desert spirit's fire!

July 2026

2026-07-31T22:50:00.000-07:00

If you've been following this blog or my days in general, you probably know my current between lives work situation gives me one day off each week, so I do my best to make Tuesdays interesting and momentous with an activity like a museum visit. Here's the rundown for July.

• Tuesday 07 July

This didn't count as momentous, but I enjoyed hanging out at the Century City Mall. In an unusual configuration, you enter from the Santa Monica Boulevard sidewalk (there's also an attached parkade), and once you're inside the mall two floors of shops, department stores, and eateries open up.

Unlike many shopping centers, this one is alive, well, and a cool place to chill. It's larger and not as upscale as The Grove, and it's slightly less plebeian than shopping centers like Culver City that's also a Westfield. The LA Westside neighborhood of Century City claims pride of place in between the municipality of Beverly Hills and the Westwood hood where UCLA resides.

Because there was a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf I had to have a hazelnut frappe; did you know CB&TL does hazelnut much better than anywhere else?

With Subway's current meal of the day rotation featuring Tuna on Tuesdays, you know what I got.

• Tuesday14 July

• Village Square at LACMA.

• Tuesday 21 July

• Getty Center again because they had some new exhibits I intended to view, but instead of visiting them I sat around various spots inside and out and took some pictures.

• Tuesday 28 July

Again this time, I didn't write a separate blog for the last Tuesday of the month. I went back to the Getty and into the Research Institute building where I visited Lost, Found, Returned about the provenance of a particular drawing and Stendahl's World—Marketing Ancient Mexico and Modern Art in Los Angeles. I'd seen the word "provenance" before, but I didn't know the meaning. Provenance is where something originates (pro+venire=comes from), along with its journey if it has one beyond place of birth. In many ways tracing provenance is like tracking the title trail for a real property—especially legal aspects of both.

I don't link to the exhibitions on museum websites because they'll be gone as soon as the art in question is gone, but I strongly encourage you to check out Earl L. Stendahl's acquisitions, exhibitions, and sales, particularly when he got into Mesoamerican art and artifacts that became a trend and a status symbol. Everything wasn't genuine, and he left devastation behind at the excavation sites.

Wikipedia says, "He sold Mexican and Central American antiquities that were often stolen, looted, or assembled from disparate fragments. Often sold to Hollywood collectors, to museums, and even department stores." To think it happened during the century we just left!

Five Minute Friday :: Afford

2026-07-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Afford Linkup

It feels as if everyone except the ultra-affluent is mired in an affordability crisis. Cities like New York, London, and San Francisco aside, who can afford housing, transportation, groceries, almost anywhere? Can anyone afford an out of town vacation? To quit their job and take time to find another that in the long run will be a better fit and pay more? Can you afford to start your own business? What kind of entertainment can you afford?

With more and more conventional goods becoming luxuries, what now?

Most of us who write to these prompts knew life in the previous century. Even if we started using technology early on, most Five Minute Friday writers aren't digital natives. Can you sense where I'm headed? Maybe you're already there?!

Step back a couple of decades to a backyard garden. Rent a community garden plot. Check out the farmer's market or a sidewalk vendor. Their fare may be more affordable, it's probably fresher, and you can benefit the nearby economy. Besides, can you really afford to pay Big Ag and all the supply chain intermediaries?

Step back from streaming and try hard to remember days of board games and analog puzzles together. Preparing dinner together. How's your memory? Try to recapture some of the free or inexpensive entertainment that probably included conversation and a major bonus of getting to know each other better.

What shape does your everyday take? Can you afford your current arrangement? It would be surprising to find someone who hasn't considered those concerns.

Whatever the economy does, laying the foundation of the days, the weeks, the future hopes, how about following the admonition of scripture to…

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

Can you afford forgiveness? How can we not afford to forgive? Please remember: it's aways possible to forgive, yet sometimes it's impossible and/or unwise to reconcile.

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Five Minute Friday :: Phase

2026-07-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Phase Linkup

We go through short phases and longer ones. Kate wrote about being a little kid as a phase in their lives and in a parent's life. Sometimes we decide it's time to phase out a certain behavior or activity. Sometimes we don't know we're in a particular phase until it's over. Does something else take its place? Sometimes. Does its exit leave an empty space? Sometimes. But every time-limited aspect of life isn't necessarily a phase, is it?

Today I'm thinking about the years I spent in the Intermountain West. I lived along the Wasatch front, but with Utah being such a beautiful state, I took day trips and half-day excursions to other locations. But I regret that I took next to zero photographs. How could that be? I was going through a phase of grief and loss but without anyone to admit it to, lacking someone else to acknowledge it, taking pictures didn't even occur to me.

And the times I spent in Boston. Although I was born in the deep south, I grew up in Boston in a family that was Midwestern and Southern. That first phase was long, with friends, schools, many activities, and plans for a future of service and participation.

My second Boston-Cambridge sojourn featured another phase of professional school—some would call it "grad school," but I reserve that expression for high-end academic programs and not so much for something like an MSW, MDiv or others with practical career content, even though they all include some heavy-duty academics.

My third Massachusetts layover was Boston and Cape Cod. Someday I might even write about that important phase.

All of those are long phases defined by a particular geography, and inside that longitude and latitude, defined by what I did and by what happened to me.

What kinds and lengths of phases has your life had?

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Getty Tuesday

2026-07-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday was the Getty Center again because they'd opened new exhibitions since my last time there. Although I did go to the Getty, I didn't visit any galleries. I had a pleasant time just being in those beautiful surroundings. Here are google photos collages of some of the pictures I took. Group one and group three have the same view in the same position, but that's fine because it's a really good shot. Since I was slow getting going, I had Tuna Tuesday lunch beforehand at the Subway on Westwood Blvd near Wilshire Blvd.

Most weekends I wonder what I'll do on my day off. I already know what I'll do on July 28th: back to the Getty and into the galleries I missed this past Tuesday.

Five Minute Friday :: Route

2026-07-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

Downtown Los Angeles in May
• Five Minute Friday :: Route Linkup

In my footer pics you can see one of my takes on the sign at the very end of Route 66 at the Santa Monica Pier. My church sits along Route 66; second pic is the sign on the building accented with a couple of cables. It's always a joy when the sun comes up on the Santa Monica Boulevard along Route 66 and we're there to gather around Word and Sacrament. Again. And next week, too.

What can I say about a route, a path, a road? The road home, or the road to the cross? The route that intersects with another every time I venture east or west or almost anywhere?

I'm writing about a route and routes on Thursday 16 July. It's the middle day of July, it's this blog's twenty-fourth blogoversary, and I'm still working through an anniversary post that I'll pre-date when I finish.

My header provides a hint of what my intended route has been all along. Only a hint, because my passion for cities and The City includes downtown with its skyscrapers, mid-city, the CBD, the edges, the margins, the central city, and the not yet imagined.

How does a person discern their path or route? Gifts, passions, opportunities. Circumstances, too, as a subset of opportunities. My chosen route felt so logical. The way opportunities and circumstances came together, I knew God was choosing the city for me, and awaiting my response and participation. What happened?

Did an alternate route slowly or suddenly appear? No. Did I uncover an old interest and try to revive it? No. Did I change my mind about cities and The City and decide to sit things out? No.

Or did the city start happening and then continue with sometimes clear, sometimes imperceptible twists, turns, detours, and dead ends? Not that I've noticed. Did I take a different route home? No. I didn't and I haven't yet.

What personality and path has your route or routes taken?

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LACMA :: Village Square

2026-07-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Originally I'd planned to explore more of the new David Geffen Galleries for the second Tuesday in July, but memories of my first and only time there in April overwhelmed me. I hadn't been able to figure out or appreciate the layout and arrangement and this week I didn't have enough energy to try again.

There were exhibits in the Resnick Pavilion I hadn't really seen, so this time I focused on Village Square that opened February 22 and closes July 19. The description won't always be on the LACMA website; here's what it's about:

"Village Square brings together nearly 50 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection in a celebration of art and community. The exhibition showcases expressive landscapes and striking portraits by Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Modigliani, Sisley, Soutine, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. Many of these bold, dynamic works grew out of close friendships among artists, and on occasion with Henry Pearlman himself. Village Square honors the Pearlmans' belief in art's power to create shared experiences and foster connections.

"This is the final opportunity to see the collection before it is gifted to museums across the country; six important works will remain at LACMA, strengthening its modern and impressionist holdings.

"This exhibition was co-organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum."

• Paul Cézanne, Cistern in the Park of Chateau Noir, c. 1900

• Chaim Soutine, Path to the Fountain, c.1920

• Chaim Soutine, Steeple of Saint-Pierre at Céret, c.1922

• Paul Cézanne, Mount Sainte-Victoire, c. 1904-06

• Paul Cézanne, Provençal Manor, c.1885

• PIerre-August Renoir, Nude in a Landscape, c.1887

• Camille Pissarro, Still Life: Apples and Pears in a Round Basket, 1872

• Paul Cézanne, Route to Le Tholonet, 1900-1904

• Paul Cézanne, House in Provence, c. 1890-94

• Maurice Utrillo, The White House c. 1937

• Oskar Kokoschka, Henry Pearlman, 1948

• Alfred Sisley, River View, 1889

Five Minute Friday :: Short

2026-07-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

Owe no one anything, except to love one another,
for any one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
• Five Minute Friday :: Short Linkup

Buy short; sell long. Today I'm short on cash. Again. The short end of the deal.

Everyday.

Why do so many aspects of life keep coming up short? Not enough legal tender. Not enough human tenderness. The larder and the pantry lack. No rain for forty days and forty nights. Then nothing but rain with no sun for forty days and…

Knowing all that to be the case, what can we say about living in grace?

Maybe especially when we study the apostle Paul's theology, we contrast law and gospel.

Scripture reveals a world where we don't come up short, but one filled with abundance. The Hebrew scriptures particularly emphasize God's way as one of shalom, a peace that's far more than the absence of conflict. Shalom is wholeness, justice, goodness, bounty, and commonwealth. When we love one another we create shalom for the long run.

Shalom is integrity and honesty with each other. Shalom is the gospel lived out wherever we go. Shalom never runs short; it's the fullness of everything we need.

In the Acts of the Apostles we learn the newly birthed church born of Spirit, water, and Word, made sure everyone had enough, no one came up short on essentials. What can we say about living in grace?

"Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for any one who loves another has fulfilled the law." Romans 13:8

"Happy are the Shalom-makers, for they will be called children of heaven." Matthew 5:9

They'll be called children of heaven because when they practice shalom, no one comes up short. Everyone has enough. That is good news. That's gospel!

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Five Minute Friday :: Outcome

2026-07-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Outcome Linkup

Soccer and the World Cup isn't one of my preoccupations, but I love Major League Baseball (MLB); I've been known to get excited and despondent during the post-season. My first ever MLB game was at the old Tiger Stadium after I'd taken my first solo flight as a passenger. I was in grade 7 or 8. I've noticed parents and kids often make things complicated when a kid or a teen flies unaccompanied, but I went to Boston-Logan, got on the plane, flew to Detroit-Metro, got off the plane. No big deal, but that may have been because I'd been riding city buses and subways alone forever.

Fenway Park by Chris Devers, 2004
Although back then I had next to zero knowledge of the game, in retrospect the Tigers game with an opponent I don't remember was a watershed. A couple years later during high school the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park started to become part of the narrative of my life. Later on when I served an inner city Boston church, senior pastor was able to get Red Sox tickets almost on a whim, and I went to many games that way. A few times I drove youth group kids to Fenway in the church van; other times we traveled there on the subway. For sure I considered myself On The Clock whenever I took on that responsibility.

Today's word is outcome. "I often remind myself" the best way to predict the future is to create it; that's what I knew I was doing with a series of schools, skills, and experiences. As of now, the outcome is far from the minimum I'd anticipated. But God's promises and God's faithfulness are outside of time as we humans measure time. Can I trust God for the outcome of all those years of preparation and expectation?

There's spring training and there's the fall post-season, but I love that baseball is mostly an icon of summer. Although baseball is country, suburban, and everywhere, there's something particularly urban about it, and cities are my jam. Did I already mention Detroit and Boston?

I love baseball's leisurely pace as if clocks and watches don't exist. I love that baseball is an American invention. I love those memories of Fenway Park. I love watching stellar defense and crazy offense. Baseball majorly qualifies as one of my major Life Stuff topics. As I wonder about hopes, dreams, and disappointments, "I often remind myself" baseball is a perfect model for life.

The outcome? You win some; you lose some. Tomorrow is another day, another game, another outcome.
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June 2026

2026-06-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

• O Flying Butterfly… by Stanton MacDonald-Wright at LACMA
• Flowers at Wilshire Blvd and Westwood Blvd in Westwood
• Grand Park sign
• Detail from Female Figure by Roy Lichtenstein at the Broad

• Here's a chronicle of mostly Tuesdays, one Thursday, and a single solitary Sunday.

• Tuesday June 2nd was California voting with a very long ballot.

• Tuesday June 2nd at the Skirball Cultural Center, I missed the Comic Book Exhibit they included with admission, so I'll enjoy it next time and also spring for a ticket to Noah's Ark.

• On Sunday June 7th I preached for Pentecost 2A; Matthew's lectionary year continues.

• Tuesday June 9th was LACMA again because it's always a great way to enjoy second Tuesdays.

• No museum or other cultural outing for Tuesday June 16th, but I got a couple of necessities plus a few other things at the Inglewood Century Shopping Sprawl after a Butterscotch Frosty Sundae at Wendy's.

• Because the World Cup partly happened in LA, my Five Minute Friday on Thursday June 18th had to be about Korea and Mexico.

• June 23rd, the month's 4th Tuesday, featured lunch in Santa Monica followed by a short trip to the Westfield Culver City Mall.

• On the 5th Tuesday, June 30th, I visited The Broad Museum and Gloria Molina Grand Park.

• Tuesday June 30th was the release date for Brian Drinkwine's book, Kingdom Over Empire: Recovering the Gospel from Political Captivity. Due to serendipitously noticing Brian's launch team invitation on Facebook, I received an ARC. My amazon review is forthcoming and will have about two-thirds of my blog content.

Broad Museum + Gloria Molina Grand Park

2026-06-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

• The Broad Museum

• Roy Lichtenstein, "Coup de Chapeau II," 1996

• Roy Lichtenstein, "Female Figure," 1979

• Roy Lichtenstein, "Perfection Painting" (detail), 1986

• Mark Bradford, "Deep Blue," 2018

• Edward Ruscha, "Gilded, Marbled, and Foibled" (detail), 2011-2012

• Andreas Gursky, "Kuwait Stock Exchange II," 2008

• Hank Willis Thomas, born 1976, "We shall not be moved," 2022

• David Hammona, born 1943, "African-American flag," 1990

• Jeff Koons, born 1955, "Party Hat," 1995-7

• On the way to Grand Park:

• Succulents

• LAPhil Store

• Skyscraper

• Gloria Molina Grand Park

• I neglected to get picture of the abundant bright pink seating, though I have some from previous years. Next time, I trust.

Brian Drinkwine :: Kingdom Over Empire

2026-06-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

• The release date for Kingdom Over Empire is Tuesday 30 June. If this overview entices you to get the book, it would be best if you wait until the morning of June 30th.

• Kingdom Over Empire: Recovering the Gospel from Political Captivity by Brian Drinkwine on Amazon

• Brian's Website

Page numbers are from the ARC PDF and are not the same in the print copy.

Poetic, pastoral, and probing, Kingdom Over Empire provides scripture and history to help you sort out your allegiances. Pastor Brian Drinkwine doesn't advise is. He trusts us. I need this book! Whether you live in a Western-style democracy or elsewhere, you need this book!

Kingdom Over Empire. Particularly in politically blue circles in the USA, one major reaction to goings-on in the current presidential administration has been an active, vocal No Kings movement. The general idea is American colonials broke away from royal rule and chose elected leadership rather than hereditary monarchies, and we continue on that path.

Related to not having kings, in protestant mainline churches, especially some individuals in so-called professional leadership in local churches or judicatories have come close to conflating deep blue politics and progressive Christianity. Though I've hovered on the edge, I haven't quite gone there. Brian's book shows us what a Yes Kings affirmation is when the King is Lord of the Universe, Lord of Life Jesus Christ.

I plan to take seriously assessing how outside forces and influences have affected our (my) perspectives and our (my) fears. That's called formation as in the shape, the traits, instincts, love, convictions, assumptions that intrinsically are part of us—that motivate us, too.

And what we are willing to excuse! Brian offers us "companionship from nearby" because according to one of his blockquotes, You do not need a movement. You need companions.

Two critical definitions:

page 33: "Patriotism is love of place without allegiance to place." It's "grateful stewardship of the land, people, and institutions where God has planted us … At its best, it seeks the welfare of the city."

page 34: "Nationalism happens when love of country becomes something it was never meant to be. Nationalism is what happens when patriotism crosses the line from stewardship to identity."

In the church we casually talk about belief, which too many equate with intellectual assent. But first century pistis belief is allegiance, loyalty, trust; it's a whole body-essence of your being posture. [page 44]

Although it's political, social, and economic, in its essence empire is a way of organizing power over time. You likely can list biblical empires such as Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Rome; you can add in more recent Spanish, British and others. But educational, ecclesiastical, consumer, and other entities also operate in an imperial manner because Babylon/empire is pattern rather than place. It is out there. It is in here. Think about it!

Brian provides a short list of lifestyles and religions you could call Christian Pretenders because they're not the good news Mark, the earliest gospel announces to open his proclamation. They aren't Theology of the Cross; many are theology of glory that humans find appealing and humanly doable.

For the Apostle Paul, the gospel is death and resurrection. In Kingdom Over Empire, the author traces the subversive power of the cross and God's faithful actions that paradoxically create new life out of death.

Brian beautifully reminds us Jesus came announcing, "Not a kingdom built on dominance, but on restoration. Not a kingdom advanced by force, but by faithfulness. Not a kingdom that secures itself through control, but one that grows through surrender."

"In this kingdom, blessing begins with the honest recognition of need. The poor are lifted up. The imprisoned are set free. Those far from God are not threats to be managed but treasures hidden in a field. …This kingdom promises not control, but resurrection." [page 84]

"Writing to a church confused about what faithfulness meant, Paul does not appeal to their influence or their success. He appeals to the resurrection."

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

"Firstfruits. The first sign of a harvest that is coming, proof that more is on the way. If Jesus has been raised, then death does not have the final word. And if death does not have the final word, then neither does empire. Neither does failure. Neither does obscurity." [page 162]

Short summary:

"The call is not to disengage from society but to disentangle from idolatry. You can vote without making the vote your hope. You can advocate without making advocacy your salvation. You can be present in the public square without giving the public square the allegiance that belongs to Christ.

"The call is an echo of the Exodus. It is a summons to live as exiles—in the empire but not of it.

"This does not mean we abandon society. It means we refuse to be seduced by its idols. We resist its economy, its nationalism, its violence, its counterfeit hopes.

"We live as if Jesus is King, because he is. And we hold loosely to everything Babylon promises, knowing that it will not last." [page 178]

Kingdom Over Empire is a workbook. It's devotional. It's heavy-duty theology. It offers a direction for us to travel together in order to restore life and hope to a world dominated by empires. Throughout the book, Pastor Brian offers his own testimony. Will your life testify of a King who reigns from a cross?

Disclaimer: As a member of the launch team I received an Advance Reader Copy with no expectation or obligation to write a positive review. As always, my opinions are my own (and you know I wouldn't have it any other way).

Five Minute Friday :: Pivot

2026-06-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

North Hollywood California Coffee Shop
• Five Minute Friday :: Pivot Linkup

I love the skateboard illustration!

Kate wrote about her son's summer job not happening, after all. How many of us have had that exact experience? Maybe a related one or two or three? That's the ongoing employment and housing story for too many of us over the past decade. At least for the short term, he's been able to pivot into some other activities while he waits to hear from his other job apps.

Recently I've gotten reflective as I've evaluated my behaviors over the years. When life and expectations have disappointed me, Instead of pivoting into a new direction, I've kept going in the same one, chasing after activities and opportunities related to my sense of call that still won't quit. But honestly? Keepin' on keepin' on often is the name of the game in any case.

My life got smaller and emptier. Not simpler. I'd lost people, routines, reasons to get out of bed every morning. My world had become silent and still. I may have lost (I had lost) the days I expected would continue, but I still kept getting up in the morning and pretending. I kept hoping… you know about living "as if?!" Practicing resurrection?

I've even tried to rebuild the last place, that last time my world made sense. Would that count as pivoting away from the status quo? Paradoxically(?) I don't know the time or date or place.

How can I find life with pulse and rhythm again? "Meaning and purpose keep you sane" isn't simply a truism. I long for, I need messy noisy healing chaotic again. And then?

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Five Minute Friday :: Vibe

2026-06-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday Vibe :: Linkup

As someone who's never watched a soccer match – or an American football game – I still had to experience the vibe I could hear from outside, so a few minutes ago I came back from a stroll to observe and to feel some other Los Angeles denizens alive with the vibe of South Korea vs Mexico in World Cup 2026.

In my current "between lives" circumstances, I live and work in the Koreatown community of LA. Many of my neighbors citywide (and this city rocks a very wide swath) are Mexican immigrants or otherwise ethnic Mexican, to such an extent most signage everywhere is bilingual.

A few years back as I reminisced with a now former friend I'd met when we both lived in the same Koreatown hostel, she observed, "Koreatown has a nice vibe." Although maybe the part of Koreatown on the other side of Wilshire where we first met does, I'm not sure about this south of Wilshire section. But today's World Cup vibe isn't "nice" or tame—it's competitive yet neighborly yet still wanting my side to win.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:20

There is no longer Jew or Greek;
there is no longer slave or free;
there is no longer male and female,
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28

And yes, Thomas Friedman! Because the world keeps getting flatter every day, why would we want to emphasize our own tribe, our own ethnicity, culture, or brand? Maybe because it has so much to offer the world, just as your tribe, your perspective, your ways of being could enhance my world and broaden my vision. And let's all celebrate and live into the reality that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

As I'm finishing this FMF, I can feel the roaring crowd that's gone way beyond a chill vibe. Mexico won! Enjoy the moment!

What's your vibe today?

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Five Minute Friday :: Part

2026-06-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Part Linkup

When we (you, me, anyone) uses a word that has multiple meanings, it's important to place it unambiguously in context.

There's part the noun; part the verb; partly the adverb.

Knowing in part, partly finished, part of a laundry or moving load (as in the picture Kate provided); parting a barrier such as the red sea or a midwestern storm to help you get through; parting or separating from a person and leaving them behind; ending a commitment and parting from a job or a relationship. Parting the good part of a fruit or veggie from the part you can't use.

Our host Kate concluded her testimony about God parting the waters for her by asking:

Where have you seen God's goodness and provision this week?

Five Minute Friday :: Part

• God is good. All the time.
• All the time. God is good.

⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
¹⁰ But when that which is perfect is come,
then that which is in part shall be done away.
¹² For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:
now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1 Corinthians 13

Where have I seen God's goodness and provision this past week?

"Help me, Jesus. I'm shaking like a leaf.
You've been my king of glory;
won't you be my prince of peace?"

Rich Mullins, Hold Me, Jesus

Last Sunday I had another guest preaching gig. Typically I have some anticipatory excitement beforehand— just enough positive anxiety to make my presentation sing and ring. Last weekend was different. It was the type of anxious that interferes with breathing, thinking, and walking. Some of it was my feeling I hadn't been able to figure out a smooth transition between the scripture text and a possible application.

But as soon as I stood up and looked out at the assembly, I knew it would be fine because God is good, all the time. My high anxiety had simmered down to excitement. And I had prepared! From the feedback I got, I know everything went well, after all. All the time; God is good!

Related to your last Sunday morning or to mine, to the days ahead, to the road each of us will walk, knowing we can't see everything and have little clue – let alone solid knowledge – about where all the moving parts of our life and world are headed is a big comfort. In his famous letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul was both philosophical and practical in his observations about our finite perspective.

The God who parts the waters, the Savior who stills storms with a word wants to quiet our anxieties! Whether you're driving through bad weather, wondering about the job interview or school application or everyday finances and logistics; concerned about your littles, teens, or grands; getting ready to teach or preach God's Word with the responsibility that entails, Jesus wants to be your Prince of Peace. Let him be. God is good—not part of the time. God is good all the time!! Amen? Amen!

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Another Second Tuesday at LACMA

2026-06-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

• Chris Burden, Metropolis

• Mark Bradford, born 1961, United States
• 150 Portrait Tone, 2017

• Block Shop Textiles, design house
• Woodblock Proof Prints, 2015
• Designed by Hopie Hill, with Ainslee McAndrew

• Enlarged detail

• Stanton MacDonald-Wright, United States, 1890-1973

• From the Haiga Portfolio, 1966-67

• Departing Spring Hesitates in the Late Cherry Blossoms
• Demons Sowing Barley in the Long Rays of Sunset
• O Flying Butterfly, I Feel Myself a Creature of Dust
• A Cloud of Cherry Blossoms: A Temple Bell—Is It from Ueno?

• Zarina, India, 1937-2020, active United States
• Untitled, 1970

• Floor tiles!

• Paul Poiret, France, 1879-1914
• Textile Length, c. 1920

• Greek chicken and salad lunch - tea - dinner - late afternoon meal

Skirball Cultural Center

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

For my June 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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May 2026

2026-05-31T18:48:00.000-07:00

• Flowers by Sally West at Artplex
• Detail from La Gerbe by Henri Matisse at the David Geffen Galleries
• From the Believe it or Not Museum in Hollywood
• La Brea Tar Pits entrance sign

• Another series of Tuesday outings!

Tuesday May 5th • New to me, the Artplex Gallery celebrates local and international artists.

Tuesday May 12th • On another free second Tuesday, I experienced The David Geffen Galleries at LACMA.

Tuesday May 19th • My first ever trip to the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, though I've gone past it countless times. It's next door to LACMA!

Tuesday May 26th • Santa Monica Lunch and then Ripley's Believe it or not Museum in Hollywood thanks to friends!

the way

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.