We are the church

We are the church, the body of our Lord,
we are all God’s children and we have been restored.

It is a time of celebration. We gather together where ever we are and become church. Not the noun “church” but the verb “church.” We become what we do together, we become what God has called us to be, we become the word active in the world in word and deed. We become collectively and individually a part of the Body of Christ.

The church is not a building where people go to pray;
it’s not made out of sticks and stones, it’s not made out of clay.

Buildings have walls, that may seem like a good thing in Alaska, helps keep the cold out. It also helps keep people out. For many, funerals and weddings are the entry point to the church. Hopefully it is for someone else’s funeral, but not always. Walls hide what goes on inside the building and for many, what goes on in there is mysterious, corny and outdated. But there are times, passages in life, where the unchurched or largely unchurched are drawn to fill the void in their hearts. Sometimes they come to worship, sometimes they are knows as the CEO’s (Christmas, Easter Only). They are the children of God, working to connect with the word of God in here because we have not effectively taken the word of God out there. The failing is less on their part than on ours.

You can go to worship but you cannot go to church;
You can’t find a building that’s alive no matter how you search.

Worship can be anywhere. Where two or three are gathered is how Jesus puts it in Matthew. Too often, people come to worship to find God. They miss the point of worship. Worship is the place to come and celebrate with all the other party goers, what God has been doing through you, out there. Church is a verb, it is what you are doing away from that building. It is the caring for people, serving at beans, listening, checking in, praying, bringing meals, sharing resources, smiling, writing letters to government officials, getting involved. Worship is the party where you come together and say “Wow.” It shouldn’t be called a church, it should be called “the party place.”

The church is not a business, a committee or a board;
It’s not a corporation for the business of the Lord.

There are constitutions, bylaws, contracts, goals and expectations for sure, but they are not the church. They are simply the square hole into which some try to stuff this ever changing blob with no clear defining boarders into. The annual report is this collection of data with boxes for; members, baptized and confirmed, ethnicity, languages spoken, transfer by affirmation and the most important box, statistical adjustment. I would like to see a report that indicated somehow, how many people were talked to or ministered to by how many people who may in some way or another connected to this ever changing living body, or ministered to by our web radio, or received some of the food we provided. There are no boxes or business models for that, only chaos theory.

The church, it is the people, living out their lives,
called, enlightened, sanctified for the work of Jesus Christ.

And the work of Jesus Christ is to bring the whole world back together. It is beating swords into plowshares, it is binding up the broken hearted, bringing sight to the blind and light to the world, it is setting free those who are bound in their self imposed prisons and finding out why so many are locked up in societies prisons and finding out what we can do to bring about a change in that, it is to proclaim the year of the Lord where all will be given the economic chance to succeed and strive, it is to forgive and heal and make whole, it is to love, actively love all in this world, especially, the unlovable, it is to bring back together all of creation and look at it and join with the voice of God pronouncing it good, and it is to be done not by the priest, pastor, rabbi or imam, but by all the people of God. Because, remember that:

We are the church, the body of our Lord;
We are all God’s children. We have been restored.

“The church song” text and music by Jay Beech 1988

Doubt

Fredrick Buechner – Wishful thinking

Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts, you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.

There are two principal kinds of doubt, one of the head and the other of the stomach

In my head there is almost nothing I can’t doubt when they fit is upon me – the divinity of Christ, the efficacy of the sacraments, the significance of the Church, the existence of God. But even when I am at my most skeptical, I go on with my life as though nothing untoward has happened.

I have never experienced stomach doubt, but I think Jesus did. When he cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” I don’t think he was raising a theological issue any more than he was quoting the 22nd, Psalm. I think he looked into the abyss itself and found there a darkness that spiritually, viscerally, totally engulfed him. I think God allows that kind of darkness to happen only to his saints. The rest of us aren’t up to doubting in that way – or maybe believing that way either.

When our faith is strongest, we believe with our hearts as well as with our heads, but only at a few rare moments, I think, do we feel in our stomachs what it must be like to be engulfed by the light.

2nd Sunday in Lent

Luke 13:31-35

Always the world
always trying
always pushing
always demanding
---- it’s way
NOW!!
and we are expected to
JUMP
through the hoop
---- held by the system
---------- someone
who cares not for us
---- our hopes
---- our dreams
---- our passions
but only for power
to say
JUMP!!

Christ brings new life
---- new hopes
---- new dreams
---- new passions
that move in their own world
God’s world
where we may still
Jump
---- if we want to
even through a hoop
---- if we think best
but in the end
we KNOWChrist came into this world for
us
that forgiveness and life may be
ours
and all of life here
is seen in a new way

Don't let the foxes scatter you

Saturday March 10th, Luke 13: 34"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" God’s plan for our life is always much grander than the reality of our life. Come, live your life under the wings of God. Live the promise, and don’t let the foxes scatter you.

NFLC

Friday March 9th, Luke 13: 32 He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' 33 In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! Eye on the Kingdom life. It’s a new definition of “No Fear.” Instead of an X games slogan, it should be a church name. NFLC, No Fear Lutheran Church, I like it! It was the word from the cradle to the cross, from the angles speaking to the shepherds to words to the thief on the cross with Jesus, fear not, the Lord is with you. Fear Not!!, and live a Kingdom focused life.

Seek ye first

Thursday March 8th, Luke 13: 31 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." Good advice!! Herod was a brutal and power hungry ruler. The only trouble was that their solution gave more glory to the brutality of Herod than to the promise of God. It was a practical, not a promise solution. How much time and focus do we put on the practical not the promise solutions in our life? Perhaps focusing on the promise (seek ye first the Kingdom of God and it’s righteousness) over the practical will put everything into clear focus (and all these things will be added unto you, alleluia)

Cross walk

Wednesday March 7th, Philippians 3: 17 Christian sisters and brothers, live your lives as I have lived mine. Watch those who live as I have taught you to live. 18 There are many whose lives show they hate the cross of Christ. I have told you this before. Now I tell you again with tears in my eyes. 19 Their god is their stomach. They take pride in things they should be ashamed of. All they think about are the things of this world. That would include some of us all the time and all of us some of the time. We do tend to get overly concerned about how we are going to make it in this world and a bit underly concerned about the calling of the next. We are not alone. When Jesus died on the cross, he died alone and forsaken, all had fallen away. Keep your eyes on the cross, sooner or later we all get there, the gift is walking with Jesus along the way.

Props or promise

Tuesday March 6th, Genesis 15: 9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon." 10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. God did not need animal sacrifice any more that God needs many of the traditions in our worship. They are there because We Need them to help us see and hold onto the promises of God. As we change, our needs change. We may not need heifers, goats and rams, but we do get a bit uneasy when the hymns change. When we realize they are all just props to help us grasp the wonder of the grace of God, it is easier to let others have their props also. Most church fights are about the props not the promise.

I've got that sinking feeling

Monday March 5th, Genesis 15: 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. 7 He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it." 8 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?" In the midst of all the promises of God, we still have our doubts. We all have the capacity to stand on the promises of God with one foot, but want the other foot on what we perceive as terra firma. We can look back on all the times that God has been with us in our life, but we still have doubts looking ahead. Our prayer is for God to give us a clear vision of Kingdom. Keeping the vision of the Kingdom in our sights is what keeps us on the path. Loosing site of the Kingdom is what causes us to veer off into the quicksand of this world. When we find ourselves sinking, we know we have gained control.

Yah, But

Sunday March 4th, Genesis 15: 1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." 2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." Oh, the promise of God is great and sure, but it is for me!?!?!?! It can’t be for me! There has to be some mistake!!!! We all get stuck in this practical, pragmatic, three dimensional world from time to time. The promises of God are great and all that, but how about three squares and a roof, and while we are at it, make it a nice roof, and maybe another one on the river for vacations, and a nice truck to pull the boat I will need, and a nice car to drive, Oh, and don’t forget the big screen plasma and, and, and, and, and, and…….. In the midst of all of our “Yah but’s,” God continues with the promise. Our job is to connect with the promise once in a while and live this life accordingly.

Take your mind off Iraq

Matthew 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

25 "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

On Tuesday, a second US aircraft carrier arrived in the Sea of Oman off the southern coast of Iran giving a whole new meaning to the term "escalation." The Bush administration is hell-bent on sending 21,000 troops to Iraq against the wishes of most Americans, but now it seems like they might not stop there.

While the war in Iraq grows worse by the day, the White House seems to be turning its sights toward neighboring Iran which could escalate the current conflict into a regional one. This reckless move comes despite the fact that most experts believe diplomacy is the way to go with Iran.

President Bush is out of control, and Congress needs to step in immediately to rein him in. Please sign this petition to Congress asking that they require the president seek their authorization before taking military action in Iran. Clicking here will give you a chance to sign the Move On petition:

http://pol.moveon.org/noescalationiniran

1st Sunday in Lent

Luke 4:1-13

Sometimes we know
We just know
And yet we strive for all that is in us
For those things
------------- thoughts
----------------- directions
that will lead us down
-------- the path
-------------- we wish not to go.
That will lead us to the one
-------------- we wish not to serve,
but we are drawn
by all the humanness within us
we are drawn
until
we find the strength
---- somehow
and the presence of mind
---- from somewhere
to say
Hear my people
---- The Lord is our God
---- The Lord is One
and in that moment
we know
---- we just know
all the power
---- prestige
-------- and glory
the world has to offer
---- are only fleeting
a moments spotlight
---- exchanged
--------- for the joy
that comes from the God who created all the Joy
--------------------------------------------- life
and calls us to put down our walls
of glory
for the joy of life
lived to its fullness
in Christ

opportune times again and again

Saturday March 3rd, Luke 4: 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" 12 Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Those opportune times come again and again. Peter on the mountain, “let us build three booths.” The soldier at the cross, “If you are the Christ, then come on down from there.” The home town crowd, “do for us as you did in Capernaum.” And from you and I, “if only you do this for me, I will follow you.” Jesus doesn’t lead us away from life, but into it where we find the opportunity to “be” the body of Christ.

Perfect like "Pleasentville"

Friday March 2nd, Luke 4: 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours." 8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" Just think, no war, no famine, we would all get along, dumbly following along like a herd of animals. There would be no free will, no ability to hate and therefore no ability to love, no ability to hoard and therefore no ability to share. It would simply be denying the “created in God’s image” thing. Once again, Jesus turns our heads from our own desires to the word of God and the hope it brings into the world.

Bread and Circus

Thursday March 1st, Luke 4: 1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'" The Romans knew the secret of dealing with the masses. It was called “bread and circus.” Give them something to eat and entertainment and the government can get away with murder, literally. Not much different from our cry for tax cuts and war. As long as the war machine turns a good profit on Wall street for those at the top, and the rest of us can buy the illusion that we too can get there someday if only these little people don’t take it away from us. Jesus refusal to turn the stones into bread is a call for us also to return to the Word of God for our sustenance.

All!!!

Wednesday February 28th, Romans 10: 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." In God’s view there is no axis of evil, no second class citizens, no one deserving of “minimum” wage, no one to be denied the right of marriage, no one we can indiscriminately drop bombs on, no one who is an “other.” For Christ there is no difference. All are richly blessed and called to the kingdom.

Gospel

Tuesday February 27th, Romans 10: 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. We are moving into lent. Soon it will be Easter and we will have among us all those CEO’s (Christmas, Easter Only) For those of us in the church it is easy to lament, “Where are they the rest of the year?” and feel very self righteous about our rantings. And yet, they are a testimony that there is indeed something in the hearts of us all. The word is near and they feel it. Something brings them to worship, something speaks to their hearts, and God gives us once again an opportunity to proclaim a word of faith. Perhaps this year we will move beyond “our” traditions and speak to the word in their hearts, the CEO’s hearts. That is when the Gospel truly becomes the Good News and comes back to heal the family of God.

no illegal aliens

Monday February 26th, Deuteronomy 26: Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him. 11 And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household. The gift of God’s grace is for you, and you, and you, and you, and you. That includes the aliens among you. There is nothing here about fences and armed patrols to keep the aliens out. In God’s kingdom, no one is an illegal alien. The only act of illegality is the act of trying to deny the kingdom to others.

Live!!!

Sunday February 25th, Deuteronomy 26: 8 So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; 10 and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me." Living with a recognition that all you have comes from God keeps ever before us that we are gifted for a purpose. That purpose is for others and for the Gospel. No self made man or woman, either on Wall street or down the lane from the pearly gates. All is gift. Live your life with the graciousness that comes with knowing it is all gift. Live your life with the graciousness that comes with knowing why you have been given the gift. Live you life graciously. Live your life. Live!!!

Days of Elijah

A message from our choir director Jamie regarding the song the choir sang on Sunday.

You were just inspirational yesterday. These are definitely the "Days of Elijah" (Here is a link to the "story behind the song" http://www.robinmark.com/DaysOfElijah_Story.htm)

Someone had too much of the koolaid

Bush Compares Revolutionary, Terror Wars


Feb 19, 12:24 PM (ET)

By TOM RAUM

(AP) President Bush is pictured with Gen. George Washington, played by actor Dean Malissa, after Bush... Full Image

MOUNT VERNON, Va. (AP) - President Bush honored the 275th birthday of the nation's first president on Monday, likening George Washington's long struggle that gave birth to a nation to the war on global terrorism.

"Today, we're fighting a new war to defend our liberty and our people and our way of life," said Bush, standing in front of Washington's home and above a mostly frozen Potomac River.

"And as we work to advance the cause of freedom around the world, we remember that the father of our country believed that the freedoms we secured in our revolution were not meant for Americans alone."

Bush chose the national Presidents Day holiday to make his first visit as president to Mount Vernon. He and first lady Laura Bush helped lay a wreath at Washington's tomb, then the president gave a speech from a platform on the bowling green lawn of the estate.

"I feel right at home here. After all, this is the home of the first George W. I thank President Washington for welcoming us today. He doesn't look a day over 275 years old," Bush said to laughter.

For the full story, click on the title above.

Shameful ranking

In the mean time, tax cuts for wealth continue to pile up. Does the body of Christ truly honor all parts of the body or only a few?

U.S. and Alaska lag behind in quality of life for children

Published: February 19, 2007
Last Modified: February 19, 2007 at 12:48 AM

We've all heard politicians spout the platitude, "Children are our most precious resource." Apparently, talk on that front is cheap and action is lacking. When the United States is compared with other countries in how well we provide for children, our ranking looks pretty abysmal.

The sad tale is told in a new U.N. report. "An overview of child well-being in rich countries" looks at how 21 countries compare in six major areas, covering education, health, safety, family status and economic indicators.

Overall, the United States came in next to last. Only Great Britain was worse. Even the least-prosperous industrialized countries on the list -- Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Portugal -- ranked well above the U.S.

Some of the factors used to rank countries were potentially dubious, subjective measures like how many children "like school a lot" or report "negatively about personal well-being." Leave aside those squishy measures, though, and look at indisputable, objective data. The U.S. still falls near the bottom of the pack.

Infant mortality: Only Hungary was worse. Death rate for children under 19 years old: Only New Zealand was worse.

Low-birth-weight babies (a sign of poor pre-natal care and a risk factor for future developmental problems): Only Greece and Hungary were worse.

Rate at which teenagers (15 to 19) have babies: The U.S. was in last place, with the highest rate.

Educational achievement of 15-year-olds, measured on a common test in each country: The U.S. was 21st of the 25 countries studied.

On an index of health behaviors, covering smoking, drinking, obesity, exercise and fighting, only children in Great Britain fared worse than U.S. children.

The U.S. did do better on some measures. We were in the middle of the pack for providing children with immunizations. We ranked fifth in having the smallest percentage of children in homes where no parent has a job. But that statistic masks a unpleasant truth about today's U.S. economy. As high-wage jobs become more scarce, more parents have to work two jobs to have a decent standard of living. That extra work takes time away from children.

The economic struggles of U.S. families show up in another statistic. We have the largest gap between rich and poor families. More than one in five U.S. children live in homes at the bottom end of the country's economic ladder -- giving us by far the worst ranking of the nations listed.

OK, so the U.S. rankings are pretty bad. Alaska is a rich state; do we do any better?

Unfortunately not. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual Kids Count report, Alaska ranks 35th among the 50 states in the well-being of children. That's a sharp drop from 30th in 1999-2000.

Alaska is better than the nation in some areas, like teen birth rates and low-birth-weight babies. Most notably, Alaska's percentage of children living in poverty is 20 percent below the national average. But Alaska's child death rate is 80 percent higher, immunization rates are lower and substance abuse is more prevalent.

The take-home message from the U.N. report is pretty simple. A country's wealth, by itself, does not ensure that its children will prosper. Nations make choices that affect children's welfare, for better or worse. Government policies can improve social conditions for children.

Our poor national and state rankings for child welfare are not immutable facts of life. We can do better, both in Alaska and in the country as a whole -- and we must.

BOTTOM LINE: Alaska and the U.S. can do a whole lot better by our children.

Peace Train

http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

Let's get on the Peace train and off the runaway War train. Click on the title above or the link provided and turn up your speakers.

Lenten season radio

There is a new playlist for the Lenten season on our web radio. Click on the web radio link to the left or the title above and enjoy music and commentary and scripture 24/7

Amazing Grace Sunday

The starting site for Amazing Grace Sunday as well as information on the movie "Amazing Grace" can be found at www.amazinggracesunday.com or if that doesn't work, click on the title above. Amazing Grace Sunday for the U.S. is on February 18th, and for the U.K. it is March 25, 2007. Check out the site for the information it has on slavery in our current world. Download the petition and study Guides. Take a group to see the movie and have a discussion afterwards.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Dan

Ash Wednesday

Matthew 6:1-16

Is my hair straight?
How about this tie
---- does it match
the rest of the image
---- (help me)
I wish to present?
------------ an image
I sometimes make a show
for the world
--------------- so busy making shows
yet
-------- I long for something more
-------- (Lord)
-------- I long to uncork
------------- that stream
-------- of passion
------------- within me
that passion
----- that draws me toward the light
----------- and illumines
---------------- my innermost
---------------------- Yes I dare let go
----------------------------- self
------ (to place)
protected now
by the walls of expectation
built on the unfulfilled dreamings
of what should be.

But there are those times
when
------- for some reason
------------- beyond me
I live in a world filled with people
-------- alone
----- (my trust)
and in those brief glorious moments
I become
----- whole
----- (in)
and cry
----- for now reason
----- seeing no eyes upon me
----- and I Thank You
----- (You)
--------- Lord

The Transfiguration of our Lord

Luke 9:28-36

In the Joy filled intensity of our excitement
we look up and catch a glimpse
-- of something unseen
---- (This)
beyond the realm of all we know
----- and feel
--------- and hear,
beyond the encounter of those special moments in life
when every part of existence
------------------------------ is focused
on the here and now,
and for a brief moment
---------------------------- all is just right,
beyond even the pureness of joy
that comes in the perfection of religious expression
----- amid the rising voices
---------- and the spine tingling timelessness
---- of our worship
---- (is)
into this came an almost moment in time
rising from the mist of exhausted ecstasy
---------- on a high mountain top
---- (My)
apart
---- from a world seething in hunger and pain
longing
---- to see that to which they have turned
------------- a blind eye.
Here
---- in the almost place and time
comes the light
---- (Son)
that can burn through even the blindness
------------------ of not looking
---------- or looking too hard
with our eyes focused on that unseen moment
that we almost notice.
Here at this time
The Son of God leads us down
------------------------------------ into
--------------------------------------- the world around us
to see
the glory of God
in the poor and lost in the midst of our world,
to see the pureness of unbounded timelessness
in the moment of love expressed
to one who knows not love
to see
---- by not trying to focus on that faint glimmer
--------------------------------------------------- off high
------------------------------------------- in the distant mist
---- (Listen to Him!)Christ
---- in those around us!

dusty, but not alone

Saturday February 17th, Luke 9: 42 Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. 43 And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. Following God’s confession, Jesus does not leave Peter and the boys on the mountain top, but rather leads them down into the dusty highways and byways to be the presence of God. The disciples could not heal the boy, they were acting alone, Christ was not with them. When we find ourselves in the dusty streets, remember to make Christ of part of what you do. Here is where confession leads to ministry, and we are never alone.

God's confession

Friday February 16th, Luke 9: 34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. After Peters botched confession comes God’s confession. “Peter, stop talking long enough to connect with what is going on, this is my Son (the Christ) LISTEN TO HIM!!!!” Even here in this moment the devils temptation to stay on the mountain top (Luke 4:5) and be worshiped (and in the process submit to the devils temptation) is here, and without the voice of God and the leading of Jesus, it is Peter who would have succumbed. Without the voice of God and the leading of Jesus, we find ourselves there also.

Highways and byways are about the Kingdom

Thursday February 15th, Luke 9: 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31 appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." After all the talk of Jerusalem and crosses, Peters confession began to take on some calculation. Mountain top experiences are wonderful gifts given to us by God. Trying to stay on the mountain top is just another way of denying the confession that brought us there in the first place. God’s calling is to take that confession down into the reality of the streets and not leave it in the surrealistic experience of the mountain top. Mountain tops are about “me,” the highways and the byways are about the kingdom.

Realization to reality

Wednesday February 14th, Luke 9: 18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?" 19 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life." 20 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God." We use a public confession of faith in worship, but if it is not personal, it means little. Who do “You” say that I am? Peter was caught off guard and spoke from the heart. It is the confession on which the church is built. Later Peter would have time to think things threw and stumble, but for this moment, Peter connected with that kernel of truth deep within. He knew that this Jesus Was the Christ, for him personally and always would be. We all would do well to connect to that moment in our lives when the realization became for us the reality.

Ministry or tooting

Tuesday February 13th, 2 Corinthians 4: 1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. It is easy to lose heart, to get discouraged. It often is the result of trying to do it all ourselves instead of working with God. There have been times when I get done with a sermon and think, well, I sure blew that one, it was awful. Then at the door I will be met by someone with tears in their eyes and they are telling me how much they needed to hear what I said. It is then that I smile and remember that if it is not God’s ministry, it is not ministry, it’s just tooting my own horn. Be a clay vessel and let God work through you.

Amazing Grace

Monday February 12th, 2 Corinthians 3: 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. There are more slaves in the world today than in the day the song “Amazing Grace” was written. Young women sold into prostitution, women and children working in sweat shops so we can get a good deal at ?-Mart (don’t want to get sued you know) Sing “Amazing Grace” this Sunday and visit www.amazinggracesunday.com for more information. See the movie "Amazing Grace" coming Feb. 23rd. Go together as a church group. Help bring this scourge on humanity to an end. And for God’s Children’s sake, stop buying things at ???-Mart or anyplace else that uses sweatshop labor. Is your savings really worth a child's life?

Fear of the Holy

Sunday February 11th, Exodus 34: 29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. When we come into contact with the Holy, we change. When we come into relationship with the Holy, we change. When we spend time with the Holy, we change. This can be a bit frightening for those around us, frightening because they are scared they might change also, and in the process loose all the control they have worked so hard to get. It is an illusion of course, this control, ask anyone who has been in an accident, been diagnosed with a life altering or terminal illness, or even tried to loose weight. Control is just the illusion we share as a society. Giving up that control to the Holy is both the thing we seek and the thing we fear. Across the threshold is life.

Heading toward year 5 of the Iraq War!

• Over 3,000 U.S. troops dead,
• 23,000+ American wounded
• 100,000+ Iraqi dead,
• Millions of Iraq refugees
• War costs: $365 billion to date
• plus an additional $6 billion/month
• Veteran benefits cut
• Torture centers
• Katrina response failure
• Health & education funding cut
• War profiteering
• Warrantless wiretaps

WWJD?

Eipihany is a time to bring to light those things hidden in the dark

Congress Finds Ways to Avoid Lobbyist Limits

From the New York Times, click on title above for full article

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: February 11, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — The 110th Congress opened with the passage of new rules intended to curb the influence of lobbyists by prohibiting them from treating lawmakers to meals, trips, stadium box seats or the discounted use of private jets.

But it did not take long for lawmakers to find ways to keep having lobbyist-financed fun.

In just the last two months, lawmakers invited lobbyists to help pay for a catalog of outings: lavish birthday parties in a lawmaker’s honor ($1,000 a lobbyist), martinis and margaritas at Washington restaurants (at least $1,000), a California wine-tasting tour (all donors welcome), hunting and fishing trips (typically $5,000), weekend golf tournaments ($2,500 and up), a Presidents’ Day weekend at Disney World ($5,000), parties in South Beach in Miami ($5,000), concerts by the Who or Bob Seger ($2,500 for two seats), and even Broadway shows like “Mary Poppins” and “The Drowsy Chaperone” (also $2,500 for two).

The lobbyists and their employers typically end up paying for the events, but within the new rules.

Instead of picking up the lawmaker’s tab, lobbyists pay a political fund-raising committee set up by the lawmaker. In turn, the committee pays the legislator’s way.

Lobbyists and fund-raisers say such trips are becoming increasingly popular, partly as a quirky consequence of the new ethics rules.

Let us begin the lame duck session comrade

White House takes grip on regulators

Published in the Anchorage Daily News, click link above

JOHN HAVELOCK
COMMENT

(Published: February 10, 2007)

Bad decisions being made at home tend to get pushed off the front pages by the consequences of worse ones abroad. Recently, the White House announced that it would place a political appointee in each agency of government having regulatory authority to assure that "White House" policy was being carried out.

Readers who were around for the heyday of the Soviet Union will remember that much the same purpose was served in that government by the appointment of "political commissars" in the many agencies of the USSR to assure loyalty to the party line.

In America, Congress adopts hundreds of laws having regulatory effect. Agency chiefs are delegated power by law to adopt detailed regulations and to propound information bulletins that interpret the intent of Congress as expressed in legislation.

The agency director, nominally nonpartisan, is a subject-matter expert, surrounded by professional staff, selected by the White House and confirmed by Congress. The director is regularly called before congressional committees to justify budget allocations and explain activities. The confirmation process serves as a check on the appointment of unqualified people to serve in these important posts.

Now, each agency chief will find that a person has been appointed, without a confirmation process, holding superior authority within the agency, to oversee the political correctness of each proposed decision. Like the commissar, the White House appointee is likely to do double duty as a political policeman, reporting to the White House on signs of disloyalty within the agency.

This reorganization initiative must have come from a person whose zeal for loyalty outweighs familiarity with principles of public or business administration. A CEO of even a modest-sized organization knows what havoc can be wreaked if some person down the line can bypass the chain of command to change policy or make secret personnel reports. A department can be thoroughly demoralized, its mission crippled and congressional intent thwarted.

This decision is yet another constitutionally significant attack on congressional prerogative by an executive that believes, above all, in its own will. Now that Congress is no longer a rubber stamp, the executive is moving to neutralize congressional power.

The vastly increased use of Signing Letters of Intent fits neatly with this current initiative. In a Signing Letter of Intent, the president, at the time of signing legislation, says what it means to him. Thus, he may avoid a veto of popular legislation by giving it a surprise meaning, stating he will not enforce certain provisions, or tilting the legislation according to his personal purposes.

We have yet to see what weight, if any, the courts will give to signing letters, but there is concern among those fearing that the court has been packed with judges dedicated to enhancing executive power.

It will be interesting to see whether the courts will continue to defer to an agency's interpretations of its own regulations now that a commissar can spin the regulations. Historically, the court's deference stemmed from the court's recognition of the professional expertise of the agency.

It has not been reported where the money will come from to support this supplemental layer of government. But it is likely that the president will use his authority to redirect money within the budget of each agency, rather than using funds from the White House budget.

In yet another expansion of presidential power, positions are being created in the government that were not authorized by Congress and whose purpose is to circumvent congressional purposes not conforming to White House policy.

It is not beyond the power of Congress to identify and correct this misallocation of resources; nor is this a partisan issue. The irony of this maneuver is that while it may strengthen Republican executive power for the remaining two years of the president's term, its effects will remain to be exercised by subsequent regimes, which may very well be Democratic.

Whoever the heirs to this policy may be, it is still bad government. The Alaska congressional delegation might well consider the wisdom of this executive decision and join those considering a countermove.

---

John Havelock is a former Alaska attorney general and former White House fellow.

Gee!!! You really think so??

Report Says Pentagon Manipulated Intel

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pentagon officials undercut the intelligence community in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq by insisting in briefings to the White House that there was a clear relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, the Defense Department's inspector general said Friday.

Acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the office headed by former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith took "inappropriate" actions in advancing conclusions on al-Qaida connections not backed up by the nation's intelligence agencies.

Gimble said that while the actions of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy "were not illegal or unauthorized," they "did not provide the most accurate analysis of intelligence to senior decision makers" at a time when the White House was moving toward war with Iraq.

News

I can never remember, it is Fox News or Faux News?

6th Sunday after the Epiphany

Luke 6:17-26

It all seemed so easy
to love the Lord your God
with all your heart and soul and mind
and your neighbor as yourself
So easy
to say I will love
So easy
to chat with my neighbor
share a meal
get to know them
sort of
To care for them
sort of
To feel good about my life
sort of
and not see the ones at the far end
of the table
set for me
by the Lord my God whom I love
with all my heart, soul, mind
But through the help of your love
I see them now Lord
I see the children starving
The lonely ones
The ones excluded and insulted
The punch lines of my humor
I see them now
seated at the table you have set before me
strangers no more
but sisters and brothers
in the house of the Lord
forgive me

Valleys

Saturday February 17th Luke 6: And it's trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games. There's suffering to be met, and you're going to meet it. Perfect parents are those with no children. The transfiguration reminds us that even though there may be mountain top experiences, Jesus calls us back down into the dusty streets. It is how we handle the valleys in life that makes us who we really are. Remember, if you are in charge, you’re alone. If God is in charge, you can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil (Psalm 23). Either way, life will have valleys.

Life, real Life!!!!!!

Friday February 16th Luke 6: 25 And it's trouble ahead if you're satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long. I met a man once who was 84 and wanting to get married again. There is a woman in our congregation who is 92 and looks forward to serving in the local soup kitchen (Beans Café). Two examples of what happens when you don’t stop to rest on your laurels. Mornings are greeted differently where there is lots to do.

Made in the shade

Thursday February 15th Luke 6: 24 But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you'll ever get. You can put your faith in God, or you can put your faith in your ability. Which is more likely to get you to heaven?

How about a maximum wage bill?

Wednesday February 14th Luke 6: 22-23" Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you like!—for even though they don't like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this. When the victims of this world stand up, the ones in power get a bit threatened. They often respond by escalating violence. The Gospel is a threat to power structures and the have’s in a world of have’s and have nots. The Gospel is a threat to our present world economy and to our present world power structure. For all the debate on the minimum wage you never hear any talk of imposing a maximum wage or requiring multinational corporation to pay that minimum wage to foreign workers. If you think there is a fuss over carbon emissions, imagine the stink that would be raised by a Biblical call for an international year of Jubilee?

Never alone

Tuesday February 13th Luke 6: 17-21 You're blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning. In the midst of sorrow, we are never alone. The song, “You Raise Me Up” starts with the words, “When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary; When troubles come and my heart burdened be; Then, I am still and wait here in the silence, Until you come and sit awhile with me.” God’s presence is not always a grand production, often it is the still, comforting presence of the Holy Spirit brought to you by a friend, a stranger, a song, a prayer, or maybe, the silence, but you are never alone.

Hunger

Monday February 12th Luke 6: 17-21 You're blessed when you're ravenously hungry. Then you're ready for the Messianic meal. While in seminary we would have communion every Wednesday morning. One semester I fasted each week from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday morning. I would find myself salivating when they broke the bread and poured the wine. At first I was a bit disturbed by my automatic physical response, it seemed a bit crass. Then I began to see it in light of one’s hunger for the presence of God in your life. That was followed by an immense feeling of completeness in the taking of a small piece of bread and sip of wine. I remember, but sometimes I long to again feel so complete in the presence of God.

Lost and then found

Sunday February 11th, Luke 6: 17-21 They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed! Then he spoke: You're blessed when you've lost it all. God's kingdom is there for the finding. The original sin in the Bible is the one in Genesis where the first humans eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The sin wasn’t the eating. Blame is not assigned by asking who ate first and who tempted whom to eat. The sin was in succumbing to the temptation to be like God. (Genises 3: 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.") Our temptation is always to be in charge, and therefore to be like God. When you have lost it all, you are at least spared for the moment, the illusion that you are, at least in some ways, the center of it all. When you have let go of all the crutches, all the pretenses, all the illusions, you find God. In that moment you know you are truly blessed.

CROSS OF IRON

CROSS OF IRON Speech by Republican President Eisenhower

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

CROSS OF IRON reality by current Republican President Bush

Bush Sends Congress $2.90T Spending Plan

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Monday unveiled a $2.9 trillion spending plan that devotes billions more to fighting the war in Iraq but pinches pennies on programs promised to voters by Democrats now running Congress. Democrats widely attacked the plan and even a prominent Republican conceded it faced bleak prospects.

Bush's spending plan would make his first-term tax cuts permanent, at a cost of $1.6 trillion over 10 years. He is seeking $78 billion in savings in the government's big health care programs - Medicare and Medicaid - over the next five years………

….Just as Iraq has come to dominate Bush's presidency, military spending was a major element in the president's new spending request. Bush was seeking a Pentagon budget of $624.6 billion for 2008, more than one-fifth of the total budget, up from $600.3 billion in 2007.

For the first time, the Pentagon included details for the upcoming budget year on how much the Iraq war would cost - an estimated $141.7 billion for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the cost of repairing and replacing equipment lost in combat.

The Bush budget includes just $50 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2009 and no money after that year. But the president rejected the suggestion that the administration was setting a timetable for troop withdrawal.

"There will be no timetable set," Bush told reporters. He said that would send the wrong signal to the enemy, the struggling Iraq democracy and the troops.

Bush projected a deficit in the current year of $244 billion, just slightly lower than last year's $248 billion imbalance. For 2008, the budget year that begins next Oct. 1, Bush sees another slight decline in the deficit to $239 billion. He sees that decline continuing over the next three years until the budget records a surplus of $61 billion in 2012, three years after Bush has left office.

Bush projects government spending in 2008 of $2.9 trillion, a 4.9 percent increase from the $2.78 trillion in outlays the administration is projecting for this year. However, the administration notes that the 2007 total is only an estimate, given that Congress is still working to complete a massive omnibus spending bill to cover most agencies for the rest of this fiscal year.

To help achieve what would be the government's first surplus since 2001, Bush is proposing $95.9 billion in savings in mandatory spending, the part of the budget that includes the big benefit programs of Social Security and health care.

Medicare, which provides health insurance for 43 million older and disabled Americans, would see the bulk of those savings - reductions of $66 billion over five years. That would come about primarily by slowing the growth of payments to health care providers.

Additional savings would be achieved by charging higher income Medicare beneficiaries bigger monthly premiums.

While Bush said something had to be done to get control of spiraling health care costs, Congress refused to go along last year with Bush's effort for smaller reductions in Medicare.

Bush would seek to eliminate or sharply reduce 141 government programs for a five-year savings of $12 billion. But many of those reductions he has proposed in past budgets - only to see them rejected by Congress.

Bush once listed overhauling Social Security as the No. 1 domestic priority of his second term. But his effort two years ago to accomplish this goal by diverting some Social Security taxes into private investment accounts went nowhere in Congress. He included the private accounts again in this year's budget. But to minimize the impact, he only showed the program taking effect in 2012, when the private accounts would cost $29.3 billion.

The president's budget also includes an initiative to expand health care coverage to the uninsured through a complex proposal that would give every family a $15,000 tax deduction for purchasing health coverage but would make current employee-supplied health coverage taxable for certain taxpayers.

Bush is also proposing to increase the maximum Pell grant, which goes to low-income students, from the current $4,050 to $4,600. Democrats are pushing for even larger increases.

Bush's energy proposals would expand use of ethanol and other renewable fuels with a goal of cutting gasoline use by 20 percent over the next decade.

From Terror to Terra

It seems we have been kept so busy with the Terror alerts that we missed the Terra alert. Maybe it was by design!

Lutherans losing their place

Notice:

Lutherans have been replaced on the Cobert Report’s “On Notice” board by Jane Fonda.

Remembering Molly Ivins

John Nichols

Washington Correspondent, The Nation

Molly Ivins always said she wanted to write a book about the lonely experience of East Texas civil rights campaigners to be titled No One Famous Ever Came. While the television screens and newspapers told the stories of the marches, the legal battles and the victories of campaigns against segregation in Alabama and Mississippi, Ivins recalled, the foes of Jim Crow laws in the region where she came of age in the 1950s and '60s often labored in obscurity without any hope that they would be joined on the picket lines by Nobel Peace Prize winners, folk singers, Hollywood stars or senators.

And Ivins loved those righteous strugglers all the more for their willingness to carry on.

The warmest-hearted populist ever to pick up a pen with the purpose of calling the rabble to the battlements, Ivins understood that change came only when some citizen in some off-the-map town passed a petition, called a Congressman or cast an angry vote to throw the bums out. The nation's mostly widely syndicated progressive columnist, who died January 31 at age 62 after a long battle with what she referred to as a "scorching case of cancer," adored the activists she celebrated from the time in the late 1960s when she created her own "Movements for Social Change" beat at the old Minneapolis Tribune and started making heroes of "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers."

"Troublemaker" might be a term of derision in the lexicon of some journalists--particularly the on-bended-knee White House press pack that Ivins studiously refused to run with--but to Molly it was a term of endearment. If anyone anywhere was picking a fight with the powerful, she was writing them up with the same passionate language she employed when her friend the great Texas liberal Billie Carr passed on in 2002. Ivins recalled Carr "was there for the workers and the unions, she was there for the African-Americans, she was there for the Hispanics, she was there for the women, she was there for the gays. And this wasn't all high-minded, oh, we-should-all-be-kinder-to-one-another. This was tough, down, gritty, political trench warfare; money against people. She bullied her way to the table of power, and then she used that place to get everybody else there, too. If you ain't ready to sweat, and you ain't smart enough to deal, you can't play in her league."

Molly Ivins could have played in the league of the big boys. They invited her in, giving her a bureau chief job with the New York Times--which she wrote her way out of when she referred to a "community chicken-killing festival" in a small town as a "gang-pluck." Leaving the Times in 1982 was the best thing that ever happened to Molly. She settled back in her home state of Texas, where her friend Jim Hightower was about to get elected as agricultural commissioner and another friend named Ann Richards was striding toward the governorship. As a newspaper columnist for the old Dallas Times Herald--and, after that paper's demise, for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram--Molly began writing a political column drenched in the good humor and fighting spirit of that populist moment. It appealed beyond Texas, and within a decade she was writing for 400 papers nationwide.

As it happened, the populist fires faded in Texas, and the state started spewing out the byproducts of an uglier political tradition--the oil-money plutocracy--in the form of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

It mattered, a lot, that Molly was writing for papers around the country during the Bush interregnum. She explained to disbelieving Minnesotans and Mainers that, yes, these men really were as mean, as self-serving and as delusional as they seemed. The book that Molly and her pal Lou Dubose wrote about their homeboy-in-chief, Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (Random House, 2000), was the essential exposé of the man the Supreme Court elected President. And Ivins's columns tore away any pretense of civility or citizenship erected by the likes of Karl Rove.

When Washington pundits started counseling bipartisanship after voters routed the Republicans in the 2006 elections, Molly wrote, "The sheer pleasure of getting lessons in etiquette from Karl Rove and the right-wing media passeth all understanding. Ever since 1994, the Republican Party has gone after Democrats with the frenzy of a foaming mad dog. There was the impeachment of Bill Clinton, not to mention the trashing of both Clinton and his wife--accused of everything from selling drugs to murder--all orchestrated by that paragon of manners, Tom DeLay.... So after 12 years of tolerating lying, cheating and corruption, the press is prepared to lecture Democrats on how to behave with bipartisan manners.

"Given Bush's record with the truth, this bipartisanship sounds like a bad idea on its face," Ivins continued, in a column that warned any Democrat who might think to make nice with President and his team that "These people are not only dishonest--they're not even smart."

Her readers cheered that November 9, 2006, column, as they did everything Molly wrote. And the cheers came loudest from those distant corners of Kansas and Mississippi where, often, her words were the only dissents that appeared in the local papers during the long period of diminished discourse following 9/11. For the liberal faithful in Boise and Biloxi and Beaumont, she was a lifeline--telling them that, yes, Henry Kissinger was "an old war criminal," that Bush had created a "an honest to goodness constitutional crisis" when it embarked on a program of warrantless wiretapping and that Bill Moyers should seek the presidency because "I want to vote for somebody who's good and brave and who should win." (The Moyers boomlet was our last co-conspiracy, and in Molly's honor, I'm thinking of writing in his name on my Democratic primary ballot next year.)

For the people in the places where no one famous ever came, Molly Ivins arrived a couple of times a week in the form of columns that told the local rabble-rousers that they were the true patriots, that they damn well better keep pitching fits about the war and the Patriot Act and economic inequality, and that they should never apologize for defending "those highest and best American ideas" contained in the Bill of Rights.

Often, Molly actually did come--in all of her wisecracking, pot-stirring populist glory.

Keeping a promise she'd made when her old friend and fellow Texan John Henry Faulk was on his deathbed, Molly accepted a steady schedule of invites to speak for local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union in dozens of communities, from Toledo to Sarasota to Medford, Oregon. Though she could have commanded five figures, she took no speaker's fee. She just came and told the crowds to carry on for the Constitution. "I know that sludge-for-brains like Bill O'Reilly attack the ACLU for being 'un-American,' but when Bill O'Reilly's constitutional rights are violated, the ACLU will stand up for him just like they did for Oliver North, Communists, the KKK, atheists, movement conservatives and everyone else they've defended over the years," she told them. "The premise is easily understood: If the government can take away one person's rights, it can take away everyone's."

She also told them, even when she was battling cancer and Karl Rove, that they should relish the lucky break of their consciences and their conflicts. Speaking truth to power is the best job in any democracy, she explained. It took her to towns across this great yet battered land to say: "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."