Friday 5: Sing! PRay Twice!

Over at RGBP MaryBeth asks us these questions:


1) Do you like to sing/listen to others sing? In worship, or on your own (or not at all?)  Most assuredly yes.  We make up songs with our children (usually to a familiar tune like Row Row Row or Frere Jacques) at random.  Snippets of hymns or showtunes or other songs come out of my mouth at random times.  The whole household loves music.
2) Did you grow up with music in worship, or come to it later in life? Tell us about it, and how that has changed in your experience.  I grew up with an active choir member for a parent and many of the families in our circle of friends were choir families, I sang in Junior Choir...it birthed in me a liking for worship music.
3) Some people find worship incomplete without music; others would just as soon not have it. Where do you fall?  definitely worship would be not quite right without music.  I am of a mixed opinion if you can have too much music in worship.  It depends how it is done and how often I suppose.
4) Do you prefer traditional music in worship, or contemporary? That can mean many different things!  I say that a mix is needed, find the right balance--remembering that the balance is measured over time, not by one or two services.
5) What's your go-to music ... when you need solace or want to express joy? Songs from camp sometimes, thumbing through a hymn book sometimes, random paging through YouTUbe sometimes...

Friday 5 on Saturday--I overslept?

1. Are you prone to sleep challenges? Insomnia, snoring, allergies? Other sleep challenges?  I am a really light sleeper and wake often most nights.

2. When you can't sleep what do you do? Toss and turn? Get up and read? Play computer games? Toss and turn, play math games in my head sometimes (to try and distract my mind that I have trouble turning off), some quieting/meditative exercises

3. When you do sleep do you remember your dreams? Or just snipets of them? Never

4. Can you share a funny or confusing dream you've had? Or a dream you have over and over? As above, I don't remember my dreams

5. When you don't sleep how do you get through the day? Lots of coffee? or a nap later in the day? Soemtimes a rest, only a nap when the sleep debt is quite high (or it is Sunday)

As Promised

In this post, my review of Reframing Hope has been posted.  Read it here

Is there a blessing for...?

In Fiddler on the Roof, when Motel gets his new sewing machine he asks the Rabbi if there is a blessing for a sewing machine.  And the rabbi obliges.

Along the same lines is this story (the link was posted on my FB wall):

The glow of gizmos cut through the darkness of a modest Halifax-area church Sunday as parishioners raised their cellphones, laptops and GPS units toward the heavens for a special prayer.
"Lord God, we thank you for the many gifts and tools you give us, all those electronic gadgets that make our lives easier in so many ways," Rev. Lisa Vaughn said before a small crowd at St. Timothy's Anglican church in Hatchet Lake on the eve of Labour Day.
Vaughn said the idea to hold a blessing of electronics came after hearing about an old English tradition called Plough Monday in which farmers would drag their tools to the church's door to receive a blessing for a good harvest.

Actually I think that the idea has merit.  It also can be a chance to reflect on the role gadgets play in our lives and our addiction to them.

Being Reshaped (sermon precis/notes)

Well how does the clay feel about being reshaped?  What is the response of the nation to hearing Jeremiah calling them to be smashed down and reformed?  And since we are the clay how do we respond?

These passages tell us that God has shaped and is reshaping us.  DO we really believe that?  One of the myths of North American life is that if the self-made man.  THere is this image of the person who is his or her own creation.  To say the least this is misguided, in fact it goes directly against Scripture, as these passages point out.  The life of faith requires us to remember that we are creations of the Creator -- which is both a scary and a revitalizing thought.

This reading from Jeremiah can be terrifying.  It describes a God who, when the nation (or the church?) is not being shaped as God hopes, smashes them down.  But at the same time it tells of a God who doesn't give up, who keeps trying to reshape and reform us.  We'll come back to that.

--Priestly vs. Deuteronomic theology of the land
--potter image
           --reusing clay, even when dried can be soaked and made pliable, sometimes the reworked clay makes the best pot, clay can be reworked multiple times
          --no such thing as a "perfect pot", no two pieces of real pottery are the same, all have small "imperfections"
          --pottery is a messy business
          --potter as "co-creator" with the clay
           --sometimes the reworked clay can look nothing like the first try
--reshaping the nation
          --needs some soaking, softening for preparation
          --also a messy business
          --are we willing to allow it?
          --Potter adn clay as co-Creators

God is at work reforming and reshaping us for a new age.  That is a sign of hope.  It may be painful.  It may be hard to allow.  So how are we being reshaped?  Will we recognize the reshaped clay?  ANd really, how does the clay feel about it???

Book 16 of 2010

Just a couple comments on this one for now as a full review will be posted by the end of the weekend.

I quite enjoyed this one.  I especially liked Merritt's idea of a loyal radical since it resonated with me.  Also I liked her approach (inherent in the loyal radical idea) of adapting the existing denomination not giving up in denominationalism and tossing it out.

ANd the conclusion of the book about finding hope in the desert was worth it all by itself!