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

Today we welcomed the early arrivals for the Province 6 gathering here at Gethsemane. There is so much happening here in the coming days it is really exciting! As we prepare for another heated and controversial and crazy General Convention this gathering will inform us all about what will happen there. Very exciting! If you read this and want to come and hear about all that is happening, please call the office, it should be a great weekend especially, on Saturday from 9AM to noon there will be different presentations about the different departments and issues they will be bringing to the table. Very cool. The bell tower is getting worked on, the painters are here to paint the dormers and the Sign guys should be here any minute as well! Along with all the Prov 6 folks, this week should be one of the craziest busiest weeks in the early time of my ministry here at the Church! Be well! A+

So Easter we had over 160 people in Church, then this past Sunday we had 80 folks and today we celebrated the life of a man who was a long long, lifetime member of Gethsemane. There were over 200 people who came to celebrate the life of this 79 year old man. The day started out ominously, we are almost done with the the roof and the tuckpointing and this morning the tuck pointer showed up and I had to send him home because we were about to have this huge funeral. This week we will host the Province, and their meeting to prepare for General Convention. Should be fun, but talk about a busy week. In the middle of it all I have a wedding to do as well. This is one of those weeks where I wish my daily routine was just that, routine. But alas, that is the joy of working for the Church. Be well and remember to eat lots and celebrate all you are and you have with those you love!!! Happy Easter!!! Be well, A+

I just saw a random news flash that got me really excited, but also really uneasy or something. The US Men's National Soccer Team is ranked 4th IN THE WORLD!!! Wow, that is awesome. They moved up one spot from 5th. Wow. 4th IN THE WORLD!!! Brazil is number 1, Czech Republic, who they play in the world cup, is number 2, Holland, Holland of all countries, is number 3 and the US is 4th IN THE WORLD!!! Wow. That is awesome, but confusing, how could the United States be ranked that high IN THE WORLD??? Well, we shall see, I like it, I will say that!

Today I had lunch with the new owner of the Minnesota Vikings. Zygi Wilf. He wanted me to be the Vikings new Chaplain, said he would pay me $100,000 and give my wife and kids an expense account. I turned him down, said I really wanted to make things work out at the Garden... In my dreams. Though I did kind of have lunch with him today, the Minneapolis Club hosted him and he talked about all the exciting stuff with the new stadium and all that jazz. I was sitting with two really cool guys, and we chatted about all sorts of fun stuff, really good time. As we were leaving we were formulating questions in our heads to ask him. I thought it would have been good to have him rank the Vikings players so I could have a good idea for my Fantasy Team for 2006. Anybody think of a better question, we thought it might be a little too hot to bring up the Joy ride on Lake Minnetonka, or the Willie Offord DUI... Fun stuff! Be well, A+

I have been wanting to preach on Coldplay's song Fix You for some time, and I think I have finally found my chance. Good Friday is tomorrow, and one of the lectionary readings is Psalm 22, which is the Psalm that Jesus "quotes" or rather, uses, on the Cross, before he dies. Though Fix You isn't exactly something I would probably sing on the cross as I was dying, it might fit into a different form of use. Psalm 22 is known as a psalm refelcting the suffereing of an individual. It is a prayer on behalf of someone who is suffereing, the form we have for our Good Friday service is the first half or so, the second half, being left out, primairy becsaue its fous is on praise. ANyway, the psalm is the "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" psalm and it is a powerful lament of someone who is in the throes of deep anguish and pain. Someone who is the middle of a more than challenging period of their life, a time where they are not sure they will be able to ...

Maundy comes from the word mandare, which means command, in Hebrew I think. So in English, Maundy Thursday means something like Command Thursday. I just read an interesting piece about the fact the Jesus left us only really with 2 command, one was to do the Eucharist together and the other was to love one another as I have loved you. I would add a third, although some will say it is the same as loving one another, and that is to follow the example he has set for us. We tend to forget that we are celebrating the entire life and death of Jesus, not just his death, and then not just his death on a cross, but the entire life of Christ. Another piece I read pointed out that though this Thursday service is about service and reaching out to others, why we wash feet, it is first and foremost about Jesus identifying to the disciples WHO he was. As the article said, eschatology before ethics. I liked that, although this week I will focus on the service aspect as I believe it is time for Ge...

On Friday we had a funeral at Church, for a woman who was a long timer at Gethsemane and lived an extraordinarily full life with a great and loving family. There are often precious moments at funerals, moments that are particulars "thin" or very Holy, or moments where you get a glimpse into a family that you might never have expected. This precious moment, however, didn't happened as expected. It happened in the morning before the 11AM service began. I was preparing food with a couple of real old timers from Gethsemane who loved the woman who died very much and was a good friend. Anyway, Don walked up to me and got really close and pulled out of his pocket a packet of listerine pocket strips. He opened them up and looked at me and said, "You want one of these..." I promptly went back to my office and brushed my teeth!!!

So on Wednesday of this week, Al Palmer from Palmer Stained Glass, Inc, is going to remove the ugly gray lexan that is covering the "Annunication" Window which is on the corner of the Church near 9th Street and 4th Avenue. The above window isn't the actual window, I don't have any good pics of the windows in the Church, and will try to get one up very soon, but talk about exciting. We are coming alive, soon everyone will know that little building on the corner of 9th and 4th is actually a Church!!!

This coming Sunday, if all the calculations are correct, we will be celebrating our 150th Palm Sunday at Gethsemane Church. In the evening of course, we will have the 149th Palm Sunday Concert. I just hope there will be more people in the pews than there will be in the choir. Good stuff. Pretty amazing, though, 150 years, 149 years, lots to celebrate and reflect upon. Palm Sunday has always been a complicated day for me. Now as a priest, I have to figure out all this crazy choreography and what not, which can be a real pain. It also was a day when I got the Palm Cross, when I was younger, that really was the only exciting thing about it. We read the Passion gospel, this year it is from Mark, and he references some sort of Naked person running away, about as risque as a Gospel can get. It is also the beginning of Holy Week, the week Sara becomes a single mom and no longer expects anything from me as a husband or father. That is probably why I don't enjoy it all these days, i...