desert spirit's fire!

Five Minute Friday :: Remnant

2026-04-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

• So, too, at this present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. Romans 11:5

• Five Minute Friday : Remnant Linkup

You may know Elijah and his contest with the Ba'als as the scriptural and historic context of "remnant" that the Apostle Paul refers to in order to make his point of God choosing us:

• 1 Kings 18:20-40

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life."

But what is the divine reply to Elijah? "I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So, too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. Romans 11:1-6

If you've sewn or quilted, or had quilting or sewing family members or friends, you know about fabric remnants. They're typically the tail end of a bolt of fabric that's not big enough to sell by the yard. Or sometimes it's a discontinued pattern they cut into sellable sizes. I used to sew a lot until I no longer did. I'm not sure why I quit, but I wonder… is remnant the same as leftover? Please let me know!

Instead of attempting some heavy-duty theology of gracious election that more than a few have done over the centuries, I'll go more in the direction Kate took. She wrote about her offspring leaving behind remnants of their visits, but I'm considering…

Last Sunday was the Day of Resurrection, Easter Sunday. Especially Orthodox churches celebrate the seven days from Easter Sunday through Easter Saturday as Bright Week; they consider the entire week a single day—the first day of the new creation. We sometimes talk about Eighth Day Theology. Some baptismal fonts have eight sides (octagonal) to help demonstrate our baptism into the new creation, our baptism as a new creation Into Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

Remnant is this week's prompt, so why am I saying so much about Easter? Jesus had scars in his post-resurrection appearances. It's important to remember the new creation is not pristine; it carries scars and leftovers from our old, deadly pasts. And because the New Creation is the rebirth, the transformation of the old, it contains remnants of what used to be.

What aspects of your past has God already resurrected? What's going on – or not – in your life and world that needs to experience death and resurrection? We look forward to the reality Revelation 21:1-3 describes:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

See, the home of God is among mortals.
God will dwell with them;
they will be God's peoples,
and God will be with them and be their God;

God will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.

But right now?

A remnant of hope will carry us home.

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Vincent Price Museum

2026-04-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

• The Vincent Price Museum is on the East Los Angeles College campus in the Monterey Park neighborhood and it's not creepy (as a person might think).

• Only one of the third floor galleries was open: Form and Function in the Ancient Americas.

from the website:
"Form and Function in the Ancient Americas highlights the wide range of cultures represented in our Ancient American collection. Cultures from the Nayarit-Jalisco-Colima region of West Mexico (2000–1000 BCE) to the Chimú of Peru (900–1500 CE) are featured.

• A retrospective of art by Ofelia Esparza was the highlight of my visit. At 94 years old, she still is is active as an artist and teacher! Ofelia is yet another denizen of LA (and elsewhere, too, of course) influenced by Corita Kent.

• Since I've been including my lunches/meals on these Tuesdays blogs, I'll mention I went to the Panda Place for the first time in eighteen months. Orange Chicken and Beijing Beef was a good choice because I'd been wanting to go there for a while, but I still prefer something with more veggies and more variety. The watermelon-mango crafted drink was delicious.

MOCA on Tuesday

2026-03-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

• Tuesday I visited MOCA – The Museum of Contemporary Art – again.

I love this picture I got of the museum's location and position on Grand Avenue.

• My first exhibit was Star-Crossed Rendezvous by Haegue Yang that "Brings together two major installations executed using customized Venetian blinds … made nearly a decade apart."

• From the MOCA website: "Haegue Yang (born in Seoul in 1971) is known for large-scale installations that employ utilitarian objects." I understand how intriguing the interplay of shadows and light often is, but I don't get this Venetian blind art at all.

• Haegue Yang is on Instagram

• My notes weren't careful enough to separate what I enjoyed from Gifts of Michael Asher and Good on Paper: Works from the Gene J. and Betye M. Burton Acquisitions Endowment. Here's three I liked a lot:

• BUS by Mason Williams

• I didn't record the artist of this lovely scene.

• This large imaginative piece is by Ree Morton who didn't get serious about art until her early 30s, and then earned an MFA.

• The book store is exciting and packed with color; here's a display of mostly cat books.

• After Tuna Tuesday at the Subway across the street from MOCA and beside The Broad, I went to FIGat7th because I've long loved the name for the complex at (South) Figueroa Street and (West) 7th Street, and mainly because I needed a few things from Target the very small format Target near me didn't have. I hadn't been there since long before Covid, and the entire area hasn't aged well. It was a little depressing.

• McDonald's frappés are so good! Even though they don't have hazelnut, choosing between Caramel and Mocha is tough. Didn't they used to have chocolate chip and maybe another flavor?

Santa Monica Tuesday + The Hammer Museum

2026-03-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

• Santa Monica lunch and meeting. Didn't I mention the ascendancy of kale proves people are more mimetic than thoughtful? But I picked what probably was the best choice of four salad dressing options, and the soup rocked with flavor.

• I had the rest of my day off afternoon for another trip to the Armand Hammer Museum.

• Two "systematic and intuitive" Hammer Projects by Mike Cloud near the entryway: "Painted Clothing responds to consumer culture" and his "Modern Timeline series interprets modern day tragedies."

• Because The White Album by Arthur Jafa had a violence warning label, I didn't view it.

• Corita Kent's illustration from 1967 of "Loves That Man" by Daniel Berrigan forms the entryway for…

• …Five Centuries of Works on Paper at the Grunwald Center. On Tuesday's stroll I took pictures of a small print of "Loves That Man" that also captured the celling lights, along with a most intriguing "Untitled" (2003) lithograph from Mark Bradford.

• There were at least two Installations in progress. There's always a good reason to visit the Hammer again!

• At the bookstore I bought a chrome orange tote bag with the Hammer logo.

• My usual Subway still is closed due to a water main malfunction that's turned into a disaster for the shops and restaurants at that small plaza, so for Tuna Tuesday I went to the one in mid city from two weeks ago. And last week. Next week, too? I hope not!

Five Minute Friday :: Lazy

2026-03-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Lazy Linkup

What a great prompt! Are cats lazy? Or do they just not want to do what anyone says? Then again, cats sleep many many hours each day; is that laziness or is it preparation for the hunt? Getting ready to be extra adorable?

What is lazy, anyway? Relaxed? Shiftless? Pointless? Simply disinterested? Undisciplined, maybe? I did a quick check of its etymology and I didn't care for what I read.

Or has lazy become a word related to rest that often leads to rejuvenation? A rest in music may seem like absence of sound, but rests are necessary for the music to happen.

As Kate pointed out, contemporary Western society admires action and active people; too many of us do our best to become human doings rather than human beings. She used the word, "productivity." I've mentioned human doing-ness too many times on this blog. Like many, I admire my own productivity in all my endeavors. I don't necessarily make a formal readable list as I accomplish whatever it is or whatever they are, but I tally them in my head and want to do better next time. I want to do more the next time.

I don't know that it's been a header before, but this time I've used one of many versions of one of several paintings I made of the beach house in the town of Truro on the vacation peninsula of Cape Cod. You could have – probably would have – called those times lazy. We slept latish, lounged on the beach, rappelled down sand dunes, and laughed like crazy as we did it. We took a few jaunts to the tourist section of nearby Provincetown. Each year I drove back to Boston late Sunday afternoon to get ready to be present and productive during our upcoming summer program.

As I typed that last sentence, I realized the kind of unfocussed, unplanned laziness I described is a good way to get ready for the next step that's not only productivity—it's also presence.
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Lent 5 Sermon

2026-03-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

Typing up a sermon afterwards always feels so last Sunday, March 22nd, but I had a couple of requests for a copy and I need blog content (or fodder, maybe), so here it is, more or less. By the way, it preached better than it reads.

• Ezekiel 37:1-14

I really liked my opening prayer:

From all the ends of the earth, come to us, breath of God.
Breathing life of the Divine, embrace your people and your land.
Let us live again.
In the name of the One Spirit-sent for the life of the world.
Amen.

Two days ago on Friday we celebrated the Spring equinox, a verdant greening time as days get longer. And now we celebrate the Persian New Year with our friends—thirteen festive days of rejoicing in creation!

We're two-thirds through Lent, as Jesus and his followers draw closer to the holy city Jerusalem. They draw closer to Jesus' trial, conviction, crucifixion, death, and burial. Nearer to the day of resurrection, Easter Sunday.

Throughout scripture, hints and types and realities of resurrection foreshadow Jesus' resurrection. New life out of ashes, ruins, destruction, devastation. New life out of the death of the old.

Less than two weeks from the Friday called Good, the lectionary that gives us our scripture readings pairs Ezekiel's provocative and pictorial dialogue with God as Ezekiel raises dry bones from death to life, with the seventh and last of Jesus' "I Am" statements from John's gospel. After Jesus' raises Lazarus back to life from death (he really was dead, already buried in the tomb), Jesus declares "I Am the Resurrection and the life." John 11:25

* * *
Ezekiel was a priest in the holiness tradition of the Jerusalem Temple. About 600 years before Jesus, during the last years of Jerusalem and the Temple before the exile to Babylon, Ezekiel ministered with words from God and words of God. Deep into the long book that bears his name, chapter 37 happens when Ezekiel's proclamation moved from discouragement and lament to hope and a vision of the future.

This is pivotal because it came about when news of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple reached the exiles.

"These people" somehow had developed bad theology that located God in a special way in the heart of the temple, accessible only once a year, only to the high priest under certain circumstances.

Had they forgotten the God who liberated them from slavery in Egypt? The God of the Exodus who journeyed alongside them and ahead of them throughout those forty years in the wilderness? God who provided gifts like water from the rock and manna from the sky? The Ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant that showed them how to honor God by living together faithfully honoring their neighbors?

Since the temple was gone, did that mean God was dead? They were away from the land of promise that yielded such agricultural bounty. Did that mean all of God's promises were null and void?

* * *
We don't know if Ezekiel's conversation in the Spirit with God was a physical event, a sleeping dream, or a waking vision. We do know his experience of God's initiative and the subsequent call and response as Ezekiel spoke words in the Spirit from God and words of God convinced him there was a future.

Although the human Ezekiel spoke words from God and words of God and raised dead bones to new life, we often consider new life and resurrection primarily God's thing.

But wait! In the second reading for today (that we didn't hear), the apostle Paul tells us:

If [since, because] the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the same Spirit that dwells in you. Romans 8:11

Earlier on, in his first letter to the church at Corinth, we hear from Paul regarding us as the gathered body of Christ – the church, the assembly of the faithful – and us as individuals:

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthian 3:16

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? ! Corinthians 6:19

So we've moved from bad theology of God being contained (God in a box?) in the Jerusalem Temple, to biblical theology of God indwelling us, making a home with us. We are temples of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, moving, walking, and talking alongside the people.

* * *
Ezekiel's words from God in the Spirit revitalized people who had been reduced to bones.

What dry bones of loss, death, disappointment is God calling you to resurrect with Words in the Spirit? Words from God? Words of God?

* * *
Today Jesus again invites us to the table of grace, the feast of new beginnings.

In the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, we reenact and remember the history of the world's salvation that also belongs to us.

God remembers that we forget.

Jesus welcome everyone. You are welcome. I am welcome. We are welcome!

To God alone be glory.

Amen!

Five Minute Friday :: Harmony

2026-03-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Music from the Fifth Evangelist :: Johann Sebastian Bach.
Summer worship bulletin cover featuring Ben Shahn's portrait of Bach

• Five Minute Friday :: Harmony Linkup

Sometimes we describe something by saying what it's not. Or is apophatic only a theological thing? Assuming the concept applies outside the realm of theology, does that mean harmony isn't dissonance?

Discussions of harmony may be quintessentially about music, but harmony and dissonance also are major components of all kinds of design and many aspects of design—maybe especially color. My color theory instructor mentioned red, yellow, and blue "always go well together." Does that mean they can't be done badly? No. But it does mean a skilled artist can tweak a RYB palette so the colors harmonize.

Harmonious and inharmonious relate to the wide range of human relationships, as well. You can take a cue from art and design as you rejoice in variety of many kinds that sometimes complement, sometimes add interest and spice, occasionally clash so much you need to ask how can this harmonize? Or can it?

Everyday life in general, too. As you've probably learned, experiences of discord are almost essential if we're going to appreciate and be thankful for days that unfold as we'd anticipated, events that transpire according to plan. Last Friday, the date of this linkup, was the spring equinox, when it feels as if creation harmonizes with itself.

In the witness of scripture, harmony is shalom that goes far beyond irenic peace as an absence of conflict into wholeness, justice, goodness, bounty, and commonwealth.

Sixty-two versions of Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom paintings still exist. I've included one of the four on my computer in my array of footer pictures.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb,
The leopard will lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
Isaiah 11:6

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Tuesday at LACMA

2026-03-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Second Tuesdays at LACMA are free, so there I was, feasting on the glory.

• Entrance welcome banner along with the late Chris Burden's Urban Light project.

• The foliage accented with red metal around campus is a photographic treat. Here's one view of many possibilities.

• I always enjoy capturing angles and geometry. Here's one.

• My Very Own photograph of David Hockney's Mulholland Drive (1980) for my Very Own archives. Notice the oil well. Do you know how many are in Los Angeles? Today's search results say over 5,000 in Los Angeles city, with thousands (up to 20,000 more) throughout LA County, in a mix of active, idle, and abandoned.

With my back to Mulholland Drive I watched Five Decades of Contemporary Art at LACMA 1965-2020 (twice).

• Staircases and angles again.

Galleries from Tuesday:

Though they allowed photography without flash, almost no one was taking pictures. It wasn't that type of exhibit or that the kind of day for me, either.

• Made in France, 1880-1930

Art by favorites Lyonel Feininger, Raoul Dufy, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger

• The Art of German Expressionism

Ernst Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Wassily Kandinsky

• Picasso's Portraits

• Paris 1900-1920

Jean Arp, Paul Klee, Diego Rivera, Piet Mondrian, Jean Dubuffet

• Metropolis by Chris Burden. The same Chris as Urban Light.

• Still on-campus, yet more palm trees. WIthout knowing (I could google and find out), I imagine most Southern California palms are date palms.

• I keep my stickers, but this decorated traffic light pole outside the museum inspires multiple visits.

• Early evening Tuna Tuesday at a Subway some distance from me. My usual Subway still is closed because of a broken or non-draining, or otherwise dysfunctional water main.

Five Minute Friday :: Polite

2026-03-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Polite Linkup

The first Five Minute Friday for March is another instance of the picture Kate provided being so lovely I had no choice but to participate this week. I'm politely responding by including two of my California golden poppy pictures. The short version of why only two out of my dozens of photos of golden poppies? Part of being polite is not making a conversation or a situation all about you, the speaker or actor, but doing the best you can to defer to others who may be there.

Our host Kate's report of a not polite kindergarten girl (in church) was sad. You can make the excuse parents are overwhelmed, and parents are overwhelmed, but teaching politeness from day one and enforcing it along the way is doable in almost every case and has the immense benefit of making a parent's job easier along the way.

Polite

All these years later, I still recall some quotes from our Conference MInister's newsletter columns "way back when," as I always loved hearing my grandmother say. One month he wrote, "Kindness is love in action." (For people in independent or unaffiliated churches, a judicatory such as a conference, synod, presbytery, diocese is an accountability and oversight structure.)

Since kindness is love in action, politeness is an important aspect of kindness. Politeness is about not causing discomfort to any person of any age in any situation. (For example, Kate told us how she gently suggested to the little girl how to politely reword her demands into requests.) Being polite entails being familiar with social conventions and habits. Those manners help us situate ourselves – and our kids – in the larger society where people maintain certain ways of being, of speaking, of dressing, of interacting with others.

Does that place all of us within a certain establishment, or "established order?" To an extent it does. It also helps provide a way to connect with others so they can hear our opinions, plans, and ideas without needing to cut through extraneous body and language clutter. Because being polite is part of being kind.

Politeness is part of our behavioral and cultural vocabulary. Being polite helps create a civil society where everyone does their part in fulfilling the social contract.

What are your favorite polite practices?

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P-22

2026-03-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

I've long wanted to blog a tribute to urban cougar P-22, the SoCal Puma (American Wild Cougar, Mountain Lion) who lived in Griffith Park at least since February 2012. I have no wise or poetic words of my own, so I'm posting pictures and tributes from others.

• This head shot is from Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, 23 April 2019.

• Large Map showing scale of P-22's range

• P-22's location in Griffith Park

• P-22 billboard!

• P-22 graffiti!

• Poster from Tongva artist Weshoyot Alvitre

• From LA on the Move at Union Station last October. The exhibit explores how wildlife and people travel through shared landscapes and follow paths that overlap; a picture of P-22 was essential.

• Tribute from Mountain Lion Foundation

• Tribute from PBS SoCal

• Tribute from Save LA Cougars

• Tribute from LAist

Black Arts at the Getty

2026-03-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

Getty Tuesday: Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985

The Getty doesn't have fancy frappes, so I started my visit with an iced mocha latte accompanied by a small bag of Garden Salsa Sun Chips.

One of these ducks hovered around my table while I snacked; a few minutes later I noticed both of them basking in the warm early March sun.

"Pictures told, for those who could not see themselves, of the strength and the beauty of the people, of the hostility and anger of the opposition, and of the promise of a world free of racism." Julian Bond, 1940-2015

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, organized the exhibit and showed it there before it traveled over to here.

I didn't imagine counting how many photographs or how many rooms it all encompassed. Although I did imagine the Getty website would say something about that, it didn't, so I'll say it was extensive. I found the detailed but not endless descriptions most helpful

A lot of the pictures featured well-known leaders of the civil rights movement. It's no surprise most of the photography was black and white. Some were done in a private venue or by a regular person – participant or observer – with an unnamed camera and unidentified film; most were from newspapers, a few for magazines. I'd guess a press cameras (such as a Speed Graphic) captured most of the people and events, and the newspaper shots would have been printed at a resolution around 200 ppi or less. That overall style propelled the viewer back in time.

To end my day off, I'd planned and counted on Subway to celebrate Tuna Tuesday and continue the Sun Chips theme, but when I got there the small shopping center was closed because of a water main not draining, so I got El Pollo Loco instead. It tasted great and even provided leftovers!

February 2026

2026-02-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

Clockwise from upper left:
• Tree outside social hall at Saint Mary's Mariposa
• Wall collage at California African American Museum
• Cherry Blossoms
• Purist Still Life by Roy Lichtenstein at The Broad

• Black History Month

• Tuesday 3rd California African American Museum • This is the DC-8 outside.

• Tuesday 10th Armand Hammer Museum • The bookstore!

• Saturday 14th • Valentines Day

• Sunday 22nd • Pink Trumpet Trees

• Tuesday 24th • The Broad Museum

• Friday 27th • Cherry Blossoms

The Broad

2026-02-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

• The Broad website. Full of information!

Across the street from MOCA and across a different street from Disney Hall Where LA Phil Plays, The Broad offers well-known approximately mid-century conceived and born in the USA art. I also learned about and enjoyed some less familiar (translation: previously unknown to me) paintings, and I discovered Japanese artist Takashi Murakami whose work I might have seen had my life not had such a long ellipsis. Or maybe not. That remains in the grace-filled "I'll never know" category.

I'm blogging some of my favorites.

Ed Ruscha

• Angry Because It's Plaster Not Milk, 1965
• Psycho Spaghetti Western #5, 2010
• Heavy Industry, 1962
• Bloated Empire, 1996-1997

Roy Lichtenstein

• Female Figure, 1979
• Purist Still Life, 1976
• Perfect Painting, 1986
• Imperfect Painting, 1986
• Non-Objective I, 1964

Robert Rauschenberg

• Untitled, 1965

Jasper Johns

• Flag, 1967

The series has become sufficiently famous to qualify as iconic, and this isn't my favorite pair of soup cans by Andy Warhol, but they're here because of the irresistible titles:

• Small Torn Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot), 1962
• Campbell's Soup Can (Clam Chowder Manhattan Style) [Ferus Type], 1962

Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1960-1988

• Wicker, 1984
• Horn Players, 1983

Takashi Murakami

• Hustle 'N' Punch by Kaikai and Kiki, 2009 (detail)
• Tan Tan Bo A.K.A. Gerotan Scorched by the Blaze in the Purgatory of Knowledge, 2018 (detail)

After my art immersion, I had a mid-afternoon burrito bowl lunch at Chipotle. Of course it was really really good, because I chose the ingredients.

My day off ended with a Hazelnut frappe at the Olympic and Doheny Starbucks in Beverly Hills. I love that Doheny Drive begins and ends in a cul-de-sac. And I love that they made my frappe in an old-fashioned glass glass because I told them I'd be enjoying it in the store.

Five Minute Friday :: Nurture

2026-02-26T22:45:00.000-08:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Nurture Linkup

Although our host Kate wrote lovely realities about her nurturing parents, and I can think of many situations and individuals who've helped nurture me, I still had to reflect on the "is it nature or nurture?" question that often pops up when we consider someone's traits and tendencies.

Because… I often tell anyone who's around me, "I'm exactly like my late uncle—everyone's BFF (Best Friend Forever)." Always reaching out. Always for the underdog (the undercat, too). Befriending the bedraggled. Being called a great listener. Hearing yet another person complimenting me on my hospitable presence. Needless to say, not having a shy or reticent bone in my body helps a whole lot.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned to someone I thought my life experiences had mightily contributed to those behaviors: cue long list of not great early influences and experiences, followed by too many struggles to fit in, to make myself heard, to rebuild and reweave. The person replied it still might be mainly nature, something I inherited through that side of the family.

But really? I never knew my uncle well, never spent much time around him or with him. I heard many anecdotes about him from my grandmother (his mother). At the time I considered stories of his rescuing people and rescuing pets, along with his empathy and sympathy simply the way he was. Not to admire or imitate. Plus, a certain subset of the population has that "everyone's BFF" trait or a parallel one.

Then we always can answer, "It's both nurture and nature."

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Five Minute Friday :: Bury

2026-02-19T22:00:00.000-08:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Bury Linkup

The pastor I was counseling with in an informal conversational manner said to me, "In Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, you can bury your need to prove yourself." It was that obvious. (I may have blogged how I love "the thrill of the chase," which is related.) But proving what? A batch of dough? What's death, burial, resurrection about anyway? Crucified, dead, and buried. That's Jesus. Or is it also each one of us?

After Mardi Gras and/or Shrove Tuesday, Lent 2026 began on Ash Wednesday—yesterday as I write this. Best guess is a few thousand devotional books have been written to guide one through the forty day long (minus Sundays that are "in but not of Lent.") Preaching and hearing about Jesus post-baptismal temptations in the wilderness on the first Sunday in Lent is a given for churches that follow the lectionary. You know about "giving up" a favorite food or activity, often adding on a service project or something (anything!) that will draw you closer to God and make you a better version of yourself.

But burying my need to prove myself? Burial follows death. Death follows? A serious illness or accident. Maybe old age (Louise was 105!) or simply God's time for you, even if you've been on earth only a few years or a couple of decades. Death follows life, but death of a human body isn't the only kind. I can bury my need to prove myself? That's one aspect of my human body and spirit, but it's not the sum of my life or years.

We're moving toward Good Friday, the day of Jesus' crucifixion and death. You may have heard Holy Saturday described as "the day nothing happens yet everything happens?" And then Easter.

On the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found the stone was rolled away. John 20:1.

I need help here. If something gets buried, it must have died. How can my "need to prove myself" die? Can you tell me? Standard answers include being less of a perfectionist (I'm a moderate one, far from extreme), praying to understand my history of compulsive behaviors, and my excitement whenever I do something well, because excellent performance(!) is a huge part of proving my worth to the world.

What needs to occur before resurrection can happen? Something or someone needs to die. Must be dead. "Dead and buried." That's Jesus, and it's each one of us. Unless something dies it can't be resurrected. What will the resurrected version of my "need to prove myself" look like? I hope to begin spiritual direction soon, probably during Lent. That sounds like a great question to explore.

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Five Minute Friday :: Benediction

2026-02-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Benediction Linkup

I love Kate's description of getting her house ready for overnight! Benediction is the prompt this week; we frequently connect that word with the end – or close to the end – of worship. In my tradition, the worship leader or leaders bless the gathered assembly, sometimes after suggesting "receive the benediction" (maybe to wake them up), but the last formal component of Sunday worship is a charge or sending that happens after the benediction, after everyone is fully blessed and prepared to bless.

A benediction conveys well-being: bene=well, good; diction=speak, speech

A benediction is a blessing; for me the word connotes broad and inclusive, like Kate preparing her house for the night. Like the pastor or liturgist blessing the assembly.

A benediction is a channel of grace, of unearned favor, an offer of life as a gift. The taped-on sign outside a now defunct First Church says "Come and Take It" as it pictures bread and cup.

Let's look beyond conventional blessings / benedictions such as food, presence, hugs, sleep, understanding, presents. A benediction is a channel of grace, of unearned favor, an offer of life as a gift.

"The benediction of the neon light" in Jackson Browne's Tender is the Night haunts me. The benediction of the neon light. "Come and take it!"

• Tender is the Night lyrics

Besides sunlight, friends, opportunities, and good food, what benediction do I long to experience? The kitchen at dawn is my first and best and always. It even feels a little like the opposite of Kate's nighttime benediction. In a commonplace book I wrote, "the kitchen at dawn takes you back." Takes me back to where and when? The kitchen at dawn takes you back and encourages you to move forward in hope to begin a full new day. Or maybe this will be a day of prayer, reflection, observation, and surprise. Come and take it!

Blessing God's people needs to be a constant in our lives because God constantly blesses us. Because God blesses us, we can reciprocate! We come and take it and then we bless God by blessing God's people into another chance at life. Speaking and acting well and good to all.

I'll start with the kitchen at dawn. And then?

Starshine • Dawn • Sunshine

• The Call sings to us Let the Day Begin

• Arizona Sunrise on August 23,. 2017 by Joe D on Flickr

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Armand Hammer Museum

2026-02-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

This week I went to the Hammer Museum again on my Tuesday day off. Made in LA 2025 still was current, but Five Centuries of Works on Paper had opened since my visit on Tuesday 21 October, so going especially to see it sounded like a good plan.

I started with lunch in Westwood at Sweet Fin. My Chicken Bowl included forbidden rice, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, carrots, asparagus, tomatoes, jicama, avocado, mango, cabbage, two different creamy dressings… So good with a glass of Guava Lemonade!

My October Hammer blog didn't picture the paintings Alonzo Davis created for the 1984 Summer Olympics. You need to read the Wikipedia article about Davis. He believed, he knew, almost everyone has a heart for art, but his heart was especially in public art because not many often even think of going to a museum or taking an art appreciation class.

Five Centuries of Works on Paper was artfully curated and displayed, but I didn't take any pictures. It deserves another visit before the exhibit ends.

• The bookstore! Picture 1

• The bookstore! Picture 2

• Greenery and succulents. Hammer plants are so special!

• At the end of the day I got a Hazelnut frappe at Boba Time on Olympic Blvd that originally was Tenth / 10th Street. I ordered a regular, but for some reason I got a supersize.

Pentecost 3B :: Good News

2026-02-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

Mark 3:16-35

¹⁶ So Jesus appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), ¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder), ¹⁸ and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who handed him over.

²⁰ Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹ When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." ²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."

²³ And he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷ But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

²⁸ "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter, ²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin"— ³⁰ for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

³¹ Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you." ³³ And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" ³⁴ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

* * *
What's good news to you?
What's good news to you?

We're in Mark's gospel year!

Mark has been our main gospel since a new year of grace began on the first Sunday of Advent. During the Great Fifty Days of Easter, we heard from John's gospel; now we're back in Mark as we start the six month long season of the Spirit. This is the green and growing season of Pentecost, when the church comes into its own with the Acts of the twenty-first century apostles. That's us!

First, Mark opens with "the beginning of the Good News, the gospel, of Jesus Christ, Son of God."

What's good news to you?

• Mark is the earliest gospel and the shortest one. It has no birth account. No genealogy. No resurrection in the earliest sources.

• Mark includes a lot of miracles, healings, and exorcisms.

• Mark is about the end of the world as we've known it!

• In Mark's gospel, Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and the cross is incessant and focused. For Mark, his passion, cross, and death by imperial powers that be provides the best understanding of Jesus of Nazareth's purpose and identity.

• Our baptism into Jesus death and resurrection provides the best understanding of the church's mission and identity.

• We are the people who continue this written-down "beginning of the Good News."

What's good news to you?

* * *
According to the evangelist Mark, we don't find God in the Jerusalem Temple. God is not far away and unreachable. We cannot find God in any religious, social, cultural, political, or economic establishment.

Mark tells us we find God:

• in the cross
• in the wilderness
• outside the city limits
• in the stranger
• in the unexpected

Mark's Jesus brings the end of the world as we've known it.
Mark brings us the great good news of the Reign of Life.

* * *
Where are we now?

Two weeks ago on the Day of Pentecost and the fiftieth day of Easter we celebrated the Holy Spirit symbolized with wind and fire. We anticipated full diversity and inclusion. The first Christian Pentecost happened when some early Jesus followers were in Jerusalem for the Jewish Pentecost, the annual celebration of God giving the ten words of the Sinai covenant through Moses. The commandments that shape our life together. And they were in Jerusalem to celebrate the wheat harvest that fed and sustained their physical lives.

The fiftieth day of Easter, the Festival of the Spirit gets us ready for the green and growing season of the church…

…baptized into the HS of Pentecost, we follow Jesus into the world abounding with the good news of the end of the dysfunctional parts of the world

We follow Jesus to the edges, the margins, the wild places, and we continue to minister right here in this space, in our homes, in our workplaces, in this neighborhood. We help create the end of the world as everyone has known it.

* * *
Back to today's reading. We're near the start of Jesus' public ministry and we hear,

"THEN" Jesus went home. Then? After what?

• after John's baptism by John in the Jordan River
• after forty days in the wilderness–an even more remote location than the Jordan
• after teachings and miracles
• after interactions with powers that be

Most important for us, then Jesus went home "AFTER" he called disciples and sent them out.

Today's cast of characters that we know about includes:
• A packed crowd
• Jesus' family of origin
• Religious leaders from Jerusalem

all of these people followed disruptive provocative Jesus home to Nazareth!

We could write a book about Jesus and the people who crowded him
About Jesus and his biological family in this reading and elsewhere

People have written books about the religious leaders' reaction to Jesus' home invasion robbery parable that we heard today.

Because tying up and immobilizing dysfunctional aspects of economic, religious, political, educational institutions is central to Jesus' ministry. Those actions are especially vital to the cross of Good Friday and the empty grave of Easter. They helped create the end of the world as everyone had known it and expected it to continue? Were Jesus' actions blasphemy against the HS? Some onlookers thought so.

* * *
But we're at the start of the second half of the church's year of grace, so let's consider Jesus' words and actions. He wondered:

33 Who are my mother and my brothers?
34 Looking at those around him he said, "here are my mother and my brothers."
35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

Did you noticed Jesus never excludes his biological family?

"Church as family" sometimes doesn't sit well, especially given traits of some biological and adoptive families. But we are Jesus' family, joined to him and to each other in our second birth by water and word; filled with the HS in baptism.

Mark's gospel opens by announcing the beginning of the good news

What's good news to you?

• a new family arrangement?
• a new family?

How about the end of the bad, dysfunctional parts of our economic, religious, political, educational systems?

Something different from the disappointments of your last half dozen years?

What's good news to you?

Those early Jesus people gathered on the Jewish Pentecost. Pentecost celebrated the ten words or commands of the Sinai Covenant that still bind us to our God and to one another and charge us:

• to do justice
• to act with mercy
• to love God by loving our neighbors

Whether the neighbor is human, plant, animal, or water. We're still caring for the LA River, right?

To love the immigrant and the refugee and that annoying person at work

When we love creation, the ground, the waters, the cities and the outskirts, a bountiful harvest will help feed us and our neighbors.

* * *

What's good news to you?

Today Jesus invites us to the table of grace for the good news of a taste of heaven on earth.

In the Lord's Supper

• all are forgiven
• all is healed

This Holy Communion, this Eucharist is good news.

Amen? Amen!

To God alone be glory.
Amen.

Pentecost 4B Creation Care

2026-02-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes people want to hear what they already know.

Scriptures

• Ezekiel 47:9

Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes.

• Ezekiel 47:12

On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.

• 2 Corinthians 5:17

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, everything has become new!

• Mark 4:26-34

²⁶ Jesus also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground ²⁷ and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸ The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come."

³⁰ He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, ³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

³³ With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it; ³⁴ he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Creation Care Outline

Where are we now in the church's year of grace? One month ago we celebrated the Day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day of Easter. We recollected when a large group of Jesus' first followers gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish Pentecost. They remembered and affirmed God giving the Ten Words or Commandments through Moses, that way of obedience you could call the Working Papers for our lives together. And they celebrated the wheat harvest, God's gift from the ground that sustains our bodies every day.

Here in the church we recently started the six month long green and growing season of Pentecost; during this stretch of time we emphasize all creation as God's planting,. You know the story of God and God's people and the land from Genesis through Revelation.

Today's scriptures offer agricultural images. We hear from the prophet Ezekiel, and we hear two parables from Mark's gospel: scattered seeds and the famous mustard seed! The gospels of Luke and Matthew also include the mustard seed parable, so that may mean it's especially important.

A month ago we celebrated the Christian Day of Pentecost, or the fiftieth day of Easter. Christians have been celebrating Easter for two thousand years! Our formal theology tells us Jesus Christ's death and resurrection ended endless cycles of death, violence, and everything contrary to God's intention, but we look around and still see war, climate chaos, sorrow, sickness, death—none of that is over and done with yet.

Even though Jesus Christ has died, is risen from the grave, and ascended to reign from the right hand of God, even though we identify as Easter people… what's going on?

Jesus' original followers wondered, too.

After Jesus' resurrection and before his Ascension, in Luke's book of the Acts of the Apostles, his friends and followers asked if now he finally would "restore the kingdom" to the world. Jesus informed them the question was wrong. He told them to stay and wait right there in Jerusalem. and they would be his witnesses, they would testify to new life. In the power of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, they would be Jesus' presence in the world.

In Romans 8:19-21 the Apostle Paul tells us all creation waits, hopes, and longs to discover us as God's authentic offspring, as people who embody, reflect, and act in God's image to help redeem all creation. Like Jesus!

The agricultural parables in the Good News of Jesus Christ, Son of God, according to Mark, align well with today's song, "God, Whose Farm Is All Creation." All creation. Not only prairie and heartland. But also crowded, overbuilt cities and suburbs. Remote rural wide spots in the road. Deserts. All creation is God's garden. God's land. God's farm.

God whose farm is all Creation,
take the gratitude we give,
take the finest of our harvest,
crops we grow that all may live.

Take our ploughing, seeding, reaping,
hopes and fears of sun and rain,
all our thinking, planning, waiting,
ripening into fruit and grain.

All our labor, all our watching,
all our calendar of care,
in these crops of your creation,
take, O God; they are our prayer.

Author: John Arlott

Romans reminds us creation hopes to discover that we'll treat oceans, wetlands, savannas, and cities in ways that help them heal. Creation watches us and waits for us to become good caretakers of waterways, trees, animals, insects. Of our own backyards and window boxes!

The new creation began 2000 years ago. That eighth day of the week, was the first day of a new reality. The new creation is not finished. The old creation still waits and hopes for us to be green people.

What's a biblical creation care model? We need to learn about plants, about seeds and soils, climates and seasons. It's also a great idea to act locally!

In the bible's promised land we see:

Crops watered by cascades down mountains into valleys and not by water shipped thousands of miles Gardens warmed by the great light of the sun and not by plugged in grids

Scripture shows us act locally. You know some of the ways:

• farmers markets
• street vendors
• community gardens
• backyard plots
• kitchen windowsill herb gardens
• composts

School and community gardens can help cancel food deserts
Besides, living local adds savor and flavor
Although we lose some long term keeper food
When that happens?!
Share the extras!
Trust the mystery!

In Ezekiel we hear about rivers flowing from the temple and healing everything the waters touch. Because everything those waters reach becomes healthy and well, the name of the city then becomes The Lord Is Here.

Today Jesus invites us to his table of grace. This eucharistic festival of thanksgiving is a taste, a token, a sign, a promise of creation completely redeemed.

Christ is raised and dies no more.
By water and the word
we share his death
his Eastered life

The new creation comes to life and grows
Everywhere we go!
Alleluia.
Amen!

Thanks be to God.
Amen.

Five Minute Friday :: Longing

2026-02-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

dreams from Summer 2000

The days and the summer nights
Berries from the brambles and the vines
Yearning for a future still not yet
Recalling how to dream…

• Five Minute Friday :: Longing Linkup and major congrats to Kate on another book!

From about a year ago, here's one place I wrote about:

• Home is Always the Place You Just Left: A Memoir of Restless Longing and Persistent Grace

Home, yearning, longing, belonging form a familiar and familial group. What can I say about longing today?

A person feels longing in their gut, in their heart, throughout their body. It's visceral. It's organic. It's powerful and it's often noticeable to outsiders.

As I explained:

Home is a spacious place. Space to breathe, to reach out, to grow, and to dream. A location and a people who take away my lostness, who help deliver me, because they delight in me.

My scripture reference was, "God brought me out into a spacious place; God delivered me because God delighted in me." Psalm 18:19

Finally I wondered,

Can home be in a place of blight, broken glass, fragile dreams, when there were any dreams at all? What name would we give that place? Is that the kind of situation we need to be rescued from? God would rescue us from?

Longing for Home is a buzz phrase—if ever there was one. Other longings and yearnings include hankering after lost connections with people, objects, experiences, and broader, larger places. Yet those individuals, those experiences and artifacts, that wider broader city or countryside all are components of home.

Longing is for something or someone you've had in the past but that's missing now. You can't long for what you haven't known or experienced. Or can you?

Longing and yearning can be visceral. Sometimes they're vascular. What happens if the longing ends because the object of our yearning has arrived? It's in the house!

As the phrase goes, "I'm so old" I remember everything about Tuesday 11 September 2001, a.k.a. 911. Even before then, I remember the hope many of us felt with the arrival of a new century called Y2K. My header collage illustrates the summer of 2000. I still love Y2K fashion. I remember the excitement of my first internet endeavor—an urban space in the old MSN groups. You can look back. I can reminisce. But yesterday's gone.

I remind myself, "Pray – remember – dream." Pray about now. Remember then. Dream about the future God is preparing to bring your longings home.

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California African American Museum

2026-02-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

Another Tuesday outing, this time to the museum complex for my first ever visit to the California African American Museum for some art, history, and culture.

Colorful collages line the walls.

Albert Chong, Aunt Winnie

Dominique Moody, Reunion, 1996. Collage front and back

Henri Paul Broyard, born 1989, Los Angeles. UGDA, 2021.
Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

I didn't get the title or the subject

Doyle Lane, born 1923 New Orleans, died 2002 Los Angeles. untitled, 1980-1989
Nine earthenware glazed fish

Dinosaur ironing board and irons

MLK Boulevard

Power to the people!

Engraved placard

How about this United Airlines DC-8?

January 2026 Rundown

2026-01-31T18:13:00.000-08:00

• Art for All Free – MOCA street banners
• Painting at MOCA; I didn't properly record the title
• End of Route 66 at the Santa Monica Pier
• Santa Monica Ferris Wheel

• Here's my January summary; each of these events has its own blog. Later in the month I was fluish for a while so I didn't go anywhere. Looks as if I need to start masking again in public.

• On the Day of Epiphany 06 January, I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art with a friend and experienced my first ever ride in a Waymo.

• On Sunday 11 January, I guest preached for the Baptism of Jesus.

• A sojourn to Santa Monica Third Street Promenade and Pier the end of Route 66 on Tuesday 13 January.

• The Pacific Wheel is the first and only solar-powered ferris wheel in the world. Does that sound Californian?

• Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has far and away the best Hazelnut Frappes.

Five Minute Friday :: Cold

2026-01-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

Detroit city photograph by Ken Lund

• Five Minute Friday :: Cold Linkup

How many times have i announced, "I'd be in Detroit now, expect for the weather?" When is the last time I said that? Probably a week or ten days ago. Kate's serendipitous cold photo reminds us every kind of weather has its own kind of beauty, although her description of West Michigan sounds chillier than my memories of Boston… however, the North Atlantic adds a special grace to New England winters. What's that, you ask? Learning how to properly dress in layers, to knit cozy hats and mittens, to try old or new recipes and keep the fireplace lit because you'll have snow days that require you to stay indoors.

Although I currently reside in Los Angeles city and county, it's probably no surprise that I usually associate the word "cold" with the temperature inside the house or outside in the weather. More often than not, I pair snow and cold; Andrew recently had us write about snow.

Most years on this blog I've mentioned Lessons and Carols that some venues offer early in Advent, some close to the Feast of the Nativity, others on the first Sunday of Christmas because everyone still wants to sing carols. Do those lovely songs moderate or even mitigate the discomfort of cold days and nights? In my experience yes, if only for the duration of the event.

Because I mainly connect cold with the ambient temp, I also connect cold with the winter months. As much as I enjoy wearing shorts and sundresses during warm weather, winter clothes always feel as if they're better quality, more durable, and more style forward—for a taste of redemption for the cold!

I'll conclude by quoting Valley Winter Song again:

You know the summer's coming soon

Though the interstate chokes under salt and dirty sand
And it seems the sun is hiding from the moon
And late December can drag a person down

While the snow is falling down
In our New England town
What else is new?
What could I do?

I wrote a Valley Winter Song
To play for you.

You know the summer's coming soon

by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger

The warm winter hat and hot winter drink are courtesy of Creative Market

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Five Minute Friday :: Unusual

2026-01-24T19:27:00.000-08:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Unusual Linkup

Intro

I'll start by saying I have no idea what Kate meant about Gatlinburg Tennessee being so unusual. Long ago late in Bright Week, I spent a few days in Gatlinburg and made memories so unforgettable I still review them every so often. Those memories include a stack of randomly shaped diner pancakes smothered with butter, and the best vanilla soft serve on the planet.

I did the tourist thing over to northern North Carolina and had a lunch so wonderful the menu has become one of my standards. Gatlinburg is a gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and for sure it's been developed with tourism in mind, but so has almost every Cape Cod town, so has the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Boston's Freedom Trail, and countless attractions worldwide.

Unusual

Given that Gatlinburg isn't in my unusual category, what does belong? Although I don't consider my art and design unusual because most of it is natural to me, other people often wonder about it. Outside of the design industry and classroom, where everyone takes it in stride because they expect the creative and the unusual, real-life mixed responses have ranged from, "That's dumb" to "What are you trying to prove?" to "This is brilliant!"

One of my saddest experiences happened when a classmate who evidently didn't know me as artistic was visiting. She looked at the few dozen pieces of my original art I'd posted on the wall and asked, "Where did you get these?" I replied, "I did them" (well, yes, of course) and she said, "No you didn't! Don't lie to me."

• My header for today: January afternoon
• Top footer is my interpretation of a piece of kettle cloth
• Next one is a favorite pair of summer sandals in their original color
• A fun frog

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Baptism of Jesus 2026

2026-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

Matthew 3:13-17

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented Jesus, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.

¹⁶ And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God's Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from the heavens said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

The Baptism of Jesus

As always, this is approximate, but I'm still happy to have enough notes to blog. As always, the real thing last Sunday was more dramatic and maybe even a little poetic.

The baptism of Jesus! Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River by his cousin John the … Baptist! John baptizes Jesus in the wilderness, away from centers of commerce, politics, religion. Far from the establishment. In the Jordan that was the boundary and the border to the Promised Land for God's people Israel after their lives of slavery in Egypt and their long trek through the exodus desert as they trusted God's total provision.

We find this event in all four of the gospels, so let's sit up and take notice because it must be important, maybe even pivotal. Today we hear from Matthew that has been our featured gospel since the church opened wide a new year of grace on the first Sunday of Advent. Each gospel has a distinct personality because the writer(s) wanting to convey particular facts and events.

Matthew views Jesus as the new Moses, a new King David. Moses is about the Reign of Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven rather than the reign or kingdom of God because Matthew wrote to Jewish Christians and Jews do not speak the divine name. Matthew never lets up on justice and righteousness.

Near the start of Matthew, an angel tells Jesus' stepfather Joseph to name the soon to be born baby Emmanuel or "God with us." This infant will be the presence of heaven in our midst! At the very end of Matthew's gospel, Jesus tells us to remember his promise to be with us forever, even until the end of time. (Matthew 28:20)

Matthew starts by announcing a book of beginnings or origins – biblios (book) geneseos (origin), A new creation, a new Genesis. Do you think that's why the committee that compiled the New Testament placed Matthew first?

We know Jesus' conception, birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension as the first fruits of the new creation. But look where we are for Jesus' very first public appearance as an adult. It's away from the movers and shakers, far distant from the religious, commercial, and political establishment. It reveals God's paradoxical way of making all things new—starting at the edges!

Doesn't that remind you of Jesus' mother Mary's Magnificat? She sang how God has:

• Scattered the proud
• Brought down the powerful
• Lifted up the lowly
• Filled the hungry with good things
• Sent the rich away empty

* * *
Jesus' mikvah or baptism wasn't the same as our Trinitarian baptism into Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It was more of a new beginning for the nation, with the individual, the smallest unit participating as part of the larger whole.

Our Trinitarian baptism is a sacrament, a means of grace, a mighty act of God. As the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, in baptism we became part of the new creation.

We famously consider Jesus baptism a Trinitarian theophany, or revelation of all three persons of the trinity. Theo = God; Phan = revealing, showing forth. And there are similarities between Jesus' baptism and ours.

Baptism begins Jesus' public ministry; baptism begins our public ministries outside of the immediate household. On this day many churches have a renewal of baptismal vows; today we gave thanks for our baptism with water and word, as we remembered and renewed God claiming, calling, and sending us in baptism.

* * *
But where are we as we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus? We're in the season of Epiphany that emphasizes Jesus as light of the world, God's salvation for everyone everywhere. We often symbolize that by light that reaches around the globe and can't be extinguished.

Light was the first element of creation. Without light there is no life.

We try to prayerfully honor our baptismal calling to work for justice, to act in ways that increase the greater good and maybe result in Good Trouble!

However, this country and the world, as well as most of us are in pain, loss – full of uncertainty about the future that's never a known factor; we're unsure more than usual of our next move or what tomorrow will bring.

Though we can't neglect or ignore those big concerns, let's try to focus on the micro level as we live out our baptism during this season of Epiphany.

Let's be light and life to each other at home – work – school – church. Let's how up for each other. And please tell each other what you need. Don't assume anyone read minds.

• We can do this!
• We are baptized!
• Amen!
* * *
Again today Jesus invites us to the Table of Grace. Jesus welcomes everyone to a taste of the New Creation where all is healed, all is whole, where creation's bounty knows no limits, where love embraces all.

Come, let us eat, for lo, the feast is spread.
Come, let us drink for lo, the cup is poured.

You are welcome.
I am welcome.
We are welcome!

To God alone be glory.
Amen!