Sticks and Snakes

Another Reason the Pioneer's Went Crazy

I thought that raging thunderstorms and tornadoes were enough to make you lose your mind in a sod house on a prairie, but then I encountered my first blizzard. We've received about a foot of snow in the last couple of days, and last night's howling winds upped the ante and brought about a true weather emergency. Lucky for me, work was cancelled for two days straight, so I've been holed up like Laura Ingals Wilder, taking advantage of being snowed in by sleeping late, journaling, and working on this weekend's sermon. Warm carrot ginger soup for dinner and Swiss Miss for desert has made these last few days more enjoyable than scary, but severe weather always manages to get under my skin a little bit. I'm happy that the snow has stopped falling and the winds have died down, but now I need to deal with the little problem of unearthing my car and driving to the office tomorrow morning...not something this Seattle girl is too comfortable doing. 

(the storm was not this bad) 

Anyway, I thought I'd take advantage of the cozy silence by updating you on my otherwise un-updated life, using the form from the Simple Woman's Daybook.

Outside my window...snow is covering everything. The strong wind turned the yard and parking lot into a tundra of white dunes, and very few people have ventured outside to disrupt the cold beauty. 

I am thinking...about John the Baptist, who takes some of the fun out of Christmas but puts all of the drama into the first few weeks of Advent. 

I am thankful...for safety and warmth, and for hot chocolate with marshmallows. 

I am wearing...a pink thermal shirt and jeans. 

I am remembering...how important it is to challenge myself and not get comfortable. This is a lesson I've learned in the past but seem to want to forget.

I am going...nowhere! 

I am currently reading...The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Paul Elie...for the third time. It is a "simultaneous biography" of Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, Dorothy Day, and Flannery O'Connor. These four Catholic writers were contemporaries who emerged on the scene independently. This book always inspires my creativity and my imagination. It also highlights, rather starkly, how much American religion has changed in the past thirty or forty years. 

I am hoping...for safe driving tomorrow. Or for another snow day.

I am creating...a lot, actually. I have finally recommitted to the discipline of "free writing," something that I was obsessive about in college and have since managed to let slip away. Although my writing isn't entirely "free"--I am trying to focus on a couple of topics/themes--lots of ideas are flowing. 

Around the house...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I decorated an adorable little three-foot tree, which is full of bird ornaments which nest in the branches. I wish I had a Christmas tree all year round. 

How is your winter going so far?

Belated Thanksgiving

I've been a little lax on posting my sermons lately. Sermons tend to live short lives in a particular span of time, and once I'm done preaching them it is all too easy for me to file the pages away and only think about the next one.

 

image/etsy
 

In any event, what follows is my Thanksgiving sermon, preached on the Tuesday before Turkey day. You can read it after the jump!

The Pope is Not on Team Edward.

Unless you've been living under a rock this week, you are probably aware that the latest installment of the Twilight movie franchise, "New Moon", debuted in theaters nation-wide on Friday. Based on the four-book series by Stephanie Meyer, "New Moon" picks up where last Fall's "Twilight" movie left off. In her small town of Forks, Washington, Bella, the awkward human teenager in love with the vampire Edward, encounters her own broken heart and the shocking revelation that her best friend Jacob is actually a warewolf (I'll leave it at that so as not to spoil the fun). I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've read all the books (twice...), and as you may know from past entries on Sticks and Snakes, I am totally fascinated with the full-blown cultural phenomenon that these books have brought about.

image/Vanity Fair

Well, it seems that Pope Benedict XVI and some other top Vatican officials are not as smitten with Edward Cullen as I am (big surprise!). The Vatican recently released a statement slamming "New Moon" and calling it a "deviant moral vaccuum." Uh-oh! Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, of the Pontifical Council on Culture, had this to say about the blockbusting movie:

'Men and women are transformed with horrible masks and it is once again that age-old trick or ideal formula of using extremes to make an impact at the box office. This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern.' Source.

Six years ago, the Vatican famously criticized the Harry Potter franchise for similar reasons. I am always surprised by how religious cultural critics (Roman Catholic, Evangelical, or otherwise) seem completely unable to grasp the importance of metaphor in popular media. The Twilight Saga is certainly not overtly religious, but like Harry Potter, it contains important messages about the triumph of good over evil, the struggle between one's best intention and one's fallen nature, and the meaning of friendship. And you'd think that the Vatican would applaud the books' emphasis on teenage abstinence--the Pope loves abstinence!

A parishioner at my church recently asked me if I thought it was appropriate for her teenage daughter to read the Twilight books. I paused for a moment, not because of my religious interests, but because of my feminist ones. I told her that as long as her daughter is able to discern the difference between fantasy and reality, and as long as she understands that the super-controlling elements of vampire-human relationships do not translate in a healthy way to human-human relationships, then she is good to go. 

Ultimately, Twilight is another vehicle for young women to experience the joy of reading and to exercise their imaginations--what can be wrong with that?

Simul-blogging

This has been such a busy week that I practically feel like I am back in school again...in the middle of finals...or the GOE's...yikes! But wanted to take a second to direct you toward Anglican Insights, the blog maintained by my seminary alma mater, Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP).

CDSP asked me to write a blog entry about my transition from seminary to parish ministry and I happily obliged. You can read it here. 

Idea Thieves!

Those of you who have read Sticks and Snakes for a while might remember hearing a little about icon+sf, a project that I worked on in seminary that attempted to start an Emerging Church community grounded in historical Anglo-Catholic tradition. I was thoroughly obsessed with this idea for about two years and worked hard on creating a feasibility study and the first phases of a development plan before I graduated last spring. The project was put on hold when the economy tanked and I left town, but friends in San Francisco are still on board with icon or something like it launching in the future.

Well, imagine my surprise when a friend sent me this link the other day. Apparantly San Francisco has an Ikon now, only I have nothing to do with it and the spelling is reminiscent of copy machines rather than Christianity.

 

Granted. Ikon and icon are not exactly the same concept, but the similarity is striking. I'm not saying that they stole our idea, but...it sure is a coincidence! The main difference between the two ventures is, of course, an important one. Ikon seems to be non-denominational or, to use Emerging Church parlance, "post-denominational," while icon would/will be thoroughly Episcopal and intentionally Anglo-Catholic. I still believe really strongly that historically grounded Christian tradition is, at its heart, evangelical, and that the Anglo-Catholic tradition is an excellent way to experience and live the Christian faith in a community. We'll see if it happens one day!

If any of you in SF have checked out Ikon, let me know! I'd love to hear more about it. 

Don't Touch the Buffalo!

In an effort to learn more about the place I now live (Omaha, Nebraska, for those of you not keeping track), I decided to spend the afternoon at the Durham Museum, learning the history of this city in the way that any good local fifth grader would. The Durham is located in the Old Market (A.K.A. "The Cool Part of Town"), and used to be the Union Pacific train station in a previous life. Now days, the well preserved space is devoted partially to railroad history and partially to regional history. The museum is full of information but is a tad overwhelming. I'll definitely have go back on several "field trips" to soak up all the place has to offer.

 

I know that I have written about my interest in Lewis and Clark in the past, but I don't think I have shared how my move to Omaha has turned my cocktail party-style nowledge into full-blown armchair historian obsession. So needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the "Corps of Discovery" section of the museum, learning about the Nebraska that Lewis and Clark saw as they blazed their way west. Obviously, my favorite exhibit was the big stuffed buffalo named Scout, pictured above. Although several signs told me not to touch him, I had to fight a serious urge to reach out and give him a good pet. 

The Durham is on my list of Omaha must-sees, so be sure to stop by if you're in the neighborhood!

Does this Cassock Make my Butt Look Big?

Some of you may  have noticed that priests--maybe especially female priests--sometimes have a hard time finding ways to stay stylish post-ordination. I have thought long and hard about this phenomenon and have identified three reasons for priestly fashion violations: (1) The long hours and odd scheduling makes it hard to muster the energy to, like, wash your hair; (2) Clerical shirts are generally un-flattering and can make an otherwise cute outfit to straight to hell; and (3) On a more serious note, I think that female priests are especially self-concious of putting energy into looking attractive, either because they don't want to send the "wrong" message to parishioners or because they are afraid that they won't be taken seriously if they look "cute." Obviously, reason number three is deeply rooted and cannot be solved with a quick fix,  but reasons one and two are totally (in my opinion) avoidable! (Quick side note: When I was in seminary I was once told that I should cut my hair short and stop wearing makeup so that men will be less inclined to sexually harass me at work...seriously. I mean, just think about that.)

Anyway, I was really excited on Sunday morning when a parishioner at my church told me that a friend of hers--a 25 year-old priest in Mossouri--was selected to be on TLC's What Not to Wear. Now, I really love this show and I often hear the voices of its hosts, Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, echoing in my ears when I go shopping. Their "rules" for clothing selection have been an enormous help for me as I've transitioned to professional life. Just thinking of them doing a show on a female priest delights me! My mom has always thought that a priest would make a good candidate on the show and she's totally right. Clinton and Stacy will have a lot to work with as they deal with the inherant fasion illiteracy of clergy, the peculiar problem of the clerical collar, and maybe some style resistance. Oh, I can't wait!

The show probably won't air until sometime next year, but I'll keep you posted!

Baby's First Stewardship Sermon

Those Episcopalians among you know that the Fall is often set aside as Stewardship Season in our parishes. By "Stewardship Season," I mean that time of year where we are all challenged to give our money, time and talents to further the ministry of the Church and to develop our own spiritual practices of generosity and trusted dependance on God. 

 

I was preaching last Sunday--smack in the middle of our stewardship campaign--and decided to go for it and tackle my very first stewardship sermon. The text was Mark 10:35-45, about James and John--two of the disciples--asking to sit at Jesus' side in the coming kingdom. You can read the whole sermon after the jump!

Stay-cation!

Last weekend I shifted around my days off in order to have a fabulous stay-cation with my friend Hannah (bearhead), who visited Omaha all the way from San Francisco! We had a great time, mostly just staying around the house eating, watching television, and staying up until the wee hours talking about everything. In addition to the usual BFF behaviors, we took advantage of a snowy Saturday and went to the Simmons Wildlife Safari in Ashland, Nebraska. 

Hannah at the Safari. Yes; she's wearing cowboy boots.

The Safari is owned and operated by the world-famous Henry Doorly Zoo. It is basically a big loop of land out in the Platte River Valley where beautiful western animals roam. We saw gorgeous elk, deer, pronghorn antelope (one of my faves), bears, and even wolves! The early snow (big surprise!) helped create an especially  beautiful landscape for animal-watching. And, the weather seemed to keep most visitors away, so we basically had the place to ourselves!

A beautiful elk buck at the safari.

After spending some time at the Safari, we headed to Lincoln for lunch and to look around the shops--I should do that more often! What a great town. Driving back to Omaha with the sun setting in the rearview mirror, I was reminded of the beauty of the Great Plains. It's certainly a different kind of beauty than the landscape that I grew up with, but it's lovely nonetheless.

Hannah and I had a great time here in the heartland. I can't wait to return the favor with a visit to San Francisco!

Better Late Than Never...

I preached this sermon two weeks ago but didn't have the chance to post it until today! The gospel appointed was from Mark, when the Pharisees ask Jesus whether it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife. Jesus responds by recounting the story of Adam and Eve, who were made for each other for the purpose of being together forever. He goes on to say that divorcing and re-marrying is the same thing as committing adultery. Tough words from Jesus, and ones that I certainly didn't want to preach on! I tackled the subject, however, and it turned out to be on the hardest sermons I've ever had to prepare! Anyway, here's the finished product...

You can read the whole sermon after the jump!