There is too much light! Or Anticipating the Coming Light

 

           Each week at my home church I act as the projectionist. Our worship space is a hall so we have lots of light and windows.  This is great normally but this Sunday in particular our projector was struggling against the light. Why you ask? Because there was so darn much of it.  We do not have a screen like most places who project things, for a variety of reasons so we show on the wall. 

            This Sunday was very sunny and well it was a fun game trying to figure out where the light was coming from.  For me in this once instance there was too much light. Often though there is never enough light, we are always searching for something to light our way. 

            This made me think about the flowers and other flora that keep sending out roots for water and leaves and vines for light.  It still amazes me that even in areas that look completely dead they are anything but.  How often do we look upon others that we see as empty, dark, dead, with out light.  I know that I am personally guilty of this more often then I would like to admit. In spite of this I do try to seek the light in each person.  Is there ever enough light?  In this time of advent, with the clocks set back we settle in to darkness at about 5 o’clock where I live both places of the week.  It seems dark and it gets darker each day more and more.

 But we are headed to the light, both in reality and metaphorically. December 22 is the solstice and this year even though it is only one minute of darkness longer then the day before. It is still the darkest.  That’s the great thing about waiting in advent, anticipating, preparing. With the risk of sounding totally corny, at the end there is a light.  A light that is open to anyone should they desire to seek

Shelter Island, NY Summer 2008 (c) Betty L. Gan***n

 **Yes this is indeed a sunset, but it is one of my favorite pictures of light capturing**

Pearls of Wisdom from P professor

In the past week I have had the procrastination syndrome baaad. So I decided to illuminate(haha illuminated manuscripts!) some of the pearls of wisdom that P professor has droped on us. 

Thank you to fellow Blogger and Classmate AmenAbility for her saving and compiling the best quotes of the semester thus far....

(c) Betty L. Gan***n 2010

"This Jesus is like the Macys day parade Jesus. Just hanging there like a baloon'

(c) Betty L. Gan***n 2010

"Romans like to bathe like Americans like to go to Wal*Mart"

The power of a name

         The power of a name is seen in the Bible in several places but my two favorites are the Covenant God makes with Abram and Sari and the conversion of Saul.  By making new covenants with them God gives them new identities, new beings and new names into Abraham Sara and Paul.  The names we have and the titles we gain there is much that goes into a name.

            In one of my favorite movies Spirited Away directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the main character Chihiro is warned to not tell anyone her name. By telling your name you give your being away. Somehow she is tricked into giving her name to the prevaor of the bath-house and she forgets who she is and becomes Sen. With the help of a friend she is able to regain her name and begin to reclaim her life and the life’s of those around her. This is also a story of growing up and growing into your given name and titles.

            Last week I was conducting worship at the hospital and from my perspective it was not a great success but that for this story is beside the point.  As I was waiting for the director of pastoral care one of the patients came and told me thanks. But what made this different then in other times was that he called me pastor. 

            I still don’t fully think of my self as seminarian yet even though I have been doing this seminary thing for almost a complete semester. Even when someone asked me this, during a conference this week it took me a moment to say yes. Let alone a pastor. I do think of myself as other things, a social worker(even though no one has ever called me this, I don’t think that this has the same address as pastor though…), aunt, Christian. These are things I will fully proclaim that I am, but pastor? 

            The gentleman who was saying this was saying it out of respect and I like to think love. But also because he might have forgotten my name, which I take no offence to as I am only there once a month. But this got me to thinking will I want people to call me pastor Betty?  I don’t like it when people call me Ms. Betty, except when you are in grade 5 or below.  I also understand that for some cultures to call a religious official by there first name alone might be a serious no-go.  But what I think most of all that I would be desired to be called would be something like, Betty no better or no less servant of God. But even that in and of itself is a title so I think I’ll just stick with Betty.

            By knowing a name of someone you instantly empower them. You give them a quiet dignity that for some populations has been lost and is so hard to regain. To know someone’s name is to begin to know who he or she are and what they are. Their friends is the power of a name.

Stuff No One Told Me ( but I learned anyway ): 51

Stuff No One Told Me ( but I learned anyway ): 51

Things are just things. There are much more important items to comprehend.

Yes(if only for you)

In my home church there is an older gentleman who I have known for my entire life and has known my mother for her entire life. My mom also looks out for him in more ways then one to keep it simple. Recently however he lost his wife of 60 plus years. He is slipping in to a dementia more and more each day and frequently calls to ask where his (insert something that we have no clue what he is asking about), or to ask on Sunday morning at 10am where he should be (at church).

Last year when I started doing the service on power point and projecting his heart leapt for joy and I am quite sure it physically did. He was so giddy and exclaimed to me that he felt like he was a kid again signing in the choir. He could see the lyrics and the prayers and got to actually be a participant in worship and not an observer. I figured at that point if I made him happy it was all-good.

Last week at the funeral/memorial service, his siblings that have been gosh knows where there. I learned today that he was so excited to tell his siblings about the projector. Something that to me seems to trivial and just ordinary is such a miracle to him. As I was saying goodbye to him after the reception, not knowing what to say other then “I’m sorry for your loss’. He kissed me on the cheek and said ‘your going to be here Sunday right?” “Yep I’ll be there”. Part of me wanted to say ‘if only for you, if only because it means so very much to you’. But I knew that if I could bring such a seemingly simple thing to him, maybe it was brining some joy to others also. To quote from Joan of Arcadia, ‘the ripples where/are good’.

So I encourage you blog readers to act in a ‘yes(if only for you)’ way more frequently then you think necessary. And to keep doing so, the barista that you get your coffee from learn there name it makes a difference (when my customers when I was a photo tech used my name they got superior service), or the person you pass on the way to class smile and say hello, or fill in your blank. You know what it is.