July 19th, 2007
Many years and a few pastorates ago I was taught that the proper way to eat an oyster is raw. From the first time I let one slide down with a dollop of hot sauce I was hooked. Is it any wonder that we plan our vacations near Apalachicola, oyster capital of the USA? This year was no exception. One night I sat down and ate two dozen oysters right out of the shell and chased them with a hot dog. Life is good.
While on vacation I watched the sun rise every morning, read a few good books, kayaked with the dolphins, laughed with some dear friends and caught up with my family. In spite of my pasty white complexion I managed to avoid getting sunburned. Life is good.
While I cannot help but feel a bit melancholy when the time comes to fold up the beach chairs and head for home, it is such a comfort to know of the welcoming embrace of our church family. Here is where I know that no matter how far I go our home is here with each of you. Life is good.
Life is good not simply because good things happen, or good circumstances occur. That is hedonism whose promises are empty. Life is good because of the pleasure and joy in relationships – friends, family and community. Thanks be to my good congregation for allowing my family and me time to get away, get reacquainted and get some rest. They help make life good.
Are you living the good life? I hope so.
… for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:1-13, NRSV)
Living the good life,
Greg
July 19th, 2007
Once upon a time our attic served as the archive of a class project completed several years ago by one of my sons. It was of the solar system. Notice my use of the past tense. The planets were made of clay and evidently in the heat of the attic the clay went through a metamorphosis. The class project of a solar system started to look like somebody’s left over school lunch. One would think that Mercury, with its close proximity to the Sun, could have handled the heat of an attic better.
It appears that the school project of a solar system was out of date for other reasons. Now instead of nine planets, Pluto was booted off about a year ago, demoted to the status of a dwarf planet. Just before Pluto’s demotion scientists announced the discovery of another planet in our solar system. Instead of it having the cool name of a Greek or Roman god, they gave it the sterile moniker of 2003 UB313. Is it any wonder that astronomers don’t have a reputation as romantics? If I had the say-so I would call it something cool like Bocelli or Lasagna or Frappuccino.
There is some debate, however, as to whether or not 2003 UB313 (henceforth to be known as “Frappuccino”) is actually a planet. Even though “Frappucino” is larger than Pluto and made up of the same materials as Pluto, the scientific community is at a disagreement as to what actually qualifies as a planet. For right now “Frappuccino” will just be some big honking object out there in the solar system.
My degree is in theology not astronomy, but it doesn’t take an astronomer to appreciate the vastness and beauty of the universe. In more ancient days a poet reflected:
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens…
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
(Psalm 8:1;3-5)
Indeed, “how excellent is thy name.” When you take out the trash this week or retrieve the morning paper from the driveway, glance up with me to the dark sky and say a prayer of grace over this vast expanse of God’s handiwork. It is the stuff that has inspired poets, dreamers and all God’s children.
Grace be with you,
Greg