What prayer can (and can’t?) do

In an earlier post, I wrote about praying for a woman whose family wants her to get better while she herself wants to be at peace: And here I sit with a theology that says I can’t really request that God make anything happen. A commenter asked if I could say more about that, or…

Caught in the Act

As I predicted, my sweet old lady in the nursing home is still living, and more miserable than ever, although she's wonderfully lucid and frank and quite funny (Well, I don't care what the nurse's name is, I'm just telling you he was good-looking. And he's the one who did my bath today). I went…

Woking Vacation

This weekend, I got out of town and back to my roots in Vermont, as I gathered with my extended family to scrape, power-wash, stain, and trim my mom's house (and garage!). My family normally gathers for Memorial Day weekend, which used to be the weekend of the dance recital for my sister and I.…

Prayers with the dying

I've only watched a few people pass away, but it's always hard and not in the ways I expected. It takes a long time. Much longer, usually, than we expect. It's like childbirth in that way, and there's something amazing in the fact that for a lot of people we leave this life as slowly…

The importance of self (and family)- care

As of the conclusion of yesterday's church service, (and its sermon, "God's Team"), I am on vacation for one week. So far, I've had to resist 1. getting involved in the church's desperate efforts to put together a Memorial Day float, 2. overseeing the construction of the church memorial garden, the design of which has…

Sermon: God’s Team

"God's Team" ( May 18, 2008 ) Praying for peace begins in us, as we see past our difference to love our neighbors, and work together on God's Team. (Micah 4:1-5, Matthew 5:38-48 )

Birthdays all Around

The church and I shared a birthday this Sunday, and what a celebration it was. The sermon, "Variety Show" is uploaded in my sermon archive. I struggled quite a bit with this service, because I really like to make Pentecost special. Unlike Christmas and Easter, there are no traditions, no expectations, and in many ways…

Sermon: Variety Show

"Variety Show" ( May 11, 2008 ) The Pentecost story teaches that the church's strength is not in our oneness, but in our diversity, which allows us to be relevant in all times and places. (1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, Acts 2:1-21)

The mission field

I evangelized in Starbucks today. Yep. First, I had a funeral this morning, under very difficult circumstances. As in the family was estranged from one another and rather than sharing bittersweet memories of the deceased took the opportunity to air some grievances that probably really needed to be aired. I hope I brought a little…

The Revolution Will Not Be Webcast

The official word on the sensored streaming video is that it was unintentional-- although it was exactly as long as the protest and kicked back in after the protest. "We thought they were going to take a recess." Right. During recesses, they put up the logo slide, not the standby slide. That's only shown before…