Black Belt Spirituality

I haven't posted in a few days. Lenten Fail. But as I tell folks I encounter in the hospital and nursing home; We believe in a God of forgiveness... So here is a sermonette I will be giving at work this week. Enjoy.          This weekend I had the chance to take my confirmation class to a service at a pentecostal church. It was quite a change from the traditional presbyterian worship we are used to and for the kids in the class it was quiet the change and almost shocking. If you aren't familiar with the Pentecostal church, a focus of much of their belief is focused on the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit. But the focus of our scripture this afternoon is Jesus. Who Jesus is, what authority he has, and what happens after the final resurrection.  Jesus in our passage is talking about the time that is coming when he will call out to the dead. And those dead shall hear his voice and they’ll live again! Pretty impressive stuff right? To think that something t

Today marks Saint Patrick's Day.  So what do green beer, parades, Leprechaun's, snakes and all things Irish have to do with the saint we call Patrick? Absolutely Nothing! Patrick was actually Scottish (possibly Welsh or English, depending on your source) who as a boy was taken into slavery in Ireland. Only after escaping at 20 and returning to Britain did Patrick become a bishop and return to Ireland as a missionary. Read some history  here  and  here . But what can we learn from St Patrick.  We can learn how it means to truly be a follower of Christ. How we can love our enemies as our neighbors. Going back to minister to those who enslaved you is pretty radical showing of God's love. We can learn to be rooted in the mystery of the trinity and work of Christ. "I bind this day to me for ever. By power of faith, Christ's incarnation; His baptism in the Jordan River; His death on Cross for my salvation; His bursting from the spiced tomb; His riding up t

There are certain times in our day or in our lives that can be routine. We can get seem to be stuck in the same old thing, doing the mundane of life. We have our daily "to-do lists." Our morning stop for coffee on the way to work, reaching for our iPhone to check Facebook as soon as we wake up.(Guilty as charged)Taking a moment to thank God for that breath, coffee or phone.  Little or big things that we do, subconsciously or not, that define our days. Now I sit here writing this in my office, realizing as I drink my coffee and check my usually websites before doing the task of visitations. The mundane can take a big chunk out of our day. For me, this blog is an intentional break from the mundane. Its a break from my routine, and a chance for me to work out my thoughts with whom ever actually reads it. Anyone? Buehler....Buehler? And thats the thing about this serious yet joyous time of Lent. This seriously joyous time of Lent. Its a time to intentionally break from our

Yesterday I spent the day with a good friend walking through the Cloisters in New York City. It's a great part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was built from the bones of 5 cloisters in Europe. Click here to check it out and plan a trip!  We saw dead people. Okay, not really but we saw tombs. I spent the time in contemplative  thought in the various chapels and looking at religious art.  It was a very nice day, and refreshing for my lenten journey. I felt a connection to the great history of spiritual observance and imagery of the church. There is a great beauty of having the stories of the bible and the passion of Christ presented on the detail of stone sculpture or simple wooden cross.  I feel that we as protestants tend to shy away from Liturgical art. The whole graven images/idolatry issue.  But there is something to be said for medieval church art. Not only was it a tool of the church to teach illiterate congregants, but it served as a reminder to focus our eyes and

Yesterday I sat in my office at the nursing home towards the end of the day I had the chance to chat with the daughter of a resident. I had grown close to this resident, and this week the resident passed away. Her daughter had been in that day collecting items and preparing to empty her mom's apartment; and she stopped in to thank me for helping out her mom. (Mom having struggled with bi-polar disorder and all that that entails) During our chat the daughter was thanking me for being part of her moms life and bringing her comfort. All very nice compliments, but I had to thank her as well for the honor I had to be part of her mom's life; truly we were both better for our relationship. That's the great part of chaplaincy, you get to share in people's spiritual and life journeys, however brief that walk together may be. That's kind of what Lent is about. Yes, its a time to remember that we are created beings. To remember that we are flawed beings. That we are beings

Before you call me crazy and tell me to look outside at the foot of frozen snow we still have outside, let me say again Yay it's springtime! Yes, I know officially, spring doesn't start until March 20th or the spring equinox. But for those of us observing the Christian calender and the period of fasting before Easter, we call it Lent. And Lent in old English means spring. So, there's that. It's Spring; be happy. Lent is perhaps the most serious season in the Church calender. We take time to pray and fast. We consider our mortality and our sinfulness. We take time to look within ourselves. We look to do penitence and confession. (Scary Roman Catholic-y sounding words for some of my Protestant friends I am sure). But, they are biblical, and they focus us towards Christ. We are called to look at our lives and examine them in light of the one we call Lord. Its a good time to be honest with ourselves and with God. So this Lent I suggest you take some time to earnestly

Growing up as a kid, like many kids, I paid no mind the the church  calendar. Unless it was Christmas. I was a kid after all. When I was in high school, I began to explore my faith. I was enrolled in a Catholic school, while being confirmed into a Presbyterian Church.  That's when I began to notice the weird (to me) practice every Lent of my classmates walking around with smudges of ash on their forehead.  So what exactly is Ash Wednesday.  For some of my Protestant friends, yes I agree, there is no biblical directive for us to celebrate Ash Wednesday. Just like there isn't a directive to celebrate Christmas or Easter. But there is at its core a great biblical theology of creation, sin, our mortality, grace and death.  It calls us to community in our shared brokenness and the humility of our mortality.  The last few Ash Wednesdays I have spent imposing ashes in a major Hospital in the City. The same hospital that I did my chaplaincy training and now work as a per die