A View From The Earth

A couple of weeks ago my employer asked for volunteers for a winter layoff. But they did not get many people raising their hand. So in the next couple of days, we will find out who gets shown the door and who doesn't. I am a bit worried for a couple of reasons, I am low on the seniority pole and I happen to make more than others do. That combination would lead me to think that I might be one of those on the chopping block. I am probably stressing over this more than I should but it is a hell of a way to say Merry Christmas to anyone. I will continue to pray that whenever something blocks my path, God will show me a new path to follow.

Here's hoping for a good solid win against Northern Iowa. Here are my top ten after the third week of play. Iowa dropped out of the top ten because they were upset by Arizona. Oregon moves up to 9th and Wisconsin enters the picture at 10th. 1. Alabama 2. Ohio State 3. Florida 4. Texas 5. Oklahoma 6. Boise State 7. Texas Christian 8. Nebraska 9. Oregon 10. Wisconsin Iowa State plays Northern Iowa this weekend. Iowa State should handily win over the FCS school. But the Northern Iowa Panthers will definitely put up a good fight and the Cyclones can't overlook them otherwise they could lose to this very good team. And hopefully Iowa State will play better than they did in last week's loss to Kansas State. I'm predicting a 20+ point Cyclone victory. As I mentioned earlier, the Iowa Hawkeyes were upset by Arizona and thus dropped out of my top ten. But this week they play Ball State and they aren't doing all that well. With the Hawkeyes looking for redemption; t...

Pullin' tractors, I thought a fitting photo for the "Farmageddon" game between Iowa State and Kansas State Here are my top ten after the second week of play. No one dropped out of the top ten because they all won with the exception of Boise State who had a bye this week. 1. Alabama 2. Ohio State 3. Florida 4. Texas 5. Oklahoma 6. Boise State 7. Texas Christian 8. Nebraska 9. Iowa 10. Oregon As the photo says, this week is the "Farmageddon" game between Iowa State and Kansas State, both very good agricultural universities. The game is being played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and should be a pretty good game overall. My personal opinion is that if Iowa State plays like it did against Northern Illinois, then the Cyclones should win by a touchdown but if they play like they did last week against Iowa, then the tables are reversed and Kansas State wins by a touchdown. The Iowa Hawkeyes handily beat the Iowa State Cyclones last week. As unhappy as it made...

Cy-Hawk Trophy Here are my top ten after the first week of play. Virginia Tech dropped out of the top ten after their loss to Boise State. Oregon moved up into the tenth spot. 1. Alabama 2. Ohio State 3. Florida 4. Texas 5. Oklahoma 6. Boise State 7. Texas Christian 8. Nebraska 9. Iowa 10. Oregon This week is the Iowa vs Iowa State game otherwise known as the Cy-Hawk Rivalry. My favorites, the Iowa State Cyclones are way down my list at 53 after handling Northern Illinois last week and the Iowa Hawkeyes as you have already seen are at the 9 spot after beating Eastern Illinois. Even with the disparity in the rankings, I believe that the Cyclones will be way up for this game and give the Hawkeyes something to think about. But in the end the Hawkeyes will prevail. My prediction for a score is Iowa 28, Iowa State 17. And finally, the team I have on the bottom, Western Kentucky lost to Nebraska and face Kentucky this week. The Hilltoppers should do better but I believe that Kentucky ...

This is the sermon that I gave at the Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa on July 18, 2010. I want you to note right at the beginning of this sermon the context in which Luke records this incident in the home of Martha and Mary. Luke places it immediately after Jesus has taught the parable of the Good Samaritan. I think that is significant because in that parable the ‘religious people’ are condemned for not doing the practical thing of helping the man lying injured by the roadside. This incident in the home of Martha and Mary seems to teach the very opposite. The context is important because it helps us to understand the meaning and purpose of this story in the Gospel of Luke and in our lives today. Martha and Mary, along with their brother Lazarus, are close friends of Jesus. Their home at Bethany, some two miles from Jerusalem, was a familiar place for Jesus and his disciples to rest and relax. Their home would also be the scene of the miracle of the resurrect...

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a wonk when it comes to American style football especially in the Division 1 College ranks. I've went as far as ranking all 120 teams as to where I think they should be rated. So here are my top ten plus a some others that I find of interest right now. 1. Alabama 2. Ohio State 3. Florida 4. Texas 5. Virginia Tech 6. Oklahoma 7. Boise State 8. Texas Christian 9. Nebraska 10. Iowa My team, Iowa State, is down the list at 55. As the season progresses, I hope that they can climb the ladder to a higher ranking, but we shall see... Northern Illinois is the Iowa State Cyclones first opponent. I have them ranked right now at 50, which would make them better than Iowa State. Well, I still predict a win for the Cyclones because they are playing in Ames which makes a big difference. But it should be a good game and I will be there on Thursday night to watch Iowa State get a season opener win. The Iowa Hawkeyes start out play with the Eastern Illinois...

I've been neglecting the blog for the past few months so I thought I should probably post the sermons that I've done this summer at the Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa. This is the July 11, 2010 sermon. In every construction trade, in every business, there are standards of righteousness. By the term righteousness, in the context of construction, we mean being correct. Amos, one of the earliest prophets in Israel, used the plumb line as a metaphor for righteousness. Israel was more than “a bit out of plumb” in the days of Amos and Isaiah. The book of Amos records that two years after Amos received his visions, an earthquake struck the area. Josephus, the Jewish historian, believed that the earthquake happened at the same time as Uzziah’s seizure of the role of High Priest and his subsequent bout with leprosy. Amos lived at about the same time as the prophets Isaiah, Micah and Hosea. Under Jeroboam II the kingdom of Israel reached the zenith ...

Bob Martin, July 15, 1939 - May 10, 2010 Uncle Bob died yesterday, he was a great guy who loved his family and the things he valued in life, namely fishing and nearly all organized sports. The first time I met him was when I was dating my lovely wife, we were at their house and he came in from a softball game, he looked at me and said, "Who are you?" I introduced myself and he then asked me if I wanted a Pepsi. I became friends with him and over the years went to various sports events with him as well as watching auto races, football and basketball games with him on the television. After he retired (he worked for Pepsi as a vending machine repairman) he started fishing. It was great to go out with him on his boat and catch a fish or two. More importantly, Uncle Bob became like a second dad to my wife after her father died. She was able to get to the hospital just before Bob passed away. My lovely wife is mourning but does know that he is in a better place and not in pa...

How I love the rain. Especially when it means that I don't have to be working 12+ hour days, six days a week. But that is what I get for working at a farm cooperative during the spring field work season. This spring is a bit different in that I am mostly running a dry fertilizer floater. For all of you that are not familiar with midwestern US farming practices, a dry fertilizer floater is a large truck that has wide farm tractor style tires on it and a box on the back of it that looks like a dump truck box except it has a conveyor belt in the bottom which moves fertilizer out the back to a couple of spinners which throw the fertilizer in a specific pattern onto the field. It was rather unnerving to drive it at first because it is so tall. The floor of the cab is over five and a half feet off the ground and while driving down the road I can look down into the cabs of semis as I meet them. But I've become a bit more relaxed driving it in the last couple of weeks. I was hop...

My niece, Gabby did come home this week after her trip back to the hospital last Saturday. After running a bunch of tests on her, the results were still inconclusive as to what was causing her skin reaction. Thanks to all for the prayers that went out. She is doing well and felt good enough to go to her sister's concert on Thursday evening. Hopefully she will heal and there won't be anything else to report.

I asking everyone for prayers for my 14 year old niece Gabby, who is back in the hospital today. Gabby had a rash that turned into MRSA about 10 days ago. She ended up having the skin completely removed on a 10 cm x 10 cm area on her arm. After a couple of skin graft operations, she was doing really well and was sent home yesterday. However, after being home for about 6 hours her stomach and legs started to hurt. A rash very similar to her arm was showing up on her stomach and legs. So she went back to the hospital last night and is undergoing a battery of tests to figure out exactly what is going on and how to treat it. Thanks to everyone who have already added Gabby to their prayers!

I was excited the other day when a package arrived in the mail. It was in a plain brown wrapper, no it wasn't one of THOSE packages! What it did contain was my new shaving brush. Why would I be excited about something as mundane as this? The answer lies in that I have a pretty boring life and such things are about as exciting as it gets around these parts. And also that I'm somewhat a traditionalist when it comes to shaving so the soap and brush gets preference over the foam in a can. I purchased it from a place in Ohio called Lehman's, one can find most of their catalog at www.lehmans.com As I look through their wares and purchase a thing or two I will post those mundane things on my little corner of the blogosphere.

Today at the Bishop's Committee meeting at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa, we received some very good financial news. It seems that the total amount of pledges has risen by over 26% as compared to last year. I have heard from a number of other local Churches of all denominations with a common theme, congregations are putting less and less in the collection plate. So it is truly a Godsend to be part of a small but growing congregation that doesn't have to worry whether there will be enough money to keep the lights on and the toilet flushing.

This is a sermon that I gave on January 10, 2010 at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa. Don’t you hate it? You are watching a great movie on T.V. The excitement is mounting. You are getting to a really good part. You are sitting on the edge of your seat. Then right in the middle before the plot is revealed or the plot takes a new and exciting twist, a commercial comes on. For the next two to three minutes you see commercials about everything imaginable. We are told that advertisers may buy at least forty time slots on a single station, for a single day, when introducing a new product. No doubt they are on to something. Classic sayings abound. “Plop. Plop. Fizz. Fizz. Oh, what a relief it is.” “Snap, Crackle , Pop.” “Don’t Leave Home With Out It.” "Finger lickin’ good." "Have a break. Have a Kit-Kat." "Just do it." “Built Ford Tough.” The very successful media people have one question in mind: Have you heard? We have heard. We reme...

A week ago I was called into the headquarters for the farm cooperative that I work for. I was told that they were "rearranging the seats on the bus" and that my position was going to change. Well my seat went from being towards the front of the bus to being somewhere by the frame and the rear tires. I was pissed to say the least, they were transferring me to a different branch and dropping my wages. All of this was due to a restructuring of the company and a run in that I had with a salesman that is the current golden boy of the company. For a few days, I felt as if the dark specter of depression might be creeping back into my life. But I did recognize it and with the help of my lovely wife and God, I can keep that monkey off my back. And I decided that I can't let those bastards get me down. But compared to what people in Haiti are dealing with, my problems are minuscule. So please pray for all of the people that are having to suffer through the aftermath of the e...

After much prayerful thought, I've finally decided to get the ball rolling vocationally for me. I've sent a letter to my Bishop to let him know that I want to officially get going on the priesthood ordination process. This isn't something that I come by lightly or something that I decided on overnight. It is the culmination of a dozen years of discernment that started in the United Methodist Church and ended up in the Episcopal Church. Along the way I was even offered a local church pastorate but I had the feeling that God wanted me to wait for something else. That something else was the Episcopal Church and specifically the Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa. It is a place where my family and I feel like we really have found a Church home. As one of the parishioners puts it, "Church of the Saviour is the home to people that don't fit in other Churches. It like the island of misfit toys where everything seems to actually fit together." As time goe...

Here is the sermon that I gave at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa today, January 3, 2010. Even though today is still in the Christmas season the Gospel lesson tells us the story of the Wise Men. Epiphany is the time when we celebrate the coming to the three Wise Men to meet Jesus and their encounter with King Herod But have you ever stopped to think what would have happened if it had been the three Wise Women instead of three Wise Men? They would have asked directions in Bethlehem rather than feeling that they needed to stop off at the Palace in Jerusalem, They would have arrived on time, They would have helped deliver the baby; they would have cleaned the stable and given practical gifts – like bringing a casserole and There would be Peace on Earth. But who were these wise men – the Magi? Very little is known about the Magi. Matthew doesn’t even record how many of them there were. All the Bible tells us is that they came from the East to Jeru...

A view to the north. Tonight the low temperatures are supposed to be a bit on the cold side, the forecast is calling for air temperatures to be -17 F (-27 C) and the wind chill forecast is a balmy -26 F (-32 C). Right now it is -2 F (-19 C) and actually it doesn't feel bad at all outside. I took the above photo while I was out doing chores this afternoon. Even though I had problems with watering the livestock due to the cold, the chores went well. So to everyone, stay warm and safe tonight. God Bless.

The restroom at Church of the Saviour in Clermont. What are the things that I'm thankful for during the past year? Well there are many things.... Such as being thankful for my family, the kids have grown in many ways, physically, emotionally, spiritually. It is hard to believe that all of them are now in school. I'm thankful for getting a different job, one that pays much better and allows me to work in agriculture and actually get paid for it. I'm thankful for being a part of a growing congregation at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa, where after 142 years there is finally indoor plumbing! I'm thankful for my lovely wife, Marcia, who has put up with me for over 21 years. And the thing that sums it all up best is this: I'm thankful to God for all that I have and all that I am.