reverendjaneausten

A wonderful day with family even if we could not all be here. But here are some shots of our lovely tree and some opening present times with Erik and Ann and Shannon and Graff.

With apologies to my amazing cousins for preaching about their childhoods without their permission. . . no names mentioned, but they know who they are! ;-) Sermon: Advent Two (Year B) St. Mark's Hazard, December 7, 2007 Isaiah 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 2 Peter 3:8-15a Mark 1:1-8 May our work in the world be a vehicle for Your Love; May it shine and light up all darkened places. Be with us, O Lord. Amen. (Adapted from Marianne Williamson's Illuminata.) Do you have cousins or other relatives that are just a little out there? When I was growing up, my first cousins were exotic and interesting and always seemed to my spoiled eyes to get the lion's share of attention. (For example, we could only eat ONE Heath Bar, but they could have several since they never got to eat them in their regular lives!) That was a fair reason for this double standard, even though I was pretty jealous. My uncle was a geologist working for oil companies in some of the most amazing places in the w...

SERMON WEDS. WEEK OF PROPER 29-LAST PENTECOST YEAR 2 11.26.08 I am sure most of us know the children's song that goes with this Gospel. I will not sing it! But it has always made me happy---at least until I really unpack it. To unpack it, I have to remember another time someone came to my house. When my husband and I bought Pine Gables, where we live now, our eldest two boys were 8 and 11. Their main attraction to the small ranch house was the creek down below. You might imagine what fodder that provided for our washer and dryer. One early Fall Saturday, I had just had it. I told them the whole family was going to get this laundry done by staying on top of it all day. Their rooms were at one end of the house and the laundry closet at the other, outside of our room. I told them to do the big sort and to line up the piles of laundry across the library (our front room.) I think there were at least ten small mountains in various shadings. Since I would not let them go outside unt...

This will actually go out as a letter later this week but I thought I would post it here as well since most of the recipients are not blog readers! SERMON FOR LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST- CHRIST THE KING Since the Small Church Ministry Consortium priests are off on Sunday November 23rd, the Feast of Christ the King, I wanted to reflect with you about the lessons for that day. Rather than reproduce them here, I will give you the References, and encourage you to spend some prayerful time with these readings. They are: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24, Psalm 100, Ephesians 1:15-23, Matthew 25:31-46. Where Shannon, Graff and I live in Berea, we are privileged to have as neighbors a small farm. There are a few cattle, about 6 horses, cats, dogs and two goats. We have watched these goats since they were adopted as orphans, bottle fed and raised in the pasture that is nearest to the road. We walk our Border Collie, Seabury, there, and she is always so concerned that they need herding! One day recentl...

I know. Amazing. Probably will never happen again! ;-)) Sermon Proper 27 Year A, St. Mark’s Hazard November 9, 2008 May our work in the world be a vehicle for Your Love; May it shine and light up all darkened places. Be with us, O Lord, Amen. (Adapted from Marianne Williamson’s Illuminata.) As soon as the results of the presidential race were looking definite last Tuesday evening, comments on blogs, news sites and Facebook came alive with words from both those who were ecstatic and grateful, and those who were bitter and determined to continue the fight. Responses from “Glory Hallelujah” to “He will never be my president,” made it clear that even such a definitive settling of the vote does not begin to unite the two camps that have existed in conflict for so many months. Do you think anyone noticed that we have been so much about the race that we have forgotten what the race is actually supposed to accomplish? Neither candidate, (arguably more embroiled in the divisiveness than a...

is still breathtaking. I love where we live! These are just scenes from the windows and the first one is from the street looking at Pine Gables (our house.)

Well, not HIS, thank goodness! I wanted to share these photos. The hieroglyphics on the large box spell out "Graff's Sarcophagus" and those on the smallest box spell out "I am not dead yet." The "body" is the smallest of a set of failed clay sarcophagi- the only surviving specimen. We had a great time over several nights of work. The lack of smile is the new braces.

Does it happen to anyone else that some weeks what comes forth in a sermon is also what *I* most need to hear? Not every week, but rather more often than I would ever have predicted. . .

Here are a few vacation shots from SC.

Sorry about the long gap. Ministry has kept me pretty busy, as did a wonderful week of being clergy at the Cathedral Domain. I promise to write more soon! In the meantime, I am going to take the next ten days and really focus on my husband and youngest son!

Graff and Aunt Barb, and Shannon helping to set up for the Rehearsal Dinner.

These come courtesy of my brother Robert. Top to bottom: Case and Hillary walking out after the ceremony, My niece Becca and husband Paul, and our eldest son Erik and his wife Ann. Thanks Rob!!!

June has been consumed with weddings. Two weeks ago our son Case married Hillary at the Beach in Hilton Head during a storm. Last night was my first official beginning to end wedding (counselling included.) There was a storm last night too! They chose as their Gospel the wise man building his house on rock. For those of you who occasionally read this blog, they are the wonderful couple who adopted the dog we found last January. Happy Endings all around!! Here is that sermon- photos in the next post from the lovely Hilton Head wedding! &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& I was not surprised that Katie a...

Just back from our son's wedding at Hilton Head Island. . . the storm during the wedding was such a blessing and even romantic to hear the rain on the pavillion roof and feel the breeze. It was great to be with family and remember what is important in the midst of our busy lives! [And great to dance with my beloved, too.] I went to do a healing Eucharist Wednesday at one of the churches I serve, and no one appeared. I had brought a cd with Beati Quorum Via on it so I cranked that up while I put Eucharist away and straightened things up. There are few windows in this church, and a storm was coming in. After I put out the candles and had carried most of my stuff to the car, I put out the lights and moved toward the altar in the dusky dark to get the cd player. The smoke was hanging in a flat plane over the altar and suddenly began moving toward me in perfect time to the choral anthem. As I stood transfixed, it enveloped me with such a sense of powerful and comforting Presence. I w...

I am surrounded. There are 6 twelve year olds here to celebrate Graff's birthday. So far, despite the 93 degree humid temperature, they have played thether ball, basketball, soccer and four square. Their cell phones are in a basket in the house, so we keep hearing odd tunes every now and then. This is a 24 hour party. Not sure what I will have left at the end of that, but it is what he really wanted and he worked hard to get ready. Somehow I get to this point every week and you could spread me on toast. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I have got the lilies and birds all figured out (if you are following the lectionary.) Of course they are not worried. THEY do not have to deal with Computers, and since they are made by human kind, it seems God must not care about them either. These are [no surprise there] the birds of the air I chose for the cover: http://frank.itlab.us/Plant_City_2004/small/flying_birds.jpg The Bishop is coming tomorrow and the bulletin was complex--ok,ok. The TRUTH is that I was too pressed to get the relevant info to the wonderful angel who usually does the bulletins and I wanted them to be more full than usual because we have non-Episcopal visitors coming in for a variety of reasons. So I said, foolishly, "I will do it." I had the ENTIRE service in the bulletin and had saved repeatedly. I was checking for errors before printing when I noticed that enormous chunks of it had just departed. Left. Vanished. Some of it was the cobbled together from several sources garden blessing and som...

That means (if you saw the earlier post,) that all of the photographs I have taken to post here are locked in the camera because the dock which uploads photos to the computer is present but the cord is AWOL. So typical. So photographs soon. Maybe. At least we LOOK tidy. Our every two week Saint Yvonne, who used to clean and now is too busy picking up after us and doing laundry to get to the cleaning part, has been here and made all things new. A temporary sanctuary! Hoorah. Two girls strolled down from up the street to visit Graff. I think life as we know it may have just shifted.

I will begin serving St. Alban's, Morehead, in late May. I visited April 20th to preside at Eucharist and preach. Here is the sermon--if you dare! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Sermon: Easter Five St. Alban’s April 20, 2008 May our work in the world be a vehicle for Your Love; May it shine and light up all darkened places. Be with us, O Lord. Amen. (Adapted from Marianne Williamson’s Illuminata.) Eighteen years ago, when I was trying to decide where to attend library school, I packed up our two oldest boys and headed to South Carolina for a visit. I was trying to choose between Clarion University of Pennsylvania, which is set in a rural area not unlike Morehead (but much smaller!) or the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Clarion had offered me a lovely assistantship, and USC could not promise a dime, so this ought to have been a futile field trip. But the proximity of magnolias, warmer temperatures, and the all important poss...

Well, not really. But I have been pretty busy for the last little bit and will be pretty busy again for at least another week. I wanted to write a word about Happening though. For those of you who do not know, it is an intense retreat weekend for 10-12th graders. I got to be the clergy and it was my first Healing service and my first Reconciliation services too--albeit altered for the setting! It was amazing and inspiring and although I got no sleep and am just dopey, I am also flying high on the way it felt to be a priest among all of those fabulous young people. I finished thinking, "THIS is why I am a priest!" I got to preside at the closing too, in our Cathedral there at the top of the mountain. It is about 3-4 stories tall and the altar sits in front of a full height glass window with a built in cross as part of the framing. It was raining softly and the fresh new greens were just beginning to be evident. The red bud trees were blooming all the way down the hill. It was...

A change of pace from the sermon at Vigil for those who are interested! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Easter Sunday St. Mark’s Hazard March 23, 2008 Children’s Sermon [Alexa, 8; Megan, 8; Bella, 5; Blake,4] I want to tell you a dog story, this Easter. One day, I was driving, (I am ALWAYS driving!!) and I was going up a hill. On the other side of the road, coming down toward be was a big white truck, going very fast. Standing right in the path of the truck was a puppy. {Big eyes here!!} So I checked in my rearview mirror, and pulled over. I opened my door and called him and he landed right in my lap! So what was I supposed to do! Of course, I took him home. Mr. Shannon was VERY PATIENT. But he did not think we could keep him. We tried to take him to the shelters; they would not take him. They all said I was not in their county, although I knew where I was!! So he has stayed with us for a while. But we could not figure out his name. We...

The Easter Vigil was amazing. We only had 15 but it was still a powerful experience. It was my first to plan and their first to experience, so there were some [quietly] amusing "flexibility" moments [translation: learning for next time} but the church was beautiful in candlelight. We did not have it quite as late as I would have liked but it was nearly dark when we all got inside. There were actually three little children there, so at the great Alleluia they got to ring bells, which they loved. They were SO good during the long service. One of them was a visitor so did not take Communion. The moment when God passes through me in a blessing and is acknowledged by the soul in a child's eyes has to be one of the most profound for a priest--at least this priest. I had the A Team with me- Graff as Crucifer and Shannon as Server. Because in the flurry the elements were on the credence table and had not been put out for the children to bring up, so I let the two smallest c...

Tomorrow I get to preach at the Community Service. As the new priest at St. Mark's I am also the new kid to the Ministerial Association, so they all thought. . . . I do not think anyone there reads this blog, so a late night posting is probably safe in terms of it being a spoiler. So here is the sermon if you are interested! Sermon: Community Service Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church March 19, 2008 (Hebrews 12: 1-3; John 13: 21-32) Somehow, when the Ministerial Association welcomed me into the fold and asked me to preach this week as the “New Kid on the Block,” the end of Lent seemed decades away. As a time of attempted self-denial, Lent usually seems to drag, but not this year. It is hard to believe that we are already halfway through Holy Week. How did six weeks pass so quickly? (Of course, time is a funny thing. I expect it does seem like 22 years since Hazard has been in the Sweet 16, but our middle son turned 22 this week and that seems like a blur.) In real time, a...

One of the churches I serve is in Beattyville, where the Kentucky River is formed. I had a lovely meander today on the 3/4 mile pathway that overlooks that. I needed a nice pre-Holy Week mini-Sabbath. Yes, those are cows!

Rats. Ever since I left Seabury I have planned to be at the Commencement this year. Today I discovered that it is the exact same day as the LTS Graduation. I am already having a great deal of difficulty in knowing where my physical self is supposed to be at any given time. I double booked for lunch Friday. I scheduled a meeting that moves around the Diocese to be here in Berea the day we are driving back (and returning at least 8 hours after the meeting ends,) from vacation. And now this. We need a "Sven" around here- you know, like in that amusing AT&T commercial that shows a house hold "Sven"- a Swedish organizing guru who wakes up the household, reminds them of their stocks, e-mails and appointments, and provides suitable clothing to meet the weather forecast. The end of the ad advises you to get one of the AT&T smart phones if you can't get your own Sven. I was never terribly good at this domestic aspect, (and would be terrible with a smart phone- I ...

Of course! But at the moment, after lovely 60 degree days last week, we are plunged back into winter. One of the drawbacks to driving two hours to get to church is that such weather suspends services. Better for me and for the folks there not to traverse the hills but I miss being with them. Happening was rescheduled as well--or hopes to be. There is no set date yet. That was especially disappointing because the bread for Eucharist turned out well, all of the youth had their talks done, and the Cathedral Domain was decorated joyously. It was going to be the best ever!! It still will be. We hope to do it after Easter. I cannot even show you what it looks like here though, because for some reason, my photograph loading gets a server error message every time. Besides, my Midwestern friends would just roll their eyes anyway, even though it is big doin's for us!!

I will get back to posting with photographs as I know that is much more interesting. Perhaps tomorrow I will get a picture of the tether ball Graff and I installed today. We had to take out an apple tree that had died so the hole was just there. . .the poor child got the tether ball set LAST Christmas and it is only now in the ground. But it was such fun working together, and it will be great to come home and PLAY! I had a wonderful guest preacher today who very kindly thanked me for the service and said that I was very elegant as a worship leader. Have I finally achieved the graceful presence I always hoped would come in my 40's? Whew- barely made it if so! ;-)) But it is likely an aberration, and just a kind remark to savor on days when I am much more like the 5 year old Janey who was expelled from ballet.

Today was one of those ministry days where I was starry eyed and joyful to be doing what I am doing. It was nothing particularly amazing, but somehow a really blessed day with lots of little things that went right. Just maybe , I am getting the hang of some of this!!

Mittens the cat has complained that the blog is all dogs all the time. "What about meow?" she whined pitifully. To correct that omission, Here is Mittens at her best, keeping Graff warm as he engineers the Bears to yet another X-Box win. You might notice that at first she is not watching the game and then she is. Just like a cat.

But for here it is a pretty wintry landscape. The ice beads on the cherry trees were particularly exquisite- a diadem of sorts. No travel to Eastern Kentucky today but lots of tedious financial stuff and feeding the 'Tween every twenty minutes! (Well, he did go sledding!)

For those of you keeping up with General / Roger/ Dodger/ Hampton, his new and final name, selected by his parents as soon as they are able, is RALEIGH. He answered to it immediately and got along with them famously. They met over pizza Tuesday night and he bonded immediately. So Seabury and Raleigh get play time until sometime this summer when Mom and Dad get married and new houseing is arranged. In the meantime, we get lots of respite care as he goes off hiking and for play dates. A happy ending to a pretty scary story for the young fellow!