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

So, I won't be posting entries here on this blog for some time now, as I move my work to the blog on the Church's website.  My blog can found at http://downtownepiscopal.org/aron/ .  This is in the context of our existing website, so join me over there. When you arrive at the website, look for "The Rev. Aron Kramer" on the right side of the page and click on my name and you will be able to find my blog there. Thanks! A+

M ost of us when we hear this Gospel begin to think of the different gradations of soil in a qualified way, in a way that places us in one particular location, while at the same time placing others in a less pleasant location or more pleasant location.   We can identify people in our lives who are caught up on the path and do not respond to the Word of God. We can identify people in our lives who fall on the rocky ground and respond to the Word but have no sustainability and fall away fast.   We can also identify people in our lives who we think are saintly, phenomenal people who do so much good it is clear to us that they have fallen on fertile soil and are responding in their vocation fully to the Word of God in their midst.   It is kind of a natural process, to try to compartmentalize people in certain ways, to look at folks and attempt to determine their worth based on our understandings of the moral implications of the Gospel as told by Jesus, contrasted with their behavior and

I was looking through Facebook posts the other day when I ran across one that made me stop and do a second look.  It said, “We all have at least 60 friends on Facebook; but when it comes to needing someone to talk to, how many would actually be there for you? I can guarantee not even one of your Facebook friends will copy this status. If you would be there for me, set this as your status & see how many of us would be there for you! Let's try it out & see.  Prove me wrong.”  My first response to it was to think that whoever created it must be angry and bitter, maybe they were left at the altar or betrayed by someone they loved, went to Facebook seeking comfort and when no one responded to their post because most of that persons friends weren’t online at the time and unlike that person don’t spend every waking minute posting new statuses or looking at everyone else’s, that person must have freaked out and put this post together. It is angry, selfish and unrealistic, that g

This text from Genesis, the eternally perplexing and difficult text where Abraham takes his son Isaac up to the mountain to be sacrificed is on tap for Sunday.  I am struggling with it today, it seems to be calling to me to be preached on, but I have yet to break open the other texts for Sunday.  The question I have as I read this text is this: What promises did God make to Abraham prior to this test?  Seems important to keep the whole picture of the story of Abraham in view when dealing with this one. Genesis 22:1-14 G od tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went t

I was pulling out of the driveway here at Church this week when I was approached by a man who has worshiped here a couple of times.   He is a client at House of Charity, and has played basketball in our gym and worked on our garden.   He is in the process of getting his life back on track, he said, and he was getting really frustrated with the obstacles and the troubles he was facing to get back on track.   He had made some poor decisions in the past that were keeping him from moving as fast as he would like.   Decisions that forced him to jump through hoops he was not at all pleased to jump through.   He said his life was chaotic, in upheaval and just plain crazy and sometimes all he wanted to do was run back into those familiar places which held for him, nothing but darkness and death. We talked about Jesus, and God and faith.   Where do you see God in all this?   How could God be in that?   How could God be in the midst of this chaos working and striving and thriving where you s

Stumbled across this interesting article about sustainable farming.  Hope you enjoy it, and let me know your thoughts. Click here to read the article.

“The Glory of God is a human being fully alive.”   This quote from Irenaeus is one that I have found to be deeply comforting and inspiring in my ministry.   Irenaeus also said, “God became human, so humans could become like God.   Christ became what we are, so that he might bring us to be what he himself is.”   Diana Butler Bass in her new book “A People’s History of Christianity” wrote “Salvation is a kind of dance, a process of growing ever more to be like God.”   I love this as well, it speaks to the wonderful nature, the wonderful goodness that we find in all of creation, and in our own selves as well.   We are constantly in a process of becoming, a process of imitating Christ.   Sarah Thomsen, a singer in Duluth captured the process of coming fully alive, this dance of salvation, if you will, in her song, Little One, the first verse goes like this: Hey there little one You’re life has just begun You’re learning how to cry You’re learning how to smile You are a blessed one You

The final product after we planted most of the garden. Len smiling for the... corn. Karl helping out with the corn have you ever seen someone plant corn as intensely as Dave?  Child of the corn... Sarah & Joey planting peppers.  How many peppers would Sarah and Joey plant? Lindsay like lettuce, or maybe spinach. Georgia and Kristine planting seeds in the Garden Another shot of the final product. 

I have told you before about the visions I had as a young person about seeing how the human race was interconnected.   I would often close my eyes, shortly before I fell asleep and witness a sea of white strands of some kind of web, connected in every possible way to one another.   It was all of humanity, faces and names I knew and recognized, as well as faces and names I never knew and did not recognize.   It was a comforting vision, it was a good vision, and it helped me understand the African concept of Ubuntu, which we in the Episcopal Church have been using lately in our mission and ministry.   Ubuntu is the idea that , "I am what I am because of who we all are."   Desmond Tutu defines Ubuntu as this, “A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others ar

Enough with this 110%, that ain't nothing compared to 101%! Give 101% Thanks to Don, via Ed, for this one. God Bless!

As we begin to form our own opinion and recommendation, here is one, that isn't so surprising, but is, none the less helpful. Check this Link.

My Colleague, Jim Gertmenian, pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church just emailed this to me.  It is quite moving, and inspiring.  How can we at Gethsemane move our food ministry to begin to explore our role and efforts in resolving global hunger? The video is on the The World Bank's website . Watch it and let me know what you think.

It was a beautiful evening, my friends had all been drinking and partying and having a great time.   For whatever reason I wasn’t in the mood.   I wasn’t interested in shots or chasers or alcohol.   Which was odd, because this was the last night for a year that I would not be carrying the great responsibility of others on my shoulders.   I would return the next afternoon to college students, mostly freshman, wide eyed and completely unsure of themselves or so sure of themselves you wanted to punch them.   So it was unusual for me to not want to be part of the party. I walked down to the dock on the lake, it was dark and the stars were out in full force.   You know when you go to the wilderness in Minnesota it usually is on a lake or in the midst of trees.   Wilderness in Minnesota is vastly different from the wilderness Jesus experienced.   Grouse, deer, poplar trees, walleye, bass, these are the things I think of when I think of wilderness, these are the things that root me to the