Hopelessness, the sense that things are bad and won’t get better, is a reality for many people in our world. Helplessness in face of hopelessness, the sense that there is nothing we can do to change the ways things are, is reality for many others in the world.

By all accounts, Burundi, a small East African country, is a place of hopelessness. One of the poorest nations on the planet, 89% of the population lives in poverty and 56% of all children in Burundi suffer from malnutrition.  As a presidential election approaches, many observers are concerned that the country will fall back into the kind of civil war and genocide that took the lives of 300,000 Burundians in the 1990s. See this, Burundi on the Brink, from the New York Times for more on the political situation.

How easy it is for us to feel helpless when we hear about a hopeless place like Burundi. Continue reading →

The dictionary does not think highly of retreats.  Its first definition reads, “process of withdrawing from what is difficult, dangerous, or disagreeable.” The second definition is “the usually forced withdrawal of troops from an enemy or from an advanced position.” Retreats, it seems, have to do with what is “difficult, dangerous, or disagreeable.”  They have to do with getting away from an enemy.  To be sure, there is a derived definition of a retreat offered by Webster: “a period of group withdrawal for prayer, meditation, study, or instruction under a director.”

This coming weekend LPC women will be retreating and then the following weekend LPC men will do the same.  Seventy or so of us retreating for 36-40 hours over the next two weekends.  That last definition about group withdrawal for prayer, meditation, study, or instruction comes closest to what we will be doing, but it doesn’t mention endless games of UNO, lots of laughter, walks in the woods, and the building and strengthening of friendships within the Body of Christ. Continue reading →

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Psalm 16:5-6

A 20-something friend recently posted a comment about his older co-workers and their incessant “it’s all downhill after 30” comments. “The kind of adult I don’t want to be,” he said.

Having passed thirty by thirty and a bit more, I told my friend not to believe a word of their no-life-beyond-30 nonsense.

On July 1, 1975, I took a job as youth director at the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Cruz, California, and set off on what has turned out to be a 40-year adventure in full-time ministry. At the time 30 seemed a long way away. Yes, around 40 I took a couple years off to gain a seminary education, but, still, this summer I will count it forty years. I wouldn’t trade the few years in ministry before 30 or the many years since 30 for anything. Continue reading →

Becky and I are leaving this morning on a trip to California, the middle piece of which will be the West Coast Presbyterian Pastor’s Conference that I have attended for many years and which Becky is able to share this year.  The speakers should be excellent, the fellowship rich, and the setting in the coastal redwoods of North Monterey Bay peaceful and rejuvenating.  For those of you who remember and might ask – no, I have not yet thought of the word I will use to describe my year since eight days after Easter last year.

As much as I am looking forward to the conference, and I am, it may be what is at the edges of the conference week that excites me most. I will be away from the LPC pulpit, but still preaching – my busman’s holiday. Continue reading →

Easter @ LPC.  That is, our Easter worship services at LPC. You probably know by now – 6:00 a.m. at Core Creek Park, and then 8:30, 9:45, and 11:30.

You need to know ahead of time that there will be no surprises, at least not in our worship.  That’s okay.  We do not need to be surprised by our worship. We need to figure out how to be surprised again by the story we tell.

I love worship Easter worship at LPC.  It is a privilege and not a burden to be at all four services.  The sun will rise at 6:39 on Easter morning. That means that, like Mary, we rise early, while it is still dark, and that as we worship we will watch the eastern horizon grow brighter even as our hope grows bright in resurrection light.  Chapel worship at 8:30 is simple, uncomplicated, as we sing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” and “The Day of Resurrection.”  We will be called to worship by the oldest Christian call to worship, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!”  Contemporary worship at 11:30 will begin with a powerful new interpretation of the old call – “Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed.” Continue reading →