Month: May 2008

RevGals Friday Five: Garage Sale!

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Welcome to your irregularly scheduled Fifth Friday Five, hosted by will smama and Songbird!
Since will smama is preparing for a joint garage sale with her parents, and Songbird’s church had a Yard and Plant Sale last Saturday, we have five enormously important questions we hope you will answer:

1) Are you a garage saler?

Occassionally. It’s harder now without a car.

2) If so, are you an immediate buyer or a risk taker who comes back later when prices are lower?

I usually buy immediately. I don’t like taking the chance it won’t be there later.

3) What’s the best treasure you’ve found at a yard or garage sale?

End tables: I really needed them at the time.

4)If you’ve done one yourself, at church or at home, was it worth the effort?

Yes, I’ve done one, and no it was not worth the effort.

5) Can you bring yourself to haggle?

If I like the item enough.

BONUS: For the true aficionado: Please discuss the impact of Ebay, Craig’s List, Freecycle, etc… on the church or home yard/garage sale.

I love Craig’s List. When I moved from Kansas City, I listed the furniture I wanted to sell, and it was gone in short order.

Foremothers and Theologians

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Lisa Guyla at Utne Reader’s Spirituality Blog directed my attention to an article in Boston College Magazine written by four female theologians: Lisa Sowle Cahill, Ruth Langer, M. Shawn Copeland, Patricia DeLeeuw, and Colleen Griffith. These five women talk about women in the Jewish and Christian traditions whom they consider to be their foremothers. Here is an excerpt from Colleen Griffith who wrote about Evelyn Underhill:

Perhaps her most enticing and challenging idea was that of “practical mysticism.” For Underhill, who was always less interested in defining mysticism than in practicing it, mysticism implied a life linked to social concerns. It was the art of union with reality. As our union with God grows, so does our identification with humanity and the Earth. “The riches and beauty of the spiritual landscape,” Underhill said, “are not disclosed to us in order that we might sit in the sun parlor, be grateful for the excellent hospitality, and contemplate the glorious view. . . . Our place is not the auditorium, but the stage . . . the field, workshop, study, laboratory. . . . We are the agents of the Creative Spirit, in this world.” Becoming a practical mystic, to her, meant simplifying one’s tangled and cluttered character and training one’s attention. Regular meditation and recollection would help.

Not many people today aspire to become practical mystics, thinking, perhaps, that mysticism remains the realm of the few, the proud, and the brave. But through Underhill, we catch sight of a spirituality of ordinary life, and the possibility of an increased capacity for union with God, the Real. This doesn’t require the abstentions of the cloister, just the virtues of the golf course.

Please go and read the whole article. Tomorrow I will be posting a poem I wrote about the foremothers who have inspired me. Who inspires you?

One of my favorite authors

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This is one of the many reasons why Neil Gaiman absolutely rocks!

I know that David Tennant’s Hamlet isn’t till July. And lots of people are going to be doing Dr Who in Hamlet jokes, so this is just me getting it out of the way early, to avoid the rush…

“To be, or not to be, that is the question. Weeelll…. More of A question really. Not THE question. Because, well, I mean, there are billions and billions of questions out there, and well, when I say billions, I mean, when you add in the answers, not just the questions, weeelll, you’re looking at numbers that are positively astronomical and… for that matter the other question is what you lot are doing on this planet in the first place, and er, did anyone try just pushing this little red button?”

I can hear David Tennant as The Doctor saying this in my head at this moment! And David is going to be Hamlet? Okay, that I am going to have to see. Anyone think he’ll be as broody as Kenneth Branagh was?

If you’ve never read Neil, I suggest you make a trip to the library. He’s a wonderful sci-fi, urban fantasy, modern fairy tale, with a little horror thown in for good measure writer. The man knows how to tell a good story, and you can see from above he knows his way around words. My favorite book is Neverwhere: A Novel and my second favorite is Stardust. I cannot wait until The Graveyard Book comes out. His blog is a very good thing for all writers. Writing is always hard work even for those who are published multiple times and famous. They still have to put their butts in a chair and do the work, whether they feel like it or not, or feel inspired or not.

Now I need to hit the button on my Doctor Who Tardis 4 Port USB Hub, so the light will flash, and it makes the Tardis sound. My Wonderful Geek of a Husband got it for me as part of my anniversary gift. *que Dr. Who theme*

The image is from ThinkGeek.com.

Updated: New wine

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Edit to update: Jessica, a student at Olivet Nazarene University corrected a mistake I had made. The professor was not dismissed:

I’m a current ONU student and I randomly came about your site. To my knowledge, the ONU prof was not dismissed…(unless this is a very new development). He is unable to teach the general education biology class (which is a loss for students because he is well-qualified to teach it) or teach his book. It’s a shame.

Jessica, thank you for letting me know he had not been dismissed, but that his teaching as been curtailed.

I should should have also posted a link to the book: Random Designer: Created from Chaos to Connect with the Creator by Richard G. Colling. It’s an excellent book. I didn’t agree with everything (but then I rarely do), but he makes an excellent case for God using evolution to create the world. I should really do a book review on it. Yes, I know those are famous last words. But I really do need to start putting up book reviews because I am reading some really good books right now.

End of edited update

I have decided to resign my ordination credentials and leave the Church of the Nazarene. I have not agreed with many of the decisions of our General Church in the last few years, and I have been thinking of leaving for the last two and a half years. I’ve decided due to theological and doctrinal differences (along with the GC decisions), that it is time to leave. There is a lot I want to write that I feel like I can’t due to the changes in my own theology. As a friend told me: “May be your new wine can no longer fit into the wineskin of your denomination. It’s time to move on, so that you can continue to grow and do what God has called you to do.” I think he is right.

It has also hit me that I really don’t need to be ordained to do what God has called me to do: write and speak. In fact, I will have more freedom for both without having to worry about credentials, what I need to do to keep them, and what I can and can’t write that people will compain about, saying “is she really a Nazarene?” and think I should be removed from ministry. This is not all paranoia on my part. A professor at Olivet Nazarene University was recently dismissed due to his views on creation and evolution. It was almost a repeat of what happened to one of my favorite college pastors at Southern Nazarene University in the 90s.

I felt a great peace when I had made the decision, and it has been confirmed through three different sources that this was the right decision to make. I will still be writing, and you will see some differences in the things I post, what I talk about, and how I talk about it.

Shawna

Friday Five: Grand Tour

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Singing Owl wants to know about traveling and destinations:

1) Favorite Destination — someplace you’ve visited once or often and would gladly go again

Rome, London, and Paris

2) Unfavorite Destination — someplace you wish you had never been (and why)

Camping in a tent. My idea of roughing it is hot and cold running water, electricity, and a bed.

3) Fantasy Destination — someplace to visit if cost and/or time did not matter

I’d love to do a tour of Ireland–the whole island.

4) Fictional Destination — someplace from a book or movie or other art or media form you would love to visit, although it exists only in imagination

Middle Earth! My one exception to the running water and electricity rule. Okay, okay, may be Narnia too.

5) Funny Destination — the funniest place name you’ve ever visited or want to visit

Honestly, I can’t think of a funny one. I’m sure there are funny ones, but none is popping in the brain right now.

The picture is Tracy and I in front of the fountain at the Pantheon in Rome.

Sabbath, Rest, and Guilt

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I was sitting in the swinging chair enjoying the spring Phoenix day. It wasn’t too hot, and the breeze was refreshing. And I was feeling guilty. Why? Because I wasn’t doing anything. I wasn’t working. I wasn’t being productive. I was on vacation and feeling guilty for being on vacation. How American is that? It took me a whole day, but I finally did it: I stopped feeling guilty about taking a break and resting. I found out what true rest, true letting go feels like. Or may be I remembered how to let go and rest.

Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and then rested on the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath and not working one day a week is one of The Ten Commandments. It is also the commandment that’s most often broken by Chrsitians and non-Christians alike. We can wax eloquently all we want to about not taking God’s name in vain or not committing murder, but bring up keeping the Sabbath, and the room gets very, very quiet. Why do some branches of American Christianity insist that God created the earth in six literal days, but then fall silent when it comes to taking what God did on the seventh day literally?

And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation (Genesis 2:2-3).

Why is it so hard for us to stop and rest?

On of the reasons is that we have believed the lie that we are what we do. We believe the myth that what we do is who we are. So we work. We perform. We jump through hoops. One of the reason for keeping the Sabbath is to remind us who we really are: children of God. The Sabbath also reminds us that everything we have comes from God. God provides for all our needs. The Sabbath is for remembering: remembering who we are and remembering who God is. God rested on the seventh day, and God commanded us to do the same. If it is okay for God to rest, then it is okay for us to rest as well.

In fact, it is imperative to rest. We need a day where we let go of the worry and stress and our work, and we trust God to take care of us.

The last three Sundays I have rested. In fact, I’ve even been taking naps. I rested, and I did not feel one iota of guit.

What about you? Do you take time off? How do you rest?

Related post
An Update Merry-Go-Round

Website Housecleaning and Updated Blogroll

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I am finally catching up my blogroll and updated pages on my website. Both the Sermon and Writing Clips pages have been updated with the writing I have done in the last five months.

Here are some wonderful sites that I have come across that I would like everyone to know about. First is Jan Richardson’s site, The Painted Prayerbook. Jan is an artist and a theologian. She chooses one ov the lectionary passages for the week, illustrates it with her art, and always has a thought provoking meditation to go with it.

Feminist Theology in an Age of Fear and Hope is a site written by several women who priests in The Episcopal Church and the Independent Catholic Church. The look at one of the passages of the lectionary from a feminist and gender equal perspective.

Conversations at the Edge with Helen Mildenhall is wonderful community of different faith, agnostics, and atheists talking about the role of spirituality in our lives.

Pam Hogeweide’s How God Messed Up My Religion are Pam’s thoughts and writings on how religion and church aren’t always what they seem to be and may be isn’t what God had in mind. Her subtitle is “Essays of discovery and disillusionment from the junk drawer of Faith.” I love it.

Pastor Scott of Pastor Scott’s Thought is the pastor of Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene. He is also one of my former college profs. His thoughts are always worth reading.

Square One is Victoria Marenelli’s site. Victoria reports on several different things in reading, music, and culture through her feminist eyes.

So what are you reading? What sites have caught your eye lately?

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.