Faith in Progress

First Sunday after Christmas John 1:1-18 I’ve always loved the time before Christmas -- the build-up to the Big Day.   Picking a tree, seeing anew all those wonderful decorations that hold so many memories, baking cookies, humming along to Christmas music, thinking about loved ones and choosing just the right presents, anticipating gatherings with family and friends, watching the Advent wreath growing in light, continuing old traditions and creating new ones.             And then the Big Day arrives.   Everyone is wearing their sparkly clothes and on their best behavior.   The pageant is full of joy.   The carols are sung with gusto.   The candles are more full of light than it would seem possible.   The food is delicious and everyone is loves presents given with such care.   Joy to the world! But ever since I was a little girl, the time after Christmas has always felt a little low....

Christmas Day 2012 Proper I Isaiah 9:2-7, Luke 2:1-14(15-20) In the Washington Post you’ve probably seen the weekly segment where they list five myths about a certain topic.   The segment claims to debunk myths about anything from tax reform to sleep – pretty much whatever issue is in the headlines.   Its official title is “Five Myths: Challenging Everything You Think You Know.”    Maybe because the tag line is so assertive, I’d always assumed that this debunking of myths was reliable and trustworthy.   But then last year around this time, they ran one called “Five Myths about Christmas.”   I read it and was so surprised that I cut it out and kept it, and happened across it last week.   The basic gist of it was to downplay Christmas’ significance to Christianity.   Christmas is ok, the article said essentially, but Easter is the main event.   It argued that Easter, when Christ rose from the dead, has more religious significanc...

   Anyone that read my last post already knows that beginning on December 31, 2012, a group of people (26 so far signed up) from St. Aidan's will be beginning The Bible Challenge.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a challenge to read the entire Bible in a year, encouraged by the Center for Biblical Studies.  The last seminarian at St. Aidan's had gone on to work for a church in California and undertaken the Bible Challenge with a group there and raved about what an amazing adventure it had been for her group -- a great opportunity to talk about faith, work in a small group, share insights and struggles, and deepen their understanding of God and their relationships with God.  I'm looking forward to this journey for myself, and very excited to be walking this path with so many great folks from St. Aidan's!

2 Advent (Year C) December 9, 2012 When I was a little girl, my grandmother was an amateur genealogist and wrote books about our family.   For a book called Guyton’s Galore , she researched and wrote about how her relatives had fled religious persecution in France and eventually made their way by covered wagon to settle in Oregon.   In Schoolmarms , Grandma used her mother’s journals to write about her experience as a teacher in a small one-room school house.   And she wrote a series of books about the town of Shaniko, where she grew up, and how it turned from a wool capital to a ghost town.   I loved her stories, loved picturing how things were for her and her parents and grandparents, loved visiting the places that were part of the stories she told and wrote about.   But while I always thought her stories were interesting, and I thought it was neat that she was a writer, I didn’t think of the stories as having anything to do with me.   Then one da...

November 18, 2012 Pentecost 25, Proper 28 (Year B) On Monday I got back from a conference sponsored by the Episcopal Church Pension Fund.   It’s a conference that clergy get invited to after they’ve been in their ministry for a while to give us a chance to be apart from everything and evaluate how things are going in four areas of our lives:   vocation, spirituality, health, and finances.   They are called “Credo” conferences, which in Latin literally means “I give my heart.”   And my Credo conference truly lived up to its name. I got the rare and wonderful opportunity to think deeply about how I live and what I give my heart to.   As well as how I’d like to live and what I’d like to give my heart to.             It was an 8 day conference and it was incredibly full with plenary sessions on each of the subject matters, interactive workshops, small group sessions, worship, spiritual direction, meals...

October 7, 2012 19 Pentecost, Proper 22 (Year B) Mark 10:2-16 There’s a subject that can’t be avoided this morning, given our Old Testament and Gospel readings.   Or maybe two subjects – marriage and divorce.   I tried to avoid them – believe me.   I even thought about preaching on the this morning’s Collect, the great last hope of Episcopal preachers, but it actually ended up bringing me to the same place.   More on that later. Who knows what’s going on in any given marriage at any given time?   And how to talk about divorce when you know there are people in the room for whom that subject is nothing but painful?              And yet we need to talk about both of them, if only to clear the air.   We need to deal with the assumption by many people that marriage should be easy and that they are alone in finding it difficult if we have any hope of strengthening the couples in our midst. ...

As a follow up to my last post, below are the 7 words (or less) offerings included in the Christian Century magazine, followed by the fabulous contributions from the people of St. Aidan's.  What strikes me as I read them is how many of them are about love (from God toward us and from us toward the world) and forgiveness.  Also how very few of them have anything to do with doctrine.  Which reminds me of how funny it felt after having everyone boil down the essence of the Gospel during sermon time on Sunday morning to go straight to reciting the Nicene Creed, which is so completely different from the challenge at hand. From Christian Century: Will Campbell – “We’re all bastards but God loves us anyway” Martin Marty – “God, through Christ, welcomes you anyhow.” Donald Shriver – “Divinely persistent, God really loves us” Beverly Roberts Gaventa – “In Christ, God’s yes defeats our no” Mary Karr – “We are the Church of Infinite Chances” Brian McLaren – “In Chris...

September 23, 2012 Pentecost 17, Proper 20 (Year B) Mark 9:30-37   Before I start talking this morning and you guys get in listening mode, I have a little challenge for you.   This is where that little piece of paper comes in.   It’s based on a fascinating Christian Century cover story, where the magazine invited Christian authors and theologians of all stripes to boil down the essence of Christianity into 7 words or less.   You probably read some of the results hanging all over the place as you walked into church this morning.   Now it’s your turn – I challenge you to begin to discover the truth that lies at the heart of your faith.   How would you share what you find most distinctive and compelling about Christianity?   What is your Gospel in 7 words or less?   Last week, after the Ambassador to Libya was killed and then American interests were the subject of a wave of violence in at least a dozen more countries, it felt like the wor...