Weekend

Okay, first of all, Lost is the best show on TV.

Secondly, I am preparing for a full weekend and am wondering about what most people do on Saturdays and Sundays. (Unless you work for a church.) This is what I imagine you do:

Weed the garden.

Wash the car.

Take leisurely bike rides.

Go to farmers' markets.

Hang out.

Read novels.

Watch kids play soccer, baseball, in sandboxes.

Worship (on Sunday).

This is not what I do on weekends and it's starting to show. This weekend will include a memorial service, leading worship, leading an officer/volunteer training event, going to a soccer game, leading worship again, preparing for the next week.

My name is Jan and I am a sinner.

Biggest problems: Don't take a sabbath. Worship idols.

What about you? I'd love to hear what you do on weekends and if it's not restful, why not?

Photo is Lazy Saturday by Stewart.

Toast

I'm dry as toast.

Grant written. Bible studies off and running. Preparations set for upcoming events. And now I stop and go to sleep.

Have a great Thursday.


Photo by Mahr.

The New "Normal"

Several people I love are in the throes of altering what "normal" means for them.

The woman who received communion in a hospital bed on Mothers' Day died yesterday morning and so her husband's life has just changed forever. From a decade of non-stop caregiving to a wide open schedule in which he can actually run to the post office without having to orchestrate an elaborate substitute caregiver plan.

Once it was normal for them to enjoy the quiet life of bookish empty-nesters sitting in the back yard with their cats and cups of tea.

Later it was normal for her to dance and wave her hands like a child during random moments when she heard music out in public.

Then it became normal for her to sit and stare into space without much expression.

Today there is a new normal in their home.

We hate change especially the kind that requires loss, but it's necessary. Yes, I'm sad for my kids to leave for college, but do I really want them hanging out playing Wii in our family room for the rest of their lives?

It used to be normal, at least in the mainline church . . .

For the stewardship program to include an "every member visit."
For the pastor to be president of the local Kiwanis Club.

For "missionary" to mean the guest speaker on home leave from Kenya with funky Princess Leia braids and sensible shoes.

Today it's normal . . .

For people use Pay Pal to send in their pledges

For most of my ministry to happen in Starbucks or on soccer fields

For "missionary" to mean "us" in the neighborhood

But these changes grieve many of our members who haven't noticed that it's not good if everything in the world has changed except for the way we do church.

So, as I also grieve some losses today, my prayer is that one day it becomes normal . . .

For the church to be missional, incarnational, intimate, and thriving beyond what we ever imagined. This is my hope.

Photo by Tim Stone.

Disasters

How does your congregation respond to disaster?

China. Myanmar.

Fires in Florida.

Tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina.

I know a congregation that keeps $1000 set aside that the pastor and treasurer have the authority to send the second a catastrophe strikes, and then the congregation knows to replenish it quickly for the next time it's needed.

Most of us stare at the pictures and utter a prayer. It feels overwhelming.

What does your church do?

Painting is Waiting for Food by Burmese artist Htein Lin.

When God Throws a Party

I left the house at 8:00 this morning and am just getting home about now - 13 hours later with laryngitis and a happy heart.

Highlights of the day:

• The (really) Pentecostal pastor who leads a Sunday afternoon service in our building prayed for me in something comparable to "tongues" after our service and before theirs. Can't think of a better way to spend Pentecost.


• Shared what is almost surely the Last Supper with a dear woman who has suffered with Alzheimer's Disease for the past ten years. Her husband dipped the bread into the cup and rubbed it on her lips knowing she could not swallow. And then he ate the juice-soaked piece of bread himself. One of those extraordinary moments I will never forget.


• Worshipped with some of my favorite people in a three-congregation evening service which included the wonderful M. who deserves a nod for introducing me to Sara Miles. (Better late than never.)


• Received the best Mothers' Day surprise ever when FBC showed up two days early from Austin. Dinner with all of us at one of my favorite restaurants. Chocolate waffle for dessert. Nice.

No monastery day tomorrow, sadly, but I might need to sleep in.

Photo by StephanieAmber

Come Lord Jesus

Never have I so ardently wanted Pentecost.

Today was one of those heavy pastoral days that left me feeling a bit depleted. There is so much sadness, overwhelming need, weariness. We could use a whopping infusion of The Holy Spirit.

But most will be celebrating Mothers' Day Sunday, donning corsages or going out to brunch or opening Hallmark cards. There are no Pentecost cards.

If you live in the DC area, check out the awesome light display at the National Cathedral by Swiss light artist Gerry Hofstetter through Sunday night. It's the best Pentecost visual I've seen lately, unless we count those whose lives are a mess while their faces shine with peace.

Happy Pentecost everyone.

See the other slides of the Hofstetter light show here . The light show can be seen at the Washington National Cathedral from sundown to midnight May 9-11.

Black and White.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me." 5-7-08 USA Today interview

This was not helpful.

Call me crazy (in fact my medieval personality, according to kingdomality, is "Dreamer Minstrel") but I still believe that quite a few hard-working white Americans without a college education would indeed vote for a hard-working black American who went to college and law school. And I believe that men will vote for women and Christians will vote for Muslims and native born citizens will vote for naturalized citizens. I still believe - even into middle age - that people will elect candidates who don't look like, talk like, live like them if they believe she or he is the best candidate. Sorry, but still hope for the best in people.

It's really important - especially for someone running for public office - to expect the best in people, to inspire, to lift up. I'm just saying . . .

Photo by kakariki.

Take. Eat.

NYC was a fabulous surprise for TBC. It started and ended with food, but not the food one might expect from a New York City excursion. No Zabar's. No Carmine's.

Surprise party at Einstein Bagels went well with expected hugs and hurrahs. We Vamoosed it to NYC and eventually missed dinner before the play because we miscalculated the time. Woke up the next morning dreaming about Real NYC Bagels for breakfast Wednesday, and so our search began. But we were distracted and by the time we found any bagel spot at all - much less a great one - it was almost time to leave town. We grabbed a quick snack (leftover Reese's Pieces from play and a pretzel so stale the vendor didn't charge me) and hopped on the bus for the return home - exhausted but happy and reassured that the bus would make the usual stop at a NJ rest stop halfway home.

But then we both got a surprise: the bus driver - channeling my father on road trips ("This car stops for no one") had no intention of stopping at any rest stop. Yikes.

So, there we were, a little hungry. And to make things theologically rich, I was reading Sara Miles' truly great book Take This Bread: The Spiritual Memoir of a Twenty-First Century Christian which is all about every kind of hunger. (Read it.)

And by the time we'd been in that bus for almost four hours, I was starting to claw at the windows every time we passed a Roy Rogers.

So, TBC and I developed a plan. When the bus stopped in Bethesda to drop off the Maryland passengers, I would sprint to the Starbucks across from the stop, grab a couple sandwiches (no time for coffee) and hightail it back before it drove away. I was literally standing up ready to be the first one off the bus when Mr. I'll Drop Them Off When and Where I Want Bus Driver parked a full two blocks away from Starbucks and TBC was concerned I would not make it back in time. So we ditched the quick sandwich plan.

Little did we know, our silly window clawing and conversation about how a stale Starbucks muffin was sounding pretty good had been noticed by our fellow travelers. Almost as soon as I sat back down, the woman behind us said, "I've got an extra Luna Bar. Would you like it?" Before we could say, "Wow, thanks" another traveler had dropped a baggie full of goldfish crackers into my lap on his way off the bus. "I'd love you to have these," he said. And then before we processed this quick act of kindness, another woman handed us a granola bar. Suddenly we had a feast. Our own fish and loaves.

So, as always, God is good and people can be surprisingly generous, and we are home again ready for a new day. There will be people for me to feed, God-willing.

Sara Miles talks about the importance of noticing and trying to understand each other's hungers - especially that of the stranger - and we can't really do ministry until this happens. Ministry is about feeding people.

"It's all about 'Your table is ready.' "

There's No Place Like NYC

Shhh!

TBC thinks she's going to the orthodontist this morning, but actually, she's going to an early morning surprise party (bagels!) and then to NYC with her mother to see Wicked. This is the child who regularly wore ruby slippers to preschool and was transformed into Dorothy for multiple Halloweens. The super fun M. found cheap adult sized ruby slippers yesterday and - perhaps, even as you read this - she will enter Einstein's Tuesday morning, discover a table full of friends in there, open a single present, and - tah dah - find ruby slippers with tickets inside.

I love surprises. Sometimes.

Wicked has profound spiritual ramifications, but that's another blog. For now, we will be dancing through life - at least until Thursday.