Love Not Fear

Awake and Alive

2011-05-17T21:22:00.000-05:00

It's still Wednesday night, and it's still at McAlister's Deli in Slidell, but it's now called "Awake and Alive".

Because we are. Awake and Alive.

The new name is from a song by Skillet that we used in the youth-led worship service last year.

It's been about a year since we started meeting at the now-defunct CC's Coffee House. In that year, we've met every week (and I, for one, hate it when I have to miss it), moving from CC's to Sweet Peppers (now Chesterfield's) to McAlister's. We've celebrated joy in worship by wearing our pajamas, had a board game afternoon, sung carols at a local nursing home, gave out free water at a Carnival parade, competed in a Gumbo Cook-Off, and more.

And we're just getting started!

Join us!

Ressurection

2011-04-24T17:57:00.000-05:00

It's Easter Sunday. The day when we tell the rest of the Good Friday story: the resurrection.

To be honest, the Easter story often sounds a little anti-climactic to me.

I mean the story to this point is pretty gripping: the life of healing and teaching; the triumphant march into Jerusalem; the long week where everything goes so very wrong; betrayal; denial. It all ends where it always ends: the powerless broken by the powerful in a manner meant to be an example to all those who stand when they should kneel.

The story then takes a bizarre, and, on the face of it unbelievable turn. Jesus is just suddenly alive again. No one even gets to see the special effects. They just find the tomb empty.

It's as if Superman gets shot full of kryptonite and killed by some alien foe, and then, in the last page of the comic, he's alive again. (Wait. That kind of happened, didn't it?)

The thing is, I think, all the people who originally told the gospel story, the writers who eventually wrote it down, the others who copied the story, the others who told the story after reading it, those who found in this story hope and comfort and challenge and conviction and salvation and condemnation, all those people don't end the story with Easter and the resurrection.

They start the story with it.

This is the point where it all starts, not where it ends. The story is not only or primarily about an innocent man who was killed by a ruthless empire, but about a world that is not what it seems, a world where what seems to be defeat is really victory.

The fact that it seems so unbelievable is the very point. The story of Easter is a lesson to the self-righteous, the oppressor, the bully, the snob. It says that, no matter how much it seems like all the power stands with you, God is really with those under your feet. No matter how much this world looks like a descent into madness and decadence and death, it is really being

born

again.

Resurrected.

I Hate Lent (but I like Good Friday)

2011-04-22T21:00:00.000-05:00

I really hate the season of Lent. I've hated it for a long time. But I've written about that before.

I did a Google search a while back on the phrase "i hate lent" and mainly got posts about how people say they hate Lent, but just don't understand it, or those really misleading articles where someone says the opposite of what they mean. ("I hate Lent... blah blah blah... so that's why I love Lent.") Bleh!

The thing is, I really do hate the season of Lent.

Really.

If it weren't for the fact that Northminster traditionally celebrates communion each Sunday during Lent, I'd probably just stay home for those Sundays. (Actually, last year, when Northminster to celebrate communion every other Sunday during Lent, I worshiped the other Sundays at a church that did.)

But I really like Good Friday. I know, there's all the death and darkness, and even a good helping of the hypocrisy that's there for the rest of Lent. But Good Friday is different for me. And last night, I. think I figured out why.

On Good Friday, Jesus is here.

I know, Jesus is always here, but Good Friday is different.

In Lent, if Jesus shows up in the "story of Lent" at all, he's wandering in the desert, telling the Devil what for. He's there by himself.

Good Friday is different. Jesus is not there. He's here, on the cross, in the tomb. Here. In the grave with so many people I love, so many people I might have loved if I met them. Here with me in death when it comes my time.

Here with the people all over the world who suffer for being who they are, for loving who they love, for saying what they say, for standing with the powerless instead of bowing to the powerful. Here with the people who screw up, who find themselves alone when they need someone, who think there is no God, who think God hates them.

Good Friday is different from the rest of Lent because Jesus shows us just how much God is willing to do through to pull us, to pull me, into God's arms.

Maundy Thursday

2011-04-21T21:01:00.000-05:00

In the story of the first Passover, the Israelites ate with the staffs in their hands and their bags packed. They were still in Egypt, still slaves. They celebrated not only what God had done, but what God would do.

Many of us Christians celebrated communion tonight, celebrating not only what God in Christ has done, but what God will do. The hungry will be fed. The poor will be redeemed. The outsider, the reject, the abused, and the tortured, will find themselves welcomed into God's kingdom, even before the powerful, the wealthy, and the judges.

Praise God!

Gumbo for the Soul

2011-03-21T21:51:00.000-05:00

We competed in a Gumbo Cook-Off in Slidell last weekend. We picked the name "Gumbo for the Soul" for the team. I must admit, it wasn't my favorite when we picked it (my choice would have been "Sinner's Stew"), but I was wrong. "Gumbo for the Soul" was a fantastic name!

I think it's even a good way to describe Northminster Presbyterian, and our youth group. Gumbo is a mixture of very different ingredients (our gumbo had sausage, turkey, chicken, and, of course, spices) all based in a roux which forms the basis of it all. We Northminster folks are really different: we don't agree all the time, we like different things, we vote differently. Yet, we love each other and work together, making a wonderful, flavorful, spicy discipleship which celebrates God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

So, if you're reading this and you don't think you fit in because you're so, well, different from everyone you know, get in contact with us. Gumbo for the Soul would be so much better with you in the mix!

Enchanted, I'm Sure - A Sermon

2011-03-04T13:39:00.000-06:00

This is the sermon I preached on February 20:

Enchanted, I’m Sure

Text: Matthew 5:38-42

A while back, I read a book called Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. Emily suggested it. They made a movie of it later, but, as usual, I think the book is better.

It’s about a girl named Ella who is under a spell which forces her to be obedient: She must obey any direct order given to her. If you tell her to “wait right there,” she is glued to the spot and cannot move, even to save her life. If you tell her to “stop talking,” she is unable to say anything.

As you can probably guess, Ella is not happy about this enchantment. Almost everyone who knows about it uses it to bully and take advantage of Ella.

“Do the dishes.”

“Clean the floors.”

“Give me your late mother’s pendant.”

And much worse.

It’s not much fun to feel used and not valued. And sometimes obedience can feel like being used. Anyone who’s had a boss they didn’t like, or, even sometimes a boss they did like, knows that obedience is not always a fun choice. A lot of people aspire to be president; few people aspire to be a buck private in the army.

There are exceptions. If you know how to end poverty worldwide, and you can prove to me you do, then I’ll gladly let you tell me what I need to do to help. An airplane pilot wants the air traffic controller to tell him which runway to use, not ask him what he thinks. We’re usually OK with being obedient to someone who we think has a better grasp of what’s going on than we do.

Even so, I think one thing that turns a lot of people off about the Bible is that God keeps trying to get in your face and tell you what to do. I mean, the Bible starts off well enough with all those great Genesis stories, but then, once we get into Exodus, a whole lot of rules and commands start cropping up, until soon God’s telling us what to eat and how to run our business and how to treat our family. Pretty soon, we read about God’s prophets either giving more commands or whining about how no one listens to them. I mean, come on!

When people hear about Jesus, who died for us,

is our friend,

is loving and kind to children,

tells nice stories about forgiveness and love,

I don’t think they want to hear him giving orders. It’s not my favorite thing about Jesus, I’ll tell you. And yet, just when Matthew starts getting into the swing of things, that’s just what Jesus does: starts telling us how to live.

And when I read Jesus’s commands for us, right here in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, I kind of feel like Ella. Jesus seems to be commanding us to be doormats, taken advantage of by every two-bit bully or megalomaniac that comes along. I mean, come on, Jesus, show a little common sense!

Turning the other cheek, in my experience, gets you slapped again.

If we really gave our coats to everyone who asked for our cloaks, we’d soon go bankrupt buying winter apparel.\

If we really went the second mile with everyone who forced us to go one, lots of people would be force-marching us, and we might never go where we wanted again.

If we really gave to everyone who begged us, we’d see nothing but beggars, until we were beggars ourselves.

But this is the Sermon on the Mount, remember. None of it makes much sense.

It starts with the Beatitudes, and Jesus saying we’re blessed by God when we mourn and when people lie about us. Yeah, Jesus, that’s just how it feels: like I’m blessed.

We’re told that if we’re going to enter the kingdom of heaven, we’ve got to be more righteous than the people who get PAID to be righteous (the Pharisees and teachers). Really? Come on!

Not only can’t we murder each other (which is actually pretty sensible, I think), we can’t even be angry. It’s not enough to avoid adultery (again, pretty sensible), but we can’t even be physically attracted to other people. We’re not even allowed to swear out an oath. In other words, it looks like we’re supposed to be these first class wimps, never getting mad, never getting romantic, living in some kind of Fantasy Land where lollipops and sunshine are all around and money just appears in your pocket when you need it.

Who can do all these commandments, Jesus? Who even wants to? Isn’t this just switching one set of impossible to follow rules (the ones the Old Testament keeps going on about) for another set, this one even outside the realm of common sense?

This has to be a misprint in the Bible. These commands are ludicrous! Jesus MUST have had something else in mind. Someone must have heard him wrong.

I mean, we all know what Christianity means: go to church, say your prayers, write some checks and make a decision about who your Lord and Savior is. Maybe help out at a homeless shelter or give blood when you’ve got the chance, or do a mission trip or something now and then. There’s nothing wimpy in that. In fact, it’s taking control of your life. YOU decide who your Lord and Savior is. YOU say the prayer, write the check, get up on Sunday. This is what we keep hearing Christianity is: a way for you to take control of your life, get in good with God, and get yourself a nice house in heaven when this life is over, and a nice house on earth before then.

Now, it’s tempting to reason our way out of this. We could say that turning the other cheek was a form of defiance, forcing the attacker to slap us with his palm, rather than the back of his hand. We could say that walking the second mile was a form of service to the next poor schmo who would get forced to walk. We could say that Jesus clearly didn’t mean that we should lend money to anyone, just the people who’ve demonstrated to us that they have a good credit rating. We could turn these commands into suggestions, little tidbits that might help us as we go on our journey toward respect and success.

But what if Jesus really meant every word of the Sermon on the Mount? What if Jesus is telling us that it’s not enough just to sit around and talk about how we believe in God and how we’ve said the right prayers? What if Jesus is telling us that following God’s intention is more than claiming that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior? What if it’s more than putting on a show? What if being a Christian means actually doing something that seems incredibly stupid?

What if being a follower of the risen Christ means not calculating a return on investment of everything in our life? What if being “saved” is not about being safe? (softer) What if being “saved” is not about being safe?

I think Jesus is telling us that our whole idea of the world is wrong. The Fantasy Land is the world we think we live in. The commands Jesus give seem absurd because our understanding of the world is just plain wrong. We look at the losers of this world and call them winners, and we look at the winners and call them losers. We think being a loud-mouth who can shoot three-pointers is better than being a humble man who can’t. We think a vain, shallow woman who has great hair and a nice figure is better than a thoughtful, kind woman who has neither.

We think the way to free a country from a dictator is with a 4-star general, and not with a facebook page. And we’re wrong!

Trust is for suckers, we think, and we’re wrong.
Faith is for the blind, we think, and we’re wrong.

We act like being powerful is more important than being merciful, and we’re wrong.
We act like being responsible is more important than being caring, and we’re wrong.
We act like being smart is more important than being compassionate, and we’re wrong.
We act like being strong is more important than being generous, and we’re wrong.

We act like being safe and secure and happy is the ultimate goal of life, and we’re so wrong that doesn’t even seem like the best word any more.

We’re so certain that everyone who talks to a child is a kidnapper or pedophile, that everyone who asks for a dollar is a drug dealer, that every teenage boy is a shoplifter. We’re so sure of the worst possible scenario that we’ve built little walled gardens to live in, gardens where all the plants are dying. A walled desert.

At the Blaze youth leader conference last month, I found myself in a workshop that was supposed to be about building community in youth groups, but instead seemed more about how to draft an appropriate set of laws and by-laws for the group. (Only call them a “covenant” so that you can teach the kids a word in the Bible.) A three-page single-spaced typewritten covenant reviewed by a lawyer.

The message seemed to be to keep yourself safe from lawsuits and avoid being accused of criminal behavior at all costs, and that the worst thing that could happen in a youth group is for the leader to lose control.

After the workshop, I talked over dinner with a fellow youth leader named Amy from the Atlanta area. I don’t think we’d met before. After a bit of small talk, we started talking about the workshop. Amy wasn’t at that particular workshop, but she is a preschool teacher as well as a volunteer youth worker. She had a little different perspective, but the idea of avoiding risk at all cost bothered her too. The rules are that she should hardly ever touch the children in her class. She had protocols and guidelines to use to avoid being accused of despicable crimes that would cost her her job, her reputation, and possibly her freedom.

But Amy said that she could not be the kind of preschool teacher the world needed and still abide by those rules all the time. When a kid falls and cries, she takes him in her arms and soothes him, even if the rules say she shouldn’t.

She’s a preschool teacher, and to her, that means something. She and Tom and Abby and Garet and I are youth leaders, and to us, that means something. We are all Christians, and to us, that means something, and it’s often terrifying to live into that meaning.

The thing is, as Christians, we're not called to safety. We're called to the loving service to others that is obedience to God. Sure, if you can be loving AND safe, you should, and if you can minimize the risk, you should, but if you have to choose between being loving and being safe, then we Christians HAVE to choose love, even when that love is anything but safe. When we spend so much time worried about being safe, worried about what could happen, building our little walled garden, we aren't being faithful.

To be honest, I'm horribly frightened by this line of thought. It means that there is an awful lot on the line every time I take a breath as a Christian. I’m even more frightened when I see Jesus telling me pretty much the same thing.

Now, please get this straight. Jesus loves you with all his being, and God loves you with all God’s life, and the Holy Spirit loves you with everything the Spirit has, and nothing you do or don’t do will change that. We’re not talking about going to heaven or hell when you die. We’re talking about right here and now, and how it is because of God’s love that Jesus works to break our enchantment.

Yes, it’s not God who is enchanting us. We’re already enchanted.

You see, just like Ella in the story, there are commands that we find ourselves powerless to disobey. Those commands do not come from God.

We hear that we must value our worth by our wealth, and we hasten to obey, believing somehow that billionaires are worth more than school teachers or janitors.

We hear that we need to buy more stuff to be pretty enough, or handsome enough, or tasteful enough, and we hasten to obey, and pull out our credit cards.

We hear that we must keep our nation and family safe at all costs, and we hasten to obey, doing whatever it takes to intimidate and even kill anyone who might in any way be considered a threat.

We hear that the fires of damnation await those who don’t believe certain things, and we hasten to obey those who tell us stand at attention and march off to war against the infidel, whether the infidel is Muslim, Jewish, or even a fellow Christian who doesn’t interpret the Bible as we do. We are told that this is how we prove our love of Jesus, and in our enchantment we say, “Your will is my command!”

Now I’m under this spell too. I worry about my job,

my kid’s college education,

my church’s future,

my health.

I come from a long line of very proficient and prodigious worriers.

I want you to like this sermon.

I want you to trust me with our kids.

I don’t want to lose the respect of my colleagues, my family, or my church.

None of that is wrong in itself, I guess, but it often gets in the way of my being a loving, faithful disciple of the Christ, and then, it is wrong.

So, maybe I’m not the one to tell you how to break the spell.

Maybe Jesus is, though. I think Jesus is telling us as plainly as he can how to become, well, disenchanted. Jesus is telling us to act as if the enchantment were already broken. As much as we are able, we should get free of the comfort of our spell and show love even if showing love is stupid. When we care for each other even when there is no reward, and maybe even a punishment, the spell weakens. When we stand up to injustice, even when it isn’t popular and doesn’t seem to do any good, the magic lessens.

Instead of feeling threatened, and then angry, when we see that our adversary is more like us than we thought, and pray for them, and even try to forgive them, the sorcery decreases. Instead of fearing that we will die alone an childless, that we are ugly and unlovable, and treat people of the other sex as tools to abate those fears, when we try to see that our fears are unfounded, that we are beautiful and loved already, the black art fades and we see the world for what it is.

Living this way will seem pointless almost all the time. This is a broken world, broken far beyond what any of us recognize or even can imagine.

But this is God’s world, and it will be healed. It will be freed from its spell because God will free it. God will free us. And Christ has promised us that when we follow him, when we obey his commands, we become a part of that freedom, even when we’re still under the spell.

What would the world be like for us if we could truly see the starving Mexican woman with the same eyes as we see the sick co-worker in the hospital? What choices would we make if we could somehow get past the idea that it’s either us or them? What kind of people would we be if we really saw the world as Jesus does, as it really is?

Maybe we can try and find out.

Peace be with you.

2011 Youth Lock-In

2011-01-18T21:15:00.000-06:00

We had our annual Youth Lock-In last weekend. (That's the annual Blind Man's Bluff game at right. There were more people there, but it's kind of hard to get them all in one shot.)

The theme was "Drama." We played lots of improv games and had discussions about hypocrisy. We also got "off-topic" a bit and let the youth talk eloquently about the kind of pastor they want for Northminster.

For more pics, check out the church website's youth page!

Wednesday Night!

2011-01-17T14:28:00.000-06:00

It's not really a "youth event," but people of every age (including youth) are welcome. We're getting together at McAlister's Deli in Slidell every Wednesday night to find ways to support each other and reach out to the world.

We talk together, rant together, dream together, help with homework, put together goofy and wonderful things like Pajama Day at church, or singing Christmas carols at the Northshore Living Center.

Youth and adults helping each other, strengthening each other, and having some fun! No agenda. And yet, awesome things happen!

Come and get to know us, even if getting up on Sunday morning isn't your thing.

[Image of Wednesday from The Addams Family courtesy kirinqueen through a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.]

The Possible - A Sermon

2011-01-16T18:33:00.000-06:00

This is a sermon I preached on January 2, 2011 at our church. It was the first week after we began our journey toward our next pastor. (Keith's last day was December 31, 2010.)

The Bible text was Matthew 2:1-12.

The Possible

Many of us, maybe even all of us, live in a tyranny of the impossible. We talk endlessly about what we can’t do, what we’re just no good at, what doesn’t ever happen in the “real world.” We may not laugh at people’s dreams, but we’re always quick with the cold water of what we think of as reality.

We imagine ourselves “realists.” The world isn’t all “Kum Ba Yah,” we say. Imagination, creativity, and dreaming may be great and all, but it doesn’t pay the bills. Get your head out of the clouds.

The thing is, the “realists,” even the “realists” in ourselves, are wrong. Some things are impossible, but there are fewer of them than any of us realize. This is not a world where the possible fills in the cracks of the impossible. This is a world where the impossible forms a thin frame around the possible.

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was a science fiction writer most famous for writing the book version of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and widely credited with inventing the concept of the communication satellite. In a 1962 essay titled “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination”, Sir Arthur put forth a set of assertions now known as “Clarke’s Laws.”

The first one goes something like: “When someone tells you that something is possible, they’re probably right. When they tell you something is impossible, they’re probably wrong.”

There are more possibilities in the world than any of us can grasp.

Imagine one of the magi, seeing a new star in the sky. A new star, even if that star is just a comet, is a very rare event, so he must have checked and double checked his tables, his prophecies. He must have asked his fellow magi for confirmation.

What makes this particular star very strange is where it seems to have risen. Matthew says the magi came from the east. They were travelling west. Travelling west after seeing the new star rise. Matthew doesn’t just come out and say it, but it seems that maybe the new star rose in the western sky. The western sky. Where the sun, the moon, and every star sets because that’s the way the earth turns.

A new star rising in the west is not just rare. It’s impossible.

But maybe we’re reading too much into it. Maybe the tables and prophecies of these eastern magi only indicated that when a new star forms in this particular constellation to take note.

Even so, there’s something very strange here. An infant king whose birth is heralded even by the stars in the heavens is no ordinary king. This was a manifestation of a god. It’s the kind of thing people said about Caesar, ruler of Rome and wielder of the power of gods, not some baby from the boonies. The “King of Israel” wore his crown only because Caesar thought it was a good idea. No one, not even Herod, thought he was a manifestation of a god, much less a manifestation of the God of Israel.

This star heralding a king of Israel was crazy talk, and the magi must have known it. It was impossible that such a thing could happen.

Were they bound by the impossible, the magi would have stayed home, and chalked the whole bizarre thing up to “one of those things.” Were they bound by the impossible, the early Christians would have never continued following a man who had been killed by the powerful. Were we bound by the impossible, we at Northminster wouldn’t even be here, never mind all the things we have done over the past few years, like starting and growing our capital fund, or forming this new Wednesday night thing or putting together our own youth trips to Montreat when much larger churches didn’t even attempt anything so brash.

It is at our peril that we succomb to the tyranny of the impossible. Pessimism, even when we call it “realism,” will kill us. Embracing all the possiblities in this world may not save us, but it will make what time we have a LOT more fun.

And Jesus said, “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?"

And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Now, Clarke’s Second Law goes, “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”

Now, maybe you don’t really care about the limits of the possible. Maybe you’d rather find a comfortable corner, well away from the edges of what could be, sit down, and let your life play out. Maybe, but I don’t think so.

You see, you have all been called as disciples of Christ, the one who showed us all that there is no such thing as impossible when it comes to God’s love. You are apostles, all of you, sent out to be Christ’s hands and arms in the world, reaching out even to people you don’t like or have never met.

The magi didn’t just sit in a comfortable corner and watch the pretty star. They knew what it meant and they ventured past the possible, going to a foreign land they did not know, even starting their search in the wrong city. They follow a star, which is improbable enough, then see it hover above a stable, which is almost literally impossible. They brought gifts to a king who, for all they knew, was allergic to myrrh, and gave them to a baby who looked less like the manifestation of a god than the sheep in the next stall.

We at Northminster eat the impossible for lunch. We’re so use to venturing into the impossible that it’s practically second nature. We’ve survived horrible tragic deaths, 100-year floods, devastating hurricanes, economic downturns, and even pastor searches with fewer people than you need to field a professional football team, and we’ve come through with a better sense of community and purpose, a better witness to the wonder of God’s reign, than churches 50 times our size.

If you’re visiting here today, and considering joining us, then it’s probably good that you know this from the start. This is not a church where we sit back and listen to the nice sermons, sing the comfortable songs, and spend the rest of the week acting like Sunday doesn’t matter. This is a church that is a community of disciples of Christ dedicated to proclaiming Jesus Christ, trusting in God alone, strengthening one another, and serving God’s people everywhere. We do those things at the risk of our life. If that’s not what you want in a church, then this is not the church for you.

This is a kind of church that most people think is impossible. We don’t all agree politically. We don’t always like each other. We struggle financially most of the time, and when we very occasionally get a break and we get a windfall or whatever, we give it away, and don’t sock it away for a rainy day because nowhere in our mission statement does it say we exist to make things easy on the treasurer.

I think this is just the kind of church most people would belong to, if they only knew it were possible. I think most people are longing to see just what God can do in the world. They’re longing to see the kind of impossible things we have all been witness to. They stay home and watch the guys laughing at each other on the pre-game shows because they’ve become convinced that there is no such community as this.

They want a meaningful life, but everything around them says that’s not possible, so they might as well try for a comfortable life.

We need to somehow get them to push pass the possible into the impossible.

Clarke’s Third Law is “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

This is the most famous of the three laws, and often is seen as an attack on the miraculous. I see it otherwise. I think it says that there is no difference between magic and a combination of hard work, careful thought, and inspiration. (That’s all advanced technology is.)

There is nothing insurmountable stopping us. There is no monster all that terrible barring our path. Christ loves us and nothing else matters. Death holds no hold on us, neither does the tyranny of the impossible.

I’m not saying we don’t have a lot of hard work ahead. We do.

And don’t tell me you’re tired. We’re all tired. Being tired for a good reason is a blessing. Rest, Sabbath, is vitally important, but that commandment also says that for six days you will labor.

Start something. Give something. Listen to someone. Look at someone. Do something not because it’s what you want to do, but because it’s what someone else wants to do. Get out of your comfort zone and venture a little into what you think is the impossible, because you’re probably wrong.

It might not work. Some things are impossible.

I’m not guaranteeing that our church will be together next year. It might not. We don’t get guarantees. Not in anything.

We get something else.

Because Christ is born, we get possibilities.

Why We Love Northminster Presbyterian Church

2010-08-28T20:32:00.000-05:00

Wednesday! (New Location)

2010-07-13T21:58:00.002-05:00

Come join us this and every Wednesday night at ~~CC's Coffee House~~ Sweet Peppers Deli! (We moved it from CC's because we were starting to take up every available seat.)

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Youth and adults helping each other, strengthening each other, and having some fun! No agenda. And yet, awesome things happen!

Come and get to know us!

[Image of Wednesday from The Addams Family courtesy kirinqueen through a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.]

Welcome, Tom!

2010-07-10T23:11:00.001-05:00

All right, this is getting even more amazing!!!

Tom is going to be a contributor here with Abby!

Tom is an elder here at Northminster. He's been working with the youth here at Northminster for YEARS, he's lived in the frigid tundra of Detroit, he's been to Belize, and he got our website back! He's clearly one of the Coolest People in the World! Join us THIS SUNDAY!

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Or, if that's a long way to Sunday when you read this, come by CC's Coffee House this Wednesday at around 7 and say "Hi!"

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Northminster is BACK ON THE WEB

2010-07-08T19:50:00.000-05:00

Well, we never left, but in case you missed Tom's comment, www.northminster.info is back up and running!!! Also check out the brand new youth page. Thanks, Tom!!!

And, in case you didn't know it, our church has an AWESOME PRE-SCHOOL too!

So give us some clicks!!!

[Image by Kurt Magoon, who licenses it with a Creative Commons by attribution share alike license.]

When in the music God is Glorified!

2010-06-13T12:30:00.003-05:00

I love music! I love to sing, listen to music, and even play the clarinet and saxophone. Music is a major part of my worship experience, both in church and out of church. I have found myself in a trap lately saying that the music is boring and old and not really listening to the words. This morning, as I was thinking that very thought, the song "When in the Music God is Glorified," popped into my head. I had forgotten that music is glorifying God and that as long as I am singing or listening to music, I am worshiping, and that is GOOD! Even if it isn't my taste of music, or the person next to me, we are still praising God and we need to be thankful for that gift. Whether we are singing a musical setting of Psalm 5 from 1560, or "Shine Jesus Shine" from 1987, or U2 and Green Day's "The Saints Are Coming" from 2006, or even when we listen to the "Bongo Bong Song" in my 5th and 6th grade classroom, we are praising God, ALL THE TIME!!!!

Welcome, Abby!

2010-06-05T18:29:00.001-05:00

Woo Hoo!!!

I'm incredibly pleased to announce that Abby is going to write this blog with me!

Abby's been doing youth ministry at Northminster with us for a good while now, and she's awesome! If you haven't met her, then you should get yourself to Northminster THIS SUNDAY and meet her (and all the other cool people there).

Zaccheus: A Tale of Pointless Jealousy

2010-06-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

The Zaccheus story is found in Luke 19:1-10. If you don't know the story, you should probably read it now. You might know the song with the line "Zaccheus was a wee little man..."

Here's my take on the Z-man:

When I was a kid, I thought the story was about a short man who tried hard, and Jesus rewarded him. So I should try hard too, even if I'm short or slow or whatever. So, yeah, trying hard is good, but I'm not sure that's what this story is about.

When I was older, I thought the story was about a rich man who gave lots of money away, and Jesus rewarded him. And, yeah, giving money away is good too, but I'm not sure that's the point of the story either.

I think now that it's a story about jealousy. I got there by focusing, for a moment, on the crowd.

So, here's the set up. Z is rolling in it, yet he goes to see "who Jesus was." (verse 3) That seems to me to be pretty big clue about what this story is about. It's about who Jesus is.

OK, so the Bible's Billy Barty climbs a tree to get a look at Jesus. Z climbs so high, he's not only above the crowd, he's above Jesus! (see verse 5: "he [Jesus] looked up")

Now, I'm not sure if Jesus felt a kind of affinity for a man who has everything hanging from a tree, or if he thought it was funny to see a man dressed in Armani shooing away squirrels, or if he wanted to needle all the folks who kept flocking around him, but Jesus notices Z, and invites himself to dinner at Z's house. We don't know why. Maybe there is no why, but it's certainly not because Z is trying hard or giving money away. The story doesn't even hint that Jesus knows any of this when he says he's coming over.

Well, the crowd turns so green that Superman would have been afraid of them. (Kryptonite is green, you see....) Or, maybe the crowd turns so green the Wizard of Oz would have been at home. Or, maybe... I should just say that they were all really jealous.

All this talk about eating with a sinner seems to me to be nothing but very thinly veiled jealousy. They were jealous that Jesus was eating with Z, and not them, and they were, I think, jealous that Z was eating with Jesus, and not them. I imagine Z must have hired a pretty good chef.

Z reacts to the crowd's jealous outburst, but he's not any better than they are. He has all the money he needs and more, but he is jealous of the crowd's tall stature. (Remember how Z climbed the tree to ridiculous heights, looking down even on Jesus.) Z is also jealous of what he thinks is the crowd's righteousness.

Z protests that he gives (or maybe will give) tons of money to the poor, and if anyone can prove he did anything wrong, he'll make it right, again with his money.

Notice something about the story: If you completely leave out verses 6-8 (Z coming down joyfully, the crowd murmurring, and Z protesting), the story still makes perfect sense. In a way, Jesus's closing words to Z might be seen to completely ignore both the crowd's objections and Z's proclamations. It's almost like Jesus refuses to let any of that distract him.

But if you look at it again, in the light of all this jealousy, Jesus's words say something really amazing. Jesus says that salvation has come to Z's house, because Z is a son of Abraham. (verse 9) Z's salvation came not because of his wealth, or because of his charity. Z's salvation did not depend on whether anyone judged him rigtheous. Z was saved because Z is a son of Abraham, and that has weight because of the promises God made to his great-great-great-great-great-...-great-grandfather.

Then Jesus helps us figure out who he is. "The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost." (verse 10) These are both active verbs ("seek" and "save"). Jesus does not react, he acts. It doesn't matter what Z does, or doesn't do, or what "everyone thinks". Jesus seeks and saves, all Z has to be is lost. And short. And sinful. And in a tree. All Z has to be is Z.

Nobody has anything to be jealous of, because Jesus gives to all. It doesn't matter what you do or don't do or what "everyone thinks". Jesus seeks you out and saves you. All you have to be is you.

Praise God.

The Dreamers (Simeon, Anna, and the Other Christmas Story)

2009-12-24T16:33:00.002-06:00

In Sunday school a couple of weeks back, we talked about the story of Simeon, a man who was promised he wouldn't die until he saw the Messiah. Before worship that week, I read again the companion story of Anna, the old prophetess who was also at the temple that day. Both stories are in Luke 2, between the Christmas story and the John the Baptist story we read in worship. On reading that story again, I discovered something that was nothing like what we said in Sunday school. I wanted to talk about this last week, but we never got to it, so I thought I'd post it here.

*****

Have you ever wanted something really really badly, but it just wouldn't happen? You try hard, you have the vision, you listen, you practice, you read, you watch, you pray, you do your very best, but it just doesn't come.

And have you ever had a dream come true, and then, way too soon, you saw it vanish?

Simeon and Anna are like that.

Simeon was an old man, a very old man. He'd been young once, though, and when he was young, he had a dream, the kind of dream that can fill your whole life. It wasn't just about him, either. It wasn't a dream that he'd be rich and famous, or that he'd be powerful , or sexy, or popular. Simeon's dream was that his country, and his God, would be free.

I don't think he spent a lot of time wondering about what, exactly, freedom meant, but details weren't a problem. They'd be worked out. He'd work them out. Simeon worked his whole life to bring freedom and unity to the people of Israel, the worshipers of the one true God.

Things didn't work that way, though. Year after year, decade after decade went by, and all Simeon's prayers went unanswered, all his work, all his learning and teaching, all of it seemed to go to waste. The Romans still ruled Israel, the temple in Jerusalem was jus a shell where God's name was taken in vain, used to enrich the powerful, and crosses rose day by day, month by month, year by year, decade by decade, torturing and killing Simeon's friends and fellow dreamers. All this time, God was silent.

Simeon would have given up, thrown the whole thing down the chute long ago if it wasn't for the fact that he knew, knew, that his dream would be fulfilled, that he'd see the Messiah, the one God would send to give raise up the real Israel, the real Israel: the poor, forgotten Jews who worked a the fisher's nets, shepherd's fold, the farmer's fields, the sick who begged at the gates, and that God would throw down the false Israel: the bullies and busybodies and false prophets. Simeon knew that he'd see his dream because God himself, through and angel, told him so. Simeon wouldn't die until God acted.

And then one day, while Simeon felt he should go to the temple. The very temple where the moneychangers cheated and the self-righteous snorted. And there, in the place dedicated to God but built to Herod's glory, there, of all places, it happened. And yet it was fitting. For there, in the very heart of the beast, the 8-day-old Messiah became a Jew.

And then, Simeon didn't only see his dream come true, he held his dream in his arms, and sang praises to God. God mad Simeon's life, which was nothing more than Simeon's dream, worth something.

And then, he turned to Mary and told her something very close to what I think the angel told him. Your dream will come with great pain, like a sword through the heart, but it will be worth it.

Anna was a dreamer too, but Anna, unlike Simeon, had seen her dream come true. She'd been married to a wonderful man when she was thirteen or fourteen (pretty common in those days) and she'd been a wife, and a wife to a good man. Then, seven years later, when Anna was twenty or twenty-one, the good man died, crushing Anna's dream to dust in a moment.

Anna was a widow, completely dependent on others for her very life. No man would marry her. Decade after decade went by and the dream's dust got harder and grittier each day, each year.

To make it worse, God spoke through Anna, and God's words are never easy for those in power, those who hold Anna's life.

Somehow, however, Anna managed to grow old. Not just old, but ancient. She was more than eighty in a time when healthy people died in their fifties and sixties. She hung out in the temple day and night. Where else was she to go? Sure, it was den of thieves, but it was dry and warm and many kind people came and gave her help, even if the ones in power did not.

And then, she saw Jesus, an 8-day-old baby crying his little heart out over the pain of circumcision, the pain of joining God's people, fresh from the arms of Simeon, the old dreamer. And Anna knew. God told her.

Anna felt the dry bones of her dream form flesh and rise up, just as her people's dry bones had risen up for Ezekiel. She felt something in her which six decades of bitterness had killed in her soul, killed dead. She felt hope, and she felt joy.

She started running around like a little girl, talking to everyone she saw: "Did you see him? That baby! He's the One, I tell you! The Messiah! The One who's going to save us all!"

There's reason to dream again!

Domestic Violence

2009-10-23T07:58:00.003-05:00

Recently, I met a woman named Mary who works with the victims of domestic violence and abuse. I told her at the time that it seemed like her work was both very hard and very valuable. I think also it's a job that doesn't get nearly enough appreciation.

After talking with her for quite a while, I told her that I'd pray for her and the children and families she works with. And I did. And it became clear to me that just saying "Dear God" and "Amen" wasn't all I should do.

So, I asked Pastor Keith if I could have a "Minute for Mission" during worship last Sunday, which turned out to be Domestic Abuse Awareness Sunday. That still doesn't seem enough, and I'm on the lookout for where Christ leads me next, but here's what I said:

This is for the men this morning. You women can listen in if you like, but this is about a mission for men.

This is also a minute for mission where I'm not going to ask you for money, or for a lot of your time. I'm not going to give you statistics or heart-wrenching stories either. I know, weird.

This is Domestic Violence Awareness Sunday. And while domestic violence does occur against all sexes and all ages, the most apparent victims are often women and children, I think the deepest victims are us men. Men are the ones who most often turn into monsters, and men are the ones who most often look the other way.

For this minute for mission I ask you men to join me in trying to bring just a little light to this awful sin men like us do to ourselves and to women and children.

I'm asking you men to stop seeing domestic violence as a women's issue. It's a men's issue as much as it's anyone's issue.

I'm asking you men to look carefully around you for signs of domestic abuse. You don't have to call the cops unless it's really obvious, but you can at least publicly let people know that you think violence has no place in the home. You might think that's obvious, but it's not for many people.

I don't know if this next applies to anyone here, but just in case, I'm asking you men that if violence does enter your house, that you seek help. To be honest, it's going to be harder for you to find it than it is for women. But don't just hope that it will go away. Man up and do something about it.

We are not well-served as men with the worn images of domestic violence as only something that happens in trailer parks or housing projects, because it's not. We are not well-served as men with the attitude that everyone knows hitting a woman or a child is wrong, because they don't.

The Bible says nothing if it does not say that God stands firmly with the lost, the lonely, the outsider, the sinner, the man or woman who does not have control over their lives. Christ does not only love the victim, but the sinner. I ask you to join me in spreading Christ's love by drawing light to domestic abuse, and working to end it forever.

Why am I Presbyterian?

2009-08-28T09:55:00.004-05:00

General Assembly moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow asked for answers to the question: "Why am I Presbyterian?" either via Twitter, Facebook, or blog. We talked about this in Sunday school last week, but we never got to my answer. That's fine, but here's my answer anyway. I think you'll find we're all very similar.

I think there's a theologically "right" answer: God called (and calls) me to be Presbyterian. We Presbyterians believe that all aspects of our faith are responses to the grace of God in Christ.

But while the answer may be "right," I think it's misleading because there's a lot more to it. God didn't move me into the PC(USA) like a puppet on a string. What really happened to me is a much better story:

I've always felt like I was on the outside, my whole life. I guess especially as a teenager. I remember going to dances where I didn't like the music, didn't like the dances they were doing, and couldn't find anyone to even look at me, much less talk or dance with me. Depending on where you are in your life, you probably read that and think that I was either pathetic, creepy, haughty, pitiable, or just like you.

How you judge the teenage me doesn't matter to me much now except that, as a youth leader, I chaperon youth dances and events now and again, and I can always spot the people like me. If you pay attention, you'll see them too. I try to seek them out and at least let them know that I notice them, that I'm glad they're there. It's not easy for me, but "hard" isn't an excuse.

Of course, that's what people like me have always wanted: someone to pay attention to us, someone to at least notice us. We find it very hard to reach out, but very hard to be alone.

So anyway, there I was, a geeky, perhaps creepy, teen with a social life that was limited (to put it mildly), and while I knew my family loved me, I figured they had to. No one chose to love me, I thought. No one would choose to love me. I was "emo" before "emo" was cool. (Not that "emo" was ever cool, but I digress.)

I was wrong, of course, but it felt like the world just wasn't made for me.

Then, when we were in the process of finding a new place to worship (another long story), we met the late Rev. Ed Gouedy. (I'm pretty sure that's how he spelled it. It was pronounced "Gowdy.") He met with my parents, of course, but he also met with my brother and me.

He told us, in front of our parents, that if, for any reason, we wanted to meet with him about something, to just let him know and he'd set it up. Our parents didn't need to know. He wouldn't tell the session. He would help us as best he could.

He told us the only exception to his confidentiality was if he felt there was an immediate danger to ourselves or someone else. He was clear that he was not talking about drugs, he was talking about something like "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow."

He was my pastor. He would risk my parents anger and even his job for me. He cared about me, maybe even loved me, even though he didn't know me at all. What was going on?

A while later, he led a mid-week Bible study group about Presbyterianism, and I asked if I could attend. "Of course," he said.

The class studied the first edition (then the only edition) of Chistian Doctrine by Shirley Guthrie. I discovered that Ed cared about me because he knew he had been led to me by Christ. I learned that Presbyterians held that we were all connected, and that we all belong, even, and especially, those who don't belong anywhere else. I learned that "leadership" for Presbyterians meant service; looking for people who don't like this life's music, and don't like this life's dances, people who others think are pathetic or even creepy. Being a faithful Presbyterian meant singing and dancing with just those people.

So, I guess I'm Presbyterian because I want to be like Ed. Or Kay Allsbury, the youth leader who had a youth group of four kids (including me and my brother), and yet never made us feel like we were a waste of her time, or all the other people I've known over the years who weren't related to me, didn't have to care about me or love me, but did anyway.

I'm not Presbyterian because the brochures were slick. I'm not Presbyterian because I think I'll get rich, or climb the social ladder. I'm not Presbyterian because I think I'll win a bunch of arguments. I'm not even Presbyterian because I think it'll get me into heaven when I die.

I'm Presbyterian because, for us, loving each other is more important than being right, more important than being useful, and more important than being righteous. I'm Presbyterian because God called me to this church where "being together" is central to our existence, central to our worship of Christ, and being "together" is one thing I never thought would happen to me.

Love Not Fear (again)

2009-08-27T13:52:00.002-05:00

I just saw that someone named "Lindsay" left a comment on my earlier post "Love Not Fear". Since that post is well and truly buried in the past, and since I thought Lindsay's words were so wonderful, I've decided to post them here.

Lindsay said...

This is a message for everyone. I am a stranger you, but not because I am, as all are, given free will with which I can choose to act through love and not through fear.

Many people ask, why should we not be afraid when god does not protect us from trouble, where I say, god does so but through us.

When we act through love, happiness follows. When we have feelings that can be described as love, that is god talking to us. We need only to listen.

And here's my reply:

Thank you, Lindsay. As you said, you and I are strangers, but I'm sure your friends are blessed to know you.

I don't know why God doesn't make things easier on us. That's just one in a long list of things I don't know. But you're right, Lindsay, God works through us to help each other when trouble comes, or to keep trouble away.

I do want to say that love doesn't always lead to happiness. Sometimes it leads to a very deep sadness. But one thing it doesn't lead to is fear.

And that's fine with me. We've got enough fear going around these days anyway.

Thank you again, Lindsay. And may God continue to bless you.

If you're ever in the New Orleans area, stop by Northminster Prebyerian and ask for Mr. Tim. I'd love to meet you.

Read The Shack by William P. Young

2009-04-14T20:41:00.003-05:00

This is a neat book. There are lots of reasons why I should have disliked it, but I truly enjoyed it, found myself thinking about it between readings.

At first glance, it's the kind of book my mother would have gotten me for Christmas or something: a religious allegory of sorts with a very heavy Christian hand. It's immensely popular, even though it's written by an author few had heard of and published by a tiny press. In fact, I bought it for Mom shortly before she died.

Don't stop at the first glance. The story takes you to a very dark place, and it treats the darkness and pain of it with respect. It also treats the reader with respect. The author has taken much care to neither overlook nor over-indulge in the horror of it.

In essence, the story follows a man named Mack whose family undergoes a terrible tragedy, plunging him into what he calls The Great Sadness. It is in this despair that he receives a note inviting him to visit the very abandoned shack that formed the center of his waking nightmare, an invitation from God.

Now, it's no surprise that he meets God there, but the images of the Trinity we are shown are very different from the Old Man in the White Robe. And that's a very good thing.

This is a Christian fantasy, but one with very good theology, a very good understanding of who the Bible says God the Father, God the Son, and Got the Holy Spirit are. There is no sign of the God who holds most of humanity in contempt, only reluctantly offering salvation to those who learn the magic phrase "I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior." This is a God who is Love, who can't abide shame and self-righteousness, who is nothing if not patience. This is a God who does not make little of the horror of evil, but demonstrates victory over it anyway. This is the kind of god, the kind of trinitarian god, people might actually want to spend eternity with.

Now, this book is very magical, or maybe the right word is "mystical," but, much like another of my favorite books, Yann Martel's The Life of Pi, the reader
has an escape hatch if she or he needs it. There's a way to look at the story as if nothing mystical/magical had ever happened. I think this is important, because this is the way things actually work.

There are problems with the book, from my point of view. I think Young's writing is adequate, but not engrossing, and I think the story drags sometimes. I don't agree with every theological statement he makes. I sympathized with Mack, but never empathized with him.

So this isn't a perfect book. I've never read a perfect book. This is an amazing book that will stick with you for a very long time.

Lent and The Possible

2009-03-17T22:06:00.003-05:00

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

-A. C. Clarke's First Law

I can't tell you how many times I've seen the impossible happen. I don't even think I can count the number of times I've helped make the impossible happen. People have a far too limiting view on what's possible.

I think it all comes down to bad theology. There's this belief these days that God is stingy, even miserly. There's just not enough to go around, we hear. When the stock market sinks, or church donations falter, or whatever, we go around wringing our hands, looking at the red ink. God's holding out on us again.

This confusion of the Lord of Hosts with Ebenezer Scrooge (before Christmas morning) shows up in so many more ways: God doles out blessings only on the most deserving, they say. God reserves heaven only for those who've jumped through the right hoops, they say.

Once, I was talking to a man who was convinced that his parents were burning in Hell. They weren't proper Christians, you see, and now they were dead. I told him that I'm sure God's love wasn't bounded by our religious labels, but he responded that he just couldn't believe in a God who would just save anybody.

I think my mourning friend is wrong. I think the Bible says, again and again, that God is generous, bountifully generous, even generous to the point of going against God's own best interest.

This is Lent, and I've always hated Lent. I tried hard for most of my life to get it, but all this fasting and wailing and giving up things which are important just seemed to go 180 degrees away from the God of the Gospel, the Way of Christ. It's weird because I've always liked Good Friday, and that's about as dark as it gets. It's probably gotten to be a mental block for me.

Stil, there's a couple of things I've discovered about Lent. It's the only Christian season with holes. Count the 40 days from Ash Wednesday and you won't get to Easter. You've got to skip the Sundays. The Sundays aren't in the 40 days of Lent. They're holes. It's as if there are cracks in the very calendar, and God's abundance and generosity are poking through.

It's also interesting that Lent is supposed to be a time of self-reflection, presumably so that I can see what a sinner I am, as opposed to the rest of the year, when I'm supposed to focus on what a sinner you are. But the more I reflect on myself, and the closer I look, I see that I am a forgiven sinner. And the more I look at this world, and the people I know (even those who never darken the door of a church), I see that they are forgiven sinners as well. It's frustrating sometimes.

So the point is that this year, I find myself looking at the cracks in Lent. I see in this economic downturn (and all the real suffering that is causing), some great light. See for example a phenomenal series of interviews call "Repossessing Virtue" here.

I am a scientist, but I am probably not distinguished, and certainly not elderly. Still, I'm going with the Jesus on this one: Matthew 19:26, With God, all things are possible.

Uncle Jay Explains 2008

2009-01-09T21:44:00.000-06:00

Playing for Change: Stand by Me

2008-12-19T09:06:00.004-06:00

Judy Ruppel

2008-12-19T08:55:00.004-06:00

My mother died just before Thanksgiving. My current Northminster family already knew that, of course. Here is the eulogy I delivered at the funeral:

So we used to go to the zoo every year, the day before Thanksgiving. Mom, the kids and me. She used to fuss about if it was too cold, if anyone was going to catch the double, triple, or quadruple pneumonia. She used to worry that it would rain. But we always always always looked forward to it, because Mama was so much fun.

One year, we got to the front of the Louisiana Swamp exhibit, and the kids wanted to see the alligator. Mama most certainly did not want to see any alligator. She said she'd wait for us at the entrance to the exhibit.

Well, we took a little longer than she thought we should. When we got back to where we'd left her, she wasn't there. We started looking for her, keeping in mind that she was probably looking for us. Finally, my daughter and Mama saw each other: Mama was in the Zoo Train. She'd gotten all the way to where the Zoo Train loaded, worried that we'd left the zoo without her. The train guy said he'd take her around and see if he could find us. She remembered my daughter was all in pink.

The next year, I made stickers for us. Ours was a picture of Mom with the caption "I'm with Mamå". Mom's had a picture of all of us with a caption "I'm with my grandkids".

And there was the time when I was a kid, a very little kid, and our dog Dixie died, and I was so sad, so hurt that I cried so hard I couldn't see. Mom didn't try to lie to me, she didn't try to explain it, and she didn't try to make herself feel better by telling me it was somehow for the best. She didn't do any of that. She held me tightly and she cried with me and she got me to talk to her. She gave me the respect in my grief that few other adults were willing to give a little boy.

And there was the time I called home from college. It was after the Saints game, because it was always good to celebrate together, or, more often, console each other. In this game, Morten Andersen had kicked a last-minute field goal to win the game.

My Dad told me that he wished he had a camera. Mom was kneeling on the floor in front of the TV, talking to Morten Anderson, saying, "It's OK, baby. You can do it. Don't let them bother you."

And there was New Year's Eve, when she'd come to our house and watch the kids so that Christie and I could get dinner and a movie. The last few years, I'm told it was more the kids watching Mama. And then she'd ring in the New Year with us, and drink her no-sugar-added sparkling grape juice.

And all the times my brother and I would sit in the back seat while she and Bessy would go places, run errands, go shopping, whatever. Bessy and Mom had a way of keeping about 300 conversations going at once, changing the subject every sentence, and keeping up with each other somehow. We would try to keep track.

"I think that's conversation #42, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but now it's conversation #7."

My wife went with Mom and Bessie to Alabama once to go Christmas shopping at the factory outlet mall. I'm not sure she's fully recovered yet.

Mom was always there for us, and we tried to be always there for her.

I'm going to miss her horribly.

At the same time, I always see the wonderful things she's done, the people she's touched, the way she made the world infinitely better, and I know there's so much of her still here with us.

Being Ready

2008-08-27T22:18:00.002-05:00

We've got another hurricane out there. Everybody's trying to get ready. Most people will never feel ready for another hurricane.

We're training one of our youth to be ordained as an elder of the church. He get ordained in a couple of weeks. He probably doesn't feel ready.

Before our kids were born, I certainly didn't feel ready to be a dad, even though I read enough books about childbirth and early childhood to get an advanced degree in the subject.

I wasn't ready to say goodbye to our college students, at least until the next time I see them again. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to Dedie or Sue, even though I'm truly enjoying getting to know Keith.

The thing is, being ready is overrated. It's good to be as ready as you can, to be prepared. A lot of times, though, there just is no being ready. You try, but you get blind-sided. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad.

Paul wasn't ready for Jesus when he met him on the road to Damascus. Peter wasn't ready for Jesus when he witnessed a miraculous catch of fish in his very own boat. Moses wasn't ready for the burning bush.

You don't have to be ready all the time. You have to be HERE. I think it's more important to have your eyes open than a complete plan for every possibility.

There's a balance here. It's wrong to just drift through life without thinking things out, but it's also wrong to focus so much on the possible that you lose sight of the actual.

Paul heard Stephen preach, and his eyes could have been opened then (and perhaps much less dramatically), but he wasn't really listening.

There's something else here: fear. Many times people go nuts about being ready because they are so afraid of the unknown ahead. I understand. I'm one of them. But I also know that God holds my future, and God loves me. I'm not a great fan of all of God's apparent choices, and I know God's not a great fan of all of mine.

Still, between the two, I think I'd rather choose love, not fear.

So, no, I'm not ready for another hurricane. And I'm not afraid either. I'll do what I have to, and I'll do what I can, and I'll trust God's love.

The Tennessee Valley Tragedy

2008-07-30T22:10:00.003-05:00

If you haven't heard, there was a shooting at a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tennessee. A man, who seems to have believed that liberals and those fighting for gay rights were directly to blame for his and his country's problems, entered the church during a children's program and opened fire. He killed two people, one of whom seems to have stepped in front of the gunman to protect others.

Click on the link title for an Associated Press story.

Click here to leave a note to the congregation.

If you want to be heard, it sometimes seems you need to say that whatever bothers you is a threat to all the world, and whatever you enjoy is somehow a blessing for everyone. I've heard people seriously speak of killing spammers.

XBOX 360s won't end world hunger. The internet is not a cesspool of sin and destruction. The United States did not plummet downhill the day the Civil Rights Act gave some measure of equality to people of all races, and the Presbyterian church did not sign a pact with the devil when it began ordaining women.

Listen to how the Olympics will be promoted in a couple of weeks. We will be told that winning a medal is "glorious" and losing is "devastating."

Almost no one who engages in this kind of speech intends for it to result in violence. And almost no one who hears it reacts that way. It doesn't start the fire, but it does fan the flames.

I want to ask two things of you:

First, be aware of what's being said. Will a vote for one candidate or another really cause the destruction of all that is holy? Will the product in the ad really end all your problems? Watch out for people making mountains out of mole hills because they're selling mole hills.

Next, watch what you say. Measure your speech. Have the courage to say that your idea is good, but isn't the best idea EVER. Have the integrity to say that your opponent's idea is wrong, but isn't the word of Satan. Think about what you say. We all say things we regret, but put some of your attention into giving appropriate weight to your words.

Read the biblical book of James for some other thoughts about this.

Saint Ruby Yenkala

2008-07-22T21:33:00.002-05:00

I have noticed that there are people in this world that seem to change everyone around them. It seems like merely speaking with them, or shaking their hand, is enough to transform you. I believe that this is what Paul meant by a "fruit of the Spirit."

Saint Ruby Yenkala was not always sunshine and roses, not always happiness. Sometimes, she was frustrating and infuriating, but she changed us, and I think, she changed us for the better, and she changed us for good.

She was a white woman of Jesse Helm's generation who thought nothing of worshiping with, embracing, and helping people regardless of their color. She was a woman who should, by all rights, been sitting in the back of the church, keeping her mouth shut except to responsively pray or sing. And yet, ever since she walked in the door of Northminster, she was standing in church, telling us what was needed in the community, giving us the good news and the bad news. Ruby was Christ's eyes and ears and hands and feet, and she drew many of us closer to Christ, which means closer to those who are lost and forgotten in this world.

Miss Ruby died a little more than a week ago. She leaves a hole in the world, as all saints do when they die, an open spot where there should be someone. The announcements are too quiet now, but we know from Ruby's witness that the emptiness is not empty, the silence is not silent. As Christ said, our mourning is blessing, and we will be comforted.

PC(USA) News on Montreat Youth Conference

2008-07-08T21:35:00.002-05:00

Click the post title for an article on the PC(USA) site about the Montreat Youth conferences.

The week we went, there were "only" about 400 youth there, largely because most folks were still in school. Most Montreat Youth Conference sessions are about 3X bigger.

Montreat Pictures

2008-07-08T21:26:00.002-05:00

Click on the article title for a Flickr album for the week we were at Montreat!

I was actually hoping for Dumbledore...

2008-07-08T21:23:00.000-05:00

Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Hermione Granger

You're one intelligent witch, but you have a hard time believing it and require constant reassurance. You are a very supportive friend who would do anything and everything to help her friends out.

Albus Dumbledore

85%

Ginny Weasley

85%

Hermione Granger

85%

Severus Snape

70%

Harry Potter

65%

Ron Weasley

60%

Draco Malfoy

55%

Remus Lupin

50%

Sirius Black

45%

Lord Voldemort

15%

Iowa Flooding and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

2008-06-14T22:39:00.003-05:00

We just got back from our first Montreat conference, and it was AWESOME. I don't think I can write a short post and do it justice. If you want to learn more, you're just going to have to wait until I get the chance to write a longer post (or a series of shorter ones), or just come talk with me or any of the folks who went. Also, check out the youth bulletin board at church. (Or, you can wait for the video, hopefully in the next week or so...)

I did want to point out something, though: We are a church for a reason. Actually, for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we can depend on our fellow disciples to be there when we can't, and they can depend on us to help when we can.

You've probably seen on the news (or The Daily Show) about the flooding in Iowa, or the tornadoes in Virginia, or the flooding in Arkansas. If you're like me, you've had some rather uncomfortable flashbacks to other scenes of water inundating someone's home town. If you're like me, you wish that you could be there to help.

Well, you are there, and were there. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is there, and has been all along. Your brothers and sisters in Christ have proclaimed God's Gospel by being a caring and effective aid to the poor and the lost. You can depend on them to be there. You can tell your friends that you were there, because they were.

They need help too. You may not be old enough, or have enough income to fly to Iowa or Myanmar now, but there's a lot you can do:

You can spread the word about them. The more people know about Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the better the world is.

You can raise money for them. We can do this together. Give me some ideas, and some commitment, and let's make this happen.

You can pray for them. This might not seem like a big deal, but it really is. A. Big. Deal.

You can be a faithful disciples according to your own passions. They rely on you as well. They can't do the things you can. Nobody can do everything. That's why God gave us each other.

Google Analytics

2008-04-20T22:22:00.002-05:00

I've put Google Analytics on this blog. It's a free tool I can use to see how many times this site is read, and where in the world they are.

The idea is that everything on the web is "out there", and anyone anywhere can read it. I consider this a very very very very good thing, especially for our group and the content here. I really hope that we're getting hits from China or Ireland or even maybe Mississippi!

Google Analytics isn't giving me any personal information, like your name or your favorite kind of toothpaste or anything. Even if it did, I'd throw it away without looking at it.

I'm not going to sell advertising. Mostly, this is just for a warm fuzzy on my part, to let me know what this particular tool is doing, all on its own.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Preaching but Were Afraid to Ask Your Sunday School Teacher

2008-04-18T19:42:00.006-05:00

Update: Due to a bad reaction from everyone who saw the original version of this, I changed the title (which meant actually thinking about the title), and made some minor edits (no content change).

Also, if you happen to get the allusion in the new title: shame on you.

One of our youth are preparing to preach a sermon soon (May 11 - Pentecost Sunday). We do this pretty much every year, so I thought I'd put here what accumulated knowledge I have after having preached a few times as an elder.

Writing for the Ear

The main thing to remember, and probably the hardest thing to remember when you're writing a sermon, is that you're writing to be heard, not read. In other words, your sermon is for people's ears, not their eyes.

That makes a difference because there are a number of things you can do with your eyes that you can't with your ears. You can read something again, but you can't "rewind" a live sermon. You have to remember that if your listeners' attentions waiver, they need to have a way back into the sermon when and if they focus again on your words.

Don't be afraid to repeat yourself, rephrasing things a few times.

Avoid using words you have to define, or, if you do use such a word, keep repeating it so that if the listener missed the first definition, she can understand it in context.

Pay attention to how words sound, not just how they look. Pay attention to pacing. If it takes too long to explain something, figure out another way to say it. (There's always another way to say it.) Use poetry tricks like alliteration and rhyming and meter. (African-American ministers are often really good at this.)

Paint with bright colors. Use vivid words, maybe even a bit over-the-top.

And this is important: Watch your language.

I don't mean refrain from cursing (though you should), but think how your words might be understood by someone very different from you. Once, I was describing a snake and I used the phrase "yellow slitted eyes." Dedie rightly told me that she thought that might sound racist against Asian people, especially if someone just caught that phrase out of its context. I changed it to "viperine eyes", which I like better anyway.

(Also, I, personally, never use gender-specific pronouns to refer to God (neither "He" nor "Him" nor "She" nor "Her"). It only takes a little thought to rewrite a sentence. I had an argument with a friend named Rene in college about "inclusive language." It wasn't until years later that I realized she had won, and I was wrong.)

Let Scripture Use You

Don't weigh down your sermon with scripture. Let the Bible lift your sermon up.

I've heard many preachers quote the Bible over and over in their sermons, feeling the need to supply their every thought with some kind of scriptural proof. I've heard part of their sermons anyway...

Don't use the Bible to justify your ideas. You're human, and you're going to be wrong about a lot, and at least partly wrong about a lot more.

Let your ideas illuminate the Bible, and let Scripture bring transformative power to your words. (Scripture with a big "S", meaning all of the Bible, not just individual verses)

Don't Preach

I know, this is about preaching. But nobody wants to come to church to hear somebody tell them that they've got their lives (or even part of their lives) all screwed up, and that you can tell them how to fix it. This is particularly true for an elder or a layperson.

Most professional comics don't tell jokes, they get laughs. Don't preach, engage.

Good preaching transforms the preacher and the listener. Tell us where you are (metaphorically) and where you want to go. Tell us where you think we are, and where you want us to take you.

Play with Structure

There's a generally accepted sermon structure called the "Three Point Sermon". The idea is that you take a bit of scripture and figure out three things to say about it. Then you:

Introduce your three points
Talk about point 1
Talk about point 2
Talk about point 3
Summarize your three points.

That is: "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Tell 'em. Then, tell 'em what you told 'em."

Thousands of sermons are preached this way each year. When done with insight, it's a great way to get insight across. When done as a cookbook, it sounds like a cookbook.

I never do three point sermons unless the idea just screams for it. Then, I'll usually do something to the structure: like start to summarize, but then add in a fourth point, and then summarize all four. I like playing with form.

Another approach is the narrative structure. In this case, you're telling a story, and you stop now and then to make a point, or you let the story itself make the point. I like listening to stories, and I like telling stories, so I like this form. I think there's a lot that you can say in a story that you could never say otherwise. (Which made the point against slavery better: any of hundreds of speeches, or Uncle Tom's Cabin?)

The story can be true, or it can be made up, or it can even be partly made up. (If you only make up part of the story, you might want to come clean about that sometime in the sermon.) It doesn't even have to be your story, though you should give credit where credit is due. It can take up the whole sermon, or part.

Don't do more than one story, though, because it can get confusing if someone's mind drifts. And if you tell a joke, do it right away, and don't do more than one.

Then, there's the odd-ball sermons. For instance, a few years ago, we did a youth service where the youth formed a panel, with me tossing in questions.

Don't be afraid to use a structure to start to hang your ideas on, then break or change the parts that don't fit.

Dedie used to push for me to "close the circle." The idea is that at the end of the sermon, bring up something from the first paragraph or so. When she first suggested this to me, I thought it sounded dumb. (Sorry, Dedie.) But after doing it a few times, I see how it works: You show your congregation that they've come a long way in the last 15-20 minutes.

Tips and Tricks

Too short is better than too long, but too short is not good either. Take the time to say what you have to say. Getting finished in five or ten minutes doesn't impress anyone, and people will think they missed something.
Be ready to throw everything away. At any point when you're writing, you should be ready to start over. God will touch you and you can never say where that's going to go.
Be patient. The sermon will come in its time. If you try to force it onto the page, it will fight back, and you won't like the outcome. Coax it out.
Get someone to read it. Get lots of people to read it if you can. Get opinions. This is important work, and it's good to get support.
When you preach, change your voice. Go louder and softer, higher and lower, faster and slower. Use the volume, register, and timing that works for each line and paragraph.
Practice. Aloud. At least twice. In the sanctuary if you can. Make notes about how to say things, either mark or eliminate any tongue twisters. I like to practice alone, though I enjoyed preaching to my daughter once.
Remember that this isn't about you. Even if you're giving out your life story, even if you're sharing something you've never shared with anyone before, even if you have an insight which will bring peace, harmony, and free cheese sticks to all the world, worship is not about you.
Know that YOU were meant to stand there, no matter how you feel, and its YOUR words the God wants to use, no matter how you feel.
Be sure to bend your knees, or you might faint.

The Shoulders of Giants

2008-03-31T12:27:00.003-05:00

The scientist Isaac Newton once said:

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants."

By "giants" he was referring to people like Copernicus and Galileo and other "scientists" (they would probably have described themselves as either philosophers or theologians) who went before him, allowing him to discover things like the fact that what keeps the moon in orbit is the same thing that pulls apples to the ground.

I think there are two parts to this quote: (1) standing on the shoulders of giants, and (2) seeing further. I think we are meant to use the knowledge, writings, and tradition of those who've gone before us in order to look to a farther horizon, and push our knowledge, action, and tradition out to places unseen and even unimagined by the giants beneath us.

It would be a poor scientist who said, "I have stood on the shoulders of giants, and they are very nice giants." Looking merely at the accomplishments of those in the past, venerable though they may be, is really bad science.

It would also be a poor scientist who said, "I don't need to stand on the shoulders of giants; I can see fine from here." We give these people the technical term "crackpots." They think that they can unite all of physics, say, by claiming the world is nothing but cheese and crackers. (I'm not saying that such a claim has been made, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were.)

As Christians, I think it behooves us to both stand on the back of giants, and see far. If we become too enamored of our authorities, too comfortable with our liturgy or the way we do things, we do ourselves a grave disservice, and we do not follow our Lord. At the same time, if we become too full of our own importance and start to believe that we can change EVERYTHING, and that we don't need our history, our traditions, or the faith of our grandfathers anymore, then we also stray from the path of Christ.

This whole thought process came about because of several things that came to my attention over the past week or so.

First, we're trying to put together our youth-led worship (on May 11) and we got into a discussion about why we should do any work to change our usual liturgy from the one we are used to. I wasn't expecting the question, and was still kind of (!) tired from my trip, so I didn't answer it well. What I was suggesting with the idea of the graphical bulletin and the other liturgical tweaks was that we could do a lot while not changing that much from the liturgy we use, and in doing so, we might see Christ in a new and different way. This is a good thing. It's "seeing far."

Next, a friend has brought my attention to a story in the Wall Street Journal concerning the Lutherins canceling a radio show called "Issues, etc." presumably because they were too liturgically and theologically conservative, even though (from the article) they seemed to be thoughtful and fairly open-minded.

Now, I'm going to assume that the WSJ got the story mostly wrong: mainstream media tends to miss a lot of the nuances that mean all the difference when Christians deal with each other "within church walls." Still, they mentioned that "the Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, the synod's current president, has pushed church marketing over the Lutherans' historic confession of faith by repeatedly telling the laity, 'This is not your grandfather's church.'"

To the extent that this is a case of Christians turning their back on the traditions and thoughts of their grandfathers simply because it's not "modern" or doesn't reach young people, then I think they try to "see far" without "standing on the backs of [the] giants" who are standing right there.

We need to walk a line as Christians: the line between too much tradition and too much innovation. The best theologians, the best Christians, aren't afraid of either, and use their best to both listen to Calvin and Luther and their own grandfathers, and at the same time honor them by pushing out from the limits they themselves expanded.

Lent

2008-02-23T21:00:00.002-06:00

I've never been a big fan of the season of Lent. I've disliked it so long, I'm not even sure what started me off. Among other things:

I don't like how self-righteous people treat Ash Wednesday in the New Orleans area. They act like it's the final victory bell in the fight between "holier-than-thou" and "bound-for-hell". I'm a New Orleanian who believe that the dancing, generosity, and tolerance of Mardi Gras is a really good model for the Kingdom of Heaven, and I don't like it to be just "cut off" at midnight on Wednesday.
A man my father knew used to give up alcohol for lent. However, since wine is drunk in the Bible, he'd down two or three glasses at lunch every day. Lent seems to me to be a time for hypocrites to thrive.
In my experience, Joy is a precious commodity. I don't think it wise for Christians to stop praying for it, looking for it, waiting for it, and working for it for 40 days out of 365. And it seems to me that the usual way of treating Lent by religious Christians is a time to turn away from Joy and focus on despair.
There's probably more, but I'm just writing off the cuff here...

I think it's time we took Lent back from the long-faced, intolerant and self-righteous. I don't know how it's going to happen, but the Christian calendar is full of festivals and holidays snatched from other religious groups.

One step forward in this struggle would be to come up with better, modern, Biblical and historically informed ways of seeing the season between Mardi Gras and Easter. Here are a few I've found recently:

Ash Wednesday doesn't kill Carnival. It scatters it. All those folks who crowd Canal Street and Bourbon Street and St. Charles Avenue are going back to New York and Cleveland and Paris and Hong Kong, and their taking the party with them. They'll tell their friends, pass out doubloons and trinkets, laugh and party like... well, like a little Carnival. Ash Wednesday makes Mardi Gras not just a New Orleans thing, but a WORLD thing.
Lent is about repentance, and repentance means turning back from our path and turning toward God. Lent should be a time of mission and joy, kindness and love, because that is what walking toward God means. Lent should be a celebration of how wonderful it is to be called by God toward Easter. The "meatless Fridays" that many of my Roman Catholic friends still observe were originally intended to encourage Christians to use the money they would be spending on meat for that one day to help feed the poor. Lent should be about getting beyond ourselves, and thereby finding ourselves.
Lent is about humility. We tend to make idols out of ourselves. We tend to imagine that the good in our life is because WE are so good, and the bad is because SOMEONE ELSE is not being fair. We tend to think that people in trouble are in trouble because it's THEIR fault. Lent is a time to turn away from all that, and discover that God's will for humanity is humility.
Lent is about darkness. It's something like a long Halloween, and if you know me, you know I love Halloween. Lent is about being able to walk in the darkness, especially walk WITH each other in the darkness. Lent is about being able to face the darkness because we know of the light.

Christians have a bad habit of trivializing suffering, telling people who feel hopeless and desperate to just sing a couple of songs, say a couple of prayers, and watch as the world turns into butterflies and unicorns. They don't see that someone might not WANT butterflies and unicorns, that someone might think that having their pain ripped from them by some prayer would be a violent act, that someone might be trying to look death in the face, and resent those who claim to have conquered death telling them to just stop worrying and have some Bundt cake.

Lent could be a time to reach out to them, to walk into their darkness with them, and to get them through it, not just out of it.

What do you say? Maybe we can change the world 40 days at a time.

The Gratitude Dance

2007-12-01T21:32:00.000-06:00

Go on! Do it! Every day!

Montreat!!!

2007-12-01T12:08:00.000-06:00

Well, I just put the registration in the mail for our first everMontreat trip!

I was so excited, I decided to fool around with the blog's appearance again. I think the last one almost looked scary. I hope this one is nicer.

September 21: International Day of Peace

2007-09-15T16:38:00.000-05:00

Click on the post title to go to the Peace Day Page. or click on the banner to go to Only Love Prevails. They're trying to get people to do two things:

Say the words "Only Love Prevails" whenever you sense something happening which draws you away from peace. (Actually, I'm personally OK if you pick your own phrase, like "Jesus is lord" or "God wins".)

Become aware of how much the media (news, movies, music, advertising and more) influences your attitudes and thoughts. You might also try to reduce the influence you don't want.

OK, so the site talks a lot about "positive and negative energy," and they call the two steps an "experiment". Basically, how they say it is not the way I'd choose, but what they say is neat.

Help out by praying for peace on the 21st (Friday). And if you can find a way to work for it as well, so much the better.

It's hard to dance when you're marching lock step

2007-08-16T21:48:00.000-05:00

Several people from Chloe's family have already reported to me that you keep arguing with each other. They have said that some of you claim to follow me, while others claim to follow Apollos or Peter or Christ. Has Christ been divided up? Was I nailed to a cross for you? Were you baptized in my name? - 1 Corinthians 1:11-13

The church is divided. It always has been, to some extent, even in the earliest days. I think one of the problems, maybe one of the prime problems, is education.

Actually, it's lack of education.

I think we Sunday school teachers often imagine that we are molding you into our image, theologically at least. Especially when it comes to teenagers, we want you to make the decisions we made, or the ones we wish we made. We have the best of intentions, but we do the church no good. We end up making camps.

For example, I think it is theologically NECESSARY (and Biblically mandated) that we ordain and install women as elders and ministers. The Sunday school teacher down the way (let's call him Jack) thinks that obedience to Christ means that women should not under any circumstance be ordained or installed as elders or ministers. Jack teaches his kids his side of the story, and if I'm not very careful, I end up teaching you only mine. We make you disciples of Jack or disciples of Tim, or, if we're really full of ourselves, we tell you that when you are a disciple of Jack or Tim, that you're really a disciple of Christ.

But you see, I didn't die for you, and even if I did, my death wouldn't save you. And I'm sure Jack's a nice guy, but he didn't die for his students either, and even if he did, his death wouldn't save them either.

It has been the history of the church to confuse "education" and "indoctrination." The difference is enormous: Indoctrination creates minions; education creates apostles (meaning one who is "sent out"). Education attempts to give you the best tools you can get to make up your own mind, hear the Holy Spirit in your own feelings and thoughts, even if they disagree with mine. Indoctrination simply bludgeons you with my ideas at the expense of your own.

Indoctrination tends to gather big crowds. Lots of people want to be told what to believe, and don't want the responsibility God gave them to carry Christ's blood in their own hearts. Superficially, things are easier when everybody believes the same thing.

The problem is, that no minister has ever died for your sins. You were not baptized in the name of any minister or Sunday school teacher or seminary professor. The Christ of the Bible often, even usually, challenges us and commands us to live with, work with, listen to, and even love people who do not agree with us, who do not act as we act, who do not care about what we care about. We need to be humble about our own theology, no matter how convincing it might be to us. We need to open our hearts, because we just might learn something.

There are many who think that folks like me are too "liberal" to be a serious Christian. There are many who think that folks like me are too "conservative" to be a serious Christian. There will probably be folks who think the same about you.

Don't let these goofballs deter you from being the apostle of Christ you are called to be. You're too well educated for that.

Peacemaking

2007-05-28T09:41:00.000-05:00

The link above is to the letter from a Scottish soldier I read to you in class.

You are all peacemakers: You do hard things, like not hitting back when you are hit, or nor cursing back when you are cursed at. You do this from strength, not cowardice or weakness, but you will most certainly not be applauded for that strength by many, if not most, people.

Being a peacemaker does not, at first glance, help you fit in. You will stand out, and you will be called all manner of nasty names. Some will praise you, but many won't. As a youth leader, there are many who would say that I shouldn't tell you that, because "youth" are all about fitting in. If I want you to be peacemakers, they'd say, I should keep my mouth shut.

But being a youth leader, to me, is to tell you, in the best way I can, the best theology I can. And if you are going to be a servant of God, a peacemaker, then, sometimes, it's going to seem like you're all alone in the world.

But, understand that you are not. Like many things, the popular, easy-to-see "truth" is not truth at all. As it turns out, peacemaking is the natural activity of a child of God such as you. The opposite of peace, whether that be "war", "hate", "selfishness", or whatever else you might want to say, is something that divides us, and, ultimately makes us alone.

I do not need to tell you how to be a peacemaker. You already know about restraint and forgiveness and listening first and looking to Christ and seeing the bigger picture.

I guess I just wanted you to know how proud I am of you, and how disappointed I'd be if you'd let the "world" convince you that what you already know is false. Peace is hard, amazingly hard, and it can often seem stupid or cowardly, but it is vital to the discipleship of Christ.

Did a little tweaking...

2007-04-11T11:18:00.000-05:00

I tweaked the overall look of the blog a bit. Let me know what you think!

Love Not Fear

2007-03-05T20:28:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess it's about time I took some time to describe what the title of the blog means. It's one of those cool phrases that change meaning depending on the punctuation, like "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen".

Love, Not Fear:

With the comma, it gives a choice. "God is love" says the Bible. "Fear not," it also says in numerous places. I think the choice the Bible wants us to make is pretty clear.

And it is a choice. Love and fear are both emotions, and you can't really help what you feel, but you can help what you do. Love and fear are also verbs. I don't believe that God wants you to be so concerned with your own survival that you jump at shadows. When Christ calls us to love our neighbor, I don't think he means for us to fear our other neighbors.

Now, there are a lot of people who say that I should not tell this to you young people. I constantly see advice that young people need to be made afraid for their futures, either their eternal souls or their career. If I don't tell you to be afraid of, say, going to jail for drug abuse, you'll probably all go out and get high and rob liquor stores.

I have more faith in you than that, and I refuse to be afraid for you either. I do not allow myself to act out of a fear that you will mess up your life, and I will be to blame. I do not allow myself to act out of a fear that you will love the wrong person or the wrong thing. I do not allow myself to act out of fear of you or fear for you because I don't believe that is faithful discipleship.

Love is everything that fear is not. You can't help feeling afraid, and we all feel afraid pretty near constantly to one degree or other. But you can decide to act in love, even when you don't feel particularly loving, even when you are afraid.

Love, not fear.

Love Not Fear:

Without the comma, it is a stronger, and seemingly nonsense statement. It is not a choice, but a command. Why would anyone love fear?

Yet, I think many, many people love fear, even if they do not acknowledge it. I love fear too. There is a certain comfort in staying afraid, staying alert to all the disasters that lie in wait for us. Then, when terror strikes, we will at least not be surprised. We can at least say "I told you so."

If we did not love fear, why else would we surround ourselves with it all the time? Think about all the ways people try to make you afraid:

If you don't buy my product, you'll be left out, lonely, or bored. Be afraid.

If you don't do well in school, you'll end up poor and lonely and bored. Be afraid.

If you don't pass this test, you're life will be over. Be afraid.

If you don't speak up, no one else will. Be afraid.

If you don't accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you're going straight to Hell. Be afraid.

I'm asking you to give up fear for Lent. Refuse to love fear. Mentally repent from terror. Face your fear, acknowledge it, and then turn your back on it.

Love not fear.

Love Not, Fear:

OK, so that way doesn't make any sense at all.....

Why Pink?

2006-12-04T22:30:00.000-06:00

Why the pink and purple candles on the Advent wreath?

Click on the title link to learn more than you probably want to about the symbolism and history of the Advent wreath.

The short answer is that the pink (actually, "rose") candle stands for joy and hope.

The purple (actually "violet") candles stand for penitence and royalty. Apparently, some churches use blue for these candles to symbolize hope.

Or, you can see another take on purple, and pink.

Now, when I get a chance, I'll try to explain why String theory is not an attempt to include gravity in Einstein's work. (And yes, that came up in conversation this weekend too...)

Flatlife: Not Theology, but Funny

2006-07-23T18:21:00.000-05:00


I mentioned this at Sunday School today. It's on Dad's Cool Sites, but I thought I'd put it here as well. It is Jonas Geirnaert's 2004 graduation project, selected for Short Films in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2004.

Rake Art

2006-07-22T14:12:00.000-05:00

This has nothing to do with theology, but I thought y'all would find this cool. Clicking the title above takes you to a Flickr gallery by Lenny and Meriel who use a rake to make cool patterns in sand, then take pictures of it from the air using a camera mounted on a kite.

International Advertising Awards

2006-07-04T10:02:00.000-05:00

On our way back from worshipping at the Chinese Presbyterian Church, the folks in my car got to talking about clever, funny, or artistic advertising. (Click the title.)

Most of these ads beat my car commercial idea hands down.

"I will not let you go until you bless me!"

2006-07-04T09:47:00.000-05:00

Too bad the Angel who wrestles Jacob in Genesis didn't have access to the internet, blessing him would have been easy!

Click the link above to go to the Worldwide Blessing Generator, and have your computer randomly select a blessing for you to read.

So, is a randomly selected blessing worth anything at all? If you had gone into a church and had a minister or priest you didn't know bless you, would it be different?

The site was designed by people who seem earnestly interested in helping people. Does that make a difference?

The site includes blessings from non-Christian faiths. Does that make a difference? If not, would you feel comfortable using one of these in worship? Would you be able to defend your choice?

In the meantime:

May your day be filled with gladness of heart,

and reward you with the riches of gentleness and patience forever.

Grace comes to us as an unmerited favor. Be all ways gracious and you will be all ways favored.
Sing and laugh.

Rocketboom show on Nata Village

2006-06-15T21:27:00.000-05:00

Click the title to go to an episode of Rocketboom, an internet video broadcast (vlog, vodcast, video podcast, whatever you want to call it), about a village in Botswana and the guy who set them up with a website and blog. (You'll probably find broadband handy to see the show.)

The clinic in the town got a donation of, I think $250, and had to decide whether they wanted to buy new fans, or chairs for people to sit in. (They had no chairs.)

I don't know if the guy is Christian; I don't even know if he's religious at all. Doesn't matter. Christ works through him.

I hear so much about how the big, bad internet and independent web content is supposed to be dangerous and immoral. Thought you might like to hear what good there is out there. (Also check out One Laptop Per Child from MIT and Camara. There's tons more.)

[PS: I didn't put a link to Rocketboom's main site here because, while I regularly watch the show with my kids, it does occasionally use some vulgarity. (Of course, not in the show above.)]

Troubling passage and a short story

2006-05-21T22:38:00.000-05:00

It was kind of a meandering class today, but I wanted feedback on last week's youth-led worship, and I've found that sometimes it helps to let you all organize your thoughts by wandering around a bit. (Or maybe that's me that organizes my thoughts through chaos....)

The troubling passage I read you was 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. I am stuggling with this one, and I'll probably read the rest of 2 Thess again to see what I can learn. I'd love your thoughts. As I said, if you think you understand the totality of God's word, you're wrong, possibly crazy, and maybe even dangerous.

Finally, I don't know if you're familiar with it, but there's a really cool science fiction short story by Terry Bisson called They're Made Out of Meat. It is not specifically religious or Christian, but one of Christianity's central tenets is God's Incarnation, which literally means "God Become Meat."

{Note: On Bisson's website, there's a link to a very short movie based on the story. I like the movie, but there is an unfortunate use of a very strong profanity (not in the story) uttered by someone in the background.)

Oh, and one more thing: I started Dad's Cool Sites, another blog with links and stuff I find that I think my kids would like. If you're curious, well, it's a free internet. That is, for now. (Sorry for the off-topic political link, but I couldn't help myself.)

Feel free to post your thoughts or comments.

The Gospel of Judas

2006-04-14T16:23:00.000-05:00

Well, we're working hard on getting our youth worship service together. So hard, in fact, that I forgot to bring up the big relgion/archeology story of the week: the discovery and release of The Gospel of Judas. The book that was discovered dates to the 2nd century and is written in coptic, an Egyptian language. This is a very impressive find, but not as impressive as you've probably heard...

The MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember about The Gospel of Judas is that it is a gnostic work. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word for "knowledge", or, I think more precisely, "secret knowledge". They were a sect which seems to date back to the 2nd century C.E., though it might have started a bit earlier. They were condemned as heretical by the so-called "orthodox" church of the time.

They were called heretics for good reason. Not to say that they should have been burned or tortured or anything, but their beliefs were very different from what was to become the Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Baptist churches of today. They were an "alternate Christianity" in the same sense as the Mormon Church (the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints") is today. Here are a few of their central beliefs:

You're a god. Or something like that. Basically, people are, according to the gnostics, these divine beings shrouded in flesh. You don't feel like a god? Well, that's because you've been tricked. Really.
The Creator of this world is not really a god, certainly not a being worthy of worship. That's because he is the one who tricked you, and others like you. In fact, he's the cause of all your problems.
Now, the only thing keeping you from being as happy, powerful, beautiful, cool, popular, smart, and so forth is that trick. You can't fight what you don't know about. So the secret to being the best you can be is, well, a secret. Secret knowledge about the god you really are.
Jesus was special, according to the gnostics, precisely because he knew, or maybe discovered, the secret, and told his disciples about it.
So, once you have the secret knowledge about the secret, you'll be able to live forever, shine like the sun, hit the lottery, and win on American Idol. It's just that easy; except that the secret is really well kept, so it takes some effort to really understand.

Now I grant that I have given a biased report, and a little poking around on the internet or the books of Elaine Pagels will take some of the edge off, but the facts are all there, I think. Anyway, what The Gospel of Judas says about Judas is nothing compared to what it says about God and Jesus, as it was intended. You can see why the early orthodox Christian Church wanted little to do with this book.

The "Gospel" of this book, then, is very different from the "Gospel" of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. While those books insist that Jesus worked as God the Father, Judas claims that Christ worked against him. For "the Four", salvation comes solely through the action of Jesus Christ, for the gnostics, salvation came from secret knowledge.

Now, there are a few other points which I ought to add:

Did Judas really write a book? As I understand it, the author of The Gospel of Judas did not claim to be Judas. It was written in third person, anonymously. The name comes from the distinctive way it treats Judas as the disciple closes to Jesus's heart, and, more importantly for the gnostics, his mind.

Why was the Judas book in coptic? There was a strong gnostic movement in Egypt. The book might be a copy of a copy of a copy of a translation from some other language, but given the date, it probably is very near to the original book.

Did anyone know about this book before they found it? Actually, we knew a whole lot about this book. A second century orthodox bishop named Irenaeus wrote about it, and seems to have gotten it mostly right, though he was far more biased in his description than I was. We've also found fragments in other places.

Was the orthodox/catholic view of Judas as vile traitor the reason for the Holocaust? Of course not. The fact that Judas's name starts with "Jew" didn't help things. Still, I can't imagine that if his name was "Carl", it would have been all that different. I mean, did the reverence for "Peter" cause an outpouring of love for "people"?

Still, there's something else that needs to be said. Even if the gnostics had somehow found the power that sat in Rome, it's pretty clear that the Jewish people wouldn't have done much better. Remember, that the gnostics believed that the Jews worshipped a deceiver, the cause of all the world's pain and sorrow.

Also, with their hatred of all things worldly, it seems clear that the gnostics would have been worse stewards of this planet than even we Christians have been.

Click on the title from this article (or click here) to go to a wikipedia article on the book. Another great place to look is National Geographic, though I'm a bit disappointed in their television special.

I'm actually quite excited that this book was found in such good shape (85% or so intact, I hear). The interest has generated what I think are two big positives:

An interest in Judas. I've always thought he's been given too much blame in the whole thing, and I think many people tend to put their own responsibility for Christ's death on Judas's shoulders (and the shoulders of the Jewish people). It was Christ who freed us from sin, not Judas.
An interest in the gnostics. Lots of "good Christians" today espouse a ton of gnostic or semi-gnostic beliefs, from the idea of "saving knowledge" to the idea that what really matters about Christians is their souls, not their bodies.

Happy Easter!

Sony Music Security Problems

2006-03-15T09:21:00.000-06:00

I talked about this problem with Sony music CDs before, but the amazingly cool (in my opinion) Electronic Frontier Foundation has a page with information about Sony's legal settlement.

Here is a list of affected CDs. Lots of musical styles, from Foo Fighters to Clay Aiken to Jim Brickman to Rosanne Cash. If you have an affected (read "infected") CD, you can submit a claim for "clean music" (EFF's words), and possibly extra downloads or a small amount of cash.

Peace: Noah and Job

2006-02-01T20:39:00.000-06:00

Our lock-in theme this year was "Peace on Earth: Beyond the Bumper Stickers". As some preparation, I asked the youth the week before what Biblical references they thought of when they hear "Peace on Earth".

Beyond the usual thoughts (the Nativity, e.g.), two rather unusual references came up: the story of Noah's Ark and the Book of Job. I want to take a minute and document what y'all meant by those, since I think their pretty amazing. I

Noah's Ark and Peace

At first, when 'Trumpet16' suggested Noah's ark as a story about peace, I wondered (briefly) if she hadn't been suckered in by the soft and fuzzy version of the story that gets told to very little kids. The nice boat ride with the cuddly zoo and the nice man with the long gray beard (who didn't allow card gambling -- he stood on the deck....). Of course, I know her too well to think that for long. Here's what she had in mind:

The "peace" part of the story is at the end. Told from this perspective, the story goes like this: God and Creation are at war. Creation has offended God with its unrighteousness, and God has all but wiped out Creation with the flood. At the end, though, God decides to end the war, unilaterally and unconditionally disarming, so to speak. God promises to never fight this war again, no matter what, and re-defines the rainbow to the purpose of reminding God of this promise, perhaps even symbolically "binding" God to it. God has taught by example; we see from God how to make peace.

Really cool!

Job and Peace

This one was from 'Gbtgbt' and I neglected to ask him to clarify his thoughts at the lock-in. To be honest, I was just puzzled by this reference. Sunday, I finally got around to asking him what was going through his head.

OK, so here's how this one works, and it's also VERY cool: Job spends almost the entire book convinced that God has, for reasons he cannot fathom, proclaimed war on him. Job spends almost all of the book desperately trying to make peace with God. He does this not by what we usually think of as appeasement (just giving in), nor does he try to bluster or threaten God, since he knows such a bluff is ridiculous. What he does instead is speak the truth to God, as best he can, again and again. He demands of God that God act as God should, not by Job's measure, but by God's own. He pushes God, as hard as he can, to be true to God's own nature.

And that's peacemaking Job-style.

What GREAT Bible study!

Review: Sarah by Orson Scott Card

2005-12-13T20:18:00.000-06:00

Sarah is the first of novelist Orson Scott Card's "Women of Genesis" series. Card is best known for his science fiction (for example, the exceptional Ender's Game). He is an excellent writer, and a devoted Mormon who is not afraid to allow his characters to take their beliefs seriously.

I wish I could recommend Sarah, but I'm afraid I cannot. While Card is great at picking good words and putting them in the right order, there are deep problems with this book.

Most notably is the near-Superman character and capabilities of Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah. They make no mistakes. Well, Abraham makes one rather big one but he soon sees the error of his ways. Abraham somehow has a fully-formed Mormon belief, including the Christian concept of the sacrifice of a Son by his Father, even generations before God gave God's name and the Law to Moses. Sarah can do anything, except have children. (And then, of course, she does that.)

This is even true in what is almost universally considered an act of cowardice by Abram - passing off his wife as his sister to avoid being killed. It occurs twice in Genesis, but Card has chosen to have the act happen only once, which I think is reasonable. However, Abram is shown as acting on the direct instructions of God here. It is not cowardice but obedience. This seems too much to swallow.

Also, one of the most difficult and dramatic passages in Genesis, the so-called "binding of Isaac", where Abraham is commanded by God to sacrifice the Child of the Covenant (only to have his hand stayed at the last moment), is almost completely ignored here.

That is not to say that there isn't a lot of very good storytelling here. Card chooses to make Lot's wife Sarai's sister, so that Lot is Sarah's brother-in-law. This character (called Qira by Card) is a lot of fun. She is the ultimate princess, vain, bubble-headed, thoughtless and selfish. The interaction between Qira and the godly Sarah, and between Qira and Lot, shown as a righteous, though human, husband, is a lot of fun to watch.

The character of Sarai/Sarah's slave Hagar, the mother of Abraham's first-born Ishmael, is also quite well drawn. We learn of Hagar as the book progresses. She changes some in the presence of Sarah, but we also learn that there is more to her than seems apparent at first. This is not a flattering picture, and I imagine Muslims, who draw their line of the covenant through Ishmael, might have a different take on what happened at this time. Still, the story is helped by this character. In fact, Hagar and Qira make this book much more readable than if we were just asked to find out (yet again) that Sarah is perfect and Abraham knows (almost) everything.

Another somewhat minor, but irritating thing is that whenever the characters are heard praying to God, they revert to stilted old-style language ("thee" and "thou"), which is jarring to say the least. (There is one point where Sarah apparently forgets herself, but her prayer is not quoted.)

It is probably very difficult to write a novelization of Bible stories. The stories themselves are so well known by so many people, and the characters so deeply formed in our minds, that it is nearly impossible to take the kind of liberties one must to take these short tales and expand them into a novel.

I can think of only two such books that I've enjoyed: God Knows, a four-letter-word laden comedic retelling of the story of King David by Joseph Heller, and The Last Temptation of Christ, a very dramatic re-formulation of the Christ story by Nikos Kazantzakis. Heller's book is funny in spots, and even inspiring in others, but it still isn't exactly anything to write home about. And Kazantzakis book (translated from modern Greek) is stunning, but takes enormous liberties with the story of Christ's life. (For example, Christ in The Last Temptation earns money before his baptism by making crosses for the Romans.)

I found Card's Ender's Shadow a lot more spiritually fulfilling (even though it is not a "Jesus" book), and I'd suggest you read it, after reading Ender's Game, rather than Sarah.

Santa Claus? or God?

2005-11-26T17:08:00.000-06:00

So we're into the Christmas season officially now that we're past Thanksgiving. One thing that always strikes me as odd this time of year is how many people seem to have confused God with Santa Claus.

In a way, I guess I can understand the confusion. The famous editorial "Yes, Virginia, There I a Santa Claus" reads pretty much the same if you substitute "God" for "Santa Claus". (Except the part about the fairies. I never did get that part anyway.) Neither God nor Santa Claus can claim to be readily available for interviews on CNN.

Still, it's amazing to me how much confusion there is. For example, some say God is a man with a long white beard.

That's Santa Claus. I've never heard of anyone saying that God lives at the North Pole and wears a red coat, but if they do, well, now you know.

Some say that God has a special affinity for little people, that God somehow treats children better than adults. Again, that's Santa Claus. (The guy even hires "little people" to work in his toy shop.) The God of the Bible has a special affinity for the lost, the lonely, the poor, the forgotten, and the dead to this world. That's adults and children, the widow (a grown-up) and the orphan (perhaps a child).

Some say that God separates the world into "sinners" who are naughty, and "saints" who are nice, and that God rewards the nice with lots of neat things, and punishes the naughty with punishment. Again: . The sacrifice of Christ on the cross was meant precisely for the naughty. Nothing in the Bible says that "niceness is next to godliness."

Some say that God is a nice person ("nice" again) who gives you pretty much whatever you want if you ask for it. And that's Santa Claus too.

The real God, the God who is not Santa Claus, loves you more than anything you can ever know. Santa Claus has never made a sacrifice for you (except for one really busy night of work once a year), but God has and that sacrifice is far greater than anything Santa Claus ever could offer.

God watches you, yes, but not from the North Pole, but from the eyes of your parents, your siblings, your friends, from the eyes of that weird kid who can never seem to make any friends, and those of the man asking for food on the sidewalk.

God does not just expect you to be "nice", but to be human. Actually human. Not a "consumer unit," not a "potential" human, and not an Ebenezer Scrooge who cares more about his own benefit than that of God's poor, but a real human.

God does not write out a list of people to punish, but a list of people to help, and we're all on that list. And while Santa's list is top secret, never released before Christmas morning, God will let anyone read the list of those who need love or care or food or clothing. Just open your eyes. Maybe even start by looking for your own name. Also, God uses us to get those people the help they need.

God doesn't work for you. God serves you as an independent, perfectly free being. God loves you as no one else can, completely from God's joy in you.

Oh, and while Santa shows up at lots of Christmas parties, I don't think he ever throws one. (Well, there was the party in Polar Express, but that was just for the elves and few select guests.) God, on the other hand, throws one blockbuster of a party, a party where people come from east and west and north and south (even the North Pole) and gather together to share and enjoy the love which God gives us. Wal-Mart, Target, and Niemann Marcus have nothing on that!

Halloween, the Christian Holiday

2005-11-08T22:02:00.000-06:00

We talked about this week before last, but I wanted this on the blog too, especially for folks who weren't there.

I think Halloween has the potential to be an incredibly effective, meaningful, and joyous Christian festival. Now, most of the times when you read a statement like that, the proponent is imagining re-styling Halloween into some kind of "Fall Festival", scrubbing it clean of all ghost stories or anything scary, and maybe using it as some kind of "morality tale:" a variation on the Christmas-time song "you better watch out."

That's not what I'm advocating. I think that there is a great Christian witness in sitting in a dark room and telling ghost stories. I think there is something more than morality to be gotten from October 31. (Not that there isn't morality there: just look at any pre-Scream horror movie and watch who gets massacred first, and who makes it through.)

Halloween, more than any other festival, is about story-telling. Christmas is a close second. The whole point of Halloween is the story. Even costumes allow people to live out a story, be it Princess or Living Dead.

The Bible is many things, but one thing that is prevalent throughout is the idea of storytelling: parables, histories, tales like Job, even many of the Psalms.

Halloween, more than any other festival, is about overcoming fear. The idea behind a scary story, scary costume, or haunted house is the idea that there is an end to it. You get scared, and then you get out. Even the monsters, like Frankenstein's monster, Dracula and the werewolf have weaknesses that the brave and smart can exploit: fire, wooden stakes, and silver bullets, among others. (In fact, for vampires, there are so many rules -- sunlight, stakes, garlic, crosses, holy water, etc. -- that it's hard sometimes to figure out why they are so fearsome. In some stories, vampires cannot even enter a building uninvited.)

Christianity is, more than anything else, about overcoming fear. Love not fear, it says at the top of this page. Trust in God. The church's one foundation. Building your house on a rock so you don't fear.

Halloween reduces the satanic forces of the earth to little devil horns worn by six-year-old kids, or pyrotechnic rock shows with disgusting special effects. It's about not being afraid of evil, the devil, or whatever. It's about taking these things seriously, but facing them with your friends, knowing that they'll come to an end. That sounds like Christianity to me.

Now don't get me wrong. Halloween isn't everyone's cup of tea. Some people have a real aversion to the kind of thrills that Halloween thrives on. They don't have to do it. They can treat October 31 like any other day, just as many good Christians dislike the Christmas season for one reason or other, or stay at home during Sunrise Services on Easter.

Also, I realize that Halloween does not have Biblical roots like Easter, Pentecost, or Christmas, at least in that we don't have anybody in the Bible putting on latex Ceaser masks and telling ghost stories. Still, we've found Christian messages in many non-biblical holidays (Mother's Day, for example).

So, here's the deal. If you don't like Halloween for whatever reason, fine. But don't ruin it for the rest of us Christians.

Sony CD problems

2005-11-08T21:41:00.000-06:00

Since I know that some of you enjoy listening to music, we talked a bit Sunday about a major security problem with playing some Sony CDs on Windows computers. Keep in mind that to get this "rootkit" (something like a virus, but MUCH nastier), you have to play a "Copy Protected" CD on your computer. And it must be a Windows computer. (I know this will come as a shock, but this won't do anything to Mac people or people running Linux, NetBSD, BeOS, AmigaOS, or any of the other alternative operating systems.)

Here is a link to a podcast with security expert Steve Gibson and radio/TV personality Leo Laporte explaining just how bad this thing is in plain English, with a minimum (I think) of geek-speak. The episode in question is Episode 12. Available are audio files, transcripts, and supplemental material in various formats.

And here is the very geeky blog post by the guy who found out about it. Really cool post but not for those who fear phrases like "system call hooking." He does a good job explaining what he means, but it is very technical.

Point your friends here if you think they might be affected. This pestilence may bring your machine to blue screen, keep your computer from recognizing the CD drive, provide a nice handy place for any moron to hide possibly hazardous files on your account, and cause you to break out in boils. (OK, I made up the part about the boils.)

I know, this post is not about Christianity per se, but being a disciple means, in part, helping each other. It seems likely that you all hadn't heard about this through normal non-geek channels, so I thought I'd let you know.

Crossing the Bridge

2005-09-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

I read yesterday that during the chaos after the hurricane, a number of people, hungry, thirsty, and dying at the New Orleans Convention Center, tried to cross the Crescent City Connection (bridge) to the high-and-dry West Bank, where they hoped to find food, water, and, perhaps, help.

They were met by Gretna Police who halted them with bullhorns and gun shots over their heads. It wasn't about race, or cruelty, according to the police. It was about law and order, since there were probably looters among the crowd. It was about Gretna not having the resources to support this huge mass of people. "If you wasn't there," said the police chief from Gretna's neighbor Westwego, "shut your mouth, because you don't know."

A while back, I remember that a West Bank church tried to install a large lighted sign saying "JESUS". The church neglected to check the city ordinances, however. As it turned out, the display was much larger than the allowed sign size. There was some uproar about an un-Christian nation, and First Amendment rights. Bumper stickers were made which said, if I recall correctly, "Jesus is not too big for the West Bank."

Now, the Bible says that when we clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and release the captives, we do so to Christ himself. And when we don't do these things, we deny clothing, food, and freedom to Christ himself.

It seems that Jesus is too big for the West Bank after all.

Not that everyone there feels that way. Not that those who stopped the march to freedom did so because they were cruel, thoughtless, or un-Christian. They were frigtened, and they might have had justification. There might very well have been a few assault rifles mixed in with the hungry, thirsting captives of New Orleans.

In 1965, the year Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans, a group of mostly black people tried to march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery. As they tried to cross a bridge out of Selma, they were assaulted by police. It was called "Bloody Sunday." While the confrontation in Gretna was nowhere near as violent (and there weren't TV cameras there), nor as blatantly racist, I cannot get over the fact that yet again, a crowd of mostly black people crossed a bridge for freedom, only to be met with gunfire.

"If you wasn't there," said the Westwego police chief, "shut your mouth."

"Were you there," says the Christian hymn, "when they crucified my Lord?"

Katrina/Rita Update

2005-09-25T18:16:00.000-05:00

Well, it looks like all our youth are safe and more-or-less OK. Thanks to God.

There are a couple of things I'd like to mention, because goofy theology always seem to come up whenever anything terrible like this happened.

The first stupid idea is that the people who suffered these kinds of calamities do so because God wanted to prove some point, or punish somebody. God doesn't work that way. God never works that way. People who start saying that Katrina, or 9/11, or AIDS or what have you is God visiting judgment on the victims usually don't know any of those victims. If they did, they wouldn't say such stupid things. You, the Northminster youth, know people who have lost their homes (though thankfully not their lives) and you know what nonsense this "God got them" theology is.

For a biblical reference, see, e.g., John chapter 9, where Jesus heals a man who is born blind. Before doing this, however, he dismisses as nonsense a question about who's fault the man's blindness is: his or his parents.

The next bit of really bad theology is akin to the first. The fact that we survived this storm does not mean that we are somehow better than those who did not. We are blessed, but this is not like some "attaboy" from the King of Kings. We stand where we do by God's grace alone, no more deserving than anyone else. We are called not to lord it over others and somehow claim more worthy of our blessings, but to serve those who are not so blessed.

For a biblical reference here, check out Mark 10:35-45. James and John ask Jesus if they can sit on his right and left when he comes into his glory. Jesus tells him that they don't know what they're asking. They say, "Yes we do." But Jesus says those spots are already taken. There's general grumbling among the apostles then, and Jesus tells them that the greatest are the greatest servants.

So, the storm doesn't mean we're cursed and it doesn't mean we're blessed. We're blessed as we have always been blessed, by the grace of a God who will never leave us. Ever.

Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-01T11:52:00.000-05:00

If any members of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Slidell/Pearl River read this, please add a comment below or e-mail me at this address (I'm not sure when I can reach my other e-mail addresses.)

Our family is fine. We're in Greenville, MS staying with relatives. We're praying for all of you.

I've opened the site up for anyone to post comments, at least for now.

New Youth Website

2005-08-20T15:12:00.000-05:00

Click on the title of this post to visit the new youth website at the Synod of the Sun (made up of the Presbyterian churches in Lousiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas). It's got info on the Synod Youth Workshop, the Multicultural Youth Conference, links to the PC(USA)'s youth website (this one ) and more.

Mission

2005-08-14T18:13:00.000-05:00

Be sure to give some thought to what mission we can accomplish realistically this year. I'd suggest we consider: (1) Who needs help? (2) What do we have to give? What would we enjoy giving? (3) Where do those two meet?

Car Wash

2005-08-14T18:08:00.000-05:00

Just to document what we talked about: I'll ask the session to approve a car wash tentatively on 9/18 after church.

A few things we need to consider:

How much should we charge?
Do we want to include hot dogs again? How do we manage that?
Where should the money we make go?

As a suggestion for the last question, I'd like to see us spend part of it on a CD player for the library (pending session approval, of course), and most of it for mission (which mission?). The scholarship fund is another possibility. Give it some thought.

Atonement

2005-08-14T17:38:00.000-05:00

We talked about atonement in Sunday school a couple of weeks ago. We had folks coming in and out due to the string quartet and trumpet voluntary practice, so I said I'd try to post most of what we talked about.

Now, one of the main things to understand is that what God did in atoning for our sins is mystic: it's not just that we don't understand it completely; it's that we can't understand it completely. So, we'll do our best, and try to be honest about anything that doesn't quite fit.

What is atonement?

Here is a dictionary definition. Here's another.

In essence, I like to think of atonement as the act of restoring a broken relationship. If I stole your diary, I can, perhaps, atone for that by giving you back the book, and apologizing. (That's the usual understanding: atonement is about making up for something you did wrong.) I think it also counts as atonement if you tell me to consider the book a gift, and forgive me. If I lost the diary, or destroyed it, or something like that, the second option may be the only way to repair the relationship.

The atonment story

Atonement is something like the middle part of an old romatic comedy that goes "Boy gets girl; boy loses girl; boy gets girl back; boy and girl live happily ever after."

Creation -- "boy gets girl"
Sin/The Fall -- "boy loses girl"
Atonement -- "boy gets girl back"
Ressurection/Salvation/Sanctification -- "boy and girl live happily ever after."

(Of course, I don't mean that God is a "boy" and we're a "girl".)

It seems to me that the peculiar thing about Christianity is that the apostles understood that atonement had happened before ever realizing that there was anything wrong to begin with. It's like they realized that God had made things right before they even fully realized that anything was wrong. Christianity started the story in the middle.

Yom Kippur

The Jewish day of atonment is called Yom Kippur. Here is a link in the Wikipedia.

The main things for us about Jewish atonement is: (1)It's an atonement of the sins of all the people of God. The whole thing is in the context of the community. (2) There is a faith throughout all the rituals of atonement that God will hear the prayers of God's people and accept their offerings.

As we'll come to see, the Jews have it basically right.

Bad Atonement

There's this idea that gets passed around that what's happening in atonement is that God gets really mad at us for sinning, and gets good and ready to smack us but good, but at the last minute Jesus jumps in and stops God from destroying us by taking it on the chin.

Two big problems: Why is God so mad? More importantly, where in the Bible does it even hint that Jesus would act contrary to God's will? (Remember, God wants to smack us.)

[Not to leave well enough alone, some folks tell the "bad atonement" story this way: God gets really mad at us, starts to smack us, we yell out the magic words "Jesus Christ", and then Jesus takes it on the chin.]

Anselm of Canterbury

Here's a Wikipedia article about Anselm of Canterbury.

Anselm tried to answer the "Why is God so mad?" question by saying that an offence is judged not just by what happened, but who it happened to. Shoving your sister is bad, shoving the President of the United States is worse. Because God is all powerful and infinitely good, any sin is infinitely bad, regardless of what that sin is.

According to Anselm, God's love dictated how God handled this situation. God decided to exact the punishment upon God's self, the only being whose stature was such that such action could atone for the sin.

Of course, this is all very medieval and feudal in thinking. Why is pushing the President worse than pushing your sister? Because the President can do a lot more about it. Your sister can't put you in jail, the President can. It seems to me this whole thing revolves around an idea of God as just a big, powerful MAN. The Bible doesn't seem to bear this up.

There are volumes written debating this.

Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others

If there's one thing Martin Luther was big on, it was sin. Luthor saw the problem with even the smallest sins as being not that they pick on the really big God, but that they destroy the sinner, and separate the sinner from other people and the rest of God's creation. The problem is that the communion which was broken is the most vital thing there is in life.

Luthor felt that the way God atoned for this was by enmeshing God's very self into the being of the sinner, and the sinner into God. God chooses to be present in the sinner (us) and God draws the sinner (us) into God. Whatever disunion our sin created, God removed by instilling a deeper communion. What happened on the Cross, according to Luther, is that God joined with us even at our most personal, most terrifying moment.

John Calvin, seen as the founder of the Reformed church movement (of which the Presbyterian Church (USA) belongs), says much the same, but emphasizes God's initial action. It was God who chose to act (in love) when we could not.

There are difficulties here too. Luthor and Calvin, for example, insisted that Christ's presence in the sinner, and the sinner in Christ, was a real presence. In what sense is it "real"? Spiritually? What, precisely, does that mean?
If Christ is really present in us, why do we keep on sinning?

Conclusions

Well, we didn't get any real easy answers, but we said upfront that we wouldn't.

Still, it seems all my life I've been told that what's happening in atonement is a balance between God's love and God's justice. Yet, the more I read of the Bible, the more I see God's justice as merely the expression of God's love. God seems far less worried about bad people "getting theirs" than about poor people not starving, widows not being abandoned, and orphans being given a life and a future. I wonder if there's not a way to see atonement in light of God's justice as God's love.

Thoughts? Comments?

Hermen Bartels

2005-08-01T19:31:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to add a short note about Elder Herman Bartels, who died last week. I am very grateful to God that my life was touched by his. He was a good friend of mine, and a good friend of the church.

Maybe it says something about him that at Vacation Bible School earlier this month, he made a point of providing his famous hot dogs, even when he was unable to personally bring them, even when he was finding it nearly impossible just to walk from room to room.

I'll miss Herman, but I know that even now I share in Christ's resurrection with him.

Evangelism

2005-07-24T19:21:00.000-05:00

We talked some about evangelism today, and I asked you all to think of ways we can reach out to other people about the wonderful news we witness to each week.

Click on the post title to go to the PC(USA)'s page on "Presbyterian Evangelism". It has links to some material on evangelism (like definitions, and the upcoming Evangelism Sunday). Also, you can click around a bit and you'll find some related stuff.

Summarizing a few things we talked about:

1. IMHO, nothing about evangelism should come from or lead to guilt. If the reason you tell people about the Christ we worship is because you feel guilty, we're all doing something very, very wrong. (Imagine a husband telling people about his wife only because he'd feel guilty if he didn't mention her.)

2. Again IMHO, there are a number of different ways to evangelize; it's not simply limited to referring to some script in a conversation with your friends:

Tell me [name of friend] do you know the saving grace of Jesus Christ?
     If yes: I'm glad for you [name of friend]. Will you join me at [name of church] next Sunday?
     If no: Well, [name of friend], you can know God's grace and be saved from eternal damnation. Please join me at [name of church] this weekend.

I think that we need to get creative about evangelism, especially in a country where nearly everyone has a church, and where most teenagers do not have much choice about where to worship. (Their parents decide.)

I hope this blog will be of some use to that end. I, personally, would find it easier to refer a friend to a website (and then, maybe, invite them to church if they are curious), than to, out of the blue, start trying to "sell" them on Northminster.

Not everyone has a million friends, and it is not, again IMHO, sinful to appreciate the differences between you and your friends (like OrangeBlender and his Jewish friend).

That said, I believe that there are tens of thousands of teenagers (and tens of thousands of adults) within driving distance of our church who are just aching for the "Love Not Fear" message to which we witness.

I'd like us all to think about how best to reach these folks, who have been hurt so deeply by the fear of Hell that they do not know the freedom of love. Please post as comments any ideas you might have, or tell me or one of the other elders.

Hurricane Dennis

2005-07-10T17:17:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder to continue to pray for the people (of all nationalities) who have been in Hurricane Dennis's path.

In addition to praying, look for ways to help. Let us know if you find anything we can all do together.

Henriette Delille

2005-07-10T16:44:00.000-05:00

Last week, a visitor told us that she was related to a nun featured on the front page of the Times-Picayune. I misunderstood her to refer to another nun, who was on the front page of the T-P the day before. (Yes, we are talking two nuns in two days. If this surprises you, welcome to New Orleans. )

Anyway, the real story is at the link above. (click on message title, but be ready for lots of advertising). Almost unbelievably, she doesn't appear to be listed in the wikipedia. (Note to self: put together an article.) However, here seems to be a very good discussion of Delille and the Sisters of the Holy Family.

She was an amazing woman, a free "woman of color" (not a slave) in the early 1800's who gave up what was apparently a very comfortable life to minister to the poor (and the slaves) in New Orleans. She is being considered for sainthood by the vatican. Regardless of what the Roman Catholic church decides, she seems to have been an amazing woman, and our visitor should be proud to have her in her family tree.

Baptism

2005-07-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

The link (click on the word "Baptism" above) gives the official Presbyterian statement concerning infant baptism.

And here's my take...

Baptism is God's work.

Like everything else in Christianity's Reformed tradition, God acts first. God has called us "from the creation of the world," long before we can do anything about it.

In other words, baptism is not something we do for ourselves, or we do for our children, but something God does for us.

Baptism marks us as God's people.

I bear a mark on me that I carry everywhere. You can't see it, but everyone who knows me well knows about my mark. It's my last name.

My last name ties me to the generations which have gone before me, the nation they originated in, and those who will go after me. It also binds me to my wife's family, since, when we were married and she took my name, she placed on us the trust and faith of her family's tradition.

I also wear my baptism. I did not choose it, any more than I chose my last name. It was given me. And it is a part of who I am. And it is part of how people see me.

Baptism is a sign and seal.

That is, it's not a magic talisman. God is not required to reject those who were not baptized, any more than your Mom has to throw you out if you don't have your ID on you.

Baptism binds us together.

All Christians anywhere are bound to you by your baptism, and theirs. Even the really scuzzy ones. Even the really great ones. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are bound to treat each other as such.

Talking Donkey Reference

2005-07-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

The reference for the talking donkey story is Numbers 22. Numbers 21 has some context, and the story is resolved in Numbers 23-24.

Welcome

2005-07-03T16:04:00.000-05:00

Hi!

I hope to use this blog to cover some of the stuff we don't get to in Sunday school. We won't answer all your questions; some just don't have answers. But we'll talk, and write, and maybe post a link or two.

And, we'll have fun. That is, if I have anything to say about it.

More soon.

Peace.