MORGAN'S MOMENT
“Winter’s finally here…
       that nasty rain and cold.”
She was making conversation
       while making my mouth numb
       in preparation for a crown.
My mouth couldn’t work to suggest
       that it’s still fall
       and that it’s supposed to rain.
I was still giggling to myself
       about appropriateness of 
       a crown at Christmas.
In fact I was humming internally…
       “Crown him with many crowns
        the lamb upon his throne.”
As my brain was numbing along I thought
       Jesus never lived long enough
       to have crowns on his teeth.
She turned my thoughts to “nasty…”
       the dark of rainy winter
       as mirror of souls in despond.
Some names passed through my mind
       and prayer-thoughts raised
       for prisoners of the winter.
I surrender to novocaine and drill
       but not to thoughts 
       of the season’s darkness.
I hum mentally
       along with the CD carol
       that fills the room.
Something about everlasting light
       shining in dark streets
       as I open a little wider please. 
  — Art Morgan 
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MOMENT MINISTRIES 
Dec. 18, 2000
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org
To Everyone!
Happy Everything!
from
Moment Ministries!
  CHRISTMAS EVE
OLD WORLD DELI
6:30 PM
OUR 17TH YEAR AT THE DELI !
COME EARLY FOR ASSURED SEATING
A LAST WORD FOR 2000
I don’t say ‘thank you’ enough for those who make it possible for me to have this unusual activity called “Moment Ministries.”
Paul Pritchard has been friend and colleague for 30 Christmas’s now. There would be no Moment Ministries without him. 
And as they say, “Without you out there, we are nowhere here.” That goes for my Thursday Moment group as well as my “blue sheet constituency.
Thanks for being there. 
 

 

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JUST WHAT I EXPECTED
          My friend asked impishly, with a definitely Bush-ish kind of smile, “So, what did you think of the election?
          Although I never talked of my personal politics with him, I think he suspected I might have independent thoughts. 
          I answered, “It turned out just as I expected.
          Eyes widened.
          After all, who could have possibly expected an election to turn out like this? How often is the winner the loser? How often does the Supreme Court decide whether or not to count the votes? How often does it appear that the only way to win is not to count the votes?
          Yet, I insisted, “It turned out just as I expected.”
          “Wait a minute. You expected it to turn out like this?
          To my “Yes,” he answered, “How come?
          The ball was back in my court. I knew he was just waiting to get in his thoughts, but my answer bugged him.
          Here’s what I told him, more or less.
          “You remember when I printed that prayer about God deciding or not deciding for Bush or Gore or Nader?
          He remembered.
           “Well, my guess was that God never would decide. Since God wouldn’t decide, I figured it would come down that some Court would decide.
          “Maybe that’s how God decides,” he suggested.
          “Well, if that’s how God decides, why would it be a 5 to 4 vote? I still say, God’s not in the picture.
          He asked, “What about William Bennett’s word that God chose Bush?
          It reminded me that for the “Christian right,” the Court decision was God’s vote.
          So, when you read my stuff, understand that my theology is not that of the Christian right. It sort of galls me that they will make a story of biblical proportions out of this strange election. It is like so many Old Testament stories—and some New Testament stories—in which hopeless losers end up winning in improbable circumstances thanks to a God that intervenes. 
          I finally said, “I suppose this will go down as the miracle of the hanging chad. God will be praised for not letting the chad fall free, thus canceling the vote against Mr. Bush.
          He smiled his impish smile again, saying, “Whatever works.
          He had lured me into politics for a minute. My point was deeper. If we are to be serious about the idea of “God” as the scheme in which we do life, we can’t hold on to the notion that “God” micro-manages such things as which football team wins or which candidate wins. 
          If I had been truly prophetic I would have said in the beginning,
          “Not only will God not decide who will win, the winner will be determined by hanging chad.
          I kept my silence, however. It’s time to anoint a “messiah” for the next 4 years. May he rule as “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.” May he be led by our highest hopes and dreams.
— Art Morgan, December 2000