Fully Alive in God

  What Kind of God Do We Want? Exodus 16, Philippians 1, Matthew 20   St Paul’s Emmanuel, Santa Paula & All Santos, Oxnard The Rev. Alene Campbell-Langdell and MCL+   A few weeks ago, about 1000 Episcopalians and Lutherans went to the Dodger game.   As you can imagine as the game stretched into the 9 th inning with the Dodgers losing 2 to 1, there were a lot of comments about needing to pray harder.   Surely God must want the Dodgers to win with all these good Christians cheering them on!   And surely no one would be praying for the Cardinals to win!   Of course I’m joking, but it points to the strangeness of what theologians call monotheism—the belief in one God rather than many.   Throughout much of the world and much of human history, belief in God meant believing in your tribal god or your family’s god.   In fact, the earliest Christians were called atheists by the Romans because they didn’t believe in a panoply of gods e...

  ¿Qué Clase de Dios Queremos? Éxodo 16, Filipenses 1, San Mateo 20   All Santos, Oxnard Las Revdas Alene & Melissa Campbell-Langdell Hace un par de semanas, alrededor de 1000 episcopales y luteranos fueron al partido de los Dodgers. Como se imaginan, mientras que el partido extendió a la novena entrada y los Dodgers estaban perdiendo 2 a uno, había varios comentarios sobre la necesidad de ora mas fuertemente. Seguramente Dios quería que ganaran los Dodgers, ¿no? ¿Con los aplausos de todos estos cristianos? ¡Nadie quería que ganaran los Cardinales, seguramente! Por supuesto que estoy bromeando, pero revela lo raro de los que los teólogos nombran las fes monoteístas, en que creemos en un Dios en vez de varios dioses. Tras la mayoría del mundo y mucha de la historia, creer en Dios significaba la fe un el dios de su tribu o de su familia. De hecho, los Romanos nombraron “ateos” a los primeros cristianos porque no creían en una panoplia de dioses, cada uno en cont...

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard Proper/Propio18A +9.6.26 ( Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 149; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20 ) The readings today ask us, what time is it? En que momento estamos? We might think about this literally. We’re in this weird time where? It is the first official sort of end of summer and the harbinger of fall on Labor Day weekend. Literalmente estamos en un tiempo de cambio entre el verano y los días largos y a veces más tranquilos y el otoño y estar regresando a reuniones, productividad y más. At the same time, we've just passed through some very hot days. And it's also pumpkin season in the in one coffee shop. Wow, hemos pasado por unos días calientes. Y a la vez es el tiempo de la calabaza en las tiendas de café. Es el empiezo de spooky season para algunos. On a more serious note, we are sobered by what we witness in the world. Things like the flooding in Nepal. We pray for continued recovery efforts and for all the helpers. Estamo...

  When Things Go Terribly Wrong Exodus 3, Psalm 26, Romans 12, Matthew 16   All Saints Oxnard The Rev. Alene Campbell-Langdell with the Rev. MCL+   What happens when things go horribly, terribly wrong?   As I mentioned last week, one of the stops on our trip was at the Cathedral of Kildare, Ireland.   This is the ancestral church of St Brigid.   She and the monks and nuns in her abbey were known as keepers of the sacred flame.   Long before St Brigid arrived that particular site was seen as holy, and in an era before matches or automatic lighters, keeping a flame alive for neighbors to bring coals to their own homes was a sacred duty.   St Brigid dedicated the flame to Christ and kept it going.   Through the centuries, despite the church itself being destroyed multiple times, the community kept the flame alive until King Henry VIII ordered it extinguished in the 16 th century.   What happens when things go horribly, terribly...

  Cuando las cosas van terriblemente mal Éxodo 3, Salmo 26, Romanos 12, Mateo 16   Todos los Santos, Oxnard Rev. Alene Campbell-Langdell con La Revda. Melissa Campbell-Langdell   ¿Qué pasa cuando las cosas van terriblemente mal? Como mencione la semana pasada, una de nuestras paradas en el viaje fue el catedral en Kildare, Irlanda. Esta es la iglesia ancestral de Santa Brígida. Ella y los monjes y monjas en su abadía fueron conocidos como los que mantenían un fuego santo. Antes de que Brígida llego a ese lugar, fue un sitio santo a los druidas, y en una época antes de nuestra facilidad en crear fuego, mantener una llama dedicada para una comunidad en un lugar a veces muy frio fue un deber sagrado. Santa Brígida dedico el fuego a Cristo y lo mantenía. Aunque la iglesia fue quemada varias veces por los Vikingos, el santo fuego continuo hasta que el Rey Enrique Octavo lo extinguió en el sigo 16 cuando estaba cerrando los monasterios. ¿Qué pasa cuando las cosas ...

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Exodus 1:8–2:10; Ps.124; Romans 12:1–8; Matthew 16:13–20)   Good morning, everyone! I am very happy to be back with you all at All Santos and I hope the time has been an interesting one as you have heard various preaching voices. I am certainly grateful for the time of rest and renewal and a bit of adventure I have had over the past two months. I was blessed to travel to Japan, including the island of Okinawa, to see one of my best friends and my goddaughter, and then I came back for a rest before heading to an eight-day Centering Prayer retreat. After the retreat and a rest, with Dave’s funeral thrown in there, Alene and I headed to my birth country of England and saw some cousins, communicated with my godmother and got to stay with another dear friend in Hull. Then we journeyed on to Wales and Dublin, Ireland. We stopped by Eugene, Oregon, connecting with Monica there, on the way home, to see some other friends. It was a won...

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Éxodo 1:8–2:10; Salmo 124; Romanos 12:1–8; San Mateo 16:13–20)   ¡Buenos días! Estoy emocionada para estar de regreso con ustedes en Todos los Santos. Espero que el tiempo de mi ausencia haya sido interesante mientras escuchen otras voces en la predicación. Estoy sumamente agradecida por este tiempo de descanso y renovación. Además, tuve un par de aventuras lo que fue muy especial. Visite a Japón, incluyendo la isla de Okinawa, donde vive mi comadre y mi ahijada. Luego, después de un descanso participe en un retiro de Oración de Centramiento por ocho días. Después del retiro y un poco de descanso para empacar, y el funeral de Dave, Alene y yo fuimos a mi país natal, Inglaterra. Vimos a unos primos en Londres y comunique con mi madrina. Luego fuimos a York y Hull donde quedamos unos días con una gran amiga desde hace anos y su familia. Finalmente fuimos a Gales y Dublín, Irlanda. Regresamos a casa, parando en Eugene, Oregón par...

We had quite the adventure in Wales and Ireland. First we took the train to Holyhead from Hull, going via Manchester. We arrived and wheeled our bags uphill half a mile (a lot harder than it sounds on narrow streets) to our BnB. Having thankfully eaten dinner already, we settled in the parlor with a free drink and chatted with guests from Northern Ireland and Germany. The next day I spotted this little one having milk near the BnB. We checked out St. Cybi's church, the site of a Roman fort that had been then taken over as a Christian church. There is a local pilgrimage between this church and another church associated with another local saint, St. Seiriol. St. Cybi would walk to meet St. Sieriol to visit, and since he walked towards the sun he would become tanned and got a nickname as such. By contrast. Sieriol was light skinned as the sun was always at his back. In Holyhead we also walked by the water and took the bus to another bustling oceanside area. I stuck my feet into the oc...

  What a lovely week so far of connecting with family and friends! We landed in London, which was hot but beautiful, and got to our hotel in the downtown area off of the Strand and close to Covent Garden, which boasts views like the above. The next day was Six! and you can see the lovely Vaudeville theatre above. It is a play that fills in more details of the lives of Henry the Eighths' six wives with a feminist spin. But beforehand, we explored some London sites and churches, including a whimsical and moving exhibit on Pall Mall (Palace Mall) by a British-Chinese artist exploring the concepts of home, a walk around St. James' Park and a visit to a couple of churches. London was colorful and grand, and we even got to visit with two of my cousins. Sadly my godmother was not up for a visit but we had a marvelous email exchange, and perhaps my visit was the catalyst for a deeper sharing with her. It was great to see cousins I had not seen in 7 and 15 years respectively! Here is my...