desert spirit's fire!

Skirball Cultural Center

2026-06-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

For my May 2nd Tuesday day off I visted the Skirball Cultural Center for the first time since Before Covid.

Last Tuesday was election day in California; of course I voted blue. I'll include pics in my month end rundown.

"Guided by Jewish tradition and inspired by American democratic ideals, the Skirball welcomes people of all communities and generations to participate in cultural experiences that celebrate discovery and hope, foster human connections, and call upon us to help build a more just society."

To my distress I missed Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution, but it's on view through 28 February 2027 so I'll catch it when a new exhibit opens. I'll also be sure to have $$ for Noah's Ark.

The late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel referred to Shabbat as a Palace in Time. The room was filled with paintings by Robert Russell and Lisa Edelstein that at first looked like photographs.

Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos celebrates everything about punk.

The book store and gift shop, of course!

Welcome signs on the 405

Pentecost 2A

2026-06-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

My sermon from yesterday.

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, "Follow me." And Matthew got up and followed Jesus.

And as Jesus sat at dinner in the house – Matthew's house – many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

But when Jesus heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy; not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Here in the global North, we're one week into the halcyon days of summer, with sunny days, star-spangled nights, picnics, barbecues, music on the half shell, and feeling all of our dreams may come true, after all.

At the same time, the church's year of grace has opened wide the six month long season when we count Sundays after the Feast of Pentecost, a time of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost when the Church really comes into its own as we discern God's call and claim on our lives, and what ministries God may be calling us to respond to. Green is the liturgical color for these months, as we act in ways that help the world around us bloom and flourish.

This is the year of Matthew's gospel; today's gospel reading is Jesus' call to Matthew and Matthew's response. Although none of the earliest gospel manuscripts indicate an author, a community gathered around this disciple Matthew probably wrote this gospel.

As we just heard, Jesus notices Matthew at his workplace. Matthew collected taxes, tariffs, and tolls in the employ of the occupying Roman government. People generally hated tax collectors because – among other abuses – they added on their own charges to the amount required to return to Rome.

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all contain this story. And, Mark and Luke tell us this tax collector's name was Levi, which means he was from the priestly tribe of Levites that ministered at the Jerusalem Temple. In other words, his life had fallen off the rails and he was in a profession opposed to his origins.

Today's reading from Matthew's gospel only mentions a house, but Luke and Mark tell us it was Matthew's house where Matthew/Levi made an extravagant banquet. Although we don't know the elapsed time between Jesus' invitation and Matthew's response, Matthew doubtless already knew a lot about Jesus. As part of his response to Jesus' invitation to follow him, Matthew offered an amazing feast to all comers, as if he already knew plentiful food was one of the signs of the presence of God's reign on earth.

Luke tells us everyone reclined at table. In that culture, reclining for a meal was a sign of shalom, of having "enough," no longer needing to scratch for life or be beholden to empire. Reclining at table meant everyone was an equal among equals.

* * *
You know about the ultra-religious pharisees with their self-righteous attitudes, and how they separated themselves from everyone else to avoid contamination. Jesus references "sacrifice" of the ceremonial law that did nothing to connect anyone to God, nothing to benefit anyone anywhere. Jesus reminds us he wants mercy.

Long ago in a previous life I knew a young woman I'll call Cheryl, because her name was Cheryl. Life dumped a lot on her from outside, and she made some decisions that had negative outcomes. It felt as if everyone was giving her unhelpful suggestions. When a new dog came into Cheryl's life and she decided to adopt him, she told me she asked herself what trait or characteristic did people need most? Her answer was mercy, so she named her new canine companion Mercy.

Is God able to name and call each of us Mercy and Merciful?

* * *
Originally for this start of the season of Pentecost when we discern and engage ministries that help the world bloom and flourish, I considered asking all of us to divide our lives into our immediate home, workplace, neighborhood; this parish and any other church communities where you're involved; and the larger, greater world out there. I thought I'd ask each of us what God is calling us to do in each of those arenas—smaller, manageable acts of service. That still feels like a good idea, but it's clear to me that the past couple of months, last Sunday's guest from Global Refuge, the needs of the city and county of Los Angeles and beyond, and today's immigration focused retreat after worship all point us to a continued emphasis on immigration and immigrants.

Last week Karla from Global Refuge placed immigration in the context of the Pentecost of our baptism! Scripture tells us we all are strangers and sojourners everywhere we go, and God travels with us.

I don't have an answer or a suggestion for ways to engage and minister around immigration during the next few months. We know it takes prayer, thought, listening, time, and conversations to discern where God is leading us and the nature of our responses.

* * *
Again today Jesus invites everyone to the table of grace for a foretaste of the feast to come when…

…many will come come from the east and the west, the north and the south, and recline at table in the Kingdom of Heaven. Luke 13:29

Amen? Amen!

Our song of the day is "We Come to the Hungry Feast"

Five Minute Friday :: Criticize

2026-06-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Criticize Linkup

To criticize or to be critical originally meant to be discerning. Or to judge. Both criticize and judge are examples of words with a connotation gone off the rails in popular perception. Another? On the phone I said to a call center worker, "I appreciate your argument, but I'm not interested." She replied, "I'm not arguing with you!" I countered, "You're giving me your opinion. That is an argument."

Maybe I've spent too much time in too many academic venues. Ya think so? Oh, who knows.

In any case, you might show me a scripture commentary and I might remark, "That's the form critical one." Or "That commentary is redaction critical." There's nothing negative about ventures into higher scriptural criticism—just the opposite, as they dig into origins, contexts, editions, glosses, omissions, additions, interpretations, so we can better understand God's communication with humanity, comprehend more fully God's presence and actions in history.

Nuances aside, "criticize" generally isn't a positive word for us, probably because we have too much experience with opinions of others that rip apart our ventures, look for flaws and mistakes, sometimes attempt to denigrate our best attempts and in the process make us feel less worthy.

Some individuals work as professional critics. Professional means they get paid to write and publish opinions and reviews of books, music, visual arts, theatre, food, etc.. Many of us enjoy critiquing those topics; some have gained followings on their blog, substack, or other social media.

How about you?

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Five Minute Friday :: Deal

2026-05-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Deal Linkup

"Here's the thing," my coworker often says. And she often reminds me this isn't forever; we're not going to work at these jobs until the end of days. In that case, it's not a bad deal. If forever were the case, would that be different? Yes. It would be a very sad deal.

Humans often think of life as a zero-sum game: you get results commensurate with what you put in. We're not necessarily mistaken because that's often the deal. An example would be a dessert that costs twice as much as another dessert being almost twice as tasty. We often consider paying less than usual a good deal. Needing to work less intensely or not as long as usual for a particular outcome? Good deals.

But here's the thing! Do you remember the Exodus narrative? Moses had helped rescue God's people from oppressive, thankless labor without respite. Egypt was the breadbasket of the world and they'd have starved to death if they hadn't stayed there, but it was an existence of counting every unit of input and output, pharaoh boss never being satisfied, and God's people not having freedom – or time – for worship.

You remember Israel's experience during forty years in the post-Egypt desert? We know they complained – "murmured" – longing to return to the cucumbers, melons, onions, leeks, and garlics of Egypt. But here's the deal. Because they couldn't grow anything in the desert, they had no choice but to trust God's provision. With manna from the sky and water from the rock, with the grace-filled gift of Ten Words or commandments to guide their lives together, there was no quid pro quo. There was no "deal." Life was pure gift.

My coworker often says "Here's the thing." For now there's a real deal because we need to work six days every week. But the seventh day? That's shabbat. Sabbath. Rest from planning, from working, from being beholden to any deals. A time to remember life as gift and to offer the gift of life to someone else.

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Five Minute Friday :: Benefits

2026-05-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Benefit Linkup

I've been in contexts where asking people if they receive benefits or bennies (not the drug) is common. Bene, benefits are about goodness, wellness, getting the good stuff and benefiting from it. Doing well by getting the goods.

Like EBT-Food Stamps, some unearned benefits are an essential, life-giving grace.

The Godspell version of Psalm 103 pretty much comes from hymn 293 in the Episcopal Church's Hymnal 1940 and celebrates a long list of benefits God gives us:

Oh bless the Lord my soul
His grace to thee proclaimed
And all that is within me join
To bless his holy name

Oh bless the Lord my soul
God's mercies bear in mind
Forget not all his benefits
The Lord to thee is kind

Oh bless the lord my soul!
He pardons all thy sins
Prolongs thy feeble breath
He heals thine infirmities
And ransoms thee from death

God clothes thee with his love
Upholds thee with his truth
And like an eagle he renews
The vigor of thy youth

And bless God's holy name
Whose grace hath made thee whole
Whose love and kindness crowns
Thy days

Oh bless the lord
Bless the lord, bless the lord
My soul!

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La Brea Tar Pits & Museum

2026-05-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

In Spanish La Brea means "the tar." Brea is the word for tar or pitch. La Brea Avenue goes north-south for approximately twenty miles through Los Angeles. Did you know La Brea Avenue ends in Inglewood at Century Boulevard and then continues as Hawthorne Boulevard deep into the South Bay?

The famous La Brea Tar Pits and accompanying museum are next door to LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard with no break between campuses.

This past Tuesday I continued my museum series with my first ever visit to the Tar Pits grounds and museum. The exhibits and their narratives are mind-boggling! The museum inscribes a circular path, and there's a leafy green central atrium where guests can walk, sit, and relax.

My excursion to the Tar Pits was more than timely because they'll be closing on July 7th for two years while they update and renovate.

• Antique bison

• Extinct camel

• Americcan lion

• Tuna Tuesday at my nearby Subway

Five Minute Friday :: Sustain

2026-05-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Sustain Linkup

What has sustained me all these bleak years?

Getting out of bed a half hour before first light and watching another new day gracefully make its way onto the world. Trying to relocate myself in better illuminated settings from my past. Can I replicate some form of those here and now? Admitting I've still been hitting a few balls out of the park over these many seasons. Despite everything.

Re-membering: bringing back together; again forming a whole from scattered parts. Dreaming. Can the future be an updated version of those parts when they still were whole, before they cracked and scattered?

This is earthquake country. Before I visited the new David Geffen Galleries at LACMA last Tuesday, I read about the project. Probably related to moment skyscraper and high rise construction that bends in an earthquake or a storm so it doesn't crack and break, the entire new museum wing can bend and extend five feet.

I may have mentioned a friend's comment that a mutual acquaintance is "very establishment," without adding a negative or a positive interpretation. They simply are. I'm still "very Y2K." That means I've experienced 911, the Great Recession that my economics degree insists qualified as another Great Depression, the Covid pandemic, the January 6 insurrection, and a long series of shipwrecks and disappointments in my own life. Along with the rest of my population cohort, I've survived global and individual assaults, so a return of anything Y2K-ish will present itself differently from the original.

Have I learned to bend in the storms and earthquakes? Yes. More by necessity than by intention. Have I cracked and broken? Or have I bent?

At my church in Previous City, during the offerings of bread, wine, and tithes, as they set the Eucharistic Table we'd sing from Psalm 116:

What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and will call on the name of the Lord.
I will take the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
now in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the Lord's house,
in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

God invites everyone to the feast! "Jesus Christ, the bread of life; Jesus Christ, the cup of salvation!"

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David Geffen Galleries at LACMA

2026-05-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

• My Tuesday day off this week was especially bloggable because I visited the new David Geffen Galleries at LACMA. Due to an afternoon private event, everyone had to leave LACMA at 2, so most likely I'll go back on the free second Tuesday in June. The Miracle Mile location features three museums; I recently read Los Angeles has the most museums per capita of any city in the world!!!

• Alexander Calder designed this poster when LACMA's Wilshire Boulevard location opened in 1965.

• Looking southwest at the Petersen Automotive Museum

• On the right you can see the dome of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. When I visited there not long after it opened, everyone had to show a vaccination card. Besides the museum, my January 2022 rundown includes Float Fest the day after the Rose Parade, and a small selection of the many pictures I got at the [LA River] Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Preserve the last Sunday of the month.

• Urban Light by Chris Burden

• At the Geffen Galleries

• Three favorite paintings in the Geffen Galleries:

• Lane Barden, [Los Angeles River] View from the 7th Street Bridge, 2018

• Granville Redmond, California Poppy Field [detail], circa 1926

• Henri Matisse, La Gerbe (The Sheaf), 1953

• At the Jack in the Box near LACMA I sprung for a favorite lunch combination—customized Chicken Sandwich, French Fries, and Diet Coke.

• Hazelnut Frappe at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf that moved a few blocks west from the busy noisy Wilshire and Vermont location I used to visit when I first came to LA. Mature green trees surround and shade the store at Wilshire and Mariposa.

Artplex Gallery

2026-05-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

• Artplex Gallery was my art-focused activity for Tuesday the 5th of May. it's a sort of commercial space because you can purchase any of the art works, and it nicely meets their "Discover Contemporary Art Beyond the Ordinary" tagline.

• Flower study 1 • Sally West

• Perched on the Tree of Life • Jennyfer Stratman

• A Design for Life • Jonjo Elliott

• Soft Daylight • Frederic Paul

• Flowers on Tuesday • Sally West

• One Day • Sally West

• Enchantment • Alessandro Casetti

• In the Above • Jeff Faust

• After the Storm • Jeff Faust

• Settling Into Dusk • Steven Nederveen

• Sooey • Kyle Paliotto

• Pale Green Dream • Taking Root II • Peter Kuttner

• The Frequency Of A Loving Heart • Amadou Opa Bathily

• Breaking News • Amadou Opa Bathily

• Sunny Beach Days • Elizabeth Lagreiters

• Mid-Hudson Inscape • Bruce Rubenstein

• Ultramarine • Kate Tova

• Tuesday was Cinco de Mayo but I opted for Tuna Tuesday at Subway. I'd planned to get a frappe afterwards, but Boba Time was closed again. Short staffed? Maybe, because they'd been advertising help wanted.

Five Minute Friday :: Beginning

2026-05-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Beginning Linkup

Have you heard the phrase, "every ending also is a beginning?" It would take eons to scroll through the years of your life and show how sometimes that was true, other times it was a loud false because a particular ending marked the conclusion of…? A pain-filled situation you couldn't wait to be rid of, or a glorious phase filled with achievement, support, and wonder. Some endings make space for new beginnings that otherwise couldn't be; other endings mean emptiness and heartbreak.

Like too many in this economy, I tell people I'm "between lives," meaning I consider myself in a transitional time between an established routine of employment, housing, and connections and (ideally) some of the same in the future. Most of us "between lives" people are working at other than our ideal job or the career we thought we were preparing for. Most of us probably are in temporary style housing and not in a place with a mortgage or a long-term lease, unless someone else holds the mortgage or the lease and we're renting from them.

I wrote that introduction because all of us between lives people can't stay there forever, although I'll admit it has a degree of comfort. Unsettled yet comfortable? Mostly because of meeting and commiserating with many many many others who truly get it.

How. Some. Ever. We need to figure out what it will take and how we will get to a serious new beginning. That new start probably will entail ending aspects of between-ness, so in that case, a particular ending is essential for a beginning.

The end of between lives may be a little bit bitter with a touch of sweetness. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the thrill of the chase? That I do, but this one has gotten very old. I'm ready to settle, not for less than I need or deserve—I'm ready to settle down again. The end of "between lives" had better make room for an excellent new beginning.

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Celebrating Live on Easter 5!

2026-05-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

Live at The Amen Jubilee!

1 we gather at the font
2 death has no more dominion
3 glory praise
4 listening, hearing, being
5 we give thee of thine own
6 broken and shed
7 we gather at the welcome table
8 thankful praise
9 jubilee, amen!

"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine;
you are but aliens and sojourners with me.
You shall grant redemption of the land of your possession."
Leviticus 25:23-24

April 2026

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

• On Tuesday the 7th, I visited the Vincent Price Museum and especially enjoyed art by Ofelia Esparza.

• The Los Angeles River on Tuesday the 14th

• Earth Day 2026 • Our Power :: Our Planet :: two versions of the same design

• Street Art Tuesday on the 21st

• On the last Tuesday of the month, another Santa Monica Lunch and the Armand Hammer Museum again. There were two new exhibits since my last visit.

• Space is the Place: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

• From the website instead of linking to it because Space Is the Place ends early September:

Space is the Place takes its title from the 1973 studio album and 1974 film by Sun Ra (1914-1993). The selected works in the exhibition consider "space" as a conceptual framework, through the themes of afro-futurism, belonging, placemaking, and the act of taking up space [The display] comprises installations, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and multi-media works by nearly thirty artists.

• Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials
• Act 1: Breathing, Bleeding, Crumbling Form
• Act II: Cosmic Abstraction and Communal Form
• Act II: Clay

• From the museum website:

Twenty-two artists from North, Central, and South America who embrace the unpredictable nature of living materials. These artists use materials such as avocado, cacao, achiote, cochineal, stone, clay, and natural dyes to create large-scale installations, paintings, works on paper, and mixed-media sculpture. They are rooted in the spirit, memory, and knowledge of Brown and Indigenous worlds … as records of the living and repositories of cosmic memory, organic decay and transformation.

Have I ever mentioned the commentaries from the Hammer Museum are beyond pretentious? Well, they are.

Five Minute Friday :: Decision

2026-04-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

The breeze at dawn has something to tell you.
Your boundaries are too small. Rumi
• Five Minute Friday :: Decision Linkup

Our days are packed with decisions already made that may include what to have for breakfast, what route to take to work in which conveyance, what time for your lunch break, etc., but Kate's kids especially are deciding about a road that stretches far ahead that's yet a trek they can start any time. To limit today's decision topic, those of us with more chronology already have decided about higher education, a possible profession, career training, a good company to work for. Sometimes when to quit and when to keep on keepin' on.

These are decisions regarding where you'll travel to your future, and the road you'll take to get there. It's about whether or not you'll carefully follow a map, or trust a more random intuitive approach. You already know "It's about the journey, and not the destination."

Although a young recent high school, community college, university, or professional school graduate has what looks like an endless road ahead, at any life stage we have the opportunity to decide the next step, a possible change of profession, workplace location, or type of employment setting. I love the quote from Rumi in my header! Although our dreams often start out boundless, they sometimes don't stay that way.

This has been about the road ahead. What about the miles, the highways, the decisions and their outcomes that lie behind us? William Faulkner reminds us the past never is past; it keeps overtaking us minute by minute. How are you, how am I, going to make the journey that's now in the rear view mirror happily affect your decisions today?

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Five Minute Friday :: Timing

2026-04-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

My header poppies are from 22 June 2020 – two days after the solstice –
because the timing of the seasons always is just right.
The peaches square comes from 12 June 2022.

• Five Minute Friday :: Timing Linkup

Theology blog here, right? Greek distinguishes between chronos (ordinary everyday time we usually measure on a clock or calendar, as in "chronology"), and kairos (extraordinary one of a kind time that marks a specific event we may have been awaiting or that happens unexpectedly).

It's super ironic and surprising that the Apostle Paul writes his only birth narrative about chronos and not kairos time. Given that it's one of the most poignant verses in the New Testament, who'd of thunk it?

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law. Galatians 4:4

Which of these timing renderings in English from that verse feels best?

proper time – time came to completion – fulfillment of the time – appointed time – time was right – right time – time had fully come – appropriate time – chosen time – set time had fully come – fulfilling of the time
I'm often grateful I didn't send an email or make a phone call when I'd planned it, and my lack of preparation or another circumstance delayed it. When I finally made the call or sent the email, the timing often felt providential, close to "kairos" even for something relatively small. Then there have been a few times I ended up not contacting the person or organization at all. Has that happened to you?

When I place larger events in the chronology of my life and my relationships with other people, the ways right timing makes seemingly disparate events and people come together often astonishes me. Every time it happens!

There have been times I've instinctively known other people's suggested timings were wrong. Then there were a handful of instances i refused to follow another person's suggested timing and regretted it.

This has been a somewhat abstract five minutes. Is timing an abstract concept? Not usually. Timing most often is about the important stuff and when events that move life forward just happen to happen. And timing is about joys in life that become disappointments when we don't consider the whole timeline—like Kate's hydrangeas.

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Morning Has Broken

2026-04-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

City Resist

2026-04-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Morning

2026-04-23T21:19:00.001-07:00

Beach Speak

2026-04-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

Street Art Tuesday

2026-04-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

For this week's Tuesday day off I happened upon a LA Street Art tour in an industrial section of the Boyle Heights East Los Angeles neighborhood. Graff Tours [Graffiti Tours Art Studio] offered it; Mala was my host for the 90 minute walkabout. Mala's website is La Mala Luna.

I won't list all the information I got, but I'll tell you if it's not illegal, it's not graffiti. If you ask anyone casually about street art, graffiti probably would be their first response. Some of the pictures I took are graffiti (illegal because it defaces someone's property) or graffiti-style (legal because the artist has permission), some have elements of fine art, while others combine different styles.

Whenever I present a banner workshop, I remind participants they're doing public art that needs to contain concepts or elements most people understand. In other words, art out in public generally is not an obscure insider pursuit, although if it's specific to a particular culture – like Persian New Year or a new Egyptian restaurant on the block – people may get curious and need to ask questions to find out more.

LA is full of graffiti everywhere and it's a form of public art, yet it still is somewhat of an insider endeavor. I learned a tiny amount and expect to learn more as I look around and when I have a chance to collect a few people and create my own graffiti-style art in one of the workshops Graff Tours offers. Remember, it won't be graffiti because it will be legal.

I hope you enjoy this collection of graffiti and other street art; I trust you'll appreciate the "Museums" tag for this blog post.

For a late afternoon lunch, i had an amazing big Greek salad and a peach lemonade at the new to me Salata: The Next Generation Salad Bar in the Fig At 7th food court. (I'm finally resigned to even that section of DTLA being gruddier than it used to be.) And later a large Mocha Frappe.

Earth Day 2026 :: Our Power • Our Planet

2026-04-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

Earth Day 2026 • Our Power • Our Planet

• suntreeriver design

Los Angeles River

2026-04-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of the Los Angeles River that named the city from my Tuesday 14 April day off outing, along with a handful more from 2017, 2018, and 2019. Just as you enjoy a piece of music or a culinary specialty over and over again, visuals are just as good the second, third, and multiple times. The first two groups come from Lewis MacAdams Riverfront Park in the spring. All these photos are from a soft bottom area that supports wildlife and wild plants, and not from a concrete storm drain section.

From Tuesday

From Previous Years

Lewis MacAdams quote: "If it's not impossible, I'm not interested."

Around the Frog Spot in Late September 2017

Five Minute Friday :: Schedule

2026-04-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

World Communion Sunday Welcome Table Bread and Cup
• Five Minute Friday :: Schedule Linkup

Whether it's skeddule or sheddule, it's an essential for staying organized and productive. Schedules help planes and trains take off and arrive on time. They let employees, suppliers, vendors, customers, and everyone else know what hours they can shop. Etc. Etc. Society necessarily runs on multiple interdependent schedules, as do families. For the tulips in Kate's FMF "schedule" illustration square, experiencing winter is a necessary part of their schedule if they're going to flower in the spring.

Then there's Kate's reminder not to get so engrossed in making a living (overscheduled) that you neglect getting a life.

Aside from daily details for home, work, school, or various appointments, have you noticed how your week eases into a schedule that includes work, play, rest, recreation, and worship? These days I work second shift 2 to 11, Wednesday through Monday, a schedule I never thought I'd like. Although I don't exactly love it, aside from being grateful for a reasonable job in this crazy economy, I've discovered my body, mind, and spirit have achieved a comfortable rhythm, at least for the medium term (if not forever).

The Sunday assembly centers the rest of my week around Word and Sacrament. You might say Word and Sacrament schedule my week with constant awareness of God with me.

There you have my reflective considerations about "schedule." Then there's the schedule I'd choose if I had the choice…

What's your current schedule? And your ideal?

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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.

# # #

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.

March 2026 :: Around Town

2026-03-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

• Getty Center – early March Cherry Blossoms – Orchid on the eve of the March 7th LA Marathon

• LACMA visitor stickers on a traffic light pole – later in March Sakura – MOCA signage

• Tuesday 03 March and Black Arts at the Getty

• Important note: Tuesday 03 March was the first time I knew my usual Subway was closed due to a water main malfunction. It still was closed on Friday 27 March. That's a month. Almost definitely I ate lunch at that Subway on Friday 27 February. Update: it finally finally reopened on Friday 17 April. That's seven weeks, approaching two months.

• Friday March 6th Cherry Blossoms!

• March 10th and another free Second Tuesday at LACMA

• Tuesday March 17th and my first time in Venice since Covid began. I didn't consult my phone a single time, so these are three captures from before.

• "Grace to you and peace from God who raises the dead, who makes all things new!"

• On the fifth Sunday in (but not of) Lent I preached again—this time on Ezekiel's Dry Bones

• Tuesday 24 March lunch in Santa Monica and new exhibits at the Armand and Hammer Museum

• Sunday 29 March Palm / Passion Sunday

• New art at MOCA on Tuesday the last day of the month that's also Tuesday in Holy Week