So, I went back to Oklahoma again last week for a few days to see my brother and parents. So crazy the difference in the weather. It’s like 95 there by 11am almost every day this time of year. One day was really humid, too. It’s brutal! Summer is full-on still happening!
 
Most of you know I’ve lost a lot of weight the last couple years. Around 65 pounds. But, all bets are off when I go back to Tulsa. Now, don’t judge. I’m sure you understand. I had to hit some of my old haunts.
 
There’s a local hot dog chain that’s been around for like 100 years called “Coney I-lander.” They are awesome! The Rio Verde Mexican restaurant has a wet burrito that is in-credible—soooo good—about 1000 calories or more probably! Just gotta have it.
 
And Braum’s. They are the local family-owned ice cream joint. OMG! I got a malt. Good memories! And the place was packed. Everybody had the same idea to beat the heat. Braum’s makes incredible lime-aids, too. But I want the ice cream! Yum!
 
It occurs to me on the way back out to my parents’ house, that everybody is trying to pack in as much summer as possible before it’s over. Of course! I get it.
 
I plan on taking a couple weeks of real vacation myself at the end of August. You may even be still on vacation as you read this. I hope you are! Or, getting ready to sneak away for even a few days! I hope you can. I pray that you can.
 
It feels as though we’re running as hard and fast as we can to get through this pandemic and get to Labor Day. I know a lot of you are having to return to offices to commute again, even if it’s only a couple days a week. Even as the Delta variant is raging around us among the unvaccinated...we’re still pushing through.
 
Summer is drawing to a close plenty fast enough on its own. Let’s do everything we can to put the brakes on it. Slow down. Breathe a little deeper, breathe a little slower, and let the Spirit in.
 
Play with the kids. Go to the park and swing. Ride your bike! Dig in the dirt. Run down the shore one more time. Cook out. Turn on some preseason football (NFL starts next week) and chill.
 
Even as I need to get back on the bike and burn off all those coneys, the burrito, the malt…it’s still summer.
 
Summertime and the living is easy.
Well, it’s supposed to be.
Let’s make it so.
 
Grace & Peace,
Scott

Maybe it’s because I finally got motivated and finished my dissertation for the DMin at Drew a couple weeks ago. I’m not sure if that’s why exactly, but I’m all done! And I’ve been thinking about who is “other” a lot lately. The dissertation is all about doing Beloved Community. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Beloved Community, where there are no “others”—just sisters and brothers.
 
Like in Galatians, Paul says: for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (NRSV)
 
No others, just sisters and brothers—even people from other traditions. One of the things that I like so much about studying different traditions like Taoism or Buddhism and so on is that it can give you fresh eyes on your own tradition. It gives us ways to see Jesus, ways to see God, ways to see the Holy Spirit, ways to see Christianity in new light.
 
Examining different traditions can force us to break out of our embedded definitions of what is “right” religion, “right” belief, or “right” practice. It makes us think—deeply—about what we truly believe and how we approach our own spirituality. It gets very personal very quickly when you really sit and think, and meditate, and pray on it!
 
It may even cause you to start tearing things apart and putting them back together.
 
Please read that last sentence again because that is healthy “journeying” in this little walk we’re on. It’s something I stress to young people in confirmation classes, especially. It’s a part of claiming your own spirituality, for yourself. Not what your parents taught you, or your church growing up, or your Sunday School teacher, or your pastor—even me! Those are the ingredients certainly, but not the whole recipe.
 
This is about collating all of those theological influences that have impacted you and putting them into a blender and pouring out your own thing.
 
What’s interesting to me is not the differences in the traditions. What is most interesting to me is the similarities. The things we share. How we approach God, the higher power, and our definition of what that is.
 
Okay, that’s plenty enough to make your brain hurt so I’ll stop here. But I’m just the kind of geek that LOVES this exercise. You may notice that I was able to avoid the word in talking about traditions different from my own. It takes deliberate work to do that!
 
But if you can get your head around it, at least for me—as I think, and meditate, and pray about this—I keep landing in a place where there are no “others”.
Only sisters and brothers.
What do you think?
 
Grace & Peace,
Scott

​I’m sure you’ve seen signs in businesses over the years asking forgiveness for their remodeling, renovations, repairs. “Pardon the dust—just don’t write in it!” Stuff like that.
 
It’s about to get a little crazy around here. We have new roofing project for the Community House scheduled to start sometime around the first week of August. We are replacing the shingle roof on the main building and the flat roof on the educational wing.
 
It’s going to get a little “dusty” around here as we take on the project. And because this is a significant expense, you can expect a little capital campaign to kickstart the project. We’ll be coming back to you on this during August. Everybody please ante-up to ease this burden on our capital expenses.
 
It’s not like we didn’t get a full life out of either roof. Both of them are totally shot, and the nearest recollection we have about the shingle roof was a replacement in the 80’s. It’s been a while and here we are again. The joys of an old building!
 
Even in the heat of the summer, I try to stay on track with my morning devotionals (in the cool of the morning, thank you very much!) It helps keep me grounded. Oswald Chambers said something like “routine is what saves us between moments of inspiration.” So I hope you’re still doing yours, too.
 
I know I’ve told you that I read Philip Newell every day—his prayer book Praying with the Earth is one of my favorites. I quote him a lot so forgive me…here we go again. Thursday morning’s prayer is all about renewal. Maybe even a new roof. New start. Renovation. Daily renewal with life in Jesus Christ.
 
I love it so much because it’s a great reminder of forgiveness—permission to start again—new—every day. Every. Day.

We wake
to the forgiveness of a new day.
We wake
to the freedom to begin again.
We wake
to the mercy of the sun’s redeeming light.
Always new
always gift
always blessing.
We wake
to the forgiveness of this new day.

​
​You and me both! Every. Day.
 
Just pardon the dust.
 
Grace and peace,
Scott

Well, almost.
 
From Mark 6:
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 
 
I did some advance church planning this last week before heading down the shore for the holiday weekend. Robin is taking a couple weeks off, so we worked a little ahead. These Sundays lately, we’re getting into the part of Mark’s Gospel where Jesus’ ministry has grown to a point that both he and the disciples have been working very hard. So hard, they don’t have time to eat. So hard they need some time off to rest and recharge.
 
Who can’t relate to that?
 
Summertime! And the living is easy. Church attendance is always down from the “school year” because a number of people go away. During the regular year, I tell people that here in New Jersey, if you want to see the whole membership cycle through church, you gotta come every Sunday for at least a month. In the summer, it’s more like “you gotta come all summer” to see everybody. And during the pandemic, even that isn’t true anymore. Some people are really enjoying just rolling out of bed with coffee and a muffin, watching church on Facebook Live.
 
Nevertheless, most of us get out of town in the summer like a lot of us did over the July 4th weekend—relaxing—enjoying family—going down the shore, out of the country (if we are allowed to go there), dropping out of sight. The good news about living here in the shadow of NYC or Philly is that we even have a lot of choices when we “staycation” as things begin to open back up.
 
I’ll do some vacationing myself probably around the end of August or the first of September. I take two weeks every year to rest, recharge, go down the shore, read, binge-watch TV, sleep in, travel to see the kids, put more miles on the bike. I’ve got a lot of happy places.
 
Sometimes, I just sit. Sometimes I just sit, and I don’t even have to be watching the waves roll in to feel close to God—although the shore is a happy place for sure, especially at sunrise. Doesn’t everybody see God in the sunrise?
 
I hope you’re doing something like it. Whatever it takes. Get to your happy place.
 
Sometimes you can just sit, close your eyes, and be wherever you want to be. Feel the Spirit down to your bones. The Spirit knows…
 
God always knows where you are. Always, in all ways.
 
Like gravity, the Spirit never takes a day off.
But we need to. All of us. Jesus, the disciples, you, and me too!
 
Grace and peace,
Scott