Foxes have nests, and birds have their dens...

Looks like this is turning into a weekly blog; evidently a quiet hotel somewhere along Rte 20 is more conducive to writting than settled life with all its wonderful business. And what great, complicated, things are going on! The housing search, the upcoming get-together of our two families, the realization that this sermon writing is going to be a weekly event for the

So how's the housing search going, you ask? Great -- and difficult. We've found the perfect house and the perfect location. Unfortunately, not in the same place. We've seen a lot of, well, interesting places in our price range. Here is 'za and Kathe, our amazing buyer broker (www.buyerbrokeragerealty.com) inspecting an old telephone wired into the wall in a great basement rec room complete with wood panelling, linoliumm tiles (probalby with asbestos underneath) and...a bar..

Kathe has directed us to some beautiful homes, and has helped us to understand the real estate process. The great thing about a buyer broker is that she only represents us -- never the seller. So we can talk honestly with her about what we want, what we can afford, and how we want to negotiate this. Of course, the problem with liking older houses is that some of these places are, well, fixer-uppers. Here's a sample foundation in that category:

It helps that 'za and I are both religious fanatics We hand this over to God, trying not to get attatched to houses too strongly. Insha'allah, we'll live where and how God intends for us. Even when we get rusty in our prayer life, we've been remarkably unstressed about home buying. Or perhaps it just seems small beans in relation to the stress about her family and mine. [Hi Mom, hi family! I know you're reading this... :) ]. 'za is already out West to meet them, and I head out Sunday night. Monday we have our big talk, and hopefully Tuesday head up to see Mom and Gary. Prayers are very very welcome, for everybody, from everybody.

One of the least stressful things has been Messiah. Last Sunday, though without bagpipers, was as wonderful for me as the first Sunday. These folks can really pray! It's incredible to be there as presider -- the quiet strength of prayer at Messiah may lead to my rethinking where I stand when I sing the collect for purity and the collect of the day. An arcane detail, perhaps, but there's a real sense of a community communicating with God; as presider, collecting those prayers at the start of the service and offering them up to God, you feel that energy flowing. The modern stance, facing the congregation, doesn't quite match the intention. But the other option, facing with the congregation, also looks like turning one's back on people... The liturgy is a little like a dance at Messiah (though without any liturgical dance!). Our energy ebbs and flows, moves back and forth between pew and pulpit, font and altar, icon and window, many voices and one voice.

As is relationship. Perhaps negotiation is an image for everything this summer -- negotiating a house, negotiating a new relationship with 'za 's family, negotiating a new relationship with a parish, negotiating new geographic distances from friends and family. Negotiation is a nice rorschach test word, as well. Depending on our experiences as children and as adults, negotiation might mean "giving up something important to me" or "defusing something explosive." Today, what I mean by negotiation might be, in its own sesquipadilian fashion, be "creating right-relationship through intentional communication." And if that phrase doesn't give away the fact that I went to EDS, I don't know what does!

Meanwhile, time to start looking at the readings for the next two Sundays. I have a sermon to give in 5 days, after all, and some hymns to pick out with Bic!

Keep Watch

Just back from visiting a friend from Church of the Good Shepherd, Wilga, who is in intensive care. On the way out of the house to the hospital, I stopped to check in with our downstairs neighbor, Donna -- there had been another incident with our next-door neighbor, a very affable and very alcoholic man, which concerned access to their apartment. I told Donna I was on the way to the hospital, and she said how cool it was that part of my job was to visit people. I wish I'd asked her what she meant; I agree, but I didn't expect her excitement about it.

Hospitals are amazing places, sacred, hushed, liminal. Like churches, they are places of healing and intensity, care, stress, and earnest prayer. They are alot like churches in other ways too: it's hard to find parking, impossible to know where to go after you get through the entrance, there are strange smells and noises, and an unlikely collection, cross-section of people.

Parish of the Messiah (when did it move from being Church of the Messiah to Parish of the Messiah? There must be a story, stories, there) is much more fun to visit than the hospital. What a joy this Sunday was! And not only because there were bagpipers at the end for the procession out, from the Sutherland Pipe Band, a group which pratices weekly at Messiah... It was a joyful Sunday all around, from Paul and David's terrible puns to Bic's prelude, Bev and Daryl and Katie and Pat and Steve humoring me before the service, and Iza getting to meet folks...oh, I'm going to get in trouble because I'm losing names faster than I'm learning them. Apoligies to Michael and John and Meg and everyone else whose names I've forgotten. Suffice to say, the service went beautifully, folks were more than kind, I felt like we were able to genuinely pray together, I didn't fall off the platform or set my alb on fire or lose my sermon or knock the chalice all over the fair linen or just plain pass out from nervousness.

At coffee hour, I got to meet a whole crew of folks -- long-time members, first-time visitors, folks that were returning and thinking about coming back. It was wonderful -- somehow I'm even more excited about next Sunday, to experience being still there, actually the rector. Which reminds me, I better start looking at next week's readings :)

'za and I are planning for her family's arrival in Seattle. We've also a gift to celebrate, the preparation of a painting of the field where she accepted my proposal. The piece is by Christa Malay; this is her watercolor sketch. We need to decide if we want summer (which on Lopez means golden fields and green leaves) or fall (which in Lopez means green fields and golden leaves). Either way, it is a place that makes us both grin like fools...

T minus 19 hours

Saturday morning, wrestling still with the rich fare of biblical texts. Sometimes it is easier to preach from a sparse or difficult passage. It's the ones that are so clearly already complete in themselves that as preach I feel almost as if I'm trespassing; certainly guilty of guilding the lilly. Abundance! God's love, God's boundless generosity! The hope and abundance of Messiah, springing forth from God's love... It's all right there already in the text. It is as challenging as describing something beautiful you've seen, or describing a perfect meal. I suppose, to answer my own anxiety, that in this case we will all be sharing the same perfect meal, we are already seeing that beautiful sight.

So a break from reading my notes and half-starts and mining the words from the great hymns that Bic has selected. 'za and I are sitting in the Brugger's Bagel's near Messiah; it is the nearest coffee shop with WiFi we could find. And we are definitely in New England -- not an espresso drink to be seen. Earlier this week, we walked into a Dunkin' Donuts and 'za ordered a latte. The woman asked, "How do you like it?" 'za and I first thought "Don't know. Haven't got to drink it yet." Then I thought something along the lines of "half-caff skinny double tall." Turns out she wanted to know if 'za wanted whipped cream (!), flavoring, possibly sprinkles. Ah, such coffee snobs we've turned into.

We also got to walk around the neighborhood, starting with admiring the flowers planted around the church. It's a quiet residential neighborhood -- no one is at home on a sunny Saturday, and I wonder where I will be able to go to meet neighbors, strike up conversations, and get a latte. We strolled a bit through Lasell College as well; there's a history there I need to learn -- we've held services there a few times, though not for decades. 70% of undergrads at Lasell live on campus, which is something to put down in that idea book.

Part of the reason I have an idea book is so that I can write things down and leave them alone for a while. There is a whole, vibrant community at Messiah, and we need to get to know each other -- and to keep doing faithfully the work already before us.

Speaking of which, I better get back to that sermon.

Goin' to the chapel

Goodness, days behind in the blog! I am back from the most beautiful wedding in Maine, a three+ day event full of joy and prayer and food and wine and good, good company. Calvin, a very close friend from seminary -- I assisted at his baptism during our first year at EDS (a rare event, yes, the baptism of a seminarian). Anyway, Calvin celebrated his covenant with Dan, a kind and clever pediatrician whom he met in New York. At the center of the three days of feasting and dancing was a perfect evening liturgy, with prayers taken from EOW, Scottish BCP, and the New Zealand BCP, as well as liturgy that they wrote. Everything flowed together gracefully, everything made sense. There was an interesting arc to the wedding as well: It began with a mystery-laden chant from Hildegard of Bingen-- instead of starting the wedding with a triumphal march, we were invited by the music into the holiness of the event. The triumphal celebratory music built up to the end, a brave and sensible approach. Here is 'za and I with the happy couple:


It was a joy to be one of Calvin's groomsmen, and a blessing to be part of a community outpouring its love. Calvin's former parish in Maine was there, even folks who had a few years ago been deeply hesitant about welcoming an out, gay priest. For 'za and I it was a hopeful celebration for our own upcoming marriage; there were also prayers and hymns we plan on cribbing for our own wedding service out in Lopez.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch , the apartment is feeling settled and the movers have finally arrived!! Turns out the original driver quit; someone finally showed up with our stuff today. It was all carried up into Public Storage, most (but not all) of it undamaged. There's a lot to sort out, especially the cost -- the per diem we're owed for the delay, insurance claims on the damage to two peices of furniture, the cost-savings of having a one-site delivery... all good news for Messiah, which generously offered to pay for moving costs (a standard practice, to be sure, but generous nonetheless).

Today I got to meet Bic in person, the fantastically talented organist at Messiah. Bic is also organist for SSJE, and I got to hear him play during the Tuesday eucharist at the monastary. I hope I am able to attend that service regularly; it is a holy place, and a gift to participate as part of the congregation. This sunday, though, at long last the chance to worship with Messiah! I am so looking forward -- strange to have accepted this call but still not had the chance to pray in person with the whole community. It is a congregation with a strong reputation for prayer; a fantastic gift of the Spirit that will serve us all well.

It is a congregation with many gifts, in fact. Sunday's readings lend themselves well to celebrating those gifts -- guess I better get that sermon written tomorrow!