In My Lifetime

Second Life Reflection |Christmas Day, December 25, 2011 "The Reason for the Season"

 

It's Christmas at Sunshine Cathedral on Second Life. Below are the readings, my reflection, and some music selections for this holy time.

Join us each week at Sunshine Cathedral in Second Life.  Download the software and make your avatar at http://www.secondlife.com.  Search Sunshine Cathedral in Classifieds to find your way to us.  We meet each Sunday  at 5pm EST/ 2pm SLT  My name in Second Life is CristoferAslan Muircastle.

We look forward to having you at service!

Click the grey strip below to play sermon audio:

The Reason for the Season

(*Text for the reflection at the bottom of this page)

The Lessons

Psalm 98.1-2, 4-6

O sing to the Lord a new song, for God has done marvelous things…God…has revealed divine justice in the sight of the nations. Make a joyful noise to the Holy One, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises…with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the Eternal

The Wisdom of Eric Sevareid

“Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.”

Readings Christmas 2011

Luke 2.15-20

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place…So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Gospel Christmas 2011

Music

Joy to the World    2:06    Johnny Cash    Christmas With Johnny Cash    Holiday   

Light These Lights    4:28    Debbie Friedman    Songs of the Spirit: The Debbie Friedman Anthology    Pop   

Ave Maria    3:52    Wynonna Judd    A Classic Christmas    Holiday   

O Little Town Of Bethlehem    2:11    Ella Fitzgerald    A Christmas Tapestry    Holiday   

Earth and All Stars    3:30    The American Boychoir    Harmony: American Songs of Faith    World   

Universal Child    4:14    Annie Lennox    A Christmas Cornucopia    Holiday   

Love Came Down At Christmas    3:04    Shawn Colvin    Holiday Songs and Lullabies    Easy Listening   

* Reflection Text

The Reason for the Season 

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!  This year those two greetings coincide in a very real way.  Today is Christmas Day, the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth who revealed to us the presence of the Christ in the world.  And tonight is also the sixth candle of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights that continues for eight days.  So today let’s talk a bit about both of these religious “holy” days.

Hanukkah is a beautiful tradition of lighting candles each night for eight days.  It originates in a group called the Maccabees restoring honor to the temple and refusing to capitulate to the Roman empire who demanded that they stop their religious practices and conform to government decreed practices that mirrored their own religious traditions. 

Hanukkah is about religious freedom. And there is nothing more beautiful or more moving than the candles of a menorah lit fully in the dark night of winter on the eighth night of Hanukkah. It’s a beautiful symbol of light in the darkest days of winter and the triumph of the human spirit exercising it diversity and its right to liberty and freedom.

Today we have here in our midst a fully lit menorah.  We bring this symbol into our midst today to honor and celebrate the fact that it is our responsibility to learn about other religious traditions so that we can honor religious freedom for ourselves by learning about others’ traditions and honoring their right to express their traditions just as we have a right to express our own.

So now let us go to Bethlehem and see the baby lying in a manger there. Let us fully appreciate that his parents were traveling under duress.  They were mandated to travel to Bethlehem, the place of Joseph’s birth, to register for the Roman census. This count of people was used to determine taxes on the occupied people.

It didn’t matter that Mary was pregnant and nearly ready to deliver. It didn’t matter that the journey was long. It only mattered that the empire mandated that the people be counted in a certain way for the purpose of taxing them and keeping them oppressed and living under occupied rule.

 

But the baby came in the baby’s time… the way babies do.  And so they needed privacy for the birth but could not find it in human accommodations. And so they end up in a stable with fresh hay in a manger, a feeding trough for the animals.   When he is born he’s wrapped in strips of cloth and laid there as his mother rests and his father watches over them.

But shepherds in the field saw a light in the sky and heard the angels singing.  They were told of the birth of this child. And they came, as we do today, to the manger in the stable to visit the child and wonder at God’s goodness in the face of a newborn child.

Every year we celebrate this birth as the symbol of the value of every human life.  And every year we are moved to acts of charity and goodness that otherwise throughout the year we decry as foolishness.  But this is not the message of Christmas.  This holy day that we celebrate with gifts and goodness is the essence of what we are called to live our every day of the year as Christians. 

We are not called to celebrate only the birth of the child Jesus but to be concerned, vitally concerned with the wellbeing of EVERY child born on this earth.  Every human baby comes into this world made in the image of the creator we say we worship. But we act as if some images of God are more valuable than others…. Those who have light skin, those who speak English without and accent, those who identify as Christian rather than some other religion.  It’s ironic that some who call themselves Christian and insist it is the ONLY way to experience God forget to remember that the baby Jesus was born a Jew, circumcised on the eighth day after his birth and presented to God in the temple as was his parent custom.

As we close the curtain on yet another Christmas Day in this year of our Lord 2011 let us agree together to endeavor to keep Christmas not only today but every day of our lives in 2012.  We will need to help each other.  Old habits die hard.  But we can develop an attitude of gratitude and an outlook of love and grace just as easily as we have cultivated pessimism, greed, and judgementalism fueled by the media manipulations of our modern culture.

The great Albert Einstein said, “Either nothing is a miracle or everything is a miracle.” I choose the later.  I’ve been in the room when a baby was born. I’ve felt the burst of psychic energy that comes forth with the cry of a newborn child.  I’ve felt the space in my own heart open where just a moment before there was no space to love another.  All of these things are miraculous to behold.

Just as miraculous as the birth of the baby Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Let us now go to Bethlehem to once again behold the miracle and hear the angels sing.

 

Amen.

 

Second Life Reflection | April 24, 2011 Easter "Falling in Love"

The music and  lessons for this week are listed below the audio.  Join us each week at Sunshine Cathedral in Second Life.  Download the software and make your avatar at http://www.secondlife.com.  Search Sunshine Cathedral in Classifieds to find your way to us.  We meet each Saturday at 5pm EDT/ 2pm SLT  My name in Second Life is CristoferAslan Muircastle.

We look forward to having you at service!

Falling in Love

 

Music

Resurrection by Nicol Sponberg on Resurrection (Bonus Track Version)

Easter Song by 2nd Chapter of Acts on Encores 

Earth and All Stars by The American Boychoir on Harmony: American Songs of Faith

Holy Week  by Jess Hawk Oakenstar on Your Heart Will Show You

The Strife Is O'er by Saint Michael's Singers on Christ Triumphant

 

The Lessons

The Wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore  (Sadhana)

“Every morning the day is reborn among the newly blossomed flowers with the same message retold and the same assurance renewed that death eternally dies, that the waves of turmoil are on the surface, and that the sea of tranquility is fathomless.”

The Wisdom of Max A. Coots     (found in Singing the Living Tradition)

“We need a celebration that speaks the Spring-inspired word about life and death, about us as we live and die, through all the cycling seasons, days, and years. We need the sense of deity to crack our own hard, brown, December husks and push life out of inner tombs and outer pain. Unless we move the seasons of the self, and Spring can come for us, the Winter will go on and on.”

Matthew 28.1-11 (NIV)

 1After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel…came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like [corpses]. 5The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen…Come and see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

8So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell  [the others] to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

 

 

My New Hero - Joel Burns

Just watch this. And then send the link to this blog or to the YouTube clip to everyone you know. This is the most compelling video I have ever watched.

Here it is folks... PROOF positive that a single person, using their voice, telling their story can change the world.  Tell me what you think...

 

Visit the Trevor Project for more information.

Queer Youth and Religious Debates Over Sexuality

Last Thursday night I left class a few minutes early so I could make my way to the Sperry Room in Andover Hall at Harvard Divinity School.  I wanted to be sure I got a good seat for the panel of scholars and activists that were gathered there for a panel discussion on the topic "Queer Youth and Religious Debates Over Sexuality."  I thought it was a hastily assembled panel set against the news in the past month of 4 suicides of young people whose sexuality or gender identity was questioned and who had been bullied and violated emotionally by their peers and classmates. 

When I arrrived with my companion we found out way to some of the few seats left in the large hall. The first thing of note as we entered the room was uniformed Harvard University police officers posted just inside each of the two entrances to the hall. Cheryl A. Giles of Harvard convened the gathering and to my surprise she indicated that this panel had been planned a year before. Her opening comments were stark in their tone and warning.  She acknowledged that the views expressed by the panel would surely not conform to everyone's ideas about the topic and warned that any disruption to the proceedings would result in being escorted from the hall by one of the uniformed officers.  My stomach sank.  Had we really come to this?  Police officers in a lecture hall at Harvard Divinity School on a Thursday night in October.

I made some notes on each panelists presentations.  It's important to remember that these are my recollections filtered through my own experience and may or may not resemble the presenter's intentions.

Mark D. Jordan, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity, Havard University

Queer adults have been forbidden to care for and be mentors to queer youth. We have a responsiblity to support organizations that do care for queer youth.

Anita Bryant had to confuse homosexuality with violent sexual abuse in order to make a case against homosexuals.

We must not allow the idea to persist that it is not possible to be both religious and queer.  The language of tolerance cannot combat religious language against queer people. "We can't help queer youth if we deny them." We must move beyond tolerance in churches to celebrating and helping youth grow into both their sexuality and their spirituality.

We must help them know they are not condemned and that they do not have to give up religion to be queer. "Exile from religion cannot be the cost for beign gay."

 

Pam Garramone, Executive Director of Greater Boston PFLAG 

Churches are teaching us to hate. According to research done by Dr. Caitlin Ryan, when children "come out" as LGBT to them:

30% disown the child, 50% say "I love you" but be quiet about this, 17% accept the situation, only 3% celebrate the news.  Children are 8 times more likely to commit suicide if parents reject their child upon coming out as LGBT.

 

Irene Monroe, public theologian, writer, activist, www.irenemonroe.com

"I have to find creative ways to reach my people."  She wrote for the "gay rags." What role does the church play in promoting unsafe sexual practices?

Discussions of the historical precidents that have formed the "Black Church" in the US today.  Images of over sexualized male African Americans and exotic African American women that have been historically rapped and used by their white male oppressors have driven sterotypes of people of African descent and forced black people into an "us vs. them" mentality that leaves the "Black Church" as sole arbiter of Christian response.  Her discussions of the destructive nature of white racism drew parallels to the destructive nature of rhetoric against LGBT people and the role many churches and faith traditions play in that power dynamic.

Grace Sterling Stowell, Executive Director, BAGLY

A transgender woman who has worked for gender justice for 30 years, she called attention to the drastic need for conversations that include transgender youth.  Citing huge cutbacks in recent years she highlighted the need to support the organizations that are for, by, and with transgender youth.

Harry Knox, Director - Human Rights Campaign Religion and Faith Program

We older ones have done our best and it was hard. We need the vision of the young to move forward now. Young people must put their bodies on the line in the struggle. He cautioned youth LGBT activists not to "eat each other."  He said, "You will make mistakes so decide right now to forgive yourself and go on." 

Each person on this august panel spoke from their heart and each one had a profound impact on me.  But I must admit that Mark Jordan's remarks rang in my head along with a reference to a "comfortable silence" that I read in a column by Patrick Cheng or Debra Haffner last week.  Both has splendid articles Cheng in Huffington Post and Haffner in the Washington Post. Mark's comments seemed to speak directly to me. I was "convicted" as they say in the Baptist tradition to stand up and speak out, to come out and get loud, about the fact that no one can say that one can't be gay and Christian.... because I AM. 

That's why I let it all hang out last week in my sermon "I'm Different and I'm Beloved." I hope that you who read this post will do the same.  Stand up, speak out, defend every child and adult's right to name themselves with regard to gender, sexuality AND faith.  It's time we stopped letting the voices of conservative hate rule the day. It's time we speak out.

 

I'm Different and I'm Beloved - Second Life Reflection 10/9/10

Click the audio link below to hear the reflection on being different.

I'm Different and I'm Beloved

The Lessons

 The Wisdom of the Dalai Lama

 “May I become at all times,
Both now and forever,
A protector for those without protection
A guide for those who have lost their way
A ship for those with oceans to cross
A bridge for those with rivers to cross
A sanctuary for those in danger
A lamp for those without light
A place of refuge for those who lack shelter
And a servant to all in need.”

Luke 17:11-19 (NRSV)

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

 

Virtual Church

A lot of my time these days is spent thinking about and "doing" Virtual Church.  Yes that's a confusing and diverse topic.  I recently spent a Sunday morning sermon at MCC Toronto and a workshop at the MCC Region 3 and 5 Conference trying to explain what I mean by that term.  It's complicated because everyone I meet seems to have their own idea of what it means.

Some people think it means podcasting sermons.  And it certainly can mean that.

Some people think it means webcasting church services. And it certainly can mean that.

Some people think it means multi-site congregations all seeing the same sermon broadcast from a single location.  And it certainly can mean that.

Some people think it means having a church service in Second Life, a virtual world based on gaming technology.  And it certainly can mean that.

Some people think it means archiving workshops or classes or lectures on various points of theology. And it certainly can mean that.

Or a Facebook page, or a Skype call, or a Twitter account or, or, or, or......

And in the end, the real question is .... How does Virtual Church move from technology to communion with God and our fellow human beings?  And what does it mean to be church anyway?

This post is just a beginning for beginning to post on the subject.  I'm very interested to hear what others think about the topic, "What is church?"  We know it's not a building, a denomination, a theological position, a charismatic leader.  But what is it?  Stay tuned and add your comments.  I'm looking forward to exploring the subject.

Thoughts on Forgiveness

I ran into a friend this week who asked me to talk with her about forgiveness.  What does it mean?  How do we do it?  Even if I can forgive someone else, I can't for give myself?  Yes, yes, we know God has forgiven us but how DO we go about forgiving ourselves for our shortcomings? 
Well first of all forgiveness is not something we do for other people, we do it for us. We do it so that we can move on from painful experiences.  We do it because we want to repair relationships. We do it because we instinctively know the spiritual axiom embedded in the concept that Jesus was trying to get across to us when he quoted the beginning words of the Shema.... "You shall love the lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your might..." and then he added, "and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." So there are three levels of who we're loving here... God, ourselves, others.  And what does this have to do with forgiveness you say? 

See I think the two are inextricably linked.  If you love me and I do something to hurt your feelings, you are quicker to forgive me.  We know this.  I get the benefit of the doubt.  That's why we're charged to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  We can presume that our enemies have done us wrong, hurt us, attacked us.... so isn't it interesting that we're not told to forgive them... we're told to love them. 

But what about loving ourselves?  Well... I don't think we can love anyone more than we love ourselves.  If we think we're doing that, we're fooling ourselves.  On the other hand the way I learn to love AND forgive myself is because that's how I practice doing loving and forgiving so that one day I'll actually be able to look at myself and say, "I love you and I forgive you for being imperfect even on the days when you don't try your hardest."  For a long time I thought that forgiveness was tied to the person's motivation.  If I assessed them as being sincere or having tried to do their best... then I would give them this wonderful grace of my forgiveness when they screwed up.  But if I thought they were being less than honest or not trying their best... well that was another story.  This is where I realized that I can't give someone else more love or forgiveness or anything else than I can give myself. 

For years I was harder on myself than anyone else because, afterall, I knew I hadn't done my best, I knew I'd had questionable motives, I knew my ego was involved... in whatever it was that I was beating myself for.  In that mindset forgiveness was available only for those people and institutions that I deemed worthy.  But at some point I had to deal with the fact that God and other people were only too willing to forgive me when I screwed up... even though some of my friends and family and certainly God herself knew about my ego, my mixed motives, my lack of enthusiasm. 

My sponsor Betty used to say to me, "It's important to remember that most people are doing the best they can most of the time."  It was her way of saying to me that it's not my place to judge whether people are doing their best before I give my love and forgiveness.  Not because they need it, because I need to give it.

So here's where the rubber meets the road.... if I love you I'm usually willing to forgive pretty much anything no matter how badly you've screwed up.  When I see you in pain and remorse for what you've done struggling with your "demons," compassion wells up inside me and love pours out of me washing away the hurt and pain and anger.  That's forgiveness. 

But why is it vital that I learn to forgive myself?  Because that is the ONLY unconditional love we will ever truly feel.... love for ourselves.  And the evidence of that is whether we are willing to forgive ourselves or our warts, and misdeeds, and bad thoughts, and hateful actions.  Because I believe when Jesus added the "second great commandment" he was saying something much deeper than we often read it.  He is saying we must love our neighbor as ourselves.  But if we want to love our neighbor unconditionally, the way God loves us, then we have to learn to love ourselves in that way.   I have come to believe that what Jesus was saying was less about our neighbor and more about loving ourselves.... not loving our ego, our accomplishments, our bank account.... but really loving ourselves in our brokenness and pain.

I've learned how to love myself by thinking of myself as ".... my own best friend.  How would I treat my very best friend in this situation?"  One of the sickest people I ever knew taught me this spiritual axiom.  So when I find myself in a place where I'm just beating myself to a pulp I think "... how would I treat Karen, or Lillian, or Susan, or Mary..." or any other person I love if they screwed up in JUST the same way.  And I just hang on to that image of them in my mind and try to feel the love and compassion that pours out of me to them when they have screwed up.

I forgive those whom I love.  I learn to love by forgiving.  I feel God's grace in love and forgiveness of me when I give that to others or to myself.  Love your neighbor as your self.  Forgive your enemies, pray for those who do you wrong.... it's not about them, it's about me.

Active Waiting: A Queer View of Advent

The peace of Christ is coming into the world, once again.  Yesterday marked the beginning of Advent for Christians who follow a Lectionary calendar.  If you're keeping up it's Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary.  The readings for yesterday were grim and menacing.  An angry, name taking, bum kicking God that we can't seem to figure out if we want to come near or go away from. This angry image of God reminds me of how I felt as a child when my father was really angry with me.  I was terrified of him and yet I was so hurt that he withdrew his love from me in his anger I just wanted to run to him and wrap my arms around his waist and cry and beg him to love me again.  Needless to say, this is not a helpful image to me as a 52 year old lesbian struggling with health issues, time constraints, fears about the economy, not understanding why I have so many wonderful projects and jobs and calls to ministry in my life.

Last night I read the sermon of a close friend who spoke about the concept of hope enfolded in our duty to "actively" wait this advent.  I got such a clear image of the difference in standing around, shuffling feet, passing the time until my issue is addressed, my email is responded to, my phone call returned.  But it's a very different thing to live more fully into the Serenity Prayer and "actively" wait.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I canno change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.  So what if I've made the decision that there ARE some things I can do to change the injustice of bigotry and hatred toward people who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender (GLBT).  I live as an out lesbian, I stand up for civil rights for all people, I critique my own community's understanding of bisexual and transgender issues, I work for equal marriage rights for everyone even as I am outspoken about the pitfalls of reproducing the heterosexist dominant paradigm with all it's attendant power dynamics issues.  I call myself "queer" sometimes to shock people, sometimes to make the GLBTQI (yes there are more!) alphabet soup more palatable, and sometimes to refer to a theoretical space called "queer."  And in all those three cases I'm just strapping on the word and wearing it like a souvenier.

Queer is not GLBTQI, queer is not homosexuals having equal rights to marry, queer is not who I have sex with or how many or how often.  Queer is tearing down the power structures that trap people in oppressive systems that beat them down and stifle their creativity and spirituality.  Queer means walking through life doing power analysis on every structure, system, institution and relationship in my life.  Queer means working for justice at every turn.  And maybe most importantly, queer means using my privilege as a white, educated, middle classed woman to work for justice for those who are oppressed by MY privilege.  Yes I need to work for equal treatment and an end to homophobia.  But I actually am duty bound, I believe, as a Christian, to work HARDER for those who are oppressed by my privilege.    I can't just strap on the name queer when I want to or when it suits me.  I need to live queer, be queer, work for justice queer.

So I look at my life and I do what I can.  I do whatever I can on each day at each juncture.  And while I'm waiting, and I will surely have to wait for the results of my labour, I work for justice in another area.  Yesterday I wrote a response to what I percieved to be short sighted letter that I thought promoted hate toward people whose religion is Islam.  I wrote my response and that was what I could do yesterday. Last night I stood over the body of a man who had lived with his transgender partner for 40 years and said prayers for him, for her, for my friends who loved him, too.  Today I can write this blog and begin to articulate what I learned from my friend's sermon about active waiting and responsibility and what it really means to be queer.  Tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday and on will provide more opportunities.

A week ago tonight I sat in hospital all night waiting for blood transfusions to be delivered into my body.  I watched the bag of blood, I called the nurse when the alarm went off, I kept awake to be mindful of the infusion line and be sure it was not kinked or clogged, I watched movies and did my best to busy myself and remain calm and not fight what needed to happen.  I spent a whole night awake, waiting, watching, listening and keeping my mind busy so I didn't become more of a burden on the nurses who were caring for me.

That was active waiting, much like the waiting of pregnancy.  Women who have been pregnant have a special understanding of active waiting.  Taking care of their bodies, preparing the home, just getting through the day when tiredness and physical pain slows her down. And the family prepares and buys and rearranges the house to make room for the new addition.  These are just a few examples of how actively we await a pregnancy.

So what if we make a decision this Advent to actively wait for justice by working for justice at every turn.... not just for our own issues, but by using our privilege to help others?  Waiting, watching, working, praying.  Let's have a very queer Advent that causes us to look at the power structures around us and evaluate anew what we can do... one day at a time. And then do it, do something.... one day at a time.

It's snowing and the wind is howling.  The US is in a recession.  Our neighbors are hungry and frightened.  Let's work together.

The peace of Christ is coming into the world again.  Thanks be to God.

The Heart of India

 I am closely following, as I'm sure you are following, the events in Mumbai, India as the crisis enters the third day of terror.  News of the Rabbi and his family's murder, news of the father and daughter visiting India as part of a meditation group from Virginia, news of a Jewish man from Vancouver who escaped, news of the young Indian boy whose entire family have been killed and no one has the heart to tell him about it, pictures of blood and bags and shoes left behind when the bodies of the dead were removed from the train station.
And now news that most of the terrorists were Pakistanis.  The blame game will begin in hours... India against Pakistan.

I can do nothing but pray.  There are likely bodies yet to be found.  There may be injured dying without help inside buildings still under seige. Other injured in pain and living each moment in terror. The security people and police are obviously in need of our prayers for their safety, for their comfort, for their sanity.  We certainly need to pray for the officials of the Indian, Pakistani, British, US and other countries government for clarity of thought and action.

My hope is that we pay attention and not look away or become desensitized to the horror.  We cannot allow this to become normal or acceptable.  We must continue to work for peace and justice, safety and security for everyone.... every single person in the world.

May the God who makes us all One touch our hearts to motivate us to work for justice and comfort us in our greif.

Counting Blessings

God has a real sense of humour.  This week has just been one little "noogie" after another.  So God, if you're reading my blog, you have my attention. 

This cycle actually started a couple of weeks ago when I met one of my s/heros at her home in the Boston area.  This is a woman who began to write courageous, and some said outrageous, work since the mid 1960's. She's an icon to many of my generation whether one likes her or her ideas or not. 

As I entered her home for a very short "audience" arranged by a mutual friend she greeted me warmly and sat across from me. Although her body seemed somewhat frail her spirit was decidedly "large and in charge."  When the time came for our first interaction she looked at me very squarely in the eye and said, "So, what's so great about you?" I was completely disarmed.  I laughed and said I wasn't at all sure there was anything at all so great about me.  After a few minutes of jockeying around and trading uneasy comments back and forth with our mutual friend and my host, she turned to me again looking me squarely in the eye and said again, "What IS so great about you?"  I realized this question was in no way rhetorical but demanded an answer before we could proceed.  I said, "Well, I work hard, I do my best to be honest, and I try to be a good friend." My host nodded and the conversation proceeded smoothly and pleasantly.

Fast forward to this past Sunday after two weeks travel, driving home from Boston on Friday, attending an all day meeting in Toronto on Saturday and returning to Toronto for services on Sunday morning and more meetings, I was to preach a sermon on Sunday evening exploring a multi-gendered image of God. That afternoon I got a call from a very close friend asking me to go and visit a close friend of hers in a palliative care facility.  I immediately rerouted my car and went to the hospital where I found a lovely woman gently caring for her husband of 40 years.  She was gracious to me, inviting me in immediately after I explained our mutual friend connection.  We sat together in the room with her mate as she described for me that events that had lead them to this day with her partner dying slowly.  When our mutual friends arrived she promptly "came out" to me as a transgender woman.  I sat for another hour or so listening to their reminesences of their early years together 40+ years ago.  I just shook my head when I left.  The sermon I had prepared was a good grounding for the REAL sermon I was to preach.  That sermon required me to relate the beauty of the love this woman has for her mate and call attention to her love as a mirror of God's love for us. Truly and unmistakably a transgender image of God.  What an incerdible experience.

On Monday morning I finally got around to fasting so that I could go in and have some blood work done that I had put off since May when I'd had my physical exam at my doctor.  I was going in to get my flu shot anyhow so I thought I'd finally get off my bum and get "caught up" with what I was supposed to do.  About 6pm that evening I got a nearly hysterical phone call from my Dr's office.  One of the doctors was phoning me telling me to "go to the hospital immediately."  My red blood count was critically low, dangerously so, and I would require blood transfusions immediately.  Frankly I was quite sure there was some mistake but the doctor convinced me to go to emerg.  I went thinking they would pull more blood, see there was an error and I'd be on my way home.  But that was not the case and instead I spent the night in the hospital getting blood transfusions. 

Tuesday was my 52nd birthday.  I walked out of the hosptial into heavy snow falling. I went to get a coffee, and yes a donut, and sat in my car until time for my previously scheduled appointment with an orthopedic specialist to discuss nearly constant and often severe pain in my knee that I've had for several weeks.  I'll be having scope surgery on the knee in the near future.

I saw my doctor yesterday and she literally put the fear of God into me regarding my health.  Her mantra was "you REALLY have to take this seriously."  I assured her I am taking it seriously.  But for effect she continued to try to find various ways to explain the situation to me. She said, "If you'd been 20 years older there would have been a line of a form that said, 'FOUND IN HOME.' " Ok, ok.... I get it.  I nearly killed myself and didn't realize I was sick.  I'm not paying attention.  I'm busy doing all the things I'm supposed to do going full speed ahead and not realizing I'm about to run out of gas, at night, in the middle of nowhere, and I'm going to lose a LOT of time trying to get the car back on the road.  I mean let's get real, I'd never treat my car like I've been treating my body.

It occurs to me that blessings are received by being present.  Translation.... I have to show up to get the blessings in my life. First I have to be alive, second I have to show up, and finally  I have to be aware enough to be present to what is happening.  I spoke last night about my need to show up for the blessings in my life and my need to be aware of the blessings that I'm receiving.

So this morning, after feeling a little sorry for myself that I'm lonely on Thanksgiving and sick to boot... after my little pity party.... I'm very aware that my friend Susan phoned. She called just at the moment I would have left my mother's house as she was dying 19 years ago today.   She didn't know I needed a distraction.  She just phoned me to chat and catch up.  She was my blessing this morning.  She was the vehicle God used to get my attention this morning. 
Ok so you have my attention.  I've lived through abusing my body and am on the mend.  I'm showing up to be in relationship with people I love, although I do have some repair work to do on this front.  And most of all I am acutely aware of God's presence and blessing in my life today. 
I hope all of you in the states are enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. And for those of you in other places it's still a good time to count blessings and remember to give thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving

This beautiful image is called Blessing Ritual and can be found at Designs by Willow

I hope you will visit her site and see her other beautiful work.