Hi again, folks -
The stated clerk and executive director of the GAC of the PCUSA sent out this letter to all congregations in response to the potential defection of churches in coming weeks.
http://www.pcusa.org/oga/newsstories/christs-unity.htm
It is so odd to be spending all my time studying the unity of the global church, all the while my own denomination is potentially splitting once again.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Transitions
I'm preaching on The Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday in about two weeks...hm... the same day as the ordination of James... I wonder, will his face glow after the laying on of hands? Should we be offering to build booths in the sanctuary?
I have never quite "got" why either the Transfiguration passage was significant nor why it rates its own Sunday in the lectionary till I started digging into it all this morning. I think I may suffer from way too many sermons on Peter's alleged point of view, "Wow, cool, let's hang out here, what do you mean go back down the mountain?" You may remember James Noel's riff on the passage during graduation weekend.
In the lectionary, it will always be preached because it closes out Epiphany. Depending on the whole Easter moon calendar calculation Epiphay can run up to eight weeks, but not always. Transfiguration Sunday is the override passage, the tip-down passage. Its like when I've been flying for a very long time and then there is this subtle shift in the alignment of the airplane. Subtle and unmistakable - I call it the tip down moment and its the signal that not only have we started to approach the airport, its a good time to make that last run for the bathroom before those seatbelt lights are turned on overhead...
Bill and I took the weekend off and rented a room in a hotel in the financial district of San Francisco. We walked all over the city - we enjoy walking and looking at neighborhoods. We had a nice view - we looked toward North Beach and Telegraph Hill. We saw the twin spires of Saints Peter and Paul highlighted against the sky. They have an open design - they are translucent even as they point toward heaven. They glowed in the twilight of dawn and dusk and were the first to emerge and the last to disappear into the darkness.
So clearly, I am rehersing/exploring themes for the sermon yet to be written - but thus is the nature perhaps of blogging or writing or streams of thoughts at any rate. What I really want to do in this blog entry is to tell you that we took the ferry over and back out of Larkspur and - of course - stopped for lunch at the brewpub.
We sat outside in the late winter sunlight - ordered up beer and burgers off the same menu that we have all used for years and I remembered all the meals with all of you I have enjoyed in that place. I ate too much and became bloated with beer, onion rings, and pastrame sandwiches. Then we got in the car and drove back home to Santa Rosa.
Is it possible to go back? Or to stay too long? Or is it good to transition in stages? Even though none of you were there with me in person, you were there with me in translucent memory. Did I shine with a strange new light or just glow with the mild sunburn I had picked up from the three days of city hiking and ferry riding we'd just completed. Santa Rosa is certainly not the hills of Calvary - but I found that I can't eat at the brewpub like I used to. My body is starting to rebel at the presence of all that meat and fat. Or perhaps its not a rebellion but an awakening to a needed change.
What can we take with us? What must we leave behind? What awaits us? The Gospel speaks with the Law and the Prophets, the Grand Plan is put into place - and Peter just tries to figure out how to be a good disciple.
Peace - I miss you all very much.
Anitra
ps - I'm going to add a note to the end of the entry on switching to the New and Improved Blogger so if you are wondering where we are with that conversation, check back to there.
I have never quite "got" why either the Transfiguration passage was significant nor why it rates its own Sunday in the lectionary till I started digging into it all this morning. I think I may suffer from way too many sermons on Peter's alleged point of view, "Wow, cool, let's hang out here, what do you mean go back down the mountain?" You may remember James Noel's riff on the passage during graduation weekend.
In the lectionary, it will always be preached because it closes out Epiphany. Depending on the whole Easter moon calendar calculation Epiphay can run up to eight weeks, but not always. Transfiguration Sunday is the override passage, the tip-down passage. Its like when I've been flying for a very long time and then there is this subtle shift in the alignment of the airplane. Subtle and unmistakable - I call it the tip down moment and its the signal that not only have we started to approach the airport, its a good time to make that last run for the bathroom before those seatbelt lights are turned on overhead...
Bill and I took the weekend off and rented a room in a hotel in the financial district of San Francisco. We walked all over the city - we enjoy walking and looking at neighborhoods. We had a nice view - we looked toward North Beach and Telegraph Hill. We saw the twin spires of Saints Peter and Paul highlighted against the sky. They have an open design - they are translucent even as they point toward heaven. They glowed in the twilight of dawn and dusk and were the first to emerge and the last to disappear into the darkness.
So clearly, I am rehersing/exploring themes for the sermon yet to be written - but thus is the nature perhaps of blogging or writing or streams of thoughts at any rate. What I really want to do in this blog entry is to tell you that we took the ferry over and back out of Larkspur and - of course - stopped for lunch at the brewpub.
We sat outside in the late winter sunlight - ordered up beer and burgers off the same menu that we have all used for years and I remembered all the meals with all of you I have enjoyed in that place. I ate too much and became bloated with beer, onion rings, and pastrame sandwiches. Then we got in the car and drove back home to Santa Rosa.Is it possible to go back? Or to stay too long? Or is it good to transition in stages? Even though none of you were there with me in person, you were there with me in translucent memory. Did I shine with a strange new light or just glow with the mild sunburn I had picked up from the three days of city hiking and ferry riding we'd just completed. Santa Rosa is certainly not the hills of Calvary - but I found that I can't eat at the brewpub like I used to. My body is starting to rebel at the presence of all that meat and fat. Or perhaps its not a rebellion but an awakening to a needed change.
What can we take with us? What must we leave behind? What awaits us? The Gospel speaks with the Law and the Prophets, the Grand Plan is put into place - and Peter just tries to figure out how to be a good disciple.
Peace - I miss you all very much.
Anitra
ps - I'm going to add a note to the end of the entry on switching to the New and Improved Blogger so if you are wondering where we are with that conversation, check back to there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)