Fly of the Day

Foam Fly

Fly of the Day

Foam Moth

Fly of the Day

Three Foam Frogs

Fly of the Day

Christmas Morning
#12 3XH
Red Thread, Tinsel, Silver Wire, Brown Hackel

Fly of the Day

Tinsel Head Girls Night Out
#12 3XH

Fly of the Day

Girls Night Out Nymph #12 3XH red and pink yarn, black thread, copper wire.

Speak of Holy Week

We speak of Holy Week, and a coal train flies by with empty cars returning to be refilled and sent off once again.

We speak of Holy Week, and we pause with a nod or a wince, with an attempt to say more than just words printed on a page.

We speak of Holy Week, and we slowly sigh, taking pause to refocus on days beyond weariness.

We speak of Holy Week, and our arms are filled with commentaries and word studies, which carry the potential to separate us from the very thing of it.

We speak of Holy Week, and trust a sleeping world hears and acknowledges the sacrifice.

We speak of Holy Week, and find a voice, our voice, alone in the wilderness.

We speak of Holy Week, and the newness of life enters, uninvited, unfocused, unsought; the noise finds a target.

We speak of Holy Week, God bless all those who speak; of Holy Week.

If I Were Preaching this Week on Easter

If I were preaching this week I would be working with the Gospel reading from John 20:1-18.  This wonder-filled story of Mary finding Jesus in the garden moves with grace to the heart of the gospel message.  I never tire of reading and retelling this story because the depth of the mystery of God is right on the surface and ready to be shared. 

Easter sermons are unique among sermons.  They can be overwhelming for the preacher because of the workload of the week.  Pastors will most surely be running on fumes by Sunday morning.  The sermon which felt so powerfully awesome on Tuesday can be a difficult fifteen minutes to deliver by Sunday.  Therefore, I believe, it is important to prayerfully prepare with focus on theological basics using your particular communication strengths.

This is not the day to go long and add the extra story that is your favorite, or to introduce your personal theological twist.  There will be folks listening who only hear a few sermons a year.  Others who hear every sermon you preach will be listening for something extra on this day of days.  

This is the day to preach our doctrinal standards.  If you can find a quiet moment, take a new look at our Basic Christian Affirmations on page 47 of the 2012 Book of Discipline.  Let these statements of faith inform your preaching on Easter.  “We hold in communion with all Christians a faith in the mystery of salvation in and through Jesus Christ.”  I say, “Get out of the way and let the Gospel speak on this day; bring it.” 

This passage invites us to consider our surprise and response at Jesus speaking our name.  We come into the church on Easter with grief, pain, and all forms of discomfort.  We come hoping to hear a word which offers hope and life.  We will come to your church on Easter much like Mary came to the garden. And as we are fed the Gospel message that Christ is alive, we will not be disappointed.  If we can accomplish nothing else, we should tell this Gospel story with truth and passion in our hearts and voices.   To hear the story changes everything. 

I struggle with the idea that the season of Lent is culminated in Easter and we can now take a rest until Advent.  The Good Friday words of, “it is finished,” were not meant to describe the life in the church following Easter. And yet we all forget that every Sunday is a little Easter and the Holy Spirit will move even stronger for a few weeks because of all your good preaching and the good work of so many faithful church members.  I am praying for your preaching this week and plan to remember each of you by speaking aloud your name on Easter Sunday.  Go with Christ.

If I Were Preaching this Week.

I would go after this lectionary passage from the gospel of Matthew 5:38-48 again.  Matthew has a way of holding up a mirror, and when we think we need to zag, we find a zig.  The passage for this week is no different. 

One pastor has described verse 38, “An eye for an eye,” as business as usual.  Then Matthew reports Christ offering a zig to that zag.  In my words, Christ says something like this, “knock off the negative backbiting and infighting, and start to love on each other, especially the folks who you hate.”  So maybe I would title my sermon, “Business as Unusual.”

In my work as a Conference Superintendent over the last four years, I can tell you the one thing we need more of in the church today is love for each other.  Perhaps my path takes me into places where there is more conflict and division in the church than is normal, but I doubt it.  Pastors are being controlled and abused while congregations are being micromanaged and marginalized.  I have begun calling the church a violent place to hang out these days, however, we must find a way to become non-violent.  The church of the future will not sustain this level of attack and pain.  Unfortunately, this all feels like business as usual for a large part of the church.  The world should know us by our love, but that is just not the case these days regardless of how many times we sing the song.  Our actions define us, always have.

If I were preaching in the local church here are a couple things I would need to be sure I visited in preparing the sermon this week.  The first is our Bishops Trimble being arrested at the White House on Monday for his non-violent stand against immigration deportation of almost 2 million souls.  I would throw this out as a way of doing business unusually.  No matter how you come down on the immigration issue, we can all agree we must stop pulling families apart.  The Second is the Olympics.  Everyone has been watching them, so they provide a ready and steady sermon illustration stream for which just about everyone has knowledge. Point out the amazing stuff that is not business as usual, and then point out what makes you cringe and for which we wish we had a redo button.  Where do you see the golden rule and where do you just see rules?  How can we push through business as usual and get to the unusual business of grace and love for one another? 

And finally from the book, Native American Wisdom, these words to consider on leadership from the Constitution of the Five Nations.  “With endless patience you shall carry out your duty, and your firmness shall be tempered with tenderness for your people.  Neither anger nor fury shall lodge in your mind, and all your words and actions shall be marked with calm deliberation.”

If I Were Preaching this Week

If I were preaching this week I would be looking at the Gospel lectionary from Matthew.  The Beatitudes, Chapter 5 all the way to Chapter 7, provide some deep and profound words for us to chew on.  Last week I was struck how the initial, “Blessed are,” sayings are fully inclusive.  They gather us all into one body.  We all experience grief.  We all experience loss, abundance, and hunger.  We find ourselves in relationship without regard to any human agenda potentially sorting us into competitive camps. 

As I pondered the reading for this Sunday, I was wondering where that kind of radical relationship outlined last week might lead.  As I looked closer I found the same guiding thought leading me to the same conclusion.  We all are together in the same boat.  We all lose our saltiness at times.  We all walk in darkness at times.  We all deal with anger.  We all deal with lust and saying things which we regret.  We are in this together, like it or not.  God may not care to view a bunch of selfies.  Rather God might prefer to see a family portrait.

When we deal with our sin and our loss together, then we can also deal with our love and our new life in Christ together.  We were never built to go it alone.  The preceding passage to the Beatitudes finds Jesus calling the disciples together, and then ministering to the crowds.  No mention of individual preference or personal salvation in this reading.  We are invited to be in the boat, in the crowd, along with every other human being. 

Oh my goodness, in this society where even the church is crowned triumphant as it offers individual care, individual praise, and individual spiritual self-differentiation, here is different path.  Matthew is shouting that it is not about me.  Life is not about getting my needs met, or my agenda massaged.  Life is about walking with the crowd, dealing with the reality of finding ourselves in the midst of the fullness of human expression. Life abundant happens with us, all of us, together.  There is no other way.  Feel free to use these thoughts if they are helpful if you are preaching this week.