you might have noticed that this week's sermon is a couple weeks late. if you're really paying attention, you might recall that the previous sermon was a couple weeks late as well. but even if you're not observant, now that i've pointed this out, you're probably wondering if this tardiness trend will continue. the answer is both yes & no. yes, it will keep on for at least a little while, but no, it won't last forever. don't react yet, though.

when i started this church i was just a headstrong young college student, looking for ways to waste my time more effectively while i was working in the student computer lab. my homework assignments would only take me so long, because i was so brilliant, you understand, so I needed something else to occupy myself. practically all my time back then was free time. even my work time was free time; my major duty were keeping the lab running smoothly. & outside work, my only obligations were to get good grades in class so i could keep my scholarship. the sermons were a good way to blow a monday night shift.

after i graduated, i no longer had that kind of time. as i shifted into a professional 40hr work week, mondays transformed from being the ideal sermon-writing night to the worst night of the week. i moved the sermons to tuesday, & somehow managed to force myself in front of the computer each week (often forcing my way through a few ex-roommates) to dash them out.

but as i grow older, & as i devote myself more & more to other creative endeavors (music, & all its trappings), i no longer have even the kind of time i time i did a year ago. i'm not saying i'm totally overloaded, constantly in motion, or anything like that. & i'm not denying that i still spend 4-6 nights a week in my bedroom, occasionally with nothing to do. but with my job, all my musical duties, my other responsibilities, procrastinating all the previous list items, & trying to keep some semblance of a social life, there isn't a whole lot left. especially in the summer, the most active time of year.

for these reasons, i regret to announce that the weekly sermons will come to an end as of the end of year 4 (week #52). that's right, there will only be 10 more sermons after this one (& don't expect them to live up to the name "weekly" either. i'm too busy not to drag this out).

this is something i've known was coming for a long time. i had originally hoped to make it through year 5 before calling it off, 5 being a nice if not technically round number. but in the past few weeks it's become pretty clear to me that i don't have that much time left before i must move on... nor do you.

yes, my children, that time that i've promised will come soon. the time when you will no longer need my direct guidance. you have learned much, & while there will always be more to learn, there is not much more that i can teach you. when these last 10 lessons are complete, it will be your time to go off on your own.

the past sermons will continue to be archived on the site in one format or another for the forseeable future. the future of the wAy, however, is in doubt. the website has been in urgent need of a redesign for years. ending the sermons actually gives me an opportunity to do that, but how much of the wAy will remain on the site once that redesign is finally complete remains uncertain. the wAy, as a formal entity, could conceivably end altogether. or it might just turn into the stAllio! fan club.

but this does not mean that there will not still be a part of the wAy inside your heart. that is & always was the true wAy, not this false shadow of the wAy cast upon the internet. that wAy, the important one inside you, will be there forever... or at least until you're dead & rotting, at which point that part of your heart which did hold the way will decompose & be broken down into its component molecules.

10 to go...