Steward ship
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I had known for a few weeks that I was going to speak on stewardship last Sunday. I prayed about it, I pondered what stewardship meant to me and what it might mean to others in the congregation.
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The Harvest Has Passed: In the Aftermath of the Mass Shooting in Las Vegas
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The harvest has passed the summer is ended. And we are not saved. -Jeremiah's Lament.
Beloved Community,
Like you, I awakened to the shocking news that the largest mass shooting in American history occurred last night at a concert in Las Vegas. As the chaos unfolds around this attack on social media, in the news, and as the numbers of injured and deceased climb- I want to invite you in my role as Spiritual Navigator of our journey to remember what we have been reflecting on as we journey together.
Read MoreApocalypse Now
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"It is here, in that darkness, that the apocalypse washes over us. It is here that we are decentered. It is here that the (sometimes barely) hidden will be revealed and we will become aware of what others have long experienced and known. It is here that the loving voice of our Still-Speaking God unveils our Shadow and invites us to a deepening spiritual journey of life, death, and resurrection."
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The Waters That Connect Us All
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“The monastic life is like digging into a well: over the years you dig deeper and deeper in your understanding of things, until the day arrives that you reach the waters that connect us all.” Brother David
Read More"By Their Fruit You Will Recognize Them": Reflections on Last Sunday's Counterprotest in Berkeley
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“By their fruit you will recognize them.” -Jesus in Matthew 7:16
Last Sunday, I participated in the interfaith counter-protest of the planned white supremacy rally in Berkeley. After what had unfolded in Charlottesville, VA a few days before there was a lot of nervousness about this counter-protest. And yet the need for our presence as clergy, as peaceful marchers, and as people of faith was very clear. As our Conference Minister, Diane Weible wrote to us recently, “Silence is not an option” in the face of this evil. As I shared with you last week in my sermon, I deeply agree.
Read MoreThat Comfortable Place
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It is Sunday afternoon and I am sitting here listening to some beautiful music and I have a cat in my lap that is happy as long as I let her rest her head on one of my hands. Of course, this makes typing somewhat difficult, but it’s a dance we do often if she wants a soft place to nap.
Read MoreWho Knows?
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Buttes of Utah’s Zion National Park appeared as I turned the calendar to August. Such majesty in the rugged cliffs, vibrancy in the blue sky, and hushed quietness in the stream wending its way down the page. How old are those cliffs? In contrast, how new are the leafy trees dotting the slopes near the stream? How frequently is this particular spot observed by human eyes? Who knows exactly? And yet, there they are in all their grandeur and quiet beauty beckoning, “Come, rest a while here.”
Read MoreThe Journey Continues
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“Maps help us to get where we need to be; they help us from getting lost; they keep us moving forward and in the right direction; and they often take us to far-off places we can’t otherwise get to on our own. Some maps are even filled with mystery and intrigue, like a pirates map leading one to buried treasure”
Read MoreMusings
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We have recently returned from a three-day vacation to Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California. The first day we stopped at the Sundial Bridge in Redding and saw the mighty Sacramento River. It was still carrying a lot of water and flowing rapidly, and we tried to imagine what it was like before it got dammed up at Lake Shasta. How much more power it must have had! How it must have periodically overflowed onto its floodplain, creating the fertile soil in the valley.
Read MoreSeekers (Really) Embracing the Journey
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. . . there has been a lot of challenging behavior and conversation recently. “Mommy” he said to me as we processed the consequences of some of that behavior this week. “I am afraid it is going to be different.”
Read MoreSwimming for Life
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I recently began swimming, actually treading water, on a daily basis. I did this to try to increase my mobility and, frankly, to make Jackie happy. Honestly, I did it more to make Jackie happy than anything else.
How often do we make decisions because we think they will make someone else happy, meet someone else’s expectations, or so that somebody doesn’t get upset? If you are like me, human, it is more often than we like to admit to.
Read MoreValley of Heart's Delight
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My first job after art school was as a designer for Muirson Label Company in San Jose. At that time Muirson was a nationally recognized leader in the industry that supplied local cannery’s and fruit packers in the Santa Clara Valley with appealing can labels as far back as 1916.
Read MoreOnly a Flashlight
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Opposites seem to be part of our everyday life although these contrasting connections are often overlooked. For example, for a flashlight to make any difference, the area needs to be dark. Even the name “flashlight” is questionable. You count on it to produce a steady beam, not a flickering light. What can you glean from this example that will enhance your Journey?
Read MoreHospitality
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We have to ask ourselves, are we willing to engage the long struggle for justice? Or does it feels safer to hold onto our hostility? Can we trust the possibilities that God has in store? Or do we just tack on “seekers of justice” after “Progressive” in our titles and do nothing.
Read MoreBig Tuesday
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Big Tuesday has always been a reference for when candidates are trying to become their Party’s candidate for President of the United States. In the last year Big Tuesday showed us what we already thought we knew. We were going to have our first woman President.
Read MoreMemories of Simpler Times
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If you are a long time Bay area resident you have undoubtedly passed Vacaville’s Nut Tree dozen’s or even hundreds of times on route to Sacramento, Lake Tahoe and beyond. And it’s likely that you stopped to visit the toy store, restaurant, airplane collection and gift shop, and maybe ride on the Nut Tree Railroad.
Read MoreStuck
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Deserts seem to come and go as you journey along. Deserts can be defined as those places where you feel “stuck”, bewildered, firmly positioned in place, blocked, angry, envious, discontented, not seeming to progress, or simply “Blah!” You long for an oasis, a place of cooling shade, a refreshing taste of water on your parched tongue, a resting place for your weary heart. What to do?
Read MoreHoly Spirit Doves, Chicks, and Parakeets
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In recent weeks we have been raising baby chicks at Clivie’s school. It has been a community endeavor. We all watched with breath held and eyes wide open as the little cracks appeared in the eggs, and the chicks wriggled out one by one. We have carefully adjusted the temperature, fed them, and watched them grow. For me, the chicks were the perfect embodiment of the new life of the season of Easter.
Read MoreHow Cool Is That!
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“How cool is it that the same God who created Mountains & Oceans,& Galaxies, looked at you & thought the world needed One of You TOO!”
I don’t know whose quote that is, but it certainly made me stop and smile. It also made me think about that concept for a while. Imagine a world where we all believed that God thought that the world needed each one of us. Imagine if we all believed that. Imagine that this same concept applies to every single molecule of creation as we know it.
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