Terrapin Station

RevGals Virtual Advent Retreat II

(From Songbird:  "I am Part Two of a Virtual Advent Retreat at RevGalBlogPals today.)

 7John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” 15As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. (John 3:7-18, NRSV)

I have to admit I find that closing verse of the gospel lesson for Advent 3C a little funny. The "good news" John the Baptist came to preach to the people had a hard edge.

He's a tough-talker, John the Baptist. This gospel lesson begins with name-calling. The people who come out to see him and be baptized are a "brood of vipers." Trees that do not bear fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Undaunted, the people ask him for specifics. Over and over they ask him, what are we to do? He gives them simple rules for life: share with others, don't take more than you are entitled to take, be satisfied with what you earn.

He's powerful, John. People wonder if he isn't the Messiah himself. When we look around the world today we see plenty of messianic figures, people who proclaim one truth or another. He's preaching the opposite of today's popular prosperity gospel, more like the common sense thinking of our grandparents' generation. Make do with what you have; do a hard day's work and earn what you're paid; keep an eye out for those in need and help where you can.

It seems strange that his rules involve money and wages when he lives in the desert and not in the community of commerce. And it seems even stranger that he suddenly changes the subject from the practical to the metaphorical.

"I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." (Luke 3:16-17, NRSV)

That sounds more complicated than what came before. And that's perhaps the key to Advent. What's coming will sort us out, into wheat and chaff. The winnowing fork is in his hand.

That's John's take on it, anyway. He has expectations of the Messiah, and in that he's no different than everyone around him. He believes the One who is Coming will move us all to the next level.

That's John's good news.

For Reflection

John speaks of wheat and chaff being sorted, and we tend to think of this as an outer process, a division of faithful people from the rest of the world. But perhaps we can apply this to the inner life. As we begin this Advent, can you identify the wheat and the chaff in your life? Are you ready to leave the chaff behind? 

A Prayer

Advent God, in this season of anticipation, prepare our hearts and minds to receive the truth about our world and our lives. Help us to sort ourselves out with the help of your Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of the One who is Coming. Amen."

Many thanks to Jenee Woodard at Textweek for the art links, which can be found here.

*************************************************************

There is much in my life that feels like chaff at this point.  I am sitting in an almost empty office...I have moved all of my personal effects into the room down the hall, as I officially start my new job tomorrow.  They will come to move my computer this afternoon at 4:00, at which time it will really be real...I goes where the computer goes. 

Looking around this spare space I wonder, did I really need all of those THINGS?  This is the question of Advent.  What can I clean out to make way for what is new?  What will be wheat in my new work?  What will be chaff?  I have re-read David Allen's Getting Things Done and  hope, as I  begin in the new space with the new responsibilities, to implement the best practices I can for time and information management. 

If the GTD system is a revelation, what other revelations are there for me in this move, this change, and in the moves and changes of Advent? 

At church, I have begun attending the 8:30 service instead of the more formal 11:00 one.  It is a shorter service (2 readings and no Psalm), with a little bit of the renewal-style music I grew up with added in.  I love the choir group, too...friends I get to spend time with in a way I didn't before.  I experience the rest of Sunday (my first day of the week) differently because of being finished with church earlier. 

I missed church altogether yesterday because I was driving home from my parents' in SaNangelo (that's in WesTexas).  I usually stay with them for church at the end of a visit, but I really felt the need to get home early, get to exercise class, get ready for the second day of the week and the days to follow. 

And I ended up in a terrible traffic slowdown due to construction on I-20.  We went 3.5 miles in 2 hours.  Not so easy in a standard shift car; my knees are mad at me.  And I ended up getting home later than planned anyway.  So, no church, no exercise class.  But a nice quiet evening with my hubby and the dogs. 

Whatever we plan, hope, or envision may very well not come to pass.  And what we cannot imagine:  may.  Will! 

 

RevGals Virtual Advent Retreat I

Roger Hutchison, Advent.  Photo on Episcopal Church & Visual Arts.   

A million thanks to Mompriest for this gorgeous beginning prompt at RevGals:

Entering the Advent journey is an invitation to travel, intentionally, into the wilderness – the dark night of the soul. One hopes that the Church guides this journey offering opportunities to pray, ponder, stirred up, conflicted. John, the desert prophet, proclaims the burning chaff, the background to our Christmas shopping. Advent sings of incongruous images - new birth and end of life, the Alpha and the Omega, of oppression and freedom, of despair and ultimately of hope. The path is uneven and twisted, spiraling in to the depths of our being, certain we are lost. And then, quietly, the Spirit of God calls to us, “Awake, arise, my love, my dear one.” The early morning desert sun illuminates the way - through the valley to Jordan’s bank - our God is near. Awake and hearken, let each heart prepare a place for the Word to break in, a child to come anew, whispering peace into you and me. Come, our long expected One, come.

Within in our darkest night
A starless chill
Shudders
Calling, “Emmanuel
Where
Oh where, are you?”

Within our deepest soul
Astounding one
Voice
Cries in the wilderness
“Prepare
the way of the Lord!”

Within our darkest night
A still small spark
Kindled
Hark! The glad sound calls out
“Sleepers
Awake!” Jerusalem

Rise up and give walk in light
prepare
from darkest night -
Arise!
Our Daystar comes, the night

Dispelled, every valley filled,
every
mountain low, the rough made
smooth
A light, a light bathes bright

Discard the garment, sorrow
afflicted.
Arise! Put on the robe
Adorned
with love and mercy

Questions to ponder:

John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, describes our spiritual journey as a process of moving from desire for God, to conflict with God, to contemplation and peace with God. (Go here for more on this idea.) Many consider this process to be a spiral not linear. Based on these three "states" where are you in your faith journey?

I would say that I am moving out of conflict into contemplation.  Not at peace yet.  And definitely finding this to be a spiral process...I keep thinking I understand, only to learn that what I am trying to understand has changed.  Or my understanding of it.  Or me. 

Does the mystery of Advent invite you into deeper reflection on your relationship with God? 

It actually seems the perfect metaphor at this time.  Stirred up, conflicted...with a hope of hope.

Do you have a meditation of your own you'd like to share with us today?

Thanks for asking.  This is not original, but it immediately comes to mind given this retreat...

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, And the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

thomas merton

Do you have an Advent resources you'd like share?

My clearest memory of Advent all through my childhood was lighting the Advent wreath at the dinner table...(fussing over who would get to light the candles)...and saying the antiphon: 

Our King and Savior draweth nigh

O, come let us adore him.

Things my mama taught me in the kitchen and other stuff

A post about all the things my mama taught me would take forever!

This morning I broke some eggs into a bowl to scramble, and before I took the fork to them I spied a little piece of eggshell.  Tried (though I know it was foolish) to fish it out with a fingertip...then used one of broken, empty shells to capture it.  I remember my mama teaching me that.  How do people learn that except from mom at home?

The other big thing I learned from mama was:  Roast your Thanksgiving turkey in a Reynolds Oven Bag.  No basting, and it never dries out (if you follow the directions!) 

Here's the Ken and Mary Beth's House procedure for Thanksgiving:

* I baked  a Red Wheel braid left to thaw and rise overnight.  It had ... spread out quite a bit.  Good thing it was on a jellyroll pan, not a cookie sheet!  Once baked it looked rather like an armadillo, not a happy one.  Fortunately it's delicious.  I brought Ken breakfast in bed.  He pronounced the braid, along with scrambled eggs and bacon, "perfect."

What's next?

* Look at the instructions from the Oven Bag box to determine how long the roasting will take for the 13 lb free range turkey currently in the fridge.  Hmm...I'll put it in at 10, generously rubbed inside and out with that Mount Enterprise BBQ rub.  MMM, good. 

* Take the Mama Stamberg Cranberry Relish (of annual NPR fame) out of the freezer to thaw.  Have never made this before but have always been amused and intrigued by the story.  I polled 3 people with the recipe ("does this sound good?").  Of the three, two said YUCK! and one said YUM!  Since the latter is the one having dinner with me today, I decided to try it.  (Of course, I did invite the other two...maybe this is why they declined!?)

* Don't worry; I have a can of cranberry sauce, too.  Just in case.

* Ken is giving the dogs a bath.

* Set the table with Gramma Beth's silver and Grandma Bessie's china.  Sweep (our dogs are leaf magnets these days!)

* Put that turkey on

* Peel and boil potatoes to mash

* Chop lots of celery and onion for the bread dressing

*  Sister Sarah and nephew Marshall will arrive at 1:00 with pecan pie & That GreenBean Casserole with the Soup.

You know what happens next. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I am grateful for family who live close and will come to my house; family who live far away but are in touch by FB and other means; my parents and their lovely and welcoming home, where I'll go tomorrow.  For hope.  For you.

Spiritual Community

As developed by Fr. Frank at Irenic Thoughts:

St. Cat's Tree

 
Hat Tip to Ciona for this.  It's from a message written by Richard Rohr:

"St. Catherine of Siena in her Dialogues pictures the spiritual life as a large tree:
The trunk of the tree is love.
She says the core of the tree, that middle part that must be alive for the rest of the tree to be alive, is patience.
The roots of the tree are self-knowledge.
The many branches, reaching out into the air, are discernment.
(Note she recognizes much more subtlety is needed than mere black-and-white answers.)
In other words, says Catherine, love does not happen without patience, self-knowledge and discernment.
Today we have little encouragement toward honest self-knowledge or training in spiritual discernment from our churches. By nature, most of us are not very patient. All of which means, love is not going to be very common. We need St. Catherine's tree again."

Stuff

• All the Thanksgiving groceries are in the house. I hope. Boy, I don't wanna have to make a last-minute dash for something.
• Today is Christ the King Sunday. Because in the Gospel Pilate asked Jesus, "are you the King of the Jews?" and Jesus said, "You say that I am." Point being that he is not going to have an earthly kingdom but a heavenly one...unlike anything ever seen before. And so the tradition is that we sing all these hymns: Crown Him with Many Crowns, Lead on O King, Eternal...that use the words we already have about kings and crowns and kingdoms. Um, did we miss something?
• Sure does get dark early. It's 7 pm and I'd swear it's 10:30.
• Pretty little house down the street from me a ways...has three huge cottonwood trees in the yard (and that's all). Drove by there earlier to see that the trees have been scalped...clearly they are taking them down. I said out loud, "Why the HELL would you do that?!" Maybe the trees are sick or something but they sure didn't look it to me. Now that house is going to be nekkid. Yuck.
• Three work days this week. I'm looking forward to some quieter time than last week, and to getting my files into some kind of order; figuring out what goes with me and what stays with the job. Fortunately we just moved office in January so I went through & recycled tons of stuff then.

The First Day of the Week

 
Lovely worship this morning.  I have arrived at a place vocally where I am singing from inside of me, instead of from my nervous throat.  It feels splendid and as if I could do it for days.  That energy work may take time but it works!!

We heard a message of stark financial reality during the announcement time from my friend and fellow Vestry member.  It was also a testament to the incredible power and support of Christian community.  It was beautifully, beautifully done  and reminded me of how much I appreciate that body.  (I do wish that the choir anthem hadn't been the Very Next Thing after it.  Eeek.  Talk about putting your game face on!)

And then I heard something differently today than I have before, or rather it took me to a different place.  It's not earthshaking perhaps...but here it is: 

As part of the Eucharistic Prayer, Fr. David used this proper preface: 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who on the first day of the
week overcame death and the grave, and by his glorious
resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.

I've heard that about a million times.  But today what jumped out at me was "on the first day of the week." 

Do I think of Sunday as the first day of the week?  No, not really.  I think of Monday as the first day, as in, "UGH, Monday again!!"  And I think of Sunday as the last day of the week, the culmination of the weekend, when I worship, see friends, and slide in a little extra relaxation. 

But what if I did consider Sunday The First Day?  That way my week would begin among my worship community; I like that.  And the "UGH Monday" would not be so raw, because it'd be in a larger context. 

Will consider this week.  Will let you know. 

Friday Five: The Mulleygrubs and the Thanksgivings

(Banana cake...Uncle Frank's favorite.  Also my husband's.)

Posted by Jan at RevGals

The Cure

Lying around all day
with some strange new deep blue
weekend funk, I'm not really asleep
when my sister calls
to say she's just hung up
from talking with Aunt Bertha
who is 89 and ill but managing
to take care of Uncle Frank
who is completely bed ridden.
Aunt Bert says
it's snowing there in Arkansas,
on Catfish Lane, and she hasn't been
able to walk out to their mailbox.
She's been suffering
from a bad case of the mulleygrubs.
The cure for the mulleygrubs,
she tells my sister,
is to get up and bake a cake.
If that doesn't do it, put on a red dress.

--Ginger Andrews (from Hurricane Sisters)

So this Friday before Thanksgiving, think about Aunt Bert and how she'll celebrate Thanksgiving! And how about YOU?

1. What is your cure for the "mulleygrubs"?  Get up out of the bed and do something for someone else.  Sometimes I go to the Kroger parking lot and put carts in the corral. 

2. Where will you be for Thanksgiving?  Here at my house.  I've invited my just-older sister plus sister-in-law and nephew.  We will have a Mary's Free-Range Natural turkey obtained from The Cupboard, our great and independent natural food store.  Friday morning I will head to WesTexas for a weekend with my parents. 

3. What foods will be served? Which are traditional for your family?  We'll have the turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, bread dressing with lots of celery and onion, pecan pie...hmm, what else?  Ken likes candied yams so I'll make some, and a banana cake. 

4. How do you feel about Thanksgiving as a holiday?  It's my favorite!  It means family and getting together and being grateful and NOTHING about the pressure of gifts (that's another post).

5. In this season of Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?  For any of you who read this...my family and friends, both online and in the meatworld (my new favorite word:  gamer talk for IRL (in real life) friends); having a good job; doing work I believe in; still having faith and a place & freedom to express and explore it; my home; last but not least my sweet husband who has supported me through so much. 

BONUS: Describe Aunt Bert's Thanksgiving.  The poet stirs her mulleygrubbing stumps and gets in the car and drives to Catfish Lane (it's a long, long way, since she lives in California, but that's no matter).  On the way there she stops off at the IGA store and buys all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner.  She arrives, makes dinner for Aunt Bert and Uncle Frank and the widow lady from next door.  Aunt Bert's cake is the best part of the meal. 

Then she packages up all the leftovers into those Ziploc freezer containers (also from the IGA store) and labels them, cleans out the fridge, and spends the next two days sitting with them and listening to stories of their Thanksgiving memories and eating cake.  Aunt Bert helps her seam the sleeves on her first sweater project.  It's the poet's best Thanksgiving ever.  And Aunt Bert's, too.  She hates having half a mulleygrub cake go to waste.  

Belief-O-Matic

It's a real thing, not just something on Saturday Night Live. 

It's on BeliefNet.  You, too, can participate.  But note the 

Warning: Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.

 
I answered twenty questions (which I found to be rather bizarre), to be told the following, less than earth-shaking, news:

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

1.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2.	Liberal Quakers (84%)
3.	Unitarian Universalism (81%)
4.	Baha'i Faith (77%)
5.	Orthodox Quaker (68%)
6.	Neo-Pagan (66%)
7.	Mahayana Buddhism (64%)
8.	New Age (64%)
9.	Reform Judaism (62%)
10.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (58%)
11.	Theravada Buddhism (58%)
12.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (57%)
13.	New Thought (56%)
14.	Jainism (54%)
15.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (52%)
16.	Secular Humanism (52%)
17.	Orthodox Judaism (47%)
18.	Taoism (46%)
19.	Sikhism (45%)
20.	Islam (42%)
21.	Jehovah's Witness (41%)
22.	Eastern Orthodox (41%)
23.	Roman Catholic (41%)
24.	Seventh Day Adventist (41%)
25.	Scientology (37%)
26.	Hinduism (35%)
27.	Nontheist (33%)

I wonder...if I am 33% like a nontheist, is a nontheist 33% like me in belief?  One assumes so.  A new argument for ecumenism? 

A good afternoon!

We are coming into the home stretch of International Education Week...a busy and exciting time.   And a little stressful, too. 

Today's event was a debate on the book Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future by Jeff Goodell.  This book is UNT's One Book, One Community choice for the year, and there have been a number of related events (as you can see here). 

Wow, was it exciting!  The debaters were supercharged, and there were about 80 students in attendance.  The audience was very engaged, asked good questions, and overall it was a real success. 

I didn't do much besides help my colleague Olga have the idea and put together a program handout.  And listen.  But boy, did I come home with a smile on my face.

Thanks, I needed that.