Dottie’s Dialogwhere faith, hope and love intersect!

So we gathered the family in Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) Mexico…and there we witnessed the marriage of Sara and Alex Kekic.  It was a beautiful sight…watching love’s expression of commitment happen as we dressed formally, but barefoot, on the beach.  The sun was setting to a beautiful hue of reds, oranges and pinks…colors of the heart.  If we had planned for everything to go perfectly, we couldn’t have pulled it off better…which makes me think Someone was watching over us to give us a moment of true beauty.  And, the Mother Preacher didn’t even cry (I did all day, but not during the wedding!)

Afterwards we ate great food…even had a woman making homemade tortillas…and danced till they made us leave.  More fun.  More joy.  Life fully lived in a moment’s time.

Sara and Alex and Niko are fully family now.  And we are so proud of their love and life.

We are exhausted…and thanking God for the gift of deep joy.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day and I hope that you all come with your mama’s, your sons and daughters, and your grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.  It’s a day to worship as a family and to see how deep our connections go.  It’s a day to remember our mamas, and how deep our love endures.

My mama is an amazing woman of great strength, never-ending faith, and sure compassion.  She never talked ill of anyone, and if I did in her presence, she would gently remind me that we all have our stuff.  She would move the furniture around by herself, bake bread…teaching me how to knead it with her till it was “just right”, and provide emotional and faith support for people all around the world.  I know, cuz I listened in on many one-sided conversations…  I guess she taught me how to have compassion that way…

It’s not that mama’s perfect.  But it’s that she’s perfect in love.  No matter what happens, I know mama will be there on the other end of the phone when I need an understanding heart.  And I know she will tell me it’s going to be alright, and she will end up praying for me…right there on the phone…until the calm returns.

Every mama was created for love.  Maybe you are one.  Maybe you wish you were.  Maybe you never wanted that title attached to your personhood.  It’s okay.  Mostly I want you to know that you are loved, that you are loving, and that you are lovely.  All in God’s eyes…the One who made you just like you are (thanks Ruthanne!).  

Oh, yeah,…this Mother’s Day, I’m baptizing our grandson!  Think I’ll cry?

In faith, hope, and a mama’s love,

PastorDottie

…is one of my favorite sayings in the scripture.  Mainly because I can use it to care for other so often.  Like when we are praying at a hospital bed before surgery…peace that passes understanding…  Or when someone doesn’t know why they lost their job…peace that passes understanding…  Or when you get the news that your mama just passed on…peace that passes understanding.

I remind myself of this often too.  Mostly when I look at the news and see the words “Swine Flu Pandemic,” or “Schools Shut Down” or “Should We Gather in Public Spaces?”  Those things can bring us to a state of panic if we let them.  But we are the ones who follow the One who believed in “peace that passes understanding.”  So I encourage us all to keep the peace in our hearts, minds and in our families and communities.  Live the rule of love.  Keep close to God and to God’s world every day.  

And, in case you were wondering,…I’ll see you in church this Sunday!

Pastor Dottie

I’ve been reading out of a new Bible (New Testament) called “The Voice.”  Check it out!  It’s an amazing way to read the New Testament…written like a dialogue or a play…with great insightful notes in the middle of the text.

This morning I read about the followers of Jesus who wanted to know who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:1-14).  I’m sure that just hearing the question made Jesus cringe…

Jesus responds by calling over a child and charging the disciples to become humble like a child, to befriend the friendless, to care for those who struggle in life…  And he said that while there was a child at his side…

I wondered what he/she thought…the child…hearing Jesus tell the grown-ups to become like her/him!  I wonder if she smiled sheepishly, or if he opened his eyes wide in surprise before squirming away to play.  Whatever the outward response, I’m thinking that the inward response of the child was one of total acceptance and deep love.  I’m thinking that child grew to a be a very secure adult, one who lived a humble life.  

Would be fun to talk with that grown-up child…  What do 

Pastor Dottie

Today I am talking around the table with a group of methodist pastors from around the states…  You can check out the group on methodistmavericks.blogspot.com.  The connection of friends and partners in ministry sustains my own ministry at CrossRoads.  We all need each other.  We are not alone.

Today I am with Jim in San Diego by the sea.  He has a conference and I am writing, resting, studying…  The best part is that I am looking out my window and am amazed by the ocean.  The ocean is one of my favorite places in nature.  When I sit on the beach, I listen to the waves and look at the horizon and I always think that the sound of the waves is like the rhythmic in-and-out breath of God.  And somehow, that sound, along with the touch of wind on my skin, reminds me of God’s presence (the breath) and God’s love (the touch of wind).  I mostly love it when the sun is out and the wind is warm.

Today it is cold out side (I tried to go out but was wrapped in towels trying to keep warm), so instead I am sitting inside looking out and thinking about God’s beauty and love.  I think God loves us all the time, but when I am here by the ocean and the sea, God’s love feels physical…real…experiential…or, in theological terms, incarnational.

For a Desert Gal to sit by the ocean is pure heaven.

In “The Circuit Rider” an article titled “The Crisis of Younger Clergy, Deployment Dliemmas” by Lovett H. Weems Jr., and Ann A. Michel, it starts out with this paragraph:

    ”At a recent pastors’ school with several hundred clergy present, a bishop asked all the clergy under the       age of 35 to stand. Four or five stood.  The Bishop said, ‘All the rest of you look very carefully at these         young clergy persons.  In our conference, they are an endangered species.  Be very good to them.’” (p.         26, Feb/Mar/April 2009)

I stopped right there and thought to myself.  In my conference we are not growing the younger edge of clergy.  And I know we are not unusual across denominations.  So, what is happening in our midst?  Has the call of God to the ordained ministry become a lost voice among us?  

I can think of my young friends and I hear their struggles…family demands clash with weekend duties; systemic politics get bothersome; costs related to seminary seem unbearable; creative ideas are squashed under the load of caring for congregations and politics; frequent moves take a toll in the passion arena.  And despite all that, they still feel the deep call of God.  Mostly what I see from my young clergy friends is that they have great ideas that don’t fit into the current box.  And they learn to keep ideas quiet…whispered in the face of dreams that don’t die, or to try things so slowly that patience bordering on a backwards crawl becomes a learned habit.  I listen and learn and wonder…

What if we put the young clergy in front of the line…asking them to lead us into the unknown territory of reaching a generation that only they know best?

What if their voices were the loudest, never silenced, and always prayerfully considered?

What if we paid off their school loans, gave them one weekend a month off to be with family, and encouraged creativity even when it includes flat out failure?…

What if the “little children” among us…though they are not children but full-fledged adults…lead our future?  What if we followed the lead of the pastors of a young age?

I’ve initiated a new discipline in my life for 2009…I am reading 1Corinthians 13 every day.  Our church’s vision statement comes out of this chapter…

     CrossRoads…where faith, hope and love intersect…

So, I thought, in order to really understand the words “faith, hope and love,” I could attend to this one chapter for awhile.  I could pause here and let the Love Chapter sink into my soul.  Every once in awhile, it is good to linger at one spot and see what that place has to teach us…

I have found that reading something over and over again is definately a “discipline”…in that it doesn’t always come easy.  But, after that, the “disciple” part rises out of the reading.  I am learning the depth of one writing and every day i am thinking about how to apply these timely and timeless word to my life.  It is changing me…  I can see how this chapter could change CrossRoads United Methodist Church, and I can see how this one set of words could change our world…

It makes me wonder, “what if this one life could be all about faith, hope and love?”  It makes me wander down paths previously untread…  It makes me thirsty for the deep waters…

If you could pick one chapter of the ancient Scriptures to read every day for a year, what chapter would you choose?

Dottie

As i understand things, a “paradigm shift” comes from Thomas Kuhn’s scientific description that has to do with changing our basic understandings or assumptions.  And as i understand things, a “seismic shift” has something to do with the vibrations of the earth, commonly known as “earthquakes.”  If you put these two concepts together, they describe foundational, earth-shattering changes.

That’s what i’ve felt since the year 2009 began.  For two reasons…

One, i became a Grandma to my daughter Sara’s little son, Niko.  I watched him come into the world and I watched my daughters body push out a child into the light of life.  I saw the tears all around, including my own, and i felt the earth move under my feet as i fell in love with a new little life…my grandson!  

Niko changed me by his very presence.  Suddenly i was no longer just “mom” but “grandmom.”  Suddenly i had the unique privilege of loving someone without having to attend to the daily tasks that wear one down…and that love is different…free somehow…  The seismic shift came when he looked at me and smiled, as my heart was forever changed.

The other paradigm shift is occurring this week as i watch the inauguration ceremonies of our new President Obama.  To see the excluded become, not only included, but central to leadership roles, is breath-taking and life-giving.  To see ones who could not even imagine this day…so they had to go see for themselves…  To see hope rise up out of the rivers of pain…  A paradigm shift that opens up hope for all those who have wondered if they really can “have a dream.”  All assumptions are up for review…and i’m loving it!

Change is wonderful.  It comes with pain and push and perseverance.  All of which is worth the trouble, because when the change is about paradigm and seismic shifts, the world dances free!

Pastor Dottie

living the life of a pastor, i sometimes wonder if i work the church or the church works me… it’s probably neither but i pause to wonder sometimes.  it seems the church works me when i follow the rhythm of preaching, visiting, counseling, teaching, administrating…all based on the needs of the week.  when i live in response to the church needs, it feels that the church works me.  But other times it seems like i work the church.  i plan, pray, direct, hope and dream…somehow pulling the church to a preferred reality today. then it seems i work her.  But more than not, neither is true.  i live a life of push and pull, response and call, directing and giving in.  that’s the real truth.  that’s what we all do in our ordinary living of our days.

so i ask my God and my Savior and the Spirit to work in and through me…in the places i know about and in the places i don’t even see.  i ask for grace.  ultimate grace.  the kind in which i work together with God, (imagine that!), through God, and in God’s world.

may it be so…as i work a church life.