NaBloPoMo -- Wedding Stories

Today I think I'll use a prompt from last week..

NaBloPoMo Day 12: I just did an extremely moving wedding for two women who have been together for 42 years. Weddings are usually pastors' least favorite services, but they can have beautiful moments. What's your best wedding story?

Actually I really like weddings.  I have never had one that really drove me crazy.  A few where the rehearsal was...interesting. But I enjoy all of them.

But of course there are stories....

Like the wedding held at a camp out by the lake.  The original plan was to hold the service down on the dock and then move up to the large tent for the reception.  And all was well the day of the rehearsal.  But the next day was cold and windy.  And so the service was in the tent.  Only one problem...
The wind was wreaking havoc with the tent as well.  And so the service was accompanied to the sounds of the poles along the edge of the tent crashing down and occasionally the crash of the lanterns hung inside falling down.

Or there was the wedding where the service was held in the same spot where the reception would be--the curling rink.  The bar was open before the service. (which I was NOT aware would be the case beforehand) and when it was time for the service to start we had to wait as a bunch of guests walked ACROSS the entry aisle to go get a drink (at which point the mother-of-the-bride went to tell them to sit down).

And then there was the first wedding I ever officiated.  It was on an island, at the family cabin. The service was outdoors (small gathering of family and close friends). As we started the skies got darker and darker.  First raindrops started to fall as we finished, and we quickly ran inside to do the signing of the documents and keep them dry.

There are other stories of course....like the wedding with far too many clergy involved, the groom, the officiant, the best man.  And the groom and the best man both being much more directive than the officiant.  When my grandmother watched the video she commented how bossy the groom was.  That is right, it was me.

NaBloBoMo -- Short and Sweet

Today's prompt:
NaBloPoMo Day 15: Something quick... a YouTube share, a picture, a haiku.. Short and Sweet Sunday.

And since I had to shovel twice already today (with an argument that I should probably go out and do it again before bed) and this song ends with a snowstorm [well that and I quite like Roger Whittaker] here is a Christmas song...

NaBloPoMo -- Prayer for a Broken and Breaking World

Creator of the Universe, Holy Dreamer, God of Love and Life,
You have given us life, you have given us a rule of life, you have shared with us your hope an plan for life.
But we have so often chosen another path.
You call us to be people of peace.
We choose violence.
You call us to be people of justice, where all have what is needed forlife.
We choose a way whre some have abundance, others lack basics.
You call us to treat each other with love.
We choose to blow each other up and shoot and kill and maim.

This weekend, as happens far far too often, the world  weeps.
Acts of terror and horror rocked our newsfeeds.
Followed by blame and finger-pointing and rhetoric born of fear and assumptions.
And once again we are forced to admit that this world you have created is not only broken, but that it continues to break into smaller pieces.
What do we do?
What do we say when there are no words?

If we are honest it is at times like this when we wonder
"when will you unleash your anger?"
or more honestly
"why don't you unleash your anger and strike down those  who do such things?"
(assuming of course that we could direct you as to who should be struck down).
Surely you would be guiltless if you allowed these faithless, errant children to face the consequences of their choices.

But you don't.  Which is probably a good thing.
You choose mercy, you choose grace, you choose hope.
You say that out of love you can not destroy your children who wander astray.
Instead of destruction you offer an invitation.
Asking us to return to the rule of life you lay before us.
And wondering when we will come home and share in the depth of life.

As we weep and gnash our teeth.
As we try to understand.
As we point fingers and ask how to prevent this happening again.
Help us.
Help us look at the whole picture, seeing all the horror, not just the horror that strikes closest to home.
Help us see how the choices made by "us" and "them" might interact.
Help us follow the trails of our past actions, and help us think seriously where our present and future actions might lead.
Help us see beyond the fear and horror.
Help us avoid the demonization of our neighbours.
And help us find the path that leads to the Promised Land, the Kingdom of God, where the wolf will lie down with the lamb and they will not hurt or destroy on the holy mountain.

This we pray in the name of Jesus, the Christ, the Prince of Peace, who taught us to love our neighbours and our enemies.
Amen.

NABloPoMo -- Crime and Life

This should be.....interesting....

Possible the most common complaint in FB groups for this community is that there is too much crime.  WEll turns out those complaints (at least in the last year) are valid.

In today's paper we read:

Everyone knew it was bad.

Numbers presented by the RCMP Thursday confirm that Grande Prairie led all of Canada in both Crime and Violent Crime Severity Indexes in 2014.

...

The news in his report went from the worst numbers in Canada to even worse: Indications are that 2015 will see elevated levels of criminal occurrences in nearly every category.

2014 stats

McKenna started with the 2014 Crime Severity Index — a Stats Canada report on the numbers and types of criminal offences handled by police. All police agencies across Canada submit numbers to the index annually.

While both Alberta and Canada-wide averages have decreased, Grande Prairie’s jumped by 33% in the past five years — to a rate of over 170. Cities such as Prince George, Regina and Saskatoon, which once were at the top of the list, are now seeing less crime per capita than the Swan City.

It’s the same story for the Violent Crime Index, which specifically accounts for violent violations such as uttering threats, robberies, criminal harassment and forcible confinement. In 2014, Grande Prairie displaced Thunder Bay as worst in Canada and tops cities such as Winnipeg and Prince George. In 2014, it was over double the national average.

Already in 2015 we have multiple homicides and gun crimes. ANd then there are property crimes.  Maybe it is less surprising that a culture of fear appears to be descending over the city. People see someone they don't know knocking on doors and there is an assumption that they are up to no good (admittedly they people who are seen testing car doors probably warrant some suspicion).

SO how do we respond? AS individuals, as members of neighbouhoods, as faith communities how do we respond?

Do we give in to the fear? Do we accept the circumstances?  The RCMP and City Council aren't going to do that, even while they know that change comes slowly.  You don't just create more officers by the passing of a budget motion. 

But moving to greater enforcement levels is only part of the solution. An important part to be sure but only part.  Because even at average numbers of officers per capita (and the stats show GP is well below that average -- another result of being a community where the population goes from 29000 to 68000 in 20 years, infrastructure and service have trouble catching up while municipal governments are under pressure to keep costs down) there will never be "enough", there are always limits as to waht can be accomplished though enforcement.

But we are people of faith.  We are people who believe that GOd is at work in the world, that the Kingdom of GOd -- a place where ridiculous things like wolves lying down with labs, where the law of love and peace and justice reign supreme -- is breaking into the world in our midst. In just a few weeks people will gather in sanctuaries across this city and sing carols and tell of angels and shepherds and the birth of the Prince of Peace.

What is our Christmas prayer/wish/hope for our community this year?

Can we pray for a change? Can we believe it can happen? Can we resist the impulse to live in fear and the bunker mentality?

Jesus calls us to LIVE in hope and love. Christ calls us to proclaim the coming and the possibility of the Kingdom.

"For lo the days are hastening on, by prophet bards foretold, when with the ever-circling years shall come the age of gold. When peace shall over all the earth it ancient splendours fling. And the whole world give back the song, which now the angels sing."

NaBloPoMo -- Self-Care Edition

Historically there is one (well many but let's focus on one for now shall we) thing which I do not do well.  Take care of my sef.

Not so much in the work/non work balance.  But certainly in those more basic terms of nutrition and exercise.

Which is why I clearly recall a discussion  with my childhood doctor about 17 years ago, when I first started to deal with acid reflux issues.  As I remember his exact words were "hmm well nothing wrong with your weight...." but the level of actual fitness was far from healthy.  Around the same time I remember a co-worker commenting on my diet "what are you trying to do, give yourself diabetes" (this was in relation to my tendency to forget to have breakfast and lunch then when my blood sugar crashed respond by eating chocolate).  Then there is my tendency to stress eat chocolate and sugar. And what are these things one calls fruit and vegetables?  I hear a rumour they are good for you.

Sometimes I do better on the exercise piece.  For the first few years we had the dog I was fairly good at taking her for regular walks, which was good for both of us.  And this year when we were gifted with a family membership to the local multiplex I honestly intended to get over there on a regular basis.  Honestly I did.  HOw well that worked may be another matter.

To be honest I have been able to largely coast along.  But now, well now.

I really note the lack of energy. ANd last week I learned that my blood work from a year ago showed  both sugar and triglyceride levels at slightly above high average along with a blood pressure reading higher than I have ever had (which matches my felt stress level recently--though I don't know why I have felt so stressed).  Since neither my diet or activity patterns have changed much in the last several years I suspect age-related metabolic changes (to be honest developing insulin resistance would not be out of the question given my diet  habits).

So the time has come to try again to do better.  The question is..will I stick with it?

NaBloPoMo -- Remembering

Words written a century ago. by a Canadian Army Dr, words that have been a part of our remembering ever since.

Then there are some other words that come to my mind this day:

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
(from Rudyard Kipling's Recessional)

It is the 11th day of the 11th month. A day of remembrance. A day of prayer. A day of sorrow. A day of hope.

What do we remember? What do we pray for? What do we hope for?

AS we stand in the cold watching folks place wreaths of poppies against a stone cenotaph and think of 1000's, nay 1 000 000's, who died before their time on battlefields or in bombings or in displacement camps, or ... where do we go from here?

When I was growing up I remember clearly the words of hope that were shared every November. Never Again.  That is our hope, that is our prayer, that is our challenge.

We remember those whose lives were forever changed by warfare on this day not to romanticize war, but to bring its harsh reality back into focus.  We remember that we, the children of God, including those who follow the Prince of Peace, fall SO SO short of what could be. We remember that sometimes the world falls apart, and lives are blown apart in the hopes that we will eventually learn a new way.

Despite the evidence we hope that the people of the world will learn a new way of being.

We remember many form various places and various eras and various roles. Because not all veterans are elderly.  Some are young.  Not all affected wore uniforms. Some were civilians living in the middle of battle, some were left behind to wait and worry. (see this article) And let us always remember that those affected by war on ALL sides, not just "ours".




Today is a more than a day off (and it isn't even a day off for everyone). It is a day of faith. It is a day when we need to name the fact that the kingdom sometimes seems far far away.  But as a person of faith, as a person who believe that God is bringing the kingdom closer, I believe that today is a day to remind us of the possibility.  Never Again. And the wolf will lie down with the lamb....

But in the mean time:
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet
Lest we forget -- lest we forget

NaBloPoMo -- Projects

This prompt is actually the BlogHer one for tomorrow, but I am quite sure I will do something around Remembrance day tomorrow:

Wednesday, November 11
What was the last thing you fixed or built?

I would have to go with the fence that I have been working on for 3 summers now and not yet finished....

When we moved into this house we knew the fence needed work.  The first week we were here my dad and I replaced the worst of the rails but I knew that all the rails and boards needed to be done.  Luckily the posts are still in good shape, which makes rebuilding a fence a MUCH easier endeavour.

So I have been working away at it over the last few years.  Pull the old stuff off, replace the rails and boards.  Generally it runs about 1.5-2 hours per 8 foot section.  The one difference was where we wanted to move a gate last year, so that involved a bit more work (some of which was re done this year because the one gate post needed to be replaced- and make the opening a bit wider).  But I now am 75% done.  Just a 12 foot section along the back then only the side which is shared with a neighbour to do.  Sadly along there we WILL need to replace some posts.  And will need to negotiate with the neighbour to determine when we are both available to do it.  Who knows, maybe it will become part of the "get exercise" portion of next summer's sabbatical.

And since it sort of links, here is today's prompt:

What is the hardest part of a big project: getting the energy to begin, finding the time to work on it, or feeling down that it's over?

 On the whole, getting started.  I have a tendency to get ready and planned but never get started (the joys of being a procrastinator , but we can talk more about that later).  Then as long as the project goes smoothly and has a definite structure I am generally pretty good.  The first hiccup however, or the first time it becomes more work than expected....and then continuing can be a challenge.  THe best way I have found to ensure it gets carried through is if it is a project where being half-finished leaves one in a terribly inconvenient place (such as a fence with a section missing) that tends to force one to complete it.

NaBloPoMo -- Which Day?

Today's prompt reads:
NaBloPoMo Day 9: Monday day off or Friday day off.

Or some weeks -- Day off?

21 years ago, on my first internship, I took Mondays off.  Not for any particular reason except that I thought that was the day minister's were "supposed" to take off.  And it worked out that then I could leave town after worship on Sunday and go home for a day and a half.

FLash forward a few years.

It is my second internship. As I recall the supervisor and I had a discussion about it making sense that we did not both take the same day off.  And either as a result of that discussion, or the discussion came about because I was suggesting it, I took Fridays off.  Which I  actually liked better.  Once a month I had to go to the city for counseling and Fridays allowed me to also take most of Saturday as well.

And since it worked well on internship I decided that this would be my pattern in ministry.  And so ever since I was ordained I have (for the most part) taken Fridays off.

This continues to allow me to almost have two days in a row off (much of the time).  Which is a nice thing.  Also working Monday allows an early start on the sermon gestation process and allows the bulletin to usually be done by Monday afternoon (which was important in Atikokan since the secretary only worked Tuesday and Thursday mornings and the choir there met on Tuesday nights). And the other real benefit is that many times a year something happens on Sunday that needs to be followed up on or addressed.  Taking Monday off and not being in the office until Tuesday would greatly increase the chances that these things would be forgotten...which happens often enough as it is.

NaBLoPoMo -- hymn favourtism

The prompt for today is:

Write briefly - oh , so briefly- about your favorite hymn line or stanza.

Which is not at all fair.  Which one?!?!?

However since it is almost Advent (despite my attempts to pretend otherwise) I will go with one of my favourite Advent pieces. Tomorrow Christ is Coming.


While I really like the whole hymn, especially when it is sung to the tune Little Baddow which is in a minor key, my favourite stanza is the fourth:

Our God becomes incarnate
in every human birth.
Created in God's image,
we must make peace on earth.
God will fulfil Love's purpose
and this shall be the sign:
We shall find Christ among us
as woman, child, or man.

This is my favourite because it reminds us of the hope embodied in Christmas.  Now to be fair, the sense of hope is best felt when one has sung the preceding three stanzas which lay plain the reality of the world into which Christmas comes each year.

Christmas is coming, the world is a mess, people are hungry and forced out of home and dying.  But God will become incarnate again,  Thanks be to God

NaBloPoMo -- Favourite Book

The prompt for today is:
NaBloPoMo day 7: Post the opening sentence of your favorite book. How long has this book been in your life?

When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton

This of course is the opening sentecne of Chapter 1, "A Long-Expeccted Party", of The Lord of the Rings. LOTR has been my favourite book for about 35 years.  But given my druthers I would say that this is a much better first line:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit

Which of course is the opening sentence of Chapter 1 , "An Unexpected Party", of The Hobbit.  It is an oddly slow opening, but it does make you wonder what a hobbit is. It piques the curiosity.

I was first introduced to the world of Middle Earth in Grade 4.  Our teacher that year took the first 30-45 minutes after lunch every Friday to read to us.  The first book he read was The Hobbit.  At that point in my life I was a rather voracious reader and, since I was quite enjoying the book and there was a copy at home I read it (passing where we were in class and finishing well before).  Then I continued on to start reading LOTR, in fact being well into it before Mr. Davies finished reading The Hobbit.  [This same reading program is what first introduced me to the land of Narnia as one of the other books which was read was The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.]

If memory serves I finished the full three volumes by the end of Grade 5.  And then have read it at least 20 times in the intervening years.  So I was quite excited when the movies were being made.  And then quite disappointed in them when they were done.  Mind you nothing really replaces the mind's eye for putting a great novel into pictures (plus all the ways they changed the story and the characters).

I did use LOTR as the basis for my English 30 major paper in Grade 12 (looking at symbolism in the book) and for a paper in my first year New Testament class in seminary (looking at Christology in the book)

As a way to drive all the people in my house crazy I can also cite from memory two pieces of poetry from the book (one of which is quoted in a Big Bang Theory episode, thus leading to accusations that I resemble Sheldon)  Some day I hoe to work the second one into an Advent sermon:

Three rings for the Elven kings under the sky
Seven for the dwarf lords in their halls of stone
Nine for mortal men doomed to die
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed shall be blade that was broken
The crownless again shall be king.

Oh and for the record the last line of the book (working from memory this time -- I pulled out the books for the first lines) is given to Sam Gamgee:

Well I'm home