Mr. Deity

If your religious sensibilities are easily offended, don't check out Mr. Deity. However, if your sense of humor includes your understanding of God and how God works in the world, Mr. Deity is for you. This is a creative and funny mini comedy series that challenges the way we think about God. Check it out by clicking here. Columnist Mark McGuire cautions; "This is comedy, not theology, so don't take it seriously". I would suggest that it is both comedy and theology as theology is any attempt to understand who God is and how the Divine interacts with the world. This is one funny perspective.

Art Buchwald

I am about half way through reading Art Buchwald's latest book, Too Soon to Say Goodbye, when I discover that he indeed did say goodbye, while surrounded by family at his home, on Wednesday. The creative humorist and satirist experienced kidney failure in late 2005. After twelve dialysis treatments he decided to stop the treatments. Doctors told him he had about three weeks to live, so on February 7, 2006 he moved into the Washington Home and Hospice. In March he wrote, "The big question we still have to ask is not where we're going, but what were we doing here in the first place". Death didn't come as scheduled and 5 months later Art moved to his beloved summer home in Martha's Vineyard where he completed the forementioned book and wrote his column. He wrote that the time in the hospice was the best time of his life. In June he filmed his own obituary for the New York Times. You can see this amazing interview on the New York Times by clicking here and typing "The Last Word" in the search space. What an example of what it means to "live in the midst of dying". Art's humor and quick wit has made the world a more tolerable place to live.

A Prayer for the 15th Day of a New year!

Patient God, this day teeters on the edge of waiting

and things seem to slip away from me,

as though everything was only memory and memory is capricious.

Help me not to let my life slip away from me.

O God, I hold my life up to you now,

as much as I can, as high as I can,

in this mysterious reach called prayer.

It is not days or years I seek from you,

not infinity and enormity,

but small things and moments and awareness,

awareness that you are in what I am

and in what I have been indifferent to.

It is not new time, but new eyes, new heart I seek,

and you.

from "I Hold My Life Up to You Now" in

"Guerrillas of Grace" by Ted Loder.

Ice is Not Nice!

As we weather an ice storm in upstate New York these photos of the recent storm in Nebraska are a reminder of how fortunate we are. Click here for some amazing ice storm photos.

Turn, Turn, Turn!

I can't seem to get the classic song, Turn, Turn, Turn, out of my head this first week of 2007. The song was written in the 1950's by Pete Seeger but he didn't record it until 1962. It was also recorded by others including Joan Collins and most famously by The Byrds in October of 1965. Seeger adapted the words from the Biblical book, Ecclesiastes; "for everthing there is a season", and set them to a simple tune. The song helped define the decade of the 60's and the last stanza; "a time for war and a time for peace" became the hope and prayer of a generation. Click here to see a great video of The Byrds singing this classic. There are very personal reasons why the song is my present soundtrack of the mind. Twelve months ago I announced that I would retire in early 2007 from my present position as Senior Pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church following over twenty years of service. For the past year my focus has been on "finishing well" and helping the congregation prepare for the transition. People would ask me how I was feeling, my plans for the future, was I excited or nervous, etc.. The truth was that my energies were in other directions and the reality of retirement rested on the fringes of my conciousness. Well, with the advent of a new year and a February 11th retirement date looming, it has now moved to the front of my conciousness. With this awareness comes feelings of excitement and anxiety, optomism and wariness, longing and relief. But the main feeling is the one expressed in the song and in the scripture; "for everything there is a season, and a time for everything under heaven", and this is the right time. The right time for me, for my family, and for the faith community. I am also confident that God has another "season" planned for me. A season filled with new challenges and new adventures.