Kindle Book Giveaway: Singing at the Table

From 3am EST Friday, August 7th, 2020 until 2:59am EST on Thursday, August 20th, 2020, I'm running a book giveaway on Goodreads. You can find my author page on Goodreads here, and click below to enter to win one of 20 free copies of the Kindle version of Singing at the Table, my book of sung communion liturgies. 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Singing at the Table

by Beth Quick

Giveaway ends August 19, 2020.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Review: A Resurrection Shaped Life: Dying and Rising on Planet Earth by Jake Owensby

I received a copy of Jake Owensby's new book A Resurrection Shaped Life: Dying and Rising on Planet Earth to read and review. Owensby is the fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Western Louisiana, author of several books, and regular blogger. 

I wasn't sure what to expect going in - I've never read anything else Owensby has written, but the title and theme intrigued me. This is a short read, just over 100 pages. Chapters include themes like "Growing Beyond Our Past," "The Meaning of Suffering," "Mending Loss and Sorrow," and "Just Us." I think resurrection is sometimes a hard 'concept' for both seekers in spirituality and for long-time disciples to grasp. We want to believe in resurrection, but we have a hard time finding evidence of it in our own lives. Even perhaps believing in the resurrection of Jesus is easier than believing in our own resurrected lives, because we can keep Jesus' resurrection at a safe distance on the pages of scripture, but we can't help but notice that our own lives seem remarkable not full of new life. I think Owensby does a really remarkable job of bringing resurrection close to us, and helping us understand what resurrection looks like in the here and now. 

I really enjoyed this book. It was a balm for the soul. Some highlights: 

On repentance - "When we repent, we admit that the sorrows, the losses, the wounds, the betrayals, and the regrets of our past have made us into someone we don't want to be anymore." (7)

On suffering - "One way in which ... new life emerges is in our unguarded engagement with the suffering of others." (21)

On shame - For some people "life is a ceaseless striving to be something they aren't yet. To arrive. The problem is that they never really arrive so long as they believe that being lovable is something to strive for and achieve." (38)

On grace - In some views, "grace enters the universe as a repair kit," but for Owensby (in line with other theologians,) "when God decided to bring the world into being, Jesus was God's very first thought. That's because the creation is about love from its inception." (42) 

On sorrow - "I don't for one minute believe that the resurrection diminishes the importance of our mortal suffering. On the contrary, the resurrection saturates even the most sorrowful moments of our lives with significance. Following Jesus is all about learning to care with abandon." (57) 

On the Parable of the Foolish Virgins - "No one else can ... engage this Kingdom for you. I can't lend you my extra oil. I can't just tell you about it. You have to be there. The genuine encounter is always personal." (61) 

On reconciliation - "Nothing degrades our human dignity like our refusal to recognize it in each other." (74) 

On justice - "Would your life be worth living if you didn't do whatever it takes to pursue the dream of God's justice for all?" (92) 

On heaven and hell/Parable of the Talents - "A carefree life comes much closer to hell than to heaven ... The only path to blamelessness is to be uncaring. To care is to invest in what's going on around you, to take risks, to suffer loss, to be accountable, and to commit." (100-101)

Finally, "Life is not about being endlessly Carefree. It's about being unguardedly, relentlessly caring. At the end of the day, our tears will be wiped away. But the point is that we have shed tears ... Tears of love. We have not protected ourselves from Pain and sorrow and loss." (103)

There are brief sets of study guide questions at the end of each chapter for personal or group use. I definitely recommend giving this book a read!

Review: Mornings with Bonhoeffer - 100 Reflections on the Christian Life by Donald K. McKim

I received a copy of Mornings with Bonhoeffer: 100 Reflections on the Christian Life by Donald K. McKim to review. I've previously used Ron Klug's 40-Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a devotional and really enjoyed it, so I was definitely intrigued by this resource. 

McKim's book is divided into two sections: Believing as a Christian and Living as a Christian, and further divided into categories like "Christian Beliefs" "Church," and "Living in the World." 

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I read at least a few entries in every section to get a good feel. 

As opposed to 40-Day Journey, which included a significant  the excerpts from Bonhoeffer's writing (collected from his complete works) are very short. Sometimes only one or two sentences of his writing is included, so you often can't really get a full picture of what he's saying. The "meat" of the content here is from McKim, not Bonhoeffer. After the Bonhoeffer excerpt, McKim includes a brief reflection on or explanation of Bonhoeffer's words. I found it frustrating that the entire excerpt from Bonhoeffer's writing is included again within McKim's brief reflection. This redundancy seems to leave very little room for McKim to expand on what's just been stated. His reflections are insightful, but they are so short when reiterating Bonhoeffer's just-printed words that most of the entries left me wanting more.  

The structure, rhythm, and depth reminded me of The Upper Room daily devotionals, and indeed, I think readers of that style of devotion might be a perfect audience for this work. I envision this is an excellent introduction to newcomers to Bonhoeffer's writings. This is a very accessible book of reflections, and most of my parishioners would find Bonhoeffer's depth more manageable in this format. In fact, I shared with my church secretary one devotion on being interrupted by God, which she immediately turned into a poster for her office and used as the centering time at a church meeting later that month. 

I enjoyed McKim's work, and I feel like getting this resource into the right hands - new-to-Bonhoeffer readers who want to add something accessible to their daily devotional life - is a worthwhile effort. 

Review: God vs. Money: Winning Strategies in the Combat Zone by J. Clif Christopher

I recently received a copy of J. Clif Christopher's God vs. Money to review. 

Earlier this year I read another of Christopher's books, Not Your Parents' Offering Plate, because it was recommended in another book I was reading with my church's leadership team. I found myself furiously scribbling in the margins my disagreement with Christopher. Not in everything, of course - he has some practical ideas for stewardship and the ministry of finances in the life of a congregation. But as a whole, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. I worked in the alumni records office during my college years, and although I loved my supervisor and the staff there, I was off put by the way the school targeted potential givers, something with which I had no prior experience. I saw the file folders (everything was paper!) tracking the children of alums for years and years, so that the school was ready and waiting to target potential legacy students, and the corresponding potential for new donor money, for example. This is no unique practice to my alma mater. Things like this are standard for development work. I get that. I later worked in the development office of a theatre company, and things weren't much different. And I still believe in and support both my alma mater and the theatre at which I worked. They are good organizations. What I read in Offering Plate was a recommendation that churches operate in more or less the same way as a non-profit development office would. The nagging question that stayed with me is: should the church really be no different? He also declared about ten different things "clergy malpractice," which is certainly strong language, and everytime this phrase popped up, I cringed. I still had several of my parishioners read Offering Plate. They had generally the same mixed feelings I did. Anyway...

I admit, then, that I come into God vs. Money with some baggage. Some challenges: 

• The entire book uses an extended war metaphor. Getting people to choose God over money is like a war that we must win, Christopher argues. In the Introduction, he notes that some might be uncomfortable with the imagery. "For those of you who get squeamish about war language, I can understand, but I do not apologize. I truly believe that we must take the attack upon our Christian values by a greedy, self-serving society very seriously .... We must treat it like a war." (xii) Personally, I am not just "squeamish" about war language. I find it extremely problematic. Certainly, the scriptures are laced with military conquests and violence. But is that the aim? Is war the fulfillment of God's vision for the world? I think Jesus witnesses to an alternate path, and I don't think the imagery Christopher uses was in anyway necessary to get his point across. Examples: "Attack! Attack! Attack! Preach it!" (36) "You cannot win if you bring a knife to a gunfight." (37) 
• All the God-language is male.
• I didn't find the content of this book to be significantly different than Offering Plate. I felt like it overlapped a lot, and so little content seemed "new." 
• Like many books on stewardship, I found little that addresses poverty and how stewardship connects with folks experiencing poverty in a meaningful way. What does giving and generosity mean for people who live in poverty? 

Some positives: 

• Christopher consistently talks about high-expectation discipleship, and acknowledges that this might result in a "smaller army." (41) Too often, I find books on church leadership imagine that high level discipleship somehow magically will also result in droves of people wanting to sign up for this deeper commitment. I think high-expectation discipleship is a good thing that we can help folks grow into, and I think we also must acknowledge it isn't an easy message to share. 
• Christopher emphasizes the importance of personal testimony in the life of the church. Although his focus in on pre-offering placement to encourage meaningful giving, I think the benefits of such a practice are much broader. 
• He stresses the importance of really knowing what we're about, what we would do with more financial resources, and being able to clearly articulate our vision for the church simply and compellingly. 
• His chapter titled "A Battle Plan" has a lot of concrete suggestions, from an emphasis on personal thank yous to seasonal tithing challenges. 

Questions: 

• Christopher says that "the vast majority of strong Protestant church in America do not have annual fund campaigns." (48) This surprised me. I don't see a reference supporting his statement, and I want to know more about it. 
• Christopher emphasizes that clergy need to develop unique relationships with people of significant financial resources. He says that pastors develop unique relationships with all sorts of people, so we shouldn't be upset by this idea. And sure, that's true. But then shouldn't we also have unique relationships with people of middling or low financial resources? And if that's true, how is this different than simply saying clergy should have unique relationships with all their parishioners based on their gifts/personalities/needs? 

So - I didn't love this book. It might be just the right thing for some folks, but for me, there wasn't enough good material to outweigh some of the problematic parts. 

Review: Sacred Resistance - A Practical Guide to Christian Witness and Dissent by Ginger Gaines-Cirelli

I received a copy of Sacred Resistance: A Practical Guide to Christian Witness and Dissent by Ginger Gaines-Cirelli to review recently. As it turns out, though, I had just purchased the book the week before! So I have a second copy if you're interested! Gaines-Cirelli is the lead pastor at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC, and I recently wrote about her preaching at the Festival of Homiletics.  

Gaines-Cirelli begins by defining sacred resistance. She writes, "Sacred resistance is anything - any word, deed, or stance - that actively counters the forces of hatred, cruelty, selfishness, greed, dehumanization, desolation, and disintegration in God's beloved world. Sacred resistance is nonviolent and seeks the common God. Sacred resistance 'reads the signs of the times' through the lens of biblically a relationally grounded faith to discern how to be actively engaged with the world and to be vigilant against whatever threatens the world's life." (1) "Heeding the words of Jesus is an act of sacred resistance," she argues, and is "God's consistent stance toward the world." (3) Gaines-Cirelli says that the framework of sacred resistance counters the idea that a "focused commitment to one group" - like poor people, or people of color - "[diminishes] the dignity, worth, or care assigned to those outside the group," as if we could exhaust God's love and grace. What happens to part of the Body of Christ happens to the whole Body of Christ, and therefore the Body of Christ is called to response and action. (8-9)

Doing the work of sacred resistance means working for the good of all, writes Gaines-Cirelli. We start by listening to "the real voices" of others, and we listen by first making sure we don't 1) think we "can correct another person's experience," 2) assume we know what others are thinking or 3) assume we have the answers, the fix to whatever we perceive the problem to be. (13) When we respond to oppressors, we remember that "love in its most basic form is not a warm feeling toward another ... but rather it is an active expression of care and reverence for life. We love the oppressor not by liking them ... but by naming their inhuman, unjust actions and attitudes and challenging them to repent." (22)

Gaines-Cirelli spends a chapter grounding sacred resistance work as an essential part of the witness of the Church. "To intentionally live as citizens of God's Kin-dom is deeply countercultural and an act of sacred resistance in a world that would ask us to worship idols (flag, money, status) and capitulate to the polarized paralysis of 'us versus them.'" (29) She quotes Brueggemann's The Prophetic Imagination: "Prophetic ministry consists of offering an alternative perception of reality and in letting people see their own history in the light of God's freedom and will for justice." (30) If churches are meant to be citizens of God's Kin-dom, she asks, "why are so many Christian people barely distinguishable from anyone else in their values and priorities?" (31)

Gaines-Cirelli names Sabbath-keeping, tithing, and humility as Kin-dom acts long with "acts of social justice." She again turns to Brueggemann, as he notes how difficult it is for us to "stay awake," because of US technological power, the "force of homogeneity," and the seductive and coercive nature of affluence. (40) Brueggemann says that Kin-dom communities have 1) a long and available memory, 2) an expressed sense of pain, 3) an active practice of hope, 4) and an effective mode of discourse. (40-41) Gaines-Cirelli explores each of these aspects in turn. In light of our current denominational and national struggles, Gaines-Cirelli's words struck me as particularly meaningful: "Even though we tend to simply try to do the best we can within a system that does harm, God is always initiating a new thing. God calls us not to wait for legitimation by the dominant consciousness or current system, but rather ... to imagine a new system and begin living in love, compassion, and peace now." (52)

Chapter 5 is a meditation on Isaiah 30:9-11, which was also the basis for the sermon Gaines-Cirelli preached that I reference in the first paragraph. Click through there for more notes. In this version, I was struck by an excerpt from Dr. David Walsh, psychologist and educator, who argued some 25 years ago that the media teaches us six values: 1) Happiness is found in having things. 2) Get all you can for yourself. 3) Get it all as quickly as you can. 4) Win at all costs. 5) Violence is entertaining. 6) Always seek pleasure and avoid boredom. (59) Wow! Into this culture, we are called to speak prophetically, and act with sacred resistance, to stop "speaking smooth things." People don't expect much of the church these days, argues Gaines-Cirelli. "At best ... they expect lip serve to God's care and love, to peace with justice ... even to 'social justice' - without any verifiable evidence that the words are backed up with action." (67) 

Chapter 6 is titled, "What Do We Do?" Gaines-Cirelli acknowledges, "It's hard to be Christian in America," hard not to be complicit in the very systems of oppression and injustice we decry. (77) What do we do? We discern. "What is life-giving/nurturing/promoting? What is death-dealing, life-destructive, life-taking?" (79) We stay informed, assess our resources, and figure out what we can do in the midst of chaos and challenge. (80) Remember that it is more important to God that we are faithful, "loving, wise, humble, and just" rather than right and others wrong. (82) We work to conquer our fear, and to know when we are called to put ourselves in harm's way for the work of justice. The author asks, "If my name were ever to appear in the recorded history of the years during which I sojourned on this planet, what is the story of my life I would be proud to have told?" (85) 

We speak. "It's important [to say something] because not saying something says something ... Even if [the words we speak] have been said before, even if we think those who hear the words already know or believe them, even if it feels tiresome to have to keep repeating them, even when many others are saying them, too. We need to speak the words as directly as we can, as lovingly as we can, as clearly as we can." (86-87) Gaines-Cirelli's section on preaching prophetically is particularly strong, especially on how to be prophetic and pastoral, a challenging task. I also appreciated her attention to other ways (like through the liturgy, or through pastoral letters and congregational statements) to address time-sensitive topics in worship when a pastor might also be right in the midst of an important sermon series, for example. So often I see folks on social media insisting that pastors have to scrap their whole sermon to address a certain event, with no consideration for what else is happening in the life of the church. Gaines-Cirelli points out that we have many avenues open to us to speak sacred resistance. (93) We act. She writes, "What is important is to identify the gift(s) that your community of faith offers to the cause at hand. What can you offer that others may need?" (98) The author also challenges congregations to consider if they are ready for a sustained engagement and follow through if needed. (103) We take a stand. "What side is Jesus on?" Gaines-Cirelli asks. (106) 

Gaines-Cirelli's last chapter addresses burnout in justice work and strategies for "fueling the resistance," a chapter drawn from a sermon previously preached at Foundry. The author lifts up Sabbath practices, cultivating joy and laughter, an awareness of the world around us, seeking places of good news, supporting each other, and finding strength in "quiet and trust" as important ways of maintaining strength, focus, and energy in the work of sacred resistance.  

Gaines-Cirelli's work is a short, easy read, and I'd recommend picking it up. I think the author occasionally relies too heavily on the work of others. I love Walter Brueggemann, for example, and the same can probably be said of my doctoral project, where I include perhaps too many excerpts from his profound works. But Gaines-Cirelli's own voice is worth hearing. I also struggle with chapters that come first from other sources - they don't always fit seamlessly. The last chapter, for example, felt too different in tone to me, and less powerful than the other chapters. Overall, though, Gaines-Cirelli offers meaningful theological reflection, paired with some concrete strategies for the work of sacred resistance. Sometimes speaking about justice is easy, but transitioning to action eludes us. I really value her balance of practice and prophetic, pastoral and boundary-pushing. 

Like I said, I have a free copy up for grabs - let me know if you'd like to give this a read, and I'll pass my extra along to you! 

Review: Our Strangely Warmed Hearts by Bishop Karen P. Oliveto

I was excited to receive a copy of Bishop Karen Oliveto's new book, Our Strangely Warmed Hearts: Coming Out Into God's Call for review. Without reading the back cover, I was expecting a book that told her story of ministry. Instead, this book is half a history lesson - of the gay liberation movement, and The United Methodist Church and homosexuality - and half a collection of stories of many others who are LGBTQ United Methodists. 

Some of the history Bishop Oliveto shared was familiar to me, but some things were totally new to me, like the "Council on Religion and the Homosexual," which, using denominational funds from The Methodist Church in the 1960s, worked together with "homophile organizations and church leaders" and developed goals and purposes that were so forward thinking. (25-26) Oliveto quotes founder and former executive director of the Reconciling Congregation Program Mark Bowman: "We have some sense of history. We know that when the church has excluded people on moral grounds, eventually God has opened the church doors again." (33) May it be so! "Eventually" can be such a long wait though! Section 1 wraps up with a brief page on the (then anticipated) work of the Commission on a Way Forward, and a short mention of the author herself: "On July 15, 2016, the Western Jurisdiction elected Karen Oliveto, the author of this book, to the episcopacy by a vote of 88-0." (64) Coming after a long section of the painful, harmful history of The UMC in excluding LGBTQ persons consistently, systematically, increasingly, the sentence is a bright spot of hope. 

The real star of this book is the second section, the narrative stories, first person stories from LGBTQ voices. What amazes me, knocks me off my feet, is that there is story after story of God's grace, of the (sometimes literally) life-saving work of Jesus at work in these folks' stories through The United Methodist Church in spite of all the ways we have done warm to these lives through that same institution. How incredible, and what a sign of the power of God to persist and find a way through all the barriers we erect! I am so humbled by these stories. And so moved by the stories of spaces and places of welcome even in the midst of a church whose official polity says "not compatible." These stories are miraculous, truly. 

Some standouts: "My queer identity calls me to connect the dots because breaking the  chains of oppression for one group of people is inextricably linked with the liberation of all." (Israel Alvaran, 96)

"I looked around at this stadium full of beautiful people that I have shared in ministry with, who affirmed me, and I knew that with one sentence most of them would have a completely different attitude toward me." (Rose, 124)

"I cannot fight all battles, but God is not calling me to; God is calling me to follow, to love, and to serve so that the church can make justice happen, and feast together at the banquet God prepares for our weary souls. Thanks be to God." (Rose, 125)

And from Bishop Oliveto's final wrap up: "This [exclusion of LGBTQ persons] comes at a high price ... the body of Christ is fractured. And lives are literally lost ... The saddest pastoral call I have ever received was from a gay man who asked me to 'unbaptize' him, because he had heard the stance of The UMC regarding LGBTQ people and felt he was no longer worthy of God's love and claim on his life." (127) 

I definitely recommend you give this book a read. 

Sermon, "Strengthen Your Core: Service," Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon 4/22/18

Matthew 14:13-21

Strengthen Your Core: Service

            We’re in the midst of our sermon series on strengthening our core, strengthening our spiritual practices that will help us grow in faith, grow as disciples, deepening our faith practices so that we have strong core to rely on as we navigate life. And this week, we’re thinking about how we can strengthen our core practice of service. In our baptismal liturgy we say, “As members of the body of Christ and in this congregation of The United Methodist Church, we will faithfully participate in the ministries of the church by our service.” How are you, how will you cultivate your faith and follow Jesus by serving others? What, specifically, will you do to serve God and neighbor? To help us answer these questions, we turn to our gospel lesson. 

There are very few events, particularly outside of the death and resurrection of Jesus, that appear in all four gospels. As similar as Matthew, Mark, and Luke are to each other, still they each have many of their own stories, and each of them exclude some of the stories for one reason or another. So when an event occurs in all four gospels, we should stop and take notice. Clearly, the event must have some particularly strong meaning and message to be so included. One such event is what we call “The Feeding of the 5000.” Of the miracles of Jesus, it is the only one recorded in all four gospels, and in fact, two gospels, Matthew and Mark, include two feeding miracles. There is, of course, some variation in detail, in specifics, but all four gospels carry the same essence. Today, we’re looking in particular at Matthew’s account.

            When the text opens, Jesus has just received some bad news. It’s part of your homework to read the first part of Matthew 14 to see what has happened. But Jesus is reeling. He’s in pain, he’s grieving, and Matthew tells us that Jesus takes a boat by himself to try to just get away. He needs some time alone. But it isn’t to be. The crowds hear that Jesus has taken off by boat, and they decide to find him, going by foot around the lake, so that by the time Jesus comes ashore from the boat, a crowd is already to greet him. I’m not sure how you’d feel in Jesus’ place, but I can imagine how I would feel, being overwhelmed and just wanting some time to myself, only to find a crowd waiting. I’d want to turn around and get back on that boat. I might feel a little cranky, or resentful. I might burst into tears at the thought of having to deal with a whole crowd. But Jesus, Matthew tells us, looks at the crowd and is filled with compassion for them, and begins curing the sick they have brought to see him. Remember, some time ago I shared with you that the Greek word for compassion, splangchnizomai, is my favorite Greek word. It means literally that we’re so moved with concern that our insides are kind of churning with the deepness of our care. And it is in this way, with gut-churning compassion, that Jesus most often looks at the crowds in the Bible, and the way he looks when he comes ashore and sees them waiting for him.

            As the day draws to a close, the disciples come to Jesus and tell him, “Look, this is a deserted place, and it’s late. Send everyone away so that they can go get themselves some food.” I don’t know what you hear in their words, but I hear some disciples who felt like I thought I might upon seeing the unexpected crowd. They’re done. Jesus has done what he can, and now, they think, he should just send them away, so that they can get on with their own plans. He’s done what he can. Let them take care of themselves now.

            Jesus isn’t having that. “They don’t need to go away,” he says bluntly. “You give them something to eat.” The disciples are flummoxed. “We only have five loaves and two fish!” they insist. Again, I hear their unspoken sentiments. We have fives loaves and two fish – and they’re for us. We have five loaves and two fish – what could they possibly do for a crowd of thousands? We have five loaves and two fish, and we just want to enjoy our dinner. Send everyone away. You’ve done enough. Let them take care of themselves.

            But Jesus just says to them, “Five loaves and two fish? Give it all to me.” He takes everything they have, gets everyone to sit down. He takes the food, blesses it, breaks the bread, and gets the disciples to start handing things out. “And all ate and were filled,” we read, and the disciples gather up the leftovers, “twelve baskets full.” Biblical scholars disagree about the nature of the miracle we witness. Some see Jesus multiplying the bread and fish with his supernatural ability. Others see it as a miracle of sharing – once some shared what they had, others were more willing to share what they had too, and suddenly, it was clear that there was really enough after all. I think though, that these disagreements miss the point. There is plenty that is miraculous about the text – many miracles for us to see here.

            Here are some of the miracles I see: First, Jesus’s compassion is a miracle. To be able to turn our pain into care for others is a gift. Two of my favorite books are the Eight Cousins/Rose in Bloom set by Louisa May Alcott. They never gained the popularity of her Little Women series, but they are worth a read if you’re a fan of her writing. In the books Rose is a young woman trying to find her place in the world, trying to live as a thoughtful, ethical young woman, although she has a large fortune at her disposal, and although she is often tempted to spend her days attending parties and spend her money on the latest fashions. At one point in the story, she is feeling distraught and upset. The adults in her life have made some decisions that leave her feeling heartbroken. And in the midst of her anger and sadness, Rose remembers that her great aunt has always told her that when you’re feeling like this, the best way to move beyond your pain is to start serving others. So Rose decides to turn her pain into helping others. Through serving others, Rose is able to gain some perspective, and transform her own feelings into making a positive impact on her community. The pain and sorrow we experience in life is real, and hard. And we can’t always just “snap out of it.” Healing is important. But I believe serving others, loving others, showing compassion to others can be part of that healing. A miracle: we heal better when we love others than when we are thinking only of our own needs.   

            Another miracle: God works with what seems like very little to make something that reaches a crowd of thousands. The disciples didn’t think that they had much to offer, and what they did have, they didn’t seem too keen on sharing. Their strategy was: everyone should just take care of themselves. But in God’s economy, in God’s world, we’re meant to take care of each other. And God can take even what you consider to be hardly worth sharing and make it into abundance. How often have you looked at your gifts, your talents, your assets, your life and thought that you couldn’t make a difference in the world? How often have you thought that hunger was too big a problem for you to confront, that poverty was too overwhelming to change, that the “isms” of the world were too hard to tackle? Jesus wants to feed the crowds, and he says to us, “You give them something to eat.” He believes that we have the capacity, the resources, the ability, when we offer what we have to God for blessing and sharing, to change everything. What are you holding back from God, afraid that you won’t have for yourself if you share, or afraid that it simply isn’t “enough” to be of much good?

David Lose says that one of the miracles of the story is that Jesus is able to use a bunch of people who would really prefer to just take care of themselves, to care for the need of thousands of people. “And that miracle continues,” he writes. “When a college-grad eschews a high-paying job in order to teach disadvantaged kids, God’s miracles continue. When a parent puts dreams of an academic career to the side to care for a special-needs child, God is working that same kind of miracle. When a church makes the wrenchingly difficult decision to celebrate its century of faithful service and close its doors after significant decline in order that another ministry might flourish, miracles abound. When one student stands up against bullies in defense of another student, the God of compassion is again miraculously revealed. When a fledgling community of faith makes a promise that no one that comes to its doors will be turned away hungry, God is still at work performing miracles through disciples eager, reluctant, and everything in between, miracles that easily rival those reported in today’s reading.”[1]

What would we add to Lose’s list of miracles? I would add, when a congregation in a small town decides that they can feed the community, for free, feed anyone really who wants to come and eat, or anyone who wants a meal delivered to them, and that they can continue doing this year after year, and when they decide they can serve hundreds of meals every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, then, God’s miracles continue. I’m not sure that all the folks who have been and who are involved in Friday Lunch imagined how the ministry might grow and unfold through the years. How could they have? But what they didn’t doubt was the they had something to give, something to offer, something to share, and that God could use what they would offer, bless what they offered, grow what they offered. A miracle indeed. What other miracles might unfold, right here in Gouverneur, when we trust God, when we look with compassion like Jesus does, and when we offer up all we have to be used in service? What do you have that God can use, even if you can’t quite imagine how it could amount to much, because you remember that God is a giving God, and has given you so much? What are you willing to share, even if it feels like all you have, even if it means you have to give a little more of what you have than you think you can spare, because you remember God is a God of abundance? How can you look on God’s people with eyes of compassion, not wondering why folks don’t just help themselves, take care of themselves, but instead seeing an opportunity to demonstrate your love and God’s love through serving? How can you work in the world to build your relationship through service, remembering that we can only truly love and serve God when we love and serve one another?

Today, we give thanks for one of many of God’s miracles. We celebrate and give thanks for our Friday Lunch ministry, and think of all who have been reached in God’s name over twenty years, and all who will be reached with God’s love and ours in the years to come. That’s one miracle, a precious one. What miracles does God have in store in your life? What do you have that God can put to use in ways you will hardly believe? I can’t wait to see what God will do among us! Amen.

             

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[1] Lose, David, “Pentecost 8A: The Real Miracles,” In the Meantime,

http://www.davidlose.net/2014/07/pentecost-8a-the-real-miracles/

Book Review: Unafraid by Adam Hamilton

I received an advance copy of Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in the Wilderness in Uncertain Times to review, the latest book by Adam Hamilton, which comes out later this week. Hamilton is pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist Church in the United States. This book is published by Penguin Random House. Not positive this is a first, but I think it is, and probably marks an effort to draw a wider audience for his work. 

If you are familiar with Hamilton's other books, you will find Unafraid to have a similar accessible feel. Chapters are short, they contain many personal stories and illustrations, and the book emerges from a sermon series Hamilton preached at his church. It is longer and more in depth than many of his other works, and in terms of style and depth of research, I'd compare it with his earlier Making Sense of the Bible. Paired with his new publisher, Hamilton also makes a clear attempt to reach a wider audience with this work. The book is clearly grounded in his Christian identity, but comments throughout the book are addressed to those who might not start from the same perspective. 

Fear is "False Events Appearing Real," Hamilton quotes from a familiar proverb. (26) Hamilton proposes we respond to fear when we "Face [our] fears with faith, Examine [our] assumptions in light of the facts, Attack [our] anxieties with action, [and] Release [our] care to God." (27) He returns to this acronym throughout the book, sometimes highlighting one particular part of the saying depending on the kind of fear he's addressing. 

Chapters cover subjects like why we fear and why fear is useful, looking at real statistics about crime, terrorism, and illness to help relieve our fears, and how sometimes fear is cultivated in order to hurt and divide. He addresses, chapter by chapter, some of the most common fears. Chapters are devoted to fear of of the other, fear of terrorism, fear of failure, fear of being alone, fear of missing out, fear of a meaningless life, fears related to the future, financial fear, fear of aging, fear of illness, and fear of death. 

Any one of these chapters could be expanded. The book covers a little of everything, which is also one of its challenges. We get as in depth (or not in depth) with fear of the other as we do with fear of missing out, and although the length worked for me on most chapters, I found myself wishing Hamilton dug deeper on what I think are some of the more critical challenges we face as a whole community. Our fear of others can be dangerous, and the ways our fears and privilege intersect needs addressing. What does it mean when people who are in power are also full of fear, and have the power to act on those fears? With mostly equal weight given to all these different themes, it's hard to get into those deep conversations. 

Still, this is easily a resource I could use in my congregation, because I know people are feeling very afraid of so many things they're encountering in our ever-changing world. Hamilton's work is engaging and strikes me as a great conversation starter for communities and groups who want to find a way to talk about something as uncomfortable as what we're afraid of. 

I'll leave you with my favorite sentence: "So many of us live our entire lives paralyzed by fear, just a mile from the Promised Land." (21) Yes. How can you move beyond fear to the places where God is leading? This book provides a solid starting point. 

Sermon, "Invitational: Redemption Stories," Luke 5:27-32

Sermon 2/7/16

Luke 5:27-32

Invitational: Redemption Stories

            Over the last few years, I’ll confess that I’ve become a big fan of reading fanfiction. Anybody know what that is? Fanfiction is stories that fans of original works write in order to prolong or reimagine or recreate the original story. Sometimes authors imagine what a contemporary story would be like if it took place in some other time period, or vice versa – like if Pride and Prejudice took place in 2015, instead of the 1800s. Sometimes fanfiction writers imagine a character who has an untimely end in a story as surviving instead, imagining what it might be like, for example, if Darth Vader lived longer, for better or worse. Other fanfiction stories are about what would happen if your favorite character fell in love with the character you always wanted them too, instead of the one they ended up with. And another big chunk of fanfiction are stories about what would happen if the bad guy was somehow redeemed, and the villain becomes a hero instead. What if Lex Luthor decided to start working for Super Man instead of against him? What if Captain Hook built a home for all the Lost Boys? What if Cruella de Vil was persuaded to become an animal lover?

            J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, has written that it’s amazing to her that people keep writing stories where one of the villains, Draco Malfoy, is more nuanced, becomes a hero. She doesn’t understand why people persist in seeing something in Draco that she hasn’t written there. But I don’t find it surprising at all. We love redemption stories. We love that what once was lost can be found! In fact, I thin, it is our favorite story. It certainly seems to be the favorite story of our scriptures. They are full of stories of people like Paul, who, when we first see him, is looking on with glee while followers of Jesus are stoned to death. But Paul has an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and ends up giving himself heart and soul to the furthering of the gospel. Or there’s the Prodigal Son in the parable Jesus shares, who squanders everything, and comes back to his father, begging for forgiveness, seeing the value of all he had treated as worthless. There’s King David, meant to be a beacon of godliness, caught up in a web of adultery and lies, repentant and humbled. A bandit, crucified next to Jesus, seeking forgiveness at the last. We love redemption stories. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see!”

            I think, though, that as much as we love redemption stories, when we imagine ourselves in the story, most of us, we’re not seeing ourselves as the one who is lost and needs redeeming. Instead, we’re the ones who love and see the good in those who need redeeming. We’re the ones in the story who can see how much someone else is failing, how much help they need, how they struggle – and perhaps even inspired by what we can see in them, we can witness their redemption. We’re Luke Skywalker, not Darth Vader. I think, especially for those of us who have basically tried and succeeded in walking more or less on the straight and narrow of life, when we think about redemption, someone getting their life together after things being a total disaster, we see ourselves in the role of the helper. The one who can help others get things on track. It’s not a bad impulse – this desire to help others, of course. But we should be wary. Because when we cast ourselves in the role of one who leads others to redemption, the role we’re really giving ourselves is the role of savior. There are many savior-figures in literature, in books, in movies, in TV shows – heroes. Superheroes, even. But when it comes to our journey of faith, if we’re so busy saving other that we don’t need redeeming, is there anything left for Jesus to do? 

            Last week, we talked about the calling of Simon Peter, as Jesus directed he and his fishing partners out into the deep waters, telling them that now they would fish for people. Remember how Peter responded to Jesus sat first, after the great haul of fish: He said, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Simon Peter didn’t fully know yet who Jesus was, but he knew he needed redeeming. So he follows Jesus. Just after he and a few other become disciples, Jesus preaches and teaches and spends time healing – a man with a skin disease, a paralytic man, and many others. Then, we arrive at the start of our text for today. As he exits the house where he’s just healed the paralytic man, Jesus sees Levi, a tax-collector, sitting at his booth. Remember, tax collectors in the gospels were despised not just because everyone hates paying takes – but because they, Jews, worked to collected taxes for the Romans, the foreign occupiers. So tax collectors were considered not only greedy, but disloyal traitors, who chose income from Rome over standing up for their own people.

            So Jesus sees Levi, sitting at his booth, and he says, “Follow me.” Levi gets up, leaves everything, and follows Jesus. This brief exchange is certainly astonishing. Levi responds to Jesus without hesitation. Jesus asks for Levi’s discipleship without, as far as we’re privy to, a single word spoken before he’s asking him for his everything. But maybe it isn’t surprising either. How many people see Levi? How many people saw him and not his position? How many people looked at him and saw promise and hope and a future? Jesus did. He saw Levi, and chose him still. Levi, perhaps seeing for the first time in a long time someone looking at him with something other than disgust, maybe it is a no-brainer that he followed.

            Levi then throws a great dinner banquet for Jesus, this man who saw him and chose him and changed his life. And naturally, who does Levi invite? Other tax collectors! In fact, Luke says there’s a “large crowd” of tax collectors at this banquet. Apparently, Levi doesn’t leave out the religious elite – the Pharisees and scribes are there too. But even though they’re at the same party, they complain to Jesus and the disciples. “Why do you eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” Jesus responds, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

            Jesus basically says: “If you’re not sick, you don’t a doctor. If you’re not a sinner, you don’t need to repent. If you aren’t seeking redemption, you don’t need a savior.” Jesus has come to serve those who are sick and sinners and in need of redemption – because they are the ones who realize that they’re lost and need help! How can he heal someone who insists they are well? How can he find someone who insists that they aren’t and have never been lost?

            Jesus calls Levi to follow him, and Levi immediately invites every other tax-collector in town to meet Jesus. Because Levi has found something that has saved his life! He’s been redeemed. He’s found a savior. And this impact on his life is so great, so significant, so meaningful, that he can’t help but invite everyone else to experience what he has. He wants to make sure everyone gets to meet Jesus, because Jesus has saved him, redeemed him. Levi invites not one or two, but a crowd. Why would he want anyone to miss meeting the man who saved him? How compelling an invitation is that? Come meet the person who changed my life. Come meet the person who saved me.

            Today we wrap up our focus on being an invitational people, just as we turn our hearts and minds to the Lenten journey, traveling with Jesus to the cross and beyond. And as we begin this season of reflection and repentance, here are the questions I’m asking myself, that I’m hoping you’ll wrestle with too. Has Jesus saved me? Have I needed a savior? Have I needed redeeming? Or have I been busy trying to save and redeem others? Maybe the story of Jesus redeeming our lives started long ago, and we need to remember how God found us when we were lost. Maybe, friends, we’ve always considered ourselves redeemed, and so never really dug deep into our hearts to show to God our wounds that need healing. Maybe, even, we’ve been lost, but never willing to ask for directions!

            If you met someone who saved your life, that’s a story you’d want to share, right? Levi sure did. He invited a whole crowd to meet the man responsible for his redemption. What about us? Do we have a savior that we will invite people to meet? Amen.

My 2015 Reading List

 Books I Read in 2015

My reading pace definitely dropped off once my sabbatical ended and I started commuting to Rochester three times a week, but still, I got some good reading in this year (and listened to a lot of good audio books too!) (Here's a link to my goodreads page with all of these books, in case you want more details, since I'm too lazy to link to all the books on Amazon this year...)

1-3. Dashner, James, The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure. 

Not my favorite series ever or anything, but I enjoyed these. 

4.     Aslan, Reza, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

I like his writing style - quick-paced, narrative, compelling. He makes the scene come alive. But his biblical scholarship I didn't find convincing. He gives all the New Testament texts equal weight, while I think most mainline biblical scholars have a much more nuanced understanding of the differences between the authority of Mark and John, for example. His arguments against a traditional understanding of the identity of Jesus are predicated on a literal reading of the gospel texts to begin with. 

5.     Mack, Sylane, Convinced!

This is a personal story of a woman's experience with childhood sexual abuse and her faith journey as a result of that abuse. It was painful to read, certainly, and tragic. But the most tragic part of the read for me was that the author told a woman at her church about the abuse while it was still ongoing and the woman told her that she needed to forgive her abuser. She did nothing to help her out of the situation. She did not contact authorities. She did not tell the child it wasn't her fault. I was so appalled by this. The author and her siblings never got the help they could have. I spent the whole book imagining what some true intervention, counseling, read adult help could have done for this family, these children. 

6.     Stookey, Laurence Hull, Let the Whole Church Say Amen! 

We used this book in our Lay Servant class for United Methodists seeking additional training in the area of prayer. Stookey's book is as much a book on grammar as it is a book on prayer. I had participants in the class who I had to talk out of never wanting to pray in public again, because they were so overwhelmed by all the things they ended up feeling like they were doing wrong. Stookey discusses a lot of compelling prayer issues/topics, but he doesn't leave much room for those who pray differently, and doesn't offer much nurturing encouragement along the way. 

7.     Poehler, Amy, Yes Please

I just didn't really like this. I felt like Poehler felt like she was supposed to write a book because Mindy Kaling did and Tina Fey did. I haven't read Bossypants (yet) but Kaling is a hilarious writer. Poehler - her book felt like she didn't enjoy writing it, and it showed. And I think with this glimpse into her life - I liked her a little less than when I started.  

8-12.     Riordan, Rick, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian. 

Again, like the Maze Runner series, I enjoyed these, though not near the top of my favorites list. I liked the first couple and the last book better than the others. And I liked that my brain could recall learning some of this mythology at one point, though I had forgotten some of the details since whenever we had a unit on this in Social Studies.  

13.     Ferguson, Dave and John Ferguson, Exponential: How You and Your Friends can Start a Missional Church Movement

I can't remember how I came upon this book. Theologically, I have some differences with the authors. But I found their approach compelling and inspiring. I've thought about it a lot over the past year, although I have yet to approach work with my congregation in any similar kind of way. 

14.     Fulgham, Nicole Baker, Educating All God’s Children

We read this book in one of my research project groups. Education reform isn't an area about which I'm most passionate, although it is certainly desperately needed. Fulgham makes a strong case for why all people of faith should care, and offers ways to get involved.  

15.  Slaughter, Michael, Dare to Dream

I am not a huge Michael Slaughter fan. If he hadn't lost me before, he definitely lost me when he came to our annual conference to speak one year and demonstrated how great he is at push-ups while he was talking. Nonetheless, we read this book in a clergy study I was in, and then I used it with my congregation. It is accessible, and helped us start talking about our vision for our congregation and our lives. 

16.  Edelman, Marian Wright, The Sea Is Wide and My Boat Is So Small

I picked up this book thinking to use it with my research group, but opted for Fulgham's book instead. Still, I read this. Edelman is a poet and prophet. This is an easy read full of essays/poems that will inspire and challenge. 

17.  Hudson, Trevor, Questions God Asks Us 

We read this book in my clergy study group. Each chapter reflects a different question posed to us in the scriptures. The questions make for some deep reflection and soul wrestling. 

18.  Rowell, Rainbow, Attachments

I've confessed in past years that I got hooked on Hunger Games fanfiction. It's really a little worse. I also follow a ton of Hunger Games tumblrs. This is because some of my favorite fanfiction authors also post shorter stories on tumblr, or highlight stories I night not otherwise hear about. They are also, I've found, a great source for picking up on the best new YA literature (and, ok, some not-so-great YA literature too.) Through tumblr, I happened on Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (see below under audiobooks.) It immediately found a place on my favorite-books-ever list. So of course I immediately set out to listen to or read all of Rowell's other books. Attachments was one I read. Not my favorite, but only because everything of hers I've read is great, so they can't all be the best. Still loved it. 

19.  Kelly, Joseph, Behold How Good It Is: Jews and Catholics in Rochester

I started working at St. John's Meadows in June, a retirement community in Rochester, NY. One of the residents there recommended this book, by a local professor. We're an interfaith community at St. John's, with large Jewish and Catholic populations (Protestants too, of course), and the book recounts local interfaith history between Jews and Catholics, especially over the last several decades. I read the book, and then was able to get Dr. Kelly to come speak at St. John's. It was a great event, and we had great attendance from all of our faith communities. 

20.  Weems, Lovett, and Tom Berlin, Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results 

This year at Apple Valley, the church I serve, we've talked about being Fruitful, Prayerful, Invitational, and Missional - that is how we are talking about God's dreams for our congregation. I found this book as a resource to help us focus on fruitfulness, which is our overarching theme/keyword. We found this really helpful as a congregation, and some of my parishioners have really taken their challenges to heart, starting new ministries because of how this book encouraged them. 

21.  Brown, Brené, Rising Strong 

This was another read with our clergy group. I'll admit I expected to hate it, writing it off as "pop psychology." And after a few chapters, I still held that view for the most part. But then partway through, the chapters started resonating with me. I found (find) myself thinking about her book frequently. I was moved to tears more than once with a "yes, that's me, I experience that" kind of reaction. And I immediately lent the book to a friend who I thought would also find it helpful when I was done. 

22.  Lehr, Teresa K., Lighting the Way: A Celebration of the First One Hundred Years of St. John's Home

One of the residents at St. John's shared this with me. This book focuses mostly on St. John's Home, the skilled nursing care part of the St. John's family. This book wouldn't really interest folks who are not familiar with St. John's, but it was pretty interesting to me as someone who works there. The book also provides a fascinating look at the changes in how we care for the elderly among us in general. 

23.  Goodwin, Craig L., Year of Plenty

I just finished this on New Year's Eve, just in time to count it in my 2015 books. Goodwin recounts a year he and his family changed their eating and purchasing habits, buying used, buying local, eating sustainably, growing their own food, building relationships with those from whom they bought food, etc. Nothing earth-shattering here, but I really appreciated reading a story like this from a Christian author (pastor) who acted from a faith perspective. He writes about the emptiness resulting from our consumeristic/materialistic culture, and offers this example of intentional living as a way to counteract that, in small ways. I was inspired. 

Selected Audiobooks: I usually choose light, fast-paced stuff to listen to so I stay alert while I drive. Here are few standouts: 

Evanovich, Janet, and Goldberg, Lee, The Job, The Chase, The Heist - I used to be a huge fan of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books, but they've gotten pretty awful over time. These books, co-authored with Lee Goldberg, based on a fun pairing of an FBI agent and a world-class thief, are funny and light and remind me of Evanovich's earlier Plum books. 

Rowell, Rainbow, Eleanor and Park, fangirl - Eleanor and Park is one of the loveliest books I have ever read. It is just a beautiful story. Love, love, love it. Fangirl was also pretty awesome, and especially enjoyable since it focuses on twin sisters who are into fanfiction. (The book is way better than that sentence implies.)

Condie, Ally, Matched trilogy - The first book was pretty good, and I thought the series was surprisingly good. But books two and three were bad and worse. Disappointing. 

Cass, Kiera, The Selection trilogy - Ok. Not great. Not awful. 

In progress: 
Kaling, Mindy, Why Not Me? - This will probably be done in the next couple days, and is awesome, of course. 
Smith, C. Christopher and John Pattison, Slow Church - I've been reading this (appropriately) SLOWLY. It is just not moving right along for me. It may still be in this section of my review next year. 

My 2014 Reading List

Books I Read in 2014

I didn't read as much as I wanted this year, especially in the first several months. I did finish my DMin though, so perhaps reading what I had written over and over and over in the editing process counts in lieu of a few books....

1.     Hamilton, Adam, 24 Hours that Changed the World (church Lenten study) - Pretty good. My congregation enjoyed this. 

2.     Hamilton, Adam, Making Sense of the Bible (church Bible study) - I think this is a really excellent study. It's got a lot crammed into it, and will delve into some uncomfortable topics, but my folks took it mostly in stride. I think if pastors realize their congregants want and appreciate this kind of look at the Bible, it would make things easier from there on out. 

3.     Kalas, J. Ellsworth, A Hop, Skip, and a Jumpthrough the Bible (church Bible study) - Not my favorite of his books. (Christmas from the Backside is) but this was a nice companion book to my Bible 101 class. 

4.   Hamilton, Adam, Not a Silent Night (clergy Bible study) - Probably my least favorite Hamilton book to date. I felt like this was a "need to put out an Advent study" book. It wasn't awful. It was just not moving to me in any way. Forgettable. 

5.     Lupton, Robert D., Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life - I got this thinking I would use it as a DMin resource, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. A decent read, although I think Lupton could push farther in a lot of areas, and still uses an "us" "them" breakdown that is not helpful sometimes. 

6.     Livermore, David A., Serving with Eyes Wide Open - Another one I got thinking it would work for DMin research. This focuses on short-term mission trips and on pastors training other pastors outside the US. If you and your church are involved in either of those things, I recommend it. 

7.     Borg, Marcus and Crossan, John Dominic, The First Christmas - I've had this for a while, and finally got to it. I really enjoyed it. I think it would be a great read for some of my atheist friends who think they've discovered the myth of Christmas, and some of my Christian friends who might benefit from understanding the multi-layered symbolism of the Christmas story. 

8. Lewis, C.S., Miracles - Oh, C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia are so good! So full of imagination! So open! His non-fiction - not so much. I'll give him this - he's got an interesting technique of argument. Reminds me of the apostle Paul. I'd love to see what he'd make of our scientific knowledge today. 

9.     Smith Hill, Pamela, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life - Loved this look at Wilder's life, especially the examination of the relationship between Laura and her daughter Rose and who really wrote what. (Smith Hill argues that Rose was an editor, not essentially a ghost-writer, and that Laura was forgiving of the large chunks of her writing that Rose lifted for her own work.) 

10.  Koenig, John, Soul Banquets: How Meals BecomeMission in the Local Congregation - This was ok. 

11.  Monk, Theophane, Tales of a Magic Monastery - This is a book beloved by one of our CCYM coordinators, and thus, by our CCYM as a whole. I was glad to read the source of some of our favorite CCYM parables. 

12.  Baum, Frank L., The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - My brother gave me his old kindle, and this was pre-loaded on it, so I read it. I like the movie better! (I know, I know.)

13-15.  Roth, Veronica, Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant - Divergent was awesome. Insurgent was pretty good. Allegiant - boo. It isn't just the ending, which I hated, but won't spoil here. It was the way the third book just changed so many key elements of the first book that I loved. Unbelievable character actions. A total change in setting. A change in the whole world of the book. A letdown after a great start.  

16.  Fielding, Helen, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy - I am a huge fan of Bridget Jones' Diary and The Edge of Reason, which are both hilarious. In this book (SPOILER ALERT), Mark has died, and Bridget is significantly older. I was SO disappointed we never got to see the rest of Bridget and Mark's relationship, their marriage, them parenting together. I don't mind Bridget growing up. I just wish we had gotten to see it happen.  

17-19. Bracken, Alexandra, Darkest Minds, Never Fade, In the Afterlight - A Young Adult series I heard about via some tumblrs I follow, appropriately enough. Excellent series. I hope it gets more widely read. 

20.  Shapard, David M. and Jane Austen, Annotated Emma - An excellent read for this lover of all things Jane Austen. 

21.  Norris, Bruce, Clyborne Park - CNY Playhouse is staging this show in the spring, and I read it before auditioning. I wasn't cast, but I'm so glad I read the script, and am looking forward to seeing the production. A contemporary look at race, housing, and the things we don't like to talk about out loud. 

22.  Ehrman, Bart D., The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed - Since I'm obsessed with Judas, I had to read this. I've had this book for a while and finally got to it this year. I like Bart Ehrman's writing style and approach, but I realized I really don't care about Gnostic writing. I loved the parts where Ehrman explores the canonical gospels and theorizes about actual Judas. I also found the section on the discovery of the text to be intriguing. But the rest - not my thing. 

23.  Ruhl, Sarah, In the Next Room -  Todd was reading a stack of plays for school, and I picked up this one out of the pile. It was ok. 

Selected Audiobooks: Mostly I listen to really light stuff I wouldn't both reviewing, but a couple of standouts - 

Eugenides, Jeffery, The Marriage Plot - This was really good. I loved reading about students in the midst of the explosion of semiotics and deconstruction. I had no real sense when my SUPA English introduced us to this stuff in high school how contemporary it was and how useful it would prove to know about later in my educational career. Also, the main character is named Mitchell Grammaticus, and I think that is the best character name ever.  

Weiner, Jennifer, All Fall Down - I love all of her books, and feel sad when she's mislabeled as "chic lit." This book focuses on a young mother caught up in prescription pain med addiction. The protagonist isn't particularly likable, but I think that's ok. 

Fanfiction: Admission - In this past year, I've read a ton of fanfiction. I had no idea when I started out looking for a version of The Hunger Games written from Peeta's perspective the whole world of fanfiction that existed. I subscribe to updates from a bunch of works-in-progress now, and there's something neat about getting a story chapter by chapter. My favorite, which I mentioned last year, is still, hands-down, When the Moon Fell in Love with the Sun. The author has been through a lot in her personal life in the last year, resulting in a slow update schedule, but it is worth the wait. 

In Progress: 
Poehler, Amy, Yes Please 
Stookey, Laurence Hull, Let the Whole Church Say Amen!
Dashner, James, The Maze Runner
Shealy, Daniel and Louisa May Alcott, Little Women: An Annotated Edition
Aslan, Reza, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth