Creativity When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. When death comes by Mary Oliver When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps his purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox; when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder
Uncategorized Signposts, Abraham and the Unknown (Genesis 15) In her book Journey Inward, Journey Outward, Elizabeth O’Connor says of the importance of self-reflection: “We must be engaged with ourselves, if we are going to find out where are, and where it is we want to go.” One of the ways that we know where we are, and
Uncategorized The Bible is the People’s Book This is a message I gave a couple years ago and coming across it today I feel it’s worth sharing again. We in the church have a paradoxical relationship with the bible. Many inside and outside the church have misgivings about certain texts or whole swaths of texts, while
Uncategorized Cutting the Pentagon’s Budget @fcnl Friends Committee on National Legislation started a campaign to cut the pentagon’s budget – in 2011 it was a staggering $664.84 billion, which is 60% of the overall federal budget – so that we do not have to make drastic cuts on important services like education, healthcare, nutrition assistance and
Blog Entries Today’s Bullied Teens Subject To ‘Sticks And Stones’ Online, Too Today's Bullied Teens Subject To 'Sticks And Stones' Online, Too : NPR. This is a link to today’s episode of Fresh Air looks at the subject of Cyber-Bullying. I can’t recommend it enough to parents, teachers and ministers alike. Emily Bazelon of Slate Magazine is
Featured The Beginning of the Journey Inward (Isaiah 6:1-8) Intro: For this morning’s message I’d like to talk about the Journey Inward based on Isaiah 6 by first telling a story that some of you may have heard or read. Boards with Names Imagine that you enter a hallway that looks over the steps leading into a
Blog Entries On God Pub: No Dogma, No Drama Pub Theology 1 from Episcopal Diocese of Oregon on Vimeo. (The video is no longer available unfortunately) In 2010, my good friend Shelly Fayette, priest at Good Shepherd Episcopal, and I started a joint venture we call God Pub. It’s not often that Quakers and Episcopals join forces to
Featured Homesickness, Mobility and Rootedness (Luke 4:16-30) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’
Blog Entries There are boards with names on them (a story) This is a story that came to me in the middle of waiting worship recently. I shared it as a message and the ministry that rose up after it was amazing in that each person that followed filled in a piece of the puzzle that the initial image set forth.
Featured Hating Father and Mother: Jesus’ Advice for Family Conflict This is the message I gave on January 6, 2013 at Camas Friends Church. It is based on Luke 14:26-27: “Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers
Quotations Boff on the Liberative Import of the Christian Gospel In my preparation for my upcoming class on “Culture and Systems Change” at George Fox Seminary, I came across this quote from Leonardo Boff in his book on Base Ecclesial Communities. In it he aptly describes the obstacles those within the early liberation movement faced in building a sustainable movement
The Artful Nancy Duarte on Effective Communication [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfQF3DXG-S4&w=640&h=360]
Uncategorized Nothing is more practical than finding God…than falling in love Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with
Blog Entries My Year in Photos (2012) Instead of writing up a lengthy overview of my last year, I decided to work through my flickr account – something I update regularly – and pull out photos that remind me of last year. Here are some of my favorite memories and photos from the last 12 months. (Maybe next time
Advent Plenty of Room at the Inn: The Nativity Scene Resurrected | On Being We must always be attentive to the edges of our own storytelling. Attractive as it may be to children, and lodged as it may be upon the portrayed scenes of religious Christmas cards, it is simply incorrect to think that Mary and Joseph were forced into a stable. They found
Uncategorized Mary’s Magnificat and ‘I am a thought in God.’ Magnificat The magnificat is beautiful and celebratory song. It is known as the magnificat, because that is the opening word of Mary’s famous song in Latin. In Greek it is Megalunei, which means to magnify, grow, enlarge! It is thought to be one of the earliest Christian hymns ever
DIY The Moleskine of calendars @NeuYear (Review and 40% Discount) I am a big fan of Moleskine – and Moleskine-like – notebooks. High-quality “analog” ways of note-taking, planning and sketching are where it is at for me. So you can imagine my delight when I learned about Jesse Philips NeuYear Calendars. After receiving mine for review I can say it truly is
Quotations A Light Is Lit in Order to Give Light (Romero) A Christian community is evangelized in order to evangelize. A light is lit in order to give light. A candle is not lit to be put under a bushel, said Christ. It is lit and put up high in order to give light. That is what a true community is
Featured The Shootings, With a “What?,” and a “Yes” – Luke 3:10-17 This is the message I gave at meeting for worship this morning: And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to
Quotations Romero on Christmas No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God–for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to
Uncategorized Parking Lots, Crooked Paths and Open Hearts (Luke 3) This is the message I gave today at Camas Friends during meeting for worship. It is based on Luke 3:1-6. The Parking Lots When I was in high school I did what many people my age have done for generations and that was work as a grocery store carry-out:
The Artful Happy Xmas (War is Over) – Polyphonic Spree Covers Lennon I love, love, love Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” I always have and always will. It reminds me of growing up, I love the emotion of the song, and I share his optimism for a better world. Polyphonic Spree recently covered it and did a stellar job. From
Featured Transitions, Temple and Reweaving the Bonds of Human Life (Mark 13) This is the message I gave two weeks ago at Camas Friends Church on Mark 13:1-8. Life Transitions This past summer I found myself feeling drained, exhausted, uninspired and generally not myself. I felt like everything was slipping through my fingers, time was moving too quickly, things felt lifeless
Uncategorized Walter Rauschenbusch – Thanksgiving Day Prayer O God, we thank you for this earth, our home; For the wide sky and the blessed sun, For the salt sea and the running water, For the everlasting hills And the never-resting winds, For trees and the common grass underfoot. We thank you for our senses By which we
Uncategorized Nouwen on Gratitude Gratitude … goes beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline.
