Embracing the sword

Thanks to Paul, my friend who sent me a terrific article on preaching last week. It gave me the inspiration to preach on the difficult passage from Matthew in which Jesus says, "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." The sword is not warfare, but that which cuts away all that holds us back. Read it here.

To read today's lessons visit the Lectionary Page.

Singing with my daughter

Melanie and I sang a duet this morning - a wonderful arrangement of the hymn There's a wideness in God's mercy.
Verse 3
For the love of God is broader than the measure of the mind;
and the heart of the eternal is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful, we should take him at his word;
and our lives would be thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord.

Beautiful words, music and daughter. What a blessing!

Yoga with Max

Who better to execute a perfect 'down-facing dog?'

Now the days get shorter

It was a wonderful gathering last night - perfect weather, gentle people, prayers for peace. We're going to make this a regular thing at Salt Creek Park in Dana Point on the first Friday of every month. What good is living by the ocean if you don't do cool stuff there?

After sunset of the longest day. 

Ocean view drumming 

Solstice Drumming 

The Heartbeat of God

We'll be at the Salt Creek Park above the beach tonight enjoying this longest day of the year and a beautiful full moon. I've wanted to start a regular sunset drumming since I got here and there couldn't be a better night to begin! Listen to the heartbeat of God. Happy Summer Solstice!

Happy Father's Day

I sat on the floor with the kids for this morning's sermon. According to them, we have great dads here at Faith who are providers, protectors and great fun. I read them this cute story , courtesy of Omir the Storyteller on Booman Tribune. If dads are happy to spend a day fishing with their kids, what makes God the Father happy?

Sir Edward's vest tells his story. From Russia in '83 to this year in Sri Lanka, he has led relief missions in over 21 troubled places.  

Sir Edward Artis and Hasan Nouri, both Knights of Malta, with Rev. Sharon 

Invitation to a Hero's Journey

Yesterday, I had the delight of preaching at the Baccalaureate ceremony for St. Mary's - the nearby school. Having been a part of their Wizard of Oz production, I had a good place to start. It was fun to write and even more fun to preach so I'm posting it here. There was also one of those moments that makes a preachers day. I ended the homily all about the hero's journey with "Are you ready to go?" From the back of the auditorium came a little girl's sweet voice "Yeeeees!" I love it when that happens!

A Knight's Tale

This morning at Faith, the sermon time was given over to Sir Edward Artis, a Knight of Malta who has roamed the world for over thirty years waging peace and bringing hope. Knightsbridge International was our organization of choice for Tsumani relief and today Sir Edward visited to share his experiences that have included Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and just about any place with peopel in need. It was a compelling presentation.

Johnny Auld, one of my star acolytes, came into my office afterwards and asked if there was an age limit to this kind of work. I then spent a delightful hour with this wonderful 11 year old talking about visions of a world with no war and worm holes for time travel. He's going to go and create some opportunity to help Sir Edward. I can't wait to see what that looks like. He's one of the little children who will lead us to a better place. It was a good morning.

Back from The Bleep

I just spent five days in Austin, TX at The Crossings which is a beautiful conference center/spa in the hill country. The draw was a phenomenal conference featuring many of the people in the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" It's out on DVD and if you haven't seen it, run, don't walk, to the nearest place and grab one! Quantum physics can be fun! I'll be writing soon about all that we heard and learned. My sermon tomorrow will be an extemporaneous sharing of my experience so I won't have a regular sermon post but as soon as my brain slows down enough, I'll share here.