Ordinary Sacraments

Movie Presentation this Sunday at 4 PM: Marjoe

2009-02-03T10:42:00.001-08:00

David, our pastor, sent out the following email to Everyone mailing list CLICK HERE TO JOIN

I wanted to let you know that this Sunday at 4 PM, Nameless Church will be showing the 1972 Academy Award Winning Movie "Marjoe" at the Soda Shop located at the corner of 20th and Main Streets, in Downtown Vancouver, WA.

Marjoe Gortner is a former revivalist who first gained a certain fame in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s when he became the youngest ordained preacher at the age of four, and then outright notoriety in the 1970s when he starred in this Oscar-winning, behind-the-scenes documentary about the lucrative business of Pentecostal preaching.

Here is a link to a interesting article I came across about Marjoe and
Evangelism as Entertainment:

http://www.sarahkernochan.com/documentaries/christiancentury.html

I remember very well when this movie came out as I was 12 years old at the time. I was forbidden from watching it. It was not until my mid 20's when I finally first watched it and it became one of my favorite movies. Right up there with Lord of Rings and Star Wars. At least to me.

The Soda Shop, Pop Culture, is offering a special box lunch/dinner for $5 for this event which includes a sandwich, chips and your choice of a bottled gourmet soda pop. When it comes to Soda Pop you name it and they have it. I think they have over 300 sodas. At least that is what some sign says there. You don't have to buy a thing to come for the movie. It is totally and completely free.

For our regular Nameless Ones reading this email, please remember that we meet for Coffee and open discussion at 10:30 AM and our Teaching time begins promptly at 11 AM each Sunday. In our new format, one may stay only for the time of Teaching or one may come only for the Music, or one may come for both. if you have not made it to a service in a while you are missed and you are welcome.

Creative Expression (which may or may not always include Music---Lord please give us Poets and Painters and Dancers and everything else in your Heart for us to have) follows our time of teaching each week. It is really like 2 "mini" services then rolled into one. I just can't always say for sure when the time of Creative Expression will start each week. Probably around 11:45 but not later than 12 Noon, plus or minus.

I will see you then on Sunday and if you are involved in your own Faith Community on Sunday Mornings, I encourage you to be our guest this week for the Movie at 4 PM.

A final reminder. There is one faith, one family and one hope in Christ alone. We are all in this together. The Church is never us and them. It is just us and us.

David Knudtson
Nameless Church

For more information, please see our website's Contact Us page.

Updates!

2009-01-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

Starting tomorrow we are meeting in the mornings. We started in the morning, tried evenings, and now we're back! We will finish our setup and sound checks by 10:30 AM so that we can enjoy free coffee, time with friends, or time to relax from 10:30 - 11 AM.

Synaxis, our worship service, will start promptly at 11 AM. Monday movie nights are off the calendar for now.

Please join us!

-Jeffrey

Community Anywhere

2008-12-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

I just spent a week in a psych ward. Not exactly what I was expecting at this moment in my life. Actually, it wasn't exactly anticipated ever. I mean I'm part of two churches, I have a full time job, I go to school. I guess that doesn't matter when it comes to mental health. I'm reminded of watching David do a silly interpretive dance to "I faked it well, I faked it often... you're never fooled, you get through to me..." Well the getting through was tough, but eventually enough friends recommended I check myself in and I eventually gave in. Many thanks to all who bore with me through a week of mania. I don't think I really lost a single friend, even though I was more than obnoxious. I am sure that I really did scare some of you, for which I sincerely apologize. But none of you seemed to take it personally and you loved me right into the hospital, of my own free will.

What I experienced was amazing. The staff was friendlier, the food better, and the activities more fun than expected. But it was still an adult inpatient program, and for the most part all those things sucked. What blew my hair back in a good way were the other patients. I expected crazies, wackos, nuts, people completely too far gone. And maybe a normal person or two, like me of course. But what I got to be a part of was a special community. Orphans and aliens, wanderers and fools, and we were all in it together. I bonded with several people in particular, and we would look out for the newcomers and make sure no one was lacking a friend. I tried to follow the lead of a couple amazing people who had already been there a little while before me. It reminded me a lot of my attempts to copy Ken every Sunday at HomePDX, encouraging community and relationship in spite of certain social abnormalities.

I saw the patients being Jesus to each other every day. And I tried my hardest to follow suit. I even tried to show off one day and play the piano for everyone, but it was more fun relaxing and playing old hymns and hearing everyone sing along than it was trying to play anything that I had written. There were a couple people interested in visiting Nameless, and a couple more interested in checking out HomePDX. And I hope I see these friends again, but if I don't, I'm sure they will keep doing what they do wherever they go. I feel like I lost a lot of my cynicism this week. And I feel a lot more hopeful about the kingdom of God in the here and now on this earth, and I feel more confident in those around me to be hands and feet of a body that doesn't need a building or a schedule or an agenda or even a pastor.

I don't really know how to end this. I'm not trying to motivate anyone to do anything different. I just wanted to share my experience. And I just want to keep trying to follow in Jesus' footsteps, as trite as that may sound. And the only law I want to live by is the law of love, no matter where I am or how many crazies are around me. Because I'm probably the craziest and most delusional person that I know, and still I get to experience love. It blows my mind.

Crisis Services - Clark County

2008-12-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

If you're in Clark County and are concerned about someone's well-being (yours or someone you know), please call Crisis Services at (800) 626-8137 or (360) 696-9560. If you are having an emergency, call 911.

More information can be found at their website:

http://www.co.clark.wa.us/mental-health/services/crisis.html

Giving

2008-11-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

As we enter the season of mass consumerism, I'm finding myself drawn to Matthew 25. I wonder why it's so difficult to find peace in tithing, giving change to the homeless, and generally showing love to those who could use a kind word. I can often open up, either financially or with words, but sometimes I keep myself shut up.

I hope that this short post might start a dialog. Interested? Post a comment.

Matthew 25:45

And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’

-Jeffrey

Dan Wyatt, reader of blogs, metablogger

2008-09-17T23:51:00.003-07:00

Many write a blog these days. Lo, even the very housewives and stay at home moms who many assume (wrongly) wouldn't spare such time for something considered so cultured or intellectual or "with it." As a stay at home dad I am remiss for not having a blog of my own. It's all the rage (to use a passe colloquialism only worthy of a blog, parenthetically speaking { I do that a lot [ it's a problem really ( I'm seeking help ) ] } ) these days. For they say (more on they in a moment) real writers don't reach out and spew the mundane, such as a blog entry about blogging such as this. Well at least the invitation over there to the right of this entry said I could be mundane so I feel validated. Would you perhaps allow me the opportunity to dumb it down a bit more and betray my Texas roots and call it bloggin'? I gave up fishin' and never was into huntin' so here I go a bloggin', a meta-bloggin' if you will.

They say "... who the hell are "they" anyways? You know they that say "the eyes are the window to the soul?" (Shouldn't it be windows?) That factoid is always attributed to they. Like they has so much credibility. I say to heck with they. Bloggers know the shit, and their blogs are the window(s) to the soul. Here's another one they say. The average readership of any given blog is one. One! Does that include proof reading? Is is really more like zero?

Well Sir (or Ma'am) I am in support of the stay at home whatever they are, the unemployed, the struggling artist/writer with no other financially remunerated venue (I support me!), the bored, the almost literate/web literate with some time to kill, the pundit, the mused, the amused and the amusing, the jackkerouacwannabestreamofconsciousness writer with no continuous roll of paper, but continuous amount of drivespace - how po-mo, oh and the ranter. Let's not forget them. Notice I left out the overly political ranter? If I were a hip blogger I would have called them politicos, but I am not. Anyhoo, I do not favor them for politics are a bore and useless to me as a problem solver. Well sometimes it's ludicrous and funny and therefore a satire of itself, meta-politics. Some exceptions apply*. I guess I would support the apolitical ranter too (I support me some more!).

Are blogs for solving problems anyway? Preaching/teaching? Or just for dialoguing with that one other reader or for the really cynical, your own self. Really? That seems as crazy as talking to one's self out loud. Don't you think? Yes I do. No, I don't. Shutup you, no one cares what you think, go write a blog or something!

In any event from this season forward I will attempt to commit myself to only occasionally bloggin' a meta-blog or two. For I want to be a reader of blogs because like stay-at-home-dads, there ain't enough of us. I want to attempt to raise awareness and average readership of blogs to at least two! Why not? Dream big. Join me won't you? Hello, anyone there?

Here are some I recommend:

- this one (namelesschurch.blogspot.com)

but your reading it already - the metablogger strikes again! zuh-ha!

- lifegoesonintehran.com*

i have only met the guy once, but dang if he doesn't write a blog that is a diamond in the

rough. Great formating, short and sweet, and photos with every thought to boot.

- dglee.blogspot.com

one of my best good friends, who I often vehemently disagree with, but find him

insightful non the less. Good show ole boy!

- http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.Confirm&friendID=1267546

yes it's via his myspace page (Scott will always kick it sorta old skool as well as new)

so you may have to add him as a friend, but he's a good one to have. One of the

funniest dudes I know. If David Cross hadn't got the part of Tobias Funke on

Arrested Developement (RIP) Scott could have shouldered the responsibility.

- http://www.bobanddavid.com/david.html

he hasn't been faithful to it lately, but this is David Cross' blog thingy

the housewife (husband) collection -

- http://www.parents.com/dgroups/persona.jsp?plckPersonaPage=PersonaBlog&plckUserId=a628e41865b5c3c340ae2e98f70ccc4f&userId=a628e41865b5c3c340ae2e98f70ccc4f&ordersrc=rdparents0072&

the writer's writer, the stay at home's stay at home and the blogger's blogger.

He is ALTERNADAD!

- http://www.lovedrunk.net/

the person with two first names combined as a singular first name, good

qualification for a blogger in my opinion. I know her from church, found out

indirectly that she is a part of a community of stay-at-home-mom-bloggers,

so really the inspiration for this MB

- http://www.themillerspage.blogspot.com/

another stay at home blogger - my sister's sister in law. The best blogs are

the one's you are indirectly connected to. Again, how meta.

- http://wordwaltz.blogspot.com/

my writin' mate at church. we rarely talk, but two chest thumps and an

outstretched fist go out to Sharla who goads me to write even with out

realizing (probably). Thanks sister.

PS (can you ps in a blog?)-Apparently you aren't anyblogy unless you blogspot. Like having a myspace page (or a facebook page if you are in the church culture or are Canadian), it's what all the kool webkidz do. Will any provide us with relief from homogeny? The answer is no, but there are other shopping malls to graffiti on. Never used 'em, can't vouch for 'em, but here are a few:

blogger.com, wordpress.com, typepad.com, livejournal.com, voxtropolis.com

Now go find yourself a blog to read. I mean another one besides this one.

read 'em. love 'em, live 'em.

Dan Wyatt, reader of blogs, metablogger

2008-09-17T23:51:00.001-07:00

This Week at Nameless Church

2008-09-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

Community Service Opportunities
We have two opportunities for community serve this weekend. Hough Elementary School needs helpers to finish painting and touching up their playground. This will happen 9 AM Saturday At Hough. Contact Dan, if you have any questions.

We are also meeting at Moxie's at 1 PM to register voters in poor neighborhoods Sunday afternoon from 1-3 PM. We will then meet at 5 PM for a community meal and and our service will focus on Poverty in America and the Sojourners Vote out Poverty campaign.

Community Meal Specifics
Our periodic potluck will be soup, salad, and bread. Join the Everyone mailing list and let us know if you're brining a soup, a salad, or some bread. Or, just show up and join us!

- Jeffrey

The First Day

2008-09-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today was Xander's first day of school. It was also the first day I was able to prepare for the class I'm going to be teaching. I feel a resolute calm today, which may be from the fact that I get to do something, anything, other than changing diapers. I will assume though that it has more to do with the time I have spent standing still, breathing from my center, and whispering little thoughts to God. Such as:

The ocean is really big. How marvelous!

This almost feels like perfection--like childhood. I'm so lucky that you carried me
through those years, relatively unscathed. Relatively--because my story has to be relevant to others and their pain. Am I right?

How amazing that I get to love my husband for the rest of his life. What am I going to do when he dies? (I'm convinced he'll die first).

Why did you create marriage? O right, so I can feel how small I am. Like when I'm at the end of the ocean.

What am I suppose to be doing? This? O good, because I like this.

Peace.

Xander is so big. I hope he feels good about his childhood when he's an adult. I am in awe of how intricate he is: from the corner of his mouth to his fine eye lashes to his manly gait. I love him so much. You have no idea. Still, I bet I could love him better.

I don't think I can go on.

I wonder if anything will be discovered in this day and age that will be as dope as the coffee bean?

I need less TV in my life.

Sex and sexiness = a really brilliant idea. good work.

I wish I could be moved to tears at least once a day. No I don't, what am I thinking. I guess I just want more passion. Or, something to be passionate about.

You but Better.

2008-08-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot lately. Mostly parenting magazines. I keep running into these issues about becoming a better self'-- Be a better dressed person. Be a better organized person. Be goal oriented and meet those goals. Fix your income woes and spend better. Be a better lover, spouse, mother, etc. Better. Better. Better.

And if that wasn't enough to think about-- I've been running into the same commercial for a better me, but on TV. I have already bought an entire new fantasy wardrobe from the Shopping Network and I've figured out how to extenuate my goods and not my thighs. I know how to look Better. The theme has even saturated my low brow cartoons--Spongebob being the best sponge he can be. The last movie I watched had a moment where the brother looks to the other brother and says "this is your one life. You better [there's that word again] start living it." What does that mean? I think it means that it is time for the one to 'live' it 'better.'

I admit that lately I have been living my life the opposite of Better. I wear my PJ's all day and rarely wear a bra which, I believe, the mailman has noticed. I sometimes don't brush my teeth till Paul comes home from work. And the worst part, I barely do anything with my 9 year old son. He's left to fend for himself, like I'm some alcoholic mother or suffering from depression. I'm not reliable anymore. I know, I know--it's because of the newborn baby in my arms. But truly truly, I believe I could do this better. I could be a better mother, spouse, homemaker. I've just stopped trying.

I don't know why I've stopped trying. It's left me smelling bad and with a headache from watching too much boob tube. "This is your life" I've told myself, "start living it better." I think that my most disappointing venture in life is this--It didn't go as planned. Some of it did. Some of it didn't and I rolled with the punches. Some of it knocked me off my feet. Those decisions/happenings are what I have a hard time getting up from.

I wanted to be successful in all areas but especially in my career. I wanted a MFA in poetry. I wanted a screenplay written by now. I wanted a book of poems published. I wanted recognition. I wanted fame. I still want these things. I still haven't done any of them. I could go into all the strange routines at the library, bad words that I call myself, and all things that keep me from even trying toward my dreams, but I think I've already made my point so....

On Oprah the other day Maria Shriver was promoting her book about how to get up from those disappointments and to question what you want out of life. I didn't watch it all, because what I wanted most out of life was to channel surf, but what I got out of it was that fame is other people's perception of you and not the true you. So may be I don't want fame anymore. I do, though, want to control other people's perception of me. Even if it meant I gave a "I don't give a shit what you think" attitude. All that to say, I was convinced to check out Shriver's book. I was also convinced that instead of feeling like everyone else has it figured out to realize that we're all not living the life we think we should be living...all of us have disappointments, skinned knees, something on the back-burnner.

I was going to be so much more at this age. I tend to look at the void not at the blessings God has given me. O right--God. How does he fit into this meditation? Well, he's everywhere. Can't you see it? He's been poking at me from behind the smiling faces blurred perfect in shinny magazine pages, behind the glare of my TV screen, the spam mail in my inbox, holding the 50% rayon skirt on the shopping network (what perfectly manicured hands) . I finally have nothing to do but to think about what it means to live this better. What does it means for me and what I can stop spinning my wheels on? I really don't have it figured out. I'm still thinking about it. This blog is part of this process. I don't want to mention the formulas to getting on with ones life because that would be hypocritical. I don't have a formula. But perhaps I'll stop beating myself up verbally about what I haven't accomplished and perhaps I'll look away from the void just enough to start something--Anything-- again. I could start with my bra.

Sally Fields in her osteoporosis prevention commercial comes back to me. "I only have this one body. This one life." She says to the camera, "So I am going to take care of it." Fuck you Ms. Fields. And then...she's probably right. I wonder what disappointments she's had and how did she get back up from them. She looks really good for her age.

Website updates

2008-06-01T23:22:00.000-07:00

I didn’t send out a weekly reminder on Thursday/Friday so here’s the quick, belated version.

• The website’s home page www.namelesschurch.org will list the next two weeks of public meetings. I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now.
• The calendar has been updated for June through August with the new worship team rotation and holidays.
• The resources page now includes links to TextWeek and BibleGateway. If you ever wonder what might be discussed at the next public meeting, check out TextWeek. You can search the entire bible on BibleGateway.

Don’t forget that Sunday, June 8th is a community meal. Jessica should be sending out more information later this week.

That’s it for now.

Website updates

2008-05-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

It's been quite some time since we last updated our blog, but we're still here! We've all adjusted to our new meeting space at Moxie's on Main. I had no idea there were so many type of pop around.

Some minor updates have been made to our website. The mailing list page now works better. If you've had any trouble subscribing to our list, please try again or use the email link on the bottom of each web page. The calendar and the services and meetings pages have been updated with additional 'church holidays'.

Please join us on an upcoming Sunday or Monday! (Or send us email if you have any questions!)

Concentration

2008-03-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

When I say “I have missed God”

What does it mean to you?

What does it mean to miss God?

Is it like traveling down a road and actually missing the turn?

Or is it

A lull in a great conversation?

A dropped phone call?

more of a void than that….

Is it like a relative that doesn’t show up for supper anymore?

A wall where there once was a large expansive field?

A sea of regret?

I miss God. I miss God in the longing sort of way. I know that he’s always there it’s not like I missed a turn. I know that he’s just a prayer away-- I know this, but perhaps that is why it has taken me so long to be honest that that is where I keep him. Not that he can be kept. No he can’t be kept from anything but my own mind and decisions….I actually lose my concentration. I’ve dropped the phone or my boat has floated to the middle of the sea and I have isolated myself because I’ve forgotten to paddle.

Last week I poked fun at those people that Let God in on every decision, but the truth is--that’s some sort of attempt to concentrate on him.

Just think of all the ways people try to concentrate on God.

There’s the daily prayers and prayer bells.

There’s symbols worn about the neck or tattooed on or nailed by the front door.

There’s blessings given between believers.

There’s even circumcision and sacerfice.

These are done so that we don’t forget. So that we never can say “I missed God there.”

Our mind is where we’re so clumsily and neglectful and the one place we’re suppose to keep concentrated on God.
I feel that my own mind has a spring door. I actually have to consciously prop it open. I have to make a ceremony of sorts…set out the welcome mat, get myself quiet, set my thoughts out clearly….stay awake.

Even then, Concentration seems something I have to reminds myself to do--and not just a one time deal.

Oswald Chambers says that concentration on God leads to Salvation. That salvation is in the moment of Looking towards God.

"Look unto Me, and be ye saved." Isaiah 45:22

And this is what Chambers says:

Do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and save us? He says - Look unto Me, and be saved. The great difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and it is His blessings that make it difficult. Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere. The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is, in effect - Narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on Jesus Christ. "Look unto Me."

Many of us have a mental conception of what a Christian should be, and the lives of the saints become a hindrance to our concentration on God. There is no salvation in this way, it is not simple enough. "Look unto Me" and - not "you will be saved," but "you are saved." The very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on Him. We get preoccupied and sulky with God, while all the time He is saying - "Look up and be saved." The difficulties and trials - the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or to-morrow, all vanish when we look to God.
Rouse yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him. "Look unto Me," and salvation is, the moment you look

my lack--His greatness

2008-02-29T12:01:00.000-08:00

This will probably be a rather short blog. I've been struggling today with something, mainly--my lack of imagination. Paul and I got some disturbing news and I feel defeated. I keep repeating in my head "even the birds of the air want for nothing, even the birds of the air want for nothing," but I'm coming up empty. Even the birds of the air want-- the for nothing is harder for me to imagine. I've seen dead birds.

I can't really imagine a better way for life to have gone-- except the way I planned for it to go. Now that it has taken a turn, it has left my mind grasping for alternatives. And this bad news, really isn't that bad--it's just an unexpected turn. (I'm trying to keep it in perspective). Yet, here I am wondering and hoping. I guess that's the best part of life not going as planned...it keeps us hoping for His greatness. This seeking for answers outside of my understanding may be more of a gift than a curse. I don't even need an answer right now, Lord. I need an alternative vision. This is my lack. I'm waiting for your greatness.

Praying with Intention

2008-02-10T00:36:00.000-08:00

I pray when I'm losing at Rumikub, it's almost like a reflex "O Lord, help me find a red #12." Or when I'm parking at Clark College. "O Lord help me fit into this space without hitting that other car" --inevitably I barely make it or run too close to the curb and my prayer is immediately followed by an "O fuck!" Forgive me, it's true. That is a type of prayer too. And if all these prayers count than truly I pray without ceasing." Still, I suspicion if these are the kind of prayers that are effective in the kingdom. Half baked. Half intentional.

As a woman, wife, child-daughter--I often felt like my prayers weren't really effective. That they were like an ironed table cloth--they brought a touch of feminine love to a room or atmosphere, but in the end--only I noticed. As a woman or a woman that isn't a mystic of any sort--They were pretty prayers, but lacked some kind of masculine strength. Whatever that is suppose to mean. This is something I realized I believed, not something that I believe presently.

I was challenged last night in my dreams. I woke up feeling like I should write a contemplation about the intentional prayer. I saw a sculptor's tool being hammered against stone, which I imagine is the effectiveness of meant prayers--prayers with aim and purpose. Even for the feminine prayers.

I don't understand how prayer works or why God requires it of us or why Jesus spent so much time doing it (I just assumed he got more out of it than I do), but if that's true--if prayer is a hammering against stone--I could do wonders for you. I could alter the outcome of someones situation and I could be part of a miracle. Honestly, if my prayers are this strong, if we all have this tool, the possibilities are endless endless. Think, Lazarus.

I'm not talking about parking spaces or Rumikub, but praying with the intention of seeing something beautiful happen in each others lives, in our families, in our community here at the Nameless Church.

(Sharla S.)

Contemplation

2008-02-03T00:31:00.000-08:00

When Jesus broke the bread and said, "Do this in remembrance of me" I've often imagined that he saw in his mind's eye all the tables set out with communion for the centuries and centuries to come. I imagined that he in his divinity could see the popes, pastors and missionaries that would ever be, breaking bread and repeating his every word.

But what if Jesus said "Do this in remembrance of me" in fear that he might be forgotten?

We call ourselves Christians, which means "like Christ" or "Little Christs." We say this but we also know that Jesus was God. He was/is a God-Man. Therefore we're off the hook. I am a sinner not God, therefore--not like Christ.

"But Lord I try," I've lied to myself and to others.

But what if Jesus had a limited understanding of who he was like we have a limited understand of who we are meant to be?

What if God told him bit by little bit what his destiny was going to entail-not when it was convenient, but when it was relevant? And only when it was relevant.

No wonder he sweat blood.

Jesus must of understood that he was different. No doubt! He had a soul that didn't fit the constraints of his sin-bound body. He probably experienced feelings so big, both elation and anguish, that his body felt like it might burst at the seams.

While he was on that cross, I don't believe he saw my face or any of our faces (like we've been taught in Sunday school). I believe his eyes were searching the heavens for his Father. The same Father we all have opportunity to wake to, to follow, to search and experience. It was in that isolation and that loneliness that he cried out, because in that moment God turned away from him and looked at us.

God ,in that moment, favored us more.

For God so loved the world He gave.

Jesus obeyed.

(Sharla S.)

The Taste of Kindness

2007-11-07T00:35:00.000-08:00

I’ve been immersing myself in Frederick Buechner the last couple of days, so today’s quote is from one of his sermons in “Secrets in the Dark” (HarperSanFrancisco). I’ve been mulling this over and over and find it challenging and moving and tender.

“Be kind because although kindness is not by a long shot the same thing as holiness, kindness is one of the doors that holiness enters the world through, enters us through—not just gently kind but sometimes fiercely kind.

Be kind enough to yourselves to not just play it safe with your lives for your own sakes, but to spend at least part of your lives like drunken sailors—for God’s sake, if you believe in God, for the world’s sake, if you believe in the world—and thus to come alive truly.

Be kind enough to others to listen, beneath all the words they speak, for that usually unspoken hunger for holiness that I believe is part of even the unlikeliest of us because by listening to it and cherishing it maybe we can help bring it to birth both in them and in ourselves….

‘You have tasted of the kindness of the Lord, ‘ Peter wrote in his Letter, and ultimately that, of course, is the kindness, the holiness, the sainthood and sanity we are all of us called to. So that by God’s grace we may ‘grow up to salvation’ at last.

The way the light falls through the windows. The sounds our silence makes when we come together like this. The sense we have of each other’s presence. The feeling in the air that one way or another we are all of us here to give each other our love, and to give God our love. This kind moment itself is a door that holiness enters through. May it enter you. May it enter me. To the world’s saving.”

There is so much to contemplate here….

I have always puzzled over that verse that says, “it’s the goodness of the Lord that leads men to repentance….” The goodness and the kindness of the Lord. What does this kindness taste like to me? Is it really possible that I can immerse myself fully and completely in the deep-soul knowledge that God is amazingly and astoundingly good? Is it really possible to even have my physical body respond and bear witness? Cause if it’s really that good I want to taste it, experience it for myself, even have it influence and nourish everything in me. This great kindness….