advent day 15: rejoice!

Rethink Church's daily prompt for Advent 15 is "rejoice."
Today, the Third Sunday of Advent, is Gaudete or "Rejoice!" Sunday.

advent day 08: wisdom

Rethink Church's daily prompt for Advent 2 is "wisdom." My wisdom is from one of the songs we sang this afternoon at Lessons & Carols at University of San Diego:

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

advent day 03: peace

Rethink Church's daily prompt for Tuesday of Advent 1 is "peace." My peace is a picture of palm trees along Mission Bay Drive a couple weeks ago, after some huge resolution in my life—back to the California I knew and loved!

Advent day 02: bound

Rethink Church's daily prompt for Monday of Advent 1 is "bound." My bound is "by water and the word," with this image of a baptismal font.

advent day 01: go

Rethink Church has a daily prompt for Advent; for Advent 1, Ad te levavi, the word is "go."
My go is "into the darkness," with this image from the Blue Christmas service on the evening of Advent 1.

easter evening; day 47, alive!

I'm using this marvelous text from 1^st Isaiah as a prompt for day 47, "alive" of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

Isaiah 25:6-8

"On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken."

day 46, roots

Saturday in Holy Week – "Holy Saturday" – and Day 46 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 46, "roots"

day 44, cup

Thursday in Holy Week – "Maundy Thursday" – and Day 44 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 44, "cup"

For today, Maundy Thursday's "cup" prompt, here's my Cup and Loaf bulletin cover (again) and another repost of this holy reflection for Maundy Thursday by Paul Hammer. If you're not familiar with Dr. Hammer, he offered one of the Taking the Bible Seriously talks on the old UCC site and that you probably can find on their current site.

love one another

Jesus, how common can you get? Foot washing, bread, wine!
If you're going to be religious, at least use something special.
No, my friend, I came not to perform special religious rites
But to touch the daily life of everyone
With God's love in the commonest of things.

O.K., water, bread, wine.
But isn't foot washing a bit ridiculous?
And what about "this is my body"?
And "this cup is the new covenant in my blood"?

Foot washing is the work of the commonest servant—I came to serve.
But it points beyond to the "washing" of the cross—
God's self-giving service in me to cleanse away estrangement
And heal the distortions in people's lives.
The bread points to nourishment in that same self-giving of God
At work in my body, that is in me.
And the cup points to the new community drawn together and nourished
In my blood, that is in God's total self-giving in my death.

Do you mean that this common stuff of water, bread and wine
Becomes in you the very focus of God's love for me and for the world?
That there is no excuse for my not loving my common neighbor?
Because you have shown the depth of God's love for me?

You've got it!
But it isn't a love for special occasions.
It has to be that daily love that's as common as water, bread and wine!

day 43, help

Wednesday in Holy Week – "Spy Wednesday" – and Day 43 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 43, "help"

As many times as I've walked down that alley, this afternoon these bright flowers on the whitewashed fence were new to me, and offered real help in lightening my increasing sense of discouragement. Logically it "should" be the opposite with longer spring days, shorter nights? Maybe so, but I'm reading the way I'm feeling as a sign all's not well, as a symptom to push me to decisions for a better, more productive future.

day 42, light

Tuesday in Holy Week, and Day 42 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 42, "light"

day 39, restore

Day 39 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 39, "restore"

These refreshing, restorative fruits and veggies actually are from day 37, but most appropriate for today's prompt.

day 38, alone

Day 38 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 38, "alone"

Like the rest of the world, I've got a huge stash of takes on alone, but for tonight, why not this "my space" one?

day 37, home?

Day 37 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 37, "home?"

day 35, dream

For day 35 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church, I don't have a photograph, but I do have an illustration of Acts 2:17

day 35, "dream."






"In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." Acts 2:17

day 30, "go"

Day 30 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 30, "go."

On an organ, a stop is a go! Today's image is a screen capture, cuz I didn't think ahead enough to take a new pic or scan an old one. How do you like my html table?

day 29, water

Day 29 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 29, "water."

day 28, "silence"

Day 28 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 28, "silence."

Tonight in the silence, I was double-shadows against the fence, but the camera didn't capture those, so here's the alley thoroughfare.

day 26, "ate"

Day 26 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 26, "ate."

We ate some post-liturgy, eucharistic snacks... a little sparse by that church's usual Sunday standards, yet nutritious and shalom-full, plenty "enough."

day 23, no

Day 23 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 23, "no."

No!!! to injustice, violence, poverty, suffering, loneliness, unkindness, exploitation, death...

day 22, shadow

Day 22 of the Lenten photo-a-day challenge on rethink church.

day 22, "shadow." In case you're wondering about the changing length of days, I took this pic 5 weeks ago, and loved the shadows, so here it is for today's prompt.