Today is Father’s Day here in the United States. It is also the anniversary of John Wesley’s birthday - two pretty big days for a father who is also a United Methodist clergyperson. I am not going to comment on John’s birthday. I appreciate what Garrison Keillor did with it on his Writer’s Almanac web site (see links).

I have heard from all three of my children today – Sarah who still lives with us, Beth who is in Wisconsin where she attends college, and David who lives in Fargo, North Dakota. It is always nice to hear from them, even if there is really not much new to say. We (my wife Julie, daughter Sarah and I) spent part of the weekend with Beth in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. We left Friday afternoon and returned home last night. We helped her with some things around her apartment, but most of all were just there to enjoy time together. Beth had just found out she was named to first team of the 2007 ESPN the Magazine Women’s At-Large Academic All-American Team. She has been a swimmer at UW-Stevens Point for four years. She has done very well academically and athletically. We celebrated that. We also celebrated Sarah’s strong academic year, and our trip also gave her her first freeway driving experience (she recently received her instructional permit).

Friday night we sat in our daughter’s apartment and watched the movie Erin Brockovich. Watching movies together is a long-standing family tradition. Years ago, Julie and I would reserve Saturday night for a movie night just for the two of us. Friday nights were family fun nights, either a game or a movie. As our children got older, we found them suddenly wanting to watch our movies with us, and that was o.k. Sure, it cut into our couple time, some, but how quickly the time has passed since we all watched a movie together.

Being rather theologically inclined, I couldn’t help but think that there are some Christ-like characteristics in Erin Brockovich, at least as Julia Roberts portrays her in the movie. Well, o.k., some of her vocabulary is a little raw, but she cares passionately about people, is willing to give of herself to help them, and she cares deeply about justice and pursues it against the odds. My guess is more people think of Jesus in Andy Griffith terms – kind and fair and even tempered, possessing an easy smile. The Jesus I know has some of both Andy and Erin. By the way, I enjoyed the movie!

If you have not figured it out by reading some of my blog postings, I enjoy writing thoughtful essays about deep issues of life and the spirit ( a little humor is also a good thing). One can also be touched in the deepest places of life by enjoying the simple pleasures life affords – time spent with family, phone calls from your children on Father’s Day, a good movie. Take time for such things – and for those of you who are fathers I hope you had a great Father’s Day.

P.S. Our trip also gave me some time to read more of Krista Tippett’s book Speaking of Faith. For more about the author and her radio program, check out the Speaking of Faith link on this blog. I have been inviting my congregation, and any others who wish, to join me in reading through the New Testament this year (beginning June 1). For more information about that see my other blog – Bard’s Brushstrokes. Here are some quotes from Krista Tippett that express my own orientation to the Scriptures of my faith.

“All our names for God are metaphor – necessary license, approximation, and analogy. Our sacred texts burn with that knowledge and dare us to us all of our faculties of intelligence and experience and creativity. But we forget this; and our fact- and argument-obsessed culture is deaf to it, blind to it.” (p. 49)

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer described biblical stories as ancient, magical pictures that we need alongside modern technical, conceptual pictures if we are to become wise. (p. 56)

“If I stick with these texts – if I wrestle with them and insist on a blessing – a blessing will come. The only limitation is my time, my powers of imaginative concentration, and my capacity to listen to the interpretations of others.” (p. 60, all of pages 60-74 are worth reading for listening to Ms. Tippett’s interpretations of Scripture)

With Faith and With Feathers,

David