First Section Done!

I haven't been updating on the mosaic because it hasn't really been all that exciting. But, a few weeks ago, I finally finished the first section, the baptism of Christ.

Basically, all I've been doing is grouting. This was not nearly as fun a it was putting up the tiles, but it was a necessary part of the process.

A section without grout.

A section with grout.

Here is a section were part of it is grouted and part of it is not. The grout essentially holds the whole thing together, not only physically, but artistically as well. It creates a uniform matrix for the tiles to sit in so that you're not looking at the ugly orange wall, black Sharpe sketches and white tile glue peeking out from between the tiles. It also makes it safer as the sharp edges aren't nearly as dangerous once the grout is in place.

After grouting, you have to clean it up as best you can, and then let it dry for at least four hours before you can clean it up for real

Not cleaned yet

Clean!

Here's the whole section before I started grouting...

And here it is after! The lighting is better in the "before" picture, so I guess these two pictures don't really illustrate how grouting makes it look better, LOL.

TA DA!

Here's what I've done so far on the next section, which will be the sermon on the mount and the last supper.

The campus PR person is putting something together to let more people know about this project, as well as the Spirituality Program in general, here at SFTS. Keep your eyes open for it!

3 Minute Sermon

We gave our first sermons of the semester yesterday for our Intro to Preaching class. The assignment was to do a 3 minute sermon. In typical fashion, God made me preach something weird.

3 Minute Sermon

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word pithy. It’s kind of a strange word. My immediate reaction is to think of it as derogatory, even though I know all it really means is to be “to the point,” which in this world of information overload and hours and hours of reading assignments here at school, really isn’t all that bad.

So, to figure where all of my conflicting feelings about this word were coming from, I consulted the Internet. One online dictionary offers the following definition for pithy: brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression, full of vigor and substance.

By definition alone, pithy’s great!

But, for whatever reason, and according to the Internet, I’m not the only one, the word pithy carries with it a connotation of being condescending or flippant. I’m not saying that it’s supposed to have that connotation, but for some people, it does.

Perhaps it has to do with one of the other definitions of pith: which is that bitter white part of a citrus peel. It’s full of nutrients, but most people don’t eat it. It just doesn’t taste good. We want things with more substance, like that juicy orange segment you’ve just uncovered by removing the pith.

The reason that I started thinking about this word “pithy” is because I came across Romans chapter twelve while trying to find a scripture to use for this sermon. Verses nine and ten start off a short section that is basically line after line of pith.

Love must be sincere.

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Be devoted to one another in brotherly and sisterly love.

Honor one another above yourselves.

See, what I think happened is that we’ve grown wary of pith. Advertisers use it to sell us stuff. Newspapers and cable news channels use it to get our attention. Politicians use it to persuade us to their cause. Half the time, we don’t know if we can trust it.

But, here’s the thing. God is pithy. Jesus is pithy. The parables are pithy. We don’t need pages and pages of instruction telling us how to love each other. We know, deep down in our hearts how to love and respect each other. I’m not saying that studies and papers and books are bad, because we all know that they’re not; we are in seminary, after all. But, we have to remember that not all pith is bad. Some of it actually tastes pretty good.

Love must be sincere.

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Be devoted to one another in brotherly and sisterly love.

Honor one another above yourselves.

Amen.

Consideration

I just had my first UCC (United Church of Christ) polity class today, and all I can say so far is that it was interesting. It didn't really feel like a class, more like a meeting of some kind. Although, we did get our first assignment, which is to interview a pastor and then do a one-page write up about how they got involved in ministry. This is due in a week, which I think is an unreasonably tight deadline.

Part of what we are supposed to do for class is keep a journal about our insights on the UCC denomination. I figured this would be a good way to revive my blog. Ever since I decided this wasn't going to be a daily ritual, I've been kind of lax about keeping up with it, which I'm sure you've all noticed.

So, what do I "know" about the UCC thus far? It seems to me that the UCC is a safety net for a lot of Christians that have left their denominations. I went to a UCC Christmas party last year and spoke to people who used to be Episcopalian, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian (obviously), and even a Unitarian Universalist! That's an eclectic bunch of people! It made me very grateful for the UCC, because if not for the UCC, where would all of these people ended up? Also, the fact that it attracts such a diverse range of people is intriguing to me. It makes me think something very special is going on over there.

I will keep you all updated as I continue to explore the UCC as a possible new denominational home. I feel pulled in that direction, even though lately I've been having theological issues with the existence of denominations at all. Much of this has lessoned as I've talked to people, but there is still a residual hesitation. I figure, if I don't make a decision by the end of the semester, I'm not going to make a decision at all.

$5,400 an hour

I have to go to the eye doctor tomorrow because I've been using the same pair of contact lenses for WAY TOO LONG. Just some helpful advice: This is not good for your eyes.

While I was making the appointment, the woman I was talking to asked if I had my old prescription. I told her that my previous eye doctor was in southern california and I would not be able to bring it. She explained that I needed to get it if I could because it would have the fitting for my contacts, which shouldn't change, even if my prescription does. She went on to say that they could do the fitting here if I couldn't get the old prescription, but that it would cost $90. Needless to say, I got their fax number and had my old doctor fax it over.

Now, I've had contact fittings done before, and if memory serves, the doctor basically sits you in front of a machine and push a button. The machine does all of the work in about a minute and the doctor just kind of sits there and watches. So, I started thinking about this. $90 for 1 minute of work? That's $5,400 an hour! Holy $#!&!!! That's a little extravagant, don't you think?

And I don't want to get into a whole healthcare debate, but I think that is a really good illustration of what is wrong with our healthcare system. Some of the most basic routine things we need to have done literally cost a fortune! If you ever get the chance, look at how much you get charged for an Aspirin or Band-Aid at an emergency room. Of course, most people don't end up paying these outrageous amounts; these bills get sent to our insurance carriers. But, guess who gets to pay the premiums?

And, that's if you even have vision coverage (which I don't). So, the whole thing will be coming out of my pockets, which are pretty damn shallow. It's a good thing I got my student loan check today.

Life in Marin (Title Stolen from Mike)

I finally decided to go out mushroom hunting again. Since this is only my second year trying this, I'm not sure what's normal, but it doesn't seem like there's as many mushrooms in general this year as there were last year. Still, I took some pictures of my walk so all you folks out there can get a feel of what it's like here if you've never visited.

I can always count on these Black Elfin Saddle mushrooms to grow around campus.

Here's some Chanterelles of the FALSE variety. It's so disappointing when you find these cuz when you first spot them, you get excited thinking you've found a bunch of huge yellow Chanterelles. Unfortunately, these False Chanterelles are poisonous. I checked my usual spot for the real ones, but there weren't any there. I wonder if someone else knows about that spot...

SFTS is beautiful. 'Nuff said.

Marin is kind of a quirky place. Take, for example, this UFO parked in front of this person's house.

This is a picture from inside their courtyard. I'm assuming the person that lives here is some kind of artist.

Witch's Butter. Pretty gross looking, isn't it?

I almost walked right by this cup type mushroom. It blended right in with the dead leaves.

A bunch of cool-looking red mushrooms growing around the graduation field.

And, of course, the Stinkhorn Lattices are back.

My loot for the day. Pretty sad, but at least it was something.

Fable III

Over the break, I was playing Fable III. It normally doesn't take very much for me to get into a video game, especially a fantasy role playing game like Fable or Final Fantasy, but I was especially excited to play Fable III because you can play as a male character and get married to another male character. Of course, you can also have a heterosexual or lesbian marriage.

I know this is nothing new; when the first Fable came out, no pun intended, the kids in my youth group were playing it and told me about the possibility of having a gay marriage. For the first Fable, however, you could only play as a male character, and if you had a heterosexual marriage, there was an elaborate ceremony, whereas if you decided to marry a man, there was no bonus animation to watch. You and your intended would just jump up and down with excitement when he accepted your proposal.

I never played the first Fable; I think it came out during a time in my life when I was trying to limit my exposure to video games. I know how addicted I can get to them. Also, there's always the money issue. I haven't bought a console since the Sega Dreamcast, and that was a really long time ago. Side note: I've started playing my old Sega Dreamcast games again, LOL.

Anyway, I haven't finished Fable III yet because I can only play it when I go home for vacation. It's my friend's game and I play it when I go visit her. Luckily, I did manage to find a husband, one of the cooks that worked in the castle. I'm a king in the game now, but for some reason, my husband still works in the castle kitchen while I roam the world fighting monsters. I guess its good that we each have our own "things."

There's an orphanage in the game where we can adopt children. That will be my next in-game goal. In the meantime, I get to enjoy randomly visiting the castle, finding my husband and kissing him as the mood strikes. If only things were so easy in real life O_o.

I'm really glad games have come this far. I honestly have to say that when I was younger, I never imagined I would ever get to play a gay character in a video game. Truthfully though, it wasn't something I spent a lot of time thinking about, since video games so rarely deal with their character's sexuality. Most of the time, you're trying to figure out some kind of puzzle or kill the giant monster. It wouldn't be as interesting of a game without those things, but I'm am really grateful that game developers have added this new layer of gaming complexity.

Unintended Consequences

Vacation time is slowly coming to a close, and so I'm trying to squeeze in as much family and friend time as possible. Tonight, my sister and I went to my brother James' house to play Settlers of Catan with him and his two kids, Kai and Raj. At first, my sister Dianne didn't want to play, but the game caught her attention as she watched us play and she finally jumped in. Needless to say, we all had a really great time.

While we were playing, we somehow got onto the topic of church. I noticed this happens quite frequently around me, go figure. My brother mentioned that he's been getting further and further away from the church, and now that this thing happened to me, it only justifies his belief that the church is full of bigots. I tried to explain to him that everyone has flaws and that it's human nature to be divisive, but he had a point. I didn't have a lot of firm ground to stand on, especially in light of what did in fact happen to me because of the church.

I love God and have pretty much always loved God. For most of my life, I have equated this love with loving and caring for and being a part of the church. Is this incorrect? Obviously, I still want to be part of the church: I haven't dropped out of school and fully intend to graduate and become the senior pastor at a cafe church someday, but it is becoming increasingly hard to tell people that attending church is a good thing. A lot of the people there just aren't giving me very much to work with.

So, how do you explain to people that church is a good thing? Do you in fact believe that going to church is a good thing?

I think church is good for us, because as human beings, we are designed to worship God. It's kind of like how cars are designed to run on gas. This "argument" works for me, but I can see how it might not work when looked at from the other side.

How do you tell someone to hang out with a bunch of hypocritical bigots who have relegated someone you love to a level of second class citizenship?