And today...

Today is the 8th Anniversary of the flooding of New Orleans by the levee breaches post Hurricane Katrina. More than 1800 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced and lost all of their belongings. A couple hundred people went missing and some were never found. It is generally assumed they were swept out to sea.

I did a photography project that documented and recreated the flood lines left on buildings, trees, vehicles, signs, fences and more. It is called "WATERLINE: an interactive photo installation." I am working on turning it into a book, in part because so many people have said that it tells a story that needs to be told and made accessible to wider audiences.

A few days ago I launched a WATERLINE Facebook page. I invite you to stop by and "like it up," as the saying goes. (I know you don't spend much time on Facebook anymore, but some interesting things can be found there!)

And say a prayer for the victims of this great tragedy that was not entirely a "natural" disaster.

Be bold!

The collect for Dr. King is a wonderful prayer. It is in the Book of Common Prayer, but I'm posting today from a donor's chair at Lifeshare and don't have one with me! I commend it to you on this 50th Anniversary of one of the best moments in our history.

What's good about this News?

Because Canterbury will not meet this week as I seek to contact folks and determine a meeting time, here's my sermon from last Sunday. I would really LOVE to hear your response to it.


Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! (Luke 12:49, NRSV)

Whoa, Jesus! Aren’t you the great peacemaker!

And what’s all this stuff about fathers against sons and daughters against mothers? Where are your “family values,” Jesus? Shouldn’t we stick with our families, regardless?

A few years ago I attended a workshop at Columbia Theological Seminary. One of our speakers that weekend was David Barnett who has written a book about the Gospel according to Mark. The title of the book is “What’s good about this news?” His point is that Mark’s Gospel has a kind of dark foreboding about it. It often seems that Mark is writing about bad news, not good news.

In other words, “Gospel” means “good news.” And we are fond of saying, “the good news of Jesus the Christ.” But if we read carefully what Jesus said—and did—throughout his earthly ministry, and don’t leave out the uncomfortable parts, and are completely honest with ourselves… we must acknowledge that the news he taught and acted… is often not so good… at least not by normal human standards.

Here’s the punch line of this sermon: The Gospel of Jesus the Christ is not an endorsement of nice, moral, upstanding middle class, family values.

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Pancakes with Interfaith

But for you it is FREE! I have tickets for everyone.

Gotta schedule a time!!!

Canterbury@ULM folks:

Garrett and I met last week but no one else made it. I know that Rosine has a class at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays, so we would really like to pick a new afternoon to meet.

So.., I'm calling folks but I don't have every phone number. Please check in again tomorrow!

I don't want to reserve a room for the semester or run an ad in the Hawkeye until I know when we're going to meet, thus I'll be working to get this resolved ASAP.

In the meantime, don't forget the Interfaith Flapjack Fellowship Fundraiser this Saturday. Free tickets for each of you who is willing to serve for awhile! At Applebees, 8 - 10 a.m.

Thanks,
dr.k.

Back to school!!

It's that time of year again!

We'll have our first Canterbury@ULM meeting:

Tuesday, August 20

5 p.m.

Student Center 163

That's the same time and place we met last year. At this first meeting we'll talk about what we want to do this semester and plan a bigger kick off for the following week.

See you there!