Well, actually–we received a grant that is just shy of $5000. HW applied for a Crossing Bridges grant through the Saint Paul Area Synod for a project called Humble Walk Summer Homework. And we got it!

There are plenty of small (and hefty) home maintenance projects in this neck of the woods that individual home owners are not able to do. Painting, repairing, cleaning, etc. Some of us are overemployed, some have health concerns, some are single parents. The list of factors is long and varied.

So, Humble Walk is organizing a community work weekend (June 4-6) where together we will swing hammers, wield paintbrushes, chat over coffee, wrangle kids, enlist volunteers and generally make some noise around here. We’ll need you! The $5000 will cover a very part time position (project coordinator) and buy some supplies. We are entirely grateful and honored to be recipients of this grant. It brings together our gifts of hospitality and handyman-ness.

Come and worship with us this Sunday. New Epiphany liturgy for this season of sharing light. Plus, we welcome back the ever popular Drawing on the Text.

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Love abounds.
Rev. Jodi Houge (who nearly always misspells Ephiphany. I mean Epiphany)

During the month of December (Advent Season), our household lights one candle for each night. So tonight, we were up to 21 tea lights. Tonight also happens to be the longest night of the year. I love the glow of all that candle light in the middle of the looming darkness. It just seems so punk rock. Light one candle and watch for Messiah? Hmmm…how about 21? 22? 23?

Upcoming worship at the Pilney:

Thursday, December 24
Christmas Eve worship at 4:30PM
Candles, Carols and Costumes

Sunday, December 27
Christmas Carols and Lessons at 4:30PM
Community Potluck following worship

Someone described last week at HW as:  bold, beautiful, messy, wonderful. Yes, sometimes it is all that plus a never-ending pilgrimage to the bin of cheese balls.

We are staring down the final week of Advent worship in all it’s Holden Evening goodness. Come sing and pray with us and watch/smell the incense rise. Or the prayers rise like incense. Or the incensed prayers rise. A big heartfelt thank you to Will Bill and the Vigilantes of HW for providing the beautiful music this month.

Christmas comes early this year–in the form of Hot City Pizza. Instead of a potluck, this week our meal is provided by fine folks across the street from the Pilney. (Yes, you sure can bring some cash to throw into the pizza hat).

Christmas Eve worship on Thursday, Dec. 24 at 4:30 at the Pilney. Silent Night, individuals candles, and choose-your-own-part in the Christmas story.

We are failing and we do fail. Humble Walk can just go ahead and claim it. It’s okay. Actually, it is more than okay—it’s expected. I’m not talking about failing in the sense that we are about to close the door on this thing. (Which many, many mission starts do before their first-year anniversary for a variety of reasons). I am talking about creating the perfect faith community.

 

Define the perfect church however you see it: always welcoming or hip but not trendy or intellectual or engages all ages or traditional or nontraditional or low or high. Like every other congregation, we are trying to figure out how to do church. And as earnest as we might be, we fail. Because, as it turns out, that old Sunday School standard (which my teacher played on a record that was flexible—weird, but functional) “I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together.” Insert eye roll, but it’s true. And when the thing you are doing or creating depends upon a group of humans interacting—oh, baby…it’s just a matter of time ’til the thing scores a big fat F on it’s report card.

 

This is where many of us get stuck. We come up with our reasons that the whole endeavor of church doesn’t meet our expectations so either we give up or we keep searching and therefore never engage. What a shame. Because if we went the other direction—and said we’d give this thing a go even if it isn’t perfect—we’d not only meet a bunch of other failing people (failures!), but we’d hear words that matter. Words like, “You are forgiven.” “Those old tapes playing in your head that tell you are not good enough do not define you.” “You are loved and known by the God of the universe.”

 

This Sunday, Pastor Paul Erickson (my boss, people!) will bring us the Good News. Sure, this Good News involves calling us a brood of vipers—but hang in there, my beloved brood. Christmas is coming.

 

Come and celebrate Christmas at the Pilney with us. Silent Night worship where you can choose your own part in the Christmas story. Costumes, candles and carols provided. 4:30PM Christmas Eve.

 

(Please read this part with Miss Piggy’s voice in your mind.)
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.
Put another penny in the old man’s hat.

There, I got that out of my system. That fancy introduction is to let you know that we are gathering for Christmas Eve worship at the Pilney. December 24 at 4:30PM. You will hear the story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Luke–you can take part in the story (optional) (costumes provided)–we’ll light candles and sing Silent Night. Tell your people.

This Sunday!! Oh, the beauty of singing Holden Evening as the world around us grows dark. Led by Bill and the Vigilantes of HW. Come and see what all this Advent fuss is about.

Looking ahead…we have had an incredible/varied run of liturgies the last few months. (Oh the gifts!) Epiphany begins January 10 and takes us to Ash Wednesday. The Wise Men or Magi who brought gifts to the child Jesus were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as “King” and so were the first to “show” or “reveal” Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. In Epiphany, we focus on Light…and that Light came for all people, all nations. Any of this spark an idea…an interest? We are looking for an Epiphany someone…something…doesn’t have to sound or look like what we have done. Are you part of HW’s Epiphany leadership? Hmmmm. Let me buy you coffee and we can talk about it.

Theology on Tap this Monday! Holy Communion and ritual and Professor Christian Scharen.

Man, I am just so grateful for our Humble Walk community. Grateful for the whole sha-bang. The whole, wild kit and kaboodle.
-For those who find their way to worship.
-For those who pray from the outer edges.
-For those who we get to hang around in the West End.
-For those who believe in what we are doing.
-For those who get excited about large bins of cheese balls at worship.
-For those who send quilts! Bags and bags of quilts!
-For those who knit and sew hats.
-For those who feed us each week (literally).
-For those willing to lead.
-For those willing to follow.
-For those under eighteen who keep us all on edge and honest.

Advent Kickoff (Tip off?) Party at the Houge household on Saturday. 3-5PM. Of course you are invited. Of course you can bring friends and enemies. Just let Jodi know by Friday.

Our own Matt Holm has created a piece of Advent art for us. Find your way over on Sunday and look for it in the Pilney window.

Advent worship (luminaries, advent wreath, Holden Evening Prayer service) begins this Sunday at 4:30PM. Follow the trail of lights to the Pilney.

In Christ,
Rev. Jodi Houge (who thanks God for you)

A couple weeks ago, I had coffee with an old friend. We were friends back in my early twenties—back when I had plans to be in business, or marketing, or creative something something. (I actually had no idea what you could do with an organizational communications degree. Come to think of it, that has not really changed). Fast forward 15 years and my friend is now having lunch with Reverend Houge. A little weird for him—what with me making him bow and call me Righteous Reverend, but a great catchup just the same.

He asked what I do with my time. “I mean, besides that hour of worship on Sunday.” Then the conversation shifted and I never got around to answering. He isn’t the first person to ask this question. Last week, I kept a log of my work hours and what I did during them. My position is part time, which means 20 hours a week. Most weeks, I try hard to stay close to 20 to be fair to everyone (me, those folks I live with, the community).

Monday  6:30-10PM Theology on Tap at Skinner’s Pub
Tuesday  1-2:30PM Conversation with a neighborhood about her life
Wednesday  8:30-10:30AM Text study with other pastors at Gingko Coffee House
 10:30-11:30AM Returned phone calls (in my car)
 Noon-1 Lunch with a HW-er at Mai Village
 1-2:30PM Met with my director at the synod office
Thursday 9-11AM blog, web update, returned emails at home
 Noon-4PM grant writing, sermon prep at Fresh Grounds
Sunday 7-9:30AM sermon writing at Caribou
 2:30-7PM worship (set up and clean up included) at the Pilney
All said, l think it was 27 hours last week. More than I planned, but some weeks are like that. My office hours are different than most pastors since we do not have a building or an office space. Lucky me—I know most of my baristas by name.

There. Mystery revealed.

Join us this Sunday for our final week of All Saints Liturgy (where more mysteries will be revealed).

On Reformation Sunday, I busted out my clerical collar. All gussied up in a black short-sleeved clerical shirt from Almy. As it turns out, it’s still not all that comfortable.

So, why? Sometime after the first week of our summer program (Wild Wednesdays),  it occured to me how many roles I play. And how confusing it is for my own kids when I make the shift from mom to pastor presiding at worship. So it has to be confusing for kids when I shift from neighbor to preacher.  A uniform helps.

One general guideline for pastors is that your congregation is your congregation—not a place to look for friends. There are boundaries in place so that it doesn’t get confusing for either side. I get it and believe there is wisdom in this practice. However, when you start a church with your neighbors/friends in mind–it gets fuzzy very quickly. Quite honestly, I think we are all trying to figure this out. The collar helps all of us remember that the role that I am playing on Sunday evening  is pastor.

That collar will never be as comfortable as the worn out Goodwill t-shirt uniforms that I wear the other six days. But it helps me remember that we aren’t just hanging out. We are gathered around Good News, water, wine and bread. We are pausing–setting apart this time at the Pilney for something odd and holy.

(Although, please let me know if you have any leads on a t shirt clerical)

Last summer, we invited all the kids/parents in the immediate area to gather every Wednesday. We called it Wild Wednesdays with Humble Walk. And boy, was it Wild. We will do it again, in some form, next summer. What if we moved it from Wednesday mornings to Wednesday late afternoon/evenings and included a homegrown community meal?

A friend (thank you Karis Thompson) just posted this on her wall. Let this help paint the vision of what could be. 

http://northern.lights.mn/2009/11/thursday-nights-out-in-north-minneapolis/

We have arrived. The tip-off of the looooong season called The Holidays. Though we are still ruffling through the stockpile of Halloween candy, turkeys are on sale at Cub. The Christmas decoration industry is in full-steam-ahead mode. Depending upon your place in life, this might be quite exciting.

However, for many of us, it’s a time of mixed emotions. A number of things play into our melancholy. There is nothing like a holiday scene to bring grief to the surface. For one thing, those beautiful tables and gatherings set with family and friends remind us of those who is missing. But really, the sources of grief are varied:  loved ones who have died, of the life you thought you would be leading, of a hoped for relationship, of job loss, of living with poor decisions made in the past, of the world being not quite right.

It’s all there, just under the surface. And at times it can make you feel a tiny bit crazy because you look around and everyone else seems to have it together. Or your friend’s family looks so much better than your own.  

Recognizing this, there may be a temptation try and turn up the joy factor. To gather for worship and sing some of those rousers and perhaps even (gasp) clap. 

Not us. Humble Walk may be tempted to do many things, but this one we can quickly bypass. Instead, we gather for weekly worship this month–recognizing those who mourn. As the last bit of light closes for the day, we huddle and chant Psalm 121 together. Erin, Jason, Ben and Erika are providing a musical space within the liturgy that allows us to sit with all those who live on the edge of vulnerability.  Which I’m pretty sure is all of us.

Come, sit with us.