It was my joy and pleasure to officiate at the memorial services this morning for two men who died of AIDS on Wednesday night, Darrell and Romero. They were simple men, construction workers, both alcoholics. At the core of these two men was a simple love for the Lord, even in the disease of alcoholism, even in a struggle with AIDS. Darrell loved the scriptures, taking joy in the words. Romero was a man who knew that God loved him. It is easy to talk about God's enduring love, but quite more difficult to speak of his great love for AIDS patients. All of us are sinners, May the Lord receive these two.

Went to go see Saved tonight. We see American Puritanical Protestantism at its best (or scariest), a group unable to evangelize, unable to love. Some may blame this movie for being inaccurate, but it was shocking how familiar the characters were to me personally. Looking back on college years, these attitudes were encountered daily. Themes such as homosexuality, teenage pregnancy, even disability - we might like to ignore these issues, vote on them, pass resolutions, send our kids to rehab or military schools to save them. It is this attitude that all at once creates a house for AIDS patients. Get them out of our Churches, turn them away, we want to create perfection, but we ought to know that only grace can make us whole. Do we dare to be the sort of Christian community in which the outcast is truly cared for, in which girls know that if they get pregnant, the Church is still their home?

We have failed to match teaching with action. The great social action and community of the early Church has not yet been duplicated, at least in America. We might say that the

Does this necessitate a theological sellout? Why should it? Have we ceased to believe that repentance is possible? We must teach and we must believe that the Holy Spirit acts in the lives of youth. He certainly did in mine, and still does. The challenge is to uncompromisingly present the gospel. This means taking the social command of Jesus seriously, just as much as the moral command. I would argue that the moral position of traditionalism in American Anglicanism lacks this essential synthesis.

Saved shows us the Church when it is an elite club for the sake of protecting its members from the world - the Church when it fails to shed the light of Christ. It is a littly quirky, and certainly extreme, but extremes call us to question our future.

Should you see Saved? Absolutely.

Some new pics were put up today. My mom has been, in laborious fashion, scanning the old family memories onto the Mac, and these were some that she sent me by e-mail. Also, there are some pics of the summer car, a 1984 300ZX which was given to me back in January. It had a blown engine, so for two January weeks, we put in a new engine and got everything back in order. These were taken after a fresh wax job and and a good thorough washing. Enjoy!

CPE has begun. I'm thinking that I'll actually begin to post a lot more here about the day-to-day events. For those of you that don't know, I will be spending my summer at the Samaritan House, which is a residential hospice for AIDS and HIV patients. I will be the staff chaplain for the summer, sponsored by the United Methodist Mission Board and the Pastoral Care Staff at Harris Methodist Hospital in downtown Fort Worth.

Things have been a little slow this week - orientation at the hospital and the Mission Board. The pace should pick up soon, but for now, I'm stuck using the wireless at Barnes and Noble, busying myself with not buying their books, mooching as much as I can.

The great hope for this summer is to simply learn - about death and dying, AIDS, pastoral work, and simply being representative of the Church in the World - major diaconal work, simply without orders.

The other occupation of the summer has been the leading of the youth bible study at St. Laurence. We're covering Galatians, all the way through, a chapter a week, plus a two-week series on the Fruits of the Spirit, which as my Roman Catholic friend pointed out are not affirmation, tolerance, diversity, comfort, wealth, etc. So far, response has been strong, this week should be light, a good lot of them are at Camp Crucis for the week.

A Little Spam Poetry

grub,
here the procurator,
gigacycle,
same cappadocians were,
kettle,
noise rose from,
cell,
they say there.

So I'm supposed to leave Milwaukee on Sunday. I was thinking this will be great - to take the train home. I'll get to meet new people, perhaps do a little evangelism. But, there's traffic on I-94, and Ela and I are late. The train had already left. So, I got to spend another 24 hours with her - much needed. She's really wonderful, and the missing her has already begun.

The train left (after I got to Chicago), at 3:30 on Monday afternoon and we started barreling through Illinois. For dinner, I splurged and had rack of lamb in the dining car. Bought a half-bottle of wine. Great conversation with a retired teacher and a long-haul driver with FedEx Custom Critical. An hour outside of St. Louis, there was a derailment ahead of us. 10 hours on the tracks waiting. We were supposed to be in Poplar Bluff, Missouri by 9:00am, but made it there at 11:00am. Really, without any delays, we were supposed to be there at 1:00am. No big deal though, this was supposed to be an adventure.

I decided to have Dad pick me up in Dallas in stead of Fort Worth. We arrived in the middle of terrible storms - actually some of the worst Arlington has ever seen. The power was out in the house and would remain so for 30 hours. So, the lack of posting is due to - a 36 hour train ride combined with a 30 hour blackout.