Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or
weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who
sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless
the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the
joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.
I had dinner tonight with a “Civil Celebrant”, or a person licensed by Loudoun County to officiate at weddings. It was pretty interesting; she did 4 weddings today (Friday), will do three tomorrow (it’s her daughter’s birthday, she explained, so she kept the number down), one on Sunday, and then two more on Monday. She has officiated at over 700 weddings in the last three years.
I doubt I’ve officiated at 700 weddings in my 21 years as a priest. Funerals, maybe, but not weddings.
She said a lot of the people who come to her are religious but have “mixed faiths”, so a civil ceremony “solves all those problems.” She also said a lot of people call her at the last minute or are eloping.
I don’t think I do as many weddings as I used to. I thought that was because fewer and fewer people are choosing to get married. But after this conversation, I am thinking it is more a matter of fewer and fewer people choosing to be married in a church.
Perhaps this is one more evidence of the waning power, importance, and place of the church in people’s lives?
Christine is home from college. She hasn't slept for two days, but no surprise there.
To celebrate, we're going to resume one of our old routines and go see the midnight showing of Prince Caspian.
Hey, why should she start sleeping now?
I had a lunch appointment in Reston today, so I stopped at the Great Harvest Bread Company in Herndon on the way back to church. They list the flavors of the day on a bulletin board above the service counter, and I was pleased to see they had 9-grain, which is my favorite.
But then…
When, only a few moments later, my turn came to request the bread I wanted, I noticed 9-grain was NOT on the board. Hmmm. Maybe I hadn’t seen it up there after all?
I asked the people who were working, and they said they had just sold the last loaf. Dang!
But then…
It turned out that one of the loaves designated for cutting (they give everyone in line a free slice so their customers can sample the different kinds of bread) was 9-grain. They bagged it and gave it to me. Free. (OK, it did have one small slice missing.)
Surprise and delight—that’s the very heart of customer service, I think. In fact, it’s at the very heart of service in general: going the extra mile, going above and beyond, doing what is required “and then some”. And when a church understands that as well as a business—ahhh, then we’re preaching Gospel!
I came up one a lady today who had been around the block a few times and was clearly worse for the wear. It was just as clear that she was once stunningly beautiful, but now her color was so bad that it was almost translucent, like you could almost see right through her. At points, in fact, I think you could.
She was well traveled, and yes, beat up to the point of being tattered around the edges. But whatever violence she had seen, and whatever forms of violence she had experienced, it didn't keep her from looking to the future and ensuring a place for the next generation in it.
Gently she touched her abdomen to the undersides of a milkweed leaf, depositing a tiny white egg. Then it was up again into the air, not as high as she once flew, only high enough now to make it to the next milkweed plant where she repeated the action again and again.
It was good to welcome another old friend back to the garden today, a well seasoned Monarch whose long journey is coming to its end. And it will be good to welcome her children, and watch them grow and transform until one day they take to the sky and take up their journey where hers left off.
Tomorrow, May 13, you can get a free scoop of Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream between 4 and 8PM at participating stores (which in our areas is the Häagen-Dazs Shop at the Lansdowne Town Center ). Enjoy!
A snapshot of motherhood in what I believe is the summer of 1959.
Today we went to a Bat Mitzvah. It made me think about a lot of different things.
One of the things that always strikes me is how similar the prayers are (well, except that ours are in English!) And that is, of course, by design. These are the prayers Jesus prayed. These are the prayers that he would’ve said with his disciples at the Synagogue.
And just like the disciples continued to read the Old Testament in their new community which would come to be called the church, they continued to say many of the same prayers. Again, as with Holy Scripture, they understood the references differently, but they said the prayers just the same. They would be modified over time, as the Holy Scriptures would also come to include the New Testament, but many of the phrases and much of the wording would continue on unchanged.
I appreciated, therefore, the sense of continuity I felt with what God has been doing down through the ages, and the profound connection with his people across the years.
I'd like to recommend a new scale for evaluating books—a cardiovascular scale.
At almost 50 years old, if there is one muscle I should keep in shape it’s my heart. So I finally broke down started including cardio in my workout routine.
The only problem is that I hate doing cardio. It’s boring. What to do?
I decided to read while using the stationary bike or elliptical trainer. Mostly I read fiction in the form of novels. The thing about a really good novel is that for me, at least, it really does take me out of the moment and transport me into the story. A half hour goes by and I never even notice.
That’s how The Cure for Modern Life was for me. I’d become so engrossed in the story I’d forget all about what I was doing and all of a sudden my workout was done. Sweet! Even better was that as I got caught up in the plot, I actually found the pace of my work out increasing as well. Finally, I only let myself read the book while I’m doing cardio. Because I really liked a couple of the characters in this book, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to them. And that meant I couldn’t wait to get back in the gym.
So I think I would give The Cure for Modern Life a five heart rating. (I’m thinking that for obvious reasons a heart would make a good symbol for this system, with one heart being poor and five hearts being a most excellent book).
On the other hand, I’ve been reading Jonathan Kellerman's Compulsion for two weeks now. It doesn’t transport me, and I don’t much care about the story so far even though I’m about ¾ of the way through. I often find myself putting the book down and watching a TV or even just the monitors on the machine before. I think I might only give this book one heart. It hasn’t helped much!
I met a young lady recently whose name is Joy. I asked her if that was a family name or if there was a particular reason her parents chose that name for her.
She replied, “My parent’s told me there were three reasons they gave me this name:
1. They hoped I would know the joy of the Lord
2. They hoped I would be a joy to the Lord
3. They hoped I would bring joy to others.”
And the interesting thing? She really did seem to be a joyful person with a ready smile and an easy laugh.
In giving her the gift of this name, her parents had given her a simple but effective way of framing the world and her place in it in a positive light.
