Faith in Progress

5 Pentecost (Proper 8) June 27, 2010 Luke 9:51-62 We have this great soft Bible that I used to bring to church for the kids before we got to this place with all the cool art supplies in the back. Just a handful of stories but all can be manipulated by little hands. The good Samaritan with Velcro bandaids you can put on his wounds. Fish that can snap off and be put into the disciples’ net. You can get Jonah in and out of the whale, put baby Moses in his basket, button Joseph’s pretty coat. And the story of Lot’s wife. She is a sort of popsicle stick – one side pretty and smiling and the other side unhappy and sort of sandy, like an emery board. The kids had recently rediscovered this little bible and when they got to the page about Lot’s wife they clearly didn’t have a clue what it was all about. Dylan thought the story was about a person who turned into an angel. So I told them the story about Lot who lived in this city where the people were really awful – hurting each other and

Pentecost, Proper 6 (Year C) Luke 7:36-8:3 June 13, 2010 In college, my good friend Glenn could concoct a Top 10 List for just about any occasion. The Top 10 Reasons Why Wake Forest Should Make It to the NCAA Tournament. The Top 10 Excuses for Not Turning in a Paper. The Top 10 Comments Overheard at Biscuitville. There was no subject too serious or too small to merit its own List and they were always smart and laugh-out-loud funny. You spend enough time with someone like that and eventually you can’t resist trying your own hand at it. And so I wrote a few of my own Top 10 Lists. When Glenn got married I wrote The Top 10 Reasons for Glenn and Deb to Get Married. When they had their first child, I wrote The Top 10 Reasons Why Glenn and Deb Will Be Great Parents. The interesting thing about creating those lists was that even though the point was mostly to be funny, you really did end up getting to the heart of the matter. As I wrote my lists, they made me think about how funny Glenn

Unlike Barbara Brown Taylor, I am returning to church.  Today was my first day back (at least officially) after maternity leave.  Two wonderful kids gave me the most beautiful cards - one for me and one for Maya - that made me feel so welcome. In some ways, not much has changed about St. Aidan's.  The place looks the same and of course, being the Episcopal Church, the liturgy is just where I left it.  But it some ways, things do seem different.  There are some new faces -- people that have come to check out St. Aidan's while I've been gone and stuck around.  I look forward to learning their names and getting to know them.  And there are the people that I know well whose lives have changed since I've been gone.  Maybe because a child is about to graduate from high school or because a parent has gotten ill.  I look forward to being back among these people that I have come to know and love and finding out about their lives again.  Sometimes I hear people talk about how