Scribble Scribble Scribble

Here is my newsletter article for our January newsletter. Hope you enjoy! Credit is here given to Walter Brueggemann for his poem, "Re-text Us"

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (from Psalm 51)


Dear St. Paul,

Someone close to me says like clockwork every January, “Maybe this will be my year.” We’re turning another corner! Flipping open that fresh new “Lighthouses of the Oregon Coast” calendar that we got from a friend at work. It’s time to re-learn how to date our checks (for those of us who haven’t migrated to online bill-pay yet).

Yes, it’s a new year. The little optimist in me wants so desperately to look forward to new opportunities, new hills to climb, new challenges to overcome, new friends to make. But the big pessimist in me (can I call him a “realist?”) is making a mental list of the not-so-grand accomplishments, the times when I was lackluster as a person of faith, when I thought I didn’t say the right thing, or when I said too much. The failings of the last year, in my own life and in the many lives of our world are weighing heavy. So, by the end of 2009 there seems to be a great collective sigh that has barely enough oomph to say, “good riddance.” How’s that for good news from your pastor? Yuck.

I keep recollecting a little poem that Walter Brueggemann wrote. I’ll include it here. Let me know if you think it’s a good word for the New Year. I think it is, because it calls me out of myself, toward God, and then back to myself, all new, re-created by the Spirit of Christ. What better way to start a New Year?

Re-text us

We confess you to be text-maker,
Text-giver,
Text-worker,
And we find ourselves addressed by your
Making,
Giving,
Working.
So now we bid you, re-text us by your spirit.
Re-text us away from our shallow loves,
Into your overwhelming gracefulness.
Re-text us away from our thin angers,
Into your truth-telling freedom.
Re-text us away from our lean hopes,
Into your tidal promises.
Give us attentive ears,
Responsive hearts,
Receiving hands;
Re-text us to be your liberated partners
In joy and obedience,
In risk and gratitude.
Re-text us by your word become wind. Amen.

Living in hope (because I have to!), Pastor James Aalgaard