Presby • Opia

A CALL TO CONFESSION SUNDAY 10 JULY 2016  LUKE 10:25-37 At the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 Nelson Mandela and other leaders made a radical decision. Believing that vengeance...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-call-to-confession-sunday-10-july.html

Cancer narratives have two arcs: the person whose cancer has been treated and is highly unlikely to recur and the person with terminal cancer. The stories like many stories have predictable narr...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2015/02/cancer-stories.html

My first spiritual director talked about contemplation as “a long, loving look at the real.” It’s a quotation from the Jesuit Walter Burghardt. It has taken me years to begin to unpack...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-long-loving-look-at-real.html

I haven’t read the book, though I have owned it since it was first published. I wound up at the movie, not because I wanted to see it but because a friend wanted to see it and asked me to go w...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2014/06/reflections-on-fault-in-our-stars-movie.html

As I walked to church this morning, I saw him outside the doughnut store, sitting, reading, studying in fact, papers crammed with cramped writing. He looked as if he were studying for an exam. T...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2014/05/and-there-was-no-one-in-need-among-them.html

When a person stands at a threshold, a doorway, she has a choice: she can enter the house or turn her back and walk away. She can join the party or go home. When we stand at a threshold of a sta...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2014/04/liminal-space_18.html

A group I meet with periodically decided that we should reflect on embodiment as each of us had talked of embodiment that day. As I was thinking about what I would write, three experiences came ...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2013/08/incarnation-taste-and-see-that-lord-is.html

The church I preach at from time to time has a series of "Bad News and Good News" on the back of its bulletin. The bad news is that we are sinners. The worse news is that God is just and therefo...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2013/01/is-god-just.html

These are the aurora pictures from my trip to Alaska to see the aurora. It was fantastic. It is an amazing sight.

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2012/10/these-are-aurora-pictures-from-my-trip.html

2 Samuel 18             This is one of the most tragic stories in the Old Testament. David’s son Absalom rebels against his father. He has captured Jerusalem. David is on the run....

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-sins-of-father.html

Text--Mark 6:1-13 Last Sunday I talked a bit about the connection between the lectionary texts in Mark’s Gospel. This week, it seems that the two sections of the text are not connected at al...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2012/07/trust.html

A few days ago, I sat down with my journal. At the end of journal, my habit is to write a list of things I'm grateful for. I started a number of years ago when I was at Homer and feeling very is...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2012/07/cancer.html

1 John 4:7-21 7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2012/05/sundays-sermon.html

RevGalBlogPals Friday Five 1. Name a woman author you very much love to read. Well, I love Barbara Brown Taylor, but so does almost everyone else. I confess my favorite reads are women detectiv...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2012/03/friday-five.html

Trying to be more mindful as I eat, I looked at my spinach salad: dark green spinach leaves; cherry red tomatoes and bright orange carrots nestling under the shelter of the spinach. It struck me ...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2012/02/food.html

I have avoided reading The Fault in our Stars by John Green, though several of my friends on FB raved about the book. I tend to avoid anything concerning cancer by anyone who has not been there. ...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2012/01/that-we-but-mortals-be.html

From RevGalBlogPals A simple Friday Five for a busy part of the year; indulge me by sharing two fives: As you look back over 2011 share 5 blessings, they can be as grand or as simple as you like...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2011/12/friday-five.html

Tuesday (Nov 29) We were off to Luang Prabang. I had decided to add Laos to the itinerary simply because it was there. I had originally thought to visit Vietanenne because it is the capital, but ...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2011/12/vietnamcambodialaos.html

VietNam November December 2011 At some point in almost every trip I've taken overseas, I think how grateful I am to be an American. This trip it came much earlier than usual.. About three days i...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2011/11/vietnam-journal.html

So Jan posted on RevGalBlogPals > I was struck in our weekly Lectio Divina group by a few verses from > Psalm 105:3-4: >  > . . . let the hearts of those who seek t...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2011/09/friday-five-seeking-what.html

I was intrigued by an article in the NYTimes on authenticity . It's a big word today. Everyone wants to be authentic. What I hear when I hear authenticity is being true to one's self. Being who o...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2011/09/authenticity-and-integrity.html

April is a month of family birthdays for me: Today is my mother-in-law's 80th birthday and on Sunday my third child's 26th birthday, so I am thinking about birthdays. Easter would have been my mo...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2011/04/birthdays-revgalblogpals.html

A long slide show of my pictures is here You can speed up the slide show by moving the cursor and a speed menu will pop up

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2011/01/ethiopia-pictures.html

> I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions, but it does seem a good > time for some reflection and planning. For the last few days I keep > thinking of Psalm 90...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2010/12/friday-five-janus-post.html

1. The thing that amazed me most was the interior of the churches in Lalibela. The churches in Lalibela are carved into the volcanic rock. Imagine, you are on a mountain made of volcanic rock. Th...

http://presby-opia.blogspot.com/2010/12/ethiopia-things-that-amazed-me.html