Prepare the Way of the LORD

A Scripture passage
on this first Sunday of Advent:

A voice cries out:
'In the wilderness
prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.

Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all the people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.'

- Isaiah 40:3-5 (NRSV)

Give thanks to the Lord

O give thanks to the Lord, 
for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
those he redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;
hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the Lord 
in their trouble,
and he delivered them 
from their distress;
he led them by a straight way,
until they reached an inhabited town.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
For he satisfies the thirsty,
and the hungry he fills with good things.

Let those who are wise give heed to these things,
and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

- Psalm 107:1-9, 43 (NRSV)

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"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.

"May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this."

- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 (NRSV)

My wife and Admiral Adama

This is perhaps the most awesome photo I have ever seen. My wife gets a hug from Bill Adama, commander of the Battlestar Galactica, at a recent financial aid conference.

And to think, I've never even been in the C.I.C.

Or flown in a Viper.

Humph.

A Prayer for Christ the King

Almighty Father, who gave your Son Jesus Christ a realm
where all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him;
make us loyal followers of our living Lord,
that we may always hear his word,
follow his teachings, and live in his Spirit;
and hasten the day when every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess that he is Lord;
to your eternal glory. Amen.

(UM Book of Worship, 420)

A visit to Bruton Parish

Concluding a series of posts from a recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg, VA...

This past week was really busy, so I didn't get to finish up my posts on the recent trip to Williamsburg that Emily and I took. Let me just add this one, with a word about our visit to the Bruton Parish Church on the Sunday afternoon before we drove back to Durham.

Bruton Parish (nowadays a part of the Episcopal Church) was formed in 1674 when two smaller parishes in the colony of Virginia were combined. That actually makes it about 25 years older than the city of Williamsburg itself, which wasn't organized until a fire destroyed the colonial capital at Jamestown and a new capital was planned.

The church you see in the picture on the right was finished in 1715. It has gone through numerous renovations over the past 300 years, but the building is original to that time and it has always been a working parish church. It also contains a baptismal font that is about 100 years older than the current church building - a heavy stone font that looks a lot like medieval fonts I've seen in churches in Great Britain. I imagine it must be one of the oldest liturgical objects to have been produced specifically for use in British North America.

It was one of Bruton Parish's ministers, the Rev. William Archer Rutherfoord Goodwin, who served as the driving force behind the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in the first half of the 20th century. Goodwin served as the rector at Bruton Parish from 1903 to 1909 and again from 1926 to 1938. During his long association with Williamsburg, he became acquainted with John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (heir to the Standard Oil fortune) and convinced Rockefeller of the potential for American history & culture that a restored Williamsburg would represent.

Visiting the Bruton Parish Church was a great way to round out our trip. If you have a chance to visit Colonial Williamsburg in the future, make sure to put it on your list.

Taverns & Churches

Continuing the posts from a recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg...

Supper at the James Shields Tavern
Emily and I rounded off our full Saturday with supper at the James Shields Tavern, one of the Colonial Williamsburg eateries that is based off of an actual 18th-century establishment. Both the menu and the ambiance are designed to give diners the feel of eating in Mr. Shields' restaurant, so we ate by candlelight and munched on fare typical of the time (for Emily, pork ribs and potatoes; for me, chicken and vegetables. Not everything has changed since then!).

The Apollo Room at the Raleigh Tavern
One of the main social hubs in 18th-century Williamsburg was a business called the Raleigh Tavern, where local residents and visitors alike gathered to eat, drink, and share news. This was a place I wanted to see in particular for its connections with the Phi Beta Kappa Society. PBK was founded by students at the College of William & Mary in 1776, and the early members reportedly used to gather in the Apollo Room at the Raleigh (a venue also used often by members of the House of Burgesses in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War). They had Sunday morning tours, so we went!

I mentioned in an earlier post that the character actors and tour guides in Colonial Williamsburg are good. Our guide at the Raleigh Tavern was particularly good - both in his knowledge of the tavern itself and in his ability to connect with our group. The Raleigh is a reconstruction (like most of the buildings in the old colonial town), but it has been built on the same spot and is supposedly a facsimile of the original.

Sunday Worship at an Historic Church
We had already planned to find the nearest United Methodist congregation to join for worship on Sunday morning, and it just so happened that Williamsburg UMC was less than a block from the Autumn Leaves B&B where we were staying. Great church. Great worship service. And historic, too! Check out the picture below that I took of a plaque hanging on the brick wall of the sanctuary.

Revolutionary Fever!

Continuing the posts of our recent trip to Williamsburg, Virginia...

Governor's Palace
After lunch, Emily and I toured the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg. Like most of the prominent historical buildings in town, the palace is a reconstruction. But like those other reconstructions, it was rebuilt on the original foundation and using historical evidence that allowed for a very close proximity to the original.

This was the home to the British governors of the colony of Virginia from Alexander Spotswood down to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. And it remained the official residence of the American governors during the war until the capital was moved to Richmond during Thomas Jefferson's period as governor (1779-1781).

In fact, the palace reconstruction was not limited to the building itself. It includes a great deal of interior architecture and decoration. An inventory of the last British governor's household goods indicates that the walls were lined with over 500 weapons - flintlock muskets, swords, powder horns, etc. So the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation lined the reconstructed palace with the same number and type of weaponry. That kind of attention to detail adds a great deal to what would already be an impressive historical reconstruction.

Revolutionary Fever!
Following the tour of the Governor's Palace, we walked back down the Duke of Gloucester Street to take in the Saturday afternoon historical reenactment. It was a series of skits designed to show the social and political tension that existed in Williamsburg between 1773 and 1775.

At times funny and at times serious, these skits were done really well. There was a love story involving two of the wealthiest families in the colony, and there was a story about African slaves who ended up bitterly realizing that "freedom" didn't necessarily mean freedom for everyone. And of course, there were skits depicting the political machinations leading up to war. But the best part? The program concluded with a stunning performance by the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes & Drums, which is made up of high school-aged boys and girls from the area. The whole thing took two hours, and it was worth every minute.

A stroll through the 18th century

Continuing the posts on my family's recent trip to Williamsburg, VA ...

We got up on Saturday morning and made the 8-minute walk from our room at the Autumn Leaves B&B to the Merchants' Square area of Colonial Williamsburg. After buying tickets - expensive, but worth it - we went on a stroll down the Duke of Gloucester Street and took in some of the sites.

Our first stop was at the Capitol, which is an early 20th-century reconstruction on the foundation of the original building. The picture above is from the room where the House of Burgesses met. The tours of buildings in Colonial Williamsburg typically don't last more than a half-hour, which is ideal for taking in a particular site without going overboard. And the guides tend to be knowledgeable and interesting. (They often double as actors and you're likely to see them 'in character' later on around town.)

After the Capitol, we headed back up the Duke of Gloucester Street so we could grab a snack at the coffee shop behind the Raleigh Tavern. With coffee and hot tea in hand, we branched out onto some side roads, walking up Nicholson Street and then taking a right up North England. To make it back to Merchants' Square, we ended up wandering through some gardens and alongside some sheep enclosures before emerging from behind the Governor's Palace. It was about 65 degrees and sunny - as close to perfect as you could get for a November morning.

A brief visit to some shops in Merchants' Square left us sufficiently hungry that we decided to break for lunch. The day was warm enough to let us dine outdoors, which we did at a bistro called The Trellis. The picture below shows me pondering the history of the place (and the cheeseburger I was about to eat).

A weekend away...

... was just what Emily and I needed this past weekend.

My congregation had been telling me we needed to take a Sunday off, so we did! We drove 190 miles up the road to Williamsburg, which was the colonial capital of Virginia for about 100 years before it was moved to Richmond during the Revolutionary War. I went to Williamsburg with my family as a child, but I didn't remember a lot about it. In the next few posts, I'll share some details of our wonderful trip there last weekend.

We were only going to be in the area for a couple of days, so we wanted to stay somewhere that was within walking distance of both Colonial Williamsburg and the College of William & Mary. Turns out the Bed & Breakfast options are really pricey for the most part. But we managed to find a very reasonable B&B called Autumn Leaves. It was right across the street from William & Mary and only an 8-minute walk from the historic city!

The story of how the old historic district was rescued and restored is a fascinating one. I read about it in a book I picked up on Saturday, but the Wikipedia entry seems to get it mostly right. The part of town commonly called "Colonial Williamsburg," which has the old buildings (some original and others reconstructions), people in period costumes, and historical reenactments, is actually run by a private foundation. What you can go and see today is the fruit of an effort led by Rev. W.A.R. Goodwin in the early 20th-century to preserve the colonial site as an educational and heritage legacy of American history. Goodwin was a man of uncommon vision who attracted the support of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., as a way to fund the beginnings of the non-profit foundation.

Williamsburg is designed for all ages of people, from kids up to adults. I'd highly recommend it for 2 days or a whole week. Emily and I bought the year-long pass and intend to go back at least one more time. There's way too much to see for just a weekend. And besides, I've got a conversation with Thomas Jefferson to finish.

Duke Youth Academy 2010

Katherine Smith e-mailed me this week to say that the applications for the 2010 session of the Duke Youth Academy are now available online.

There are applications for both students and staff members. You can access either by going to this link. Applications can be downloaded as a PDF, or they can be filled out and submitted online.

Katherine Smith and Fred Edie are the Director and Faculty Advisor for DYA. They lead a stellar summer program that invites rising juniors and seniors in high school to explore what it means to live the Christian life with head, heart, hands, and feet. I have worked on DYA staff the past two summers, and I think it is an enormously powerful program. Christian formation is what DYA aims toward, but that phrase doesn't do justice to the transformation of attitudes and outlooks that I've seen in many of our kids.

If you know a boy or girl who might be interested in DYA, please point them to the website and encourage them to apply.

Or, if you think you might like to work on staff at DYA, I'd encourage you to read the material on our staff positions and submit an application yourself.

The DYA dates for the summer of 2010 are June 18th - July 3rd. I blogged quite a bit about the Academy this past summer, and you can scroll through some of those posts by clicking on the "Duke Youth Academy" label below.

Gratuitous Cat Post #4

This is Lulu, who is one of the most awesome felines ever to walk on four legs. She's also a very gentle critter, unless you happen to be a chipmunk or a mole or some other small rodent who lives in our neighborhood. She's got just enough of her predator instinct to be bad news for those guys. But hey, we live in a fallen world.

If you haven't ever done so, check out John Wesley's sermon, "The General Deliverance." It has a beautiful expression of hope for the final redemption of all God's creatures.

Cats included, of course.

[Update on 11/5/09: CNN is reporting the first cat to have contracted the H1N1 flu virus. See this link for the story.]

Nurturing the Call

I'm on a sabbatical from writing for the United Methodist Reporter right now, as I'm getting ready for some big exams coming up in the month of December.

There has been a lot of good content in the Reporter of late, though. Allow me to point you toward some of it, gentle reader.

My friend and colleague Eric Van Meter, a campus minister at the Wesley Foundation at Arkansas State University, has a recent column looking at the importance of nurturing the call to ministry in youth and young adults. Eric has the ability to speak hard truths that are, nevertheless, expressed in great hope for what the church could be.

He writes, "The call to ordained ministry begins with catching the breath of God beneath our wings and seeing where it will take us. In the best of settings, we hear others shouting encouragement throughout the journey."

Eric reflects on the possibility of his own son someday following his footsteps into ministry. He wonders whether the church can move toward a fuller understanding of ordained ministry and a healthier process for those called into that form of service. This is a topic I've taken up myself recently, both in an article on structural change of the ordination process and an article on the reform of personal attitudes in the church.

I think Eric is right on when he directs us to look at our own approach to discipleship and ministry as the best way to set an example for future generations: "We have to be the ones who set positive examples. We have to be the ones to offer them opportunities for meaningful leadership. We have to be the ones who, despite our desire to protect them, go with them to encounter desperate and hurting humanity. We have to step up and be the disciples we want them to emulate."

Eric is good at expressing both frustration with the status quo and a guarded optimism that we can still follow the Holy Spirit's leading toward a more robust church. I think we all need a healthy dose of both of those qualities: the frustration to drive us to seek a more faithful path, and the hope that God ain't done with us yet.

For All the Saints

We bless your holy name, O God,
for all your servants who,
having finished their course,
now rest from their labors.

Give us grace to follow the example
of their steadfastness and faithfulness,
to your honor and glory;
through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

(UM Book of Worship, 415)

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For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

(United Methodist Hymnal, 711)