Another Wonderful Day

Before I fully jump into the day ahead, I have to tell you what I found when I arrived at the church on this absolutely gorgeous Southern California day. On the south end of the roof of the sanctuary, right next to the apex, several men are fixing our roof. While fixing our leak, they are hanging on to ropes so they don't fall off.

In the kitchen of the church I found six women kneading communion bread dough for future communions. I was impressed by the length of the process. They have to knead the dough for a full hour. Every ten minutes they split their dough in six pieces and make sure each person has one piece from every other person around the table. Then they start kneading again.

In the Fellowship Hall a mother was waiting as her two children spun in circles and giggled. In the office, Pattie is answering calls and Darrell is working with the finances. Headstart parents are delivering their children. Jeff is working on the grounds.

Before I got started on my sermon for Sunday I just had to tell you how much I love this place!

Blogging for Sunday: That Great Cloud

It has been several weeks since I have written on this blog. Today in the sermon I shared that I might offer a sermon blog. Tonight seems like a good time to try that out.

Next Sunday is our annual Memorial Sunday. It is the Sunday we remember those of our congregation who have died in the previous year. We call these people our saints. My scripture for Sunday will be from Hebrews 12:1:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us...

What do you see in this oft-quoted scripture? Where does it take you?

Hebrews seems like a dense, hard-to-understand academic treatise. But in truth it was originally written to be read during worship....in other words, a sermon. It was preached to people who were tired. They were tired of trying to follow Jesus in their daily lives. Being a Christian then isn't like being a Christian today. For the most part we can have religious anonymity. If you don't want to tell anyone that you are part of the La Verne Church of the Brethren you don't have to. But these early Christians were doing something counter to their culture. They were making a different religious decision than generations and generations of their families and neighbors. These early followers of the Jesus way were being ridiculed by their own people. They had religious fatigue and many of them were slipping away. The answer wasn't to shame them or to entice them back by having a praise band. Instead the preacher acknowledged the difficulty of the Christian life and invited them to stay in the race for the long haul.

I love the image of the cloud of witnesses because we are talking about one cloud. Our saints aren't a bunch of little clouds. They are part of a great community cloud and they are cheering us on. Tom Long claims this race we are on is a relay race. We aren't each on our own little race. This is a community effort. Our cloud of witnesses may be cheering us on but they need us to keep on running the race that they began.

As you run your race of faithfulness, who is cheering you on? What did they model for you that helps you keep on keeping on?

England in Living Color

This is my first iMovie....something I have always wanted to try. There are some things we experienced in England that couldn't be captured in a still picture and unfortunately I forgot to film some of the sites that most impressed me....Stonehenge, Avebury, Salisbury Cathedral. But this helps you get the picture.

Norwich

The last two days of our trip to England were spent in Norwich, where Brett is doing his Senior year of college. Because it was a bank holiday in England, there was quite a bit of repair to public transportation happening. We had to take several subway trains to a bus to a train line. But with Brett's excellent guidance we arrived in Norwich earlier than expected.

Norwich is a beautiful city. In fact, it was once more populated than London. Brett took us through the outdoor market on the way to a delicious vegetarian/vegan restaurant. Then we walked down the oldest street in town on the way to the Norwich Cathedral. The number of theological images carved in the stone of the cathedral is unparalleled. In the center of the cloister is a beautiful labyrinth. I could have spent hours there but it gets dark and cold early in England.

So we headed to Brett's flat. His gas card had run out and it was 43 degrees inside his home. Bryan and Brett headed to the grocery store to get food and top off Brett's gas card. I huddled under blankets in Brett's room. Brett made a delicious dinner for us in a home that was so cold we could see our breath. After dinner, when it was still freezing cold Brett hit the reset button on the heater. Bryan and I headed to our hotel room to warm up.

The next morning Bryan and I got on a double decker bus and headed to the University of East Anglia to meet Brett. We got a tour of Brett's school. We warmed up over some Earl Grey tea in the Sainsbury Visual Arts Centre. I took a tour of the art work. This small center houses a Picasso and a Degas.

Brett has promised us that he would take us to the best fish and chips place in Norwich. It was located in an outdoor market and the line was long. We had the best fish and chips while sitting outside. Then we headed for the Norwich Castle. We paid extra for the battlements tour. As the cold wind whipped through our down coats we viewed Norwich from the highest point in the city.

I had one more place I wanted to go. I wanted to visit the cell where Julian of Norwich lived as an anchoress in the 14th century. She wrote Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love, which is believed to be the first book written in English by a woman. She wrote of God as all love and no wrath. She referred to Christ as mother and God as our mother and our father. It was amazing to me how most people in Norwich had never heard of her. But through the help of google maps we arrived before the door to the church was locked. I lit a candle and thanked God for Julian of Norwich.

We traveled back to London, leaving Norwich at 6 p.m. We made it to our hotel by 10:30 p.m. sad to be leaving England and our son behind.

Family, Fun and Fireworks

The last three days in London have been a blur. On December 31 we got up and headed to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard. It turns out that lots of other people had the same plan. We stood for over 90 minutes waiting for the 40 minute event to take place.

We rested in the afternoon because Brett was 100% committed to bringing in the New Year at the London fireworks. When we arrived they already had enough people at that location and they had blocked off access. We hurried up the street looking for a way to the embankment. We finally found a place to stand. It was 9:30 p.m. We did everything we could to keep ourselves entertained

for 2 1/2 hours. Brett told us that the London fireworks were out of this world but his words had not prepared us for the all out show. It was worth the wait. The trip home was

almost as eventful as the fireworks show.

On New Year's Day we went to Westminster Abbey for Evensong. On the way we ran into London's New Year's Day parade. It is no Rose Parade! My favorite float was the Alice in Wonderland float created on a trash truck. I was so glad to go to Evensong. It is so very different from the non-liturgical Church of the Brethren. It looked likes lots of tourists go to Evensong to avoid paying the money to visit the cathedral. One man in the row behind us fell asleep during the middle of the service and fell out of his chair. In the evening we went to see Billy Elliot.

Today we visited the Tower of London. We saw the Crown Jewels and saw endless amounts of armor. We even tried on a bit of it. We could have spent more hours there. Then we visited the Tate Modern. I enjoyed the Andy Warhol exhibit and the view of St. Paul's Cathedral from the balcony. There were all kinds of tube closures for repairs. It made for a very difficult day of traveling through the city. By the time we got back to our hotel we fell asleep immediately. Brett still had his coat on.

Tomorrow we are taking a train to Norwich to see Brett's University and home.