On the Fear of Stepping into Ourselves

All year long, I have navigated resistance that seems to get heavier by the day, at times feels like depression; shape-shifts as needs be; takes on oh-so-many elusive forms; mutters in my ear that I can’t do it, that I shouldn’t do it, and even questions what is the point of doing it; finds excuses, blames others, drains me of all willpower to go forth. Resistance!

Where is it coming from? Anyone who has known me for a long time can attest that I am pretty much as strong-willed as it gets. I have never had any issue plunging into the unknown if intuition strongly told me to do so, never doubted my purpose, my path, or my mission. Only now, as the start of my professional life, which I have strived for for so long and in so many ways, draws closer, do I find myself pulling back. Shrinking. Disappearing. Resisting.

Continue reading

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (19B), Sept 16, 2018; The Rev. Susan Ackley

Isaiah 50:4-9a The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher…
James 3:1-12 Not many of you should become teachers…
Mark 8:27-38 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi…

Here we are back in the sanctuary.

A change of location for our worship as we move from the long, narrow space in the Lindsey Chapel back to this BIG wide open space.  Banners visible up in the choir loft. The Emmanuel Land window. All this resonant air just waiting to be charged by sounds of the Schutz, Byrd, and Bach.
Continue reading