burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

FCS was doing Blessing of the Animals (Molly preaching Jubilee Sunday style with The Velveteen Rabbit and Psalm 23 as her texts) and when I first saw the email about that I thought, "Oh, that's the Sunday I'll check out a Quaker meeting" (someone asked me ~recently if I'd ever been to a Quaker meeting, and while I went to one when I was in Oxford I don't really remember a lot about it) and then I saw the date and realized I'd still be in NH from the wedding.

Because I didn't get home until close to midnight last night and was about ready to fall into bed, I figured I'd skip church this morning.

But I got up around 9 this morning, so I had options -- Cambridge Friends (Quakers) meet 10:30-11:30, and Liz W was preaching on grace at Arlington Street at 11 . But I still opted to just stay home -- in part because I wasn't sure how awake I'd continue to feel and I wasn't feeling all that up for a lot of people interaction after last night & in part because I frequently feel nervous about biking.

I did go to evening church, so I did eventually get out of the house.

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"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]
Thus says God to these bones: "I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am God." (Ezekiel 37:5-6, NRSV, alt.)

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We see the world not as it is, but as we are.
-Steven R. Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People)

Unison Prayer of Confession

God of the Mountain Top,

We confess that sometimes we don't climb.
We have the wrong shoes on, or we're afraid we'll get lose and look ridiculous, or because, really, we're needed here on the ground.

We confess that sometimes, after a long trek up, we turn right around and head back down.
We're tired. It's getting dark. And if you've seen the view from one peak, you've seen them all.

Forgive us.
We know that we can climb with bare feet. We know that when darkness falls, you will light the way. And our souls long to be still and gaze out with you.

Draw us up the mountain. Hold us up there awhile. And then put us back on the ground, where we are needed, renewed.

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FCS Lenten House Church this year is on the 7 Deadly Sins. (Yes, one of my first thoughts was, "But we don't have 7 Wednesdays...")

And we're doing Adult Bible Study before Sunday worship (8:50am-9:45am) -- so apparently I'm *really* continuing my Lenten tradition of not getting enough sleep (usually it's just because there's 7am prayer service every weekday...).

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Melissa (on the book/project ideas we have floating around): "This is what happens when you live with someone for a while and you have lots of bitter discussions about how stupid people are."

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Pr. Lisa was teaching a a lay speaking class yesterday and, while mentioning this to me before service tonight, asked me if I'd thought about taking lay speaking training and then was like, "Oh, right, you're not a Methodist."
I said I've had plenty of conversations with UMC CWM folk about lay speaker training -- primarily a few years ago when I was writing sermons in my free time because I didn't like the sermons I was hearing in my churches and Tiffany said, "You might be repressing a Call -- I'm just sayin'."
I explained that I'd told Tiffany I am not Called to congregational ministry though I'm willing to believe I'm Called to some other kind of ministry.
Given that she's known me for ~2 years and in significant leadership for ~1 year, I was expecting Pr. Lisa to be like, "What is a polite way for me to agree with you that you are not cut out for congregational ministry?" but instead she commented that all the things that are bad for congregational ministry are things I could change if I wanted to -- and if I really felt Called then I would, because I'm really committed to being effective and successful. (I could argue about unchangeable parts of who I am that make me ill-suited for congregational ministry, but I took her point.)

Pr. Lisa and Cassandra had pre-planned for the Lenten worship planning meeting (using Season of Ash and Fire: Prayers and Liturgies for Lent and Easter by Blair Gilmer Meeks) so tonight's meeting was fairly straightforward.

One of the weeks is The Cross, and they had both thought of me as a preacher for that week -- Pr. Lisa was like, "You might have something constructive to say," and I was like, "I see what you did there" (deconstructive critique is really my primary and preferred m.o.). So that's in 2 weeks. *hands* (Mostly I am just like, "Ari will help me" -- because, as I commented while we were on the phone yesterday afternoon, she is way more brilliant than I am, at least when it comes to theology.)

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When I came home from evening church, this happened:
Houseguest: "How's God?"
me: "..."
Housemate: "Noncorporeal and ubiquitous?"

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"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. And they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2, Handel's Messiah)

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