happiness list, 5.6.15

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 1. I live in a jungle.

Over the last few weeks, the front porch has been the place to be.  Vines and bushes and trees are bursting out all over with life and bright, happy, new, green leaves.  (and lots and lots and lots of pollen…)

2. I got a new book.

One of my favorite, favorite writers, Lauren Winner, just published a new book, and though I’ve been carrying it around since last week, I haven’t gotten a chance to gobble it up.  (Hopes pinned on this weekend…)

3. God used my sermon.

More and more, I’m falling in love with sermon-writing.  It’s hard to get into a groove, especially when I preach once every two months or so, but last Sunday’s effort was a joy to contemplate, write, and deliver, it spoke to my heart, and it spoke to the hearts of many who heard and read it.  I’m so grateful to get to be a vessel sometimes!

God the Good Gardener

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“Every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

Look at the stained glass windows around you this morning.  They’ve been given at various times for various members of the community, and as any chorister will tell you, they’re a symbol of how God’s light shines through each of us.  As we look closely at the passage from the Gospel of John this morning, I want to offer these to you as a metaphor for God’s work in us as we consider what it means to be pruned, and where exactly the Good News is in the revelation that we should expect spiritual amputations. Continue reading →

Friday Icon: el loco

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madman

art via

Six years ago, I visited Barcelona with my family in the summer, just before I started divinity school.  I’d just started to admit to people–sometimes for the shock value–that I was headed toward the priesthood.  When we went to the Picasso museum there, I was completely captured by this sketch Pablo made early in his career.  A postcard depiction has been on my desk ever since.  That morning, still jet lagged, I saw Jesus in this man.

Having spent time with homeless men in Durham over the last year, I’d started to meet Jesus again in them.  God has many facets, some of them are manifest in the homeless, in the hungry, in the crazy.  My prayer is to be softhearted enough to recognize God’s presence in the forgotten people I encounter every day.

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