MORGAN'S MOMENT...
“How can you be an ordained minister
           and not believe the Bible!”
Alas…
           and so again I’m skewered
           for being honest to God.
In this case
           I expressed a doubt
           about Jesus calming the storm.
No matter
           that this legend story
           has been doubted for ages.
No matter
           that a God who does weather
           is beyond modern belief.
It is assumed
           that ordained ministers
           are locked into literal belief.
Which is why
           I am always most hesitant
           to admit my clerical roots.
To those
           who are biblically uninformed
           I am a hopeless heretic.
Praise the Lord!
— Art Morgan 
BOOK CORNER
My current read is Bishop John Spong’s latest “heresy”—my specialty—“A New Christianity for a New World.” Not new for those who are up to date on modern religious thinking.
Another recent read is “Rocks of Ages,” by Steven Gould, attempting a new way for religion and science to relate to one another. He argues for each to have its own “magisteria.” I’m not sure he says more than what has not already been said.
MOMENT MINISTRIES
May 22, 2002
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org
FINAL MAILING OF THE SEASON
We publish during the academic year. This is it. We’re off to our summer headquarters on Puget Sound. There may be occasional material posted on our web page, or possibly forwarded via e-mail. We thank you for tolerating our intrusion into your thinking. We also thank those who have honored and humbled us with contributions toward our publication expenses. It is a compliment to have folks read the blue sheet. Expect a resumption of mailings in late September.
SUMMER HEADQUARTERS
We do summers on Puget Sound.
E-mail: a-morgan@peak.org
Phone:  253-884-2771
Mail: 2412 N. Herron Rd., Lakebay, WA  98349     MAP
We welcome guests to our 3 bunkhouses. Call.
We’ll be in residence except for 2 summer weddings.
MOMENT MINISTRIES – LAS VEGAS
Members of Moment Ministries voted to endorse the establishment of an extension of Moment Ministries in Las Vegas, Nevada. We agreed to sponsor Shirley Harvey as Director of Ministry and to support her as she establishes a corporation based on our model. While we offer some direction, it is our expectation that this group will develop a life and direction of its own. Paul and Art will offer any minimal counsel and support that may be needed. Their first event is scheduled for June 25.

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THOUGHTS OF SUMMER
Text: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
          It happens every May, if not earlier. I will be working at my desk, or reading in my chair, and the thought bubble above my head is filled with a vision of my sailboat on Puget Sound. Or I think of myself down below, sneaking in an afternoon nap as the waves rock my boat. I can’t help it.
          Since I’m thinking about our life on Puget Sound anyway, I ask myself how summers have affected my theology. Isn’t that what preachers are supposed to be thinking?
          Our section of water, Case Inlet, was chiseled out of the earth during the ice age, which fortunately retreated around 10,000 years ago. It left a beautiful bit of water for me to sail on for all these years. The history of the idea of God is about the same age. Compared to the 4 billion years or so age of the earth, it’s a millisecond. My existence is more fleeting than that.
          Every year as I walk our beach I see millions of shells, skeletons of formerly living creatures. They were born or hatched or whatever, grew, reproduced and soon were killed, eaten or died. Do those sand dollars or sand flees matter to God? Am I of more value than they? Do I matter to God? Is there a God to matter to?
          Then there are sunsets. We plan our day so that we don’t miss the sunset. Life gives only so many sunsets. Life gives even fewer summers. I watch as the sun marches north into the Olympics in its settings, then marches south again after the Summer Solstice. “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Oysters and eagles and herons and kingfishers have their time for sun, then their time is gone. I am no more permanent than they.
          I walk over barnacles, remembering that they are animals too. If discovered on Mar’s, headlines would proclaim the discovery of life. What is the difference between barnacle life and my life? For reasons that maybe Darwin could explain I happened to turn out with a system that allows me to have awareness not available to the barnacle. It is my “fate” to be able to wonder, discover, appreciate and celebrate life’s mysteries.
          At night when it is dark I like to walk up on our road and see the stars. That is always one of those times when I can’t help being brought to awe and wonder. In my lifetime we have moved from talking about a galaxy, to multiple galaxies. More than that, we’re moving beyond talk of a universe, to multiple universes. I look out, knowing that there are 12 billion years worth of stars and galaxies out there. I am becoming a smaller and smaller speck in the stream of life.
          I feel that I am part of it all. If God is involved it is not as one who micro-manages the existence of every mosquito and squirrel and human. It would be arrogant of me to think of myself as the most important species to exist on my beach. I am part of the water and air and mountains and sun and stars and living creatures. I am a puny part of something so immense I can’t begin to imagine or understand. I am part of something grand. I am part of eternity. I am part of God.
          Back to our text. Jesus is asleep in the boat during a storm. He tells the sea to be quiet. I’ve done that, but most times it doesn’t quiet. When it does quiet, nobody says, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” We all sleep through storms about us that we ought to rebuke! At least Jesus woke up!
          Is there anyone who believes that nature responds to anyone’s command? God’s, Jesus’, or mine? There was a time before science when some people believed God determined wind, storm, rain or sunshine. People still pray to God about the weather. We no longer think of God as having anything to do with tornadoes or hurricanes or earthquakes or volcanoes. Yet people are always quoted on the news saying that God somehow saved them out of the storm while dozens died around them. I think the story of Jesus calming a storm was made to affirm belief in his divine power.
          I don’t claim to understand life. Yours, mine, God's. I think we’ve been careless about tying God to nature. In “The Whole Shebang,” Timothy Ferris talks about God:
“Whether he left or was ever here I do not know, and don’t believe we shall ever know. But one can learn to live with ambiguity—and with the silence of the stars. All who genuinely seek to learn, whether atheist or believer, scientist or mystic, are united in having not a faith, but faith itself. Its token is reverence, its habit to respect the eloquence of silence. For God’s hand may be a human hand, reaching out in loving kindness, and God’s voice your voice, if you but speak the truth.” (p. 312)
— Art Morgan, May 2002