Five Minute Friday :: Recognize

• Five Minute Friday :: Recognize Linkup

Re-cognition. Being cognizant (all over) again. Revisit. Relearn.

Kate wrote beautifully and lovingly about a re-visit to South Africa and especially the sensory recognition of what she'd previously known there.

Lately I've been realizing – recognizing – that people I knew in places like City of History Boston-Cambridge and Previous City San Diego remain frozen in the time and situation where I last interacted with them. It might not be difficult to recognize chronological adults, but if someone's offspring was six years old when I saw them ten years ago, they're now sixteen!

The senior pastor at one of my churches in Previous City retired. The congregation called a new pastor, and former senior pastor has been doing a series of interim pastorates. In his newsletter article for another of my several San Diego churches (where that pastor retired a few weeks ago) where he's now interim, he described what each of his kids are doing and—they all are young adults! No!

But it's yes and though I didn't know his kids well at all, if I ran into them I'd need to ditch my previous ideas about them and recognize their adult identity. But I well could make too many assumptions that would interfere with my ability to recognize who they have become these ten years later.

In addition, I'm thinking of the times I spent at that church. According to facebook, they've been building a new fellowship hall. I have great memories of helping cook and serve Thursday night neighborhood dinners, teaching different kids in VBS, facilitating scripture study and saying a lot about the texts when that pastor led, accompanying Holden Evening Prayer on the piano—in the old fellowship hall. If I returned for a visit, would I insist on everything still being the same before I'd be willing to recognize the place and the people as the church I enjoyed in the past?

On this Reformation Day 2025, would Jesus recognize the church he gave us with his promised presence? What would he tell us when we insisted on seeking and finding how things used to be two decades or six years or seven months ago? "Discuss."


Community Note:

Our FMF host Kate will be on medical leave until January, but surprise! The wonderful poet Andrew offered to host us for the next two months, and he's even scheduled every single Friday without a break until Kate returns! Prayers and hope-filled wishes for Kate's recovery and endless thanks to Andrew for helping maintain this important space for writers.

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October 2025 :: Around Town

• Clockwise from upper left:
• Concrete and Alabaster "Lantern" Cross Cathedral window
• Butterfly at LA on the Move art-wildlife exhibit
• Orange marigolds
• Flower street art from Made in LA 2025

• Tuesday, 07 October, and my first time at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels since before Covid. Similar to 911, Covid has become a watershed we can't stop mentioning.

• 555 West Temple Street sounds like Salt Lake City! I love this long view of the Cathedral.

• Changes in the liturgy include that the Presider and Deacon didn't process in; we received the Eucharist in one kind only.

• This beautiful Campanile greets us coming in and going out.

• Then to Union Station. This may be my best and favorite picture I've ever taken of the DTLA landmark.

• LA on the Move in the Union Station Waiting Room Gallery was the major draw for my visit this time.

• An abbreviated version of the art exhibit description from the website:

LA on the Move explores how people and wildlife travel through shared landscapes, following paths that overlap across the Los Angeles area.

Drawing from ecological data provided by the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy, the exhibition showcases the role of various insects, plants and animals play in supporting healthy ecosystems—and how human actions can support or hinder their survival.

Blending science, data, and creative design, the project amplifies the power of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing complex ecological questions.

Metro's projects strive to protect existing habitat and wildlife corridors, and we use native and climate-resilient vegetation.

• 12 October and another Sunday at Saint Mark's LA

• Tuesday, 21 October, and it's been equally as long since I visited the Hammer Museum. I always enjoy traveling the Wilshire corridor!

• Made in LA 2025 filled almost every gallery

• Fourth Tuesday lunch brunch salad and dessert. We had pizza from a nearby indie pizzeria; it was pretty and it was very good. Can you believe I completely forgot to picture it?

Five Minute Friday :: Capacity

O Lord, I love the house
in which you dwell,
and the place where your glory
abides! Psalm 26:8

• Five Minute Friday :: Capacity Linkup

David wanted to build a house for God, but God replied he always had "moved around in the tent of meeting" and never ever had asked anyone for a cedar house.

It wasn't a brand new theological concern, but the famous meeting of Reformers Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli at Marburg centered on the Lord's Supper as they debated whether the finite (bread, fruit of the vine) had the capacity to contain the infinite. They had that debate even though Jesus had announced, "this is my body!" And even though God's incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth already answered that question! To paraphrase the Heidelberg Catechism, we move from Nativity with the mystery of Spirit in flesh to Ascension, with the mystery of flesh in Spirit.

God eventually got that house of cedar and stone, yet neither the first nor the second Jerusalem Temple had the capacity to contain God. Its mini-model of the universe was a pathetic attempt to mimic the reality of the Creator God whose place of being and acting always had been the entire panorama of creation… but "contain" the free and elusive God?!

Finally, on the fiftieth day of Easter, the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of Life filled the world. Every crack and corner and crevice. Every person.

O Lord, I love the house
in which you dwell,
and the place where your glory
abides! Psalm 26:8

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, which you have received from God? Now you belong to God. You are not your own.
1 Corinthians 6:9

God had moved around, peregrinated, free ranged in the tabernacle. Now we are the house in which Divinity dwells, the place where God's glory abides. God moves around everywhere in the people of God called "Christian." The Christ of God always is incarnate, enfleshed, embodied. And now in us!

What does that say about the capacity of the human heart? The mercy of each life? The welcome we offer strangers and outcasts, the sojourner and the lonely? We are the house where God lives. God's glory fills us. What does that say about God's claim and call on us as individuals? As community?

O enter, Lord, Thy temple,
Be Thou my spirit's Guest,
Who gavest me, the earth-born,
A second birth more blest!
Thou in the Godhead, Lord,
Though here to dwell Thou deignest,
Forever equal reignest,
Art equally adored.

So you can sing all thirteen stanzas just as Paul Gerhardt wrote them (1653) and Catherine Winkworth translated them (1863):

• O Enter, Lord, Thy Temple

Tune: Zeuch ein zu deinen Toren, Johann Crüger, 1653
German text: Paul Gerhardt, 1653
Translation: Catherine Winkworth, 1863, alt.

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Five Minute Friday :: Real

Trust in God at all times, O people
Pour out your heart before God
God is a refuge for us
Selah
Psalm 62:8
• Five Minute Friday :: Real Linkup

• The real and the ideal.

• Real or fake?

• Reality or fantasy?

Our host Kate told us she hesitated last week before writing her post because it was a sensitive topic that easily could have been a trigger.

This week she asked but why not be real, with the example of women – and others – usually replying "I'm fine" "doing okay, thanks" and similar when someone asks about your well-being. We don't want to burden anyone, but why not say, "I'm going through a terrible time, please remember me in your prayers." Why not??

We often compare our troubles and challenges with what we've observed of others, with some we've only read about. We even compare our here and now with what we've been through in the past, and because we've come this far by faith, why complain? Why complain, but better yet, why not be real and honest?

Why not be real and honest because the psalmists were real. Moses was real. The prophets were real. Jesus' disciples were real. Jesus of Nazareth was as real as they come—and he really was God!

All of them approached the throne of grace with complaints, outrage, laments, accusations, grief, pleading, pleas, and "please." Do we not trust God enough, do we not trust the Spirit that indwells God's people enough? Why do we edit and sanitize our communications? Why don't we dare be real?

In a previous life I worked in an affluent community where too many seemed to try their best to appear other than what they really(!) were, to chase expensive designer fashion and home decorating trends, to drive high end vehicles, to send their kids to elite schools and summer camps, etc.There was a tremendous concentration of wealth in that part of town; you might say those blessed with generational wealth "came by it honestly" while for many others it never was really real but they tried for a particular appearance that could fake someone out if that other someone didn't know.

One of the proudest moments of my life happened when a casual friend from that place said to me, "You were so real when you interviewed. I was astonished you got the job!" What a compliment!

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Five Minute Friday :: Explain

But the stranger that dwelleth with you
shall be unto you as one born among you,
and thou shalt love him as thyself;
for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:34
• Five Minute Friday :: Explain Linkup

Before listing the demands of the commands, God explains why he calls us to obedience—and ongoing freedom:

"I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Therefore! You shall have no other gods before me."

The Ten Words of the Sinai Covenant in

• Exodus 20:1-17

and in

• Deuteronomy 5:6-21

• Martin Luther explains each of the commandments in his Small Catechism.

• More wise instruction for every one of our days—and the explanation:

When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the stranger. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the stranger as yourself, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:33-34

You shall not oppress a stranger, because you know the heart of a stranger; because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 23:9

Stranger is translated into English as foreigner, immigrant, alien, sojourner, wanderer. What other words or phrases help explain that concept?

I hope God's people always will be strange, alien, outsiders to the ways of empire. In the realms of oppression. The houses of slavery. At least no more than a temporary resident in any of those places. Amen? Amen!

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Five Minute Friday :: Thrill

• Five Minute Friday :: Thrill Linkup

The Happy Dog! So spontaneous! Dogs thrill easily—cats to a lesser extent, but they still get more excited more often than most humans.

I remember my organ instructor Max Miller of blessed memory talking about people being thrilled about something. "Thrilled" was part of his stock vocabulary.

It was long ago but it's still current. The first Pastor Edwin R in my life observed how I loved the thrill of the chase, and that I do. Every day! All the way! Sadly or providentially, that ongoing thrill has helped sustain me and kept me keepin' on.

But there must be a time of repose, of homecoming, a time to simply "be" for a while, even though the chase and the thrill will resume.

Everyone needs an interval of rest in a settled space. A time of homecoming. We (you, I, they) need it to generate fuel and energy to continue the chase and enjoy the thrill again.

Our host Kate observed she'd gotten into too much of a settled routine instead of seeking thrills. I get what she's saying. A lot of adulting is anything but a thrill. That reality aside, often we don't give ourself permission to pursue thrills.

Besides life opportunities and challenges, what else thrills me? Definitely not downhill skiing or riding a wave.

Some highs happen when I'm with other people. Testifying to God's surprises in our lives. Reliving a recent event. Sharing and maybe making a delicious recipe.

I love the big ones, too. Landing at Schiphol. A symphony concert.

Thrills happen at all levels from micro to macro, mini to maxi. I love the thrill of life taking over and propelling me to the next place as I chase it, but "notice the little things" has become common advice because noticing the little makes a big difference in our everyday walk.

How about slowing down and opening my eyes to the thrill of a sunrise or sunset? Or that end of day feeling of satisfied fulness? Simple repose and simply being. We don't get a whole body adrenaline rush, but they do give a quiet thrill of being in holy space and holy time.

Let's go back to noticing tiny objects and events so they thrill us. That's what dogs do. They thrill to a car ride, a frisbee, a ball, and a few treats. Let's do it!

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