EPWORTH UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
1953 HOPKINS STREET • BERKELEY CA 94707 • 510. 524. 2921
WORSHIP 10:00 AM • SUNDAY SCHOOL 10:15 AM • SENIOR HIGH 11:20 AM
NURSERY 9:45 AM - 12:20 PM • ADULT EDUCATION 11:30
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April 20, 2008 A FUTURE WITH HOPE
April 13, 2008 PRAYING THE NEWS There is a scene I love at the beginning of an old Steve Martin film called “Roxanne.” Martin is whistling and walking down the street. He stops at a newspaper kiosk, reaches in his pocket for a coin, places it in the machine, opens the door, takes a newspaper, opens it, begins to read, screams, refolds the paper, gets another coin from his pocket, puts it into the machine, opens the door, and places the newspaper back inside ... That done, he once again whistles and walks down the street. A friend of mine says that he has placed himself on a permanent news diet. He believes that no news is the only good news.>>READ MORE April 6, 2008 BREAKING BREAD It was only days after Easter. Cleopas and another disciple were making their way from the city of Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus.
March 23, 2008 I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY This week, Dave Ross began his CBS radio broadcast with these words: „Beware Easter! He was troubled by the controversy about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the claim by some that if Senator Barack Obama did not get up and walk out of church, that meant he agreed with everything his pastor said from the pulpit..... So Ross (and I) began to worry. He warned Christians of the danger of staying in church on Easter when you just might hear some pretty outrageous things... things like Jesus rose from the dead and you can, too...
March 20, 2008 DURING SUPPER ... A lot can happen “During supper...” March 16, 2008 COME, SEE, TASTE Ched Myers calls the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem “Political street theater.” Palm Sunday is the most dramatic threshold in the Christian Calendar. Laurel Dykstra describes it this way: “At Passover, the liberation of slaves is celebrated with a pilgrimage festival to an occupied Jerusalem. Security is high and the situation volatile. In this fraught atmosphere the kingdom movement stages a performance that lampoons the Roman imperial procession. The “king of peace” is not a warrior but a peasant healer who comes riding not a war chariot but a donkey, and crowds fill the streets celebrating an alternative vision. Exciting, dangerous, transformative, participatory, nonviolent – this is street theater at its best. Hosanna!”>>READ MORE
March 2, 2008 A TABLE IN THE PRESENCE OF ENEMIES Yesterday, 400 people gathered in this sanctuary to celebrate the life of Tim Davis, a beloved member of this community. In 2005, Tim was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease an illness that is always fatal, and that not so gradually and inevitably destroys the body while leaving the mind totally clear ... February 24, 2008 IN DEFENSE OF FOOD In his book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollen challenges our fast food culture values: “that food is a product of industry, not nature; that food is fuel, and not a form of communion...”
February 10, 2008 Holy Eating: Not By Bread Alone Matthew 4:1-11 The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Today we begin our Lenten theme, "Holy Eating," with the story of a famished Jesus who fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness and then resisted ego and evil with tis truth: human beings do not live by bread alone ... We are at risk of death by bread alone. There is a growing phenomenon in the U.S. of people who are obese and malnourshed. Holy Eating sees the connections between death-dealing poverty, empty calories, and deadened souls.>>READ MORE January 20, 2008 Covenant In Action John baptized Jesus. Then John testified to what he saw, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him...The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he shouted, “Look! Here is the Lamb of God!” John’s disciples heard John ... and they followed Jesus. Our text continues, “When Jesus turned, and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’” I love that the first words that Jesus utters in John’s Gospel pose a question, and the question is this: “What are you looking for?” Not “What are you looking for in a church home?” or “What are you looking for in a job, in a school, in a presidential candidate?” But, -- What are you looking for?>>READ MORE
January 6, 2008 EPIPHANY The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart “Epiphany” means, literally, appearance, manifestation, showing forth of the light to the world. During the season of Epiphany we remember the story of the Magi, wise ones from the East, who followed the rising of a star to Jerusalem on their journey to find the newborn King of the Jews. These scholars and practitioners, from other lands and religion, traveled far, from Persia, Babylonia, to pay homage and to bring gifts to the infant Jesus, Immanuel, God-with-us.>>READ MORE
December 24, 2007 O Holy Light The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart We know the power of light--
December 23, 2007 Sense of Hope and Fear
December 16, 2007 Sensing Joy There is a big difference between singing “Merry Christmas” and singing Mary’s song. Merry Christmas is great. It sounds like “Jingle Bells.” It smells like hot spiced cider and hot cocoa. It tastes like figgy pudding, or chestnuts roasted on an open fire, if we know what those taste like. Merry Christmas looks like parties and twinkling lights. Mary’s song is not merry. It is a song of joy. Revolutionary joy. >>READ MORE
December 9, 2007 Common Sense Isaiah 11:1-10 Matthew 3:1-12 The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Novelist George Eliot wrote, “If we could heed vision and feeling for all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of the roar which lies on the other side of silence.” In this age of information technology, overload and crashing systems, we don’t need new information nearly as much as we need wisdom.
December 2, 2007 Sense of Direction The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
November 25, 2007 Book of Longing
November 4, 2007 Plenty and Then Some! There is a Hebrew song over 1000 years old. It is a Passover song, Dayenu, which means, “It would have been enough.” Like Psalm 65, like many of the psalms, the fifteen verses of this song remember the many times that God saved the people, the many gifts God gives the people. After each verse, each remembered gift from God, the chorus resounds, “It would have been enough...!” The chorus is one word... “Dayenu” ... “It would have been enough.” The first five verses of this song remember how God delivers from slavery, beginning: “It would have been enough... if God had brought us out of Egypt!” >>READ MORE
October 28, 2007 Worth Less Psalm 51: 10-17 Luke 18: 9-14 The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart I have a fill-in-the-blank prayer for you this morning. How would you complete this prayer... “God, I thank you that I am not like those other people. I may not be perfect, but at least I’m not like others I could mention – others like ...” Who might you name,... in your family? at work? At school? in this church? (Now, I’m not asking you to say these out loud. But fill in the blank..in your heart in this prayer... “Thank you, God, that I’m not like .... _____). >>READ MORE
October 21, 2007 Water Play LAITY SUNDAY MEDITATION Isaiah 42 Revelation 21: The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart with Mr. Don Arreola-Burl and Ms. Sara billing
October 7, 2007 Three Chairs for Supper During my years of seminary and graduate study at Boston University, I took the train to Concord, Massachusetts every winter, spring, summer and fall and from there I walked the mile and a half to Walden Pond. Every season this glacial pond and the woods surrounding it would be different. In summer, there was a raucous swimming dock, in Fall an explosion of crisp colors, the gray white winters of solid ice and solitude, and in spring wildflowers and new life.
September 30, 2007
Confounded Interest The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
September 23, 2007 Wrestling Jacob
"Wrestling Jacob" is a reminder of the struggles and wounds we carry as the less than perfect people we are.
September 9, 2007 WITHIN YOU
September 2, 2007 SUSTAINING SPIRIT: RISK-TAKING ACTION My favorite restaurant on the Peninsula has a sign posted that makes me smile every time I see it. It reads, "If you have a reservation, you're in the wrong place."
August 26, 2007 SUSTAINING SPIRIT: Passionate Worship Passionate worship can be magnificently noisy with drums, guitar, violin, flute, organ, voices... with trumpet, lute and harp, tambourine and dance, --
Liberating Learning "What I Did On My Summer Vacation," by Odette Lockwood-Stewart.
August 12, 2007
RADICAL HOSPITALITY The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
July 1, 2007
FOR FREEDOM
June 10, 2007 BY FAITH SCOUT SUNDAY The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart This community is richly blessed. Each Sunday our children call us to worship. Last Sunday, Youth Sunday, we were called to do justice and charity, and to know the difference between the two. Today, on Scout Sunday, ... I want to talk with you about being called... about vocation. JUST FOR TODAY, I don't want to know.... What you have done...What you are going to do ... (today, tomorrow, next year, after graduation, when you grow up...no matter how old you are!)
January 28, 2007
TRUE LOVE I Corinthians 13: 1-13 Luke 4: 21-30 The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
Bernice Powell Jackson served as the President of the World Council of Churches for North America. She directed Bishop Desmond Tutu’s Scholarship Fund. She is currently working with a New Orleans congregation in a poor parish hardest hit by the floods from broken levees. She spoke Wednesday at the Earl Lectures of the Pacific School of Religion here in Berkeley. She told stories of exciting interfaith global community emerging out of risk-taking hospitality in war torn and devastated lands. In the question and answer period someone asked her how it is possible to overcome all the obstacles to interfaith relations, how to overcome acts of war and fear and hatred done in the name of religion. She answered: “Love.”>>READ MORE
October 15, 2006 SIBLINGS BY CHOICE September 4, 2006 THE WAY TO FREEDOM: PARABLES OF JESUS PARABLE OF WORKING In the midst of worship on this date I discerned NOT to preach it, instead calling us to prayer and communion. I believe the Holy Spirit moved powerfully through John Schweizer’s testimony for Labor in the Pulpit Sunday. We had Church. Odette On Sunday, August 13th, I traveled to Chicago for the international meeting of United Methodist Clergywomen. My friend, Lynn, and I took a 6:30 a.m. flight from Oakland to Chicago on Southwest Airlines. At 6:30 a.m. the day before our trip Lynn had gone online so we would get Seating Group A boarding passes. Those of you who have flown Southwest before and have any seating preference whatsoever know the importance of securing a Group A boarding pass. >> READ MORE May 7, 2006 “We Are All Immigrants” Psalm 8 Luke 24: 36b-43 A Communion Meditation by The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist Church Salvador Garcia, was 24 years old at the time, a shy young man, on his way home from a night class at a technical school in a California city not far from here. He had a perfect attendance record. Salvador is an immigrant, a permanent resident of the U.S. with a green card. He is from Mexico. That night the police stopped him … and arrested him, accusing him of being a fugitive from Alabama. The man they were seeking had a different first name … but the same last name … Garcia. They said he “fit the description.” Salvador knew he was innocent. READ MOREApril 30, 2006 Can you Hear Me Now? Psalm 4 Luke 11: 1-4 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist Church This morning I want to talk with you about distracted drivers; about successful exercise programs; and about prayer. First, distracted drivers. Every year some 284,000 distracted drivers are involved in serious traffic crashes. This is a reality that we are all too painfully aware of in this community. A new study by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center found that “15% of drivers … were not paying attention … distracted by something inside or outside the vehicle.” Now if I asked you to name the greatest distraction for automobile drivers today, what would you guess? Well, it may surprise you to learn that the highest number, 29.4 % were distracted by something outside the vehicle, 11.4 % by adjusting a radio or CD player, 10.9% talking with other occupants, 1.7 % eating or drinking and only 1.5 % were distracted by cell phone use. Personally, I can’t believe that this study included my neighborhood, but that is a whole other conversation. >> READ MORE
April 23, 2006 After the Quake John 20: 19-31 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist Church This month’s edition of the National Geographic is entitled “QUAKE: the Next Big One.” It includes a fold-out chart giving a global view of earthquake danger zones. Our daughter works for the Geographic. And while she was working on this story she left the following message on our telephone answering machine: “You have to move out of Berkeley. Now.” How many of you were not aware that this week was the 100th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco? It defies understatement to say that there has been a lot of ink and airtime given to the April 18th centennial of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, or as chamber of commerce leaders like to call it, “San Francisco Rising.” Earthquake prediction and preparedness has proliferated, emphasisizing preparing ourselves for the first 72 hours after the quake. 72 hours is the estimated time it would take emergency services to reach individuals. There is even a website: www.72hours.org. After Hurricane Katrina we question if and when some homes would be reached at all when disaster strikes here. We tend to view earthquakes as major events with “anniversaries” of devastation, heroism, greed and corruption, of survival and rebuilding, as we continue to live in the state of denial….I mean, the state of California .>> READ MORE April 16, 2006 Resurrection of Jesus Mark 16: 1-8 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist church So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. (v.8) The ending of Mark’s Gospel is abrupt and disturbing. Unlike Matthew, Luke and John, in Mark – the earliest gospel - there is no appearance of the risen Christ, there is no joyful sharing of the good news. If Mark’s gospel were produced by Dreamworks studio, they would demand a re-write, add some special effects, and send those three women out singing in twelve part harmony. Imagine if the great Easter Hymn (we just sang) had been written using Mark’s Gospel. “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, we’re afraid, let’s run away.” >> READ MORE April 9, 2006 Passion Play Mark 11:1-11 (Palms) Mark 15:1-30 (Passion) A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week for Christians. It was the day that Jesus came into Jerusalem on Passover, the most holy week for Jews. The Palm Sunday story is of joy and anticipation, hope and expectation. Jesus arrives to the people’s shouts of “Hosanna” -- “Save us now!” One of the worst children’s sermons I ever heard was on Palm Sunday and was told by a pastor I know in Los Angeles. The service had begun with the children taking part in a procession, waving palms, the adults in the congregation sang, and smiled, and obviously enjoyed the children’s arrival. Then, for his time with the children, this pastor had the children bring their palms, and wave them again and cheer. Then he told them that it was just like when Jesus first came into the city … how people cheered and waved palms and treated Jesus like a king. Then this pastor said, “That was on Sunday, but by Friday, the same people were mad at Jesus and shouted that he should be put to death.” There are a lot of ways to deal with the intense progression from Palm Sunday Praise to Good Friday Crucifixion … but somehow I don’t think setting up this expectation that people who cheer for you just may turn around and kill you is on the right track,… particularly when you’re dealing with children.>> READ MORE April 2, 2006 “LORD OF THE DANCE” John 12:20-33 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist Church It feels like I chose the title and text for this sermon a few lifetimes ago. Our Gospel story takes place at a time when opposition had been growing against Jesus, and yet a time when crowds of followers had been growing as well. People outside the community of Israel had begun to come asking to see Jesus. And when some of these Greek “seekers” get to Jesus … Jesus talks to them about … his own death. Hardly the beginning a community organizer or church growth strategist would suggest. Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He goes on, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” He’s telling them about his own living and dying … about passion, and promise, and paradox of life and death. When I chose this text I had no idea how much life and death would be on my mind and in my heart. As many of you know, this week Epworth lost a magnificent and beloved sister, prophet, artist, extraordinary life force, member and presence among us with the death on Monday of Mary Gaddis. >> READ MORE March 26, 2006 March 19, 2006 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart I once went on a two-and-a-half-week backpacking trip on wilderness trails into the Grand Canyon. Guided by Colin Fletcher’s wonderful little book, The Man Who Walked Through Time, the mystery of walking through history at a backpacker’s pace enlarged my sense of God. At the end of the trip, back at the canyon’s rim, sweating hard while savoring the adventure, I witnessed something I will never forget. A man, woman and crying child got out of a car –walked closer to the rim, then turned and hurried back to their car. As they got in, I heard the man shouting, “OK, we’re going! I’m sorry! – I just thought there would be more to see.” >> READ MORE
March 12, 2006 "Radical Honesty" Psalm 22:23-31, Mark 8:31-38 Anna Blaedel, Pastoral Intern Epworth United Methodist Church Two Sundays ago I was in New York, at the United Nations for the Commission on the Status of Women. I met women from around the world, Zimbabwe and Australia, Lebanon and the Philippines, the Sudan and Sweden, Pakistan and Venezuela, gathered to participate in truth telling about daily realities of violence and domination, sharing glimpses of hope and healing. Women, carrying crosses, bearing burdens. Revealing reality and unmasking mystery, speaking truth to each other and to systems and structures of power. Sharing suffering in community. With this radical honesty, I watched as pain became prophetic, and crosses became transformative. >> READ MORE
March 5, 2006 "Masquerades in Search of Grace" We wear masks … to hide feelings …or express them, … to protect identity… or assume a new one, to play a role… or just to play. Sometimes masks can be bridges, sometimes barriers, sometimes just plain confusing. In Paris this week, the startling trend in the fashion shows of several top designers was that the faces of the models were completely obscured by masks. Opinion on the phenomenon ranged from: “misogyny of the industry;” “it was social commentary;” to….”who knows what it means?” Masks can be bridges, sometimes barriers, sometimes just plain confusing. >> READ MORE
February 26, 2006 "Listen to the Beloved" The story of “the Transfiguration” of Jesus is read each year on the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent. Biblical scholar Ched Myers describes it as “a kind of salvation history summit conference.”
February 19, 2006 “CARRY ON” 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 Mark 2:1-12 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist Church of Berkeley This morning’s reading from the Gospel of Mark tells of Jesus’ healing of a paralyzed man. It’s a story most easily remembered as the time when four of the man’s friends cut a hole in the roof to lower the man down to get to Jesus. The image does kind of stick in your mind. But this morning I want to talk about one tiny but important detail in our gospel story that goes by so quickly it’s easy to miss its importance. It is the meaning contained in the phrase, “when Jesus saw their faith …” They carried their friend to the roof, cut the hole in the roof … they’ve lowered their friend down into the presence of Jesus. And that’s where the phrase appears. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’… ”When he saw their faith” … Whose faith? … It says “their faith”, not “his faith”, so he can’t have been speaking of the paralyzed man alone. It says “their faith,” the faith Jesus saw was the faith of the friends and the paralyzed man they carried to him … the friends who, when the crowd was so dense they could not get through, made an opening in the roof to bring their friend to Jesus so that he might be healed. “When Jesus saw their faith he said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” >> READ MORE
February 12, 2006 "A Different Road Map" February 5, 2006 "Compassionate Design"
January 29, 2006 "Fierce Conversations" Mark 1: 21-28 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist Church In Mark’s gospel Jesus begins his ministry on the Sabbath. He walks right into the synagogue in Capernaum where people gather to pray and to study and Jesus begins to teach. The people were astounded by his teaching. Jesus uses no references, no commentaries, no secondary sources, footnotes or quotations, no power point! He makes no appeal to authority. He teaches, in word and action, with authority. Any college student can tell you that it’s not the course description in the catalogue it’s the teacher that makes the difference. Well, Jesus brought it to a whole new level and scripture tells us that people were astounded. Any elementary student can sense the difference between authority and authoritarian. Jesus confounds expectations with the liberating power of his teaching. >>
January 22, 2006 “FISHING FOR LIFE” Mark 1: 16-20 Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist Church There’s a billboard on Highway 80 heading east towards Sacramento just before Dixon. It reads, “Where are you going that’s more important than spaghetti?” Now that’s a question that makes you think: Where am I going? Is it more important than spaghetti? If not … Now it may have had something to do with the fact that I had not eaten, or my general state of carb deprivation, but even a pizza shack can raise the question, “Just how important is where I am going?” Sometimes a crisis, an epiphany, a conversation, a memory, a news article, a sustained sense of dis-ease, a vision, a time of transition, a challenge, sometimes just a question…from a friend, a child, a stranger, even from a billboard … calls us to examine where we are heading. >> READ MORE
“Unknown and Unknowable” Matthew 2:1-12 Anna Blaedel Epworth United Methodist Church When five year old Lucy, daughter of two pastor parents, was asked about the meaning of Epiphany, she could hardly contain her excitement. She bounced up and down, clapped her little hands, and exclaimed, “Epiphany is like my birthday and Christmas and Halloween and Easter!” Asked when Epiphany is celebrated, Lucy’s enthusiasm turned to confusion. “Epiphany is all the time!” she said. Though I am still not quite certain how to connect Halloween and Epiphany, I think Lucy is on to something. I think she is doing theology, and has discovered an important bit of wisdom. Epiphany, rooted in Greek, meaning “to show, or reveal, or make manifest” often seems tacked on at the end of a full to overflowing holiday season. Advent is about expectation and anticipation. Christmas is described as a time of joyful giving and exuberant receiving. Another year begins, offering new opportunity. And Epiphany is often lost in the let down of a consumer-focused, profit-driven culture. But Epiphany is central to the Christmas message. Birthday and Christmas and Easter and maybe even Halloween all rolled into one. This celebration of the magi’s journey, their willingness to wander and wonder, guided by a star, a traveling light, is less an end to the Christmas story, and more a beginning of the Christian story. Less of a conclusion to the past, and more of an invitation into the future. >>
Please visit the podcast archives for audio prior to 2006. December 25, 2005 "Arise and Shine" Christmas Day Meditation John 1: 1-5, 14 A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart Epworth United Methodist Church Ella, our eldest grandchild, is 7 years old. Last Monday, Ella was so excited about Christmas she was having a hard time sleeping. (I don't know how she slept last night.) It took me back to when our son Andrew was little… we had to make a rule in our house that we clarified every Christmas. Andrew was not allowed to come into our bedroom to wake us up on Christmas morning until … it was morning, until he could see some light outside. One year, I got up in the night and went to get a drink of water. I peeked into Andrew's room, I saw our son sitting at his window, perfectly still, staring hard into the dark night sky. Waiting for the light. Nobody has to shout "rise and shine" on Christmas morning. >> READ MORE
December 18, 2005 December 11, 2005 December 4, 2005 "Traveling Light: Beef Jerky and Malt Tablets" Mark 1:1-8, Isaiah 40:1-11 Judy Cayot, Youth Director Epworth United Methodist Church The summer before I entered high school, my sister Carole and I signed up to attend a Methodist Pioneer Camp – it was to be our first backpacking experience. As part of our preparation, we were instructed to read a little book entitled, Going Light With Backpack or Burro. The name struck a funny note and we joked about it. It had corny illustrations and seemed old-fashioned to my “worldly” 14 year old self. Yet something about it captured my attention and stayed with me. November 27, 2005 November 20, 2005
November 13, 2005 “Risky Business” Matthew 25:14-30 Anna Blaedel, Pastoral Intern Epworth United Methodist Church These last weeks and months have been marked by a felt intensity within this community and the world. Over and over, on personal, communal, national and global levels serious illness, pervasive violence, institutional injustice, natural devastation, broken relationships, even new births and renewed relationships, healing bodies and outpourings of compassionate connection— we are immersed in depth experience, in the weaving together of pain and fear with beauty and hope, immersed in the constant reminder of our own vulnerability. In the midst of this intensity, I find myself craving comfort and protection. Safety. Stability. Security. >> READ MORE
November 6, 2005 October 30, 2005 October 23, 2005
October 16, 2005 For years Jonathan Kozol has written about the "ordinary resurrections" found in the daily lives of the poorest children of this nation. The walls of his home are covered with art work -- the writings and pictures given to him by children, children who see death, who know suffering, yet who survive to create images of hope. >> READ MORE
October 9, 2005 While Francis was staying in the town of Gubbio, there appeared a huge wolf. It was so ferocious and terrible that it devoured animals and people. The people of the town were so terrorized that they would not step outside their front doors unless they were fully armed as if for battle. Eventually, because of their fear, they stopped going outside all together. They feared all animals. They feared one another. Francis felt sorry for the people of Gubbio, and so he made up his mind to go and find the wolf, even though everyone told him not to. Francis was not afraid. He put his trust in God. Francis did find the world. He talked to the wolf, and said in the name of Jesus: "Brother Wolf, You have done much damage in these parts and the people hate you and fear you. But I want to make peace between you and these people. I understand you did these bad things out of hunger, need and nature. If the people see that you are fed every day, you must promise me to stop scaring and harming them. Do you promise this? The wolf did. They lived in peace. I visited the hillside town of Gubbio, Italy. I saw, in the center of the town, a big and beautiful statue of. the wolf!
If we face the terror, if we ask why, if we care for hungers, address needs, understand nature, what would be the risk? The gain? October 2, 2005 My dad was a milkman. Remember milkmen? When the dairy he worked for for over twenty years saw the minimart stripmall writing on the wall that said milk home delivery would soon not be profitable, they came up with a clever if somewhat cruel plan. September 25, 2005 September 18, 2005 The most expensive telephone call I ever received was a collect call from Zimbabwe, Africa. Some of you know that I was the United Methodist Campus Minister at UCLA. While I was there we organized an all African American team of 14 medical and nursing students and faculty to go to the Manicaland Province in Zimbabwe and develop a community health project. Our objective was to build local and international relationships between African American Health Science faculty, students and alumni, the Ministry of Health in Zimbabwe, and United Methodist Global Missions. >> READ MORE September 11, 2005 September 4, 2005
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