gathering in light

This is the sermon from last week.

prodigal
1 spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant : prodigal habits die hard.
2 having or giving something on a lavish scale : the dessert was crunchy with brown sugar and prodigal with whipped cream. See note at profuse.
This was broken into three scenes which were read in parts by various people in our meeting. Here is a link to the scenes.

[Read Scene 1: The First Prodigal]

Jesus’ parable often called the parable of the prodigal son is clearly about forgiveness, but not just any kind of forgiveness. It is about the deeply divine forgiveness that only a caring and compassionate parent could have toward his or her child. The prodigal son is about radical, unsolicited forgiveness. It could even be considered a reckless forgiveness that doesn’t take into account the cost involved in the sin. This forgiveness flies in the face of many of our own feeble attempts at reconciliation. This is the forgiveness, Jesus proclaims, (jubilee) that is available to all of us from God, no matter who you, or what you have done with you life.

But in this parable what makes it so radical, on the top layer it seems basic enough right? A father forgives his son and so on. But there is something rather shocking about the first scene of the parable. Often the story has been read as one in which the son screws up royally, repents, then returns home to a forgiving father. » Read the rest of this entry «

We decided to experiment with changing my days off, so I worked on Monday and am planning on taking Friday off. I have been taking Mondays off since I began pastoring last May. While it’s been really nice to have a free day where pressure from Sunday’s preparation doesn’t loom so eminently, starting work on Tuesdays has left me feeling more stressed and a bit behind from the beginning. I did all the things I normally do on Tuesday on Monday (mostly office admin type stuff, plus selection of Sunday’s text) and felt more relaxed, less rushed and slower all day. I look forward to the rest of the week and trying to reframe how and when I get things done remembering my one less day comes at the end of the week! And since I will have had only two days off in the past three weeks, I am really looking forward to Friday! I think having two consecutive days off again will be nice, plus it seems like everything I want to do is closed on Mondays!

I’ve been scaling back my time on twitter for sometime; I nearly deleted the account a month ago but had too many friends ask me not to do it so I reconsidered. Now I checked only irregularly and mostly use an autopost type feature to place updates there. I did this so I could free up time to check facebook more since that’s where most of the folks in our meeting “hang out.” But as is the normal trend for me I am no holds barred, and all or nothing. So it didn’t take long to feel like facebook was also taking up too much of my mental space (not to mention my actual time!). So I took a week and half off from it. I only popped on a couple times to respond to important messages people sent me that I had no other way to respond to. Too be honest, I’m proud of myself for being so disciplined and actually not peaking. Typically, I’m the guy who grumbles when he’s fasting to the point that I’ll sneak little nibbles here and there on crackers (or whatever) when no one is looking to fight the hunger pains. My internal dialogue is more of a holler: I just can’t take this any longer! I have a low threshold for pain, what can I say? So knowing my lack of will power when it comes to drawing hard and fast lines like this, I think I did a good job! » Read the rest of this entry «

Today was “one of those days.” That’s what I told the barista at the local coffee shop and that’s how I felt. It just seemed like I kept spinning my wheels all day. At the end of the work day I prayed, “God, where was your Light at today?” Which was my way of saying, “God, where were you and did I totally miss it?” I jotted down a few things in my notebook, things that stood out to me or appeared in my memory. And now at the end of the day I have thought about that question again. And there are two things that stand out to me. » Read the rest of this entry «

Quaker Life Magazine published an article of mine called “The New Quakers: A Faithful Betrayal?” in their January/February 2010 issue. A number of people have asked for me to share it with them so they could read it, so I checked with the editor of QL, Katie Terrell, and gave me permission to share it here with all of you. You can download the .pdf file here. » Read the rest of this entry «

This past Friday Emily and I were gifted with some tickets to the Portland Center Stage theater to watch the remake of Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps.” At first we thought the night was going to be a bust. When we got to the playhouse Emily had our 3 mo. old in a sling and the ticket collector said they weren’t allowed to let us in with a child under 6 yrs. old. Really? But then another woman who worked there promptly showed up and said she would look into some alternative solutions. They ended up finding a spot for us in a glassed in room right next to the sound room. It was great to have a space like that out of the way incase M. did get upset and it also had some comfy chairs to boot!

The play was fantastic. There were four actors, all absolutely top-notched. The four of them played all the roles throughout the whole play and changed accents for each of the characters (it takes place in England and Scotland). The minimalist set was also used very effectively and many of the items could turn into a variety of props. I think my favorite thing was the shadow puppets they did against a white backdrop throughout the play, they were simply beautiful.

The night out ended with a little after play party at the theater. Something we didn’t know or even plan on but was fun to participate in and watch all the normal “theater” goers. It was a fun date and a lovely play.

Even though I still intend on following my six-month project on being a Quaker minister, I’ve been slowing down on my blogging as part of my need to hit the brakes on all things that pull me away from other duties. This has included my internet usage, though I am sure it is still higher than many folks! The last few days I’ve been having serious pain in my jaw, to the point that it feels like it may lock up on me. It won’t open very far and is creating a lot of tension in my head. Today I went and got a message from a friend which has thankfully helped some. But the other day when I called and talked to my mom about it (who has had to jaw surgeries for TMJ) she said it’s more than likely from stress. I told her I don’t feel stressed, which is really true. Actually, I feel less stressed than is normal for me (I think I have a fairly high tolerance typically), but I think regardless she’s right. I seem to carry my stress in my jaw because every time in the last few days when I start to feel tense for whatever reason I have a sharp pain in my mouth! Many nights Emily wakes me up with a nudge telling me I am grinding my teeth. I remember a few years back when I was first starting my PhD I was grinding at very persistent rate, which created all kinds of issues for me during the day.

So today while I was trying to remain quiet, reflecting on all of this, I was struck again by the mortality of life, of my own life. Life is so fragile, our bodies can only take so much. Lent for me is hitting the brakes, and working to build up the reserves a little. I don’t feel like I have much choice at this point but to respond in this way.

During our elder’s meeting a few weeks back I presented a calendar for the year that included e basic themes I am interested in covering in preaching for 2010, along with the days when we will have unprogrammed worship and a few other special days in the mix. Part of this included following the Revised Common Lectionary through the Lenten season. I gave a few reasons why I wanted to follow the lectionary through this time period but two still stand out to me. There is an appeal to follow along the Scriptural path that many other churches are also following. It gives us a sense of being rooted and a part of something bigger. And I like that it also grounds us in this part of the year, reflecting on Christ’s work on the cross and working to be fully awake. This is of course to mention that it’s only for a short time, keeping with my suggestion that we practice a non-liturgical liturgy. I was surprised by how easily everyone came on board. I thought for sure there would be at least a little residual allergy to the word lectionary, but I think people were genuinely interested in how this might also be an act of worship. » Read the rest of this entry «

Lent is upon us and I’m working out what it means for me to be awake and aware of Christ’s Light not just within but all around. One of the things that keeps me from this is the constant speed at which I move from thing to thing. The speed is a symptom of the pile of projects and commitments I have taken on. For instance, the other day we were at our Home Owner’s Association meeting and while we were in the process of forming our newly appointed board members someone asked “who would like to be on the board?” My hand instinctively went up. I felt like I was watching a movie of myself where the film version of me couldn’t see what I the viewer saw. I watched myself raise my hand, and felt powerless to stop it. Yelling at the screen “no!!!!” no one heard or even cared. This kind of compulsive yes has gotten me roped into more things than I care to recount. » Read the rest of this entry «

Today has been great. We had a really great meeting with the Camas-Washougal Homelessness Task Force this afternoon. A visitor from New Life Friends Church came and talked to us about a variety of ministries they are doing and some of the nuts and bolts of how to go about helping those in our community. I also planned our Ash Wednesday service, which I think was the first one (ever?) at Camas Friends (though it certainly wasn’t new for all people). I was really looking forward to hosting the worship time and introducing our church to Ash Wednesday because it has played a meaningful role in my own spirituality. The service was simple, with some prayers, scripture reading by different folks, silence, and of course ashes. Instead of marking people’s foreheads with the ashes I decided to have the ashes in a bowl and invited people to run their fingers through them that way while I said “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” » Read the rest of this entry «