The scripture readings and Susan Beebe's sermon focused on the parable of the bad manager from the gospel of Luke - the punch line of which is, "you cannot serve two masters, you cannot serve both God and money". Suffice it to say, I have a very neurotic relationship with money, so the sermon hit home. "If you want to know where someone's priorities lie... look at their checkbook". Also, if Jeff Beebe is who I think he is, I think I prefer Susan's sermonizing. It's not personal, just a matter of politics.
Services always conclude with a hymn followed by an organ postlude. Most of the congregation starts making their way to the doors after the hymn, but I like to sit and listen to the organist. Where and when else do I have the opportunity to listen to such a perfomance, live and free? Then I nipped a coffee from fellowship-hour and made my way to newcomer class #3.
I was the first arrival, which was nice for a little quiet/people-free-time to collect my thoughts. We picked up with where we'd left off last week in the middle of the baptismal credo, after what we renounce, and half of what we believe: "we believe in God" and "we believe in Jesus". That brings us to the Holy Spirit, and a raft of secondary dogma: communion of saints, one catholic (not RC; little-C catholic as in "universal") and apostolic Church, etc.
The Nicene Creed says of the Holy Spirit - "with the Father and Son he is worshipped and glorified". I'm not comfortable with this personification of the spirit of holiness; I generally say I'm a unitarian-but-not-universalist, not a trinitarian. But we did dig a little into what is meant by "the Holy Spirit" and I think I can find common ground with trinitarians in saying that it (but not "he") is the guiding power of God within the believer. One of my classmates posited it as "God within us" and Fr. Andrew seemed to assent that that's a valid way of defining it. He also gave us a parable of Mt. Lafayette in New Hampshire's White Mountains - seen from afar, comparable to God-the-Father; as you're climbing it, being connected with its terrain and vegetation and wildlife, comparable to God-the-Son; and standing on its peak, one-with-the-mountain, the mountain-in-me-and-me-in-the-mountain, comparable to the Holy Spirit. So suffice it to say I have great respect for the spirit of holiness but I stop short at calling it a person or saying it's worshipped along with Total-God-the-Father. Even Jesus said, in essence, "don't worship me, worship the Father only".
Fr. Andrew mentioned he's training for a marathon, and that part of his daily running is prayer. I'll have to ask him, how exactly does one run and pray at the same time.
Somehow the baptismal credo segued to a loose gloss over of some of the 80+ ministries at St. Gregory's - lots of homeless outreach and counseling, and feeding the food-insecure, alone and in partnership with other organizations. Seemed like half or more of the class (9 plus JoAnne and Father Andrew) was interested or already involved with those ministries.
After class I walked and chatted briefly with Ann, who is active with an outreach organization near the laundromat at Dixie and Palmetto. I made it my mission to remember everyone's names - Ayana, Zim, Andy, Chuck, Cindy, Ann, Mike, Mary. There were a few more present last week who weren't there today - Pastor Elizabeth and her husband Chris, which was easy for me to remember, and their kids, who I admit I don't remember their names, and another fellow, Dirk. In fact... the only names I remembered from last week were Andy, Zim and ironically the people who didn't make it this week. But I think all the face-name associations really gelled for me this week.
I wasn't sure about the gym, having skipped breakfast, but second coffee primed me. First half-mile at 7.0mph (very hard! but done!) and the rest of 3.3mi at 5.7-6.7mph between cooldowns, to finish in 41:45. The trainers' office was open so I availed myself of a weigh-in of 179# (fudged) or 182# (raw scale reading).
A Total Wine pattern developed when I joined YouFit, because it's real easy to take the turn north at .Mil Trail and Palmetto instead of continuing straight to 441. And when I'm shopping my brain is all "Well we need wine for cooking! It makes good things totally freakin' delicious". But as dusk falls, "cooking" turns to "sipping" and next weekend, somehow a magnum or even 3L of wine has magically disappeared. So this week I'm trying something a little different - a bottle of St. Regis "alcohol removed" cab'sauv. First I will try it as-is, drizzled over pierogis like I normally do with merlots. Then I will branch out into experimenting with different proportions of balsamic vinegar mixed with the near-wine. If that's pleasing, I'll experiment with additions of herbs and spices.
I did allow myself ONE bottle of La Fin as well. Moderation is the watchword here.
White laundry, laundered.