Latte Lutherans: Faith and Starbucks

Below is the first of four posts that originated as I was sitting at Good Earth Village Lutheran Bible Camp a few weeks ago. Sitting on the ridge, overlooking the valley below I was just sort of struck by this theme/series. It was quite clear and coherent in my brain at the time. I hope it comes out the same for you as I've now attempted to put this into words....

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One of the great things about being Lutheran is our embracing of a “priesthood of all believers.” It’s that notion that all of us are called to ministry in one form or another. This struck me a couple of years ago when I graduated from seminary.

As I wrapped up seminary I anticipated beginning my call shortly after finishing. Throughout my four and a half years I heard about the pastor shortage, so it was a no-brainer that I would be in a call in no time. As it turns out things didn’t go quite that smoothly (of course when does life go exactly as planned?).

The process of finding a call as a pastor was not coming along at all, so I wound up with a job at Starbucks. I should have known something was up when I learned my manager was the daughter of a retired Lutheran pastor. During my time there I learned a lot about a ministry of hospitality, something we all were responsible for. I also was privileged to hear many stories of people caring for people and making sacrifices you never would have guessed. Can you believe there were people who regularly brought treats for the employees?

When I was at Starbucks I got to witness ministry happening around me all the time. You wouldn’t believe the patience afforded me as I was learning how to make the thousands of different drink options. People would come in and help students out with homework. Employees learned the drinks, and stories, of regular customers. You would see the kindness in how co-workers treated each other working together at a table, even fellow employees picking up orders for each other. Regular customers would form friendships with other regulars, and with Starbucks employees, where normally there would be none.

I realize these are simple, common behaviors in many ways. In other ways they were simply extraordinary because we don’t always function this way as a society any more. Still it reassured me that God is alive and well and continues to work through people in powerful ways.

A "Dated" Friday Five

It's Friday afternoon, Eastern Time, and this is your faithful Songbird with a calendar-related Friday Five. Due to some confusion with our dates, I'm stepping in today, although I am usually here only on the 5th Friday, when there is such a thing.

Here are five things to ponder about dates. I hope you'll play!

1) Datebooks--how do you keep track of your appointments? Electronically? On paper? Month at a glance? Week at a glance? I mostly use google calendar, looking mostly one week at a time. However, I prefer to keep track of things in my head. I find that I am less stressed then because I tend to only think about one thing at a time. When it's on paper and I see the six things I need to do that day it feels a lot more stressful for me. Thankfully my memory still works pretty well.

2) When was the last time you forgot an important date? Honestly? I can't remember. Ask my wife and she'll probably give you a nice long list. Although, it appears that "baby" is going to miss today's due date. Hopefully this won't become a life trend.

3) When was the last time you went OUT on a date? Last Friday we went out to see "Mama Mia". Truth be told, though, this is one of the areas I definitely need to work on.

4) Name one accessory or item of clothing you love even though it is dated. Being the cheapskate that I am I tend to only buy off the clearance rack so one could argue my whole wardrobe is dated. However, I do have a "Hawaiian" shirt from the first marathon that I ran back in '98 that is a bit dated. I also have some running tights from the early '90's that I just can't get myself to part with...and hopefully my wife won't find them either.

5) Dates--the fruit--can't live with 'em? Or can't live without 'em? I can't say that I've ever had them... nor do I really want to try them. Perhaps I might like them after all. I may never know.

An Olympic Thought

The last week and a half Dawn and I have watched a lot of the Olympic Games in Beijing. My annoyance was that so much was focused on the Americans and the winners. What I like watching are the people who finished third and are elated, or simply advance a round and act like world champions. I love the stories like the South African swimmer who lost a leg in an accident six years ago, but still was there competing.

I want to see people getting the most out of their ability. It would be easy to compare themselves to others and be disappointed because they’re not as fast as Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. Only one can be the world record holder. When we start comparing ourselves to others we either become prideful, depressed, or even covetous… none of which are good.

In Matthew 25 Jesus shares a parable about a master giving talents (an amount of money this case) to three different servants to take care of while he is away. The one the master gets upset with is the one who buries his talent and does nothing with it. I wonder if he did nothing with it because he compared his talents to the other three and felt sorry for himself instead of being grateful for the tremendous gift he was given.

We have all been given gifts to use for our Master. What are you going to do with yours? Are you going to fall into the trap of comparing your gifts and talents with others? Or are you going to use them to build up the kingdom of God? The choice is yours, the gift has already been given to you.

A Healing Story

This past Sunday we had a reading from the gospel where Jesus ended up healing a woman's daughter from being possessed by a demon. During the sermon I suggested one of the challenges of a story like this is that we can sometimes write it off as something that just happened during "Bible times" and not necessarily now. The truth is God does still heal. We just don't tend to tell our stories much, especially as Lutherans. My encouragement to you is to share your story. Tell people about where you have seen God active in your life... If you are interested, below is the sermon itself from Sunday... including a story from a member of our congregation.

What are your thoughts?

I know my posting has been inconsistent lately (for those who like to check regularly). I think I have baby on the brain a bit.

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a funeral for the brother of a couple of members of our congregation. The funeral was at a Catholic church. It was a full mass with communion and for the most part really well done. Sitting through communion, though, got me to thinking and I'm wondering if there is somebody out there that can help me understand because I genuinely don't get it (and I'm not trying to pass judgment as I ask this).

How is it that denominations (like Catholics) come to an understanding of closed communion (that understanding that only members of that denomination or even congregation is allowed to fully participate in communion)?

I ask this because it really does go against my understanding of communion. During the words of institution the priest spoke words almost identical to what I might say on Sunday morning, "Again, He (Jesus) took the cup, gave thanks and gave to all to drink saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood shed for you and for ALL people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in remembrance of me.'" So the bold print isn't normally there, but I put it in emphasize where I am coming from on this topic. If this act was done by Christ for all people, why would we (as a church) try to limit who is allowed access to this saving act of grace? It sounds rather egotistical to me because I hear us (as a church who practices closed communion) as suggesting that we know better than Jesus who this is for.

So that would be my biased, probably even judgmental, understanding. I do, honestly, want to understand why you would practice closed communion. Can anybody help? I do know it did not feel very welcoming to me (a high value for me in a congregation).

And A Child Shall Lead Them 2

This last spring we were in Dawn's hometown visiting with family. The local congregation was in the process of calling a new pastor. Dawn's brother happened to be on the call committee so this was a hot topic. Quickly, as you might expect, the conversation turned to talking about the concerns about how they were going to pay for the pastor and the struggles this small, rural congregation was having. In the midst of it our 3rd grade nephew broke in with, "Money, money, money, that's all you ever worry about."

I don't think he had any idea how profound a statement he had made, but he got it. How often do we in the church sit around and worry & fret about money? How often is it at the detriment of actually doing ministry? What might happen if we worried more about mission and making ministry happen than about money? Can you imagine the impact we might have in this world for the sake of the kingdom?

Fearful Following

Last Sunday we had a great story about Elijah hiding in a cave and God shows up in the sheer silence. We also had the story of Peter walking on water with Jesus. My conclusion from these two stories is not so much that when we follow Jesus the fear goes away, rather it remains (if not gets ratcheted up) but we do have the promise that Jesus is with us. Know that whether you are cowering in the boat, bold like Peter walking on the water, or find yourself feeling like you're outside of the boat sinking for fear of the winds battering around you, Jesus is with you... Here is how I said it on Sunday in my sermon.

Laugh a Little

My friend Kelly over at Reclaiming the F Word, had a great post last week about the political campaign. You might want to check it out here. Her suggestion was a big part of the problem with the election is the opposite sides being too serious. The problem with hot button issues like Homosexuality in the church is that the two sides are so darn serious that the grass looks a whole lot safer in the middle not taking a side. Some of this over seriousness has a way of scaring people away. Here is her big prediction:

"The winner on every issue that divides us will be the bunch who loves easily and laughs quickly and doesn't take themselves too seriously.

Kind of like I imagine Jesus was. "

I think I would like to second that. I think she's dead on. I think we need to laugh a little more.

A Friday Five

I've recently been connected up to the RevGalBlogPals, where there is some fun posts happening. One of the things they do there is post a "Friday Five," a series of five questions each Friday. I think it looks kind of fun and I'm going to try running with it. So with that, here is today's five.

1. What is your sweetest summer memory from childhood? Did it involve watermelon or hand cranked ice cream? Or perhaps a teen summer romance. Which stands out for you?
This is hard one for me. I think I might have to go with the summer following 3rd grade when the neighbor gal and myself created our own Olympics. Perhaps the best were the water events (we were blessed enough to live on a lake).

2. Describe your all time favorite piece of summer clothing. The one thing you could put on in the summer that would seem to insure a cooler, more excellent day.
I don't know about a real specific item, but a swim suit has always been a sign of a better day for me. There is not much in this world better than an opportunity to be in water. I sometimes wonder if the theory of multiple lives were true if maybe I was a fish previously.

3. What summer food fills your mouth with delight and whose flavor stays happily with you long after eaten? This one is a bit of a toss-up. It is a close call between watermelon and corn on the cob, both signal summer and long lasting goodness.

4. Tell us about the summer vacation or holiday that holds your dearest memory.
One of the best family vacations was biking on the Elroy-Sparta Bike Trail. I find it now almost ironic that I married a woman that grew up in one of the towns along the trail. However, I think my favorite might be the summer my grandmother took my sister and I to Wisconsin Dells. At the time Noah's Ark consisted of approximately 8 slides and looked nothing like today, but it was awesome. One night after brushing my teeth, getting ready for bed, I came out of the bathroom and asked, "Who's teeth are in there?" What was I thinking. It was Grandma's boyfriend who was along with us. I also loved traveling with Grandma on the train to Duluth.

5. Have you had any experience(s) this summer that has drawn you closer to God or perhaps shown you His wonder in a new way?
Surprising not much happening this way for me. Typically summer is filled with many such experiences. Part of that is the anticipation of a new born child (t-minus two weeks today) overshadows most everything and certainly invites you into the wonder and goodness of God in itself. However, I can't say it's a "summer" experience. So I'm going to with our vacation in which we spent a couple of days camping. I got to go for a run through the trees, along the river and it most certainly renewed me in a way that was very needed.

Bonus question: When it is really hot, humid and uncomfortable, what do you do to refresh and renew body and spirit? If you paid attention to #2, then it will be no surprise that I need to get in the water. It doesn't matter if it's a pool or a lake, but cooling off in water is one of the greatest healers in the world.

A Lesson From Children

Have you ever noticed how children have little fear? At least when it comes to asking people they know to be engaged in what they're doing. Spend a little time with a child and you'll inevitably hear something like, "Watch me!" or "Come with me." Their baseline assumption is that, of course, you want to watch them, and why wouldn't you want to join in on what they're doing?

What if we took more of that approach with evangelism? What if we assumed that people wanted to join in with what we're doing, wanted to join in on the work God is up to in the world? When we're sitting around the coffee shop talking about the kids, the garden, and other aspects of life stories of how we're engaging in our faith should be a natural part of our conversation. You can invite them to join you in worship, because of course they want to join you. You can share with them what you are learning in Bible study, because of course they want to know.

What if we approached evangelism a little more like children?

The Dream of God

On July 27 I was given the opportunity to preach on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52. A pastor friend of mine pointed out that the concept of the "Kingdom of God" is probably lost on our current culture. Instead it was suggested to be more helpful to be the "Dream of God" because that's going to stimulate our imagination in a more helpful way. Consequently, I read the gospel making that substitution and tried to use that as a jumping off point for my sermon. Jesus gives us some rich pictures for the Dream/Kingdom of God, do any resonate with you? What images might you suggest?

A Love/Hate Relationship

I've discovered (maybe not all so recently) that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with television.

I find that sometimes I have a tendency to think too much (I know, I know, for those of you who actually know me it probably doesn't appear that way, but honestly my brain is thinking all the time), so I like turning on things like "Wipeout" and laugh away as people bounce off the big balls. It's good for the brain, it's good for the soul.

I, unfortunately, find that sometimes I find myself putting my life on hold because I've gotten so sucked in to a particular show that I feel I need to watch it. Consequently my evening gets scheduled around it and I don't get things done that I probably should. I find myself lacking in ambition because of my desire to watch certain shows.

Like I suggest before I think TV can be a good release. However, like everything in life moderation is the need. In many ways I still have dreams of changing the world, but there's little chance of that happening if I have to be on my couch in front of the TV for "Survivor", "24", or "Prison Break"... just to name a few.

Failure

Life is so full of risks. It seems that most of our lives are spent in risk management mode. Sometimes I wonder why that is, although most of the time it makes sense. Honestly, I don't like to get hurt. I don't like to fail. So I try and manage the risks to the best of my ability so that I don't get hurt in any way. Still, sometimes that seems a little silly. You can lock yourself in the house to try and avoid risk, but then they say most accidents happen in the home and most traffic accidents happen within a couple of miles of home. Heck, I recently read somewhere that something like 1,000 people each year are seriously injured from getting caught in the cord for their curtains. Nowhere, it seems, is REALLY safe. So why not step out and take a risk, take a chance. If you don't give it a shot you can't succeed. What's the worse that will happen? Failure?

I was reading this morning from John Ortberg's book "If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat." In there I came across the following quote:

"Failure is not an event, but rather a judgment about an event. Failure is not something that happens to us or a label we attach to things. It is a way we think about outcome."

He then goes on to talk about Jonas Salk not failing, but finding 200 ways how not to vaccinate for polio. He talks about Churchill not failing a grade, but being given a second change. You see failure is more about perception. If something doesn't turn out the way we had hoped is it a failure? If we judge it so, but that doesn't have to be a case.

How might our lives be different if we approached success and failure in this sort of way? I can't imagine God judges us as failures when things don't turn out as we had hoped or expected. Why should you?

Book of Faith Puppets 5

Book of Faith Puppets 4

B'ankie

There was a fun article in the paper this morning about new Viking's Defensive End Jerad Allen. For those who aren't football fans he plays one of those positions where he is intended to be a holy terror to the opposing team. If you watch him play he can be a holy terror. He is, in a word, a man's man. The fun part of the article reveals that he still sleeps with his "b'ankie". What?

It struck me because in my sermon today I make the comparison of the kingdom of God, the Dream of God, as being like our blankie (or stuffed animal, nook, whatever) from our childhood. An item, much like a treasure, something that if gone missing we would sell ALL that we have to get it back. The article about Jerad All ends like this:

Can he hook up some of his teammates? "Nah,'' he said. "You can't just claim a blankie. A blankie has to have some significant meaning.

"Otherwise, it's just a blanket.''

I wonder, if something similar couldn't be said about the Dream of God? What is the significance to you? Or, How does it have significance to you?

Book of Faith Puppets 3

Book of Faith Puppets 2

Timing?

Is the time really right for a Black President? Larry Wilmore explores just that with Jon Stewart. Perhaps we should think this through...

Book of Faith Puppets

This last Lent, I wrote a series of 5 puppet dramas for our Wednesday evening worship services. Today begins a series of postings of those puppet shows. For those that may have come across them because you are a pastor, or congregation leader of some sort, and for some reason you find yourself interested in the scripts know that I am working on fixing them up and making them available as way for congregations to work with the Book of Faith Initiative. So without further ado here it goes....




I do apologize, though, for the sound quality. These were taped before we got in our new recording system this spring. Hopefully you can make the best of it.

Wisdom and Google

Our first reading on Sunday we hear Solomon ask for wisdom. It actually got me to thinking about a post I wrote earlier this year. The thoughts from that post were reaffirmed somewhat as I was pointed to an article printed in the Atlantic. The question posed in the article is, "Is Google making us stupid?" Perhaps it isn't necessarily making us stupid, but the evidence appears clear that Google, and the Internet are changing the way we read and think. In fact, the leaders of Google are brash enough to want to create a search engine that will essentially think for us. They are willing to filter for us, we no longer need to think or learn more about a subject to decide what to learn more about. How often do we think beyond the quick snippet of information to the implications, the wider ramifications, of that information and how it might be used? We no longer appear to have space to ponder, discern, and use wisdom. Yet God allows Solomon to ask for anything he could ever dream of, and he asks for Wisdom. Perhaps there's a lesson in there for us as well.

Falling in Love with the Ordinary

Last Sunday our friend Kari was ordained to be a pastor in the ELCA. One of the things the pastor pointed out in his sermon was that the word "ordain" or "ordination" comes from the same root word that gave us "ordinary." It was a great reminder that while we are set apart for the particular ministry to which we are called, we are common ordinary people. (Although, as children of God I would also argue that we are extra-ordinary, but that's perhaps for another time to get into.) Yet, how often to do we shun the ordinary as we quest to be extra special. To encounter the ordinary feels dull, or even at times as if we are settling.

Yesterday, we had friends visiting from South Dakota. We decided to go over to the zoo figuring their 3-year old would enjoy doing so. I got the impression we were right, he had fun. However, it struck me that one of the animals he was most fascinated with was a gopher hanging out in the goat pen. He has gophers in his back yard back at home. Here were all of these animals he could only see in a zoo and one he likes the best is a common, ordinary gopher he could see any day of the week. What is it about kids? When we brought our nephews to the same zoo a couple of years ago the same thing happened. They grew up on a farm, but they were most excited by the farm animals at the zoo.

I seem to recall Jesus encouraging us to have faith like a little child. I wonder if it's not time we started falling in love with the ordinary, the familiar once again. Maybe it's about time for us to recognize our call to ministry as being ordinary and embracing it like a child at the zoo, falling in love with it again.

Who Would Do Such a Thing?

Today's gospel left me with an interesting image. First the farmer plants his good seeds of wheat. Then in the middle of the night a neighbor comes along and sows seeds of weeds. It kind of leaves you wondering, "Who would do such a thing?" Honestly, who would scatter weed seeds? Jesus suggests later in the reading that it would be the devil and that kind of makes sense.

Then I got to thinking about previous times I've talked about dandelions. How many times have I unintentionally allowed dandelions to go to seed, which were scattered into my neighbors lawn? Is there really much of a difference? It kind of makes you feel a little more like a weed...or at least maybe a little more sympathetic to weeds. It's also the beauty of God that we can be made wheat, even in our weediest of states.

Wheat

We had a funeral today for a 19 year old who was killed in a car accident this past Sunday. As I sat in the sanctuary and was thinking about the tragedy of this event I couldn't help but think about how this coming Sunday's gospel reading might fit the situation.

I see the parable of the wheat and the weeds being shared to address of the question of why is there evil in the world around us? Why do we, as believers, end up suffering. Our instinct is often to suggest something, in tragic moments, like it must be God's will. Really? This parable seems to suggest that God didn't plant the weeds, the evil, but it was the devil. The problem is we can't really tell the difference between the wheat and the weeds, so we need to allow them both to grow.

Why did the evil ugliness of Brady's death happen? I don't know, but I am awful tempted to blame the devil. What will come of this? I don't know that either, but I do suspect time will inform us much better. What I do believe is that we were given a promise in our baptism that we are wheat... you are wheat.

It's Simple, It's Jesus

Here is my sermon from July 6, the Sunday before beginning vacation. One of the things I repeat a couple of times is something to the effect of "It's just that simple. It's just that complicated." After hearing the sermon my wife had a couple of great analogies for this idea, both very similar. It's kind of like a magic trick. On the one hand when you look at it the trick seems very complicated, but when someone explains it to you, shows you the secret, it's often really quite simple. The other thing that is quite similar are those puzzle toys. You've probably seen them before.

These twisted metal contraptions appear nearly impossible. Yet the solution to them are usually quite simple, although not always all so obvious. Isn't our Christian walk kind of like that? It all really boils down to Jesus. It's just that simple, but it's also just that complicated.

Center of the Universe

OK, so it's been a while since I've posted. I was away on vacation and all of the relaxing and driving just didn't lead to a whole lot of writing. Oh, there were a number of things I considered blogging about, but I was never anywhere near a computer at the time. Who knows, they may have been brilliant, but those thoughts are gone now.

Not surprising to many, my thoughts have been consumed with baby thoughts. I suppose it's natural now that we're just about to t-minus 5 weeks for the due date. Anyway, one of the things I've been thinking about is how the baby shows up thinking it is the center of the universe. Why wouldn't it? For the past 40 weeks baby has lived with Mom attached to it fulfilling it's every need and whim (thankfully whims in the womb are simple). How harsh it must be over the coming months as the baby discovers it is not the center of the universe? Eventually the baby must learn that crying doesn't produce milk or a simple, sweet smile doesn't always get you endless attention. As the baby grows it will learn that Mom and Dad are important, in fact might even continue to rely on them, but also that they are not the only creature in need of Mom and Dad's attention and care. There are just some parts of life they will need to live on their own. It's part of the maturing process.

Doesn't our faith work that way sometimes as well? At some point we mature and begin to realize that we are not the center of the universe? We begin to realize that while we do need God we are not the only ones that need God's attention and care. So we learn to live certain parts of our lives on our own. Oh, we'll always need God, but we may not always need God to hold our hand through every step of the way. That's a good thing. It means we're maturing and realizing we are not the center of the universe. Now, there may be times (like tragedies in life) where we revert to needing God at our side every step of the way and when we don't get it we'll cry louder. In the midst of these storms of life we may cling to things like candles, medallions, or pictures to get us through. This regression of faith just might save our lives, but it is not a mature form of faith.

Beautiful Savior

Here is a touch of beauty from my alma matter.

Things You Don't Say to Your Wife

Thanks to my friend Scott over at Nachfolge for posting/sharing this video.

Welcome

Yesterday our Gospel reading wrapped up our reading through Matthew 10. It presented us with quite the challenge to be welcoming. I have yet to come across a congregation that doesn't consider itself friendly. My experience has been that probably all of them are right, they are friendly. They like the people that are around them and their friends that gather there. The mistake, I think, many of them make is in thinking that they are welcoming. That is not all so much the case. Far too often the people are too busy being "friendly" to notice somebody different than they normally talk to and welcome them.

I spent a spent a summer in Portland, OR and I got to visit a lot of different congregations while I was there. Rarely, that summer, did I have anyone go out of their way to welcome me, who was obviously a stranger. I did get dirty looks for where I chose to sit. I did get scolded for bringing coffee (the nectar of life) into the church. I did have to hunt and search for ushers to get a program on several occasions.

Spending time with friends isn't bad. The challenge is, when do you spend time with them? Do you go to them first and hope the "strangers" will still be around when you're done with friends? Or do you go to the "strangers" first knowing your friends will always be there for you? It can make all of the difference in the world. You might just be welcoming Jesus, in fact you are.

One final note on this, now that I've already said too much already... I heard somebody once challenge people to be "butts in" people. The idea is that it is natural for us to gather in groups, it's human nature. When we gather in a circle and are looking at one another we become "butts out" people that discourages people from joining in with us. When we gather in a circle looking out for new people to welcome we become "butts in" people. Which one will you be?

Thank You!!!

THANK YOU to all of you who participated in the shower yesterday. For those who were not there, after worship yesterday there was a really great shower put on by the congregation. The only problem, if you want to call it that, was that people were far too generous. We were absolutely lavished with gifts. The rest of the day was spent eagerly assembling all of the neat gifts. Even without all of the "stuff" it is wonderful to know that we are loved and supported by so many people as we enter into this new, exciting, and scary adventure of having a baby. So to all that were there or were involved in one way or another THANK YOU!!!!

Free to Live

Here is my sermon from last Sunday, June 22. It is largely based on Romans 6, but is also influenced by our gospel reading from Matthew 10 as well.

What Question's Are You Asking?

When you're out shopping, what question's are you asking? Do you ask anything beyond, "What is the cheapest?" or "What is the best deal?" I wonder if we don't have an obligation, as people of faith, to be asking some different question's as well. Perhaps we should be asking things like, "Who is benefiting from this purchase?" or "How fairly are the workers being paid for this product?" I also suspect we should be asking questions like, "How will this impact the environment?" In a global community I think it's time for us to be thinking beyond ourselves and how our purchases impact us and begin shifting it to issues of loving neighbor and loving creation.

So, what question's are YOU asking?

Addicted to Oil?

Yesterday Thomas Friedman spoke on the Today Show, largely criticizing President Bush and his leading us to an addiction to oil. Some of what he said made a lot of sense to me. I wonder, though, has he overstated it a bit? What do you think?

Health Club Idea

My wife, Dawn, and I have been blessed with the good fortune of belonging to a great health club. I have to admit, though, joining was a little intimidating. I have been a runner for most of my life. I have played basketball for much of my life as well. Yet, I have never really used those machines before. They have all kinds of buttons and look completely foreign. There are a lot people around to watch you use them wrong, and sometimes (it appeared) lines waiting for machines so you better be able to just jump on and go so you get your workout done in time for the people waiting. It was scary.

One of the best things they offered was a personal introduction with a personal trainer. They walked me through and taught me how to use each machine and showed me how to sign up, etc. They even gave me suggestions of how to best take advantage of some of the equipments with different types of workouts. It's gotten me to wondering, what if we did that at the church? People who didn't grow up in the church very well might be intimidated by all of the "stuff" we have around the different code words that we use. What if we offered "personal trainers" to those who wanted to become a part of our church. Somebody to listen to them and their needs, to show them around and teach them how to use things, and then to offer suggestions of ways they can best take advantage of things so they can grow in their faith. It may not be a new idea, but it certainly might turn out to be revolutionary.

Refocus

Why is it that whenever we seem to talk about the priesthood of all believers, that we are all called to some form of ministry or another, we tend to couch it in terms of how we can use our gifts to support the church, the institution? Are not are our gifts for ministry just as valuable at work? At home? In our neighborhood, etc.? Maybe we need to rethink how we talk about these things and refocus our lens for ministry.

Why is it whenever we talk about our strengthening our relationship with God we go to an academic approach (i.e. we suggest needing to go to a class or read a book, etc.)? When I want to strengthen my relationship with my wife I don't go and read a book about women (although maybe she would appreciate that), rather I spend time with her. I think spending time reading the Bible is a good thing, but is it really a text book to be studied like a text book or encyclopedia? I don't really get the sense that it is, I think it's more for the purpose of connecting with God.

One of the great movies ever made is "Dead Poets Society" in which Robin Williams plays a teacher that challenges the establishment. Below is a scene where (if you skip the first minute) they read the introduction to their poetry book and it explains poetry in scientific terms. That is not how you read poetry, at least in his opinion, so he has the class rip that portion out of their text books.



Have we artificially created a similar introduction to the Bible? Perhaps we need to rip that out of our mind. One of my favorite lines in the movie (and I apologize if I get it wrong) is when the Robin Williams character asks why poetry and he answers, "To woo women." What if we refocused and looked at the Bible not so much as a text book to be studied, but a love letter from God intended to woo us?

Stuff

This past week George Carlin died. Love him or hate him he challenged us to think about our words and language. One of my favorite routines of his was a bit of a social critique of our materialistic society. I think it is still appropriate today. Why do we have houses? To hold all of our stuff! Look at the mini-storage business, a whole industry designed to watch our stuff. Imagine that! What has happened to us that we feel we NEED so much stuff? It really seems to be a first commandment issue because how often do we end up putting our "stuff" ahead of God?

Anyway, it got me to thinking about this stuff again this week. Below is a video of the routine if you'd like to see it. If you don't like to hear swear words then don't watch it, he isn't hesitant to use them. Like when he makes the observation that our stuff is stuff but other peoples stuff we call (s#%!) junk.

Increase Your Vocabulary

I would like to share with you another snippet from "Dangerous Wonder."

Little children don't have a large vocabulary.. of words, but their vocabulary outside of words is massive. It's not limited to but includes hugs, winks, tears, squeezes, laughter, screaming, jumping, hopping, skipping, dancing, and silence. When you and I decide to be childlike, let's remember the vocabulary of children.

An elderly friend of mine went to the hospital to be with one of his children who was dying of cancer. During those last few days with his son, my friend was continually interrupted by well-meaning Christian friends who came by to offer advice, help, prayers, tapes, books, and encouragement. Even though he knew everyone was trying to be helpful, the old man could hardly wait for the people to leave. Then one evening, late, a fifty-year-old construction worker walked into the room. His son had been killed in a tragic car accident the year before. He slid a chair next to my friend, reached out, grabbed his hand, and said nothing. My friend told me he never wanted this man to leave. His silence was healing, strengthening, encouraging, understanding, and ... enough! The construction worker understood the language of children. He knew what his friend needed: no words.

...

It was our eldest boy's wedding, and he asked his younger brother to be best man. One of the roles of the best man is to give a toast to the new groom at the wedding reception, and Trent had taken a great deal of time to craft a toast that would honor their friendship and their love for each other. At the reception, when his time came, Trent stepped up to the microphone to begin his tribute to his brother.

The tribute never happened; that is, the verbal tribute.

Each time Trent would try to say his prepared words, they would stick in his throat and he would be overwhelmed by emotion. There was a long period of silence accompanied by the constant flowing of tears from Trent's eyes. Finally, after many frustrated attempts, Trent raised his glass and said, "To my brother!"

Gas Price Questions

I've been thinking about the rising gas prices and elections lately. A Minnesota congresswoman made a proposal for cutting gas prices. Most of the commentators I heard, or read, suggested that it really wouldn't work and that it was really more of an election publicity stunt than anything. That actually makes sense to me. The sound bite I heard on the news Congresswoman Bachmann said the problem with gas prices is supply and demand so we need to increase supply.

So I got to wondering, what if we decreased demand instead of trying to increase supply? What if we had a president that challenged us to lead the world in alternative clean fuel technology like we were once challenged to be the first country to the moon? Or really, what if we pulled out of Iraq? (Ignoring the military consequences for the moment) How much is the war draining our economy and driving down the value of the dollar? How much is our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan ticking off the countries who control the supplies of oil? If we were to leave, how might that effect the price of oil?

I admit, I hate where the price of gas has gone. I believe we've gone up around 400% in the past decade (I believe it was around the year 2000 when I was still paying around $1 per gallon). However, I wonder if this won't end up having some positive consequences. Will it drive us to new discoveries and technologies? Will it finally force us to make some decisions about life style that maybe we should have made previously? What do you think?

Marriage Confusion

If you've been watching the news lately you've probably caught on that "gay" marriage has been legalized in California. Of course it's going to be challenged in court and it probably won't be settled for a very long time, if at all. Now I understand that people have a variety of feelings on the subject as these marriages right or wrongness. I think I can also understand why one might feel one way or another. What I don't quite understand, and maybe somebody can help me understand, is the extreme comments against this law. I heard quotes from people on the news saying things like, "This is a slippery slope to the destruction of our society." I think I even heard it implied that this would destroy our economy. Really? Is it that bad? I guess I'm just not quite clear how legalizing "gay" marriage might completely tear apart the infrastructure of our country. I can see where it might make some people uncomfortable (although I would remind those people who are uncomfortable with this law that it is not requiring you to enter into such a relationship).

Honestly, I'm not quite sure I have a point here today. However, I am wondering if anyone can explain to me how legalizing marriage for same sex couples might signify the end of the world?

Sculpture

I heard an artist once talking about sculpture. He spoke about looking at a block of wood or granite and not only seeing the picture of what he wanted but also the picture of what then needed to be chipped/carved away. I kind of got me to thinking that maybe leadership, or at least church leadership, might be a little bit like sculpting (it sure feels a lot more like an art than a science to me).

When looking at an organization like a church congregation I think a leader needs to see what it can eventually look like, and then what needs to be chipped away or rearranged. Are there programs that are good (or at least satisfactory) but are masking what it could be? Are there people that might be better suited in other areas of ministry? Are there different parts that need to be built up to properly fit what the leader sees? It certainly sounds like artistry to me.

Outside Appearance

How many of you grew up like me with parents and other adults drilling into you that you "don't judge a book by its cover," that you judge people by their character and not by how they appear on the outside? How many of you have worked to instill that in your kids? I think it's an awesome value. It's the sort of value that I try and embrace. I think that's part of why I've been struck by the reaction that I've gotten today. (Sure, this isn't the first time I've gotten this kind of reaction, but it is the first time [I believe] I've chosen to say anything about it.)

Today I have chosen to dress slightly more relaxed than normal. I don't think it's bad. It's not like I'm dressed in shorts and a T-shirt like I'd prefer to be. I am wearing a decent pair of shoes, a shirt, tie, and blue jeans. I'm pretty confident that it's the blue jeans that have thrown people a little. The visitors we've had in the office today all have made comments about the way I'm dressed, saying things like, "Oh, is it casual Thursday?" It's not totally unusual to get such comments because I, sometimes, like to wear some clothing items that are, let's say, a little out of the ordinary.

For some reason it struck me more than normal how judgmental those kinds of comments really are towards me (or others). Now, I wasn't at all offended as they were intended as friendly banter, but I was struck by the comments. Part of the reason I like to make unique clothing choices from time to time is to make the point that it doesn't really matter what one wears. Why should it matter? Don't really believe that we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover?

Reflections and Headlights

Here is an interesting video by Kidz in the Hall, Talib Kweli, and Bunn B. It's a hip-hop video that takes on politics, on behalf of Barack Obama. Hip-hop is music of the people, or a snap shot of current culture. (Did you know "liturgy" comes from a Greek word meaning "public work?" Sounds similar to me.) At the beginning of the video you hear the MC's challenging the politicians to speak to their issues, the issues of the real people. I realize Obama has been accused of being an elitist and McCain has been a politician for years, but what excites me about this upcoming election is that I think both candidates have the ability to relate to the common, every day person. (Note I said "ability" I think it can be argued with both of them how well they do relating.)

Check out the video, I think it's interesting. Also, I encourage you to hang on (or at least skip to) the comments at the end. Obama challenges hip-hop artists to not only be mirrors of the culture, but to shine headlights into the future as well.




Thinking about mirrors and headlights, what are we doing as a church? Are we simply reflecting the culture? Are scrambling to try and find the next "fix" that will relate to, or reflect, the culture so it will be more palatable to the consumer or are we shining the light of Christ into the world?

Bee's & God

Have you ever heard someone say something to a kid like, "God created the bee and the devil created the stinger."? Does it concern you at all when you hear things like that? It does me. It makes God too easy to understand. When God is easy to understand there is nothing left to fear. I think that's a problem. I think we have become a little too lax in our view of God and created something more along the lines of "Buddy Jesus" in "Dogma."

Does anybody remember Luther's explanation to the 10 Commandments in his small catechism? "We are to fear and love God..." What happened to fearing God? I mean good ol' knee shaking, teeth chattering, cold sweat inducing fear? As kids we feared and loved things like the boogie man or monsters under our bed. What happened to our viewing God in this way.

When we stop fearing God, when we stop being in awe of God, then God becomes innocuous and insignificant. We can get away with anything and we are left without expectation. Yes, there's still grace, but I think there are expectations. Look at our home lives. Parents love their children and offer them grace, but they also expect them to clean their room, act responsible, give their best on school work, etc. Is God all so much different?

God created both the bee AND the stinger. We can fear the wrath, the disappointment, and/or the presence of God. As it turns out God IS dangerous. However, we can also love God and feel comforted by God's presence in our lives. Imagine the disciples out in the boat as the storm arose and Jesus spoke into the storm saying, "Peace" and the storm settled. The disciples must have been scared to death to understand that Jesus could control the weather. (Can't you just see Peter whispering to Matthew, "Don't make him mad!") The disciples must have been completely comforted knowing that Jesus could control the weather. (Can't you just see Matthew whispering back, "Yeah, but thank goodness he's on our side... right?")

Cheap Doesn't Always Pay

Given the current price of gas I have taken to driving slower, much slower, to save money by increasing gas mileage. Last night was really no different. I was driving home from St. Paul, cruising along at 55 mph. I had a good number of people pass me, but that was OK because I was in no big hurry. Although, I wonder if maybe I should have been.

Somewhere around Pine Island (the town about 10 miles North of us) it started to rain. As I got closer to home the lightning really began to pick up. It started to lighten a little as I arrived nearly home. I turned down our block and about four houses in there was the brightest flash of light and loudest clap of thunder I may have witnessed in a very long time. As the light faded, so did the street lights. As I got to our house I pushed the button for the automatic door opener... nothing... Turns out I don't have a house key on my key ring either. Why would I? Every time I come home I just drive into the garage and I'm good to go.

If only I hadn't been so cheap. If I had driven the up to the speed limit of 65 I would have been home approximately 15 minutes sooner and would have avoided being locked out of the house for an hour while they worked to restore power.

Then again, maybe I wouldn't have been locked out of the house if I had learned a lesson last year when we got locked out of the house at the end of vacation. Maybe if I would have learned and put a house key on my key chain. Maybe we could have found a good spot to hide a key around the outside of the house. Of course making extra keys and stuff would cost money. Is it really so bad to be locked out the house? Not if it saves you money. :-)

Congregational Critique

I would like to offer a challenge to those members of Christ Lutheran who are reading this blog. I have read in several different places that this generation coming of age now (18-40 year olds depending on who is writing) is looking for two things when considering joining an organization/group. First, there needs to be genuine community. They won't necessarily join for the community, in fact it seems they rarely do, but it needs to be present there for them to join. Second, they want to make a difference in the world and so that organization/group needs to allow them to join in making a difference.

When I look at traditional church structures typically the group responsible for creating genuine community is called something like the "fellowship committee." It's true everybody needs to be responsible, but typically it's the fellowship committee that works hard to help facilitate community within a congregation. The group traditionally responsible for making a difference in the world is called the "social concerns committee" or "service committee." Again, everybody really is responsible, but there typically needs to be a group to facilitate opportunities.

So here is the challenge to Christ Lutheran members reading. When I look around at the structure of our congregation I do not see a fellowship committee nor do I see a social concerns committee. So who is going to be responsible, and hold us responsible as a congregation, to work at creating genuine community and making a difference in the world?

Thoughts? (Am I off my rocker? Right on target? Something else?) Ideas? (What changes would you suggest? How might we address this?)

Religion and Politics

As I understand this notion of separation of church and state we seem to have got it all mixed up over the years. First of all, as I understand it, this notion is not actually in the constitution. It actually comes from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. Second, my understanding is that it was a phrase termed to keep the government out of running the church and creating a state church as they have in most (if not all) European nations. I think it was assumed that leaders would most certainly bring their faith to the table as they entered in political discussion.

Now, it seems, we have completely reversed matters. We have people who will fight to their death to bring the American flag front and center into worship (Is that really a symbol of our worship? Can we find important places outside of our worship space for the sake of those who find their patriotism to be important in their life?), and some of those very same people who will go to battle to remove the ten commandments from the courthouse. This just doesn't seem right to me. I think we need to work to reverse this trend. Let's keep the government out of our church business and let's stop trying to shut God out of our courthouses and political dialogues.

Kelly Fryer wrote an interesting post about this on her blog today, which you can read here. Her suggestion is that JFK started this trend of taking faith out of politics and political discussion. It would make sense that he needed to be elected as a Catholic at that time. However, she wonders if Obama may be taking steps to interject faith back into the discussion. If he is it will take all of us helping to be successful in bringing it back in.

Water

We've recently had a good deal of rain in this part of the state. One of the things that seminary drilled into me as a Lutheran is that when you see (or hear) water you think of baptism. So here I sit, drying out from the Noah like rains and bracing for the next round that should start up in a day or two, thinking about baptism and water.

The recent rains have brought flooding to Northern Iowa and parts of South East Minnesota that REALLY don't need flooding. Last August we had some pretty serious flooding around here as well. I imagine a number of folks still weren't fully dried out from last fall when new floods came. So, I know that when I hear about water I'm supposed to think about baptism, but with all of this flooding I can't help but think that this water stuff is dangerous. (Oh yeah, there was a story on the news this morning about a many who drowned when a sailboat out of Galveston, TX sunk on its way to Mexico. So, yeah, this water stuff is dangerous.)

The big, long prayer we pray whenever we have a baptism is called by many, "the flood prayer." I suppose that's appropriate, and not just because Noah is mentioned in the prayer. I think baptism is dangerous. Think about it. We confess to believe (as Lutherans) that in baptism we are drowned to our old sinful self and raised to new life in Christ as the Word of God is breathed into us. God grabs hold of our lives. We become one with Christ. Now, that's dangerous stuff.

YES, God has big plans for your life. YES, God wants to work good things through your life. Now, let me ask you, how many of those "good things" or "big plans" do you suppose line up with what YOU want or what the world is calling you to? Some might, but what do you think people thought of Noah as he built a giant ship in the middle of the desert? What do you suppose people thought when they discovered that Mary was pregnant and not yet married? (Let me tell you her life was absolutely in danger.) What do you suppose the reaction of Theressa's family was when she became a nun and followed her call to move to India? What do you think your boss might think if you asked for a week off to go and help clean up after the floods? Or a year to go help out following the earthquake in China?

This water stuff IS dangerous business.

Hoping Against Hope

Here is my sermon from this past Sunday. As a Lutheran, I have to admit, I was a little concerned with a title like "Hoping Against Hope" because I didn't want it to fall into the world of "prosperity gospel" or Joel Osteen. I think it turned out OK. What I'm most impressed with is the changes in how they are now recording the videos at worship on Sunday. With the microphones going directly into the recording the sound is so much better. Way to go team!

Confidence or Denial?

I think it is important for us to be confident. It is amazing how far a positive attitude can take a person. Yet I've been wondering lately, at what point does confidence, or a positive attitude, turn into a denial of reality?

In regards to this question, to see this fine line, an easy person to pick on is our current president. One of the great things he brought to this country, especially in the immediate after math of 9/11 was his supreme confidence and positive attitude. We were going to work through this as a country and come out stronger. We all believed him, if for no other reason than we needed to. Yet on the other side of matters are images of him giving a speech underneath a banner declaring victory or this past winter scoffing at the predictions that gas would reach $4 per gallon. Well, it seems we haven't quite reached a point where we really can declare victory in Iraq and $4 per gallon is now a reality. It kind of makes him look buffoonish.

So at what point does confidence move from an asset to a liability? How do we remain confident with a positive attitude, but not deny reality? I ask because I try (at least publicly) remain as positive as I can. I try and counter what appears to be panic because of the perceived negative situation with positivity and confidence that we will get through it just fine. However, I fear that my confidence and positive perception have been received as denial of the situation and I end up looking a bit like a buffoon in the situation. So I ask, how do we find that line? How do we walk it as leaders?

Better than God

For some reason, today, I am struggling with the platitudes that people feel compelled to share when people die or are dying. I know they mean well and I don't want to be mean. Still, I am struggling because I don't think people really think them all the way through.

A friend of mine has a baby girl who is dying before his families eyes. Somebody posted a note to the baby girl that said, "Peace to you and your family as you grow your angel wings." It's actually not as bad as some of the other things say at times like this. Still, it is pointing to (and maybe even assuming) things that are said like, "God needed another angel," or "God must need her."

Let's think this through a little. If you are saying that God needs this person then you are suggesting a couple of things. First of all you are suggesting that God is needy. God is God, so does God really need anything? Second you are suggesting that God needs this person more than the hurting person left on earth. While that's hard to believe, but if it is true that would make the person you are trying to comfort better than God. Now that is a bold statement. (I know that's not the intention of such statements, but I believe we need to think more about the implications of what we're saying. Especially in a culture that is becoming less and less biblically literate and more and more theologically mailable.)

I think it's dangerous territory when we start thinking, or making claims, that we are somehow, in some way, better than God.

What Do You Believe?

It's funny how often the question of what you believe comes up. In a culture where church attendance is falling off like a cliff edge in the Alps, we still are bombarded with the question of what we believe. Yesterday we went to the latest of the Indiana Jones movies. (It was good, but I'm also glad we paid a discounted price.) Like other installments of the series the viewer is challenged to take on different beliefs. I was particularly struck when at the climax of the movie the "bad guy" asks Indiana, "Don't you believe?" He responds with, "I do believe, that's why I'm backing away." For me it then begged the question, "What do you believe?"

So, what do you believe? It seems that lots of people believe, but what do they believe in? What do you believe in?

It was also interesting, and maybe only to this pastor, that one of the main conclusions drawn at the end of the show was that true treasure was really knowledge. It reminded me of Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and discipline." It made me want to jump to the conclusion that faith really is the true treasure. If the treasure is knowledge and the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord and fear of the Lord really is faith, then it must be concluded that faith (meaning faith in God) really is the true treasure.... Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but I've got to tell you that this preacher is willing to make that leap... at least for today.

Another Take on Passion

There they were at Simon's house. Interesting I suppose that they were even gathered there, just look at the guy. Just the sight of him tells you that he's sinful. The dinner party was going nicely until this disheveled woman with eyes red from crying enters the room. She staggers over and breaks open a jar of perfume, and not the cheap stuff mind but the kind you save for very special occasions. What was she thinking? In fact, as she begins showering the guest of honor with this perfume some of the others object to her wasteful behavior. "By golly, that bottle was worth nearly a year's worth of salary," the guest exclaim, "just think how much we could given to the poor!"

Honestly, do you think they would have given ALL of that money to the poor if they had been given the opportunity? I know I wonder, but maybe they would have since Jesus was the guest of honor and the people gathered at the table were those who at least claimed to be followers of Jesus. Yet Jesus didn't scold her for this seemingly wasteful behavior, not because he didn't care for the poor but because he recognized the passion that overflowed in this woman and came out as exuberant gratefulness.

What are you grateful for? What might that look like in your life?

At the end of August my wife, Dawn, and I will have our first child. I can imagine it will be shortly after that we will crawl into bed with every muscle aching from exhaustion. We will roll over and give each other a little hug and a kiss good night. We'll hold hands as we lie on our back staring bleary-eyed at the dark ceiling. A grin will begin to grow from ear to ear and one (or both) of us will mutter something like, "I can't believe it!" For me it's a picture of extreme gratefulness, it's a picture of passion.

Discovering Passion

What are you passionate about?

That can either be a wonderful question or horribly painful. If an answer immediately comes to mind it is wonderful because you immediate go that place where energy begins to bubble up from deep within you. If you don't know, or even worse have forgotten, then it can be painful because you instinctively know what joy that might bring but instead you recognize gaping emptiness that is there instead.

So where does that passion come from? I suspect a big part of that answer comes from discovering how passionately God loves and cares for you. How can one really forget the image of the prodigal son crawling back to his father ready to beg for forgiveness when he is tackled and embraced with a bear hug to last all eternity by a father who had been heartbroken by the loss of his son. That passion in which the father embraces the son and calls out to his servants to prepare a celebration, we are told, is the exactly the kind of passionate love our heavenly father has for us... So I suspect when we tap into that kind of passion, it's difficult for us not to be passionate as well.

God's Exuberant Generosity

OK, so the sermon title wasn't my own. I got the thought from the Festival of Homiletics, and something that was said (I believe) by Walt Brueggeman, so I can't take credit for that. It never really ceases to amaze me how certain words can paint complete pictures all in themselves. With that being said, here is my sermon from this past Sunday.

Wisdom vs. Information

Earlier today at text study we got to talking about the Gospel reading for this Sunday and the story about the wise man building his house upon the the rock. It led us to a discussion about wisdom, and do we really seek it in this culture all so much any more? Is wisdom really something we value, we seek?

Every once in a while you'll see a cartoon portray a guru sitting on top of a mountain. It's an interesting prop for a comic strip. However, it seems we don't really seek out wise ones like that all so much. Which made me wonder if maybe wisdom has become something we seek more communally, for example like Wikepedia.

We are overloaded with information every day. Yet how much wisdom do we get? It leads me to think we're a wisdom depraved society. If that is the case, can we really embrace a story like we'll read on Sunday? Where do we even begin to relate?

I can tell you that wisdom begins with God. In fact, if I remember correctly, the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord. I don't have many answers, but I can suggest to start with God.

Community Conundrum

Last weekend were up at Luther Seminary for the Baccalaureate service as well as a few other graduation related activities. It got me to thinking about my time at Luther Seminary. What it got me thinking about was that the professors I seemed to most enjoy were the ones who, to me, really genuinely cared for, and enjoyed, the students. Isn't that something all of us are really looking for? A community where people really, genuinely care for us?

So how do we get people there? It seems to me that you can't force/coheres anyone to genuinely care? Maybe you can learn to fake it, but I suspect you'll be found out. So how do we foster a community that cares? Maybe, for all of us it starts with "me."

Irony

Last Sunday the assigned Gospel reading was from Matthew 6, where Jesus exhorts us, "Do not worry." A wonderful thought, but how often do we hear, "Do not worry," and wonder, "Why? What should I be worrying about?" So it was that I found it somewhat ironic that this past Sunday students from Luther Seminary graduated. An interesting fit of scripture and events, I think.

I was also struck by what I would consider the irony of a friend of mine who graduated with the class on Sunday. He grew up on a farm. Nothing wrong with that, but I think sometimes farmers get a falsely stereotyped that they are not real smart (because they seemingly work more with their hands than their brains). There is also a sense that farmers are tied to their land. Here's what I think is great, my "farmer" friend is probably one of the smartest people to be coming out of Luther Seminary this spring. He is also one of the more mission minded pastors coming out of the class as well. I suspect it's more "thanks to," than "despite," his parents that he has turned into this remarkable pastor.

Lazy and Forgetful

Earlier today I was at a meeting in which during our time of worship the pastor suggested that the Muslim faith doesn't really have a notion of original sin as we do in our Christian faith. (Keep in mind this is from another pastor so who knows how reliable that is.) Apparently instead of original sin they believe more that people get lazy and forgetful. I suppose this is a bit of an oversimplification of their understanding, but it does feel kind of true to my experience.

How often do I find myself forgetting what I was going to say? Usually it will get covered with something like, "It probably wasn't all so important." How do we know? It's been lost. Perhaps it was the first step towards world peace, or an idea for a million dollar invention. Of course that's me. Then there are the people of faith. Take the Israelites, for example, after being freed from slavery they seemed to have forgotten about how terrible their previous conditions had been and that God was the one that had set them free and was providing for them in the wilderness. Look at the letters of Paul to various congregations and their church fights, misunderstandings, etc. Don't we make all of those mistakes repeatedly ourselves? Have we forgotten already? Or is it that we've gotten lazy, because to be honest with you to live in relationship with other people is hard work.

Festival of Homiletics

This week I'm attending the Festival of Homiletics and I've been loving it. The problem is that it's completely filling my brain to overflowing every day. I'm hoping next week to eventually start sharing some of the brilliance that I've heard this week. The problem, for you the reader, is that it will only be brief glimmmers and glimpses but I will try my best.

Holy Spirit, Holy Cow

Here is my sermon from Pentecost Sunday (last week).

A Grammar Thought

I will apologize up front if I get this grammar thing incorrect. It was passed on to me by someone much smarter than I, especially when it comes to grammar. At text study today we were looking at the Gospel for this Sunday, which happens to be the Great Commission. It was pointed out that when you look at the Greek, "Go and make disciples" has a transitive verb. What means is that it is deeply connected with the subject. In this case the subject is God, and we are but the objects. So, in a sense, it's more of "Go and find people that God is already working on." It's really about what God is doing, not what we are doing.... I know, I didn't explain it quite as well as I wish I could have, but I still think it's a really cool thought.

Another, kind of fun thought, I got from text study is related to our first reading for Sunday, the story of creation. In the story we hear God command a couple of different times, "Go forth and multiply." We always assume it to mean go and make babies. However, what if we looked at it as a command for evangelism? If that's the case we might apply it to Byron by noting that there about 4,000 people who live in Byron now. There are not 4,000 people in worship on Sunday mornings. Consequently, you might argue that our "job" then is to be fruitful, to bear the fruit of the Spirit, so that the number of people in Byron who hear the Good News of Jesus proclaimed would multiply. A fun new way to look at an old story.

Dandelion Diligence

Ever since I entered the world of home ownership I've been fascinated with dandelions. I've especially been intrigued by dandelions as a metaphor for sin. These thoughts have reared their head once again as my annual battle with the yellow beast has begun. I know I haven't been as diligent as I could be in adding fertilizer and weed killer as I possibly could, but I've done pretty well I think. I continue to be amazed at the ferocity in which they persist and continue to grow. In fact, it's becoming almost a ritual that when I pull into the driveway, I wander around the yard pulling dandelions for 15-20 minutes before entering the house.

This new ritual has gotten me to thinking lately. What if I attacked the sin in my life with the same diligence in which I've been attacking the dandelions? How much better off might my life be?

Confirmation Sermon

On May 4, we confirmed 32 9th graders and 30 8th graders. It was wonderful to see all of these youth affirm their baptisms and to promise to continue to live out their life of faith. Here is the sermon that I preached that Sunday...

What Good is Theology?

Last week I got to attend a retreat with other first call pastors. On Thursday night our conversation turned to music at weddings and funerals. Much of the group were adamant that only "sacred" music should be a part of that worship time. They shared several examples of songs that people had wanted to use as part of a wedding or a funeral. I got the impression that a number of them would not even want to use "praise and worship" (or some call it "contemporary") music used.

I have to admit, that didn't sit with me real well. Sure, there is music that is more appropriate than others. I do believe I would draw the line with music that is overtly sexual, violent, or filled with inappropriate language (like curse words). That being said, as I retired to me room that evening I was struck with the thought of, "How egotistical it is to feel you can decide for people where they do or do not connect with God."

I wonder if sometimes as pastors we missed a big part of our theological training. How often do we, as resident theologians in our congregations, want to limit where we discover/encounter God? Instead, because we are trained in theology is it not our duty to broaden where we see God? If God is at work in the world, then we should not limit God to the confines of our sanctuaries. If God is at work in the world, and we really believe that, then it is our responsibility to help give people the language (the eyes of faith) to recognize God in ever expanding range of places. Otherwise, what good is theology?

Playfulness

I wanted to share another great section from "Dangerous Wonder" by Michael Yaconelli:

Time for a reality check, right? Playfulness is not a welcome idea for most of us. It sounds frivolous and shallow, distracting and irrelevant, inefficient and unproductive. That's because we live in a technological culture that worships busyness and activity. Under the guise of saving time, we now are inundated with e-mail, pagers, and cellular phones. We end each day smothered by the demands of our time and are greeted each new morn with more to do, not less. Play? There's no time to play. How can we play when the mountain of work and problems we are faced with each day get higher and deeper? How can we play when the world is overcome with poverty, famine, and war?

Play is an expression of God's presence in the world; one clear sign of God's absence in society is the absence of playfulness and laughter. Play is an escape; it is the way to release the life-smothering grip of busyness, stress, and anxiety. (Playfulness is a modern expression of hope, a celebration of the flickering light of the gospel that plays with the dark by pouncing on the surrounding darkness like a cat toying with a mouse.)

A Thought From Sunday

Yesterday, one of the things Pastor Dave talked about in his sermon was that we are called to be advocates. One of the reasons we are able to do that is because Jesus promised to send us another Advocate. (How cool is that? We have two! Jesus AND the Holy Spirit!) I thought that fit quite lovely with something shared at the Adult Forum, talking about the synod World Hunger Appeal. Are you sitting down? Here is the line, "To give charity is give a person the crumbs off your table. To give advocate for a person is to invite them to the table with you." I may slightly misquoted, but how cool is that? Where might you be called to be an advocate today?

Monkeys

Seriously, who doesn't love monkeys? Here's a song from VeggieTales, about Monkey's... sort of.

Maybe It's Time to Listen

For a while now we've been hearing reports about how the quality of education has dropped in the United States compared to the rest of the world. I heard someone claim the other day that we are the richest third world country. Then this morning I came across this clip...



It seems our life expectancy in this country is dropping. It cuts across all socio-economic lines. Yes the drop appears to be steeper with the poor, but it effects us all. The same, I would venture to guess, is true with the drop in education. Where else is this happening?

I don't share this to suggest that it's time to panic, rather to suggest that maybe it's time to listen. It's time to listen and recognize the poor around us. How long have we, as a nation, focused the rich and the wealthy? How long have we heard reports of a shrinking middle class and a growing disparity between the rich and the poor? We have, more often than not, held this up as perhaps a good thing. Then we allow the rich to run the country, both through laws of market and through politics (how many billions of dollars have already been spent on the upcoming presidential election?). We have assumed for some time now that it is good to let the rich rule because the reason they have become rich is because of their intelligence and talents, or they've acquired them because they have the means.

Now, it seems we are beginning to pay the price for ignoring the poor. Funny, how ignoring a problem doesn't just make it go away. It's about time we begin investing in the poor. We need to work on better educating ALL students. We need to work on providing affordable health care for ALL people.... Doesn't this sound like something Jesus once asked us to do?

Also, completely unrelated, check this post out from a partner in ministry. It includes a clip related to the emergent church, but there things that sounded awful Lutheran to me. I heard a claim to the priesthood of all believers. What do you hear?

The Power of Prayer

A friend of mine sent me the following joke. I kind of liked it, so I thought I'd pass it along to you.

A female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day, every day, for a long, long time. So, she went to check it out. She went to the Western Wall and there he was walking slowly up to the holy site. She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane in a very slow fashion, she approached him for an interview.

"Pardon me Sir, I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. What's your name?"

"Maury Fishbein" he replied.

"Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?"

"For about 60 years."

"60 years?!? That's amazing! What do you pray for?"

"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims. I pray for all the wars and hatred to stop, I pray for all our children to grow up safely as responsible adults, and to love their fellow man."

"How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"

"Like I've been talking to a fricking wall."

Jump First Faith

This past Sunday my sermon was titled, "Jump First Faith." If you have the patience to listen, you might recognize a few things from last weeks postings.

The Power of Plural

I'll admit it, I'm not really a big grammar guy. It doesn't often excite me. However, there are times when someone shares something with me grammatically and it just really strikes a cord. That happened to me this week. When we were looking at the gospel reading for this Sunday and we looked at John 14:14.

You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

A scary place, for me, to end our reading. It leaves us with a picture of prayer that is one of God being kind of a Holy Vending Machine. I don't think that's the image of prayer I want to be promoting. But then it happened. Somebody (much more learned then me) pointed out that if you look at the original Greek you see that the "You" there is actually a plural version, not singular.

How cool is that? It's not about my prayers. It's about be faithful in prayer in community. It's not about some formula, bu it's about people being faithful in community. So pray...not just by yourself, but with others and may your hearts become one (with God and each other)!

Fear First?

I consider myself fortunate to have grown up around water all of my life. Most of my childhood we had a modest house on a lake. When I was really little there was very little fear. I would just run and jump in the water. Before you know better you jump first and fear later. As you grow older you learn from the world to fear first and jump later. Sometimes that's a good thing.

When I got a little older I grew content with just staying in the shallow water. The deep water was scary. One day, in an attempt to help overcome my fear, my parents threw me off the boat into the water. I screamed and cried. You know what? I didn't die. It did help me overcome my fear and I loved the water even more than before, because I knew I could survive the deep water. (Lest you think my parents horribly cruel, I did have my life preserver on and they were right there, but to a kid those parts didn't register over the fear...at least initially.)

How often do we see Jesus in the gospels encouraging people around him not to fear? Sure, there are a lot of scary things going on in the world. In fact, they are everywhere. If we let fear run our lives we might ever leave our homes, maybe not even our beds. Or we can face our fears and "jump first" knowing that God goes with us. In fact, God is already where we are going, God is already fully active in the world all around us.

Wild, Faithful Abandon

I have been reading "Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith" by Michael Yaconelli. I LOVE this book. I think this is my third time reading it. I would like to share an excerpt from it here today:

"Last year Bill Harley, singer, songwriter and storyteller, told a marvelous story on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. It is the story of a young girl who ended up breaking the rules, rejecting the expectations of all around her, because she loved with abandon. Here is her story:

"Last year my son played T-ball....Needless to say, I was delighted when Dylan wanted to play....Now on the other team there was a girl I will call Tracy. Tracy came each week. I know, since my son's team always played her team. She was not very good. She had coke-bottle glasses and hearing aids on each ear. She ran in a loping, carefree way, with one leg pulling after the other, one arm windmilling wildly in the air.

Everyone in the bleachers cheered for her, regardless of what team their progeny played for. In all the games I saw, she never hit the ball, not even close. It sat there on the tee waiting to be hit and it never was. Sometimes, after ten or eleven swings, Tracy hit the tee (in T-ball the ball sits on a plastic tee, waiting for the batter to hit the ball, which happens once every three batters). The ball would fall off the tee and sit on the ground six inches from home plate. "Run! Run!" yelled Tracy's coach, and Tracy would lope off to first, clutching the bat in both arms, smiling. Someone usually woke up and ran her down with the ball before she reached first.

Everyone applauded.

The last game of the season, Tracy came up, and through some fluke, or simply in a nod toward the law of averages, she creamed the ball. She smoked it right up the middle, through the legs of 17 players. Kids dodged as it went by or looked absentmindedly at it as it rolled unstopped, seemingly gaining in speed, hopping over second base, heading into center field. And once it reached there, there was no one to stop it. Have I told you there are no outfielders in T-ball? There are for three minutes in the beginning of every inning, but then they move into the infield to be closer to the action, or, at least, to their friends.

Tracy hit the ball and stood at home, delighted. "Run!" yelled her coach. "Run!" All the parents, all of us, we stood and screamed, "Run, Tracy, run, run!" Tracy turned and smiled at us, and then, happy to please, galumphed off to first. The first base coach waved his arms 'round and 'round when Tracy stopped at first. "Keep going Tracy, keep going! Go!" Happy to please she headed to second. By the time she was halfway to second, seven members of the opposition had reached the ball and were passing it among themselves. It's a rule in T-ball-everyone on the defending team has to touch every ball.

The ball began to make its long and circuitous route toward home plate, passing from one side of the field to the other. Tracy headed to third. Adults fell out of the bleachers. "Go, Tracy, go!" Tracy reached third and stopped, but the parents were very close to her now and she got the message. Her coach stood at home plate calling her as the ball passed over the first baseman's head and landed in the fielding teams empty dugout. "Come on, Tracy. Come on, baby! Get a home run!"

Tracy started for home, and then it happened. During the pandemonium, no one had noticed the twelve-year-old geriatric mutt that had lazily settled itself down in front of the bleachers five feet from the third-base line. The tongue hung out, mouth pulled back in an unmistakable canine smile, and Tracy stopped, right there. Halfway home, thirty feet from a legitimate home run.
She looked at the dog. Her coach called, "Come on, Tracy. Come on home!" He went to his knees behind the plate, pleading. The crowd cheered, "Go, Tracy, go. Go, Tracy, go!" She looked at the adults, at her own parents shrieking and catching it all on video. She looked at the dog. The dog wagged its tail. She looked at her coach. She looked at home. She looked at the dog. Everything went to slow motion. She went for the dog! It was a moment of complete, stunned silence. And then, perhaps, not as loud, but deeper, longer, more heartfelt, we all applauded as Tracy fell to her knees to hug the dog. Two road diverged on a third-base line. Tracy went for the dog."

Two roads diverged in this little girl's life. One is the road of rules and expectations, the other is the road of love. The roads of our lives are much the same. Will we go for the safe, predictable road of rules and expectations? Or will we go for the ONE we love, Jesus, who bids us come with wild abandon?"

Olympic Abandon

The summer between 3rd and 4th grade was awesome. My next door neighbor and I spent the summer participating in the Olympics. Often it was just the two of us and so we had to develop new games like 2 square, rooftop volleyball, and mega-hopscotch. I would wake each morning with eager anticipation of what the days activities might bring. Would we find ourselves in a 2 square grudge match settled in triple sudden death overtime? Would we be pitted against each other in an epic swimming endurance competition? I couldn't tell you how long these epic battles lasted because as we allowed our imaginations to run wild all sense of time was lost. I can tell you that we were called home from time to time eat and to sleep, but that's about all I could tell you.

It was a summer of complete and total abandon and as we gave ourselves over to the Olympics. We went where the competition was, and as best as I can remember I loved every minute of it because it was filled the joy of abandon, of giving yourself over. I was no longer contained by the rules of this world.

Do you remember reading about this in the early chapters of the gospels? As Jesus began his ministry he was rubbing elbows with tax collectors, fishermen, and all kinds of other people. He called out them saying, "Come follow me." Amazingly, with complete abandon, they left what they were doing to follow Jesus. We too are invited into that same sort of abandon, to shed the things of this world and to follow Jesus wherever He may lead us. We are invited to get lost in the joy of abandon, to get lost in the love of Christ. (Please note that it's about following Jesus not going our own way and then inviting Jesus to follow... there is a difference.) It is wild. It is reckless. It is our call.