Graduation # 1 Complete!

Seventeen hundred miles and several days later, here's the happy college grad! We are all so proud of him.

Now for a few days of work in Virginia before embarking on trip number two for the high school graduation!

I've had some wonderful family time this last week. I expect to have more wonderful family time next week.

But in the meantime, I'm kind of exhausted.

So, back to being in "gone fishing" mode for a while longer.

Also, I've had to put some restrictions on commenting on this blog for a while. I've been overwhelmed with spam lately. I am sorry to have to do it and I hope that we'll all be back in social interaction mode soon!

Blessings!

Gone Fishing

I'm going on a road trip starting today, with the ultimate goal of attending my son's college graduation. I wrote about his heading out to this college, after some real bumps in the road at other colleges, here.

I'm happy to say that he is graduating something like second in his class and has been awarded the Winston and Margaret Ehrmann Senior Award for Excellence in Sociology.  He has been admitted to Columbia University in New York's master of sociology program for next year.  He's gotten his groove back.

Along the way, I'm celebrating my birthday and Mothers' Day and cleaning out my Atlanta yard's ornamental pond and replacing the pump, playing with Miss Kitty, and visiting my own mother. I also hope some of my roses are still blooming.  AND, we'll be driving 1700+ miles.

So, I'm taking a break from blogging for a bit! See you on the flip side!

The Meadow

This area is a great place to live in the spring if one's favorite color is yellow. Many types of yellow wildflowers are blooming en masse along the roadside, in fields, in the medians in parking lots, etc.

Morning Psalm

Hear my teaching, O my people;*

incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable;*

I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.

That which we have heard and known,

and what our forefathers have told us,*

we will not hide from their children.

We will recount to generations to come

the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the LORD,*

and the wonderful works he has done.

He gave his decrees to Jacob

and established a law for Israel,*

which he commanded them to teach their children;

That the generations to come might know,

and the children yet unborn;*

that they in turn might tell it to their children:

So that they might put their trust in God*

and not forget the deeds of God,

but keep his commandments;

And not be like their forefathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,*

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Psalm 78:1-8

Now the Day is Over....

Night is drawing nigh....

Morning Psalm

Whenever I am afraid,

I will put my trust in you.

Psalm 56:3

Tending the Soul

Texts for the 6th Sunday of Easter.

Here we are on the 6th of the 7 Sundays in Eastertide. Thursday is Ascension Day. Soon comes Pentecost.

In the Gospel today, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. We are looking back to the time after the Last Supper and before the arrest in the Garden. Jesus is saying goodbye.

And he says it this way: Soon I am going, but don’t be afraid. You won’t be alone. I’m sending someone to be with you, to be your companion when I am gone, to help you remember the things I taught you. 

That companion is the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Comforter, who will walk with the disciples when Jesus walks with them no longer, to bind them together in community, and give them the power to continue Jesus’ work in the world.

That’s where we are in the story of Jesus and that’s where we are in the story of the church year. And this is our story, too. We too are preparing to receive again at Pentecost the Holy Spirit, who will walk with us and bind us together and empower us to do God’s work in the world.

So, what are we doing to prepare for the Spirit to be our companion going forward?

Most of us have busy lives. We have lists of things to do. We have family to raise or elders to look after. We have our work. We need to shop and cook and exercise. We have instruments to practice and books to read and photographs to take and games to play. We have places to go and chores to do. 

And that’s just my own partial list. Like many of us, I sometimes get so caught up in “busy” that I relegate my spiritual development to something I might get around to after I’ve done all the other things. How about you? Oh, we love God and we want to be good, but since God is infinite, maybe tending to our spiritual lives doesn’t have to be on the front burner right now.... 

And yet. What could be more important than tending to our spiritual lives? Our spiritual selves aren’t an add-on to our regular selves. Our spiritual self is the very core of our whole self as a beloved child of God.

Our Bible begins in Genesis with a couple living in a beautiful garden, and it ends with this image in Revelation: a heavenly city come to earth as a community in a garden, gathered around God, from whom flows life-giving water, featuring a tree of life whose leaves are God’s medicine for healing. We are invited to live in this garden and be healed and reconciled. That is God’s beautiful vision for us. We are nourished by this living water and this healing tree of life. This is who we are created to be, citizens of this garden. This is the home of our spiritual self.

Tending to the spiritual self means partaking of that living water and allowing God’s medicine to heal our wounds and fractures as we go about our daily business.

These last days, we’ve been holding discernment meetings where many of us have come together to talk about hopes and desires for the future of Bruton Parish. Some women of the parish gathered last weekend to talk about women’s ministries here as well.  

And all through these discussions, I’ve been hearing a longing for connection. Connection with God and connection with others. For some it’s connection with one another here - women connecting to women, parents to other parents, younger folks to older folks. For others, the longing is for connection with the community around us - people in the parish connecting with people in the community who need companionship and help and healing.

Some have voiced a desire for deeper connection with God through worship, through new engagement with the Scriptures, through exploring spiritual themes in literature.

St Augustine described the work of the Spirit as connecting.  He described the Spirit as the love that moves between Father and Son, between God and us, connecting us to God and to one another.  Connecting us to our story as the people of God. Connecting us to our true selves.

There’s an intentionality to spiritual development, and that intentionality is often a casualty of our busy lives. We think we will get around to it. But that’s not tending to it.

If we tend to it, the Spirit nourishes us with living water from God’s own heart, and gives us the strength, and fosters the love needed, to connect with one another and to connect with the community so that we are in fact able to continue God’s work in the world as Jesus has asked us to do. 

Jesus is reminding us today of our need to intentionally prepare for the Spirit to be among us, to strengthen us, to work through us to connect us to God and to one another and to our true selves. This isn’t ‘when I get around to it’ work but something our very souls and the soul of this community depends upon.

So come, Holy Spirit, come!

Collect for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Saturday Morning Jazz

The Jeffrey Cox Quintet plays Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man (the 2nd version) live at The Velvet Note jazz club in Alpharetta, Georgia on April 28, 2013.

Thanks to Mike Holiman for the YouTube video.

Musicians:  Jeffrey Cox, trumpet and band leader; Jordan Holiman, drums; Morgan Guerin, saxophone; Andrew Sommer, bass; Andres Rovira, piano.

Jeffrey is headed to the New England Conservatory next  year; Jordan will study in the jazz program at North Texas; Andrew is going to Juilliard. Andres has another year of high school and Morgan has three more years of high school.

At church, I tell people that our children are not the future of the church - they are the church now. Similarly, these guys are jazz now.

Enjoy!

Friday Afternoon Bird Photo

The sparrow outside my front door.