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

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+