A sermon for the beginning of the Sabbath Experiment.
Exodus 31
12 The Lord said to Moses: 13You yourself are to speak to the Israelites: ‘You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14You shall […]

Let the good discussion continue in the post below… but it’s Friday, so…

In honor of a couple of marathon meetings I attended this week:
1. What’s your view of meetings? Choose one or more, or make up your own:
a) When they’re good, they’re good. I love the feeling of people working well together on a common […]

Here’s a hot button issue for you…
I haven’t thought all this through completely. I’ve pulled it out of the oven, but I’m not sure the toothpick comes out clean yet. So bear with me.
Tonight was my second to last presbytery Uber-Committee meeting. Of course, I finally located the optimum route to the church in which […]

Heartwarming, too. And a bit freakish.

Pachelbel Bedtime.

Little she-who-is is smiling to herself over her cereal and banana…
RM: What are you smiling at honey?
C: [pats her chest] The red thing under my bones.
RM: Your heart?
C: Yes. It pumps blood to my body but Jesus is there too.
RM: And that’s what you’re smiling about?
C: Yes.
Mr. RM: Tell Mommy about your leg.
RM: What, did […]

Miscellaneous
Trader Joe’s Trek Mix with three kinds of nuts, raisins, cranberries, and chocolate chips. This is the kind of thing I would have hated at a younger age, but it’s amazingly good. I am even able to overlook the golden raisins, which have always creeped me out for some reason.
Speaking of nuts, the divine miss […]

A few years ago I participated in a clearance interview for a candidate for ordination who was being called to a associate for pastoral care position at a nearby church. The position was half-time, and our job as the clearance team was to assess the “fit” between the candidate and the church, and also examine […]

…but it’s starting to feel like it.

Yesterday I told little she-who-is that in exactly one year she would start kindergarten and that mommy would probably cry. She was bemused by this.
Speaking of crying, she has been very sensitive lately. Simple corrections cause little tears to leak out. Which make me feel like a tool. So today my goal is to not […]

I had lunch with a friend last week who was kind enough to offer to hear the whole story of my Iona trip, having been there herself.
The next day she sent me two photos from her trip to Edinburgh.
The first is of Thomas Riddell’s grave. Fans of Harry Potter will recognize the name immediately. […]

Here are some of my favorite words the divine miss M uses:

gah-gen: water (I don’t quite get that one but it’s cute)
duck: stuck (when she can’t get down from the chair)
dah-dah: MaDear
ah: yes (I actually think that’s “yeah”—I know, I know, but I say it all the time)
tiss: tissue
peep: anything that happens in her diaper
wah-woo: […]

Back from first (annual?) all-church retreat, which judging from the fistful of evaluations I ended up with was a resounding success.
Excellent weather (not that we controlled that). Well organized. Nice balance of activity and downtime. The main suggestions were minor things to improve, like having a place the early bird could make make coffee before […]