday after All Saints, one of my favorite Church Sundays, the Church is always such a thin place on that Sunday, I have been wondering who it is we revere, who is it, as Ecclesiasticus says, do we "Sing praises" of? Then I started thinking about the Beatitudes and how the...

So today, as I was waiting for my fellow clergy to arrive so we could go to Hell's Kitchen , one of the best restaurants in town, and the best place to get Breakfast in all of the metro, they have the greatest Peanut Butter, the bells in the Bell Tower rang to signal the arrival of noon. At that same moment some guy, who had been sitting at the Red Light at the corner, staring at me, I had my collar on, slams his car in reverse, parks in front of our red doors, and jumps out, saying, "Is Jesus calling us, can I go in? Where is Jesus?" Completely taken a back by this whole thing I simply said, "Not right now, you can't go in, Jesus is out and about, I believe." Don't know why I said that, it was the first thing that came to my mind. He jumped back in his car and sped off and I went to lunch. So here I sit in my office, trying to get caught up on all the stuff I have to do, feeling quite overwhelmed by the craziness of the job, the joy of this job an...

When I was in college, I had a roommate who turned out to be my best friend. I remember one night, particularly after a long day and some horrible event, like breaking up with a girlfriend, or failing a test or something, I climbed into bed, he was in his bed and I said, “You know, life is pain.” I was not being original, as that is a funny quote from the movie, The Princess Bride, where Buttercup’s evil husband-to-be says to her in response to her unwillingness to wed him instead of her true love Wesley, “Life is pain, Princess, get used to it.” My roommate was silent for a time, and said back to me, “No it’s not.” I think we chatted about whatever was bothering me then we both drifted off to sleep. For some reason that moment has stuck in my head since then, I have never been able to shake it, I am not sure what caused me to say it, I am not sure what I was feeling, I must have been in love. But Erik’s response took me off guard, it was unexpected, I probably wanted to talk abo...

If you missed the piece on the gym in our building, we have found the link, thanks Jeff S! Click below and watch it in all its glory! Thanks Jeff G, the reporter, for his attentiona nd care in creating this stroy, it is very poitive! LINK:www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/MyFox/pages /sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=1207250&version=1&locale=EN-US> Be well, A+

So we have a great opportunity in front of us here. The gym was on, as I write this, WCCO TV tonight and is potentially going to be on FOX 9 News. So we have a small window of opportunity to make something happen possibly and get some free publicity. I am going to put on the sign tomorrow, and maybe tonight if I end not being able to sleep, "Home of the Malik Sealy Gym of Dreams", what else can we do to get the word out and people interested in finding out more? Any ideas you may have, please post them here or email me or call me. On WCCO they flashed a picture of the whole outside of the Church then the signatures on the center circle of the gym floor. If they are gracious to us on FOX, there will be some pretty good words from Jeff Smith talking about the dedication on April 7, 2001. We shall see! Be well, Aron

I stumbled across this news story on Yahoo! today and it really got me to thinking. Here is the link, read the story if you are able, it is short. Yahoo News Story How will the Church adjust to this major cultural shift? How will we offer places of respite and community for individuals who are in search of meaningful communities. It reminds me of the debate we used to have in seminary about whether or not the Church should get out of the marrying business. The concern for me is that last line, "So over time, we're moving towards a much more individualistic society." This of course makes the church in a much more counter cultural stream of the cultural river, can we create a positive space where we can prepare for the next big paradigm shifts we are about to move into? Thoughts? Be well, A+

Yesterday I held a forum that I Called The Emerging Church:the future of Gethsemane. It is a forum I have held about three times, with a very enthusiastic attendance and lots of good things to talk about. We went over the statistics that are indicating a great decline in the Episcopal Church. Lots of great conversation starters in all of it, anyway, a day late and a dollar short I suppose, I have some responses to some of the comments that always make me wonder about what the chance is we will ever recover from this decline. Two comments that surfaced, the first is one I hear all the time when talking about growth, the comment is: "We have to remember it is not about numbers." That is usually where it stops, it is not about numbers, but I really start to wonder isn't ALL about numbers? First of all there is a certain set of "numbers", money and people we need to attend Gethsemane so we can grow into a parish that is self sustaining and vital and growing and...

San Francisco California hosts the largest foot race in the world, a race called “The Bay to Breakers”. At the start of the race you stand in a sea of people, not knowing when or if the race has started, or for that matter how many feet will tread upon you if you were to fall to the ground. My first year in California I ran this race with Sara, it was quite a spectacle, naked people, weird and odd costumes, fully stocked and loaded tiki bars on wheels, people fully loaded as well. My favorite spectacle came half way through the race as a group of people dressed up as salmon came running AT US, up stream. Before the race started we stood in the midst of this mass of humanity waiting for our chance to surge forward and run on to the finish line, we could not see the start ahead of us, and we could not see the end of people behind us, we were in the midst of this great living organism, in the heart of San Francisco. We live our lives in a similar way, God’s grace preceding us and fol...

So here is Mark and Jeremy and Dale all doing their due diligence on the farm, cleaing up tomoato plants and picking up apples. It was a ton of fun, the kids had a ball and some folks stayed much of the day to help out. We ate good apples as well. Fun stuff! Be well, A+

So I have not posted for some time, partly because I have not preacehd for some time either. I try to use this to help get the creative juices flowing, and am now back on the preaching horse, so I will get this up and running again. Sorry! Be well, A+

Well, there has just been little to no activity around here, in terms of homless people bringing excitement to our days, which is really a blessing I suppose. I have had the opportunity several times to walk around downtown, and am coming to the conclusion more and more that I love this city. It is a great place to live, a great place to work and a great place to be. I had lunch and dinner at the boardroom yesterday, aka The Local, an Irish Pub that ROCKS! In all my wanderings I have been contemplating and praying about how we as a community can really start to have an impact on the downtown scene. The buildings, though quite awe inspiring, are also like big fortresses and to try to penetrate them will be a challenge indeed. But last night the Bishop's Committee met with the folks from EPNI, and they, BC, got really excited about what was going on in the neighborhood, and the graciousness of EPNI to include our Church in it. The mission of EPNI parallels the mission of Gethse...

So it is late, and I am just now sitting down to try to get my sermon done, so here is a little rambling to get my head moving and shaking around this issue of the Gospel question, who do you say that I am? Hopefully my contacts will cooperate here, they are getting a little cloudy right now... There seem to be two subjects that are necessary to address as part of this GOSPEL , the first is this question of who do you say that I am, and the second is that of being a disciple, following Christ. First, the who question is interesting, Marcus Borg says a lot about this, how he believes that Jesus did not believe himself to be the messiah, that Jesus had a whole other agenda, and was not seeking to change the world as the anointed Davidic King to bring justice and freedom to all the oppressed. NT Wright, however, believes that Jesus did know himself as the messiah, and therefore acted accordingly. I think I tend to go with Borg on this one, but not because of what he wrote, though tomor...

So, after a quite eventful 4:30 service last week, it was very peaceful and nice this week. However, the circus, or the karma or whatever it was joined us for the 10AM service this past Sunday instead of 4:30. It was Rally Sunday, and the plan was to cook hot dogs and serve them Chicago Style, which turned out to be really good, thanks Jeff, for that inspiration. Anyway, after the 8AM service and well before the 10AM service I set out the grills, filled them with charcoal and walked away, knowing I would be going back and forth and would be able to keep an eye on them, plus people would have been coming and going so they would have been ok. Well, I was wrong. Ten minutes after I put them out there, the nice Weber Grill disappears! So much for mass grilling Cub Foods brand Hot Dogs, and so much for keeping the veggie options separate from the non veggie hot dogs! Turns out the nice homeless guys that live in the park just south of the church, like half a block south, took the grill...

Eliot wasn't too sure about the canoe, I think next time he will love it, isn't this a great action shot!  

So the 4:30 service on Sundays has turned into quite the amazing circus. As 4:30 approached, I returned from lunch with my California cousin who is in town briefly to find a guy totally smashed on the corner of 9th and 4th. He was so drunk, on Listerine, he couldn't stand up. Shortly after that a student from North Central University arrived on the scene, and decided he really wanted to "help" the man who couldn't see straight, walk straight or anything. I had to get ready for the service, so I was more than happy to let him take care of the guy. At about 5 or so, they finally realized the best thing to do was to call 911 and get the guy to detox. So the detox folks came and took him away, and now we have a bike in the Church. Then another guy came in and interrupted the service with a story about how he was arrested and had to get to St. Cloud by 8 to finish his service hours that he had started otherwise he had to spend a month in jail. Usually this guy just c...

TRADITIONAL: Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of the Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. CONTEMPORARY: Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Crhist our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

We took a lot of really great pictures on our vacation, but this one is my favorite. Eliot, tonight after we got home, was so crazy tired, he could only laugh hilariously. Naomi just cried really loud. He had a ball and we had a great time relaxing. Look at those smiles! Sara will have many more pictures at her blog, www.eliotandnaomi.blogspt.com , enjoy! 

This is the view off the dock at the place we stayed at. It was evening, the sun was setting and all the ducks were in a row, heading home.  

Lake Superior is beautiful today! 

Wow, caught this picture this morning, Naomi was up early, and so Eliot was not long to follow. If I had slept in, I would have missed this! Vacation is so good.  

Leaving for the North Shore soon, will blog again when I get back! Be well, A+

This is the sermon I preached on Tuesday Night at the Celebration of St. Mary, mother of our Lord. I like it a lot, what do you think? Sometimes, I feel like a motherless child Sometimes, I feel like a mother, a motherless child Sometimes, I feel like a motherless child A long, long way from my home When I first started thinking about this sermon, what to say and how to say it this song by a band called Hootie and the Blowfish, burst into my conscious. As I sat with it and let the words wash over me, I realized this song embodies the sense of the world and the people walking in and on it. There is despair and longing in those words, there is truth and even beauty in those words. They are a call to all of us, all of us gathered here today to remember this compassionate and courageous woman who did God’s will simply by saying yes, and with that yes was overwhelmed, and overjoyed by the glory of God. One of the Church fathers, Tertullian, has said, “The Glory of God is a human be...

Yesterday as we were about the begin the 4:30 service, a group of people walked in and sat down to join us for the service. As I asked them questions, I found they were from Canada, down here for the 4 game series the Toronto Blue Jays had with the Twins. We get a lot of visitors like that, I still have been unable to get over the fact that something like 15 or 20 New York Yankees fans were at our Easter Sunday service for the series against the Twins this past year. It was amazing. Anyway, Walter was very generous and played the organ for them and told them all about the greatness that is that instrument. It was tons of fun. They went on their way happy an dsatisfied and prepared for the rest of the week. That is one of the great things about Sunday's at the Garden, you just never know who is going to walk through those doors. It is quite fun, kind of like eating Jelly Belly's and wondering what flavor you'll get. Be well, A+

So Justin Chapman has been hanging around for the summer as the first Summer Intern under my tenure, which has been fun and exciting and cool. His primary tasks are 2-fold, one is to help develop the 4:30 service that we are trying to get off the ground and the other is to help form a plan for growth for the next year. Anyway, as we were looking at our plan, we started talking about how cool it will be to do some real shaking up of our liturgy for the 4:30 service. Pretty soon the plan, which, of course has at its center the development of the service, went on the back burner and we started talking about how some of the things we were planning to accomplish would turn everything upside down in some interesting and fun ways. I imagine the Liturgical Police out there might get a little upset about what I am planning to do, but hey, sometimes you just have to take some risks right. Anyway this all happened after a phenomenal conversation with Rachel at the OC, Old Chicago, I can only w...

So Sara's sister Laurie is in El Salvador right now doing some fun, challenging and amazing work. She just posted a blog about her experience of returning photos an acquaintance of hers took of people in a village there 15 years ago. It is really powerful. Read it, then write a check. If you didn't click on the above link, feel free to click this one: http://lauriemcginley.blogspot.com/2006/08/terrys-return.html#comments Laurie, hopefully if she is willing, will do some presentations about her work in El Salvador at the Church sometime this Fall. Thanks Laurie! Be well, A+

So I was standing at the back of the Church, getting ready to say my little opening spiel about welcome to Gethsemane and all that, when one of the members of Gethsemane runs out and says to me, "YOU HAD TO HAVE DONE THIS ON PURPOSE!!!" I looked at him dumbfounded and said, "What?" He showed me the bulletin for today and what was written down as the opening hymn. Now, let me first share with you that I try my best to get through the bulletin each Thursday before I send it off to be printed. I try hard to catch all the spelling errors and all the fun stuff you mess up when you are creating a bulletin, even one that is mostly done for you already... The opening hymn for today was "The Glory of the Lord shineth" or something like that, except that I put down the "lorry of the Lord..." Everyone cracked up when, after saying my welcoming schtick I added, "Please stand and join me in singing our opening hymn, The Lorry of the Lord, which we w...

So, for the first time ever, I celebrated Eucharist in my shorts, shoes and clergy shirt. That's it, just clothes and a stole, no alb, no nothing! HOLY COW!, it is hot down here, amazingly hot. So hot, the AC in my office is struggling to keep up. The 8AM service, at 8AM, was recorded as 85 degrees as I walked into the sanctuary. The 10AM service was hot up near the altar, while, thanks to some strategic fan maneuvering, it was not all that bad down in the pews. I got up a couple of times to adjust the fans so the blew on me and Barbara, out guest preacher, who did a tremendous job! I don't know about this building, it is crazy hot in there, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of respite in site. Ugh. I am not looking forward to the heat in there from this afternoon as we prepare for the 4:30PM service. Only a month more of this stuff, and then guess what, WINTER ARRIVES!!! YAY!!! I love winter and the cold. My favorite season is fall though, so I am really lo...

Am I having way too much fun or what? Poor Justin, looks like he is scared to death! Why is it that pitchers have to have silence right before they pitch, don't you think we should do all in our power to disrupt and mess them up? Baseball is such a "respectful" gentelman's game, I had forgotten. After watching soccer all month and listeing to the national songs of each ocuntry, we need to come up with a good song to sing at Twins' games! Something that would really throw opposing pitchers off! Be well, A+

Here are a couple of the kids that have been involved in the Vacation Bible School that has been a great success! They are all wonderful kids, with tons of energy and have been gracious and patient with us old people! Thanks kids. Be Well, A+  

Had an interesting conversation with the other young priest in the Dicoese, I hate that, that there is only one other young priest in the Diocese, about where we are at as the Episcopal Church in America. Talking about a post denominational era, that names myself as a Christian before all else, read, before Episcopalian. It was interesting to talk about it, and try to comprehend the big picture and how much effect the Church can have in this movement and then to even think about the fact that we are not really a Denomination at all, but rather a Communion, a group of people spread throughout the world who are willing to come together and live in tension, and challenge and all that difficult stuff that includes great joy, hope and happiness. It is interesting to think that most people in this day and age are not going to join a Church because it is Episcopalian or even Anglican, they are going to join because the people, the services, and other factors that make them feel at home, and...

Thanks to all those who went with us to the Twins Game yesterday, it was tons of fun. The Twins won as well, which was all the more fun, and Rondell White actually got a hit!!! Way to go Mr. White, I think they should stick you on the starting lineup now, you must be a post All Star player. All the Gethsemane folks were stars during the game, bringing some fun to the game as well as carrying the fans in a tight moment when they stopped clapping. Fans were cheering and suddenly in a pivotal time and matchup everyone stopped cheering, so we all stood up and got everyone clapping again. Sure enough something god happened, I don't remember what it was, but it was good!!! I hope we can try that again sometime this year, maybe include some of the folks from other parishes as well. It was a great time! Be well, A+

So I was at my Group Spiritual Direction, and my Spiritual Director relayed this story to us. The Imaginal Cell is an actual cell that is found in Catepillars, and the gist of the story, which you can probably find if you google Imaginal cell, is this: The cell, at a certain point in the catepillars life, wakes up after being dormant. The cell has the DNA within it that forms the little bugger into a butterfly. When the imaginal cell wakes up, the catepillar reads its actions and activity in its body as sickness. As it reads it, the catepillar slows down, and eventually comes to a stop. Those catepillars that do not read its activity as sickness, or something similar and do not slow down, end up dying. Those that do slow down, stop and build a cocoon and then one day become a butterfly. An interesting story, I am sure I have missed some parts. It is interesting to me on two fronts. The first is the seemingly enormous care that our Presiding Bishop Elect, Katharine Jefferts Sch...

Greetings All, As part of the process of looking at our liturgy we are preparing a brochure about our services. Below is the description of the 10am service, any ideas to add or make it better? Make some comments! Thanks A+ 10:00AM Sunday Mornings : Lively; Family; Communion What do you think of when you think of Church? Music? Preaching? Families? Jell-O Molds? When you think of church, our 10AM the service is what you might be imagining. Steeped in Historic Christian Tradition, Gethsemane embraces progressive, all inclusive spirituality. There is great diversity of people at the 10AM service, all ages, and all kinds of families and we welcome people from every race, class and creed to join us in the Garden. As part of our 10AM service you will experience, music, prayers, preaching and other rituals. Music is choir led and accompanied by organ or piano, and on the fourth Sunday of every month Jazz Pianist Laura Caviani leads a Jazz Mass featuring Pete Whitman and Daryl Boudreau...

Well, Surprises never cease in the Episcopal Church, what will happen next? Talk about exciting, Katherine Jefferts Schori was elected on the 5th ballot in the house of Bishops and overwhelmingly approved in the house of Deputies to become the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA. Wow. What do you think Archbishop Peter Akinola is thinking right this very minute??? To be in Ohio right now, the spirit has to be alive, kicking, powerful and awesome, what an amazing thing! I didn't see this coming, it will be quite an amazing ride for the next 6 years! The Kingdom of God is like... Read all about wherever you can, all the news services are already reporting about it! Be well A+