Singing Along the Journey

prayer

Pilgrim in place

No, I have not confused Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm referring to another kind of pilgrim. Today is the 12th Day of Christmas for those who observe such things.  I try, but somehow that observance becomes more difficult as the world begins its wind-up called "the new year."  People return to school and work, expectations start to rise, traffic patterns return to their pre-celebration insanity and winter settles in for the next few months of who-knows-what.  And here I sit in one of my favorite landscapes, looking out the window at the sunrise that will not stay long  because of a massive rain storm that is changing my plans for this…
Read More

Subversive Christmas…

I'm a little obsessed with the idea of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It all began last year, when we visited George Washington's Mount Vernon for the Illuminations. You can read some of my thoughts about the true 12 days of Christmas (meaning the days following Dec. 25 and ending at Epiphany on January 6) in this article from the archives.  I haven't changed my thinking much since then, in fact, I am more than ever convinced that the truly subversive act of faith would be to observe these 12 days following our now mostly secular extravaganza known as the Christmas season (since, except for little subversive pockets of people, has…
Read More

Five times a day…

I remember so clearly my first experience in the city of Istanbul -- the sound of the call to prayer coming from the beautiful Blue Mosque as the day was done. Of course, my travel companion and I were sitting in a rooftop bar sipping from a glass of hot apple tea, having just arrived in the city and experiencing jet-lag beyond belief.  But each and every day, five times a day, we were drawn by that sound -- a sound simultaneously foreign and comforting to us .  We laughed at the time, saying that we thought perhaps we should initiate a call to prayer from the bell tower at our…
Read More

Onward…

Having spent most of my years as a communicator of some kind, words are important to me.  If you combine that life experience with a good ten years spent in a worship community in which the song that lead into prayer during worship went like this, Our thoughts our prayers And we are always praying Our thoughts our prayers Take charge of what you are saying Seek a higher consciousness A state of peacefulness And know that God is always there. And every thought becomes a prayer. and you have, well me -- someone who over and over again examines the use of words that many people assume have a…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

Me and Karl Barth

I am not a systematic theologian...my friends and acquaintances who love all things systematic have heard me make this proclamation over and over again.  During the course of my seminary education, my Episcopal friends did, however, open my mind and my heart to the idea that the idea of theology as a way of speaking about God was not inherently evil -- although they did not succeed at convincing me that Karl Barth was indeed my friend.    As usual, it took the work of an Old Testament scholar to do that. For the past few weeks, I have been enjoying a class at VTS about the prophetic books of…
Read More

Pilgrim in place

No, I have not confused Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm referring to another kind of pilgrim. Today is the 12th Day of Christmas for those who observe such things.  I try, but somehow that observance becomes more difficult as the world begins its wind-up called "the new year."  People return to school and work, expectations start to rise, traffic patterns return to their pre-celebration insanity and winter settles in for the next few months of who-knows-what.  And here I sit in one of my favorite landscapes, looking out the window at the sunrise that will not stay long  because of a massive rain storm that is changing my plans for this…
Read More

Subversive Christmas…

I'm a little obsessed with the idea of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It all began last year, when we visited George Washington's Mount Vernon for the Illuminations. You can read some of my thoughts about the true 12 days of Christmas (meaning the days following Dec. 25 and ending at Epiphany on January 6) in this article from the archives.  I haven't changed my thinking much since then, in fact, I am more than ever convinced that the truly subversive act of faith would be to observe these 12 days following our now mostly secular extravaganza known as the Christmas season (since, except for little subversive pockets of people, has…
Read More

Five times a day…

I remember so clearly my first experience in the city of Istanbul -- the sound of the call to prayer coming from the beautiful Blue Mosque as the day was done. Of course, my travel companion and I were sitting in a rooftop bar sipping from a glass of hot apple tea, having just arrived in the city and experiencing jet-lag beyond belief.  But each and every day, five times a day, we were drawn by that sound -- a sound simultaneously foreign and comforting to us .  We laughed at the time, saying that we thought perhaps we should initiate a call to prayer from the bell tower at our…
Read More

Onward…

Having spent most of my years as a communicator of some kind, words are important to me.  If you combine that life experience with a good ten years spent in a worship community in which the song that lead into prayer during worship went like this, Our thoughts our prayers And we are always praying Our thoughts our prayers Take charge of what you are saying Seek a higher consciousness A state of peacefulness And know that God is always there. And every thought becomes a prayer. and you have, well me -- someone who over and over again examines the use of words that many people assume have a…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

Me and Karl Barth

I am not a systematic theologian...my friends and acquaintances who love all things systematic have heard me make this proclamation over and over again.  During the course of my seminary education, my Episcopal friends did, however, open my mind and my heart to the idea that the idea of theology as a way of speaking about God was not inherently evil -- although they did not succeed at convincing me that Karl Barth was indeed my friend.    As usual, it took the work of an Old Testament scholar to do that. For the past few weeks, I have been enjoying a class at VTS about the prophetic books of…
Read More

Pilgrim in place

No, I have not confused Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm referring to another kind of pilgrim. Today is the 12th Day of Christmas for those who observe such things.  I try, but somehow that observance becomes more difficult as the world begins its wind-up called "the new year."  People return to school and work, expectations start to rise, traffic patterns return to their pre-celebration insanity and winter settles in for the next few months of who-knows-what.  And here I sit in one of my favorite landscapes, looking out the window at the sunrise that will not stay long  because of a massive rain storm that is changing my plans for this…
Read More

Subversive Christmas…

I'm a little obsessed with the idea of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It all began last year, when we visited George Washington's Mount Vernon for the Illuminations. You can read some of my thoughts about the true 12 days of Christmas (meaning the days following Dec. 25 and ending at Epiphany on January 6) in this article from the archives.  I haven't changed my thinking much since then, in fact, I am more than ever convinced that the truly subversive act of faith would be to observe these 12 days following our now mostly secular extravaganza known as the Christmas season (since, except for little subversive pockets of people, has…
Read More

Five times a day…

I remember so clearly my first experience in the city of Istanbul -- the sound of the call to prayer coming from the beautiful Blue Mosque as the day was done. Of course, my travel companion and I were sitting in a rooftop bar sipping from a glass of hot apple tea, having just arrived in the city and experiencing jet-lag beyond belief.  But each and every day, five times a day, we were drawn by that sound -- a sound simultaneously foreign and comforting to us .  We laughed at the time, saying that we thought perhaps we should initiate a call to prayer from the bell tower at our…
Read More

Onward…

Having spent most of my years as a communicator of some kind, words are important to me.  If you combine that life experience with a good ten years spent in a worship community in which the song that lead into prayer during worship went like this, Our thoughts our prayers And we are always praying Our thoughts our prayers Take charge of what you are saying Seek a higher consciousness A state of peacefulness And know that God is always there. And every thought becomes a prayer. and you have, well me -- someone who over and over again examines the use of words that many people assume have a…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

Me and Karl Barth

I am not a systematic theologian...my friends and acquaintances who love all things systematic have heard me make this proclamation over and over again.  During the course of my seminary education, my Episcopal friends did, however, open my mind and my heart to the idea that the idea of theology as a way of speaking about God was not inherently evil -- although they did not succeed at convincing me that Karl Barth was indeed my friend.    As usual, it took the work of an Old Testament scholar to do that. For the past few weeks, I have been enjoying a class at VTS about the prophetic books of…
Read More

Pilgrim in place

No, I have not confused Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm referring to another kind of pilgrim. Today is the 12th Day of Christmas for those who observe such things.  I try, but somehow that observance becomes more difficult as the world begins its wind-up called "the new year."  People return to school and work, expectations start to rise, traffic patterns return to their pre-celebration insanity and winter settles in for the next few months of who-knows-what.  And here I sit in one of my favorite landscapes, looking out the window at the sunrise that will not stay long  because of a massive rain storm that is changing my plans for this…
Read More

Subversive Christmas…

I'm a little obsessed with the idea of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It all began last year, when we visited George Washington's Mount Vernon for the Illuminations. You can read some of my thoughts about the true 12 days of Christmas (meaning the days following Dec. 25 and ending at Epiphany on January 6) in this article from the archives.  I haven't changed my thinking much since then, in fact, I am more than ever convinced that the truly subversive act of faith would be to observe these 12 days following our now mostly secular extravaganza known as the Christmas season (since, except for little subversive pockets of people, has…
Read More

Five times a day…

I remember so clearly my first experience in the city of Istanbul -- the sound of the call to prayer coming from the beautiful Blue Mosque as the day was done. Of course, my travel companion and I were sitting in a rooftop bar sipping from a glass of hot apple tea, having just arrived in the city and experiencing jet-lag beyond belief.  But each and every day, five times a day, we were drawn by that sound -- a sound simultaneously foreign and comforting to us .  We laughed at the time, saying that we thought perhaps we should initiate a call to prayer from the bell tower at our…
Read More

Onward…

Having spent most of my years as a communicator of some kind, words are important to me.  If you combine that life experience with a good ten years spent in a worship community in which the song that lead into prayer during worship went like this, Our thoughts our prayers And we are always praying Our thoughts our prayers Take charge of what you are saying Seek a higher consciousness A state of peacefulness And know that God is always there. And every thought becomes a prayer. and you have, well me -- someone who over and over again examines the use of words that many people assume have a…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

Me and Karl Barth

I am not a systematic theologian...my friends and acquaintances who love all things systematic have heard me make this proclamation over and over again.  During the course of my seminary education, my Episcopal friends did, however, open my mind and my heart to the idea that the idea of theology as a way of speaking about God was not inherently evil -- although they did not succeed at convincing me that Karl Barth was indeed my friend.    As usual, it took the work of an Old Testament scholar to do that. For the past few weeks, I have been enjoying a class at VTS about the prophetic books of…
Read More

Pilgrim in place

No, I have not confused Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm referring to another kind of pilgrim. Today is the 12th Day of Christmas for those who observe such things.  I try, but somehow that observance becomes more difficult as the world begins its wind-up called "the new year."  People return to school and work, expectations start to rise, traffic patterns return to their pre-celebration insanity and winter settles in for the next few months of who-knows-what.  And here I sit in one of my favorite landscapes, looking out the window at the sunrise that will not stay long  because of a massive rain storm that is changing my plans for this…
Read More

Subversive Christmas…

I'm a little obsessed with the idea of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It all began last year, when we visited George Washington's Mount Vernon for the Illuminations. You can read some of my thoughts about the true 12 days of Christmas (meaning the days following Dec. 25 and ending at Epiphany on January 6) in this article from the archives.  I haven't changed my thinking much since then, in fact, I am more than ever convinced that the truly subversive act of faith would be to observe these 12 days following our now mostly secular extravaganza known as the Christmas season (since, except for little subversive pockets of people, has…
Read More

Five times a day…

I remember so clearly my first experience in the city of Istanbul -- the sound of the call to prayer coming from the beautiful Blue Mosque as the day was done. Of course, my travel companion and I were sitting in a rooftop bar sipping from a glass of hot apple tea, having just arrived in the city and experiencing jet-lag beyond belief.  But each and every day, five times a day, we were drawn by that sound -- a sound simultaneously foreign and comforting to us .  We laughed at the time, saying that we thought perhaps we should initiate a call to prayer from the bell tower at our…
Read More

Onward…

Having spent most of my years as a communicator of some kind, words are important to me.  If you combine that life experience with a good ten years spent in a worship community in which the song that lead into prayer during worship went like this, Our thoughts our prayers And we are always praying Our thoughts our prayers Take charge of what you are saying Seek a higher consciousness A state of peacefulness And know that God is always there. And every thought becomes a prayer. and you have, well me -- someone who over and over again examines the use of words that many people assume have a…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

Me and Karl Barth

I am not a systematic theologian...my friends and acquaintances who love all things systematic have heard me make this proclamation over and over again.  During the course of my seminary education, my Episcopal friends did, however, open my mind and my heart to the idea that the idea of theology as a way of speaking about God was not inherently evil -- although they did not succeed at convincing me that Karl Barth was indeed my friend.    As usual, it took the work of an Old Testament scholar to do that. For the past few weeks, I have been enjoying a class at VTS about the prophetic books of…
Read More

Pilgrim in place

No, I have not confused Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm referring to another kind of pilgrim. Today is the 12th Day of Christmas for those who observe such things.  I try, but somehow that observance becomes more difficult as the world begins its wind-up called "the new year."  People return to school and work, expectations start to rise, traffic patterns return to their pre-celebration insanity and winter settles in for the next few months of who-knows-what.  And here I sit in one of my favorite landscapes, looking out the window at the sunrise that will not stay long  because of a massive rain storm that is changing my plans for this…
Read More

Subversive Christmas…

I'm a little obsessed with the idea of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It all began last year, when we visited George Washington's Mount Vernon for the Illuminations. You can read some of my thoughts about the true 12 days of Christmas (meaning the days following Dec. 25 and ending at Epiphany on January 6) in this article from the archives.  I haven't changed my thinking much since then, in fact, I am more than ever convinced that the truly subversive act of faith would be to observe these 12 days following our now mostly secular extravaganza known as the Christmas season (since, except for little subversive pockets of people, has…
Read More

Five times a day…

I remember so clearly my first experience in the city of Istanbul -- the sound of the call to prayer coming from the beautiful Blue Mosque as the day was done. Of course, my travel companion and I were sitting in a rooftop bar sipping from a glass of hot apple tea, having just arrived in the city and experiencing jet-lag beyond belief.  But each and every day, five times a day, we were drawn by that sound -- a sound simultaneously foreign and comforting to us .  We laughed at the time, saying that we thought perhaps we should initiate a call to prayer from the bell tower at our…
Read More

Onward…

Having spent most of my years as a communicator of some kind, words are important to me.  If you combine that life experience with a good ten years spent in a worship community in which the song that lead into prayer during worship went like this, Our thoughts our prayers And we are always praying Our thoughts our prayers Take charge of what you are saying Seek a higher consciousness A state of peacefulness And know that God is always there. And every thought becomes a prayer. and you have, well me -- someone who over and over again examines the use of words that many people assume have a…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

Me and Karl Barth

I am not a systematic theologian...my friends and acquaintances who love all things systematic have heard me make this proclamation over and over again.  During the course of my seminary education, my Episcopal friends did, however, open my mind and my heart to the idea that the idea of theology as a way of speaking about God was not inherently evil -- although they did not succeed at convincing me that Karl Barth was indeed my friend.    As usual, it took the work of an Old Testament scholar to do that. For the past few weeks, I have been enjoying a class at VTS about the prophetic books of…
Read More

Pilgrim in place

No, I have not confused Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm referring to another kind of pilgrim. Today is the 12th Day of Christmas for those who observe such things.  I try, but somehow that observance becomes more difficult as the world begins its wind-up called "the new year."  People return to school and work, expectations start to rise, traffic patterns return to their pre-celebration insanity and winter settles in for the next few months of who-knows-what.  And here I sit in one of my favorite landscapes, looking out the window at the sunrise that will not stay long  because of a massive rain storm that is changing my plans for this…
Read More

Subversive Christmas…

I'm a little obsessed with the idea of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It all began last year, when we visited George Washington's Mount Vernon for the Illuminations. You can read some of my thoughts about the true 12 days of Christmas (meaning the days following Dec. 25 and ending at Epiphany on January 6) in this article from the archives.  I haven't changed my thinking much since then, in fact, I am more than ever convinced that the truly subversive act of faith would be to observe these 12 days following our now mostly secular extravaganza known as the Christmas season (since, except for little subversive pockets of people, has…
Read More

Five times a day…

I remember so clearly my first experience in the city of Istanbul -- the sound of the call to prayer coming from the beautiful Blue Mosque as the day was done. Of course, my travel companion and I were sitting in a rooftop bar sipping from a glass of hot apple tea, having just arrived in the city and experiencing jet-lag beyond belief.  But each and every day, five times a day, we were drawn by that sound -- a sound simultaneously foreign and comforting to us .  We laughed at the time, saying that we thought perhaps we should initiate a call to prayer from the bell tower at our…
Read More

Onward…

Having spent most of my years as a communicator of some kind, words are important to me.  If you combine that life experience with a good ten years spent in a worship community in which the song that lead into prayer during worship went like this, Our thoughts our prayers And we are always praying Our thoughts our prayers Take charge of what you are saying Seek a higher consciousness A state of peacefulness And know that God is always there. And every thought becomes a prayer. and you have, well me -- someone who over and over again examines the use of words that many people assume have a…
Read More

At the turning of the year…

Here we are.  New Year's Eve (or soon to be, when the sun sinks from the sky), the year 2014 -- a year that I will gratefully kiss on the cheek as it passes into the past.  If 2013 was the year of the unimaginable and unwanted, then 2014 will bear the label of the year of recovery and transition.  Only time (and the value of hindsight on next New Year's eve) will reveal to us the defining characteristics of the year ahead. This December 31st, though, I find myself as I often am...organizing, cleaning, cooking, and preparing...but more than anything, missing the many years when I was part of…
Read More

Thanksgivings for one and all…

This is the day when many of us pause to remember the blessings in our lives.  It is a day when some find that remembrance impossible, because of fear or grief or illness.  It is therefore incumbent upon those of us who feel bathed in blessing most days of our lives to stop and remember for them, to remember for those who cannot see God's love around them through the tears. For all my friends, and for all of those in the world who need it this day, I share this prayer from Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals: Lord, just as your love knows no bounds…
Read More

Me and Karl Barth

I am not a systematic theologian...my friends and acquaintances who love all things systematic have heard me make this proclamation over and over again.  During the course of my seminary education, my Episcopal friends did, however, open my mind and my heart to the idea that the idea of theology as a way of speaking about God was not inherently evil -- although they did not succeed at convincing me that Karl Barth was indeed my friend.    As usual, it took the work of an Old Testament scholar to do that. For the past few weeks, I have been enjoying a class at VTS about the prophetic books of…
Read More