P.S...
So after being mortified and as apologetic as i could (see story in last post) her pew buddies said " you couldn't know-it's not your fault-she was just embarrassed that she didn't have her phone on vibrate." Gracious, loving parishioners...
In my pastoral prayer that day I literally asked God's forgiveness for 'smart alec comments' and thanked God for protection, or something like that. The best news is that it was a small kitchen fire and there was no damage to the structure. This should be a good reminder for all of us NOT to be a smart alec and not to use our ovens for storage (especially of new pans wrapped in plastic...)
P.P.S. I called the family immediately after church to ask to come to their hotel and meet with them and pray with them. They said they'd be glad to see me and they'd call back.
P.P.P.S This couple is so classy they decided it was an opportunity to take ME out to dinner, wine and all.
P.P.P.P.S When I apologized emphatically again she said " That's hilarious! I didn't even hear you, but if I had I would have laughed. More wine?"
GRACE ABOUNDS...
Friday, September 26, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Can you top this?
I hate to play the "can you top this?" game since I love you all and it's not really my style...but if you read Will Smamma's recent post about her episode at Wendy's...you'll love this.
Last Sunday, while i was preaching on Exodus (stressful enough for me), a parishioner's phone started ringing...loudly
I love this parishioner. She's a fairly new member with a great sense of humor and she doesn't take much seriously. She also LOVES to kid around. So I stopped in the middle of manna (while she was scrambling to find her phone in her enormous handbag) and said in a school marm voice "Oh [parishioner]... I think we'll have to fine you... Let's make {parishioner] put an extra five dollars in the plate." To which she sheepishly replied "Sorry" and left the sanctuary.
She returned 3 minutes later, grabbed her handbag and left.
Yes, I began to break out in a sweat, remembering she has an elderly mother.
After the sermon, during the deacon's reading of 'joys of and concerns' that I clumsily fold into the pastoral prayer, the deacon announces "Let's also pray for [parishoner and family] she had to leave to meet a town official at her home, because yesterday, she had had a house fire."
Hi, my name is dumb ass, have we met?
Last Sunday, while i was preaching on Exodus (stressful enough for me), a parishioner's phone started ringing...loudly
I love this parishioner. She's a fairly new member with a great sense of humor and she doesn't take much seriously. She also LOVES to kid around. So I stopped in the middle of manna (while she was scrambling to find her phone in her enormous handbag) and said in a school marm voice "Oh [parishioner]... I think we'll have to fine you... Let's make {parishioner] put an extra five dollars in the plate." To which she sheepishly replied "Sorry" and left the sanctuary.
She returned 3 minutes later, grabbed her handbag and left.
Yes, I began to break out in a sweat, remembering she has an elderly mother.
After the sermon, during the deacon's reading of 'joys of and concerns' that I clumsily fold into the pastoral prayer, the deacon announces "Let's also pray for [parishoner and family] she had to leave to meet a town official at her home, because yesterday, she had had a house fire."
Hi, my name is dumb ass, have we met?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
R U comin'?
Been hopin and waitin' and wishin' or however that song goes.
Girlz!!! save your pennies, drink cheaper beer, do whatever you can to join us in 'Zona!.
LYMI
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
I'm back...but my computer isn't
Hi Friends,
Long time,no blog.
I dropped off my laptop the first day of my vacation to be sent to laptop hospital to be repaired so that there would be AMPLE time for it to be repaired, refreshed and renewed as I was doing the same beach-side.
No small irony that as my laptop got bounced around from dealer to manufacturer to box store, I too was bounced around from beach house to bungalow to the parent-inhabited-manse, having some fun and enjoying friends, but very little peace or rest.
I returned scattered and tired but glad for some structure and peace and quiet and laying my head in me' own bed.
Alas, my computer was kinda fixed but needs to be resent to manufacturer for additional repairs. I returned from vacation kinda relaxed but need to return to the now parent-free manse to regain some peace after 1 burial, 3 hospital admittances and 2 session members resigning within a week, from alas...burnout.
enough about me...what do you think if me? (Northeast Humor)
How's by you (all)?
Long time,no blog.
I dropped off my laptop the first day of my vacation to be sent to laptop hospital to be repaired so that there would be AMPLE time for it to be repaired, refreshed and renewed as I was doing the same beach-side.
No small irony that as my laptop got bounced around from dealer to manufacturer to box store, I too was bounced around from beach house to bungalow to the parent-inhabited-manse, having some fun and enjoying friends, but very little peace or rest.
I returned scattered and tired but glad for some structure and peace and quiet and laying my head in me' own bed.
Alas, my computer was kinda fixed but needs to be resent to manufacturer for additional repairs. I returned from vacation kinda relaxed but need to return to the now parent-free manse to regain some peace after 1 burial, 3 hospital admittances and 2 session members resigning within a week, from alas...burnout.
enough about me...what do you think if me? (Northeast Humor)
How's by you (all)?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Good Grief (kinda)
I can't seem to shake the sounds of the tender but uncontrollable sobbing from a parishioner who's just lost his mother at the ripe age of 95. (It was expected in part, but she went downhill very fast). And...it's never really "expected" when it's final. She was also the matriarch of our church.
At the same time, I can't seem to shake the silence from a close friend who's also recently lost her father, who's inundated with the details of her life, her work, her family as well as some tension among her siblings. I understand, kinda.
Lastly, I can't seem to shake the grief roller coaster I'm on, slowly and silently grieving the 1st anniversary of a 10 year friendship irreparably severed one year ago today. It triggers other losses as well. You know how it goes...
Psalm 30 reminds us that "weeping may endure for night but joy comes in the morning." I'm not a biblical inerrant, but here's a time when I'd love this to be literally true for all of us.
What is grief's shelf life? What can we "DO" to 'get through it'? How do we find those who are willing to share the burden without offering anxious silence or giving advice or disappearing?
Only God knows.
For me, the diversion of pastoring to others in their grief gives me a 'vacation' from mine own. Other's grief also helps me realize I'm not the only one not having a Summer crafted by HGTV.
I think grief is a state you're sent to un willingly, like one outside your own region, where you think no one will like you, understand you or care for you until you return home again to happy land.
But then Grace appears and calls from afar. An email from an old friend resurfaces unwittingly, or a piece of good news arrives, or work demands your undivided attention and offers you another respite from grief's treadmill.
Grief is not good ,Charlie Brown, but it joins us in membership to a community which we'd all rather not be joined, but where others can speak our language...Or sit with us as a non-anxious, loving presence. It also gives us compassion for others and their places of darkness and loss.
And then of course...there's Paul. Say what you want about him. He deservedly gets a bad rap for being ignorant/obnoxious about women and dramatically adding to the disenfranchising of the Gay and Lesbian population. But still, he is able to let God's message, through Jesus Christ, speak in Romans beyond his own judgemental din.
" I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us."
Right. I'll try to remember that before I order my next pepperoni, extra cheese grief-numbing pizza.
But Paul goes on.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:38-39
No small gift that Rom 8 is part of the lectionary for the last Sunday before I have 3 Sundays out of the pulpit (save of course the memorial service in the middle of my vacation, for the Matriarch).
Whether you are grieving with others or for yourself or by yourself, or if you've finally surfaced from grief's grip and can ride the waves without getting sucked down by the undertow of loss, may this scripture bring comfort to you....and to those whom you love... and to those whom no one loves.
At the same time, I can't seem to shake the silence from a close friend who's also recently lost her father, who's inundated with the details of her life, her work, her family as well as some tension among her siblings. I understand, kinda.
Lastly, I can't seem to shake the grief roller coaster I'm on, slowly and silently grieving the 1st anniversary of a 10 year friendship irreparably severed one year ago today. It triggers other losses as well. You know how it goes...
Psalm 30 reminds us that "weeping may endure for night but joy comes in the morning." I'm not a biblical inerrant, but here's a time when I'd love this to be literally true for all of us.
What is grief's shelf life? What can we "DO" to 'get through it'? How do we find those who are willing to share the burden without offering anxious silence or giving advice or disappearing?
Only God knows.
For me, the diversion of pastoring to others in their grief gives me a 'vacation' from mine own. Other's grief also helps me realize I'm not the only one not having a Summer crafted by HGTV.
I think grief is a state you're sent to un willingly, like one outside your own region, where you think no one will like you, understand you or care for you until you return home again to happy land.
But then Grace appears and calls from afar. An email from an old friend resurfaces unwittingly, or a piece of good news arrives, or work demands your undivided attention and offers you another respite from grief's treadmill.
Grief is not good ,Charlie Brown, but it joins us in membership to a community which we'd all rather not be joined, but where others can speak our language...Or sit with us as a non-anxious, loving presence. It also gives us compassion for others and their places of darkness and loss.
And then of course...there's Paul. Say what you want about him. He deservedly gets a bad rap for being ignorant/obnoxious about women and dramatically adding to the disenfranchising of the Gay and Lesbian population. But still, he is able to let God's message, through Jesus Christ, speak in Romans beyond his own judgemental din.
" I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us."
Right. I'll try to remember that before I order my next pepperoni, extra cheese grief-numbing pizza.
But Paul goes on.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:38-39
No small gift that Rom 8 is part of the lectionary for the last Sunday before I have 3 Sundays out of the pulpit (save of course the memorial service in the middle of my vacation, for the Matriarch).
Whether you are grieving with others or for yourself or by yourself, or if you've finally surfaced from grief's grip and can ride the waves without getting sucked down by the undertow of loss, may this scripture bring comfort to you....and to those whom you love... and to those whom no one loves.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
A paaaarfect day
Tasteless Lunch with a tasteful, really smart friend? $34.50
Copies of sections of helpful Romans commentaries that I don't own? $1.30
Greens fees on an private golf course where I still seem to have visitor privileges $30.00
Refreshments with a beloved friend in her backyard garden apres golf? she wouldn't say.
Cost of gas to get to beach by midnight for last round? $20.00
Cost of re-balancing personal life with life as a minister?
Priceless.
Copies of sections of helpful Romans commentaries that I don't own? $1.30
Greens fees on an private golf course where I still seem to have visitor privileges $30.00
Refreshments with a beloved friend in her backyard garden apres golf? she wouldn't say.
Cost of gas to get to beach by midnight for last round? $20.00
Cost of re-balancing personal life with life as a minister?
Priceless.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Helpful Reminder
Was just over at Terrapin Station and she was reminded by another blogger to list things we're grateful for. This is timely as I wrestle with an issue that cropped up and bit me unsuspectingly at lunch, while with a beloved friend from Seminary, so here goes:
1) Double the attendance that I expected at July 4th weekend worship this AM
2) Double the positive comments from preaching from Romans 7-one of the beastiest scriptures, I've ever wrestled with
3)Air conditioning, even though it's only moderately hot
4)the BE-ers who keep me going-- I feel like you live near by!
5) Many pots/pans in the sink-evidence of a dinner party in my usually empty, guest less manse
6) Leftover sangria from said gathering (sipping...)
7) Having dinner with parents this evening. They make me crazy but they're alive and well-and still happily married--I know I'm in a minority when I say that.
8) Basil that grows new leaves, every 15 minutes
9) Jersey tomatoes (sans Salmonella) that go with said basil
10) The nap I'm about to take after I finish this
11) Gratitude for any of you who read this and keep me in mind from time to time
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