tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71628487070444674422024-03-13T00:25:02.871-04:00Pastor's PostA place to comment on the journey of faith and the texts we cherish.Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.comBlogger434125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-25190010190092152532020-09-08T14:01:00.003-04:002020-09-08T14:01:52.644-04:002020 Been thinkin’I've been reading about the history of computers and trying to determine when we got our first. My son says it was when they were in elementary school. He learned a fair amount of DOS to do things and play the simple games we had at the time. Our first windows computer was 1986, the Christmas we spent at Attitash, NH skiing. But we rmemeber havine the big actual floppy disks and typing in at the command prompt.
Anyway, Ive had this blog awhile too. Maybe its time to revive some input.Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-5559303746974105942018-11-26T08:30:00.000-05:002018-11-26T08:30:26.062-05:00The Retired Life For MeJust found the following post that didn’t post...
I need to be looking at Advent II now, for a preaching Sunday at the Washington City COB.
I will likely preach occasionally at Bethel UCC in 2019. I haven’t wanted to preach there since they moved into the building with ACOB. But that time will come and I will scoot out as soon as I’m done.
I am happy to lead worship without the responsibility of being a lead pastor. As many of my colleagues would tell you, there is a major difference in the ‘weight’ of being a pastor that has been lifted from my shoulders. Now I am responsible for child care for my granddaughter weekdays. And I’m loving it!
Just found a calendar from my daughter’s first year that has all her milestones in it, ear infections, and notes. What fun to compare.
From October, 2018
My retired life has me (us- wi h hubby, thankfully) spending long lovely days caring for our grandchild while parents are at work. It will either wear us out or keep us young. I’m hoping for the later.
A few preaching invites come my way. I’m not anxious to preach but enjoy the not too often opportunity. So, this morning, looking ahead I reviewed the texts for October 7. Whew, it’s the kind of week I used to look at and consider taking the week off! The congregation where I will supply preach doesn’t demand lectionary adherence so I have an out that way. What do you do when you read the texts and groan?
Preach on divorce?
Tackle the creation story from Genesis 2?
Explain the high and lofty language of Hebrews opener with its theology?
Commiserate with Job as God lturns over” control to the devilRev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-55994023907796198882018-05-15T16:43:00.000-04:002018-05-15T16:43:10.270-04:00In Need of Pentecost I posted this on Facebook, but it is one of which I need reminding.<br />
“<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 52, 47); color: #36342f; font-family: "PT Serif"; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-align: justify;">The joy of Pentecost is that it gives us a vision and hope for a community made possible through the work of the Spirit. This miracle involves being open to the shocking and surprising ways of the Spirit, which empowers us to reach across differences in order to experience radical and insurgent communions.”</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 52, 47); color: #36342f; font-family: "PT Serif"; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.25px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/we-need-pentecost">https://www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/we-need-pentecost</a><br />
<br />
I am as partisan as anyone and it is hard to be accepting of those with whom I RADICALLY disagree on almost everything. AND yet, that is where the Spirit does its work, in me!<br />
<br />
NancyRev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-36822816157090960362018-05-13T11:07:00.000-04:002018-05-13T11:07:23.482-04:00Sundays in retirement<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m missing church. AND I’m giving into fear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m still on crutches and I fell early on due to water on the floor. So when it’s raining or snowing, I don’t go out unless I have a doctor’s appointment that I can’t reschedule. So I missed church because I’m afraid of water while on one leg.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The good news, after tomorrow, I get to start putting weight on my leg while locked VERY straight in my leg brace and still using crutches. But it’s something! Means I can do more than grind the coffee in the kitchen. At least a little more. And my withered right leg should show some muscle improvement, also slowly. I’m sure it will be sore too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So on Sunday, what do I do, I usually turn to the <a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/" target="_blank">Christian Century</a> magazine. But today I went to a few web sites for churches, christian communities, and speakers I know of. My favorite is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brian Zahand</span><br />
<a href="https://brianzahnd.com/2014/04/dying-sins-work/"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://brianzahnd.com/2014/04/dying-sins-work/</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His explanation and critique of ‘atonement theories’ is simple and eloquent. It’s a favorite study topic of mine. When I first began at Arlington COB, I challenged people not to say, “Christ died for my sins.” Unless they could explain it, or cite the atonement theory they were using. The sad part is it silenced people all together. But hopefully made them start thinking about what they were saying. Brian does a great job and he is also a super follow on Twitter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the other hand, I visited Bruxy Cavy’s site at “The Meeting House” and found his teaching not to my liking.</span><br />
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.themeetinghouse.com/teaching/teaching-faq/">www.themeetinghouse.com/teaching/teaching-faq/</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I have heard Bruxy speak in person and really enjoy his powerful yet humble voice. I’ve asked him questions about his organizational plan for the Meeting House and admire the discipleship plan they use, placing higher priority on the small group weekly meeting in homes over the weekly attendance at worship (including satellite sites that project his sermon and worship.) </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In my mind, there is room for alternative ways to God. I have just found the Jesus way to be the ‘best’ from my perspective. Therefore, I encourage others to try it. While I recognize and enjoy the focus on peace and justice that many paths share. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So what do you think? Do you have time to click on those links and do some quick reading? Neither is long. I’d love to hear your opinion. Not that I expect I have any readers after months of not posting. Perhaps I can get back to preparing something on weekly texts, but I think it will be mid-June before I have enough time to do so. Sad but true. Or maybe I just need to prioritize better. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Meanwhile, I will soon upload a picture of the joy of my days lately. (After google pictures finished backing up my images for the last 10 years!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Nancy</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-50736969351269014372018-04-02T09:20:00.002-04:002018-04-02T09:20:34.793-04:00SabbaticalsWhile I have much to tell about my ski sabbatical that will update my current status Re:knee, this article should be read by all, clergy and lay. So bookmark if is you can for a cup of coffee and some consideration about the way we drive ourselves to work.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.faithandleadership.com/robert-saler-why-dont-i-get-vacation-too-how-talk-about-clergy-sabbaticals">https://www.faithandleadership.com/robert-saler-why-dont-i-get-vacation-too-how-talk-about-clergy-sabbaticals</a><br />
<br />
I found it in an Alban newsletter which I also highly recommend.<br />
<br />
Until later, (after physical therapy...)<br />
<br />
NRev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-63372126430747867532017-12-18T08:44:00.000-05:002017-12-18T08:44:14.356-05:00Absent without Leave - changing in 2018Blog friends, I have been absent half of a year and most of the months previous. I hope to change that in 2018. I am retiring! Without a 'pulpit' I hope to share my thoughts on texts and life back here soon.<br />
<br />
Lots to do in the last 2 weeks so it is unlikely that I will post prior. BUT, I am also a new grandmother so be prepared for a few baby photos now and then. I'll try not to overwhelm the net waves...<br />
<br />
Speaking of net, I wonder if I will be able to afford the eventual layers of pricing that will come with the end to net neutrality.?. We shall see.<br />
<br />
Until 2018.<br />
<br />
NancyRev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-78434960450219117772017-07-01T11:59:00.000-04:002017-07-01T11:59:19.157-04:00Ready for vacation.Tomorrow is my last preaching day before vacation. I've been sick all week with a cold and it has really knocked me down. Therefore, I am very ready for vacation. The hard part is trying to maintain focus for one more day. AND thinking about what I should have in place before I go.<br />
<br />
Dreamin' of beach days, sleeping in (without being sick), quiet mornings, golf in 'way too hot temps', walks with hubby, reading, and more beach. Is this what retirement is like? Hmmmm<br />
<br />
I just don't understand how the weeks AFTER Easter have been so busy. Maybe there is just no difference, except busy and busier! Every once in a while I get a "slow" (relatively speaking) week. I have learned to grab those, not feel guilty, and take a little time. Sure enough they are followed by funerals, crisis and lots of extra work.<br />
<br />
I will finish my work for tomorrow. Look at what needs finishing for the next 2 weeks. Then concentrate on what to pack, what to take, what movies to put on my iPad. Ah the good life.<br />
<br />
Until later...<br />
NancyRev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-48484822934925604822017-04-17T09:00:00.000-04:002017-04-17T09:00:00.217-04:00Church BulliesDo you have a church bully? (Or more than one?)<br />
Is there such a thing?<br />
<br />
You know, a person with good intention, at least we assume so, who always gets their way? Have you looked into the minutes to see if this special "position" rotates among a couple people? Or perhaps just one has seniority..<br />
<br />
Or is it that we church people are so sensitive, for our jobs? for people's feelings? to eliminate all confrontation - that we ALLOW the bully to be created?<br />
Bow to their every request.! (It avoids future confrontation)<br />
Anticipate their needs above everyone else's. (Eliminates the late night phone calls, messages on the church machine, or sometimes emails.)<br />
<i>(I remember a story of one who not only sent Monday morning emails, they sent it to the whole church email list!)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I'm assuming we all have some version of them. I just wonder how much we contribute to their development by our responses. Where and when do you drawn the line? Do you see a bully in development and stop the process? How do you do it?<br />
<br />
It seems to be that as much as we promote healthy relationships, this is one that slips by - to our detriment and the congregation's.<br />
<br />
What do you think?Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-27144814028963610462017-04-01T21:55:00.002-04:002017-04-01T21:55:47.064-04:00Working late in LentIt seems to be a weekly and sometimes daily theme, this working late in Lent.<br />
I hear it again, again and again from clergy friends and then,<br />
I echo it, as if<br />
were were in a race to see who could be, or not be<br />
the busiest bee that Lent could see.<br />
<br />
It's silly really.<br />
We who tell others to take time,<br />
slow down,<br />
prayer matters.<br />
Yet find so little time for it ourselves.<br />
<br />
"I forgot to pray," said a pastor yesterday.<br />
(and none of us were surprised.)<br />
<br />
This working late in Lent theme,<br />
turns out not to be in the Lectionary - in any season.Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-56909400544627943232017-03-12T08:00:00.000-04:002017-03-12T08:00:09.859-04:00from @StudioPelicanI love this video and plan to use it on Sunday...along with some Mary Poppins.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Welcome to Studio Pelican. <a href="https://t.co/Ff9HvcRNlG">pic.twitter.com/Ff9HvcRNlG</a></div>
— Studio Pelican (@StudioPelican) <a href="https://twitter.com/StudioPelican/status/837776320536985600">March 3, 2017</a></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-9285652830015777212017-03-09T12:23:00.003-05:002017-03-09T12:23:44.165-05:00Study Day in Lent, "A Jolly Holiday..with Mary"<br />
I know that I can easily get lost while looking for resources for Sunday. Today I've sent the emails I needed to and found the resource and then some. But now it's time for plain old reading. So glad to have this time set aside. I was assisted in this routine, by a former spiritual director. When she asked about my week which had contained a funeral, she asked where I find time for the meetings and preparation. With a study day, there's always a few hours for meeting, visiting, or doing what is necessary but wasn't planned.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
AND the study is needed. So back to the work. I've schedule the video I found for use on Sunday to publish on Sunday morning. But here's another I plan to use, thanks to the idea from <a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/march-12-second-sunday-lent" target="_blank">Nurya Love Parish in Christian Century</a>. (Be warned, the music will stick in your head for days...)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zy7XEMeBROQ" width="560"></iframe>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-81443211692486954172017-01-12T11:28:00.000-05:002017-01-12T11:28:53.411-05:00so much for keeping up to date on blogging. Perhaps this is something to do when I have less on my plate?<br />
<br />
I had a good run with 90s songs for sermon titles. So I've decided to give the boomers a shot at this and have suggested we use 60-70's songs. (late 50's for the older boomers) But so far, no suggestions. I will wait a bit and see if they get with the program.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, here's a pic from our recent (this week) little trip to 7-Springs.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vWbnzLyDw0Zht2ogYkkp8Ar5W5qEwTX2M3V2td9s31qm-nUeMTX_JE9-Y2pQ8oN7PulStTTVDTD-bq2fV-WWi6KJS95NQDt5r-851kYgf9irGIw_hEU_0e1SQUHOeLdnoThlM7wKYow/s1600/NBF+7springs+2017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vWbnzLyDw0Zht2ogYkkp8Ar5W5qEwTX2M3V2td9s31qm-nUeMTX_JE9-Y2pQ8oN7PulStTTVDTD-bq2fV-WWi6KJS95NQDt5r-851kYgf9irGIw_hEU_0e1SQUHOeLdnoThlM7wKYow/s320/NBF+7springs+2017.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Not too far above where I caught an edge and went down on Wednesday when the snow got soft at the bottom of the runs. A great and varied 3 days of skiing. A few hours of powder on Monday night, some powder then frozen on Tuesday, then frozen rain and rain, "Spring-skiing" on Wednesday. All this on January 9-11!</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-4153096810931507882016-12-03T23:00:00.000-05:002017-01-12T11:38:06.834-05:00update: 90s songs for sermon titles<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">9/11/16. “Losing My Religion” R.E.M. (1991) </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">9/18/16 "Nice Guys Finish Last" (1997) Green Day</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">9/25/16 "Heart- shaped box". Nirvana</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/2/16 "Don't look back in anger, Oasis</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/9/16 "Save yourself" - Stabbing Westward" (1998)</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/16/16 “How Do You Talk To An Angel” The Heights (1992)</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/23/16. Better Man Pearl Jam (1994)</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/30/16 "Take Me To Your Leader" Incubus 1996</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">11/6/06 "One Fine Day" Mariah Carey Boys ll Men </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">11/13/16 “Paradigm Shift” Liquid Tension Experiment (1998)</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">11/20/16 “If you could only see” Tonic 1996</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">11/27/16 “Semi-charmed kind of life” - 3rd Eye Blind</span></div>
<br />
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">12/4/16 “Long December” Counting Crows 1996</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">12/11/16 "Welcome To Paradise" Green Day 1994</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">12/18/16 "Holiday" Get Up Kids 1999</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">12/25/16 at AFUMC</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">1/1/17 "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" Little Feat</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-22858363526478887232016-12-01T11:07:00.001-05:002016-12-01T11:07:57.776-05:00Advent I - Semi-Charmed Life (Third Eye Blind)<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">As I indicated last week, I'm posting my Advent sermons in this series on Creation referencing Diana Butler Bass' book, Grounded.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>“Advent of Creation - Grounded” </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Advent 1 - Semi-Charmed Life (Third Eye Blind, 90's songs for sermon titles)</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">(note, We at ACOB, tend to have some discussion and answers to questions in the message. Some are more rhetorical than others. I've noted questions in color to indicate answers were welcome.)</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT79C2zvP4-HgKvaMb75k4PNfYWOerS9FL2o9yFNLRZSBFSlg_FoLPmQLPfG_dBOEZHvkCePQ3r4cbKgmXFPTJ9WeVM7-GxS38qQbacPXJAp8yZy7_xeMYpNKCSwOGn_ew7T6Km5J1r44/s1600/IMG_3175.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT79C2zvP4-HgKvaMb75k4PNfYWOerS9FL2o9yFNLRZSBFSlg_FoLPmQLPfG_dBOEZHvkCePQ3r4cbKgmXFPTJ9WeVM7-GxS38qQbacPXJAp8yZy7_xeMYpNKCSwOGn_ew7T6Km5J1r44/s200/IMG_3175.JPG" title="https://smile.amazon.com/Grounded-Finding-World-Spiritual-Revolution-ebook/dp/B00SRXL1PA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480608395&sr=1-1&keywords=grounded+diana+butler+bass" width="150" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Immanuel, God is with us. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>These words are the centerpiece of what we proclaim at Advent. </b>(7:14 and 8:8) </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>If God is with us, —these 2,000 years after the birth of Jesus— we should spend time reminding each other of the places we ‘see’ and ‘hear’ and experience God…as being WITH us.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>I have noted that here, in this congregation — as is true in many others,— the places most named when we speak of experiences of the Divine are intimately tied to creation. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Congregation: (Name a few of them now:)</span></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>This year our Advent celebration - will also be tied to Creation!</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>…it’s more appropriate than you might think.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">our Christmas traditions are tied to greenery and candles, evergreen trees and scenes of snow. Yet it was the bright sun of CREATION that lit the underside of remaining leaves <b>on fire</b> as it crested over the horizon on this 1st Sunday of Advent.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>This summer just past, the ‘BookWorms’ (our church reading group) re</b>a<b>d Diana Butler Bass’s Grounded.</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><b><sup></sup></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> If you didn’t read it with us, but want to, this month would be a good time.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>In her book, Diana Bass makes some observations, </b>(many of which we are already aware.)<b> </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Observations about church and unchurched people in the 21st century. And </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>observations about people who classify themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>(you’ve heard that phrase before..)</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>ASK: </b>What would you ask someone who self-classifies as ‘spiritual but not religious’?</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Bass’s observations do not bemoan the loss of these people from our congregations, </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>nor does she offer suggestions to get them back — IF they were ever ‘churched’ in the first place.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Her conclusions are more practical.</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>She observes a ‘shifting conception of God” in the last decade from UP THERE to …well closer. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The shift is also From a God who is mediated by pastors and priests, or at least thru the church itself—</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>—to a conception of God that is “unmediated and local.” </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>“One that animates the natural world and human activity in profoundly intimate ways.</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><b><sup></sup></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The God we worship today is the “heartbeat at the center of things”.</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><b><sup></sup></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">This may not seem surprising to you. Yet it is far different than the structures of Christianity as they have traditionally been practiced.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">The intimate connection to the Divine <b>was once only experienced by the mystics YET </b>now seems to be the <b>dominate way large numbers of people experience the Holy.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">How does Diana Bass know all this? The answer is in the <b>words we use</b>. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“People who self-identify as #SPnotR or those who are unaffiliated with a denomination, use a <b>vocabulary of theological intimacy</b>…as do many of <b>us</b> in more traditional faiths.”</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Again, this is <b>not necessarily a bad thing</b>. Certainly we don’t consider ourselves to be the <b>gatekeepers of God, <span style="color: #b45f06;">do we</span>?</b> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<br /><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">The prophet Isaiah that we just heard from, spoke of a <b>reality where God’s word, </b>found in the TorAH’s instruction, “is <b>not only for Israel, but for ALL the nations.” </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Many nations will go and say,</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>“Come, let’s go up to the LORD’s mountain,</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>to the house of Jacob’s God </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>so that he may teach us his ways</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>and we may walk in God’s paths.”</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">“God’s word and law are <b>NOT the exclusive right</b> of any particular people, but are ‘spoken’ for all who <b>Stream towards the mountain of God</b>.”</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Perhaps what Isaiah foretold so long ago, is coming about NOW, in our time!</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">. . .</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Bass says, “People are leading their own<b> theological revolution</b> and finding that the <b>Spirit is much more WITH the world than we had previously been taught</b>.”</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>ASK: What were you taught or what was implied about WHERE God is?</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Bass also made the point that for generations past, people’s questions were about <b>God’s intention towards them</b>, or their people. (For instance, what does God intend for Israel?)</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">But since a time in the 20th century, (really after WWI and II), people began to ask, <b>WHERE IS GOD?</b> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Where was God when the <b>holocaust</b> happened?</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Where was God when <b>Hitler was elected </b>by the German people?</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>etc.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">it’s a different question</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Back then, People understood <b>God to be in control </b>of a more <b>“vertical faith”</b> or “elevator religion” where God is <b>up</b>, we are somewhere in the <b>middle</b> and <b>Hell is down.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>That is not the way most of us experience God today.</b> (Even tho we still <b>sing</b> about God this way in our most beloved hymns and sometimes we talk about God in heaven and EVIL in hell.)</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the past, “God was omni<b>potent</b>, omni<b>present</b>, om<b>nisci</b>ent; </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>All</b> powerful, in <b>All</b> places, and <b>All</b> knowing. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">The God Bass now calls, “<b>Grounded</b>”, <b>“is a God in relationship with space and time as the love that connects and creates all things, known in and with the world.”</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">(For me, these are words I’ve been waiting to hear since I first read, Gene Robinson’s book, Honest to God - written in the 60’s. A book I discovered as I wrestled with a call to ministry, </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">to follow a God whom I no longer thought of as “up there,”— —</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">But until I could </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">place</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> God, in some small way of my own understanding — I couldn’t imagine following ANYWHERE.)</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>In spite of these modern revelations—- In advent —of all seasons, we often revert to an ancient understanding of God in order to listen again to our favorite Bible stories. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> do we need to?</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>title</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>***<span style="color: #b45f06;">ASK: Do we need to have a magical, ‘semi-charmed’ life in order to believe the Biblical stories of Christmas? ***</span></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Is Advent about putting REALITY aside so we can enter the stable?</span></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Or</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">Do we merely need to open our eyes to see ALL life as ‘charmed’ and infused with the holy?</span></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The stories all thru the Bible tell us of a “God who comes close [to humanity] who is compelled by a burning desire to make heaven on earth </b>(up comes down)<b> and occupy human hearts.”</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><b><sup></sup></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>In Abrahamic, Buddhism, Hinduism and Native faiths</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><b><sup></sup></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>, there is a rich tradition of the HOLY coming near to touch humanity with all that is DIVINE.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>From the promise to Abram and Sara to the burning bush and Moses, thru the reign of King David, to prophets like Isaiah, thru exile and return, —-again and again, </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God comes near, calls out, reaches thru, </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>blinds and unblinds people to the point where they can see the Holy right before OUR EYES.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>In a way, this revolution about God is a “RE-enchantment of the world”</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><b><sup></sup></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> as we locate God everywhere and in everyday life.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>In Advent, we again celebrate God ‘showing up’ here among us. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">ASK: isn’t it just when we most need the Lord of Hosts to be with us?</span></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> OR</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">ASK: Where do you most need God to be right now?</span></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>This —is— Immanuel, God with us - </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> “God in stars and sunrise, </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God as the face of a neighbor, </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God in acts of justice, </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God as the wonder of love. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">The changes we experience “reveal not a dreadful, distant God, but that <b>intimate presence of mystery that abides with the world</b>, </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">a <b>spirit of compassion that breathes hope and healing</b>”</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">, into places big and small. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The 20th century horror of the Holocaust and the 21st century horrors of Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Orlando and Charleston, South Carolina, and </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the injustice coming to light in our legal system that punishes people of color more than those seen as ‘white’ — </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>—ALL these tragedies are not places bereft of God. Nor are they scenes of horror that a Heavenly puppet-master caused. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>But in each one, God can be found - </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>among the victims and the rescue workers. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the small and large acts of compassion shown by human for human. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Where is God? </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> in <b>unselfish acts</b> of heroism or <b>unrecognized stands</b> for <b>justice</b>. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">THESE are the “<b>places where faith is being re-birthed “from the Ground UP</b>!”</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<br /><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>It’s not just the unchurched who have discovered the intimate ‘God with us’. —We have known this God all along.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>we celebrate God With Us.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>God is with us as We keep moving toward the hope we have in God’s future by the choices we make today.. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>our personal, relational, political, and communal choices …made as we walk in God’s holy light.”</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal;"><b><sup></sup></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>I WELCOME a theological revolution that GROUNDS us in the holy one. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>God, the ‘ground of all being’.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>whose coming was promised and fulfilled in Jesus</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>whose presence is with us still.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Immanuel. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Come let us adore him, now and always as we celebrate the Joy that comes into THIS World! </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; min-height: 14px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-50989983815475142522016-11-27T07:53:00.000-05:002016-11-27T07:53:11.874-05:00A Waiting, MORE Waiting? and where is HOPE?I haven't posted. It seemed that my posts and rants have been more appropriate for Twitter than the fullness of a blog.<br />
So I think I will post my Advent Sermons here.<br />
Based on some work with Diana Butler Bass's <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grounded-Finding-World-Spiritual-Revolution-ebook/dp/B00SRXL1PA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480251133&sr=1-1&keywords=grounded+diana+butler+bass" target="_blank">Grounded</a></i>.<br />
<br />
Creation and Advent<br />
The Advent of Creation - yep, it's appropriate right?<br />
<br />
Since I HATE the saying, "God is in control." and I refuse to believe that all the hate and racism and ugliness that has been reported lately (but has always been out there) is in anyway part of God's desires for humanity.<br />
<br />
So a walk into creation as we prepare to hear again the stories of Christ's birth seems so very delightful..although you can guess it won't be all sweetness and light. After all, we know John the Baptist will show up someplace! After all, it's ADVENT.<br />
<br />Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-14519452983385753182016-10-26T09:54:00.002-04:002016-10-26T09:54:42.693-04:00Jesus 4 President<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus For President: I was just wondering about how popular Jesus would be in the climate of today's elections. Here are a few quick thoughts I've had. I welcome your comments - which may get edited since spam does accumulate..</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_oqaOVpvT4b0kjteYwr3SH-5t6ntkdRMeENEelbJprIcaqW37G-ya4CrLzz95CuWmhZi6q5MHS1ZRElE3Wzf337ybhyphenhyphenbCpmcHhShdQEBGnTsfo0v5ujZvNCfAok0Jys_CNCwDk_9pDk/s1600/I+voted.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_oqaOVpvT4b0kjteYwr3SH-5t6ntkdRMeENEelbJprIcaqW37G-ya4CrLzz95CuWmhZi6q5MHS1ZRElE3Wzf337ybhyphenhyphenbCpmcHhShdQEBGnTsfo0v5ujZvNCfAok0Jys_CNCwDk_9pDk/s320/I+voted.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Humility</b> - while some of our scriptures indicate more openly that he is the Son of God, others have him referring to himself as the Son of Man. or “Human One”. Even instructing his disciples (when they figure out his references) to keep quiet and not tell anyone. I think ‘Son of God’ might get him more votes.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Commander in Chief</b> - would be a problem. He never tried to ‘take anyone’s <i>swords</i> away’. He did stop his disciples from using them at the time of his arrest so it is doubtful that he would have sent troops to war. So he’d lose the hawk vote, and also lose the ‘strong defense’ vote.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>War on Poverty</b> - I do think he'd resurrect LBJ’s war on poverty and commit significant resources to eliminating poverty and hunger. Like “Bread for the World” says, we have the resources to end hunger RIGHT NOW, all we have to do is allocate them better. Jesus would do that. (If congress didn’t stop him.)</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Security</b> -<b> I do think Jesus would be for strong encryption.</b> He spoke in parables that we are STILL trying to understand, so I think he would have very strong encryption to all communications. But he might freely share the encrypted messages and let the world try to understand. This would certainly take care of leaks and hacking…</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Appearance - </b>We don’t know about how he would dress in today’s world. Certainly the sandals and robe would be an interesting look over pants. Being an middle-easterner, he might be used to head-covering, although the images created in the last century show long flowing hair. His middle-eastern origin and distinctly Jewish features might divide the vote along ethnic lines. (Of course his <i>birth certificate</i> would prevent his running. But this is all hypothetical anyway.)</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Demeanor</b> - We also don’t know if he smiled enough, or too much, or had straight white teeth. And we all know how important are these finite details of presidential demeanor.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Life</b> - Although he is pro-life, his definition of how to stand up for life is a bit different that we are used to hearing in 2016. And he seemed willing to let people act in private according to their conscience- he didn’t pick up the first or last stone… I’m not sure the “religious right’ would vote for him at all.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Pardon - </b>Certainly his proclivity for forgiveness would turn off the ‘law and order’ vote.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Immigration - </b>He liked to freely move between regions and lifted up the immigrants and social outcasts of his day, so we have to think open borders would be part of his platform.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>No PAC funding - </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>But we know Jesus could never be elected</b>. Even without all the above lost votes, his constant barrage against those with money and great wealth would eliminate any donations from business, wealthy, PACS and the like. Without such funding, how would he secure any but his own vote.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">And whether or not Jesus would vote??? Well that’s another essay.</span></div>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-42068663414736555272016-10-15T20:40:00.000-04:002016-10-26T09:40:20.456-04:00Update on 90s songs for sermon titles<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">9/11/16. “Losing My Religion” R.E.M. (1991) - Luke 15:1-10</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">9/18/16 "Nice Guys Finish Last" (1997) Green Day - Luke 16:1-13</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">9/25/16 "Heart- shaped box". Nirvana - 1 Timothy 6:6-19</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/2/16 "Don't look back in anger, Oasis - Luke 17:5-19 & 2 Timothy 1:1-10</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/9/16 "Save yourself" - Stabbing Westward" (1998) - Luke 17:11-19</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/16/16 “How Do You Talk To An Angel” The Heights (1992) - Genesis 32:22-31, Lk 18:1-8</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/23/16 "Better Man" Pearl Jame (1994) - Luke 18:9-14, Sirach 35:12-17 </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">10/30/16 TBD</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It's fun and there are so many to choose from. The challenging part is figuring out where I'm going in enough time to pick the title. I had to google this last one but once I watch the video I remembered it. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwikzazwit7PAhUBSj4KHeB1ABwQyCkIITAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcsATriX8Ed0&usg=AFQjCNGV6r8DeFY8wUVOKhd16VVsOyP4ow&sig2=a-6Jr7rJeZhbN7mHh1pXVg" target="_blank">Here's one of the videos.</a> </span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br />
#keepthepastorentertained</div>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-23153849089830151612016-09-12T10:05:00.000-04:002016-09-12T10:05:01.785-04:00New Week, New IdeaI came up with the inspiration last week of naming my sermon <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if-UzXIQ5vw" target="_blank">"Losing My Religion"</a> after R.E.M.'s 1991 hit. Then I wondered, "What if I named all my fall sermons from 90's song titles?" Just going through my iTunes I found loads of options and created a potential list. But if you have a favorite, send me the title.<br />
Meanwhile, maybe I can create a sidebar for the list. Next week's could be<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
"<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nDq1HoNm-E" target="_blank">Nice Guys Finish Last" - Green Day 1997</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
By the way, I linked to the official music videos but haven't watch them lately or yet. So I can't vouch for the content. :-)</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Off to lectionary group to see how this idea flies!</div>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-68217740289099364312016-09-08T10:52:00.000-04:002016-09-08T10:52:03.516-04:00Spiritual Time Off - a gift for fallI just wrote someone that time off is sometimes the best spiritual gift!. September is such a busy time for families and workers. Everyone seems to feel the "Back to school/work/session". I wonder if we feel it more in Washington DC?<br />
<br />
This week actually feels a little better than last week, but there's still so much to do, just not as much running around. Since there is so much sitting, reading and typing to go along with planning and fall events, I am trying to keep up a daily workout that became more part of my life in July when I was on vacation. It feels good. But it sure is hot, so I'm going to an AC gym thanks to Arlington's 55+ "Gold" plan and their senior/community centers.<br />
<br />
Funny how much of the work I'm doing will include recommending people take time for spiritual outings, spiritual classes, etc. So this Friday we cancelled a Young Adult meal and discussion. Perhaps the time will be the best spiritual gift of all.Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-79926872963599312462016-09-01T12:31:00.001-04:002016-09-01T12:31:13.597-04:00Sermon WritingAfter a month of wonderful community worship where I preached once and shared leadership for worship one service, I'm now back to study and writing a message. How quickly one gets out of the habit. Fortunately, our lectionary group kept meeting during this month. Each Monday we reviewed the scriptures and shared observations, insights, and ideas for preaching. What an awesome group for which I am very grateful.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, it has been a 'catch-up' month for visits and admin. I should no longer be surprised that then end of August through September is some of my busiest time. Planning for fall. Even though the days of "Rally Day" kick-offs at church are long gone. (I am old enough to remember them.) There is still an increase in programs to plan, even for a small church. We have the re-start of Intergenerational Sunday School once per month called "Big Sunday". Regular classes on Sunday resume and since we are small, it is a challenge to create some function form of Christian education that appeals and works for most people, while maintaining enough of the 'old school' classes to satisfy those who prefer the familiar ways. And our twice a month podcast <a href="http://arlingtoncob.org/dpp/" target="_blank">Dunker Punks Podcast</a> continues. So life is full.<br />
<br />
I'm trying to maintain an increased level of physical workouts that I managed for a good bit of the summer. That too is a challenge. Yoga at church on Wednesdays (5:45 pm) helps because Wednesdays are always full to overflowing days.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8-Dqxlf2mYa9OpLmxKIdaQNxalISzg-m0BgAZtQ3K8JhM0wLcT4zYldikNHlvaqJpVJtG1I__F65uCkYYhY74WJ-MZZnfpy5r-bEPftDXH1KT5Ecvzn7l_kmkWKAZVQlSrwxtYPRvaE/s1600/yoga-silhouettes-pack_62147515391.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8-Dqxlf2mYa9OpLmxKIdaQNxalISzg-m0BgAZtQ3K8JhM0wLcT4zYldikNHlvaqJpVJtG1I__F65uCkYYhY74WJ-MZZnfpy5r-bEPftDXH1KT5Ecvzn7l_kmkWKAZVQlSrwxtYPRvaE/s320/yoga-silhouettes-pack_62147515391.jpg" title="http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/yoga-silhouettes-pack_797827.htm" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I keep getting notices on my Apple Watch from a project app that I have 67 "To Dos" awaiting me. Guess I haven't cleared those in a while! (Like maybe all summer?) I'm afraid to look.<br />
<br />
I do enjoy planning worship, a lot! It may be my favorite thing of all. So now, that I've completed most of my reading, if I can create a message that challenges and brings us closer to God. No small task.Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-5126942180727499742016-08-22T09:10:00.000-04:002016-08-22T09:10:54.252-04:00Great Days fade fast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ20hRklMAxc_rOPwZojCUBQxm9TSgmsdYwptkTKrOBQ4yuraczGm_8DaFSjiSp3bliMJk_5HRDRxqIP6XpED_NAtbSvclL9S6wRLkebQ3Gj-nfpzuavZJqt9JkEOPMsn7Qoa3s7SvzvM/s1600/IMG_1197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ20hRklMAxc_rOPwZojCUBQxm9TSgmsdYwptkTKrOBQ4yuraczGm_8DaFSjiSp3bliMJk_5HRDRxqIP6XpED_NAtbSvclL9S6wRLkebQ3Gj-nfpzuavZJqt9JkEOPMsn7Qoa3s7SvzvM/s200/IMG_1197.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
Last Friday's retreat day at National Cathedral was wonderful. I "wasted" a little time recording a podcast that didn't record properly but it was still a lovely day. This week, back to meetings, conference calls, visits, appointments, planning...but not a full sermon for one last week of Community Worship. It has been delightful in so many ways.<br />
<br />
To see a full sanctuary each week, to visit a different church and hear a different preacher, to get to know others from our neighbor churches, this is the delight of August in Arlington, VA. So many have told me they want us to continue to do this! and perhaps best of all, the choir! A real community choir of full strength (for small churches) is a real gift.<br />
<br />
This coming Sunday (27th) we meet at Lubber Run Park Amphitheater followed by a picnic at the pavilion. Another delight.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile there is so much fall planning to do. I'm still struggling to design some meaningful Christian education in a format that works for today's churchgoers. How do I structure time beyond Sunday worship when it is so hard to get people to come any other time? <i>(Unless there is food or a service project involved.)</i> So we are working on some book group ideas that alternate, using Brethren Voices TV, maybe a Bible study where people bring their questions for us to wrestle with, and some engagement with Messenger magazine, our denomination magazine. Planning this (along with monthly "Big Sunday" which is Intergenerational) takes more time than I seem to have. But that's the work of summer's end and early fall. = Always!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioSdxoSZMKbYDFOdNMVizBhmOU06GK4ewSk6p86NDX_45ngIzeUJJp2iebKB-U3YQax23BhD8ot20c3UpiBK2zgIOlYZNf_8YCCbQZnpPkHtZu6ACkWUAssTfJ3hslNFnlN2q6Nd-tTP4/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioSdxoSZMKbYDFOdNMVizBhmOU06GK4ewSk6p86NDX_45ngIzeUJJp2iebKB-U3YQax23BhD8ot20c3UpiBK2zgIOlYZNf_8YCCbQZnpPkHtZu6ACkWUAssTfJ3hslNFnlN2q6Nd-tTP4/s320/FullSizeRender.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
For now, memories of a day of sabbath rest, worship, and quiet.<br />
-NRev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-86361312105442444632016-08-19T10:00:00.001-04:002016-08-19T10:00:44.425-04:00Spiritual RetreatSpiritual Retreat Days are a part of my contract. I am to take one per month. I love the idea of renewal and refreshment on a monthly basis...but it doesn't happen. When your week is portioned out by scripture groups, regular visits, stops at the gym for fitness, evening meetings, weekly study of scripture, sermon writing, worship planning and scheduled appointments, it is hard to find a whole day to free up. Somehow that seems a luxury for which there is never enough time. What do I give up? Who do I put off, not visit, when does the sermon writing happen? and How can I write a sermon without spending a day reading and studying the scripture and other resources?<br />
<br />
But today I plan to go off on retreat.<br />
<br />
It's only a day, or maybe part of a day. (Just heard about impending traffic snarls this afternoon.) But I'm about to pack my backpack with writing, and some reading, some earphones and lots of water. I so need a time of renewal to take away the snarky negativity that has built since Annual Conference. Feeling that this is more like a doctor appointment that's needed than excited anticipation. That tells me a lot!<br />
<br />
Here goes...Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-78053837342479643112016-04-17T07:19:00.004-04:002016-04-17T07:19:55.497-04:00Sunday MorningsSome Sunday mornings you are surprised by a call; major sickness in a member.<br />
Some Sunday mornings you sit in prayer and then review your sermon.<br />
Some Sunday mornings you read the central point...and realize you might have failed to actually make it your central point.<br />
<br />
Thanks Eric Barreto.<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>“The Way” is a powerful metaphor for Christian identity. </b></span><span class="s2"><b>Instead of </b></span><span class="s1"><b>being identified by a set of beliefs, these faithful communities </b></span><span class="s3"><b>were known by their character in the world</b></span><span class="s1"><b>. </b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><b>Christian faith was a way of life and one that impelled individuals and communities to leave the safe confines of home and church to walk on the road God had set out. “The Way” suggests that faith is a living, active way of life.” (</b></span><span class="s4"><b><sup></sup></b></span><a href="http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2835">http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2835</a>)</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
SIGH!</div>
Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-20904518149698838712016-03-21T09:28:00.000-04:002016-03-21T09:28:03.500-04:00Holy ---Holy Week, Batman!I often wish I had super powers when Holy Week arrives. Or at least the enhanced capabilities of Batman. Perhaps better would be the BatCave in which to retreat! (but that's for next week)<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtj6wWFhu8uUTGOY9oGa4g-8qQZNWirCCRn_Tq8muVspcsE2vgUsLWgYFfbKj2Xoz4UEplHK5m6KRzOQfrD7PD5ihl8ai59Nc1CyMdlTEP_dOC8ioYwKtdQHTme14W9V_C4zWGQQjzcE/s1600/Feetwashing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtj6wWFhu8uUTGOY9oGa4g-8qQZNWirCCRn_Tq8muVspcsE2vgUsLWgYFfbKj2Xoz4UEplHK5m6KRzOQfrD7PD5ihl8ai59Nc1CyMdlTEP_dOC8ioYwKtdQHTme14W9V_C4zWGQQjzcE/s320/Feetwashing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feet washing at ACoB</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I am working on a Love Feast service for Thursday that will include stories from others and from years past. I wish I had all the replies I'm looking for, but perhaps today and tomorrow will pull it together. It will be hard to top last year's where we had characters from the past tell their stories.<br />
<br />
Our focus has been "Telling Our God Stories" thanks to the Rev. Sarah Dorrance DMIN project, adapted for Lenten texts and Brethren peculiarity. We still have one more Sunday and some small group studies to complete.<br />
<br />
Good Friday is an ecumenical service with our partners Bethel UCC and Arlington Forest UMC and will include all the scriptures readings plus scents and sounds. Now to find all the sounds I need. Yup, lots still to do.<br />
<br />
But today is Easter Sermon writing at the Buzz Coffee shop. Our Lectionary Group has been so wonderful and these marathon sermon-writing days have been really helpful. It's a very supportive group that keeps evolving as friends move and 'calls' change.<br />
<br />
Happy Birthday to Cinda Brucker who gets to have a birthday in Holy Week on top of it all! whew.<br />
<br />
<br />Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162848707044467442.post-57513028106281791472016-02-26T08:51:00.004-05:002016-02-26T08:58:59.030-05:00A Sermon in Pictures - Psalm 84<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1aRMNkj47ZLmYt69NLhNX3K6x5vTizVtakkKO9afb1UlCpuBFDjxdwBxG33qCydnWx6xg8cNUsLEgd3JHgAQOyvxOiGs7rliT4Kt_rF0BRR1NuEHsaz5IM8Nd-TY0TwbnHAV2nyXZjs/s1600/Jerusalem+Temple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1aRMNkj47ZLmYt69NLhNX3K6x5vTizVtakkKO9afb1UlCpuBFDjxdwBxG33qCydnWx6xg8cNUsLEgd3JHgAQOyvxOiGs7rliT4Kt_rF0BRR1NuEHsaz5IM8Nd-TY0TwbnHAV2nyXZjs/s320/Jerusalem+Temple.jpg" title="http://emp.byui.edu/satterfieldb/Jerusalem/Jerusalem%20Temple.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTyzG5MiFbbhnC7o8ztsNHzrKKDqwyf3WCdI6vbZwL7J5UYGUvSsTRHnSvvFISsgbuIVl1dMAi5QtIK4laLZE0oMUhvui7QGNahhS_UBog8U1hq2ivw0eZfeY6jKBGb6OQ2OxhbljFJs/s1600/temple_mount+modern+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTyzG5MiFbbhnC7o8ztsNHzrKKDqwyf3WCdI6vbZwL7J5UYGUvSsTRHnSvvFISsgbuIVl1dMAi5QtIK4laLZE0oMUhvui7QGNahhS_UBog8U1hq2ivw0eZfeY6jKBGb6OQ2OxhbljFJs/s320/temple_mount+modern+pic.jpg" title="http://jerusalemmint.theisraelboutique.com/media/wysiwyg/temple_mount.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTezcLNHSAPb3SGQGEwk32DyA4EHgW63N8gQfU0nBtzrqUwyZbIdAzvT89qv1rRrPa0I0qxusk6R7kjFARyScqPAsNisfRZCKOGUiwCI1S0cp3jXDWf7rVBzU-6fvCPhSIHEDNv-3CADU/s1600/Song_Sparrow_nest_with_eggs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTezcLNHSAPb3SGQGEwk32DyA4EHgW63N8gQfU0nBtzrqUwyZbIdAzvT89qv1rRrPa0I0qxusk6R7kjFARyScqPAsNisfRZCKOGUiwCI1S0cp3jXDWf7rVBzU-6fvCPhSIHEDNv-3CADU/s320/Song_Sparrow_nest_with_eggs.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5YDRfanfL-1_Lg12hLLswF8v3p2lkedqSxgAwBia8S2vgYr-0QhFOJdoQFvB78BWswWTkwPRtmxnhO26iR_pLdFPERNud4l9PHElkpmE_pxRQ2qfs2Ec3OWz32uqgYEUGgXziaxz2bxI/s1600/bird-nesting-habits-800x800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5YDRfanfL-1_Lg12hLLswF8v3p2lkedqSxgAwBia8S2vgYr-0QhFOJdoQFvB78BWswWTkwPRtmxnhO26iR_pLdFPERNud4l9PHElkpmE_pxRQ2qfs2Ec3OWz32uqgYEUGgXziaxz2bxI/s1600/bird-nesting-habits-800x800.jpg" title="http://www.ehow.com/about_4690361_bird-nesting-habits.html" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9H39bzwSqgNJH-7Snse2NfS02Vgri5VT8lnWsYzqUh76K9OUu6UVLYTTC00j_kL89aB911j-gQSug-6OpslQ6j3H1C1J75Lb0yiTXjN7Lfoqnz4avZz-WVQmL6wv2edUleZ1VvFk5xlo/s1600/TRSW_AnneKElliott_Birdshare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9H39bzwSqgNJH-7Snse2NfS02Vgri5VT8lnWsYzqUh76K9OUu6UVLYTTC00j_kL89aB911j-gQSug-6OpslQ6j3H1C1J75Lb0yiTXjN7Lfoqnz4avZz-WVQmL6wv2edUleZ1VvFk5xlo/s320/TRSW_AnneKElliott_Birdshare.jpg" title="watch.org" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(108, 105, 99); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #6c6963; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 20px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://watch.org/">watch.org</a></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMJbJVGPfCLjg9Gpnwdxggu8z5HoPNvf1XkgZJBox_SKcTDlnw0jUbFuS2Ot5qIfpSi-OrNEN6FlYw8GYEM52qh5i2CNoJF9DMT2CoxiG2Ie7wievNDB3zCySH7yr9a9D8X3FvUxzCdA/s1600/Sparrow+quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMJbJVGPfCLjg9Gpnwdxggu8z5HoPNvf1XkgZJBox_SKcTDlnw0jUbFuS2Ot5qIfpSi-OrNEN6FlYw8GYEM52qh5i2CNoJF9DMT2CoxiG2Ie7wievNDB3zCySH7yr9a9D8X3FvUxzCdA/s320/Sparrow+quote.jpg" title="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/37/8d/ae/378dae71afee95f5f6b563e94cc081a9.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpPNSRMWgi_XuQGIp4tICY5yaOwRAbyqgblfIcF2f2bSOzbrPGCDXk6KOH6FEPTjQ7_Aj5KpOnrLaxU-N5YLgNzj7QTFieDYqQ9B5B3nlrannY_EnIu15ZzB416xkG-0Jwhl7fYMn9GwQ/s1600/BTHU_DavidMoulton_Birdshare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpPNSRMWgi_XuQGIp4tICY5yaOwRAbyqgblfIcF2f2bSOzbrPGCDXk6KOH6FEPTjQ7_Aj5KpOnrLaxU-N5YLgNzj7QTFieDYqQ9B5B3nlrannY_EnIu15ZzB416xkG-0Jwhl7fYMn9GwQ/s320/BTHU_DavidMoulton_Birdshare.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Moulton</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJ7i_VRcmV_1HdHeJz5FvAyNyOtc5lLOdq105NsTlzoVqSI_WHtBLgcC_c1rzYXP70qS1Ry3SE_mnibj8pQaQanxLZHngJSDJ_j4jfK9ioKC7ZHoS6fxuZDAbMryDNdmVj25sBSWcTJg/s1600/House-Sparrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJ7i_VRcmV_1HdHeJz5FvAyNyOtc5lLOdq105NsTlzoVqSI_WHtBLgcC_c1rzYXP70qS1Ry3SE_mnibj8pQaQanxLZHngJSDJ_j4jfK9ioKC7ZHoS6fxuZDAbMryDNdmVj25sBSWcTJg/s320/House-Sparrow.jpg" title="http://billclarkbugsperts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/House-Sparrow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJuFf9kGawgMt10tthyFczP3jnJIoWTN7HJ6ziBdxvMEYzSxbNyMQ3LQkK4_TzdjCJFM44f31MPxTz4sGErONganhC_w4tDpxiRkfOGJgXdgF6X8IL6eowYdpwI-J-p4WF-FzEGHrCTQ/s1600/eye-is-on-the-sparrow-791x1024.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJuFf9kGawgMt10tthyFczP3jnJIoWTN7HJ6ziBdxvMEYzSxbNyMQ3LQkK4_TzdjCJFM44f31MPxTz4sGErONganhC_w4tDpxiRkfOGJgXdgF6X8IL6eowYdpwI-J-p4WF-FzEGHrCTQ/s320/eye-is-on-the-sparrow-791x1024.png" title="http://seminarygal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/eye-is-on-the-sparrow-791x1024.png" width="247" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKH1x0hdMHQ9u5-N6wr4zihJ0uK9o7z38gddXIKU1ImSjN8ytWTUrsWVr_cdaQMlRsyecAaN2FuZJlim8xLdapPZCbqI_v0KXQBxbhLWMI04oISFHYB4UhQGbRl82ABxaL-6WQwT0xYUQ/s1600/gold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKH1x0hdMHQ9u5-N6wr4zihJ0uK9o7z38gddXIKU1ImSjN8ytWTUrsWVr_cdaQMlRsyecAaN2FuZJlim8xLdapPZCbqI_v0KXQBxbhLWMI04oISFHYB4UhQGbRl82ABxaL-6WQwT0xYUQ/s200/gold.jpg" title="https://www.creditwritedowns.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/gold.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtu6jgtQ6Karm8e6-5WXvf8uFScBpvzmQRh6m2DH_yAFW5F6PPHBHej2oUntbZWy_sbXPMvxEoDGW-SeQfTKc6-2DHhSSoVZ8QLz9d-oilrU39YzqyO3SAGWp7-wmogVbFS0SYEaTtTk8/s1600/God%2527s+Beloved.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtu6jgtQ6Karm8e6-5WXvf8uFScBpvzmQRh6m2DH_yAFW5F6PPHBHej2oUntbZWy_sbXPMvxEoDGW-SeQfTKc6-2DHhSSoVZ8QLz9d-oilrU39YzqyO3SAGWp7-wmogVbFS0SYEaTtTk8/s320/God%2527s+Beloved.jpg" title="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/81/74/b0/8174b02d7299269939e7d50b9f0c798f.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggWPvJxW8aWUdw3BXzbjhRWrGJdxYYOR4tk__SMKbLtxh55JTZqahe4LZ2377Cgz9slmpFj-3rGhzMT9vYj6XTJtHbU0sgEOgeuR-wcNsrpTEpPEbE8jevw2CvGM_a3jCuLLt4O2wtdms/s1600/58868_storytime_lg.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggWPvJxW8aWUdw3BXzbjhRWrGJdxYYOR4tk__SMKbLtxh55JTZqahe4LZ2377Cgz9slmpFj-3rGhzMT9vYj6XTJtHbU0sgEOgeuR-wcNsrpTEpPEbE8jevw2CvGM_a3jCuLLt4O2wtdms/s320/58868_storytime_lg.gif" title="http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/58800/58868/58868_storytime_lg.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFBwPloBb6M2eDNi8HVXsmBslALsOt0UsspjfYUj6ti9QmaUYcuXzQnUkPIkbddiaUmCEhqF-jYlIovoTFIdi61gNPNMSIbhyphenhyphenfggxbrgHZL5O2Y3LBrbJ6Xd8Q6FuH-BPMjPziA91Xb3M/s1600/let-it-shine1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFBwPloBb6M2eDNi8HVXsmBslALsOt0UsspjfYUj6ti9QmaUYcuXzQnUkPIkbddiaUmCEhqF-jYlIovoTFIdi61gNPNMSIbhyphenhyphenfggxbrgHZL5O2Y3LBrbJ6Xd8Q6FuH-BPMjPziA91Xb3M/s320/let-it-shine1.jpg" title="https://wanderingintherain.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/let-it-shine1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4hajatAED9eFXZGtLCq7ojrokYeDXOiO5bxK7vFNDeYwTzHQw51lCZUyHVXHdRNvCV7O2UML0BZwr4jp-J3AWc-XC1g49yJb1IOP2zBZt4l-9NcJsc40b_PwkWZkOJ3nLz4WXssmHn8c/s1600/Male-Le-Contes-sparrow-singing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4hajatAED9eFXZGtLCq7ojrokYeDXOiO5bxK7vFNDeYwTzHQw51lCZUyHVXHdRNvCV7O2UML0BZwr4jp-J3AWc-XC1g49yJb1IOP2zBZt4l-9NcJsc40b_PwkWZkOJ3nLz4WXssmHn8c/s320/Male-Le-Contes-sparrow-singing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Spirit of all holiness, come to our aid today, that we might walk with prayerful passion during these forty days wherever we go, may we know we are always with you. Lord, hear us as we pray in the name of Christ, amen”</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 8.7px; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal; margin-left: 18px; text-indent: -18px;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
ref:</div>
<div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
Edward Hays <i>Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim</i> (Leavenworth:Forest of Peace Pub, 1989) 138 “Lenten Psalm of the Royal Road”</div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />Rev Nancy Fitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06396344663987810043noreply@blogger.com0