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

An interesting video my uncle sent me. Quite powerful actually. Lost Generation

When I was asked to stand up and speak about the Shelf of Hope today, and my students’ involvement in it, I joked to the Shelf team that I didn’t feel that I was qualified, and that public speaking made me feel a bit itchy. In truth, I speak publicly quite often at Breck, and I actually just returned from a conference in which I gave my first presentation to a group of complete strangers. I guess what caused me anxiety was the feeling that something like “ending hunger” seems like something that I just can’t do. How can I stand up here and make the case that we are making a difference at our little food shelf? It’s too big! There are too many variables, too many problems, too many things outside of our control, and besides, I have a job. You have a job! We have things to do! Whew! I settled my mind a bit. I slept on it. I thought about my students, and the people that we serve. I knew what I wanted to say. But, first, a little background. At Breck, all upper school students participate...

What is a vision? What is the purpose of having a vision? Every time new leadership enters a situation or a context, that new leader offers up a new vision. I did it when I first arrived at Gethsemane and again when we realized things were getting tough. Thought it is not defined perfectly, or finally for that matter, Food is our mission is a big part of the vision for Gethsemane. Attending the Diocesan Convention this past weekend the idea of vision was bandied about like a birdie on a badminton court. I heard a vision about a school of formation, about connecting congregational resources, about flat screen TV's. I heard a vision about the Diocesan offices getting out of the way and letting congregations connect and something or other. I left with a cold feeling in my gut, I left with deep worry about what the future holds. I left un-compelled, uninspired. I left spirit less. I had one spirit filled moment during convention, when Stephanie Spellers listed all the things t...

This coming Sunday’s Gospel reading is the story of Zacheaus. I stumbled across a commentary that suggested the “short in stature” bit didn’t so much describe Zacheaus’ height as it did his status among his friends and neighbors in society at the time. At first glance this doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but when you sit with the reading, you see that it shifts the entire meaning of the story. What I found most compelling about this was that it wasn’t so much Zacheaus’ sinful behavior that becomes the heart of the story, but rather the people who keep him from seeing Jesus. It is right near the blind man story in Luke, where the crowd tries to keep Bartimaeus from distracting Jesus. It seems the crowd is trying to monopolize to the best of their ability the time and attention of Jesus. Likewise we find that the NRSV’s version of the story, where Zacheaus states he will give half his possessions and he will pay back those he wronged is wrong. Turns out Zacheaus may have been doing t...

The beginning of the Gospel today notes that the healing of the ten lepers took place “on the way to Jerusalem.” In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem begins at Chapter 9, verse 51. For those keeping track, about 12 Sundays ago. In Luke’s Gospel Narrative, we have been journeying to Jerusalem with Jesus since mid July. The writer of the Gospel of Luke uses this time to share parables of Jesus, dig up information about Jesus’ journey, and to speak as thoroughly as possible about discipleship. Aside from being in the “region between Samaria and Galilee”, read the first verse of the Gospel, the village Jesus and the disciples are in is not identified. Its location and the description of the one who returns to thank Jesus as both a Samaritan and a foreigner is enough to set the scene for the writer of the Gospel of Luke. Some interesting history for you all, Samaria became “foreign” following Israel’s secession from the Davidic monarchy in 1 Kings 12 and the establishment of ...

We are the sheep we are the coin. For some it is the question of what the Bible is about. Is the Bible about our humanity, is it the story of who we are as God’s created people or is the Bible fundamentally about God, and God’s actions in history on behalf of God’s people? Is today’s Gospel about our response, stop running away from God, hiding from God, and open our hearts to God who is searching for us always, who is looking for us all the time and who loves us with reckless abandon? God is the shepherd, God is the woman, searching for us, looking for us while we wait, hidden, and hoping to be found. My hesitation with this interpretation of the Gospel comes in light of the Gospel we read weeks ago, about Jesus’ commissioning the disciples to go into towns before him, to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal, to me this sounds not unlike what this shepherd was doing, not unlike what this woman did to find her lost coin. We are called to be missionaries; we are called to heal the...

It is said that angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. How bound to the earth are we as we try to reason ourselves into the air? One of my favorite songs is sung by Mary Chapin Carpenter. It is called “Why walk when you can fly”, it is a wonderfully light song that recognizes the great pains and troubles in the world yet asks, why walk when we all could fly. Why be burdened and held by the bonds of our fear and anxiety when we could let them all go and fly to soaring heights. Paul Tillich, a great theologian once wrote, “The burden Jesus wants to take for us is the burden of religion. It is the yoke of law imposed on people of His time by the religious leaders, the wise and understanding. Those who labor and are weary laden are those who are sighing under the yoke of the religious law. And He will give them the power to overcome religion and the law; the law Jesus gives them is a new being above religion. The thing they will learn from him is the victory over th...

I was standing in our driveway when I man approached me and asked, “Are you associated with the parish here, and the garden over there?” I responded, yes, and he let out an exasperated sigh, and said, “There were two men who stole a melon from the garden, I thought you should know that.” That’s what it’s there for, was my brief response. Our Garden is not there for us, it is there for us in that it is an opportunity to participate in God’s call to us for mission in our neighborhood. The fruits of our labors are meant for those who are willing to take the food from our garden. It is not ours. Food is our mission, and it will remain our mission for at least the next year. I want us to buy into this mission effort we are participating in, because there is nothing we have been called to do more clearly than this mission around food. God is in this work, God is clearly asking us to do this work. On Monday, the Junior class from Breck school walked into our sanctuary with bags of foo...

I am the sexiest man alive. Seriously, I am. When I was in college, attending my Sociology classes, I learned about this little phenomenon called a self fulfilling prophecy. As a joke, a couple of my friends and I decided to make our own outrageous self fulfilling prophecies. Mine was that I was the sexiest man alive. To this day, I look for opportunities to mention this fact to see what kind of reaction I get. Lately, I get responses that are very serious, usually short like, “No you’re not.” One of the enduring concepts of the Episcopal Church is the idea, “What we pray, shapes what we believe.” The things we pray week in and week out, day in and day out, shape what we believe. I haven’t done any scientific studies about this, and I have been told by some important people that this idea is a bad idea, but I really like it. The tradition of the Episcopal Church is one of small “c” catholic tradition. A tradition that embraces a great deal of diversity, in fact our diversity ...

I recently received an email from an organization, or a publisher that stated the following: "The old church met on Sunday mornings. Today’s church meets all day, every day, everywhere. Today’s most successful churches have a secret – they’re fulfilling their mission in part by enabling and growing an environment where church community and communication happens every day, in groups big and small, throughout the congregation." We will be working on the latter part of that this coming year. The constant, continuous communication of what it is our mission is about and opportunities to share in that mission. Food is still our mission, and it will remain our mission as we prepare for our work in stepping out from under the Diocesan Financial assistance we have been receiving the past five years. How will we live, what will it be like stepping out on our own into familiar, yet unknown territory. We are on our way, and it is exciting to think about what we can do as we continue...

I recently saw the movie “Salt”, starring Angelina Jolie. There is significant portion of the movie that was filmed at St. Bart’s in New York, the Episcopal Church we sent a delegation to for their annual conference a few years ago. It was actually the first time I had been able to see inside that Church, and what a cool looking church it is. I also received an email from Bill Tully, because I am on the mailing list, not because I know him, where he explained how it came to be that Salt was filmed in the Church. He closed his email with a poignant statement, “Opening the door for God is a privilege and a challenge, the very heart of our ministry, every day. That's the way of God's world, filled with vocation, opportunity - - and yes, temptation.” What does opening that door look like for you and for me? Is it vulnerability? Is it simple openness? Is it centered around justice? What does it look like in order to take the privilege and the challenge to open the door to G...

It is not often I am compared to, by the God I consider the source of all, the source of my life, it is not often I am, by the God I love, compared to a prostitute. And yet that is exactly what is happening in today’s Hosea reading. It is easy for us to extrapolate this out as a story about a prophet from long ago, a man who was called by God, but whose presence today is insignificant and impotent. But we cannot see the prophet Hosea in such a light, we must see his powerful actions in the light God meant us to see these words. To render these characters simply to the imagination cheapens the Good News of a Gospel that transforms all of human kind centuries later. The time of Hosea was difficult, God had delivered the Israelites from certain doom, from the slavery of Baal, God had offered up God’s self in service, in love and had done much for God’s chosen people. The people then, repaid God by having, as it says later in the book of Hosea, “No faith in the land”. This lack of fa...

The food here is amazing, and wonderful, and spectacular and perfect and yummy. Did I mention the food here is really good?

This is the view from the building most of our meetings take place in. It is quite beautiful here in wine country...

As some of you know, Brian McLaren will be with us in Minnesota for two days in September, the 21st and 22nd, to be exact. In preparation for his visit, and to ensure we get as much contextualized conversation as possible, we are asking Minnesota Episcopalians to blog. The blog is under construction at the moment, but can be found at www.episcopalspirit.com (or www.episcopalspirit.wordpress.com) Rather than ask a specif question, we are asking that you reflect on the following passage from the book of Wisdom (7:22-23) in context with the message of Brian McLaren's new book, "A New Kind of Christianity", which is essentially a series of essays n the ways Christianity as an institutionalized religion is changing. There is in her a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sue, free from anxiety, all powerful, overseeing all, and penetra...

God...Miracles. “Fairy tales are more than true,” writes G.K. Chesterton, “not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that they can be beaten.” Now a number of the scriptural commentaries I read this week almost made me think there were dragons in these texts. Scholars were uneasy with these miracles happening in any kind of historical way, and they thought you might be, too. And I understand that concern. I do. They are hard to believe. And we’re supposed to be uneasy, in a way. We don’t live in a miraculous society. We live in a scientific one, a technological community where the events that draw us together are the release of the latest Apple gadget or the finale of a beloved television series. If our lives were fairy tales indeed, our Merlins would be more likely be found in a board room than a woody glen, more likely working in the hospital’s surgery than in the hospital’s chapel. Rational, comprehensible inquiry saturates the very ...

The above video, if it works, is a video of the the nest that was built by a Robin in our front yard. We were all excited to see the development of the little family, but alas, something got into the nest and destroyed all the eggs, well, all but one, but the mother decided not to return and eventually the third egg disappeared as well. Cool new videos from our new place...

Literally. I walked over to look at our Garden the other day and there were green things growing. Very cool, I will get some pictures up here regularly so people can see the progress of our Garden. Literally, last Sunday morning before services I went and looked at the plants that had come up the day before, and then returned after the 8AM service and all the peas had sprouted!!! I am so grateful for the work of the people who have put so much energy into this, it is exciting to watch the vision of a couple of people galvanize a congregation and bring us all great joy. Grow Garden! A+

I used the following for my two sources to craft a sermon on Sunday morning. Anthony De Mello says this about the needs of the Church: “The greatest need of the Church today is not new legislation, new theology, new structures, new liturgies – all these without the Holy Spirit are like a dead body without a soul. We desperately need someone to take away our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh; we need an infusion of enthusiasm and inspiration and courage and spiritual strength. We need to persevere in our love without discouragement or cynicism, but with a new faith in the future. In other words, we need the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” And from a man I knew as a student at St Thomas, The Rev. Stephen Stanley, at the time chaplain at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. If you are confused – Thank God! If you do not have all the answers – Thank God! If you do not know exactly what God is up to – Thank God! If you have to wait up on the Lord – Thank God! ...

The following was found int he Parish Visitor from May 21, 1910, and interesting little bit about the rectory that was found and secured for the rector at the time, Irving Peak Johnson. From the May 21, 1910 Parish Visitor Gethsemane Parish Visitor Published every Saturday at Minneapolis, Minn. By the vestry of the Church of Gethsemane. The rector has waited for the actual passing of the deed before formally expressing to the committee in charge of this work, and to the constituency which they represent, the deep appreciation which he feels for their generosity and interest in this matter. The securing of a rectory is a matter so much bound up with the comfort of the rector and his family that which he nevertheless feels is most vital to the interests of the parish. If it were merely a matter of his own personal comfort, he would say that the rector, as well as others, might run his chances in the securing of a home; but a parish has a social side as well as a religious one, and no pa...

I did not preach this Sunday, we had the Rev. Dr. Lucy Hogan in for a sermon, and the baptism of her Granddaughter. Very exciting. I did do a little winging it homily at the 8AM service, we did not do the Ascension readings, using instead the readings for 7 Easter. Here they are: The Lectionary Page The Acts reading is one of those wonderful visual readings that the writer of the Gospel of Luke-Acts uses to express the power and possibility of God. Paul and Silas are freed from prison by an earthquake. My brief homily touched on how we can revel in the imagery of this story and how God does the impossible in freeing God's disciples. However, the Gospel, from John, offers us the real impossibility. What does it mean to be one? What does it mean to be one for the Church. This is the impossible feat that we should all be impressed if it were accomplished by God. Breaking a couple of short tempered disciples from prison is no problem, making the world one, or all Christians on...

There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done. Nothing you can say that can’t be sung. Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game. It’s easy. Nothing you can make that can’t be made. No one you can save that can’t be saved. Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time. It’s easy. All you need is love! Do do do do doooooo… The Beatles have a sort of soft, prophetic lilt to this song. Tunefully they proclaim the bridging and healing powers of love in the world. You can do anything, go anywhere, save everyone, because all you need is love. However there is one phrase wrapped in the song that I simply cannot, or perhaps do not want to, agree with. It’s small, but don’t over look it. Right there, taunting you before the refrain. Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time – it’s easy. I subscribe to the idea that there is little about love that is easy. I suppose it really depends what kind of love you happen to be looking at. There is familia...

The four Gospels in the New Testament do not describe the actual event of the resurrection. Jesus dies, is put to rest, and then women go to see the tomb and it is empty. That time in between the death of Jesus and the arrival of the women, it seems, is left to the imagination. Jon Sobrino, a Jesuit liberation theologian says no, “The Gospel writers did not give free rein to the imagination. To depict Jesus’ resurrection in itself puts faith on a false trail by conceptualizing the resurrection as a return to living under the conditions of our current existence.” To return to our current context, to image a world after the resurrection similar or just a little better than the world we live in today is a horrible lie. It was a matter of fact that the Gospel writers did not depict the resurrection itself, it is a matter of duty, Sobrino says, that they refer us instead, as in today’s Gospel, to something just as important, Jesus’ appearances to the disciples. Today’s Gospel picks u...

(Vicar's note: I went off the cuff and didn't record my sermon from Sunday, so the below is a brief synopsis.) I have been reading Sorkin's book, "Too Big To Fail" and learning a little bit about this whole economic melt down and how it got started, and why it happened and how it was encouraged by the actions of a few. Interesting book, I like it and enjoy it. What I find fascinating is the drive to succeed and the complete unwillingness to fail on the part of the main characters of the Wall Street Investment Banks. They were so confident in what they were doing, had been through so much that were driven to believe that they could never fail. Having just finished the Olympics, I saw the same kind of mentality on the slopes, in the rinks, all over the place, people who were simply unwilling to fail, unwilling to lose, unwilling to finish second. The difference between the Olympics and W@all Street of course, is that someone always finished second and the athle...