memorial

My church hosted a memorial service yesterday for a friend of mine who died too young. 300 people showed up, and many stayed for a meal afterward.

My friend and his family had never visited my church, so nobody else on our staff knew them personally. But my colleagues spent themselves on the event just the same.

It was one of those times when a church is being and doing exactly what it was created for. It was a moment when you get to touch a real-life manifestation of the vision that often seems distant, hazy, not quite attainable...

Yesterday, I was proud of my church.

shape

"Believe in the holy contour of life"

Jack Kerouac

note to self

Exhaustion is not a gift of the Spirit.

Viva la Difference

According to Wikipedia, homogeneity means being the same throughout. Think of homogenized milk: the same color and consistency from the first swig to the last. Homogeneity tends to be an essential characteristic of large social entities such as megachurches.

Heterogeneity, on the other hand, can be described as the quality of being made of many different elements, forms, kinds, or individuals. It is a core characteristic of the metachurch ideal we’re cultivating at Washington Cathedral.

We value otherness; we invite diversity into the heart of who we are as a church. We know how difficult it is to put such words into action. In fact, it is impossible. But we’ve come to believe that it is part and parcel of following Jesus. It’s not an elective. So we’re counting on the Holy Spirit to help us figure it out.


Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

Strangely Brilliant

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely brilliant,
In the light of His glory and grace.

I apologize to the hymnist for turning her poetry inside out. What Helen Lemmel penned was,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim…

Her intent was to accentuate the unequaled beauty of Christ by casting all else in dull, muted tones. Fair enough.

But closeness to Jesus has mostly heightened my awareness of life’s beauty.

…Setting sunlight turning trees and trail to gold
…The glide of a canoe across a mountain lake at dawn
…An ancient marriage proposal sung in Gaelic
…Rhodies blooming
…The crack of a bat on a 98 mph fastball
…A full night of sleep
…The summertime incense of charcoal
…Saltwater and coconut oil
…Friendships rekindled

In my experience, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism of all things into their intended glory.


Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

too serious

"All misery of this world comes from the fact that people take themselves too seriously."

Thomas Theodor Heine

Babs Watson

We give ourselves to the haste of life, bustling off this way and that. We say goodbye in a flurry without pausing to see one another’s eyes. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

We weren’t braced for the velocity of Babsie’s exit. She went speedily. Still, she paused to see us. Her blue eyes were clear; her voice was quiet but cogent. Her generous soul was available to us, even as she waited on the platform for the last train home.