Observance of Holy Lent Invitation

We are about to embark on a journey that will take us through the life, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. This season is a reminder of all the ways we are in need of God. This season is similar to Advent in that we wait and listen for God’s “still, small voice.”

Traditionally, the Lenten season has been a time to fast, exercise abstinence and penitence in commemoration of Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness for 40 days. I would like to encourage each of you to consider giving up, or adding to your life in a meaningful way that would help you focus on God.

Pray as you consider what God would invite you to ‘give up.’ God may compel you to add something to your schedule, rather than take away. Stacy and I are going to abstain from eating meat over Lent. I will also be practicing Yoga each day during these 40 days.

The benefits of abstinence are reviled as you practice. Fasting is a way for you and I to be aware that God is present in our lives.

I encourage you to pray through the possibilities of your season of Lent, my prayers are with you as you practice faith.



Grace and peace,
cv

Preparation for Lent: The easy target of Mardi Gras

So today is Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, and Pancake Tuesday...

I think it's funny how we try to work indulgences out of our system... when our system (western, American cultural system) is indulgent. So to prepare to be 'holy' during lent we try to get 'all our sin out'

Mardi Gras is the easiest target for this visual... the celebration is comprised of masked, therefore anonymous, people getting all their 'sin' out, at night, in the dark... there is the safety in numbers thing, and mob mentality rolled into one.

At the height of all this 'tomfoolery' I'm struck most by my conclusion that I don't do the exact same thing... I tent to compare and contrast my behavior against such an easy target as Mardi Gras. However, my indulgence is just as destructive, just as dark, just as masked... It's just not celebrated as such?

The sins of: pride, indifference, lust, prejudice, competence, narcissism, (the violence of) consumption, disconnection from the body of Christ and countless others are what I keep hidden.

So before I look down upon such celebrations of 'sin' I must be fully aware of my sin that separates me from God.

what do you think?

Back to Normal

I returned to the office this week for my first 'normal' week back since the last week of January. Here's the short list of explanation of absence:
* Covenant Clergy Midwinter Conference in Chicago Feb. 2nd-6th
* Shane Claiborne: The Simple Way: Friday the 6th Evening
* Oregon Center for Christian Values Advocacy training February 7th
* Vibrant Gathering focusing on the pillars of being Church February 8th
* Multnomah County Jury Duty: Monday February 9th: Juror in the Philip Sano Trial until Wednesday afternoon (11th)
* Got Sick (cold Thursday-Sunday)
* Valentines Day Breakfast with the Mathis'
* V Day evening dessert @ Pix Patisserie... with the amazing CJ: DJ, transvestite, lounge singer...
* Vibrant Gathering focusing on our attention on our Vibrant Congregational Identity...

Yesterday was a much needed day off...

Jury Duty: the waiting game

Here I sit...
in a huge room with a other potential Jury Dut-ee-ains. We wait. every once in a while a officer of the court gets up reads from a list of names... everyone takes a deep breath... the tension is significant... the boredom is less noticable but no less significant...
I think we the potential jurors are in the nebulas space of ambiguity... not knowing when our name will be called...

there is the sense of the unknown in the ambiguous space... an emotional connection to what might be...

People are passing the time in various forms: reading working on computers talking quietly, there is a group of women that are playing "cranium" (very entertaining)...

We are in this together, but each separate... the table i share now is with 2 other computer users... we've talked internet...

is that it?

Church as Collaboration

I have been thinking about what our trademarks are as a congregation. We are a congregation of collaborators. We figure things out as we go... that is very different than making 'it' up as we go along. We have weathered many storms as a congregation mainly because of our shared value of collaboration. We have freedom to work things out together.

We are working on a project to give to our partner congregation in Dodoma, Tanzania. We wanted to give something of ourselves that would represent who we are and that we long to be with them. In the course of figuring out what we were going to create to give a visual representation of who we are. People became frustrated with the process of collaborating. Collaboration demands engagement... one cannot opt out and still be a collaborator.

I wonder if discipleship is more an act of collaboration than individuation?

What do you think?

What I like...

I like:
Waking up next to Stacy (my wife) each day... even when I feel like I haven't gotten enough sleep.
Sunshine
Rain
Water
The way cold, wet air feels when I breathe deeply (Oregon Dankness)
Snow
The Sound of the Ocean
The feeling of getting tumbled in the waves
Sliding down the face of a wave on a board
A good conversation
Thinking
Dreaming
Skateboarding
Watching L'Aubergale run around in circles with excitement
Watching Cleo(catra)'s belly fur blowing when the heater turns on
Talking about and Pondering the words of Jesus
Fly Fishing on the Metolius (even if I don't catch any fish)
Snowboarding with friends
Attempting new things
Remembering laughter
Watching movies
Seeing what resides in the ocean (All creatures)
My family of friends


I like a lot of things but this is a good start

Woes and Curiosity

I spoke this past Epiphany Sunday about Holy Curiosity being a prime motivator for our faith. I was hoping that this idea of curiosity was what compelled those invitees to see the new born king to travel to see him (and family).

I have been thinking that fear is a primary motivator for me... most often I fear what i can't control (most everything). I started making a list of things I can't control:
Life, others, history, world financial markets, war, politics, the number of people showing up to our gathering of worship, how much people tithe, etc...

The motivation though is to worry... I worry about most everything (when I'm truthful with myself)... I guess I come by my fearful motivation naturally enough... I'm barraged by media that sells my proneness to fear as a commodity. The more fear inducing stories the more people watch... the news becomes a horror short story of all that's wrong with the world...

Enough about the media... I have a fondness to worry and fear...

I remember a movie called "Mr Mom" where the dad convinces his little son to release his "woobie blanket" back into his care. My worry is like that "woobie blanket" that my heavenly father is inviting me to turn over to his care. My woes, fears and worries, become familiar motivation against a holy curiosity that stems from God.

Matthew 18 is an example of how we can return to childhood where we get to exercise humble, fear-free, holy curiosity...