– Apache blessing

This comes to us from the Rev. Bobbie McGarey, a regular contributor to this site, and pastor serving First Presbyterian Church, Lawton, Oklahoma   [2-19-20]

    Falling Following

We watch the Olympic athletes make their best move
      and sometimes that is not enough.
We, not so unlike them. fall on our best faith move
     sometimes our faith is not enough.
So we walk through Lent
   Thanks be to God for God's mercy.

Overtures, reading and seeing, and looking at the same Jesus
  dare we claim to see issues before us with Jesus' eyes?
     But so do they... they claim they are seeing right.
'They is a four letter word' Let's give it up for Lent
    Thanks be to God for God's mercy.

The Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has written a hymn entitled “Our Lord, You Were Sent,” which is suggested for the first Sunday in Lent.

You can find it on her new website, which includes over 150 of the new words she has written for singing with mostly familiar hymn tunes.

From Phil Leftwich, Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee. We thank him for his permission to post this.

Friends –

I both saw and read several news articles this past weekend about a family in Atlanta who have started a foundation to set a model before us of "sacrificial giving." It began with the father and his daughter driving in the city. A Mercedes pulled alongside their car just as the teenaged daughter was reading the sign of a homeless man asking for help. She began to do some personal soul searching, and then her own spiritual journey became a discussion around the family's dinner table. Once they looked at all they owned and how little they were proportionately giving others the course became clear. They moved out of their multi-million dollar house and downsized, began giving to others in a meaningful way that has included a mission in Ghana, and have humbly stayed out of the media spotlight until this last weekend. What a change this has made in all of their lives!

I'm not oblivious to the reality that we are living in hard times and that the fears that are driving the economics and politics of our nation are permeating the heart of our churches. Nevertheless, if there was ever a time when giving to others as individuals and as the Church are important, I don't remember it in my lifetime. I am convinced that each of us – and our congregations – can reach deeper than we have. I also read that so far $600,000,000 has been sent in charitable relief to Haiti. That's a wonderful statement of how we Americans do respond to human suffering and tragedy. The personal proportional amount of charitable giving, however, hovers at around 1.5% of net income. In many of our churches in PMT the pledge amount hovers at around 2.5%. Can we all reach deeper into a form of more sacrificial giving? I believe we can. Has this changed my own way of looking at my life? You bet!

As Lent begins next Wednesday we enter a season of self-discernment and prayerful thought about whose we are. What if it becomes a time of rethinking and perhaps revisioning who we are called to be as disciples of Jesus the Christ? What if we all reached a little deeper into our hearts- and into our wallets or pocketbooks – so that we begin a new journey of stewardship that is a lifestyle that reflects our discipleship? As one person said yesterday in a TV interview, "Give until it feels good!" What if. . .

THE MISSING FIVE POUND NOTE

If you believe that faith never changes, and that “Church” should be a reasonably stable set of beliefs and behaviors that we can depend on in a changing world – then DON’T READ THIS SERMON.

But if you believe that faith is a radical attitude of trust which enables us to be open to the new and the strange, even to the “Other;” if you think living as “Church” means being on a journey, a pilgrimage with no settled end, but always moving forward, higher, deeper, into light and often through darkness – and that we do this best when we have the right kind of company on the way – then read this reflection/sermon.

A True Story from President-Elect Barack Obama’s Life (20 years ago)
[11-21-08]

We just received this from the Rev. Bruce Gillette, with the note that many preachers might find it helpful.  He begins:

The Rev. Bruce Gillette has just sent a new hymn written by his spouse and co-pastor, Carolyn Gillette, which he describes as “inspired by Matthew 25:31-46, this year's lectionary text for this coming Sunday. Many churches have special offerings for the poor around Thanksgiving that make this hymn very appropriate.”

Boundaries are a big deal these days -- be they national, racial, religious, economic, or whatever.  But Trina Zelle, former Co-Moderator of the Witherspoon Society, recently preached a sermon for the Presbytery of Grand Canyon in which she explored Jesus' radical teaching about family as including everyone.  That means, she says, that "welcoming the stranger," while it's a good thing, must always be following by accepting that "stranger" as fully a part of our family.

A little poem about being right
[8-4-08]

Whenever
we
think
we are
completely
right
righteous

then
perhaps
it is
THE
exact
time to
S T O P

because
it is
in
the sureness
of it
all
that
we
are
most
likely
to stumbleandfallofftheledgeanddropthroughtheairandcrashontheground
kersplush
oops

so when
we-think-we
are right
sometimes
we are really
left
with
the
feeling
that right
may not
be
after all

bobbie g mcgarey 2008 july 27

Thanks to the Rev. Bobbie McGarey

The Rev. John Mann, formerly a minister in the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, has for the past few years been serving St. James' Parish Church in Glasgow.

When Dr. Paul Capetz laid aside his ordination after the addition of the “fidelity and chastity” requirement to the Book of Order, John Mann ceased wearing a stole in worship, “as a sign of solidarity.”  Capetz was restored to ordained standing by the Presbytery in January, 2008.

Paul Capetz recently visited John Mann and his wife, Lindsay Biddle, also a Presbyterian minister, in Glasgow. To welcome him, Lindsay Biddle made two stoles with a rainbow motif for both John and Paul. John Mann surprised Capetz by presenting him with his new stole in worship on Sunday, May 25. Mann adds that “it was somehow fitting that the first time I wore a stole again in worship was in solidarity with Paul.”

Mann concludes his note: “The session at St. James' recently adopted a statement of inclusion, which essentially makes it the first explicitly welcoming and affirming congregation in the Church of Scotland. Paul's sermon was wonderful and perhaps your Witherspoon readers may enjoy it. ... Life here continues to unfold in the most interesting ways.”

For a glimpse of earlier communiques from John Mann in Glasgow, click here >>

The Rev. Ralph G. Clingan sent us a sermon he has prepared for Pentecost Sunday, for a congregation that he describes as having been “mortally wounded by a homophobic fundamentalist fellow Presbyterian minister.”

He traces the meaning of the gift of the Spirit as helping us to overcome “Past Hurts, Low Self Esteem, Grudges, and Resentments,” and helping others to do the same.

This liberating story was forwarded to us by Witherspooner Bill Knox.

The Whale

If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle [in December, 2005], you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the Golden Gate ) and radioed an environmental group for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her

by Paul E. Capetz
[5-28-07]

Dr. Paul E. Capetz is joining Douglas Ottati in the writing of "Theological Musing," a regular column for Network News. He is Associate Professor of Historical Theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

In this personal reflection on the events we recently remembered and celebrated in Holy Week, he suggests that the heart of the story is not the cheering story of Easter, but the painfully real story of Good Friday. He writes:

It is not the doctrine [of atonement], but the story of Jesus’ crucifixion that is essential. The gospel is, after all, a story about a messiah whose victory does not look very messianic. It is the story of a faithful Jew, whose fidelity led him to the cross and who calls us to the same fidelity even if it might also lead us to the cross. To illustrate what such fidelity means for modern people we only need remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Oscar Romero. The story is as timely today as it was in ancient Palestine.

Your WebWeaver must confess he is a bit baffled by the current flood of blogs, but he’s slowly recognizing that there are good things worth a visit now and then.

Let me introduce just one of them today, and I’ll try to be back with more suggestions in the weeks to come.

And if you have suggestions, please send a note! We don’t want this website to become just a advertising list of blogs, and we won’t automatically recommend just anything that is mentioned. But if you can suggest a blog page that offers helpful news and commentary about church and/or society – and especially the interactions between them – we’ll be happy to consider mentioning it. (Even if it’s your own!)

Just send a note!

Enough introduction. Here’s our first venture into the wild world of blogs:

Shuck and Jive is the creation of the Rev. John Shuck, who describes his blog thus: "A Presbyterian minister blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus and lightening up. John Shuck is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton, Tennessee (a liberal church on the buckle of the Bible belt)."

A couple recent samples:

On March 29, as part of a series of blogs on readings for Holy Week, he gave very brief introductions to books such as Marcus Borg's latest, Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary; Borg and John Dominic Crossan’s The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus' Final Week in Jerusalem; and James Tabor’s The Jesus Dynasty – among others!

Shuck reads a lot, but he doesn’t limit himself to the library. He offers his own theological and ethical reflections on a wide range of issues, including the environment, politics, the church, the American Empire, and more. Much more.

For a slightly different tone, check out his thoughts for Saturday, March 31, on the topic "Sometimes I wish I was a RevGal," which begins: "Do you notice the difference between clergy boy bloggers and clergy girl bloggers? There really is a difference."

As with many bloggers, he invites visitors to subscribe to e-mail updates sent whenever he adds to his blog.

from your WebWeaver, Doug King   [3-15-07]

The progression through the three readings led me ...

An environmentalist leads us on a new path through Lent    [3-9-07]

The Rev. Peter Sawtell, the Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries, is posting a very provocative and helpful exploration of what he calls the four core norms of an eco-justice ethic: solidarity, sustainability, sufficiency, and participation.

The one for this week, on sufficiency, asks "How much is enough?" – "one of the central questions for those who seek eco-justice in the world."

The current meditation, on Sufficiency, is entitled "Enough, Already."

The first meditation, on Solidarity, bears the title "All In It Together."

The second, on Sustainability, he calls "Nothing Left for the Kids"

The final one, due out in a couple weeks, will deal with Participation.

The Best of the Temptations
[3-1-07]

On the first Sunday of Lent, Lisa Larges preached a profound – and funny – sermon on Luke’s account of the temptations of Jesus. She began by lamenting what so many are experiencing these days: that it seems the Presbyterian Church would rather be right than be in love.

She went on to explore Satan’s temptations of Jesus as inviting him to escape his human vulnerability – and he refused, because for him the Scriptures were about loving and being loved, not about being right and being invulnerable. That view of Scripture she offered is what the church needs now, for itself and for the well-being of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who are still seeking a place within that church.

Moral blankness in fiction and in reality   [1-17-07]

Advent reflections

This is True
by Allan Boesak

It is not true
that this world and its people
are doomed to die and be lost.

This is true;
God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in him,
shall not perish but have everlasting life.

It is not true
that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination,
hunger and poverty, death and destruction.

This is true;
I have come that they may have life,
and that abundantly.

It is not true
that violence and hatred should have the last word,
and that war and destruction have come to stay forever.

This is true:
Unto us a child is born,
and unto us a Son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

John R. Preston, author of the recent book Wrestling Until the Dawn: The Fight for Biblical Justice in a Postmodern World, builds on the recent books by David Korten and Mark Taylor to urge that in preaching today, we follow the example of Jesus, who "in his non-violent approach to injustice, used stories to question, satirize, and thereby undermine the empire of his time and place."

A Song of Empire

How about a little poetry?  Not a cautionary tale, exactly, but a little cautionary verse for American empire-builders.   [1-28-06]

It begins:

PVJ's Facebook page

Mitch Trigger, PVJ's Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!

Voices of Sophia blog

Heather Reichgott, who has created this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:

John Harris’ Summit to Shore blogspot

John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive

Got more blogs to recommend?

Plan now for our 2010 Ghost Ranch Seminar!

GHOST RANCH SEMINAR

July 26-August 1, 2010

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