Haiku

I'm attending a spirituality conference in Plymouth, Mich. (where I am supposed to be in quiet contemplation so as to not be aware of things such as the Cubs losing on a bottom-of-the-ninth-inning home run last night out on the West Coast).

Anyway, one of our exercises was to respond to our learning utilizing some art or literary form "outside our comfort zone." Hence, my attempts at Haiku:

~

Breathing stale cave air.
Trapt in Plato's dark shadows.
Freed to turn and see.

~

Canopies of pine.
Green haven, sanctuary.
Risk the desert's call.

~

Do no harm. Do good.
Gather at the table long.
Stay in love with God.

~

Original posts at http://wrigleypreacher.blogspot.com/

Born again

Former NBC news anchor John Chancellor brought two phenomena to the fore during the 1976 presidential campaign. He was the first to coin "red state" and "blue state" as descriptors for how states voted in a presidential election. He also introduced the American public to what it meant to be "born again." As in "born-again Christian."

Actually, it was born-again candidate Jimmy Carter who brought evangelicals out of the political underbrush and "born agains" into the light of day. But it was Chancellor, in a nationally televised interview with Carter, who elevated the term into public discourse by asking what much of Middle America wanted to know: What exactly is this business of being "born again?"

(Ever the intrepid journalist, Chancellor prefaced his questioning with the reportorial assurance: "We've looked up born again, and it is nothing new." Columnist Cal Thomas wrote years later, "The term wasn't invented by Jimmy Carter, though the one who coined it had the same initials.")

It seems a silly question now. For nearly 30 years, abetted by the success of Carter's successor Ronald Reagan and his political operatives, evangelicals became major players in U.S. politics. Born again was no longer a foreign-sounding phrase.

But like so many religious concepts made into sound bytes, "born again" has been caricatured and delimited until it seems only to define a demographic with a penchant toward conservative politics.

Deep religious truths don't fare well when they become slogans, especially when appropriated for political reasons. It was refreshing, then, to come across these lines this week from Diary of an Old Soul, by George MacDonald:

"But we who would be born again indeed,
Must wake our souls unnumbered times a day."

Being born again is nothing less than committing one's self, day by day, moment by moment even, to being in conscious awareness of God. That is a deeply spiritual exercise. Once engaged, we may or may not say we are born again. But we can always say we hope to be.

Original posts at http://wrigleypreacher.blogspot.com

The Julie/Julia Project

Something about the movie has stayed with me, like the richness of coq o vin that lingers on the palate. Julia Child was little more to me than an easy voice to impersonate until I watched the film. (I've not attempted French cooking, personally, although Chicago's now-closed Ambria made me a fan.)

But it's Julie's story as much as Julia's that intrigues me. Is it because Julie Powell wrote herself out of a cubicle job into fame as a writer? Perhaps. But I think it's more because she connected with her passion, followed it, believed in it even when she questioned it, and somehow – perhaps most miraculously – brought those she loved along with her.

Here’s Julie Powell’s original blog:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/08/25.html

And here’s her current blog, What Could Happen?

http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/

Bonne lecture!

Photo of Julie Powell by Salon.com

A pearl in a gold mine

I go looking for gold and instead find a pearl. So it goes every week as I craft a sermon.

You've done it, too, although maybe not sermonizing. You know, you're looking for a missing earring underneath the dresser, and instead you find a $5 bill.

Sidney Harris, a syndicated journalist, used to write an occasional column called "Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things." He also found pearls while he was looking for gold.

So this week's find -- while I was researching Christian unity (or disunity) -- was this bit of wisdom about the church's willingness to change.

It's from the Alban Institute's Daniel P. Smith and Mary K. Sellon, authors of Pathway to Renewal: Practical Steps for Congregations (courtesy of Homiletics Online):

“Your congregation is what it is today not because of what a bad pastor did to it, or because the neighborhood has changed or because our culture is going to hell in a handbasket. Although those occurrences and many others have had an impact, your congregation is what it is today because of how it responded, or failed to respond, to the realities it faced.

"What your congregation will be in the future is up to you and the other members and how you work together to create something new from the realities you face. What you do or don’t do now will make the difference. Your actions will either reinforce the patterns that have become established in your congregation or start to counter and shift them. The leadership provided by your pastor can help or hinder, but it cannot make your congregation succeed or keep it from ultimately achieving the goals you set for yourselves.”

If you're part of a church, that's food for thought. If you're not, and you've read this far, maybe there's a congregation nearby whose newly discovered reality includes you.

Original posts at http://wrigleypreacher.blogspot.com
Image by NaturalyPure