felix hominum

Morning Prayer

My daily routine since college days has been to pray the "daily office" from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.  I first really got into it as a daily discipline at my alma mater.  There was a college chapel, and students would come together for morning and evening prayer (more would show up for Communion on Thursdays, which was followed by "sherry hour").   It was a great setting in which to experience prayer and worship - the flow, the rhythm of scripture, the sense of community.

I have carried that practice for many years now, although lately it has shifted in its flow and rhythm.   So this morning, sitting on the sofa with 3 kids, trying to alternately pray and read and translate and do a bit of story telling about the scripture readings for the day, and getting juice, and changing a diaper, and telling someone to share, and trying to get everyone to shout "the Lord's name be praised"  every time I said "praise ye the Lord'".

I have a secret to share.

Praying with your kids is fun.

heirlooms and hand-me-downs

Last night Matt  & I were chatting a bit.  He told me he had been in touch with a DC  blogger (I'll find out who & give the props) who talked about spiritual "hand me downs".  You know, the stuff that was new for your older brother and made him look and feel great, but by the time it got to you, well, it just wasn't the same.  It's economical to use hand me downs.  They might get a little thread bare, but hey - they'll do for the time being.   And they are cheaper than getting new stuff.  Problem is, they don't exactly fit.  You know, they were tried on by someone else, and that's who they were meant to fit.

How much of our life, our worship, our way of trying to live out the Christian life is spiritual "hand-me-downs"?  Stuff that someone just put on us at the time because it was the nearest thing on the coat hanger?  Eventually, you find out that it's just not the same as having your own...   You want something that is yours, something that fits you, that was made for you.   And so we can decide to throw out the spiritual hand-me-downs.

Mixed in with the hand-me-downs are the heirlooms.  The things that are there because they have meaning, they have stories behind them, they are worth something.  Heirlooms connect us to generations gone by, and we ourselves leave some for the generations yet to come.  Things which, if they were were lost, would leave us poorer spiritually.

How do we know the difference between the heirloom and the hand-me-down?

Toddler raised by wolves finds home with local family:

A male toddler who appears to have been raised by a pack of wolves has found a place in a local Edmonton family.   Family members say they initially thought the  boy, who is almost 2 years of age, was raised by humans, but have since come to realize that he was actually raised in the wild by northern timber wolves.

Speaking for the family, the Rev Joseph Walker noted that they had become suspicious about the boy’s early upbringing only in the last month or so.  “He used to be quiet and would nap every afternoon.  Now he seems to enjoy biting on table legs and throwing food objects onto the ground;  he exhibits a classic tearing and nuzzling technique of eating.  Only a few months ago he would enjoy a quiet time with a book or song, and now he prefers to grasp the plastic CD cases between his teeth or break them over his forehead.”

Rev Walker consulted his colleagues at the University of Alberta,  and there are other hypotheses as well.  “It appears that some of the wildlife biology people also suspect the influence of the foothills grizzly bear as well.  For almost two years we were convinced that he was raised by humans, but now just as he approaches his second birthday, we’ve had to look elsewhere to explain his behavior.”

Adam's return (a parable)

(Once upon a time, we lived in a garden.)

Worked in the garden until dark tonight.

It seems that every spring I pull the same weeds.   I know exactly which ones will be there.   The same species, the same variety, keep popping up year after year in the same spot.  Perhaps I will spend the rest of my days pulling up the same weeds.  Some years they seem to be better, some years they seem to be worse.   They are, if nothing else, persistent.

I learned from an old gardener that the secret is not to spend all my energy pulling the weeds.  Instead, I must spend more time on making the good plants more healthy.  Eventually, they will begin to shade out the seedlings of the weeds, and that is how the garden will grow into what it is supposed to be.

(And God placed the man in the garden, to tend and keep it.)

to answer a few questions

Just for the record, Matt, I think I might do an actual count someday so I can get it all on insurance, but the rough guess is several thousand.

Last book I bought?  "The Theology of the Apostle Paul"  (James Dunn).
Last book I read?  "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction:  Discipleship in an Instant Society"  (Eugene Peterson).

What's my top five list?  Apart from the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer:

mmm...
Augustine:  Confessions
Boethius:  Consolation of Philosophy (you can find the reference to my blog title in there...)
Evelyn Waugh:  Brideshead Revisited
CS Lewis:  The Four Loves
The Works of John Donne

I'll fill in some more detail on those one of these days.

tagged by matt...

so there's a little meme going around...matt has tagged me to blog about books:
1] how many do I own
2] last book I bought
3] last book I read
4] five books that mean the most to me.

It'll be a while before I complete this task, for two reasons. I'm heading off to a conference, and I like to be accurate. So with regard to question #1, from where I am sitting I can see about 1800 or so books on these shelves...there's more in the other office, then there's the wall in the living room...oh and the wall in the other bedroom, then the ones at the University office...there's those 9 boxes in the basement...just a minute, I'll get back to you...

writing on the wall

A little bit of graffiti in the Old City of Jerusalem - just down the narrow lane from the Latin Patriarchate. 

"Issa" is Arabic for Jesus.

things to ban....

Any Christian book title that has a combination of any numeric reference and the word "secret".  The fourteen secrets to overcoming...   5 secrets of a victorious...   Secrets of lifelong...

How about just a few books with titles like "Obvious things God tells us to do, but we just don't";   "Plain and ordinary ways to serve God and neighbour";   "Things Jesus told us over and over again"?

There.  Just had to get that off my chest.

stewardship of lives

Jesus once told a parable about a wealthy landowner who had to take off for a while, and so he left some of his servants in charge of his belongings - his treasure.  He returned and asked "what have you done with my treasure while I've been away?"  You see, his servants acted as stewards of what belongs to the Master, until He comes again.

With so many of our friends getting married over the past few weeks, and another wedding coming up this Saturday, our conversation in a few places turned to that topic.    What is it to have stewardship of one another's lives?  In the covenant of marriage and in the new covenant of the Church?  I tend to think that we make a mistake in thinking that Jesus' parable is about my own stewardship of stuff he "gives me".  No doubt Jesus is interested in how I use my mind and soul and body, my food and clothes and cash.

But what is the greater treasure that belongs to the Master?  Isn't it the people that are in our lives?   Do I look at all those around me, in the church and out of the church, and say "This is my Master's treasure - I must do all I can to nurture and increase it while he is away.  I must not bury it or hide it or treat it as if it were my own."

What would our relationships look like if we lived out this "stewardship of lives"? to be continued after lunch...

the grave, a bed of hope

Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to receive unto himself the soul of this dear child here departed

Dave & Kathy buried Rachel.  She was 5 years old, their first child.

we commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust;

Spoke briefly with Dave & Kathy this morning before the service. 

in sure and certain hope of the resurrection  to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ ,

They offer this time of grief for Rachel up to God, as an opportunity to witness to their community about the hope that Rachel has in Jesus.

who shall change our mortal body, that it may be like unto his glorious body

Afterward the whole community (family, friends, neighbours, the wider community, media) were all invited back to their place - their home - the place where Rachel died.

according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.

They wanted to make sure that anyone who came to the service, who had never heard of the love of  Jesus,  would hear about him today.   They invited everyone back to their home because so many have never experienced a Christian community living out its faith when it matters.   They wanted the Christian church to reach out and share Jesus with all who came.

Amen.

side bar notes

have been reorganizing & and updating some links on the side - & I know Matt will give me a better tag line for the house blog...

call & echo

Call

So Rob dropped off two of his sculptures for us.   One is a bust in fired clay - a head in repose.  Looks rather good at the corner of the garden underneath one of the lilacs.  It is instantly recognizable  - a human head & shoulders - the head leaning to one side and resting on a soft surface.   It's there, it's familiar - I know what to "name it", how to "see it",  I "know what it is".

The other piece is not so easy.... it is piece (or several pieces?) of rusting metal, welded together.   Looks a bit odd I suppose;  what some might call "abstract".

What's it supposed to be?
"Art"

It looks a bit different from what perhaps I am used to calling "art".
Things are arranged differently - gotta look at it from a few different angles, and in the end maybe I'm not supposed to "get it" or "figure it out." 

But somehow it is the expression of a creator.

Echo

This coming monday is a prayer & worship evening at L'Arche - a community of persons who are mentally & often  physically disabled.

What's it supposed to be?
"Worship"

It looks a bit different from what perhaps I am used to calling "worship."   
Things are arranged differently - gotta look at it from a few different angles, and in the end maybe I'm not supposed to "get it" or "figure it out."

But somehow it is the expression of a Creator.

shame & joy & evangelism

I had often wondered about Paul's phrase at the beginning of his letter to the Romans;  "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel..."   Why would he mention shame?  Is there a bit of a problem about being ashamed of the Gospel?  Of Jesus? (He himself thought so and told us as much)  Of being Christian?  The importance of this has again been brought home to me in the context of a post by  Poul, quoting a Richard Neuhaus article.   It is mainly the last line of the article that I am thinking about:  it is a summons to have the courage to call ourselves Christians.

Why this business about being not ashamed?  In a very simple way it has to do with telling the world who and what is important to us.   If you know me, then you know the people who are important in my life, those who are dear to my heart, those of whom I am not ashamed.   In fact, who those people are and their importance to me will naturally come out in my conversations, in the way I arrange my schedule, and in my actions.

It is those people in whom I take joy and delight in sharing with those around me.  The opposite of shame is not what we commonly think of as pride.  For shame is a "hiding in the basement" of someone, a covering up and hoping you do not notice.  It is a dis-association - I don't want to be identified with this person - they are not of me, they are not mine, they are not part of my life. 

My life will naturally pour out my love and delight for those of whom I am not ashamed - or to put it more positively - those in whom I delight and take joy.   And surely the deeper my love for God, the more joy and delight I must take in Him.   "Come and see this person who gives me delight, who brings me joy".   

The joy of the Lord is the beginning of evangelism.