First Sunday of Advent

I will be visiting various churches in the area while on sabbatical. What a blessing and privilege to be a wanderer in unfamiliar yet friendly places.

Today it was Bethesda on the Bay ELCA -- Wonderful, traditional worship. The community was moved from the "end of times" readings to the faithful promise that we are in between Advents.... that Christ has arrived...and although gone from this world for a while, He will arrive again...and we are to be in waiting for not only the celebration of His birth which arrives every 25th of December, but also for the final arrival.

There is a responsibility laid upon us to attend to the matters of the community of faith, the church, even though we will never do it perfectly. Pr. Stylski spoke of how churches who are "successful" run the risk of missing the mark of humility. Prideful focus upon numbers or "program effectiveness" can blind us to God's coming in much the same way we are distracted by drunkenness or excessive worry about the matters of the world.

Advent waiting and advent preparation move us to a balance between the knowledge that Christ is Born... and that He rules the universe...and the equally powerful knowledge that we are "in between time". As such, we are a community of faith that knows God is near, even as we are in a world that is in grievous peril.

Tomorrow, December 1, is the "formal" beginning of the sabbatical. I will spend the entire day on "retreat" at Ursuline...... Blessings to you!

I'm on my way

This is a vacation week. It is a week that is "in between times"...between saying farewell to CRLC and the official beginning of sabbatical...December 1.

I have a sense of "collecting myself".

I am gathering my writing and reading supplies. I am preparing my "niche" in my home which will serve as a temporary office. I decided to arrange it in a place apart from the normal home office where all of the business transactions take place.

I am shifting from the schedule where my time is dictated by appointments and regular commitments to a schedule that will be "ordered" by the spiritual practices of prayer, study, reflection and writing. I've never lived this way ... it is new to me... and I wonder in the depth of my soul at the way God will work His will for this phase of my life.

I noticed on Sunday something that was surprising: I had anticipated a sense of separation or closure.... Instead, there was a prevailing feeling of "welcome"... It seemed odd! Yet as I prayed my way through those hours of saying farewell to CRLC, I was met by countless individuals who said "I will be praying for you"!
What seemed on the surface to be a time of "moving away" was actually a time when the "moving into" process was of greatest prominence!

I give thanks for the companionship of the CRLC community...and so many others.

I don't know where I am going... but I am on my way!

November 23--Farewell Sunday

Last night I wandered through the winterscape of my backyard. Several deer were finding their beds. When the ground is snow covered the evening visitors are clearly visible. At least six deer make our property their resting place. The loss of some of our plantings is really a small price to pay for the scene upon which I gaze every time I look out my window....The small herd settles so peacefully...they awaken when they see my candle in the window... they watch me watching them watching me...and we cohabit the moment. In the peace of such moments the stirrings of deepest feelings often emerge.

While I wandered I noticed the onset of emotions regarding my "Farewell Sunday". I will say "see you later" today to so many people...and to the hallways, the sanctuary and the gathering space at CRLC. I realize that it is going to feel awkward, at first, to practice the discipline of "Absence".

For over 16 years that "place" has been a major component of most of my days.... other than my vacation or retreat times, that place at 9201 Brecksville Road has been on my radar screen and on my itinerary nearly every day. Part of the practice of sabbatical, especially when it is not a "travelling" sabbatical, is to refrain from being on site. I can only say that it will feel strange to be around Brecksville without checking in at the church...(my home is less than 3 miles from it).

The practice of absence from the typical pattern of my day will be a poverty in many ways...for it has been very, very rare that being at CRLC has been anything other than pure joy for me. It is a place and a community where I have seen Christ in so many ways. It is an environment where I have experienced care...nurture...and guidance. It is also a place where I have been challenged to grow...where my sense of call has been clarified...and where I have learned more about God, myself and others than I ever could have imagined on my own.

I am deeply, deeply grateful for the place...and the people...the "church" that is located at 9201 Brecksville Road.

Farewell....see you in March!

So it begins

How amazing...how surprising...how delightful. The Sabbatical Time is here.

Although my sabbatical doesn't officially begin until December 1, I have one 2008 Vacation Week that begins this weekend. My last official day in the CRLC office is today. May last Sunday at CRLC is November 23, Christ the King Sunday. I am standing on the brink of a three month span that is more open and unfettered than any three month span I have ever experienced. What a gift....What a blessing.

And I am not missing the call to respond to this blessing as a steward...a steward of time, place, and energy.

I plan to practice a monastic order for my days...although I rarely miss morning prayer time in my ordinary life, during this sabbatical I intend to follow the discipline of "Praying the Hours". That means there will be regular times during the day, nomatter what I am doing, when I will pause to pray with psalms and hymns. This is a practice that fills my days when I am at the Abbey of the Genesee, and it is one that can be incorporated into my Sabbatical Time wherever I am!

I have experienced the feeling of unknowingness many times in my life.... but never as powerfully as now...

I have no idea where I am going....but I am on my way!