A Spare Arm?

You know you're having fun in ministry when you get to write messages like this to church musicians at the end of your day:

Al and Karen, did you have a case with a spare arm in it when you played at the
harvest meal? I now have a plastic hand with an arm on it, and I don't know who it belongs to. It came from a large case that was near you during the meal. Thanks,Clay

In An Emergency--Be Prepared

I remember seeing photos and reading stories of the 1918 flu epidemic which killed millions of persons worldwide nad in the US. A typical Sunday worship service in some places included a pastor and three or four widely scattered congregants, all wearing masks. It was a dark and intimidating period.

Last week, the Northfield clergy attended another update on the avian flu virus threat. We met at the Northfield Hospital and received a refresher course on the disease and its activity levels around the world. Part of the message was this: if anyone thinks the H5N1 risks have gone away or decreased, they are mistaken. Historically, pandemics like the 1918 flu were diagnosed a decade or more before they spread widely to a world populace. Avian flu was first diagnosed just about 10 years ago.

In that decade there have been under 400 diagnosed human cases--a bit over 100 in Indonesia, a bit over 100 in Vietnam, and around 40 or so in Egypt. The rest are distributed elsewhere. There is about a 65-70% mortality rate associated with the disease.

Since there is no pill or procedure to "cure"the illness, practical public and personal health steps seem the most relevant in case of an outbreak. In other words, the most useful method to prevent illness is to prevent transmission from person to person. If there were a major outbreak, the most effective way to contain the illness would be to restrict or minimize person to person interactions. We might possibly be encouraged to remain in our homes for a period of time, not to go to workplaces, schools, or other public gathering places. Hospitals might even need to be closed since they could only offer palliative care for the ill, while jeopardizing their own medical staff.

Individual households can prepare for the possibility of a pandemic by storing 3-days to two-weeks'supplies at home, then using and replenishing the supplies routinely so that they do not spoil or become outdated. The federal standards suggest: one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days for drinking and sanitation, food for theee or more days, battery powered or hand-crank radio and NOAA weather radio with extra batteries, flashlight and extra batteries, first aid kit, whistle to signal for help, dust masks, plastic sheeting, duct tape, personal sanitation items (including moist towelettes, garbage bags and ties), tools, wrench or pliers to turn off utilties, can opener for food, local maps.

Other suggested items: prescription medicines, infant or pet foods and items, important family documents--including insurance policies, ID, etc. in a portable, water-proof container, cash and change, emergency reference materials, sleeping bags or blankets for all, changes of clothing, cold-weather outerwear, household chlorine bleach (for cleansing items or treating water), matches, personal hygiene items, activities, games, books, etc. Emergency information, SSNs, etc. For more federal information, you may go to ready.gov Such preparations help you to prepare for a variety of other natural disasters, including flooding or tornadoes.

Tourists in Time

Mary Lynn and I are planning to travel to the Grand Canyon soon. It is pleasant to be a tourist in mid-October.

I have a friend who will travel with us who seems to fear that someone might fall into the canyon. I guess that's a possibility. It has happened.

But I have to admit that I get a stronger sense of sheer vertigo from thinking not about the depths of the canyon, but about the sheer age. Our universe is about 10 billion years old. The earth itself is roughly 4.5 billion years old, give or take a few hundred million years one way or the other. If you go the Grand Canyon; some of the rock you see in places in the deepest parts is two billion years old.

I cannot fathom this. How does one measure the rock of ages?

I did some rough mental calculations, then turned to the web. If I live to be about 70 years old, I will have lived around two billion seconds , one second for every year of that ancient rock, or one-half second for every year the earth has been around, or one-quarter second for every year of the universe. My life-span is such a small sub-portion of a percent of the age of the earth that there is no point in even talking about it. I am birthed, raised, matured, withered and gone like one of those fragments of a second.

So we go to the Grand Canyon as tourists looking into the depths of time. We come to the edge of "the depths of the earth" which themselves merely rest in the the divine hand (Psalm 95:4). All time and all manner of things rest in the divine hand.

A Dog in the Sunlight

October, when it is not raining this year, is beautiful. There is some fleeting something I see in every face of the busy, creative, working people around me which says, "Today (to be honest), I would rather be a contented dog resting in the sunlight in my backyard." I honor this. We should all go home early. We should each get a wool blanket from the closet, spread it on the sunny ground near the maple, circle that blanket three times, and then lay down to day-dream and nap. Whatever running we do should only be in our dog-dreams, where we are successfully gaining ground on some quarry.

America's God?

At the Sunday Confirmation class we were studying the proper use of God's name. The question came up, whether using the Bible to swear in public officials was an acceptable use of God's name. That led to a question about using the Koran for a Muslim public official like Keith Ellison. This confused most of the 7th and 8th graders, and one girl remarked that she wasn't sure it should be okay since it wasn't a promise based on "America's God".

I wasn't teaching the lesson, so I didn't comment much. Still, it might be worth mentioning that the God of all history and creation is larger than the history and values of the United States, and recognizes the yearnings for truth, love and justice expressed through a variety of faiths, ethnic groups and nations. This is one of the reasons our own nation was founded upon religious tolerance and diversity, rather than establishment of a State-supported religion; the Founders intuitively and reasonably saw that no nation possesses God; rather God "lets the nations know that they are only human" (Psalm 9:20).

The Word Alone

Dietrich Bonhoeffer observes in Life Together, "(Avoid) the net of self-centered introspection....There is no more time to observe ourselves in meditation than there is in Christian life as a whole. We should pay attention to the Word alone, and leave it to the Word to deal effectively with everything....If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness..."

So we absorb the Word in all the words.

Starting on Thursday, September 27, 7 p.m., at the church we will begin to read the words and the Word with the help of our Bibles and copies of the new Transformation Journal. We will pray and study--and so we will also grow in love toward God and toward our neighbor. Please count this as an invitation to join this form of Covenant Discipleship group. We will study and discuss the important things in life. All are welcome. I will help to guide the study. Perhaps together we will "gain happiness" and learn to "leave it to the Word..." Please call or e-mail me if you would like to join the group.

Heavy, Dude.

Thinking of Crop Walk, I learned this week that US citizens make up 4% of the world's population and 7.3% of the weight of the world's people. Now, that's heavy.

By the way, our first Super Wednesday meal is Wednesday, September 26, 5:30-6:30 p.m. What made me think of that? We're serving pizza and the fixin's. Please invite friends, family and neighbors. Everyone is welcome, and we can spread the heaviness around, dudes and dudettes.

Hummingbird

Admiring a hummingbird's whirring exertion while on a North Shore retreat, I happened to be watching when that winged blur of effort paused at a white petunia, and drew from the heart of the flower. That blossom had five red, nail-shaped "wounds". I thought of how intensely we work ourselves--and of how much we need to drink from the Gospel, even if we must do it on the fly. "Look at the bird of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them"(Matthew 6:26).

"Go Sin Some"

Tomorrow morning, Sunday the 9th of September, we're going to have a fine Johnny Cash-like singer, and I'll be preaching about the spiritual journey of Mr. Cash, who died four years ago this week. Cash started his career as the prodigal son, became a penitent and later a prophet.

It's a great story, partly legend and partly fact, but one of the things that caught my attention was the notion that when Cash first auditioned in the1950s with Sam Phillips as a performer, he wanted to be a Gospel singer. Phillips listened a bit, then told Cash, "Go home and sin some, then come back and maybe I'll be able to use you."

Well, apparently Cash took him seriously. His appeal and his message always had something to do with the murky mix of rebel, regret and religious fervor. And somehow he twanged our nerves and touched our hearts. He also warned us for fifty year, directly and indirectly, about our culture,our politics, and the risks we faced of becoming--overly and overtly violent and self-focused.

If you have the time, listen to some of Cash's recordings. Don't miss some of his later songs either! The "man in black" had a lot that he wanted to say in his songs. If you're up tomorrow by 9:30, come on to service and hear a bit of Johnny Cash' music and his life.

"

$2.00 per Day

Went down to the Blue Monday Coffee Shop today and ordered a small, skim latte and one of the cranberry-orange scones. The total cost must have been a bit under $5.00 for my morning treat; that's a fairly small part of the average $91/day that US workers receive.

When comfortably settled with my coffee and scone, I began to review materials from Church World Service for the Crop Walk fundraiser that is coming up on September 30th. They pointed out that almost half of the world's population lives on about $2.00/day/person. This means half the world addresses their hunger on the caloric equivalent of a dinner roll each day. Their available health care may be local herbs or band-aids, not even pills or a medical kit. If they can read, their library consists of perhaps a leaflet. The water they drink is often dirty and polluted--and must be carried long distances by bucket from source to home.

So I nibble on my delicious scone and think of the two or three billion people who are living without the benefit of even what I think of as my pocket change. The world is not a fair place, but it could be much, much better. The kingdom of God that Jesus envisioned certainly is. After my little treat, I came back to church and wrote a check for $200 to "NUMC" with a memo for Crop Walk. I hope that many of you will be doing the same over this next month, as the Crop Walk Day on September 30th approaches. John Wesley once wrote that personal generosity and justice for others are the ways that we "carve for ourselves".

National Relaxation Day

Today is National Relaxation Day. What more need be said?

Bridge 9340

Last evening, we learned of the collapse of Bridge 9340, the I 35W bridge across the Mississippi in Minneapolis. On television we saw images of the cars and trucks scattered and thrown by that fall. We felt the fear and distress of those who were caught there--and the grief and shock of their families and friends. We are reduced to silence, prayer, shock, tears and questions. For a little time, "...Our hands fall helpless. Anguish has gripped us"(Jeremiah 6:24). Soon enough, we will begin to rebuild; today, we are just aching together.

Letters, We Get Letters...

Dear Happy Pastor:

I heard in a review of the movie, "The Simpsons", that the most thought-provoking scene in the movie was when, at the time of some disaster, all the people in the pub ran to the church, and all the people in church ran to the pub. ? ? What theological explanation/comment do you have for this?

(Signed),
Should I Nip Some?


Dear SINS:

I haven't seen the movie yet, but why should I let that stop me from reviewing or commenting? I enjoy the image. Here's what I think about it: We are all, whether believers or seekers or atheists and agnostics alike, afraid that we have made the wrong choice in life, and that we may miss the good stuff because of what we have chosen. Hence the panicked flight toward the spiritual by those who have chosen a more secular path, and the flight toward the sensual by those who have chose a more disciplined, spiritual path.

Starting with Paul, and later Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and many other theologians, there has always been a push to enable people to seek and find God as the fulfillment of one's deepest desire or greatest happiness (even moreso than, let's say, wealth, security, careerism, sexual excess, or a few relaxing drinks of alcohol). The anthropological message to anxious, mortal, sin-prone human beings is, "In choosing the path of God, you have chosen what is better....You are not missing out on the best that our limited, only-once-around life has to offer."

(Signed),
Your Happy Pastor

It Had to Happen

It had to happen. Today, I visited with a "class" of four-year-olds at our Vacation Bible School. One of the charming darlings (a little 'un I had not met before)hollered after me, as I left, and she said, "I am going to kick your butt, old man!" Well, I don't know why she wanted to kick me, but the sting of someone that young innocently calling me "old man" was worse than any physical threat she offered.

I never turned back; I didn't let my shoulders flinch; in fact, I laughed and laughed and laughed as I went to my car. It was truly funny to me. And I still chuckle now, and I feel a little sad. My first time. "Old man". But I guess life is always like that in one way or another, it will "kick our old butts" sooner or later. We will drag, and we will droop, and we will die, but by God, we shall also rise again! We are blessed every day with joys, laughter, adventure, grins, insights, touches, waves, visions and grace beyond grace. Only the old or the dying get to see this in all its splendor.

Little girl, I am old compared to you, but you will have to catch me first before you get to kick my butt!

Home from Iraq, Home to "Vine and Fig Tree"

Two soldiers/National Guardsmen with whom our church is connected are now back at Fort McCoy and debriefing for a week or so before returning to their families.We are deeply grateful for and respectful of their military service. We have a good idea what they and their families have endured for our country. So, we say a heartfelt and simple "thank you" for the costs and labors borne on behalf of our national commitments.

I notice, too, that something in my gut, a knot that had the names of these soldiers on it, is untying and loosening. Thank God they are home again to love their darlings, to hold their children, to marvel at how green God's trees and grasses are here in "a country called the Midwest". One soldier from our church had already come home with raw memories of Iraq, and another tied to our church, is still serving there. We pray for all of them, for their families and friends, and for the innocent Iraqi people who suffer daily many times more the violence and brutality than the soldiers, or terrorists or insurgents are enduring.

The Old Testament prayer for shalom, peace and wholeness is that "every one should live beneath their vine and fig tree, at peace and unafraid" (Micah 4:4). May this be so for all of us--our sisters and brothers, our soldiers, our enemies, our distant neighbors.

Reach New People, Build Spiritual Vitality=A Path to Life

Kathy Neil tells me she is thinking about a "path to life" theme for our fall Sunday School start-up(e.g. Proverbs 10:17). I like it! The thing about "walking a path" is this; it is both a way to reach new destinations and a way of being. If you cannot strive for a destination, you cannot walk a path well. At the same time, if you cannot "become" a certain kind of traveler, "at home" in oneself, you also cannot travel well. The first traveler may be comfortable, but useless. The second may be reaching challenging goals, but essentially never present to God, neighbor or self.

I want to invite our members and friends to join me for a town-hall conversation about our "path" together for this fall, about our worship and other ministry possibilities. We will meet on Tuesday, July 17, at 7 p.m. Two imperatives should be uppermost in our hearts, souls and minds: First, how can we reach new people? Second, how should we build spiritual vitality in our congregation? Think about these things in terms of: how we all invite others to share with us, how deeply our relationships go, what is worship like when guided by these two imperatives, what about our teaching ministries, our care ministries, and our outreach to others?

One question our staff and worship planners has is this, would we welcome more new friends from the community, and deepen our spiritual lives, if we offered a Sunday morning that looked something like this:

9:00 "Heart" Worship--Relational, informal and with an accompanying
eclectic mix of music from our band and other musicians and vocalists

10:00 "Soul Worship", a quiet Quaker-type prayer, contemplative service--and
also our Sunday classes for all ages

11:00 "Mind" Worship--Blended elements of tradition and innovation, with
primary musical accomaniment on organ and piano, with other guest
musicians and vocalists or groups; messages might include more guest-
speakers or topical matters

If you have some thoughts on this, please e-mail me or Pastor Mary Keen. Also, we look forward to conversing with our members and friends on July 17, 7 p.m., at the church.

What A Jerk...What a Lovable Jerk

Every now and then this life, this journey from Soul to Sole, gives each of us some unexpected, unimpeded and undiluted vista of what jerks we are. We see it laid out plain and clear as a long look down one of the green hillsides and out onto the fields near Northfield. It is not inspiring at first, so much as it is perplexing and mysterious. How could such actions or words have come from little old me?

I had such a moment yesterday. It had to do with cars, parking lots, and somone honking their horn at me. I won't bore you with the details of that moment, just as I hope you won't bore me with the details of yours, unless in a confessional prayer or pastoral talk. At first, I thought there was only one jerk in the parking lot, but by the time we finished, I was certain there were at least two.

Sometimes I think this is the most important reason that we need someone like Jesus of Nazareth. He is a sound companion for our "What a Jerk" moments. He looks me full in the face and says, "Christ, what a jerk you can be!" And he will not stop looking at me until I 'fess up to the truth of it. Then, as some of my best friends also do for me, he says, "And yet how remarkable you are! Beloved, begin again."

Jesus said, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." I say, "Loose me, Lord. I don't want to be a jerk today. Help me begin again."

The Loon's Cry

My son, Colin, and I paddled the few miles of the Mississippi River between Cass Lake and Lake Winnibigoshish on Friday, July 6. The reeds were so high in that part of the river that we could not tell where we were going; we could only follow the general flow of the river. The closer to the mouth of the river we came, the wider the channel, the more the river reeds, the less certain the course we should take. It was like the scenes in "African Queen" where Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn are desperately trying to reach Lake Victoria.

We got sunburned, and bonded together by kidding around about how awful hot, sticky and miserable we were. When men talk together, there is always a strange, snaking current of thought and conversation, as meandering as the river there, moving from the deeper waters (when did you feel you got your life's direction into focus?)to the trivial but funny-as-hell shallows(sharing fart jokes). We covered it all. Colin is not used to canoes, so his behind got pretty sore. My thighs, which I always barbecue during July, were so burned I had to wear a life-preserve over them to keep the sun off. We paddled onward; connected silence replaced connecting speech.

Nothing much "happened". At a certain point on our journey, we came across a loon parent with a younger loon. They were separated by our canoe drifting by. The young loon would dive under water just as the parent would warble out a cry to draw the younger bird near. They repeated this comedy of errors several times, until it grew more tragi-comic. The parent-loon grew more and more anxious, crying out again and again, "Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?" At last, as we drifted past them, the young loon surfaced right next to the parent-bird. They continued their river-trip together in companionable silence, as Colin and I did.

A Few Days Ago...

A few days ago, I prepared a blog with comments from our Bishop Sally Dyck, concerning the two Conference imperatives: (1) to reach new people, and (2) to cultivate spiritual vitality. I wrote it, but then did not export it to you.
Today, you get to read it. Just look down a couple of entries on the blog site.

I will be out of town for a couple of days. Blog resumes, for better or worse, after Independence Day. Enjoy your holidays! --Clay

Men Without Their Wives at the Movies

The Northfield United Methodist Church men's movie-watching team was on the field again last night. The rules are simple but definite; I had to learn them many years ago, and now I pass them on to recruits.

1. The team or any willing member initiates a move to go see the movie; the movie must ordinarily be a Grade B or worse, but popular and explosive (i.e. loud noises, crashes, bright colors, etc.) movie. For example, last night we saw "Live Hard, Die Free", or was it "Live Large, Die It can be violent or funny, but it cannot be very romantic (this causes loss of interest) or sexy (this embarrasses us because we are a church group, after all, and the pastor is here).

2. You must go to a late showing on a week-night, after the kids are in bed, and with your wife's permission.

3. You buy a ticket, a popcorn and a pop. No foo-foo candy bars.

4. You must sit every other seat, or in different rows, at the theatre. It is not acceptable to sit in the chair adjacent to another guy in the group, unless the theatre is packed, which rarely happens at the movies we go to see.

5. You can talk before the movie, and horse around, and talk about the meaning of life or the meaning of the movie you are about to see before it starts. NO real conversation after the previews!

6. During the movie, you are not supposed to talk a lot, except to make fun of dialogue, plot holes, etc. It is also poor form to laugh at really loud, culminating, explosive moments in the movie (more on that later).

7. After the movie, you go stand in the lobby or parking lot for a couple minutes, saying stuff like, "That was pretty good." Or, "I don't know what that was all about." It is against the rules to discuss the movie much or to find meaning in it.

8. Drive home. Wake up your wife because you forgot to set your pajamas out when you left home earlier. Apologize. Go to sleep.

John Daniels and I had, as I said, to train four new guys for the "men without their wives movie night team", which is sponsored on an irregular basis by the Northfield United Methodist Church. Most of the four did okay, but they made a few mistakes. Our Administrative Council Chair, Tim Goodwin, suggested I should rate their performance here on a four-star scale. In the interests of privacy, I will only use initials. They know who they are. One was a "guest" from another church; I am sorry I invited the outsider. He did far worse than our own kind.

BA **** Went quietly to an appropriate seat with large popcorn and pop.
Laughed at the right times. Did not think much.

TG ***1/2 As above, except seemed to be puzzled by the way we do things.
May have been analyzing things, or wishing he was home with the
wife and kids.

TH **** As above. Threw part of his water bottle on me when I casually
put my left foot near his left ear, and my right foot near his
right ear from the seat behind him. This is appropriate team
behavior for men without wives at the movies.

JS *1/2 Lots of mistakes, some of them intentional. Sat next to me.
Ate some of my popcorn before I sent him to the lobby to
buy his own danged popcorn. Worst of all, laughed
uproariously at every shoot-out, martial arts scene, or
incredible chase-and-explosion scene. I think I also caught him
wondering about the meaning of it all once or twice.

If you wish to join the team, and are willing to go through an extended period of rigorous movie-watching training, please contact Pastor Clay Oglesbee, Northfield United Methodist Church at clay_oglesbee@msn.com

Bishop Sally Dyck: Two Imperatives > Social Transformation

At the Minnesota Annual Conference this year, two gospel-based imperatives were adopted; they are intended to guide and shape the ministries of every congregation. The first is, "Reach new people." The second is, "Cultivate spiritual vitality." I sent a query to our Conference bishop, Sally Dyck, this week, asking whether a third imperative would follow, possibly something on social transformation, and her thoughtful response follows here.

"In terms of another imperative in relation to change/transformation, I'd be interested in what you have in mind, but I see (the first two imperatives--reaching new people, and cultivating spiritual vitality) as means to change; (the two imperatives) are like eating 5-7 fresh fruits and vegetables. Health is not (the) 5-7 fruits and vegetables; health is the result of eating them. Change(is the result of pursuing) these imperatives....

"Actually I've spent a lot of time in the last few days thinking about next year's annual conference in terms of change/transformation. I'm pretty excited about possibilities of speakers, themes, worship, etc.!!! I hope we have some celebrations in terms of how cultivating spiritual vitality and reaching new people will help us witness to transformation in our lives, in our churches, in our communities and in our world!"

So, each one of us has this opportunity and adventure before us: how can our personal and active spiritual life (prayer, Bible study,worship, and so on), as well as our reaching out to new people and new relationships also lead to transformed, just, warm-hearted churches, communities and nations? How can we be a people of Jesus' Spirit for the redemption of the world?

Bishop Sally Dyck is asking anyone who cares to do so to join this conversation on her blog which you can find at the Minnesota Annual Conference's website.

24/7 or 25/10

People these days often talk about being open or busy "24/7". In other words, they are fully engaged or on-call 24-hours a day, seven days a week. It's a sign of the times. However accurate that is, it's probably not a very healthy or sustainable way to live, even if it's just an attitude about availability for work, rather than actual performance.

Benedictine Christian spirituality asks us to exert ourselves, not with workaholic obsessiveness, but with a virtue they call "stability". It is defined as a long faithfulness in a particular direction. It is the willingness to stay with a course of action, a calling, a cause or a community for the long haul. Not to be getting blown off toward new ventures every time the wind shifts, or someone disappoints us, or whenever we are restless, or when we think the career grass is greener elsewhere.

This June, Pastor Mary Keen and I both celebrate twenty-five years in pastoral service with the Minnesota Annual Conference with what we hope has been twenty-five years of pastoral fidelity. At the same time, I am also marking completion of my tenth year with the Northfield congregation. Friends in the church have kindly noticed this, and offered their thanks and encouragements for the future.

What I want to say about this is, simply that I am glad to have served not 24/7, but 25/10, not with creepy perfectionism, but with real-life commitment. I am happy to continue to minister with each of you, and with others from other churches.

God has been kind to give me all of you as companions in the Spirit. Such friendships, encouragements and enthusiasms always deeply affect the work and the heart of any pastor. With them, pastors will joyously strive for the impossible. Without them, we will ordinarily only limp and ache, as anyone else would.

God has also blessed me with Mary Lynn, my wife, who has been my enduring, extraordinary, bright and loving side-kick throughout our years of ministry. She has kept her own life and person, and yet she has been my wise advisor and sounding-board. Much of what I have done well, I owe to her counsels in our kitchen conversations at home.

Much as I hate to admit it, God has also blessed me by means of failures and sorrows, taught to me by people who at one time or another, found me really annoying, disappointing, or unworthy of their trust--how difficult it is to be seen in that way by anyone, and how hard to listen when someone tells you those truths! Humility is the most difficult lesson to learn.

Anyway, let us be a "stable" people faithfully serving God and neighbor, not doing this under compulsion, as Paul says, but because we are loved and able to love.

Lakeville

A Thoreau journal entry from June 1856: To Middleborough ponds in the new town of Lakeville (some three years old). What a miserable name! It should have been Assawampsett or, perchance, Sanacus, if that was the name of the Christian Indian killed on the pond.

We have a "Lakeville" nearby our town, as Thoreau did near his. He is right. What is the point of giving miserly names to our communities and home towns? What is there about the name "Lakeville" that stirs soul or imagination? What ancient stories does it provoke us to tell? What dreams does it spur? Better by far to call it something like "Chub Creek", at least, the name of a nearby lake and creek where we can still at least remember that settler-farmers once caught chub, a free-biting little fish that will take almost any bait--and which even inexperienced fishers can catch. What did anyone ever catch in Lakeville, but a multiplex movie, or a commuter-ride?

Answering the Calls

Well, the black, bedside phone rang this morning while I was in the bedroom. I did not have my "readers" on, so when I picked it up, I couldn't tell which button to press to answer the call. The buttons are tiny, and the print is minute. By the time I pressed a button at random, my caller had already hung up. Later, my wife e-mailed me, "I've tried to call you in three places today! Where are you?"

Is there a lesson here? If I'd had my glasses, I'd have answered. If I'd built the phone, I'd have known how to answer. If I'd memorized the right button, I'd have answered on time. Since I completed none of these preparations, I could not respond to the calls.

Maybe spiritual calls have some similarities. God is generous with the calls; God phones us again and again, and often leaves messages on voice-mail: "I'm trying to reach you over and over again! Where are you?" However, the call needs a response if anything is going to happen. We need to be ready to respond to the call. Jesus says, "Watch and pray...You don't know the day or the hour" (Matthew 26:41ff). The call could, and does, come at any time.

Feeling the Heat of the Divine Presence

from Thoreau's Journals, June of 1853
The warmest day yet. For the least two days I have worn nothing about my neck. This change or putting off of clothes is, methinks, as good an evidence of the increasing warmth of the weather as meteorological instruments. I thought it was hot weather perchance, when, a month ago, I slept with a window wide open and laid aside a comfortable, but by and by I found that I had got two windows open, and to-night two windows and the door are far from enough.

Our bodies know a great deal more than our instruments and conscious analysis.
We "feel the heat" and recognize what is invigorating and what seems debilitating.
We know "in our guts" whether something seems true, or someone seems honest. We trust our senses on things that are not entirely knowable or entirely visible.
John Wesley and others have theorized that human beings are endowed with what one might call spiritual sensitivities that also exceed our normal awareness. Physiologically difficult to identify, we nevertheless seem to be able to sense after the Presence of what is Holy, or what is not.

There are times in my dreams when I "know" I am in the presence of the Divine, though even in the dream I can see or hear little of it. There are times in life when we abruptly realize we are walking on sacred ground, though we could not explain exactly why a space and time are anything other than ordinary. We simply seek God, going by "feel".

"Condemn No One's Conscience..."

I remember very well how during the Viet Nam War, Pastor Robert Bailey at Brooklyn United Methodist Church,a WWII veteran himself, spoke passionately on behalf of Christian conscience--for and against the war in Viet Nam. At the time, I was disappointed in him. In a large church, divided on that and other social issues of the time, his approach was to propose that each person must be responsible for following their own conscience without expecting others to agree--and without personally "excommunicating" other persons when or if they disagreed with you. His counsel was simply to honor, and not to disrespect, another's informed and faithful convictions or actions of conscience. At the time, I thought his stance was a form of cowardice; now, I am not sure. Consider the case and the words of Cardinal John Fisher, particularly his remarks at the end of the article below.

This week the Catholic saints in the Benedictine calendar include St John Fisher (1469 - 1535). The Catholic Encyclopedia reports, "He was born in Beverley, in Yorkshire, in 1469. He studied theology at the University of Cambridge, and had a successful career there, finally becoming chancellor of the University and bishop of Rochester: unusually for the time, he paid a great deal of attention to the welfare of his diocese.

He wrote much against the errors and corruption into which the Church had fallen, and was a friend and supporter of great humanists such as Erasmus of Rotterdam; but he was greatly opposed to Lutheranism, both in its doctrine and in its ideas of reform.

He supported the validity of King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and for this he was briefly imprisoned. When the King had divorced Catherine, married Anne Boleyn, and constituted himself the supreme Head of the Church in England, John Fisher refused to assent. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London on a charge of treason, and on 22 June 1535, a month after having been made a Cardinal by the Pope, he was executed. He was so ill and weak that he had to be carried in a chair to the place of execution.

He was the only bishop to oppose Henry VIII’s (marriages), on the grounds that they were a repudiation of papal authority, but even so he avoided direct confrontation with the other bishops, not holding himself up as a hero or boasting of his coming martyrdom: I condemn no other man’s conscience: their conscience may save them, and mine must save me. We should remember, in all the controversies in which we engage, to treat our opponents as if they were acting in good faith, even if they seem to us to be acting out of spite or self-interest."

Stained Glass and Lighting

Sanctuary Stained Glass (North Windows) and Lighting

Action: This evening (June 19, 2007), the Administrative Council acted to approve acceptance of a gift from one of our church households to fund purchase and installation of stained glass windows in the 12 long windows on the north side of the sanctuary. The Council also approved expeditures to increase electric lighting in the organ, choir and platform areas. Your questions or comments are welcomed; please call Pastor Clay at 507-645-5689. The design is also available for examination in the pastor's office.

Rationale:
• The original aesthetic vision and architectural design by Ed Sovik would be completed. His drawings called for stained glass windows throughout the sanctuary, which the church could not then afford (1964). Special gifts have made this possible on the South side (Wegner gift) and on the West side. The remaining need is on the North side, and an anonymous church household has offered to make a gift of the stained glass purchase and installation.

• Shadowed, poorly-illuminated areas around the organ, choir and platform would be eliminated. Lighting from new track-lighting fixtures would be increased from 8 foot-candles to about 28 foot-candles, significantly improving the functional and aesthetic appearance of the sanctuary.

Design: The David Kjerland Studios have created a flowing, lightly colored and clear stained glass window design, which connects all twelve windows together in an aesthetically pleasing, abstract Creation theme, while preserving roughly half clear window panels to allow a clear, undistorted view of nature and weather outside the window.

Costs:
$55,000 Stained glass windows and installation (David Kjerland Studios)
$10,000 Sanctuary Lighting Improvements (Tony Guth Electric)
$65,000 Total Cost (est.)

Resources
$60,000 Memorial Gift from one church family
$ 5,000 Contributions from congregation, memorials, etc.



FAQ

Has this been thoroughly discussed in the church?
Yes, the Gifts and Investments Committee first considered this and recommended it to the Council. The Visuals Team was consulted and recommended it to the Council. Many on the church staff and a number of church members were privately consulted. A "town hall" gathering of any interested members (about 60 came) met a few weeks ago to discuss this and generally favored the plans for the windows. Finally, the Administrative Council has reviewed the proposed action in detail at two different meetings.

Will we still be able to see the natural beauty outside?
Yes, the design uses about 50% clear panels; other panels will be lightly colored.

When will it be completed?
It should be completed by the end of 2007.

How long will the windows last and what are the maintenance costs?
They should last a century or longer, and maintenance is minimal when properly installed.

Will the stained glass help with heat conservation?
Yes, marginally.

How much natural light will be lost if we put in stained glass?
We estimate 20% may be lost. However, the quality of the light entering will diffuse better throughout the sanctuary without the bright glare factor of the windows as they currently are. In addition, the plan calls for added electric lighting which will end some lighting issues near the organ, choir and platform which have been problematic for many years.

Who are the donors?
The family will remain anonymous for the time being. They ask that a memorial plaque be placed near the windows in honor of family members when the stained glass windows are installed and dedicated.

Correction re: June 20

Regarding the All-Church Meal (6:00 p.m.) and Charles Wesley Singers' Performance (7:00 p.m.) on June 20:church members are asked to bring salads, side-dishes or chips, not desserts. Sandwiches, beverages and desserts will be provided.
Please come and enjoy a pleasant summer evening together with your church family and our guests!

Eating and Singing on June 20th

Keep us little and unknown, prized and loved by God alone.

– Charles Wesley

A last invitation and reminder to join us on Wednesday, June 20, for an all-church meal (6:00 p.m.) with the 90-person visiting Charles Wesley Singers from Damascus, Maryland, and then to hear them perform with the Saint Cecilia Orchestra. The performance begins at 7:00 p.m. We ask that each household bring a salad or side-dish to share. The performance is free and open to the public. This event is meant to honor the memory of prolific hymn-writer and Christian leader, Charles Wesley, whose 300th birthday occurs this year, 2007.

Shoe-Laces and the Spiritual Walk

Part of any "journey of faith" will routinely require pausing once in a while to re-tie your shoelaces, so to speak. We plan to do that soon.

We're looking at options for our worship and ministries in the fall.
In order to develop those ideas creatively, without undue pressure on anyone to come up with the perfect choices, we plan to have a fairly free-flowing "town-hall" meeting after worship on Sunday, June 24. We will be discussing the Conference's two imperatives for every church: (1) to reach new people, and (2) to build spiritual vitality. This involves thinking and praying about how we invite others, how we worship, how we build up the spiritual life here, and how we serve our neighbors. We hope you will linger for a bit to talk these things over. We will meet in the Reception Room.

Bring your walking shoes!

"This Is My Body Which Is Given for You..."

Friends, the life-transforming story below is from Al Neuharth of USA Today. It concerns the recent kidney transplant at Mayo-Methodist in Rochester for our friend, Bruce King. It calls for prayers of joy, and also for self-examination. When have we heard of our neighbors' needs and made acommitment as deep as James Abbott's? Jesus said, "This is my body which is given for you..."



Plain Talk by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY founder

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Kidneys are the most sought-after human organ transplant. Wait lists are long. Currently, about 72,000 people across the USA are hoping for help, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Last year, there were only 18,341 kidney transplants.

This week, at the renowned Mayo Clinic here, a kidney transplant took place between these two remarkable but remarkably different people:

* The donor is University of South Dakota (USD) President James Abbott, 58. He was born of modest, white, prairie parents in little Irene, S.D., population 410.

* The recipient is USD's chief diversity officer, Bruce King, 44. He was born a poor black kid on the south side of Chicago, population 2.8 million.

When King was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure in 2005, Abbott found out that both had type O-positive blood and volunteered to help. He was tested here for a possible match but was told he had to lose weight and bring his blood pressure down before he could be considered.

Abbott went to work on his own health, while King was waiting and hoping without any other donor prospects. King said that when he shared with his Chicago friends that a "white guy from South Dakota was trying to save my life, it blew them away."

As a USD alum, I've known and admired both Abbott and King. Thoughts after visiting here Wednesday, two days after the transplant:

Abbott has been president of USD since 1997. His stated goal is to make that the best small public university (enrollment 8,496) in the country. But he also may make it the university known to have the most thoughtful and generous president. Donating part of your body is the ultimate gift.

A 55 Miles-Per-Hour Life

I tried an experiment on my drive to-and-from Annual Conference in Saint Cloud this year. Rather than drive at my usual "five-miles-above-the-speed-limit-so-I-won't-be-ticketed", I decided to drive at 55 miles-per-hour. The Environmental Defense Fund, and other organizations, have long pointed out that you can "improve your gas mileage 15 to 20 percent by driving 55 miles per hour (mph) rather than 65 mph."

So I guess I saved money on gas, and presumably saved the world a bit on emissions. I noticed something else, too. My world is a lot quieter and calmer a place when I am traveling at 55 MPH. I wasn't rushing. I wasn't racing. I wasn't raging. I wasn't trying to beat a deadline. I wasn't constantly adjusting my driving and speed to adapt to the other vehicles around me. I just drove my own journey. I was content to be the tortoise in a freeway drag-race of hares.

When you decide to be slower than everyone else, there is more time to listen to Jesus, more time to reflect, more time to respond to what is happening around you.Now, if I could slow down more often to a biking pace--let's say 12 miles-per-hour, or a walking pace--let's say three miles-per-hour, or to a mulling pace--let's say about zero-miles-per-hour, perhaps my life would be all the better for its unusual slowness. I would be more fit, happier, healthier, and I would know the Lord, my neighbors, and the living earth better. Perhaps people would say of me, "There goes the slowest guy in town!" They would say with envy and admiration: "Amazing!How does he do it?"

Happy Birthday, Dear Charles Wesley

Two weeks from now, on Wednesday, June 20th,at 7:00 p.m., our church will host the "Charles Wesley Singers", a long-standing and excellent choir of over 80 high school singers and instrumetalists, who are traveling from Damascus United Methodist Church (Damascus, Maryland) to perform a concert celebrating this year of Charles Wesley's 300th birthday. He was actually born on December 18, 1707.

Charles Wesley, brother to John, aided the early Methodist movement--and Christian worship and renewal in general ever since-- by writing over 5,500 hymns, many of them still widely sung today. He is especially remembered, for example, for "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". Charles Wesley was elected in 1995 to the Gospel Hall of Fame for his songs and hymns. I do not know what he said when he received the award.

Please plan to join us for this unusual event. Invite family, friends and neighbors for a pleasant hour of Wesleyan hymns.

Conferencing Together: A United Methodist Tradition

As Wesleyan Christians have done for over 250 years in Great Britain, the US and elsewhere, the preachers and congregants are gathering for Annual Conference this coming week. Originating with John Wesley and his first "assistants", the conferences were opportunities to go to a place apart from daily ministries to encourage one another, consider together what doctrines were to be taught and emphasized, and by what means, in addition to the routine organizational matters of the young renewal movement in England.

During our time at Conference, we still worship and pray together, fellowship, study, and complete the business of the Annual Conference. Much of the business is routine; other steps are innovations or revisions. Some resolutions address significant social controversies of our times, seeking an expression of the ethical or moral mind of the churches' leaders. Last year, for example,important proposals for full-inclusion of gay and lesbian persons in the life of the church were adopted
for consideration by the General Church in 2008. We have yet to see what consideration these will receive.

This year, other actions being considered (on which our delegates, Lou Witman or Dave Bobert, Pastor Mary Keen or I, would welcome your comments) are these:

1. Adjustments in the apportionment formula, which in our case would drop our
support to the state and general conference by about 25-33%, but would increase the costs to smaller churches by 10% or so on average.

2. A move to reduce the number of districts in Minnesota from six to five, thus reducing the conference expeditures.

3. Support for the Russian Church Initiative (our church has given over $11,000).

4. An appeal to United Methodist leaders in the Conference to begin every meeting with consideration of the impact our decisions would have upon the poor of the land. (I am a co-author of this proposal with John Darlington of Christ Church, Rochester), and our urban ministries coordinator, Dennis Alexander).

5. A proposal to offer domestic partner benefits to Annual Conference employees
(since the Conference does not make religious requirements for all of its clerical and administrative employees).

6. A proposal to ask for a vote on the question of the United Methodist understanding of marriage in Minnesota.

7. Other appeals to the General Conference (meeting in 2008) on peacemaking and war and peace study materials.

8. Election of representatives to General Conference meetings.

Please remember your United Methodist Christian sisters and brothers from all over Minnesota as they meet to pray and consider these and other proposals and appeals.
By the way, any United Methodist may write proposals to the Annual or General Conference. If you are interested, please just inquire with me or with Pastor Mary. We can describe the procedure to you.

What Does Jesus Say about Ethanol?

I have been wondering what Jesus thinks about ethanol. There is not a word on the subject in the gospels. I wonder if this means we should be in favor of ethanol because Jesus does not reject it, or against ethanol because Jesus does not support it, or make our own thoughtful and reasonable decision about ethanol because there is no relevant moral teaching from Jesus on this?

Good Fiction

Mary Lynn and I went walking this afternoon, and somewhere in the conversation I made a profound, speculative leap--assuming I knew what someone might be thinking or doing about a situation. Mary Lynn caught me at it, and I had to admit to her that I had no idea why I needed to think what I was thinking, but that I thought it was a perfectly good fictional story!

Oftentimes, we anticipate, fear, savor the thought of, wince at, hope for--many, many thing or events which are not real, and which may not ever occur as we imagine them. A Christian's challenge is to stay in the moment, in the reality that is here, and to ask how God would want this moment to be lived. There is far less in Scripture that counsels us to worry about, or generate fictional stories about, another person's motives or actions, than there is on carefully observing and understanding our own. Jesus said, "Why are you fretting about the splinter in your neighbor's eye, when you yourself are walking around with a great log in your own?" Which of the two see things more clearly under those circumstances, you or the neighbor?

Anyway, some fictions make the best-seller lists, but many of our fictitious tales deserve to be forgotten as soon as they hit the cerebral cortex.

Important Business and the Community's Counsel

Chapter 3: On Calling the Brethren for Counsel

Whenever any important business has to be done in the monastery, let the Abbot call together the whole community and state the matter to be acted upon. Then, having heard the brethren's advice, let him turn the matter over in his own mind and do what he shall judge to be most expedient.The reason we have said that all should be called for counselis that the Lord often reveals to the younger what is best. Let the brethren give their advice with all the deference required by humility,and not presume stubbornly to defend their opinions; but let the decision rather depend on the Abbot's judgment, and all submit to whatever he shall decide for their welfare.

However, just as it is proper for the disciples to obey their master, so also it is his function to dispose all things with prudence and justice.

Today's reading from the "Rule of Benedict" is a solid bit of wisdom: leaders in communities of faith ought to listen to the entire body before making choices on important matters which affect everyone. Lately, we have needed to ask all of the congregation for their counsel with some frequency. We adopted and committed to the building campaign once again. We have consulted, and still need more consultation about, the questions related to levels of inclusion for gay and lesbian persons in Christian fellowship. We have before us now a community conversation that will continue more widely on May 27th, as we talk about one family's offer of the gift of stained glass windows for our sanctuary's northern windows. Soon, we will be describing and asking the community's opinions on our worship and ministry plans for the new academic year.

In a vibrant, faith community, listening well, speaking thoughtfully, and deciding prudently are all necessary practices. They are arts, and signs of loving community. In our community, of course, the only "Abbot" we have is the heart and mind of Christ. May God help us to hold on to his decisions, as they emerge from our gathered community's opinions, emotions and thoughts.

Freedom=Cleaning Out, Starting Again

Thoreau wrote at this time in 1857:
How rarely I meet with a man who can be free, even in thought! We live according to rule. Some men are bedridden; all world-ridden. I take my neighbor, an intellectual man, out into the woods and invite him to take a new and absolute view of things, to empty clean out his thoughts all institutions of men and start again; but he can’t do it, he sticks to his traditions and his crochets. He thinks that governments, colleges, newspapers, etc., are from everlasting to everlasting.

What will it take for us to re-imagine our world, our schools, our churches, our nations, our entire global climate? The things we count upon as most enduring may be the very things which need to adapt most rapidly, and if they do not, we are pouring our energies into something either useless or counter-productive. I read a theologian once who remarked that our ethical and prophetic responsibilities could be summed up in this way: to observe our situation, to critique it, to propose an alternative, and to demonstrate this alternative. This is the value of the image of the Reign of God.

It is also our difficulty with the Reign of God. Can we actually see our situation? From what vantage point can we critique it? What new dream have we?
How much energy and risk will we invest in what is not already established in our time?

Thoreau is right. Humanly speaking, it is not what we imagine to be everlasting that matters, but what is just ending or just springing up. A free person knows the difference between what dies and what lives.

"Repair My Church..."

At the edge of the hilltown of Assisi in Italy, there is a basilica. Within the basilica, there rests a very small, stone chapel: San Damiano's. This is the chapel which Francis of Assisi thought he was called of God to restore, when exactly 800 years ago this week, the figure of Christ spoke to Francis from a cross saying, "Francis, repair my church which, as you can see, has fallen into disrepair..."

He did begin to restore that chapel. As it turned out, however, the "Church" Saint Francis of Assisi was to repair or restore was none other than the entire Christian church, which he helped to rebuild by what we would call spiritual renewal, a return to the image of Christ: prayer, simplicity of life, service, environmental care and gratitude, and by the preaching of the Gospel by word, certainly, but moreso by deed.

About three years after his conversion to this work for Christ, Francis' new movement was permitted by the very worldly Pope Pius III to become a monastic Order. Ironically, the little "chapel" and foolishness of Francis is remembered and imitated today more than the basilica-like worldliness of the Pope who presided over a church in spiritual disrepair. The Christian movement always needs humble people of prayer, as small chapels, to be the true, living heart of the immense basilicas and churches of Christianity.

While You Were Sleeping...

On Good Friday, one of our worship guests fell asleep. At first, I was pleased to hear this. As many of you know, I have recently come out in favor of sleep during sermons, since there seems to be strong, Scriptural endorsement of this (Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so forth). I thought of this latest sleeping incident (and I don't want to boast here, but what can I say...) as another notch on my pulpit.

Unfortunately, I had opportunity for closer inquiry with the individual who fell asleep, and learned to my disappointment that she had actually fallen asleep so early in the worship service that she never saw me enter the pulpit, heard nothing that would have made her somnambulent, and only awoke at the final tympany drum-roll.
Now, I know that there are a great many other Christians who, existentially speaking, are also embodying this, but in all honesty I cannot claim credit either for their spiritual inertness, or for this woman's nap.

I am sorry to say I was not responsible for her sleep. True, nothing I said during the sermon woke her, but I don't think that really counts one way or another. Hers was a pre-existing condition! May God forgive me, she would have slept whether I labored in the vineyards or not. Therefore, I drop my claim to this latest sleeping event. Pope John Paul II may have miraculously healed that nun of Parkinson's while she was sleeping, but I am still not there. The sleeper from my church, as far as I can tell, is no better person after her nap than before.

A Room with a View

Friends, Mary Lynn and I are taking our intended 25th anniversary trip to Italy just in time to celebrate our 29th anniversary.

Yup, it has only taken us four years to get this together; that would be pretty representative of many of our plans as a couple! Anyway, we're looking forward to the journey together, and to the short (two-week)suspension of our usual routines and pleasures, including blogging.

We will undoubtedly be thinking of you on some moonlit night as we dine al fresco , or gaze from the small balcony of our "room with a view" over the tiled rooftops and the Duomo (cathedral) of Sienna.

Ciao, ciao,
Clay

Silent Saturday

Beret Griffith forwarded this message from a friend, Janice Ulangca, for our reflection on the silent Saturday between the day of crucifixion and the day of resurrection. Beret notes that SHIRLEY ERENA MURRAY (b. 1931) the author of the poem/hymn below, is a hymn text writer and a former editor with the New Zealand Hymnbook Trust. Her work has appeared in more than 100 collections worldwide and been translated into several languages (Taiwanese, Swedish, German, Spanish, French, Estonian, Portuguese, Korean and Braille print.) She has also worked with Dr. I-to Loh, musical ethnologist from Taiwan, in paraphrasing Asian hymns into English.

The themes of her hymns range from social justice, peace and human rights to the sacraments, the Church year, eco-theology, and the voice of women.

She is married to the Very Rev. John Stewart Murray, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa/New Zealand. They have three sons and six grandchildren, and live on the coast near Wellington, New Zealand.


Janice Ulangca's invitation to read this hymn today follows:

To dear Colleagues,

A poem for what one Catholic priest friend calls "the day between" - between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when according to tradition Jesus is in the tomb. He believes that we should not neglect the experience of this day... Our choir sang Carlton Young's hymn setting of this for the Good Friday service.--Janice Ulangca

God Weeps

By Shirley Erena Murray

God weeps
at love withheld,
at strength misused,
at children's innocence abused,
and till we change the way we love,
God weeps.

God bleeds
at anger's fist,
at trust betrayed,
at women battered and afraid,
and till we change the way we win,
God bleeds.

God cries
at hungry mouths,
at running sores,
at creatures dying without cause,
and till we change the way we care,
God cries.

God waits
for stones to melt,
for peace to seed,
for hearts to hold each other's need,
and till we understand the Christ,
God waits.

Good Friday's Wounds

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, We know full well that the marks of the passion, the wounds of the cross, are now become the marks of grace in the body of the risen and glorified Christ....If we would have a share of Christ's glory and radiance, we must first be conformed to the image of the Suffering Servant, who was obedient to the death of the cross.

I have a friend with physical wounds which, literally, will not heal--or they heal very, very slowly. My friend yearns to have these wounds heal completely, but this has not happened. Instead, there are setbacks from time to time. This companion in Christ is forced to live with both living and dead flesh. I am distressed with my friend, and I am distressed for my friend. Sometimes I think of these wounds as the stigmata, the wounds of Christ imposed upon my friend. There is still suffering and distress, but it is purposeful. It is part of the body, the life and death, the suffering and distress of Christ.

Come, tonight by 7:00 for our Good Friday service, if you can, to pray with us for this friend, and for so many others, who strive to follow Jesus, or who struggle to endure what he endured, or who are wandering and wondering where spiritual help may be found. We've all been wounded. Those very wounds may also be the "marks of grace".

I Won't Leave You, Darlin'

Holy Week. My wife, Mary Lynn, used to call it "holy hell week", and now she just avoids her husband during these sacred days! This year, for Holy Week, I've decided to go into country-western music. I here post the lyrics for my first gold record. All I need is a contact and a contract in Nashville--and a tune to go with the lyrics. Also, a good female vocalist or two. And someone who can manage my career. Do you know anybody who can help me with this? It just seems like a good idea during Holy Week.
--The Reverend Mister Clay Oglesbee

I Won't Leave You, Darlin'

I won't leave you, darlin',
When you're weepin' or upset.
And I won't leave you, sweetheart,
When you've just lost a big bet,
And I won't leave you, honey,
In the middle of the night,
No, I'm gonna leave you, darlin',
When you think everything's alright.

I won't leave you, darlin',
When you're feelin' kinda low,
And I won't leave you, sweetheart,
When you've had an awful blow,
And I won't leave you, honey,
When you're put up on a shelf,
No, I'm gonna leave you, darlin',
When you're happy with yourself.

I won't notice, darlin',
When you flirt with other boys/girls.
And I won't notice, sweetheart,
When you treat me like those toys/false pearls,
And I won't notice, honey,
When you're lyin' to me sweet,
No, I won't notice, darlin',
I'm the rug beneath your feet.

I won't leave you, darlin',
When you cry or when you moan,
And I won't leave you, sweetheart,
When you're feelin' all alone ,
And I won't leave you, honey,
When you're hurt or in disgrace,
No, I'm gonna leave you, darlin',
When there's a smile on your face.

"I came as a guest..."

Here is a part of today's reading from the "The Rule of Benedict"

On the Reception of Guests

Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ,
for He is going to say,
"I came as a guest, and you received Me" (Matt. 25:35).
And to all let due honor be shown,
especially to the domestics of the faith and to pilgrims.

We had a request today from a friend for a group of people to help "host" a banquet that is coming up in a month or two. It is the kind of volunteer request it's easy to overlook or neglect dealing with. Still, when we saw how much effort would need to expended to find workers, and the worth of the gathering, we just said, "Don't worry; you need 20--we can offer nine volunteers from our church. It's our pleasure to serve." The next challenge will be to receive all the guests like Christ. There's the difficult part--to serve, yes, but to serve with exuberant love, honor and affection for others? May it be so.

I read the news today, oh boy

from Thoreau's Journal, April 3, 1853
The last two Tribunes I have not looked at. I have no time to read newspapers. If you chance to live and move and have your being in that thin stratum in which the events which make the news transpire,—thinner than the paper on which it is printed,—then these things will fill the world for you; but if you soar above or dive below that plane, you cannot remember nor be reminded of them.

We admire the newspapers and news channels so much in these times that Karl Barth is still widely and favorably quoted in the churches as recommending that we should live with the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other! I know he was praising either the Bible or the newspaper, but I am not sure which or why.

Thoreau had a hunch that the papers report little that is essential to the core tasks of authentic life, so if he is right, to give them the weight of the Bible in our lives is overdoing it more than a bit. The realm of the Scriptures, while it includes the stream of "world events", whatever those are, is really more concerned with the things which "soar above or dive below". The Scriptures wear real shoes and walk real roads, but they also have wings and air-tanks, to enable us to "comprehend...what is the breadth and length and height and depth (of)...all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18,19)

"Small, Beautiful Things"

with thanks to Stephanie Paulsell

We used to be drawn to do great works;
That jit'ry desire has eased.
Now, we're content to do the day's tasks,
And delight in the hearts that this frees.

We once yearned to soar on eagle's wings,
To gain the neighbors' praises,
Now, though, we "do small, beautiful things",
By simpler, less notable phases.

Some time ago, and up to recently,
We tried to modestly impress,
Now, wanting to do things decently,
We decide, instead, just to bless.

Great Men and Frogs

from Thoreau's Journal in 1853
My Aunt Maria asked me to read the life of Dr. Chalmers, which however I did not promise to do. Yesterday, Sunday, she was heard through the partition shouting to my Aunt Jane, who is deaf, “Think of it! He stood half an hour to-day to hear the frogs croak, and he wouldn’t read the life of Chalmers.

I don't need to explain what frogs are to you, but many don't know that Dr. Thomas Chalmers was an early Presbyterian church leader, professor, and noted evangelical preacher in Scotland. He was, in short, a "great man and a great Christian", who died a few years before Thoreau's aunt asked him to read the churchman's biography. I am sure she knew it would be edifying, and good for Thoreau, in a particularly Christian sort of way. Yet Thoreau declined that biographical book in favor of one better illustrated and better written: the croaking of living frogs on a warm, spring day.

A friend who lives near a wetland in town here, remarked the other day that the frogs were now, suddenly, croaking. The day had been unusually warm, a record-breaking 81 degrees, and the frogs awoke. At the time, I thought it was odd that this would be the notable thing my friend mentioned about his day. However, this entry in Thoreau's journals teaches me that it's not always a settled matter to decide between listening to what is "good for you" and what is right for you. You can do worse than to listen to what frogs are saying.

Fruits at the Far End of the Mississippi

"You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16).

One small mission team (two couples) from our church came home this week from service in the South. Our larger, spring mission team of nearly 30 (a third of them high-school students) is at work in the Gulfport/Biloxi area this week. They are helping with the hurricane recovery effort, clearing debris and repairing usable homes. I called on Monday morning, and Pastor Mary Keen told me they had not seen much damage yet, and that they saw many of the federal government's trailers sitting unused in a storage area. I hope that is good news and that people are moving on to more permanent housing. We hope to post another report or two this week.

The daily reading from the "Rule of Benedict" urges manual labor for the monastics. Benedict says, it's a very good thing for the brothers and sisters to serve in the world in the same way, by physical work, that the apostles and saints have always done. He says that real work is a sign of the authenticity of the workers. Jesus says something similar, "You will know them by their fruits."

Picking Up Crosses All Over the Place

The cross is there, from the beginning, (we)have only got to pick it up; there is no need for us to go out and look for a cross for ourselves....Jesus says that all Christians have their crosses waiting for them... --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A lot of people I know treat their Christian callings as if they were medical specialists. They only want to do what they do best, or else nothing at all. Some are musicians, some are writers, some are business leaders, and some are teachers. Some have lives which are always, always too busy to help someone else. I've known people for ten years in our church who I have yet to see go out of their way to help another soul, and their story is, "I am too busy today to help", or "I am too busy this year to help." Just the reverse of the one who "goes the extra mile" when forced to go one mile. They will go miles and miles and miles out of their way to avoid actually doing something useful for someone.

Sometimes it's just more important that somebody lifts the cross that needs lifting than it is to have God and and neighbor wait until we can find a certified or doctoral-level lifter of old rugged crosses!

We all know how wonderful it is to lead from one's strengths and to be passionate and creative and qualified about what we are doing; we all prefer to have some sort of vanity plate on our cross, or suitable embroidery and padding, but sometimes you just "got to pick up" the cross that has fallen in your way. Don't worry; we are not about to run out of crosses in this hurting world; there'll be another cross along soon. Believe me, you could spend your life picking up crosses all over the place! There are plenty available. It's a little like pick-up-sticks. Why anyone thinks they can only pick up the green cross, or the red cross, or the pink cross is beyond me...

To Bless You

In the culminating pages of the novel, "Gilead", Reverend John Ames III says to a young man whom he has subtly disliked and mistrusted for too many years, "What I would like to do, actually, is to bless you." The young man quietly consents to the blessing. It is a sacred moment between someone who comes only late to accept blessing and another one who only comes late to give blessing. Yet blessing occurs.

For years now, in our Confirmation classes we have asked the adult guides to bless each Confirmation student in their small groups on the Wednesday night when we gather. It is a surprisingly, lovely thing to see. A 13-year-old will stand completely still for a moment to accept the kind hand of an adult placed in blessing on their forehead.

I wish I had done this more often for my sons. Now, in what ways I can, I do it every time I see them. And I try to do it with the kids around me. Sometimes I play monster with them, and yet I hope I always tell them in one way or another how wonderful they are. Every child of God needs this, even the elderly and the middle-aged competents and sophisticates. We all need to be blessed just for our being.

Simple Gospel, Simple Church

A reading from the "Rule of Benedict":
...Adapt and arrange everything in such a way that souls may be saved
and that the brethren may do their work without just cause for murmuring.

Think about this sentence above and absorb it; Saint Benedict captures a very simple interpretation of the gospel and our life together: (1) make sure people get near God, and (2)make sure you treat each other kindly. So then there are two questions that follow this gospel: What are we doing that contributes positively to the redemption and happiness of others? Or, what are we doing that prevents love of God and neighbor?

Jesus preached, "Woe...to you....(who) load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them" (Luke 11:46). Our ministry in Christ is just to clear the way to God, and to lighten the load for each other. It's a simple gospel, and it makes for a simple, wholesome church.

The Hawk

Yesterday afternoon, a Sunday, I saw my first robin of the spring. In fact,
there were about a dozen of them holding services in our back yard. They were walking and bobbing their heads in prayer.

Later, for the first time since coming to Northfield, we saw a hawk dart down into the middle of our backyard and take a prey. Then he perched on his captive, claws wrapped round it, with a great, puffed out chest, while he ate the little bird he'd caught.

At first, I thought I would run out and frighten the hawk away. Then I thought better of it. The seasons may change,spring may come, but nature really does not change, or come or go, for any season. The praying robins were seeking food. The preying hawk was, too. And so am I, and so are you. Human beings are less blunt about it, but there is not really a more delicate truth at the bottom of it all. We dine to live. We are creatures. We just prefer plastic wrap and barbecue sauce on our kill.

The further gift we have is the awareness that "life is more important than food"
(Matthew 6:25). We eat, yet we are always aware of something more; we are seeking the kingdom, too. Though we have the creature's needs, we also have the yearnings of those who are just a little less than God. How odd to be so mud-footed and so desperate to fly.

Join Our Skliled Personnel!

I received an e-mail today from a company who wanted me to "join our skliled personnel". It has been a while since I had a new job offer, so I was tempted, but I'm just not sure. Something about the invitation leaves me skeptical.

Sometimes we ourselves, and our churches, are pretty ineffective invitations, too.
We say we want folks to join our loivng and pryiang church, then we actually behave in some other way.

The monastic Rule of Benedict teaches, "Do not aspire to be called holy before you really are, but first be holy that you may truly be called so" (RB, chapter 4). Jesus teaches us to keep it simple and authentic: "Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'" (Matthew 5:37). Don't publicly advertize yourself to be what you are not; that is the very definition of hypocrisy.

So for today: I am just as hloy as the next preson! I hepo you are, to.

Traveling Home

Thoreau's Journal from March 11, 1856

At best, Paris could only be a school in which to learn to live here, a stepping-stone to Concord, as school in which to fit for this university. I wish so to live ever as to derive my satisfactions and inspirations from the commonest events, every-day phenomena, so that my senses hourly perceive, my daily walk, the conversation of my neighbors, may inspire me, and I may dream of no heaven but that which lies about me.

Thoreau is writing here about traveling to important places--and contrasting this with having the stability to remain in your own "hometown". For him, the hometown was Concord--and traveling meant a journey to Paris. For us? For us "Paris" could be Thailand or Italy, Peru or Namibia, Gulfport or Faribault. I guess "home" is Northfield. So many people in this community travel so much to so many places. I wonder whether we have a perspective on this travel though, that it is simply "a school in which to fit for this university" of Northfield?

Is travel our escape to someplace heavenly and other than our daily round, or better, is it a sort of training ground which allows us to see with more clarity and deeper appreciation our own neighbors, our own soils, skies and waters? Perhaps we visit the Appian Way, built in the 4th century BC as a "super-highway" connecting Rome with the far reaches of the Empire, largely to help us better appreciate Division Street? Perhaps one learns to speak Swahili and takes a term of studies in Kenya or Tanzania mostly to build the cultural skills required to move among "townies", college students, farmers, commuters and Dundas residents?

The first confession of faith which Israel made was this: "My father was a wandering Aramean...The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm...and he brought us into this place and gave us this land..."
(Deuteronomy 26:5ff). No matter how far afield we wander and travel,it helps us on our path if we remember that we are also homeward bound.

Preach, Pray or Die...

Thoreau's Journal from March 13, 1853
You must get your living by loving. To be supported by the charity of friends or a governmental pension is to go into the almshouse. To inherit property is not to be born,—is to be still-born rather.

I spoke with a retired pastor the other day, who asked me, "How is it going?" It happened to be a busy stretch in the ministry week, and I said things were pretty thick. He swiftly responded, "Well, no one said it would be easy." I said, "I could have sworn that someone said it would be!" But he denied it; this might be so for Lutheran pastors, but not for Methodist preachers! As Francis Asbury once said, Methodist pastors are called to "preach, pray or die on a moment's notice". I personally have observed that there are Sundays when I have simultaneously done all three in the pulpit."

Well, such considerations aside. We are all called, as Thoreau says, "to get our living by loving". We work and serve. The "Rule of Benedict" for today says in paraphrased form: "Everybody has to take their turn at K.P."; that's community and loving service. And so we do. Christian discipleship is no place for princes and princesses.

Minnesota Food Share and a 50s Drive-In--3/12

Second Post for Monday, March 12

What does a 50s Drive-In have to do with Minnesota Food Share?
Food! Life! This Wednesday, March 14, 5:30--6:30 p.m., our Confirmation class and guides will be serving 50s Drive-In Food (sloppy joes, root beer floats, etc.) to
all comers. We will also set out a "burger basket" for donations for Minnesota Food Share to help raise funds for the local food shelf--for households with pressing financial needs. Please come, have fun, and give generously! In this case, we'll all be "Rebels With a Cause"!

The prophet Isaiah never had fries with a Coke, but he knew what matters most in life, "...Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house....(If you do these things,)the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places..." (Isaiah 58:7ff)

Holy Conferencing Begins on Same-Gender Sexual Expression

Last night, our "holy conferencing" on same-gender sexual expression began with four United Methodist pastors who each offered their varying understandings on the morality of this. Over 40 people were present. For the preliminaries and instructional portions, the methods of the series on same-gender sexuality were described: presentations by pastors,scholars and scientists; questions and answers; and small group sharing.

Pastor Mary Keen instructed the group on the methods of respectful sharing which we are pursuing in groups where attentive listening and respectful honesty are emphasized. Pastor Clay noted a passage in Augustine's "Confessions", dating back 1600 years, where Saint Augustine explores the question of what is impermanent, or culturally and historically relative, and what "righteousness" of God is fixed for all times and places, and in what ways this is so.

Pastor Elizabeth Macaulay of Richfield United Methodist Church spoke in defense of full-inclusion of those whose sexualities are in the minority in our culture. She mentioned the suffering her own father went through as he came to grips with his sexual identity and was eventually transgendered. She advocated that "the Resurrection changes everything", most especially that it opens a way for including and companioning persons who have only been shamed and isolated for their sexual orientation in the past.

Pastor Duane Sarazin of River Hills United Methodist Church spoke against full inclusion, and expressed his conviction that in the created order men and women are made by God for shared sexual expression--and that same-gender expression may be psychologically remediable, while it can be physically threatening to participants, and morally errant. Pastor Sarazin also expressed his commitment to offer appropriate, generous, flexible pastoral care to each individual without insisting on correct dogma at every given moment in the pastoral relationship with a person in need.

Pastor Cooper Wiggen of Minnehaha United Methodist Church spoke for full-inclusion. He noted that in his own experience, even taking the role of a gay person in a stage presentation during his seminary years made others uneasy being around him in real-life social situations, and that this gave him a new sensitivity to what gay and lesbian persons must endure. He also argued that some persons are "by nature" gay or lesbian, just as some are heterosexual by nature, and that this is a scientifically proper understanding of the arguments from creation or nature which are often made against same-gender sexuality.

Pastor Phil Strom of Elk River United Methodist Church spoke against full-inclusion, for himself and the churches he serves, believing that this stance has Scriptural integrity, and he thought that every church and pastor must do in conscience what they believe is fitting and faithful. He wondered aloud whether this means there must be division of denominations, so that there are not situations where one United Methodist Church teaches one thing, and another teaches something else, so leading to confusion among denominational members and their households.

Next week, March 18: Peter Vogt, an Assistant Professor of Old Testament, Bethel Seminary, will share his views on Scripture and Homosexuality. The following week, March 25, David Fredrickson, a Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, will teach on his contrasting views. On April 1, Dr. Simon Rosser of the University of Minnesota will teach on "The Science and Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Behaviors".

Please join us for these conversations.

Second Thoughts

2nd Post on Saturday, March 10

I've been thinking about the earlier post today,and I think I was careless in my expression about liberal humanism and conservative nationalism.
These are not forms of "godlessness" in themselves, unless certain forms of idolatry creep into the way they are expressed.

In the case of liberal humanism, this idolatry occurs where one lives from an undue optimism about the level of beneficence in human nature, and particularly about human capacities to recognize and act on the moral good when it is not necessarily in one's immediate self-interest.

In the case of conservative nationalism, this idolatry occurs where one lives from an undue confidence or optimism about any nation's capacities to recognize and act on the moral good when it is not necessarily in their immediate self-interest.

The flaw in orientation and loyalty in both cases is the appeal to a penultimate Self, Ideal, or State without an over-riding concern for what God is guiding and urging upon us, or for the interests of the many other selves and communities and nations around us.

As a Pentecostal friend and prophet used to say, "I want God to rule, and to over-rule, anything that gets in the way of the divine work."

Destination, please?

John Cock, a UM pastor, teacher and consultant, who met recently with members of our church to lead a "Spirit Journey Retreat", has published two volumes of his own "daily spirit journal". One of his selected readings for this week reminds us that in the 21st century our Christian path is neither this godlessness that is confused with conservative nationalism, nor that godlessness which is confused with liberal humanism, but another, independent way, which veers closer to and farther from these ideologies at various times. Again, it is neither airless orthodox belief, nor breathless speculative belief, but purposeful, reasoning, prayerful, generous and warm-hearted faith. We are headed for the reign of God without watering it down a bit into "religion" or "politics", "correctness" or "progressiveness", whiney disputations about who belongs and who doesn't,or meeting a list of this week's churchly behaviors and expectations.

So, about this journey we are taking: it isn't a commonplace one, and so people are surprised and uncomprehending when they see an ordinary person like you insisting on doing the kingdom of God without delay. Carl Sandburg wrote, "...And if you start to go to that country, remember first you must sell everything you have, pigs, pastures, pepper pitchers, pitchforks, put the spot cash money in a ragbag, and go to the railroad station and ask the ticket agent for a long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it. And you mustn't be surprised if the ticket agent wipes sleep from his eyes and asks, 'So far? So early? So soon?'"

"Jesus said to (a certain ruler)...'Sell all that you own, and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow me" (Luke 18:22). Set down your old baggage, then follow Jesus the Messiah.

So,are you going? Destination, please?

Same-Gender Sexuality: Is It Moral or Not?

Second Post for Friday, March 9: Invitation to March 11 Dialogues on Same-Gender Sexual Expression
This is another invitation to all our members to join us for the series of conversations the Northfield United Methodist Church is hosting concerning the morality of same-gender sexual expression, i.e. we'll be experiencing "holy conferencing" concerning gay/lesbian/homosexual orientation and behavior.

You need not attend all the events in the series, but we strongly urge every member to participate in the series, to study widely, and to reflect and pray about what our ministry as a congregation should be in this area.

Please join us on Sunday, March 11, 5-7 p.m. The Process planning team has exerted itself to offer a fair and balanced method of learning, prayer and conversation which will extend most weeks through the end of April. We will also try to videotape these conversations.

On this first Sunday gathering, we will listen as four, respected Minnesota Annual Conference pastors, with nearly a century of pastoral service among them--Phil Strom, Duane Sarazin, Cooper Wiggen and Elizabeth Macaulay describe their own answers to this one, central question: "Should same-gender sexual expression be morally accepted among Christians?"

In weeks that follow, biblical scholars and scientists will also teach, as well as advocates for and against the moral acceptability of same-gender sexual expression.

Kicking the Tires

from Thoreau's Journal--March of 1853
I know of no more pleasing employment than to ride about the country with a companion very early in the spring, looking at farms with a view to purchasing if not paying for them.

Spring comes; we can tell. Thoreau looks at farms he cannot really buy. We do the same, sometimes in leisurely--and sometimes in purposeful, ways. This is our season for kicking tires. Looking at houses we might want to purchase. Dreaming of summer vacations we may never take. Getting ready to sow seeds which may or may not grow to harvest. One of the great gifts which God imparts to the human being is the ability to dream, imagine, create stories, and fantasize. How immense the world and time would need to be if we could actually inhabit and embody all that we imagine or remember! Therefore, how immense, how endless, are the storehouses of thought, memory and imagination which God has made it possible for us to enter.

Augustine wrote in his "Confessions": "O my God, profound, infinite complexity, what a great faculty memory is, how awesome a mystery! It is the mind, and this is nothing other than my very self. What am I, then, O my God? What is my nature? It is teeming life of every conceivable kind, and exceedingly vast. See in the measureless plains and vaults and caves of my memory, immeasurably full of countless kinds of things....In this wide land I am free of all of them, free to run and fly to and fro, to penetrate as deeply as I can, to collide with no boundary anywhere....(Yet) see, I am climbing through my mind to you..."

We are literally imagining things all the time. For us, thought and prayer are always in season. The trend of our thought, memory, day-dreams, reflections,and visions is always ascending toward the face of God.

Talk Softly

The tongue of the wise dispenses knowlege, but the mouths of fools pour out folly....A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverse speech breaks the spirit." --Proverbs 15:2 and 4

There is a friend,a sister in the church, who having noticed my tendencies to
ironic teasing, and (I confess) sometimes inadvertently cutting speech, has asked me to monitor those moments myself, use them as a signal to pause, and then try to say something kind and encouraging, instead of something funny or barbed.

She is amazingly accurate in both diagnosis and prescription. I've occasionally tested her method, and it works. I've been surprised what can happen when I withhold the teasing word, or in other cases the critical word, and instead have spoken thoughtfully, honestly and generously with my friends and neighbors.

However, the downside must also be considered. Kind speech is not nearly as much fun, and raises up nowhere near as much dust and hell-on-earth, as irony, criticism, gossip, and verbal self-righteousness. Thoughtful Christians must weigh the options and opportunities involved. While the Scriptures do tell us that the "tongue is a fire", who isn't drawn to a four-alarm blaze once in a while? Spiritual arson is a fascinating game the whole community can play if they're not careful.

Sometimes it is best to be a little indirect, a little teasing, a little flawed, so that people are shocked when one shows true kindness. They may think the better of you for lapsing into pleasant comment ("so s/he is not so bad after all..."), and an occasional kind word to our neighbor is far less trouble than trying to establish that sort of thing as a habit.

If I were always pleased with people near me, and told them so, how long would they value my good opinion of them? Their suspicions about my motives would drive them from me. The secret of their beauty, and of my affection for each one of them, is safe with me! I prefer to keep my friends' trust, so I tease them.

And I try, as the sister suggests, to speak kindly to them; God forgive me and all of us the damage we have done and sometimes do still, and certainly will do yet again. Amen.

The moral: talk softly, but carry a big schtick. Regret and forgiveness are far more important to the human race than perfection.

Urban Immersion?

In about a week, I will take the Confirmation youth of our Northfield church for an overnight "urban immersion" retreat. It's an odd title for the experience; I spent 15 years in inner-city ministry, and I still never thought I was "immersed" in the challenges that were the daily struggle of broken households, persons of color, health-care problems, abuse, addicts, alcoholics, fear--most of which you can find in suburbs, too, but it was complicated in the city by overwhelming poverty and homelessness.

I'll have one 23-hour period to help the youth try to "get it" about their "neighbors'" human struggles to survive and flourish in poor areas of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. I'll get to try to explain to them why the "emergency" homeless shelters of 1982 are still open in our cities in 2007--25 years later!

A Case Study in Detroit

Following up on a story I wrote for "Christian Century" about the Archdiocese of Detroit's church closures back in about 1989, I contacted Dr. Michael McCallion at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit to see what had happened since the planned urban closures of that year. About 30 parishes were closed in Detroit in a very brief
period of time on the initiative of the Archbishop Szoka. It was
essentially enacted as a cost-saving measure for the Archdiocese: closing
churches perceived to be relatively inactive or ineffective parishes.

The move was highly controversial. At least two studies were completed on
it. Sociologists, Jeff Bridger and David Mains (Oakland University,
Detroit), compared the impact of the parish closures to the manufacturing
plant closings that were taking in place in urban areas of the North at the
time. Grief and loss considerations were slighted--and the initiative was
largely handled as if it were the financial decision of a business
corporation.

In another study, Tom Duggan, a sociologist at Wayne State Universty, wrote
an article on the closures which argued that the closing of the churches
symbolized the departure of God from the city. Even small parishes which
remain active signal God's presence, while closed churches tell a community
or neighborhood that "God is gone".

So students of religion in the city cautioned that it was easy enough to close churches, but the real, underlying concern should be whether and how the Church would re-enter and minister in urban areas, particularly in impoverished or transitioning communities. The challenge wasn't just to end what seemed useless or
unworthy, but to replace it with something vibrant and life-giving.

In this case, the Archdiocese has never really "re-entered". Apparently,
there never was a strategy or plan to re-enter impoverished areas. The
record shows this pretty damningly. Fifteen years after the 30 closures, the Archdiocese has made only one attempt to begin again, in a single parish area on the eastside of Detroit.

The successor to Szoka in 1990, and still the current Archbishop, promised
when he came in that he would not handle the churches in that manner.
Instead, he has organized the remaining parishes by "vicarate planning"
since 1995, clustering 10 or so parishes in each vicarate, and these
parishes are to cooperate as well as possible, and to assess instances
where inter-parish sharing should or could move toward the merging of two
or more parishes. They have "closed" no churches, but there have been
about five mergers in the last 10-12 years. Apparently the reception and
results have been mixed overall.(Since that time another 20-25 parishes have been closed or merged with others; so the score to date in that Archdiocese is something like 55 closings to one new beginning!)

In addition to vicarate planning, the Archdiocese has also introduced some
urban and suburban planning, looking for five-mile radii to be served within the city, and for larger radii in the suburbs. Using this measure,
there are some "empty pocket" areas of Detroit because of the closings.
The Archdiocese has also strongly encouraged more intensive efforts in "the
new evangelization". Some on the scene there wonder why the Archdiocese doesn't try more: why not put a full-time priest, a youth worker, a DRE, and some musicians into distressed parishes? Bring in some great musicians. Open the church 24-hours a day!Something like "Sister Act"--and let her rip for a year!

So: Prune the dead stuff, but look for opportunities to "live" in each community in
need of Jesus Christ. What does it mean for Christians to be given the care of the poor of the land?

"Holy Conferencing" on Same-Gender Sexual Expression

You are invited...Every member is encouraged to be present...

Beginning Sunday, March 11, 5--7 p.m.,our Northfield United Methodist Church, 1411 Maple Street South, will host a series of Sunday evening conversations on same-gender sexual expression/homosexual expression and orientation as this relates to church membership, church leadership, unions/weddings/blessings and ordination. We have been asked by our Administrative Council to organize a period of "holy conferencing", which in our case means: presentations for and against full-inclusion from several United Methodist pastors, messages from Biblical scholars at Bethel and Luther seminaries, scientific researchers, and advocates for and against inclusion.

We will also pray together and share "sacred circle" experiences, listening to one another's experiences and thoughts without interruption, in safety and mutual respect.

The purpose for this series of holy conversations is:
+to learn a great deal together,
+to pray, speak and listen together, and
+to discover points of consensual agreement.

We are looking for places where we may agree to go forward in ministry, and also for those areas where we may need to "agree to disagree" about the morality/inclusion tensions in Christian conversations about GLBT/homosexual orientation and expression.

Light refreshments will be served. We encourage you to contribute funds at the door to help us afford some of our guests, as they visit with us.