ash wednesday: welcoming chaos

After ashes and sacrament early Ash Wednesday afternoon, as I was leaving the church building senior pastor asked me if I planned to attend the Sunday afternoon justice organization meeting. I replied my life currently is so chaotic I'd forgotten all about it.

For lent 2014 several helpful writing or photography prompts have popped up on the internet, as has a list of 40 ideas for keeping a holy lent—although one probably would not blog or brag on those. I may try to graphically or textually illustrate some of the words or ideas, but then again, I'm considering risking and telling more of my own story, a little more openly.

The creation account of Genesis 1 begins in a chaotic void; the untamed desert of the exodus was a place and a condition that created trust and created a new people of God: as Walter Brueggemann points out, Yahweh and wilderness belong to each other! Jesus began his public ministry in the desert. Every year during lent the Church follows Jesus to the cross. We know barren, formless Saturday as the day nothing happen—yet everything happens.

Those of us with some ecological and environmental awareness know well the extraordinary amount of hidden life that teems under the desert's still surface; we also know the rest of the story includes resurrection from the dead. Yet what better idea than for me (and a bunch of other bright, accomplished peeps) to live for a while without control, with minimal structure, with increasing trust in the presence and promptings of the Holy Spirit, and in the frequently messy, chaotic course of new creation? Do I welcome chaos? I hope so!

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall on amazon.

Patricia MacLachlan brings us this month-long view into the lives of Jacob (the family's father), Sarah (his future wife), Anna (Jacob's firstborn), and Caleb (her younger brother). She writes about some of their animals and a few of their neighbors in the prairie heartland of the USA. The prose in this short chapter-book is plain and simple, yet it feels like poetry. If you don't already know the biblical narratives about Sarah, Caleb, Anna, and Jacob, consider checking them out in an internet search or an actual printed copy of the bible. I'm not claiming anything resembling exact parallels with the same-named people in this book, yet teasing out similarities is no stretch, either.

With a quick search I could not determine the exact year or decade for Sarah Plain and Tall, but I'd guess the end of the nineteenth century, possibly the start of the twentieth, so in terms of the year 2014, it was not within any of our memories. In many ways they truly were simpler times, simpler lives, yet we all need to remember, "There are always things to miss ... no matter where you are," and "You must have a garden, wherever you are." I'm very much looking forward to enjoying the rest of the series!

my amazon review: love this first book in the series!

a little random friday 5

Today Deb hosts a little bit random Friday 5.

1. A color that you enjoy (and where you find it).

Yellow! But not just any yellow. Whether pale, medium, or intense, it needs to be slightly golden, and also can be a single sweep of yellow, or part of a pattern or photograph. You can find it all over almost everything I wear, in my bedding, home furnishings and decorations, my art, my photography.... everywhere! Thanks for asking!

2. A food or drink you have discovered recently that is just da bomb!

Rather than being a recent discovery, when I returned to the east coast for a while toward the end of the last century I re-discovered Kellogg's Special K (only the original kind qualifies as da bomb) in a $1-a-bag selection from the food pantry, and have had to have it on hand ever since. It's one of my most fave breakfast treats, always topped with brown sugar, the milk is preferably half-and-half, but whole milk will do. Other than Original Special K, I'm take it or leave it regarding cereal.

3. A simile for tiredness

still hopeful in spite of

4. A random picture from your phone, camera or computer

This is from a series of pictures from my camera I took along I-8 and posted as a group of twelve on my Facebook design page last May. It seems so right today, now that we're finally getting rain to help our near-historically low water supply—in the form of a "once in every 5 – or maybe 10 – years storm" form. As my caption reads, "I love this sunstruck, parched, verdant, hope-filled place!"

5. Your least favorite bill: car mechanic, dentist or plumber?

Crazy as it may sound, I'd love to have the $$$ wherewithal to go to Tijuana and acquire a few dentist bills right now, so I'll choose the too many plumbing bills I had next to the last place I lived, though I'll admit the plumber was quite reasonable, and also friendly.

BONUS: If you are going to have a Lenten practice or discipline, what is it? If you have a book or on-line resource, be sure to share it!

Once again this year, I'm joining in with Facebook friend Stacey and the church she serves and their Lenten practice. The past two years we had a Facebook group; this year we'll be participating in Jan Richardson's virtual retreat, and also post some on our own in the existing group.

transfiguration 2014

The Land: Brueggemann

Because I read this edition from 1977, my blog may not completely apply to this 2002 revision: The Land:Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith – Overtures to Biblical Theology

Wherever you are on this planet, actual earthly turf lies under your feet, forms the foundation of your house, your workplace, of everywhere you venture. For every one of us, "land" carries heavy literal and symbolic connotations that include dirt, soil, ground, territory, settled, belonging, rooted, secure. In this second decade of the twenty-first century we've recently experienced a major economic crash followed by far lower reevaluation of residential – and other – real estate, precipitated by people who imagined inalienable land could be "owned" as property and turn big profits. Families still get relocated by governmental and other entities from storied places into historyless spaces. We've been agonizing over seemingly endless, unstoppable atrocities against the land committed by Monsanto as well as by other huge agribusiness and manufacturing conglomerates. Especially considering those events, you need to read and take to heart this book by Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann as he helps clarify and untangle law, gospel, history and hope!

If you've studied scripture even minimally, you know Egypt "...is not the place!" The Exodus wilderness on the way to the land of promise was not "the place," either. Unlike with those managed, controlled, counted bricks and bread under Pharaoh, in the wasteland of Israel's Sinai wanderings, human administration and management of anything (let alone land and its harvests) was impossible, so with manna and quail from the sky, with water from the rock, Moses' people experienced wildness as a life-giving, life-sustaining gift from Yahweh. For Israel, land would remain gift if they would continue trustfully obeying. Likewise for us, land will become gift if we will obey and trust.

In the Hebrew Bible there is no timeless space and no spaceless time; it all is "storied place." Brueggemann reminds us as "fructifier of the land" Yahweh is a fertility god who fully participates in the agricultural cycles with earth, farmers, vintners, and crops that typically we experience as the [almost] endless recycling of the same events. Yahweh also is Lord of history―not one who protects and assures continuities in our lives, but instead works the brand-newness of political, historical, social, and individual resurrection out of sometimes unimaginably radical discontinuities. Yahweh is Lord of the Lands and Lord of the Commands―a God who keeps covenant forever, who calls us to covenant-making, and covenant-keeping. A God who calls prophets to be a voice for the land and for the people.

Although The Land relates mostly the topic of turf and dirt, gift, obedience, and community in the Old Testament scriptures, the author also brings some possible Christological interpretations of the OT texts along with land-focused insights from NT gospels and Pauline epistles (particularly Romans 4 and Galatians 3 and 4). Remember, you simply cannot empty Abraham of land! Just as in Hebrew Bible times, during the earthly ministries of Jesus of Nazareth and of the early church, we need to be about the covenantal inter-responsibility of speaking and answering, call and response, amongst Yahweh, people, and land. "Listen to the voice and the claim of the land." WB reminds us scripture emphasizes not emancipation but rootage (you already know Paul of Tarsus' eleutheria / freedom ain't no emancipation proclamation!), not meaning but belonging―we are baptized into Christ, into the people of God in every time and place.

Blogger note: the inevitable outcome of living as covenantal, creation-care people is that we'll become an inclusive, welcoming, justice-filled Eucharistic community that displays the exhibition of the reign of God to the world.

my amazon review: land as gift, promise, and hope

encounters 5

Encounters Friday 5 on the RevGals' site.

"Please name five encounters in your life leading to unexpected results."

1. My first encounter with the desert—it was in the southwestern USA, in New Mexico. Oh, I knew about the magic and the lore of the desert, but was not prepared to discover how its spare beauty searched me and stripped me clean of pretensions. Well, at least of some pretensions and a few vanities.

2. Singing in the chorus for Johannes' Brahms «Ein deutsches Requiem» as an undergrad music major. I love Brahms' four Symphonies, play a lot of his short piano pieces and the Handel Variations, but I was less than enthusiast about needing another credit of "musical organization" because I hadn't done one the previous semester. During the summer term they typically had a lot of grad students, so always practiced and performed a larger, more complex work than during the regular academic year. The evening of our performance the profundity of the music brought me to tears.

3. My first unplanned taste of calamari! I was on a weekend visit to a church I was candidating for; my host family took several of us out to Saturday evening dinner at a small Italian restaurant. I almost always order a side salad or an antipasto, and when we'd all finished, my host commented, "their salads always are good, but this time adding in the calamari made it extra good." I thought to myself, "now I've done it!" and I kept doing it after that.

4. Discovering yellow and many – but definitely not all – of its variations as my favorite color. That was long ago, in second grade or so! I'd always found yucky greenish-yellows very ugly and off-putting, but after finding a few wonderful yellows, it became my "most favored" color, and yellow probably dominates or at least is a big part of close to 85% or 90% or my own art.

5. Discovering school! It was senior year of HS. Before then, I'd always considered school something you had to do. I couldn't find anything to love about school, nor did I believe there was anything to hate about it, though I had classmates who did one or the other. I'd been an ok but unenthusiastic student. Then came Mrs Hartley's American History class, and oh, wow! She taught us how to think, and why to think. How and why to do history, and I was hooked on history and on school.

Baptism of Jesus 2014

last couple of days 5

Today's host, Karla, says "I am feeling all in the moment, or at least the past few days moment, so our random FF is focused on the last couple of days (or week, or however you want to interpret this….)

"So, without further ado…."

1. What is the best thing you have had to eat in the last couple of days?

I've been savoring a popular local specialty, Rubio's Fish Tacos.

2. What is the topic/subject of the best thing you have read in the last couple of days?

I've leisurely been grazing through a stack of Better Homes & Gardens magazines from the last three or four years to find both graphic design and home decorating inspirations.

3. Who would you like to give a shout out to that has been in your life the last couple of days?

In alphabetical order, my fabulous housemates Claire and Sarah.

4. How have you practiced self-care in the last couple of days?

Trying to sleep a little more, and since a head cold hit me for the first time in a couple of years, I used that as an excuse for even more sleep.

5. Use the following words in a sentence: couple, shutter, smile, pillow, groan, skip, baby elephant, red shoes.

After slipping into my new red shoes (I typically never wear bright red anything else, but love red shoes), I grabbed a camera, skipped out the door to the zoo, found the new baby elephant sleeping on a fancy pillow, snapped the shutter at least a couple of times; the pictures made everyone smile, with not a single groan to be heard.

Christmas 1: Psalm 148

Nativity Psalms

Bible Readeez

Legal note – "Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product for free from author, publisher, distributor, or publicist in hope that I would mention it on my blog, and was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR. Part 255: 'Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.'"

Bible Readeez, The Word Set to Music. According to the website, this Bible Readeez CD-DVD set brings us The Bible's Greatest Hits.

I am loving this scriptural set of "Learning Disguised as Smiling," especially because it's all-around plain, simple, and unpretentious, along with being refreshing and refreshingly low-tech. DVD images and text are formatted in basic Powerpoint/Keynote slide show style with nothing fancy, no flashing lights, no fantastic effects or transitions, just nice nature images or drawings accompanied by song and scripture text. Kids or adults can watch and learn by singing key scriptures—some in RSV, others in KJV. Bible Readeez brings us Corinthians 13:4-13, Beatitudes, Psalms 23 and 100, the Genesis 1 creation story; the First Christmas account from Luke 2. You also get a catchy Books of the Bible song (I never learned one, so maybe this is one of the standards?) and "Amazing Grace," a song I consider sorely theologically lacking, but most people like it. Besides singing along with the songs, you can listen and read along with a separate reading of each scripture. You, your kids, family, friends, neighbors, various assured significant others also can sing along with either a slower or a 90-second Book of Common Prayer – "trespasses" – Lord's Prayer.

On Amazon you can download a single MP3 of any of the songs or readings. I wish the trifold package anchored the DVD and CD discs more securely, although they stay put well enough when you close the container.

Nota bene: Readeez not only come in scriptural versions, "Readeez are a new way to learn reading, math, ESL, spelling and other useful things. A Readee is a short video, usually musical, where you see and hear every syllable at the same time. We call this SyllableSync. More than 150 Readeez have been produced so far. Readeez were created by Michael Rachap."

my amazon review: simple and refreshing