Well, some good news and some bad. First the bad. My gall bladder won't be making the trip to Scotland this Sabbatical Season. It was taken out by a surgeon on Wednesday evening at the Medical Center.
The good news, The rest of my body will be making the trip. My wife Susan will have to handle the lifting for a week or so, but the doctor said there should be no problem in getting me ready to fly by a week from today.
I was suppose to be at a workshop in North Carolina this week dealing with 21st century worship patterns. On the way I began experiencing pain. I thought it was a kidney stone, but turns out it was a gall bladder going bad. After an overnight in the hospital on Wednesday, I'm home and doing pretty good. I guess this will give me plenty of reason to rest and get ready for the rest of the Sabbatical journey.

Well, some good news and some bad. First the bad. My gall bladder won't be making the trip to Scotland this Sabbatical Season. It was taken out by a surgeon on Wednesday evening at the Medical Center.
The good news, The rest of my body will be making the trip. My wife Susan will have to handle the lifting for a week or so, but the doctor said there should be no problem in getting me ready to fly by a week from today.
I was suppose to be at a workshop in North Carolina this week dealing with 21st century worship patterns. On the way I began experiencing pain. I thought it was a kidney stone, but turns out it was a gall bladder going bad. After an overnight in the hospital on Wednesday, I'm home and doing pretty good. I guess this will give me plenty of reason to rest and get ready for the rest of the Sabbatical journey.

Sunday Communion

The tradition that nurtured my faith for the first 27 years of my life did not include the Lord's Supper as a part of its weekly worship. They celebrated a service of the Word with preaching, praying and singing. Occasionally there would be a service of the Lord's Supper scheduled for a Sunday Evening Service. Only those who were members of that local church need show up. Outsiders would not be fed.
I've often thought the church of my childhood gorged me on judgment and guilt and starved me on grace and acceptance. What was lacking in our Sunday worship may have, in part, been supplied by my Mother after worship each Sunday. She'd always put a roast on to cook while we were at church. Just as surely as the preacher would give an invitation I knew what our house would smell like when I walked through the door after church. No incense ever raised more expectation. The frangrance from the kitchen told you in just a few minutes the table would be set with roast beef and gravy, mashed potatoes and corn and beans, a salad, and always dessert. Sometimes it would just be our family that gathered and sometimes room would be made for a visiting professor who'd spoken that morning or a friend come to spend the afternoon. That table was an extension of the worship we experienced at church. It was a place of fellowship, a place of welcome, a place where life was good.
Last Sunday I did something I've not been able to do in several years. I shared Sunday dinner with my mother. She didn't cook the meal and the food wasn't nearly as tasty or aromatic as what I would have experienced at her table long ago. My mother's illness has taken her memory of how to feed herself away, so I cut up her food and fed her until she told me, "That's enough of that. I don't want anymore." I don't know if she knew who I was. I was familiar enough that she felt secure around me. And she laughed as I talked with her and tried to tell her little stories. That Sunday dinner could have brought me sadness for what has been lost. It could have frightened me because I carry some of my mother's genes. It could have filled me with emptiness about what is no more. But it was a blessed, God-given moment of communion, a time formed in me by a memory of what had gone before, a moment formed in her by the simple task of eating and laughing.
A book I'm reading written by Lee Wandel entitled, The Eucharist in the Reformation, states that both Augustine and John Calvin didn't believe we are capable of knowing God, only knowing the presence of God. I do believe last Sunday, at that table of communion where chicken and dumplings were served, God was present, the host who not only gives life, but shows us how to break it open and pour it out each day.

I've just gotten home from the last day of a conference in Nashville, TN. The picture I've attached will be treasured. It is a picture of John Bell. He is a part of the Iona Community, a noted song writer and director who has traveled the world to teach his simple text and to gather songs from many nations and cultures. He had a hard time getting to the conference. He was stuck in Glasgow because of the volcanic ash until Thursday, but I got to hear his lecture this morning and it was inspiring and informative. He believes the church needs to look for music that can be sung and remembered, not performed.
One of the things he talked about was the way we make our worship more hospitable by singing songs from many cultures. He also mentioned that 60% of the world doesn't have wheat in its diet, so singing about the bread at the table is often not something that computes. He shared a song from Taiwan entitled "The Rice of Life" that challenged me to think more deeply about what is shared at the table.
The rice of life from heavencame to bring true life from God above
Receive this gift, God's mercy claim
in joy and pain give thanks for love.
The music he taught was simple, easy to learn, beautiful to sing. He often used what was called lining in the mountains, where he would sing one verse and the audience would respond.
I've heard familiar speakers at the conference like Jim Wallis of SoJourner fame and William Willamon. And I heard some exciting new voices at this conference for preachers. Lillian Daniel, senior minister of First Congregational Church, UCC, gave an excellent lecture on Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony.
I enjoyed seeing some old friends at the conference and enjoyed spending a little time with our newest ordained minister, Rev. Debby Neal who also attended the conference. All for now. Next week I'll be in North Carolina at a conference looking at worship in the 21 st century being led by Diana Bass.

Making preparations

With just a couple of more days before beginning the Sabbatical I've been finalizing traveling plans. The first week I'm attending a workshop in Nashville. John Bell, head of the Iona Community will be leading one of the tracts on worship. The second week I'll be attending a conference on Worship in NC. It is led by Marva Dawn, a noted teacher and author on worhsip in 21st century.
We leave June 3 for Glasgow. We are going on the first Sunday of the month to be a part of Cranhill Church's monthly communion service. We will spend time with their minister and their congregation. If you'd like to read a little about the Crandhill
Parish in a poor section of Glasgow, go to this site http://cranhillchurch.org.uk/
Muriel, their pastor wrote an article in a journal I read last year that spoke of how communion has led the congregation to be more involved in its community ministry.