The “AI Overview” describes a movie I saw recently on a flight as, “a quiet, character-driven drama that is widely considered well acted but very slow paced.”

I would agree with that assessment. But, I enjoyed it, nonetheless.

The story is about an aging, long-married couple who take a post-Christmas holiday from their home in Glasgow and spend a week in Amsterdam. During their time there they find they are examining in the bleak winter days the state of their marriage, the husband’s drinking, the wife’s long-lost sense of purpose, and if their marriage can move forward.

Spoiler Alert: Part of what I found engaging is that the woman is interested in a convent that she knew about in Amsterdam, but which she learns no longer exists. Years earlier in Northern Ireland during a shooting the woman had made a promise to God (Much like Martin Luther’s in the storm) that she would devote her life to him if only God would save her baby. The baby is able to pull through, and the result being that she feels she has wasted her life because she never fulfilled her promise to God in the ways she expected to do so. For his part, the husband is a secular man who really has little time for her religious imaginings.

For me, the story in part how our vocations in life (and I would suggest there are many of them, such as our family and career choices) can be understood in a variety of ways.

Some quotes from the book upon which the movie is based include:

“What was love but a lifetime of conversations. And silences. Knowing when to be silent. Above all, knowing when to laugh.”

“To him her presence was as important as the world. And the stars around it. If she was an instance of the goodness in this world then passing through by her side was miracle enough.”

“She knew that the only way to improve the world, without patronising anyone, was to improve herself.”

“In every relationship,’ said Stella, ‘there’s a flower and a gardener. One who does the work and one who displays.”

“Then in an explosion of wings all the pigeons rose and took to the air. ‘Why do they do that?’ ‘What?’ ‘The simultaneous thing. One goes, they all go.’ ‘They must be Catholics.”

“But some day, somehow she would move into soul. It happened to everybody who had ever lived since the beginning of time. Soul was her, minus her body.”

― Bernard MacLaverty, Midwinter Break

 

 

 

Sunday’s Texts: The mystery of God’s ways is sometimes hidden from the wise and intelligent. Jesus associates with those often excluded from the religious community. Like Paul, we struggle with our own selfish desires and seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. We gather to be refreshed by Christ’s invitation: “Come to me, all you that are weary.” Gathered around word, water, and meal, we find rest for our souls.

From Pastor Rich:

A blessed Independence Day. 250 years! A country we continue to love even amidst the challenges we face.

I enjoy a variety of patriotic songs, but one in particular is my favorite. It is lesser known than others, but it speaks of a love for a country that recognizes others who also love their countries as I love mine. It seems appropriate in these “World Cup” days as we appreciate the fans and cultures from different cultures. It is written below. See you tomorrow!

This is my song,

O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home,

the country where my heart is;

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

But other hearts in other lands are beating

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

Oh, hear my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.

To the melody of Finlandia

Lyrics by Lloyd Stone

Mark your calendars now August 23rd special one worship service – followed by a congregational gathering August 23rd.

In Sunday’s gospel God’s word is like the rain that waters the earth and brings forth vegetation. It is also like the sower who scatters seed indiscriminately. Our lives are like seeds sown in the earth. Even from what appears to be little, dormant, or dead, God promises a harvest. At the Lord’s table we are fed with the bread of life, that we may bear fruit in the world. The Old Testament lesson will be from Genesis, chapter 25. In the story, although Jacob was younger than his twin, Esau, he eventually takes the birthright away from his brother. Jacob is portrayed in the Bible as deceptive, gripping his brother when he came out of the womb and driving a hard bargain by buying the birthright for a bowl of lentil soup.

Thought for the Week:

Improv is fun to watch sometimes. Perhaps you have seen the show, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” The key to improv is “Yes, And…” — that is, accepting your scene partner’s reality (the “Yes”) and building on it by adding new information (the “And”).

This week finds me in Indianapolis with Deacon Margy and our daughter, Pastor Becca. While they have been attending the ELCA Rostered Ministers Conference every day, I have been playing Grandpa with granddaughter Eleanor. It struck me this week as we were taking a walk together how being with a three year old is sort of like playing improv. As we walked she insisted on pushing the stroller, not riding in it. And, in the stroller was an invisible person we’ll just call “baby.” we often stopped while the baby needed this or that, or wanted to go swimming in the nearby water, etc. It was quite the adventure which was helped by my often saying “Yes, and…” Getting into her reality.

Maybe “Yes, and…” is a good way to think about sharing the gospel.

We enter into another’s reality and begin where they are – just as Jesus did!

I’ll see you Sunday.

Have a blessed week.

God loves you and so do I, as the old saying goes,

Pastor Rich

 

In Sunday’s gospel, Christ promises that the disciple who gives a cup of cold water to the little ones serves Christ himself. From worship we are sent on our mission: to serve the little ones of this world and to be a sign of God’s merciful welcome. See you Sunday at the beach or in the church!

July sees me coming and going quite a bit to help our kids with childcare and on Sunday to help out my son in law with a hike he is taking in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite. I am driving him there and dropping off his supplies at a second location. Other days in July will find me watching our granddaughters and helping out with our daughters’ summer work schedules and childcare.

I am asking for your understanding in putting preschool chapels on hiatus for the month of July. I will be present for all Sundays (save one when Deacon Margy will fill in) and on some other days, and during the week always available by phone.

I am grateful for being able to live and serve among you.

Pastor Rich

 

Why we travel?
Travel engages all our senses. We experience and learn and appreciate – we gain perspective and wisdom.

History speaks and travelers listen. Great civilizations rise and fall. Evil also plays a significant role in the human story, So we mourn the losses and celebrate the victories and honor the cost of freedom.

Travel is one age speaking to another age. Like cultural chameleons, we blend in with others as we travel. On the road we realize that every culture has a soul. In the Koran the Mohammmad said, “Don;t tell me how much you know, tell me how much you have travelled.

Travel forces me to bend and flex and be more tolerant.

 

Sunday’s Theme

God does not promise that the path of the disciple will be easy. Jeremiah feels the pain of rejection from those who do not want to hear what he has to say. Jesus declares that his words may bring stark division. Even so, we need not be afraid for God accounts for each hair on our heads. Though we may experience rejection, frustration, division, and death, God’s grace and love make us a new creation each day. Marked with the cross and filled with holy food, we are sent from worship to witness to Christ in the world. See you Sunday at 8 AM or 10:30 AM, Beach or the Chapel.

Thoughts for Friday…

Special thanks to Karen and Barrie for Thursday’s presentation on “Brain health.”

This Sunday is Father’s Day and this past Friday was also “Juneteenth.”

And, as a treat for men and boys for this weekend, I offer the poem by Rudyard Kipling, “If.” It spoke to me as a teenager when I first read it. It still speaks to me now about the kind of man I hoped to become. Peace and joy in Jesus.

Pastor Rich

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!