Do It Again - 2005

In today’s service we are looking at the benefit available, the nourishment available to our spirits, through living more intentionally in the so called routine moments of our lives and in playing the role of author or designer of the moments that we put into our lives and elevate to the status of regular or repeat moments, moments we can call rituals.

And I’m reminded of how important it is for us to be good designers, good authors of the regular behaviors that we introduce into our lives. I remember hearing some time ago about a baseball player who had a ritual that he designed and introduced into his life and religiously observed; a ritual of never stepping on the white lines that marked the baselines on both sides of the field. As he ran onto the field of play he would make sure that his stride always made it possible for him to avoid stepping on the line. As time went on this ritual grew to require that he also not step on the line while the ball was in play. Because he played third base, this became a ritual that required a considerable amount of talent. And as the story goes, the ritual continued to grow so that not only did it require that he not step on the baseline but also that he turn a circle in the air as he crossed the baseline. So as he ran onto the field to start each inning he would jump across the baseline and as he did he would turn a full circle in the air. He also observed this requirement to rotate as he crossed the line when he was going after a foul ball. Supposedly he came to be quite adept at all of this but eventually the ever increasing demands of his ritual made it impossible for him to perform his job as a ball player.
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This Weeks Reflection

June 20, 2004We had been married twelve years when Lynn suggested we take a long vacation, a car trip to Sanibel, three weeks. The plan was to return with a decision whether or not to try to have children. Toward the end of our time there we walked one afternoon on the beautiful shell beach and returned to our room to make the decision. Lynn was concerned that one of us might influence the other as we expressed our choices. She wanted us to each speak our hearts independent desire and so she suggested we write our decisions and simultaneously show the other what we had written.
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This weeks Reflection

One of the most defining events for me in creating the Journeys experience relates to a letter a minister of my own Christian tradition wrote to my Bishop challenging the whole basis of Journeys Community. His complaint was that Journeys Community did not subscribe to the historic creeds of the Church and beliefs about God that had been a part of the Church’s doctrine and belief system for centuries. As a result of his negative view and his opposition to Journeys, the Journeys creative team was no longer allowed to meet at his church. And he strongly urged the Bishop to stop funding Journeys as an innovative, creative expression of what I have always thought was the central message of Jesus: “I have come that all people might have life, and have it abundantly.” At Journeys we try to create the experience of God in our services, not just knowledge or information about God. Our services and activities present opportunities for people to recognize deeper emotions and feelings that may create an opening to God and experience deeper meaning, purpose and fulfillment in their lives-to have life and have it abundantly!!
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This Week’s Reflection

What if you could design your own God? What would he-or it-be like? I’ve titled our time together “Why Not Design Your Own God?” Notice I didn’t call this a presentation, or a sermon. What it will be, actually, is a spiritual rumination in the pattern of some of the great ruminators: Samuel Clements, Will Rogers, and Andy Rooney.

Before I start to ruminate, though, you need to know a little of my background. You see, I am a “recovering Christian.” And no, I don’t go to meetings and stand up and say, “Hello, my name is Vic, and I am a recovering Christian.” The irony is that here I am, in front of you dear people of Journey’s Community, saying just that. Well.

I’ve experienced a bunch of “passages” since I was confirmed in the Methodist Church in 1950. They have included confusion, concern, anger, renunciation, and letting go. There may be more passages on the road ahead. As Yogi Berra once said, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” I feel like I’ve forked fairly often in the 58 years since I was confirmed. And I suspect most of you have as well.
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