The Dog and Pony Show is In The House

The Reverend Dr. Robin Meyers of Tulsa Oklahoma gave the inaugural lecture of the Jim and Gwen Pruyne Lectureship in Progressive Christianity last night here in Normal Illinois where the Weather Channel Temperature Icon tells me it is a balmy 40 degrees  Fahrenheit this morning. 

That's a lot of capital letters for an opening sentence, doncha think?

The lecture followed the themes of his book which I'vetalked about and quoted from a great deal in this blog.  It was well-received and then a few people who didn't agree with him or are struggling with their understanding of Jesus asked questions.  He was kind and eloquent in his discussions with these people. 

After the lecture and a chat with Kathy, I thought about my parents and I felt great admiration for the work they do every year at Sager-Brown in Lousiana (where they are right now and when they read this blog my mom will start to cry, and my dad will just smile.)  I thought about Susan's recent reflections at church where she showed us how the parables of Jesus, read carefully, turned the common wisdom of the age on it's head and showed his followers then and now how to live in the light of God instead of in the shadows of self-absorption.

Then I got tired and went to bed.

But no worries, because this morning I'm off to a 4-hour workshop hosted by the...(insert lots of the capital letter words from line one, here) and I think I'm going to be personally challenged in a good  but possibly exhausting way by whatever it is we end up discussing.    

Jim Pruyne was beaming at the end of the evening, and coincidentally, when I mentioned I was buying a CD of the lecture so I could share it with my parents, he said, "Why don't your parents just move back here?"  And I said, "If you would find a buyer for their house in Tennessee then they will do that."  And he beamed again.