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Bless to me, O God,
The earth beneath my foot,
Bless to me, O God,
The path whereon I go;
Bless to me, O God,
The thing of my desire;
Thou Evermore of evermore,
Bless Thou to me my rest.

Bless to me the thing
Whereon is set my mind,
Bless to me the thing
Whereon is set my love;
Bless to me the thing
Whereon is set my hope;
O Thou King of kings,
Bless Thou to me mine eye!

(From The Celtic Vision, Esther de Wall, ed.)

Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace...There are some things I would be willing to bet maybe even my life on. That life is grace, for instance--the givenness of it, the fathomlessness of it, the endless possibilities of its becoming transparent to something extraordinary beyond itself. That--as I picked up somewhere in Jung and whittled into the ash stick I use for tramping around through the woods sometimes--vocatus atque non vocatus Deus aderit, which I take to mean that in the long run, whether you call on him or don't call on him, God will be present with you.  That if we really had our eyes open, we would see that all moments are key moments."

(From Now and Then by Fredrick Buechner).

Questions:

1. What in your life especially wants listening to this day?
2. Where on your journey is grace being encountered?
3. What is need to help you travel with "eyes open" aware of God's presence?
   

"We are in the spiritual position of having an unlimited bank account.  Most of us never consider how powerful the creator really is.  Instead, we draw very limited amounts of the power available to us.  We decide how powerful God is for us.  We unconsciously set a limit on how much God can give us or help us...And if we receive a gift beyond our imagining, we often send it back."

-Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way, p.91

One of the most exciting things happening in the church right now is the conversation between Mainline congregations and The Emerging Church.  As Mainline congregations seek new forms of being, the Emerging Church offers new ways of thinking about being church.  While not wholly compatible, the dialogue is nothing short of electrifying!

Below, I quote former Episcopal Priest Eddie Gibbs (whom I've spent some time with in my days in Los Angeles), and Ryan K. Bolger in their book Emerging Churches:Creating Christian Community In Post Modern Cultures .

Emerging churches utilize the kingdom as a tool to deconstruct all aspects of life, including virtually all church practices. They understand that the kingdom gives rise to the church, not the other way around. Forms and structures of church are variable in emerging churches, especially in comparison to new paradigm, purpose driven and seeker churches which keep most of the traditional structures intact. These older movements maintain an emphasis on paid senior pastors, the Sunday service as what constitutes church, outreach that focuses on lapsed suburban professionals, and the idea that Christians come to church, primarily understood as the church building. Utilizing the kingdom of God paradigm as a tool of deconstruction, emerging churches dismantle many forms of church that, although viable at one time, increasingly represent a bygone era.  (Page 96)

 

Emerging churches believe that the church should shape its corporate life in accordance with the practices of the kingdom of God that Jesus inaugurated in his ministry. Their understanding of the Christian life is strongly Christocentric, drawing much inspiration from the Gospels. Emerging churches create a space for the kingdom to enter their midst. They commit to the community that follows this King and let their other loyalties take a back seat. An unchastened consumerism and anonymity are not options within their ranks. They display a willingness to abandon old church forms as they dramatically restructure their communities. They abhor the idea of church as a meeting, a place, a routine. Clearly, for these communities, church is a people, a community, a rhythm, a way of life, a way of connectedness with other Christ followers in the world. These communities are small, missional, and offer space for each individual to participate. Emerging churches form tight communities. It is through living as a community that emerging churches practice the way of Jesus in all realms of culture.  (Page 115)

The following is a picture of the 2009 Nominations Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of California.  We're working our little buns-off trying to get all the slots filled!

O God, who loves us when we are at our worst -- when we have broken the rules of life; when we have injured our health, when we have mistreated our friends and families, when we have hated ourselves and complained about you -- teach us how to love with your love. Let us begin by caring for ourselves -- for our health, for our spirits, for our welfare and our joy. Then, out of the fullness of the self, let us reach out to others, caring for their health and spirits and welfare and joy. Show us how the death and resurrection of Christ are related to all of this -- to forgiveness of our sins and fullness of life and the desire to follow him by giving ourselves for others. And grant, O God, that, leaving behind the old self and all its negativism, we may rise to newness of life in you, so that we see and feel and taste and hear the wonders of our existence in the world, and live in excitement and gratitude and humility. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

--Quoted from John Killinger, The Tender Shepherd (Nashville: Abingdon, 1985), 199.

"I believe that we are being called to be midwives for a new church...We are at the front edges of the greatest transformation of that church that has occurred for 1,600 years...That transformation is occurring because of the persistent call of God that our whole world be made new, and that the church's mission in the world be itself transformed in new patterns of reconciling the world to God."

-Loren Mead, Transforming Congregations for the Future, p. 41