Do Martians have their own Santa?

The Phoenix Mars Lander seems to have landed near the north pole of Mars just before 8:00. Hoping later tonight there might be some photos--photos of part of God's creation we've never seen before. More info at NASA.gov and CNN.

[update: photos now available!]

Here's an interesting map of Mars' north pole (read about these maps in my earlier post).

@NASA: you could use a few more ladies in the Jet Propulsion Lab. Call me.

Practice Resurrection

This week's lectionary readings reminded me of one of my favorite poems, Wendell Berry's The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. Berry begins by describing how we live when we function out of our fear and anxiety rather than embracing God's promise that our needs are known and will be provided for and realized as we strive first for God's justice, peace, and joy.

Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die.
When they want you to buy something they will call you.

Berry spends the rest of the poem outlining how we might try to not worry about our life.

So, friends, every day do something that won't compute.
Love the Lord. Love the world.
Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it.

The reading from Isaiah describes how God cares for us even more than a mother for her child, asking:
Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Berry echoes:

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child? Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?

In the final stanza, the poet suggests that we might be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction.
Berry concludes by naming what it would mean for us to live out of hope rather than fear:

Practice resurrection.

Amen. Read the whole poem here.

Wish You Were Here

Busy life elsewhere lately.

• Lots of making flair.
• The NYT's David Brooks wrote this story about us today.
• While I'm off working too much, take a few minutes to laugh with John Hodgman.
  
• Or Ricky Gervais.
• Need something arty + nerdy? This will make you drool.
• And, don't forget we land on Mars again tomorrow. Yay!

THAT IS ALL.

Now showing: Julian of Norwich

Today is the feast day of Julian of Norwich. She's a favorite English saint who experienced visions of Christ during a severe illness. Many believe her written account of these 'showings' to be the first book written by a woman in the English language.

While she's famous for her "all shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well," Julian also offers profound articulations of the meaning of human suffering, the life of the trinity, and the reach of salvation. She has beautiful language describing Jesus as mother which the Episcopal Church includes as two of the canticles contained in Enriching Our Worship. Below is the text of the Song of our True Nature; singing it is one of the things I still miss from evensong at GTS:

Christ revealed our frailty and our falling, *

our trespasses and our humiliations.

Christ also revealed his blessed power, *

his blessed wisdom and love.

He protects us as tenderly and as sweetly when we are in greatest need; *

he raises us in spirit

and turns everything to glory and joy without ending.

God is the ground and the substance, the very essence of nature; *

God is the true father and mother of natures.

We are all bound to God by nature, *

and we are all bound to God by grace.

And this grace is for all the world, *

because it is our precious mother, Christ.

For this fair nature was prepared by Christ

for the honor and nobility of all, *

and for the joy and bliss of salvation.

Thinking about her reminds me of the 'religious views' on the facebook page of one of the students in my campus ministry: there was love, there is love, there will always be love. Maybe he's been reading Julian...

Ask The Priest post on the Feast of Julian

Grant me understanding, that I may live.

The psalm for evening prayer is a portion of 119.  I love Psalm 119.  First, it is ridiculously long.  Second, it is an extaordinary piece of poetry (I open my mouth and pant; I long for your commandments).  Third, it's a word puzzle.  See, God loves geeks.  Derek Olsen writes about even more reasons if you need some.

For tonight, I'm suggesting that we replace the appendix to the proposed Anglican Covenant, which describes how we might resolve disputes, with this simple directive:  Join together in reciting Psalm 119.  Repeat as necessary.  Do it.  Do it. 

Patience is a virtue

Watch this guy transform illustrations into humans. So cool.

It's not a comic book!

Saturday was free comic book day as well as Derby Day. These two events colliding can only mean one thing, of course: DAN ZETTWOCH. He is my favorite graphic illustrator/short storyist/yarnspinner/visual thinkerist/blogger/master painter. I guess that's why he's one of the Best American Comics. Even this guy thinks so. Dan was making way cooler stuff than me by the time we were 8. I think it was the ghost (muse?) in the basement refrigerator. Or maybe it's because I didn't drink the sweet tea. Anyway, I'm always delighted to see what he's got in that fancy case of his.

Between this, this, this, this, and this, it's like we're almost cousins or something.

I still think Dan's old gig, XPLANE is one of the coolest things going. And sometimes I read Communication Nation, written by his old boss, Dave Gray.

So what's better than Daniel? Jenny!

First Saturday in May

Happy Derby Day!

This is a photo of the first Saturday in May, circa 1926.
And this will get you started mixing your juleps.

Lilies for the Fillies

Happy Oaks Day! It might not be the Derby, but it's the day Kentuckians head to the track. No school, half-day at work, a day to taste-test your julep recipe.

The Kentucky Oaks is a 134 year old stakes race for 3 yr. old filies. The winner receives the garland of lilies in the winner's circle and a piece of the $500K purse.

In 2006, Lemons Forever won as a 47-1 longshot. Gotta love it.

He ascended into heaven.

While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God. Luke 24:51-53

From the Painted Prayerbook on Ascension Day:

In depicting Jesus’ ascension, medieval artists often painted Jesus with only his feet showing (one can almost see his toes wiggling), just barely visible as he departs, as in this thirteenth-century German Psalter or the St Albans Psalter. They wanted to emphasize his bodily departure from the earth. Yet, as Gail Ramshaw points out in Treasures Old and New, such a depiction does not suggest that “Christ has gone away from the church. The church fathers,” she goes on to write, “taught just the opposite: that as Christ went to God, his body became available to all the church.” And not only available to the church, but also enfleshed within it and by it, a point these same medieval artists emphasize by their attention to those who remain as Jesus leaves. Though Jesus’ departure poses the risk of profound disruption among his followers, his ascension becomes an opportunity for the community not only to reorganize and refashion itself but to become the very body of Christ in the world.

It's part of an interesting reflection on the meaning of the Ascension for communities dealing with loss.

I usually read the Ascension through my ecumenical lens--'Ascensiontide' as a time of preparation for when the followers of Christ will be gathered to re-member the body of Christ at Pentecost. A time for us to prepare to enflesh God's power so that we might be co-operators in the mission of reconciliaiton. Sadly, we are not there yet. As one blogger pointed out, we can't even agree on a time for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (in the southern hemisphere, it's this week; in the north, it falls in January). Certainly, my own communion is not currently able to gather joyfully with each other under the Lordship of Christ. Yet, Christ's promise is given to us, his Body made available to us. We continue to try to gather in the midst of his blessing and staring up at his dangling feet. God continually and mysteriously sends the Holy Spirit to unite us as Christ's body in the world. We beg for it in the Eucharist, but do we really mean it?

Considering the work

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars
you have set in their courses,
What is man
that you should be mindful of him?
-Psalm 8

PS, That's a photo from a Messier Marathon.

PS2, Wonder what the presidential candidates have to say about funding space programs? Here's what CNN, NPR and Popular Mechanics have to say about what they have to say.