The Arrow's Path

This is the video (slightly modified) that I showed at our Annual Parish Meeting this last Sunday. My original soundtrack included a Johnny Cash song, "You'll never walk alone" from the third disc of the Unearthed boxed set from 2003 . Youtube had a hissy fit when I tried to upload it, and probably rightly so. That is clearly copyrighted material, so I remixed the video. Not that I suggest doing this (wink, wink, nod, nod), but if you want play the video above while muted and play the following video unmuted simultaneously, you can get the original effect. Our 2011: A Work in Progress video is now currently found on our parish website also.

Words can't describe this .

"Deceit is a thing easily detected, and weak, though it be daubed outside with ten thousand colors. For as those who whitewash decayed walls, cannot by the plastering make them sound, so too those who lie are easily found out..." -St. John Chrysostom, Homily 68 on John 12:34 .

Forcing fumbles is not an art , it is pitiful tackling because players haven't been taught the fundamentals. For every "forced fumble" there are at least 4 or 5 missed tackles by the clowns trying to be all cutesy and pull that kind of stunt. If you tackle correctly, the fumbles will take care of themselves.

This is just a reminder that the next Brookings Ministerial Association Meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25th, at 9AM at St. Paul's Episcopal Church on the corner of 6th Street and 8th Ave. Parking is on the street, and breakfast will be provided. We will try to not go over an hour or so in meeting length. Brookings Police Chief Jeff Miller has agreed to be with us for a short talk and answer questions, particularly concerning how the Salvation Army funds are utilized and distributed through the Brookings Police Department in conjunction with the Brookings Ministerial Association. If you have questions or concerns about this, please do come and join us.

I got a call from a relative yesterday to inform me she was about to get on a cruise ship in Miami. She said she poked her head out of the airport and it was humid. Yeah, I think I remember what humidity is.

The Old Testament reading for this coming Sunday is from the book of Jonah . While the reading for this Sunday is not the famous Jonah and the Whale story, it does come right after that incident. Whenever Jonah comes up in the Lectionary (which is all too infrequent in my opinion), I always think of the classic sermon given by Orson Welles as Father Mapple in the 1956 version of Moby Dick . The cinematography and acting in this scene is terrific. You get an entire sermon (when was the last time you heard that in a blockbuster movie?) The pulpit is actually the mast of a ship. Notice how the image of the cross emanates from that pulpit in a very nautical type way. It is a truly fascinating scene. And the sermon is actually pretty good too...it ends not in a fire and brimstone way which is what you expect at the beginning because Welles is extremely melodramatic.

Anybody have any good ideas for an Adult Wednesday night program for Lent?

Winter finally decided to invade South Dakota this week. It snowed, and we awoke this morning to a balmy -3 degrees. Very little snow appears to be in the 10 day forecast. I cannot really complain, as the weather has been pretty nice and very little snow since before Thanksgiving. I have a feeling we are going to get hammered with a blizzard at some point in the next few months.

Tonight for Wednesday at Soup Supper at St. Paul's Episcopal Church-Brookings: For the Adults: Irish Stew Taco Soup Fish Chowder French Bread Apple Crisp For the Young'uns: Mini-Hamburger Sliders Mac n' Cheese I know it's snowing...but come on down!

From a Sermon on the Baptism of Our Lord. ----------- In closing, I draw your attention to pg. 304 of the Book of Common Prayer. I will be honest. My one major, major hang up about the current prayerbook is the heading on pg. 304, which is referred to as the Baptismal Covenant. This are the promises that are made at Baptism. I say that this term is a bit of a linguistic hang up  for me personally-and I usually have to grit my teeth when I am doing a baptism and we come to this part-because I believe frankly, the term "Baptismal Covenant" is wrong, or perhaps it is better to say somewhat misleading. Most people today hear the term covenant and think of something like a Marriage covenant or a covenant that runs with land, a solemn agreement between two people to do or not to do something that is formally laid out in the wording of the covenant. That is not what baptism is about. Baptism, according the teaching in the back of the Prayerbook, is "Holy Baptism is the s

" God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher." St. Teresa of Avila

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, the Church Holy Day that particularly commemorates the coming of the Magi, or Three Wise Men. I have blogged on the meaning and history of the Three Wise Men before here and here . This Epiphany on the Northern Plains, we are not so much looking for a Star in the East, as we are snow from any direction. It got up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, which is downright creepy for South Dakota in early January. Usually we are lucky if we do not have a foot of snow nor having wind chills of -60 . (For my Fahrenheit handicapped British readers, a -60 F wind chill would be a wind chill of -50 C.) Instead of rehashing what I have previously discussed on this blog, I simply wish everyone a Happy Epiphany and will let of art of the Church tell the story of the Epiphany.

Hey, my old college roomie wrote this ! Of course, we both had more hair back then... But seriously, it is worth a read.

I admit I am a dyed-in-the-wool Atlanta Braves fan, so this blog post is probably biased on this issue. But Dale Murphy is again on the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame ballot where he has been languishing for a few years of eligibility. In fact, he is on his next to last chance on the ballot before he gets bumped off the baseball writers' ballot permanently. I remember having this card as a kid. Frankly, if he does not get in this year, his chances are virtually over because there is a host of potential Hall of Famers slated to come on the ballot in the next year that will supersede him, or will at least garner all the media attention. He has an outside chance that the steroids issue may kick off a few of the 2013 newcomers to the ballot like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling, and Craig Biggio. Granted those guys are steroids users (or at least a few cases highly suspected thereof,) but the steroid-user-into-the-Hall-of-Fame debate will cer

Al Jazeera English did an extensive coverage of the situation in South Sudan on Monday's World News Cast. Part of it can be found here. Please continue to pray for the Sudan...the conflict is not just with the North, but between tribes within the South.

As I discussed in a previous post, I acquired a nice, older model scroll saw about a month ago. I have been enjoying it, as it is a really nice hobby to get into. For my second major adventure, I ordered a book entitled Natural Wooden Toys . I had read a blurb about it in the December issue of Scroll Saw magazine, and I was intrigued about the discussion of natural dyes for children's toys. Not that I am some sort of hippie vegan, but I thought the concept was interesting. Seeing as I have a 2 1/2 year old, I thought it might be worth a look see. In the book, there is also several chapters and patterns for easy to make animal toys for children. My daughter took one look at the pictures and said, "I want dees!" So, Daddy to the rescue. I got to practice my scroll sawing but also experiment a bit with these non-toxic natural dyes. I think the project turned out pretty well: I was particularly fond of the squirrel, fox, and hedgehog: I was informed today that my d