tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72648075749662944072024-03-07T12:07:02.354-08:00God's Sled DogA Blog about God, the Earth, Inclusivity and Getting Where You Want to Go.Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-25750504704647379242015-06-12T11:19:00.001-07:002021-08-27T05:50:21.707-07:00A Very Short Story
This white
guy. He wore a t-shirt with a daisy on the front and he came to tell us all
about recycling and washing up, as if this earth were our room and we were
children leaving clothes on the floor of our Daddy’s McMansion.
Let me set
something straight. I Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-14375960598156727542015-05-05T13:07:00.000-07:002015-05-05T13:07:38.848-07:00Now that Corporations are PeopleThere's been some interesting conversation around corporations lately. If they are, in fact, people, whom should they serve?
The answer is fiendishly simple: like any good person, a corporation exists to provide livelihood. Livelihood, for those who may have forgotten, is the means of life: food, housing, medical care, dignity, family. None of these are anywhere near enough supported by the Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-48531497910321135082013-09-15T15:54:00.000-07:002018-09-29T09:15:38.633-07:00Of Golden Calves and Lost Sheep: A Reflection Upon Priesthood
For the Rev. Coryl Lassen on the day of her Institution at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley, CA
Create in us clean hearts, O God,
And restore a right spirit within us.
Today, in honor of Corrie’s institution as the newest Rector of St. Mark's, I would like to talk with you about priesthood, about what it means to be a church, about what it means to be human, and finally, what it means to Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-39308199718902339882013-09-02T14:00:00.000-07:002013-09-02T14:00:54.420-07:00What Goes Around Comes AroundIn the natural world, all life exists to receive nourishment and to provide nourishment. It is not a food chain as much as a circle of life, endlessly recycling and spiraling. Jesus wasn't kidding when he said it was all about eating: the bread of life, the waters of life, the tree of life, the truth that gives life.
Consumerism is nothing more than a lopsided understanding of this process.
Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-12111530442202905502013-09-02T08:09:00.001-07:002013-09-02T08:11:27.807-07:00Leavers and TakersIn our myth of the Pleistocene, the disappearance of large, wild mammals was the crisis that started us down the road; the indigenous cultural forms embracing an ethic of nature preservation, the "advanced" ones embarking upon a program of nature management and control. Both responses, healing and control, were responses to trauma. Both had as their goal the survival of the human community. Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-22601908363148844552013-08-15T15:37:00.001-07:002013-08-15T15:37:51.736-07:00
As many who know me are aware, I was totally upended by a visit to the Soviet Union in 1981. I came home with these thoughts:
The Soviet Union was a “shame” society, far more focused upon external compliance than inner life;
Despite its “leftist” and “revolutionary” reputation, the Soviet state was deeply and structurally conservative, more like the reactionary Nicholas I than the reformer Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-45101624953748530192013-08-15T09:29:00.000-07:002013-08-15T15:28:31.768-07:00Social Ecology: Because We Are Nature
I'm not sure where I first heard this story. I'm sure it was in Alaska, and its beginning was told me by a Native during the course of opening to me the Native Mind. The ending of the story was added by me, also a storyteller, and I can think of no better fable to show the difference between the way I was taught to view reality and the way my Alaskan friend was taught.
The story begins Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-80271365916543634322013-06-11T14:16:00.000-07:002013-06-11T14:16:19.335-07:00Maybe Change Isn't the Problem"Spare change?" says the Berkeley panhandler, who, in various incarnations, has been sitting on Telegraph Avenue ever since I was a teenager in the 'sixties.
"There's been too much change," observes a friend at lunch, feeling slightly overwhelmed by all the transitions at work.
"People naturally dislike change," announces the latest self-help book, "but if you follow the program in this book Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-16623407841771275782013-05-09T09:33:00.001-07:002013-05-09T09:33:22.965-07:00
Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing, says Jesus. Forgive them. They do not know. Paul echoed Jesus later on when he said, we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But the crowd who had welcomed him with Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-59617354403780814552013-04-27T07:16:00.001-07:002013-04-27T07:17:44.707-07:00A Sermon for Trinity Sunday<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
X-NONE
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>
Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-56230958087055012032013-03-25T10:22:00.000-07:002013-03-25T10:22:00.172-07:00Passion Sunday
Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing, says Jesus. Forgive them. They do not know. Paul echoed Jesus later on when he said, “we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Cor. 2:7-8)
But the crowd whoCarol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-30779535309791686182013-03-11T16:50:00.002-07:002013-03-11T16:50:49.423-07:00On the Prodigal Son, Lent 4, Year C
Our works do not exist in opposition to God’s grace; God’s grace is what blesses our works.
Last Sunday, Corrie raised a question that has probably haunted everyone in this church at least once in your lives: if God is so good, then why do bad things happen?
Today’s Gospel is full of bad things: a father loses his property to a wayward son, a wayward son crashes and burns, andCarol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-64986138883737940262013-03-11T16:50:00.001-07:002013-05-09T09:31:41.450-07:00The Fire in the Barnyard: Lent 2, Year C
Some of you may remember a science project from way back in the early ‘90‘s called Biosphere 2. It was a geodesic structure, the size of two football fields, set in the desert of Arizona. Biosphere 2 was to be a perfectly closed ecosystem in miniature, a series of self sustaining biomes that could support human life, as a starship might support human life in some distant future. Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-77660405810320110402012-12-02T14:44:00.000-08:002012-12-02T14:44:06.069-08:00First Sunday of Advent: The End of the World as We Know It
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.
Thirty one years ago last summer, at exactly half the age I am now, I visited the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan had just been elected president and Biblical fundamentalism was rising as a political force. It was in such a climate of fear and loathing that I took myself to the land of the enemy.
I Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-89604579487735412162012-10-14T15:53:00.001-07:002012-10-14T16:42:05.476-07:00Sermon for Episcopal Schools SundayFree Spirits
‘Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!’
“Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.…and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.”
“Test everything.”
The readings appointed for EpiscopalCarol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-80721052765016640912012-10-06T07:46:00.003-07:002012-10-06T07:46:26.248-07:00A Holy Tragedy
Warning: God's sled dog bares her teeth in this one.
On Monday of this week, Americans will observe one of the greatest tragedies of human history, a moment of such profound misunderstanding that over 500 years later we are still reeling from its legacy of racism, slavery and the conviction that the natural world exists to be depleted by force, forced to return an escalating profit under Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-81552676314530619622012-09-23T15:00:00.002-07:002012-09-23T15:00:40.897-07:00The Spiral DanceDear Friends,
Last week I did not post, because I was away having an extraordinary experience. I have woven that experience into today's sermon, preached at Good Shepherd, Berkeley. Here it is.
Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth.
I Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-67747009412912648452012-09-09T13:38:00.001-07:002012-09-09T13:38:44.805-07:00Going to God Across a Muddy Floor, preached at Our Saviour, Mill Valley
"Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
During the years I was in seminary, we spent a lot of time sitting around tables. Sometimes the fare was food; sometimes it was ideas, but for hours, we sat, staring into one another’s faces, trying to figure out who we were, what nourished us, and what we were all doing there.
As much as I loved seminary, it Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-53849178291056013052012-09-08T09:11:00.000-07:002012-09-08T09:11:50.505-07:00Thoughts Inspired by the Epistle of James
If a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-43772637615195393232012-09-03T07:39:00.000-07:002012-09-03T07:39:17.329-07:00Mysticism and Reality: St. Paul's Oakland
Mysticism is the art of union with reality.
Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism
Before I venture into the mysteries offered us by today’s readings, I’d like to spend a moment with this little quote from Evelyn Underhill’s book Mysticism. In my view, this little sentence is one of the most important things ever written in Western literature.
Mysticism is the art of union with Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-27460775913196433972012-08-21T18:22:00.000-07:002012-08-21T18:22:31.598-07:00Living in Harmony with Each Other and the Laws of the Universe"Living in harmony with each other and the laws of the universe" is my current working definition of what spiritual practice is all about. It is like music, each one of us a single note, testing our resonances and reverberations with all that exists around us. It is like science, for science seeks to name the laws of the universe.
"Beauty," said author Barry Lopez, "is the presence of Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-12935797289791673262012-08-19T13:09:00.003-07:002012-08-19T13:09:40.850-07:00This Week's Sermon: Our Saviour, Mill Valley
Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise.
Last Sunday, we explored the twists and turns of storytelling. This Sunday, we’re going to twist and turn to a whole new level, as we boldly approach the heart of story’s magic, its ability to use conversation as a way of setting the world on edge, and confounding everything we thought we knew.
In our Gospel Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-10600836260486739152012-08-12T14:02:00.000-07:002012-08-12T14:22:22.717-07:00LOVE AND TRUTH: QuestionsA parishioner this morning asked me to say more about love and truth. When I was young, I was very struck by M. Scott Peck's statement in The Road Less Traveled: "Love is the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." In the Christian context, love is force behind all life, because God is love. In the context of the culture of the school Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-29646731240330760542012-08-12T13:33:00.003-07:002012-08-12T13:34:20.924-07:00THE GOD OF STORIES: Part II, Preached at Our Saviour, August 12
Last week, Richard talked to you about the power of stories. A story, he said, can help us to remember, to put the pieces together. We tell stories when someone is born and when someone dies. Those mysterious little story teachings that go by the name of parables tell us things about the nature of life and the universe that we might completely miss otherwise. As Richard reminded us, David wouldCarol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264807574966294407.post-69030079844875667672012-08-07T17:10:00.002-07:002012-08-07T17:10:29.292-07:00THE POWER OF STORIES: Preached at Good Shepherd, Berkeley, August 5, 2012
Last spring, at the request of a group of St. Paul’s parents, I gave a talk entitled “Spirituality, Science and Sustainability.” It was not one more harangue to reduce, reuse, recycle. We all know we should do that.
Right now, we have all the information we need to heal ourselves and the planet.
What we don’t have is the story. We have no one to show us the way.
Most of us would Carol Lutherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270480327205803763noreply@blogger.com0