First Foray

I'm excited about tonight, it will be my first foray on to a college campus. I've been invited to take part in a student led forum at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) that engages questions of science, ethics and the advancement of both. Tonight's forum focuses specifically on the non-physiological causes of illness. I look forward to expounding on the experience. Hopefully this can serve as a stepping stone to meaningful involvement in the campus next door.

Easter Miracles

My first Holy Week and Easter as a pastor went well when you take everything into consideration. During the two weeks leading up, it seemed as though there was work every night of the week. And of course Holy Week is worship, followed by getting ready for more worship, followed by setting up for the next worship. So it's not surprising that I had a Spring cold in my Easter basket this year. Even so, with lots of water, tea, cough drops, zinc supplements and tissues, I made it through the week, participating fully. I even delivered a couple of well received sermons on Maundy Thursday and the Easter Vigil and managed not to panic long enough to sing the sung portions of the Easter Morning liturgies.

Business aside, I do love this time of year. The various parts of the week, especially the Triduum (Thur, Fri, Sat) really refresh my faith and strengthen my gratitude. We heartily want to deny that the head can lead the heart, and that only "good feelings" will ultimately confirm our faith. However, I've discovered the opposite to be true, if you want to get splattered with watermelon, you need to sit down in front at a Gallagher show. If you want to be splashed by the Holy Spirit, you need to make a conscious choice to be present when the Spirit is most accessible. Doing all these practices can bend our heart in a new direction.

There were some disappointments, like not being able to spend Sunday night with my sister, brother-in-law and parents. Calling that afternoon to say hello wasn't exactly the same. Perhaps next year the circumstances will work out better to get together.

I wish everyone a happy Easter, and I pray that the 50 days will inspire and feed you until Pentecost!

Feeling Sort of Maundy

Today is Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday, depending on whom you ask. Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum or command. Therefore, on this commemoration of Jesus' great commands we recall his good instructions "Do this in memory of me" and "Love one another." For non-church folks, the fact that washing each other's feet is part of today's worship is plain bizarre. Yet for certain wings in the Christian household, what is odd is that we have bounded this practice and use it only on this day each year.

Now, I've participated in foot washing in three circumstances (on a retreat, on a couple of mission trips, and on Maundy Thursday) and each time it was a very humbling and worthwhile experience. Was it odd, embarrassing, and awkward? Absolutely yes. Do I have "nice looking" feet? I don't think so. Yet I am very glad to have participated. A little embarrassment for Jesus' sake is a good thing, it's both humbling and allows me to be the weak-arched, funny middle toes person that I was created to be. I often wonder what else would happen if church was a safe place to be honestly broken instead of tenuously held together.

Two sides of a Story

It's really fascinating to be in the same city as the Synod (the area under a bishop) offices, because it seems that I see the staff from there quite often. Today was just that way, folks who came out for a Eucharist and Healing liturgy at lunch time had the opportunity to hear our Bishop preach, which is always really a positive experience. It was fascinating to hear about the whole assignment process from a leader's perspective, especially since good friends of mine are going through the process right now. The whole experience of guessing where you'll end up and then coming to terms with the placement, the potential congregation and community are all fraught with nervousness and wonder. It will be exciting to see folks who do end up in New England at assemblies and the like. The Spirit moves in astounding ways and I'm always amazed at how things come together.

New(ish) Computer

After much waiting the "new" desktop is here. Actually the case and the monitor are the same, so is the floppy drive (not that I have any use for it). Just about everything else is new, the motherboard, the AMD64 dual processors, the 4GB of DDR2 memory, the 500GB hard drive, and a squeaky clean installation of Ubuntu Linux 7.10. I've really gotten into the open source community this past year and I really like the stability and security we have now. Many Windows applications have great native alternatives, and for the pesky few that don't, they can either be run through a software layer like WINE or in a virtual machine running a Windows XP Pro desktop. I also really appreciate the sense of community effort, from blogs and boards to wikis of all kinds, the support is far better than the customer support from a restricted OS. There's something about open source that reminds me of the early church as described in Acts 2, where the believers provided for each other out of their wealth and shared all things in common.

Something New

I had always imagined myself chronicling my new adventures when I landed in a new church, what I never imagined was how long it might take to come back around and actually put something down. Even so, I find it all the more ironic that I'm sitting here writing on Holy Monday, after a very busy and emotionally charged Passion Sunday. In some ways, the remaining full week that lies ahead is not nearly as daunting as one might imagine. To be sure there are plenty of prayers to be written, sermons to be crafted and even some rehearsing that needs to be done. This however does not take away from the humbling reality that a story that is much larger than me, or anyone else is driving the week. That's a situation for which I'm truly grateful.