so here are two pictures, before and after, the former being just after things were planted, the latter a week ago.
and by the time you read this, I have already harvested all of the radishes and planted some more
Lord, you give the sun and the rain. Today it is cloudy and cool and the earth rests. Tomorrow it may be hot and the ground may harden in the baking heat. Between these two you will find us.
So we had the last day of Sunday School and as we have done in recent years, we brought the good folks from Macdonald Ranch out for the kids to experience, petting zoo fashion. It was a great time and some of the more jaded kids, the ones normally whinging about getting back home to their Wii even seemed to find it a worthwhile experience.
How is it that we end up doing this to kids? By trying to give them everything we can, we end up taking things from them. If we give them a Wii, or a spiffy cell-phone or a computer, and they stay indoors in their safe and sanitized home, haven’t we in truth robbed them of something else? How do we weigh the things that we give and take away and how do we judge which one is more important?
New families and old in an uneasy mix. When can we get to the point where we all just trust in faith that we’re members, one and all, in the family of God. If we have a hard time teaching it to the kids, will we ever be able to get it across to the adults?
Can I portray trust enough to model it to others?
Then there’s the garden which I came home to that evening. I thought I’d give you an updated look.
over 100 degrees! what kind of craziness is this?!?
I was perfectly happy just one post ago and I was trying to keep some equanimity when they told me that it would exceed 100 degrees just one day after my birthday on the same day when I had arranged for a group of guys to come up to church and remove the majority of the pews from the sanctuary in preparation for a congregational banquet. I called the moving off, nothing like trying my best to not endanger the lives of the congregation. But it is hard to live a non-air conditioned life.
I suppose that it’s good for the grapes and therefore the wine’ll be good in a couple of years.
but MAN is it HOT
I have been entertained on a number of occasions by stories of Debbie’s Grandfather and even her uncle shopping and simply being out in the world and asking for (and receiving) the “minister’s discount.” I imagine that this is one of the reasons that in days past, pastors and the like always went around vested, not only would you garner a bit more respect, but there was in popular culture a sense that you were a person of substance, thought you didn’t earn much money. Maybe times were different then and it was seen as noble to sacrifice material success for the sake of a calling, but wearing the collar certainly cemented you within a certain orbit of thought and behavior and people responded.
Out in California, there is most definitely less deference and respect given to members of the clergy and there is almost no administrative recognition, but it has occurred to me in recent weeks that even among the unchurched, there is an oddly rising tide of recognition of the place of clergy in society that I find very interesting.
Stores in the neighborhood make accommodations for me because they know that I serve a church. For example, a fire bowl was on sale outside one of the local hardware stores and I mentioned in passing that if it came down below 80 or 100 dollars they should call me. When asked what it was for I explained the Easter Vigil to them and told them about kindling the New Flame for the sanctuary. The price moved to $80 in an instant.
Tires get mounted for free, tune-ups happen for the price of the parts, fig trees are delivered to me at work when I mention that I might like to have one.
It feels like the world is turning again and that the casual disdain for clergy that seemed fairly prevalent in places like California specially may be making way for a newfound understanding that faith leaders are not necessarily divisive influences, that we (if we portray ourselves this way) can be islands of calm in a harried world (Steinke’s “non-anxious presence) and there is some value in that.
I feel especially “cared for” here. Some of the terms have changed but I am glad to be here.
Okay, maybe I’m overstating it. It was 80 degrees this morning at 6. If I’d wanted weather like that I’d have stayed in Minneapolis! 100 degrees this afternoon!
It was supposed to be really hot these next few days and I was NOT ready for it. I looked it up on the internet this morning and it said that instead of mid-80’s we’ll be having mid-70’s. I don’t have to run home and water the garden in the middle of the day, I can wear long pants and a cleric without dissolving.
Except for a staggeringly odd (and for me, totally out of character) lack of Garlic, the garden is pretty much ready to rock.
I’ve got all of the beds in place for this year (there’ll be a bit more next year) so we’re off to the races. My mother was in town this past weekend and she mentioned with just the faintest trace of bitterness, that it was exactly twice as hot here as in Anchorage and so her garden is still under a blanket of snow.
Part of the fun for me is actually spending time outdoors, either on the porch
yes, those are the irises from earlier posts
or out with Caitlyn on the porch of her playhouse
which will be easier when I get all of the garden stuff off of it. There’s just so many metaphors for a life in faith to be had outside, in the dirt and the world.
God is good and I find it so much easier to see that outside, even if its hot (but not too hot)
Amen
It is an odd process, one fraught with questions and yet it seems to nurture a sense of the Holy Spirit working in and through the election and in the end we have a new Bishop Elected in the Sierra Pacific Synod, Mark Holmerud.
I’m not sure that it is a job I’d wish on a dog, let alone a pastor I like and have respect for. Necessarily, like the presidency, there is really no adequate training for the position, nothing is like being bishop and being bishop is like nothing else and so we have what we have and each is different.
And around here they are the victim of what I think of as tragically poor planning in and through the merger way back when which saddled the bishop with 204 congregations spread out over a quite large region, from northern Nevada across northern California and down into the central part, past Monterey. Beyond the geography there is the incredible diversity of the synod, from Humboldt county to Fresno, from San Francisco to Elko, Nevada the disparity in priorities and beliefs is staggering.
And so I find it odd that the thing that makes me feel as if I were truly a part of this synod is the fact that i have a more than nodding relationship with four of the six candidates who were running. It is odd to feel that connected, but I guess that the Lutheran world really isn’t all that big.
Back at home some of the peach Irises have bloomed and so I thought I’d send along a picture:
be well, more about living outside (yourself and your home) later I suppose
Tim
This took longer to get out than I expected But I had to get to the Synod Assembly in order to help select our next bishop. On the way out of town, I paused in the driveway to snap a few pictures of the irises out there, to complement the irises out back. These are much more vividly purple, rich and deep and hopefully they’ll be joined by some white ones in early May.
How can such things exist alongside poverty and despair? Maybe that’s why they exist alongside poverty and despair.
Why am I afraid of things going well?
Things are going well at church, life at home is busy and complicated yet good in a more profound way than I can explain, and I have Caitlyn as this little bundle of hope and joy running around making me happy. Is it something just with me that I am waiting for another shoe to drop?
The weirdest thing is, I think that it’s theological in nature. I have seen too many ministries which have become stale and comfortable and have therefore become passe and have vanished or at least diminished to the point of vanishing and now that I think about it I have seen marriages and families in the same predicament, I guess that I fear success because it is so-o-o-o-o-o-o seductive to try and never deviate from what got you here and then not realizing that you are going there.
I think this just makes it a great time to gather up my strength, bolstered by good times and happiness, and see what we can do next. What challenges face us in ministry and how can we get there? What can Debbie and I do to make our lives together even better? What can we do to keep Caitlyn growing up the way she is, confident, secure, loving, trusting, capable?
That’s my word for the day, a question this time. What’s next? What can we do better tomorrow than we did today? What can we try tomorrow that we were too afraid to try today? How can we embody Christ tomorrow that is more meaningful than what we have been doing lately?
“the renewing of your senses” sez Paul.
gimme some of THAT!
blessings, Tim
Maybe not outside of yourself, but at least outside of your house. The first of the springs irises have bloomed and it inspired me to get this thing up and running again, to try and make some kind of statement about once or twice a week about living a life within the love of God.
These are a dark, almost black iris that we bought at the annual iris sale. They were out of the completely black ones, which were very beautiful. These bloomed half-heartedly last year but have just exploded this year. They are next to the Shamouti Orange tree which appears ready to produce for the first time this year.
Also a lot of work has been done (and more needs to be) in the back yard for the garden. Since the soil here is largely adobe clay, the beds are above ground since I do not have the time nor inclination to spend hours digging, tilling and mixing in amendments to the soil.
The tented bed is carrots and radishes, since they scorch in the sun until they are big enough. The other beds are largely un-planted, the big charity plant sale if the weekend of the 25th (which I will miss because of Synod Assembly, but I’ve given Debbie a list.
California is truly a blessed place at times like this. I will be less sanguine about it when it is 95 degrees, but for today it is paradise. Ministry is good, the garden is good, the family is good, all the time God is good.
hope your spring is also bringing you joy (Kendi and Erik have already gotten theirs!)
Amen
I’ve been reading this book and I commend it to you. It describes a progression of belief that I’d like to lift up to you, to see if it resonates at all. The book focuses on what the author calls “polarities” of discipleship defined thusly:
All three are lifted up as pieties that we can see out in the world and tripolar spirituality if hailed as the most completely biblical and faithful example. The Anabaptists are given as the main modern adherents of this kind of spirituality (if you want a glimpse of what tripolar spirituality would look like in action, think of the Amish response to the man who came in and killed the schoolgirls in Pennsylvania. That is defining love for God in love for others) and he had once taught at a Mennonite seminary.
He proposes the following sentences as indicative of the progression into and through the various polarities:
How many of these can you lay claim to?
How do you understand the statements as they reflect your life, your behavior, your hopes for the future?
God of life and light, let us see. Let us see you in all that we do. Let us hear you in our voice as we proclaim your salvation. Let us know and welcome you as we have been known and welcomed.
 | Cynthia Bessonen on the personal touch |
 | Lauren Morris on the sounds of silence |
 | Karen on Feed me! |
 | airb on Oh my goodness it is HOT … |
 | pastortim on Christian does not mean s… |
