November 1,2011
So today is All Saints Day..One of the trinity of days in the fall I love to walk through....a chance to remember.....a chance to respect and a chance to be thankful.....a chance to be grateful.
Yesterday was Halloween.I only had a few trick or treaters.....but one of them made quite an impression...I was about ready to turn all the lights off and I heard quite a thump at the front door. I answered the door and there was a really nice teenaged boy standing there with a big smile...I told him I had run out of bubble gum but that I had a few rubber fingers I could give him...He was delighted and so polite.I threw a handful of "fingers" into his pillow case....as he turned I noticed he was by himself (I had assumed he had a buddy with him)He jumped on his skateboard and was off to the next house....Maybe it was because he was by himself ....maybe it was because he seemed to not care that he was by himself...maybe it was because he was trick or treating on a skateboard....maybe it was because he had such a positive energy and passion for life (and candy) I wished I had...whatever it was,I thought about him alot...in one way it was kind of sad...in another way it was very inspiring.
So it is the skateboarding trick or treater who has become a modern day saint for me and in whom I am grateful on this day.
10/29/2011
7/19/2011
Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday
What happened on Saturday of that first Holy Week? After the numbing, tragic events of Friday, nothing seemed to go on at all. Perhaps it's a bit like the day after the funeral for the one you loved, and the mourners and family have drifted away, and you find yourself alone. Jesus' friends and followers certainly hung their heads, feeling acute grief, trying to stave off dark disillusionment. After all, for Jews, like Jesus, his mother, and the disciples, Saturday was the Sabbath, and they did what God's people do, even when they have lost everything: they worshipped, they prayed, mourned the human condition, rested and waited.
Alan Lewis called the day "a significant zero, a pregnant emptiness, a silent nothing which says everything." We live our lives - don't we? - in-between, like Holy Saturday. Talk to the widow whose husband died of cancer last year. She has seen Good Friday. She may believe the Easter Resurrection is coming - but for now she is in between. Talk to the husband reeling from his wife's exiting their marriage. We live in-between.
God could have raised Jesus immediately, or levitated him directly from the cross into heaven. Why wasn't God more urgent? God waited. God did nothing for a time. Perhaps God knew we would experience life, and loss, and love in just this way. We have hope - but the waiting can be a silent nothing. And we have to wait. We live in between.
For now, Saturday is a day to wait, to be still, to hope against hope...
( this is an excerpt from James Howell's blog.He is pastor of Myers Park Methodist in Charlotte,NC)
What happened on Saturday of that first Holy Week? After the numbing, tragic events of Friday, nothing seemed to go on at all. Perhaps it's a bit like the day after the funeral for the one you loved, and the mourners and family have drifted away, and you find yourself alone. Jesus' friends and followers certainly hung their heads, feeling acute grief, trying to stave off dark disillusionment. After all, for Jews, like Jesus, his mother, and the disciples, Saturday was the Sabbath, and they did what God's people do, even when they have lost everything: they worshipped, they prayed, mourned the human condition, rested and waited.
Alan Lewis called the day "a significant zero, a pregnant emptiness, a silent nothing which says everything." We live our lives - don't we? - in-between, like Holy Saturday. Talk to the widow whose husband died of cancer last year. She has seen Good Friday. She may believe the Easter Resurrection is coming - but for now she is in between. Talk to the husband reeling from his wife's exiting their marriage. We live in-between.
God could have raised Jesus immediately, or levitated him directly from the cross into heaven. Why wasn't God more urgent? God waited. God did nothing for a time. Perhaps God knew we would experience life, and loss, and love in just this way. We have hope - but the waiting can be a silent nothing. And we have to wait. We live in between.
For now, Saturday is a day to wait, to be still, to hope against hope...
( this is an excerpt from James Howell's blog.He is pastor of Myers Park Methodist in Charlotte,NC)
7/11/2011
my new favorite quote
Learn to live with less......Forgive more...Seek peace everywhere.....And show love for all humanity.....Laz Costillo
7/10/2011
a wonderful story of hope
A story shared with me at a very important time.
There was a wonderful wedding in uptown Charlotte at St. Peter's Episcopal.It took place at 11:00 am on a Sunday so it was the Sunday morning service.So anyone who came off the street was invited to the wedding.The priest did a beautiful job with the ceremony...there was one key advice given to the bride and groom I will always remember.The priest said to them the following:
When you betray each other,not if,but when,what happens next is the most important thing.
There was a wonderful wedding in uptown Charlotte at St. Peter's Episcopal.It took place at 11:00 am on a Sunday so it was the Sunday morning service.So anyone who came off the street was invited to the wedding.The priest did a beautiful job with the ceremony...there was one key advice given to the bride and groom I will always remember.The priest said to them the following:
When you betray each other,not if,but when,what happens next is the most important thing.
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