conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

weekend in review

All the world is liturgy...just chewing on these words lately. I wrote a verbatim for CPE that i entitled "Where Do I Put the Pulpit?" That was fun. I had a patient reveal to me that I was in her congregation. Those were her words, not mine. So, I've been resting in those words. Then the care coordinators were asking me about the differences between Protestant and Catholic when someone said "You know, we need a Bible study...you know, something specific to the hospital."

Wow. Um, okay. So, this has been on my mind over the weekend.

Friday was an odd day for me. We were short-staffed at the hospital, so things were busy. But I was exhausted from my week. We spent a lot of time last week digging in the dirt during our CPE group work and then there was the ordination commission...urggle. I was beat, so Friday was tough. That evening, Trish and I went to a party. There were some folk who are friends of Trish's from college who were unable to come to the wedding. They invited several people over for conversation and pizza. It was fun. i stayed up past my bedtime...which is quickly becoming 9:00pm. How did I get old?

Saturday, Cliff and I went to New Buffalo to get one last antique which Trish and I had purchased on our honeymoon. Cliff has a "mid-sized" SUV and the baker's hutch fit perfectly. It was great to see Cliff. We spoke about Delane (Cliff had driven Anna and Sofie to MI to meet her parents so that they could all go together to PA where Delane is being treated). We spoke about how political liberals are really pessimists. This is how this liberal sees it at least. We spoke about the latest Lambeth conference and what the results could mean to our Episcopal brothers and sisters. We spoke of John Calvin (His Name Be Praised). I have missed my time with Cliff. We are good friends. Blog entries are an incomplete witness to our relationship.

Saturday night I was at the hospital. It was steady, not horrific.

Sunday was busy. I am slowly getting used to thinking of it as a work day. I had not quite finished the sermon, so after attending North Shore and going out to Augie's for brunch I came home to work. I find this work wondrous. I am so fortunate to find (to be found by?) this vocation has been gifted to me. Things look rosy right now. I'll enjoy that while I can.

Here is a little quote from Tertullian, an early apologist and theologian. He may have been made a saint had he not joined up with the gnostics in the end. Ah well, no one is perfect?

We wage a battle when we are challenged to face the tribunals of law. There, in peril of life, we give testimony for the truth. Guards and informers bring up accusations against the Christians as sexual deviants and murderers, blasphemers and traitors, enemies of public life, desecrators of temples, and criminals against the religion of Rome. Look, you do not deal with us in accordance with the formalities of criminal cases even though you consider the Christian guilty of every crime and an enemy of the gods, emperors, laws, morals; yes, of the whole of nature. �You do not,� so they tell us, �worship the gods, nor do you make sacrifices to the emperors.� Accordingly we are charged with sacrilege and high treason.

Here is the book by Eberhardt Arnold.

AKMA has this to share about Tertullian. I love trading cards.

Have a good day!

Posted by tripp at October 18, 2004 06:52 AM