conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

charles de foucauld

Here is a quotation from Charles de Foucauld.

It seems we do not love enough. How true it is we shall never love enough. But the good Lord who knows from what mud He has fashioned us and who loves us more than any mother can ever love her child, He who never lies, had told us that none who come to him shall ever be rejected. pg. 660 Celtic Daily Prayer (bio)

Y'all enjoy your Sunday.

hired hands

Follow the extended link for an essay about the Darfur region of Sudan and the march on May 1 in Chicago. The essay is by Larry Greenfield, Executive Minister of the ABC-MC.

I attended seminary with a priest from Sudan. We occasionally exchange e-mails. Father Abraham's stories are no less harrowing than the ones communicated in the essay. I hope you will take a moment and read.

comment counter: 19,544 ... slowly be surely we are getting there.

"Hired Hands"

Darfur, that troubled region in eastern Sudan, can – depending on what happens in the next few days and weeks – go either way, with cascading consequences.

Nicholas Kristof, who recently received the Pulitzer Prize for his columns on the Darfur genocide in The New York Times, summed the state of things this way in a February article in The New York Review of Books ("Genocide in Slow Motion," 2/9/06):

As a result of this collective failure [virtually the world community’s unwillingness to intervene, as Kristof has earlier described it], the situation in the region has been getting much worse since about September 2005. The African Union has lost some of the first troops it stationed there, and a growing portion of Darfur is become too dangerous as a place to distribute food, and the rebels [the victims in the conflict] have been collapsing into fratricide. The UN has estimated that if Darfur collapses completely then the death toll there will reach 100,000 per month. Just as worrying, the instability in Darfur has crossed over into neighboring Chad. There is a real possibility that civil war will again break out there in the next year or two, and that could be a cataclysm that would dwarf Darfur.

So there is good reason for leaders in the world community to act now.

But how?

Kristof contends the conflict "could probably be resolved."

The rebels aren’t going for broke, after all. They don’t seek independence, but just more autonomy and a bigger portion of Sudan’s resources.

And it isn’t as if we bereft of answers on how to deal with the Sudanese government, even if they are having the paramilitary Janjaweed do its dirty work of stamping out not just the rebels but the tribal populations as well. The government, we know, will only respond to an actual show of force.

Since the relatively small deployment of African Union soldiers isn’t up to that requirement, Kristof and others propose that the United Nations be the occupying force, with the "blue hats" worn by a combination of African Union, NATO, and UN troops. The US, evidently, cannot be a part of the forces on the ground, but it could enforce a no-fly zone and, equally if not more importantly, it could employ the likes of a Colin Powell to twist arms to get the parties to conferences composed of the government and tribal leaders.

* * * * *

But, of course, we aren’t accustomed to initiate such actions before genocidal tragedies occur – which is already evident in what we have allowed to happen up to this point in Darfur.

The pattern is pretty well established: we sit back, stay silent, and remain inactive while the pot is beginning to boil and then typically say two things after the carnage. First, we express our sorrow that the genocide has occurred. And then we say, "Never again."

But it does happen again…and again…and again.

That’s the story of the Armenian genocide in 1915; the Jewish genocide in the 1940s; the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s; the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides of the 1990s.

Just wait, we’ll use the same language about Sudan and the coming civil war in Chad.

* * * * *

Jesus, according to John’s Gospel (chapter 10, verses 11 - 15, describes himself as the model or noble or good shepherd. And he explains exactly what he means. It is the kind of shepherd "lays down his life for the sheep."

That, for Jesus, is in contrast with the "hired hand," who is not the shepherd, who only works for pay, and who has no real concern for the sheep.

So, when the wolf comes to the flock, the shepherd stays and struggles to save the sheep.

But the hired hand "catches sight of the wolf coming, and runs away, leaving the sheep to be snatched and scattered by the wolf." (verse 12)

* * * * *

The wolf in Sudan is already among the sheep, snatching them and scattering them.

The Janjaweed uses every brutal tool at their disposal, mass slaughter and mass rape the most prominent among them.

Kristof repeats a quote from one of the books he is reviewing in the article (A Short History of a Long War, by Julie Flint and Alex de Wall, Zed Books, 2006). It is the words of a young man who survived an attack by hiding under a mule:

[The attackers] took a knife and cut my mother’s throat and threw her into the well. Then they took by oldest sister and began to rape her, one by one. My father was kneeling, crying and begging them for mercy. After that they killed my brother and finally my father. They threw all of the bodies in the well.

Out of his own experience, Kristof reports:

…rape and killings are not just a one-time event when the Janjaweed attack and burn villages. Two million people have fled the villages, and most have taken refuge in shantytown camps on the edge of cities. The Janjaweek surround the camps and routinely attack people when they go outside to gather firewood or plant vegetables. In order to survive the victims must get firewood; but each time they do so they risk being raped or killed.

After a day last year of interviewing a series of women and girls who had been gang-raped outside Kalma camp, near Nyala, I asked the families why they were sending women to gather firewood, when women are more vulnerable to rape. The answer was simple. As one person explained to me: "When the men go out, they’re killed. The women are only raped."

* * * * *

Will we be shepherds?

Or the hired hands?

What we as American citizens demand –visibly, vocally – of our government in the next few days and weeks will determine which role we will play.

morning prayers

Here is the scripture for todays meditation from Celtic Daily Prayer.

But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
for ever and ever.(Psalm 52:8)

Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.Isaiah (40:30-31)

...give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Here we are after Easter and we are still being reminded of life's difficulties. I think this is a great lesson. For me, at least, there was always this foregone conclusion that with God life will be easier, less things will go wrong. I remember going to a service with one of my friends in sixth or seventh grade. The pastor said something like that...Believe in God and your life will be a better place. This always meant "Bad things do not happen to Christians." Clearly this is not what scripture suggests. Well, actually, the scripture suggests both.

In reading the book about Peter Marshall, one gets the very clear sense that he was the kid of guy to say that God will take care of everything. And he's absolutely right. We can go to God like a small child and say "Fix it, Daddy." But seldom is the "fix" an immediate moment of healing or transformation. It is often a slow and gradual awakening to God's love and will for us. In scripture even the miracle healings are only the beginning of discipleship.

I guess this is what I am wrestling with today. There are times when I do get weary, when I do grow faint. I know that I am not at all unique in this. Slowly I am learning that it is in these moments when I need to let go of my anxiety and rest in God's will for me. If I am to serve, God will make of me a servant.

Some say that discipleship is the gradual turning toward God. That may be so. Discipleship for me these last few months has been about stretching. I can almost feel it in my skin. I am tired, weak and worn, but the hope is still there, the promise is still there. I will wait on the Lord. I will trust God to move in my life as God sees fit to do. And I will pray for the strength to recognise God's hand and reach for it when I am able.

Gitali 33

While following the path all alone,
I see that my lamp has gone out.

The storm has come,
and now I have the storm as my companion.

Every now and then in a corner of teh sky
Destruction lets out a mad laugh.

Calamity revels
on my head.

All this has forced me to lose the path
I had been going along.

Now which way must I go
in the inky darkness?

Perhaps this thunder-clap
will give me news of a fresh path.

Where can I go
so that my night changes to day?

I can smell the lilacs. They are still in bloom. I think we will be able to enjoy them for perhaps another week. Boxes are slowly being packed for our move at the end of May. I am still learning to be a husband (a lifelong task I am told). I will go to the temp job today and work for four hours. Then I will go to the church office and create this weekend's bulletin. Tonight I will help a friend pack for his move. It is that time of year in Chicago.

Peace and all good things to you today. May God lift you up on eagle's wings...

comment counter: 28,059...I awoke to over 400 new comments from spam sources. If you posted a comment and you do not see it up, it is because it was accidentally deleted. Please post again.

immigration haut cuisine?

Okay, I don't usually get catty on this blog. Well, I try not to. But this is too much. I actually think Mayor Dally is right and I would like my tax dollars (even if it is .03) back. I cannot believe that the city council passed this motion. Give me a break! We have AK-47's on the streets. You want to waste my time with this? And, as some of us know, there is to be a march on the city on May 1. Has the city council said or done much about this?

Are we ready for our visitors? I don't know. It is likely. But we shall see.

I am tempted to make a joke about 250,000 angry French immigrants marching on Chicago, but something just doesn't seem quite right about that.

comment counter: 31570

32,349

Well, the count gets lower every day. I'm sure you are all very interested, so I will keep you up to date.

It's a lovely morning here in Chicago. The view from my bedroom revealed an orange sunrise. The lilac hedges in the neighborhood are in full bloom...perfume everywhere.

This morning I thought I would just point you in several directions at once. Take your pick. The University of Blogaria is a busy place.

AKMA is going to take a good hard look at liturgy. He's a good anglo-catholic, but with his fondness for U2, he may surprise us all with what he has to say.

With liturgy in mind, you should read Jennifer's post about her daughter's baptism.

Beth posted about how women dress a few days ago. Hugo posted about how women flirt. Take your pick.

Cliff is pointing us toward conversion...and convertitis. Camassia is simply sitting on the couch. Well, she's quite the active theological couch potato, so give it a read. She discusses where the true church may be...as someone who is trying to decide. Very cool.

And with that I'll leave you. I am off to work. I assume I am working all day, but one never knows.

36,678

Just two weeks ago I discovered that I had over 80,000 comments on my blog. The vast majority of them were spam. I know, I'm pretty facinating. This is true. But I am not that facinating. Heh.

So, I have been deleting the spam. I can occasionally delete a couple hundred at a single time, but I have not found a way to delete too many more than that without freezing the computer. Yay.

So, as of this moment, I have 36,678 comments. I have been slowly closing old entries so that I receive no more comments. And, as some have discovered, i am moderating all comments before they come in. I am still deleting 200 or or more spam requests. But I assume this number will drop off as I close more entries.

So, if you are poking through old entries and find comments from texas hold'em sites and other "adult entertainment," please know that I am slowly but surely making my way through them. It just takes time.

And, if anyone knows a quick and dirty way to do this, please let me know. Gracias!

I am at home today...the temp gig sent us away early yesterday and asked us not to come in today. My hours will be diminished quite a bit. I think I may have to ask for another placement. With the apartment building under new ownership, we are moving. This costs money. I need a more stable income. We'll see.

Pax hominibus and all that, y'all.

weary?

Are editors and critics getting weary of the fifty years of liberal vs. conservative positioning? Joseph Bottum is. In fact, as an editor of First Things, he thinks the conversation is over.

This pastor wonders if his church likes him.

Alison Stein Wellner is trying to dispell a mobility myth. Do we move? Maybe not.

Finally, I recall a liturgy text in seminary...Gordon Lathrop's book perhaps?...that suggested that we all understand liturgy. Has anyone ever heard of the legendary football games between Ohio State and Michigan? Well, it seems that Lathrop is not the only one who equates sports and religion.

peter marshall

weather: 40 degrees and very gusty...rain...now it feels like April.

I have been reading A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall. It is a biography about Peter Marshall, Catherine's husband. For those of you not familiar with Peter Marshall, he was a famed preacher, serves New York Avenue Presbyterian in Washington DC, and served as the chaplain to the Senate for a time before he died in 1949 still a young man.

The book is interesting for several reasons. He was an excellent preacher. He served an important pulpit during a difficult time in American history. The author, Catherine, is famed for her books. But a few things in particular have been running through my mind. As "famous" as Peter Marshall was/is, I had not heard of him until recently. And this is the first of Catherine's books I have read. Catherine went to school at Agnes Scott College outside of Atlanta. So, did my stepmother and her mother. In fact, if my math is correct, my stepgrandmother, Lelia, would have graduated a couple of years after Catherine. They may have known one another. For our worlds to be so close, that I have not heard about Peter until recently troubles me on some level I can't explain.

Anyway, I was lauging aloud yesterday on the train reading the book. Catherine was telling of their process of being called to the church in DC. It took fourteen months...arduous meetings and letters and processes. Peter and Catherine met with the search committee the day after they were married. They met again with the committee the first few days of a vacation to Scotland. On that visit she recalls picking out the wallpaper for the Manse in about thirty minutes...on their way to catch the steamer to Scotland. That a congregation, a call would interrupt such events in a marriage was assumed and even honored to some degree. Well, it seems to have been by Catherine and Peter.

What I remember about my grandmother is the story she told about telling a prominent Baptist church where her husband, Paul, would serve for twenty years, that she had no desire to live in the parsonage. "I did not want the ladies of the church to see my undergarments hanging on the laundry line. It is simply none of their affair." Lelia is a powerful woman. And she had her way. If I remember the story, the associate and his family moved into the parsonage.

Times change. People fall from popular memory. Peter Marshall was a hero to many. He still is a hero to many. The first edition of the book was a national best seller. There was a movie released about his wife that, it would seem, did quite well. Peter Marshall was a beloved man. And Catherine's telling of his life and ministry conveys all the sweetness of a woman who never stopped loving her husband even after he passed. It is a dear book.

And it is that color that is disquiets me. It is not that I am troubled by it somehow...I cannot really explain the emotion. That I am not Peter Marshall certainly plays into the foreign-ness I encounter when I read his tale. He was an immigrant and a powerful, famed preacher. Heck, they made a movie about his life. His life should feel alien to me. But what feels most alien is the way that he and Catherine engage their faith. It is lovely, but it is foreign. They completely surrender their lives to Peter's vocation. Meeting the search committee the day after you marry?! Holy cow. Can we have a boundary or two, please? They seemed to have none. What is so integral to how I understand my call and the boundaries that exist, the way I protect and preserve myself and my family seem to be totally different from Catherine and Peter.

But this relentless devotion is what also made Peter Marshall such a great minister, a great preacher.

If you can, read a couple of his sermons. Go to a used bookstore and get a worn edition of this book. It is a wonderful read.

Their son, Peter John Marshall, also has a website.

is ecclesial collaboration possible?

Sure. But there are limits.

There is a bit of a brew ha ha in Ireland right now. It seems that a Catholic priest celebrated the mass with a Protestant minister. Protestants and Catholics concelebrating the mass? Yeah, this will make some people uncomfortable to say the least. In Richmond, I knew some Catholic priests who had a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. They don't ask. You don't tell them that you are not Catholic. You are more then welcome to come to the altar. I have worked with Catholic priests in the hospital who have an even more bold approach. All are welcome. There is a certain ternch mentality. I imagine that the same mentality exists in places in Ireland where Catholics and Protestants kill one another.

In other news, some people are getting in trouble for not playing well with others. If anyone wants to know, if the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is involved, the Southern Baptist Convention will not be. This is likely a mutual stance, though the CBF has yet to bow out before the SBC has. This is the opposite of the above trench mentality. This is more like the Western Front of WWI. Trenches? Sure. You stay in your trenches. I'll stay in mine. Wow.

sermon

Here is my sermon. Just follow the extended gazing link.

The World Is Flat: A Sermon for North Shore Baptist Church
April 23, 2006
Acts 4:32-35
1 John 1:1-2:2

China and President Hu coming to the US.
His first stop was Seattle…why?
• $5.2 billion in Boeing airplanes
• $1.2 billion for putting Microsoft software on Chinese computers
• $20 billion in trade last year in Washington state…California and Texas actually do more.

The subject of global trade and increasing globalization has always intrigued me.

Thomas L. Friedman’s book The World Is Flat.

What economic and political stresses/technological innovations are flattening the world?

“Flattening” in Friedman’s use of the term is the combination of historical events, technological innovations, and shifts in social and political occurring since 1492 when Columbus sailed west from Europe for the Indies.

History of a flattening world (This is from a very Western perspective)
1.0 1492 – 1800: Columbus to the Industrial Revolution
2.0 1800 – 2000: the advent of the Industrial Revolution through the “computer age”
3.0 2000 – ongoing: an individual can compete in the global market; an individual can compete with Microsoft, can collaborate with Microsoft…from anywhere in the world

Contemporary examples –
• The Berlin Wall comes down on November 9, 1989
• The Twin Towers come down on September 11, 2001.
• China has an economic boom – ongoing…
• Open-Sourcing (Linux, IBM, Netscape)
• Outsourcing
• Offshoring
• Supply-Chaining
• Insourcing
• In-forming

Virtues – collaboration, shared wealth, shared opportunity
Troubles – endless rapid change, many will be unable to keep up

According to Friedman, though the US is the great innovator now, as it has been since WWII, competition is ramping up. China, India, and the European Union are economic powerhouses. China and India in particular are worrisome if you are concerned about the success and preeminence of the American market. Their influences are only just beginning to be perceived. India alone has 355 million people in its middle class. The entire US population is not that large. As these economies continue to get their bearings, we will see our lives change.

What is most interesting to me in Friedman’s work is this understanding that a flattening world will demand responses from places like churches…places where people are cared for. He calls it the “fat” of life. Sure, we can all be more “lean,” more able to compete, but without the fat of the world, the meaning-making communities and relationships, the so-called nonsense that actually builds up, then the system will be unhealthy.

Some friction in the seemingly frictionless world of expanding globalization is necessary.

We need communities to make meaning of what is at work. We need agencies to slow things down in helpful and healthy ways. And, finally, if we are honest with the realities of Friedman’s theory, we will need to help the people who will not be able to keep up, those who will not be able to adapt. There are always growing pains to such a shift as Friedman suggests. Who will be around to help?

Friedman suggests that churches (and others) need to be prepared for what is happening.

And this is where my mind has been focused of late. I know I tend to obsess about these things, but if Friedman is at all correct, then it may be helpful for churches in America to begin to think about what they will do in response to such broad shifts. Members of congregations will be affected. People living in the surrounding community will be affected.

I think we do not need to look far for inspiration in how to respond…

…for we have a flattened world in the wake of Easter.

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. [For] there was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.(Acts 4:32-35)

As we continue into the Easter season, we are presented with this astounding vision of community. Can this have ever been a reality? Can we even begin to imagine such a promise being fulfilled in our own lives?

Perhaps it can be. In some ways, the specifics of this story are unimportant. Certainly it may guide us in understanding current economic realities, but in this case it is the spirt of the passage that may matter most to us. How can we give so generously to one another? What can we share? Do we have the courage to receive so completely from one another? In another word; how might we be reconciled to one another through the grace of Easter?

So often the Acts passage is brought to the fore as if it were a memory of a lost utopian ideal. I think this is a limiting way of engaging this passage. The early church was hardly utopian. And the virtues of the Acts community have not been relegated solely to the pages of the Bible.

As Friedman demonstrated symptoms of flattening in his book, we do not have to look very hard for symptoms of flattening in Christian history…
• The Acts community
• Christian monasticism
 In the east and the west, this tradition still continues
In the west, many emerging Christian traditions attempted to break down the walls of the monastery and allow those virtues to roam freely.
• Mennonites and other Anabaptist groups
• Shakers
• Amish
• The Catholic Worker Movement
• Lutheran Volunteer Corps
• REBA Place

As admirable as these institutions, traditions and movements are, there may still be a tendency for many of us to think of them as impractical or simply too difficult. Indeed, there is wisdom in thinking of such a call as a specific vocation for certain hardy individuals. The rest of us simply may not be cut out for such difficult work. We simply may not be called to it.

But then there is Easter.
But then there is the cross.
It stands on the horizon…
…empty.

Somehow we are to proclaim an empty cross
…and an empty tomb.

Can we see that the community in Acts was responding to an empty cross, an empty tomb? They witnessed the risen Lord. By the grace of God, they found within themselves release from sins. That grace, the release from the bonds of sin, is what compelled them to live together in such a unique and inspirational way.

If there is a way to engage in Friedman’s vision at all, it is through the increased collaboration he suggests is happening. The Acts community was certainly collaborative. “Sharing all things in common” is collaborative. But the collaboration we witness in this passage has a different motivator and a different goal.

Its motivation is the Risen Lord.
Its goal is proclaiming the Risen Lord.

The wisdom of the lessons learned by the community in Acts has not dried up. No, it is still a guide to us.

We need to look around. We need to look within. How are we to respond to the Empty Cross, the Empty Tomb, the Risen Lord? How will this guide how we respond to shifting economic realities?

Give comfort to the displaced…
…manage a shifting economy…
…give wisdom to the successful…
…witness to the existence of sin…
…and to forgiveness…

Let me give you an example of what it might look like.

Some of you know this, but many of you don’t. This may very well be my last sermon at North Shore…at least for a long time. On the first weekend of May I am being presented before a congregation as the candidate for their Senior Pastor position.

I cannot divulge the name of the congregation yet. But as soon as I know something, I will tell you all. And if God does call me to serve that church, there will most certainly be a party. Clear your calendars now.

North Shore Baptist Church has raised me. Through your proclamation of the Risen Lord, and your generosity, I have been nurtured and encouraged to enter into the Christian ministry. We have worked together, collaborated, shared what we have with one another, gained strength together…we have, in our small way, been the Acts community.

But such an example, as wondrous as I have experienced it, is only the beginning of what is possible and what is needed in this world.

We Christians know that in many ways the world was created flat. We know that we lost that collaborative relationship with the Fall.

As Christians we claim at every Easter that the world is indeed flat.
Walls have been torn down.
Borders have been eliminated.
There is no slave or free.
There is no Jew or Greek.
God does not abandon those whom the world may cast aside.
God lifts up the lowly.
God forgives sin.
God grants wisdom to those who seek it.
God calls us to be one Body, to be the Church…
…to proclaim the Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord.

Friedman is quite possibly describing a new economic reality, but we Christians have been witnessing to a flattened world for a couple of millennia.

Alleluia! The Lord is risen!

The world is flat.
Thanks be to God.

Friedman, Thomas L. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2005

Harden, Blaine In Seattle, Hu Focuses on Trade and Cooperation Washington Post, Wednesday April 19, 2006; A 13

the world is flat...beginning thoughts

I am working through my texts for tomorrow morning's sermon. One of my usual online haunts for sermon prep is Dylan's site. This week, however, she has posted her musings elsewhere. I have heard of taking one word from the reading and preaching upon its possible implications, but this was outstanding. It also helps me in some of my thinking this week.

I want to try and connect Friedman's book, The World Is Flat with the Acts passage and Easter season. I think it can work.

I will draw our attention to the visiting Chinese President and the news surrounding the economic shifts between our two countries. It is a great example of what Friedman is speaking of in his book. You know, Washington state industries (read: Microsoft etc) have invested 20 billion dollars toward expansion in China. There is that much trade. Incredible.

This is one example of Friedmans' flattening world. There are others that he illuminates in his book. But what I am interested in for the sake of the sermon is how the Church might respond to such economic shifts.

Essentially my claim is that the world has always been flat. If there was ever an event which has flattened the world it was the Life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Acts community is as much a sign of this flattening as 20 billion dollars in trade with the state of Washington.

Can we rest on this knowledge in some way that can respond to economic insecurity in the face of increasing competition, of our children being one of a million and no longer one in a million? As industry moves to other nations more and more quickly, can our understanding of a Risen Lord, and the "flattened" creation that is renewed influence how we meet these challenges?

I know. It is an insane number of questions. But I think that this sermon might start some good conversations.

well, this is worth thinking about...

Survey results: Church not important for spiritual growth, Americans say

By Hannah Elliott

DALLAS (ABP) -- Almost three-fourths of Americans claim to be Christians, but only a small fraction consider church the place to deepen their faith, a new survey says.

Less than 20 percent of American adults believe participation in a congregation is critical to spiritual growth, and just as few agree that only through participation in a faith community will they reach their full potential, the Barna Research Group reported April 18.

Based on interviews with 1,003 adults from across the nation, the telephone surveys also found that as few as 17 percent of adults said “a person’s faith is meant to be developed mainly by involvement in a local church.” What’s more, only one-third of all evangelicals -- the group most likely to attend church -- endorsed the concept.

And while 72 percent of Americans claim they have personally committed themselves to Jesus Christ, less than 50 percent attend religious services on a weekly basis.

“These figures emphasize how soft people’s commitment to God is,” evangelical researcher George Barna said in the report. “Americans are willing to expend some energy in religious activities such as attending church and reading the Bible, and they are willing to throw some money in the offering basket, but when it comes time to truly establishing their priorities and making a tangible commitment to knowing and loving God, most people stop short."

Barna also said the results should challenge church leaders to foster a “more positive community experience.” Instead of a generic church model, which emphasizes attendance and experience-driven services, Barna said, churches should try for relationships that are less fluid in nature.

“Jesus’ example leaves no room for doubt about the significance of involvement in a faith community,” he said, adding that a “biblical understanding of the preeminence of community life” takes strategic planning and time.

The survey, conducted in January, queried a random sampling of people 18 years and older living in the continental United States. The geographic distribution of survey respondents corresponded to that of the U.S. population.

visual bobby

I have been thinking about music a lot lately. I have been frustrated with my voice. The Passion was a tough 20 pages on a B-flat. I have been thrilled with the reintegration of my rusty tones into Chicago Choral Artists. What a great group. We can pick up an a cappella piece like Poulenc's O Salutaris with its C-sharp minor women's quartet enshrouding the men's C-major quartet. Dissonance does not even begin to describe what is at work. Outstanding. I am honored to be a part of CCA right now. I may whine about my self-described rustiness. But I know that I am a fortunate man.

Once upon a time I met Bobby McFerrin. It was at a time when I needed a little affirmation. He greeted me with his "Namaste" and asked me if I were a singer. I simply replied "Yes." He smiled and said, "I thought as much."

It was such a brief encounter. But it was incredibly influential. The ticket to the concert was a gift from a wonderful friend.

Have you ever had such an encounter? Can you recall such words of encouragement from someone you admired? Let me know. Post a comment or simply post a link to a post on your own site.

"I'm my own walkman." - Bobby McFerrin

sad news...

Remembering William Sloane Coffin

by Jim Wallis

Bill Coffin has died. Rev. William Sloane Coffin was likely the
most influential liberal Protestant clergyman and leader of his
generation. One of the first white men to go South and be
arrested in the civil rights movement, one of the first church
leaders to dissent from the Vietnam War, one of the first moral
voices against the nuclear arms race, Bill was a prophetic voice
of Christian conscience to both church and state for many
decades.

Bill died at his final home in Vermont of congestive heart
failure but, as many have testified, his heart never failed a
generation committed to putting their faith into action. While
apparently unafraid of death, Bill Coffin (unsurprisingly)
defied it to the very end. Seemingly on the edge of death for
month after month, Bill kept publishing new books, giving new
speeches, founding new organizations, hosting a legion of
pilgrims saying their last goodbyes and being ministered to once
again by the prophet-pastor, and somehow finding the time to
keep encouraging countless friends in the struggle for social
justice and peace - including regular phone calls to our home to
cheer me on during the God's Politics book tour. He would see a
television interview and call just to offer his encouraging and
wise words. Sometimes he would speak to Joy while I was on the
road, and send me his good advice, "Tell Jim to let his success
go to his heart but not to his head."

I remember a special dinner for Bill, hosted by his friends,
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund,
and Rev. John Chane, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington. It was
billed as Bill Coffin's likely last visit to Washington, D.C.,
(it was) and a host of interesting people turned up. Dan Rather,
then-CBS anchor, testified to the consistent moral voice that
Bill Coffin offered to journalists such as him. Joe Hough, the
president of Union Seminary, named him a genuine prophet for our
time. Marian spoke of how impressed a young generation of civil
rights activists was with the active support of a northern white
clergyman.

And in an extraordinary story, Bill Moyers described an
interview he once did with the Religion News Service while still
press secretary in Lyndon Johnson's White House. After stepping
into the makeshift phone booth used for phone interviews, the
religion reporter kept challenging the administration's
arguments for the Vietnam War, and kept citing anti-war points
made by a young chaplain at Yale - Rev. William Sloane Coffin.
No matter what Moyers' rebuttals, the reporter kept coming back
with Coffin's clear theological and political objections to the
war. After the interview, a frustrated Moyers instructed an aide
to "find out who this guy Coffin is" and to get his arguments
against the war. He got them; Moyers read them carefully, and
the encounter with Coffin's prophetic critique was the beginning
of Moyers own change of heart on Vietnam and, eventually, many
other things. I don't know if Bill had ever heard that story
quite before, but the influence on Moyers was stunning to all of
us in the room.

I had the job of helping Bill get up to the podium for his
remarks in response to all the tributes he had received (strokes
had diminished his mobility and slurred his words but had not
dulled the sharpness of his mind or cooled the warmth of his
heart.) In introducing Bill to speak to all of us, I described
how this young evangelical with a growing social conscience had
failed to find many in his own contemporary faith tradition to
learn from, but had discovered this liberal chaplain at Yale and
senior minister at The Riverside Church who was more faithful to
the gospel at the point of its social and political
implications. I gave Bill a big smile and tearfully testified
that, "On the biblical matters of justice and peace, Bill Coffin
was one of the most evangelical Christians of our time."

Today is Bill Coffin's memorial service at The Riverside Church
in New York City. Many will testify to his prophetic courage,
his indomitable spirit, his great humor, and his pastoral care.
And many, such as me, will just be grateful to have been one of
his many friends. Now Bill goes to God.

"The one true freedom in life is to come to terms with death,
and as early as possible, for death is an event that embraces
all our lives. And the only way to have a good death is to lead
a good life.... The more we do God's will, the less unfinished
business we leave behind when we die." - William Sloane Coffin,
June 1, 1924 to April 12, 2006

Memory Eternal.

generosity of linkage

Amy Butler linked to me. She shared an experience of the juxtaposition of two of my posts. She is someone I know of and admire...you know how it is sometimes. I read her blog from afar. Take a look at her blog. The post is flattering in how it is a reference to the sight and wonderful in that it is not at all about me. She writes well.

Canossa also posted a link to this site. I have not been to his site before. But it appears interesting. Give it a gander. Thanks, Ken!

And you all try to have a good day. I will endeavor to maintain my sanity here at the temp gig. It appears to be an increasingly difficult exercise.

politics and more politics

Rumsfeld is still in the hot seat. And, for better or worse, our President is still supporting him...even praising him. "I'm the decider, and I decide what's best," Mr. Bush said in the Rose Garden. "And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense." In an attempt to steer away from my general annoyance at such statements as these from W, I will say that the President does get to decide who stays on his staff. Well, at least on paper he does. As usual, W is willing the bear the slings and arrows of outageous fortune for his mates. But where does it stop? Is it worth this time and effort? Yes, Rummy is paraded about with Generals and others in support of him. That's great. But it seems as if every other day there is another accusation, another point of discord. Was there ever a Secretary who faced such adversity and criticism? Why won't W let Rummy step down? The man must be tired.

Hu is in Seattle. You bet he is. If the Chinese President is going to go on a business tripp to the US, Seattle will always be his first stop. Here's why:

At Microsoft headquarters Monday, Lenovo Group Ltd., which last year bought IBM's personal computer assets, signed an agreement valued at $1.2 billion to pre-install Windows on its computers made in China. It was the third of three recent deals by large Chinese computer makers to put licensed Windows software on PCs before they hit the streets...Trade with China was worth more than $20 billion last year to Washington state. On a per capita basis, Washington does more business with China than any other state -- and its total trade is exceeded only by California and Texas, said Joe Borich, executive director of the Washington State China Relations Council.

It seems Bill Gates will solve America's political troubles with China by investing in them. Investing is a curious word. Bill will invest. Eventually, the Chinese will hold a large enough interest in Microsoft that through this one megacorporation and its Guru, any attempt at open warfare will destroy both economies. Well, something like that.

Finally, there was this article on the Pope.

Today, as Benedict marks his first anniversary as pope, the liberals are still unhappy. But so are some conservative activists.

"Among those who greatly admired Cardinal Ratzinger and were elated by his election as pope, there is a palpable uneasiness," the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, an influential conservative, wrote recently in the journal he edits, First Things.

And this may be the strongest statement about Benedict we get. You see, to me this only underscores the Liberal/Conservative religious divide in the US. Ratzinger is not a centrist. He's Catholic. He's an intellectual powerhouse who does not choose sides. It is simply a sad reflection on American religious life that it appears that neither the press nor the poles get this.

one of the girls

We have a concert this Friday! Huzzah. We will be at the Poitin Stil (pictured) at 10pm until the Murphey's stout runs out.

One of the Girls
April 21, 2006
Poitin Stil
1502 W. Jarvis
(near CTA Red Line)
Chicago

play

coffee with my wife

It is not so much that Trish is a sackhound. It is more that I get up at five most mornings with or without the alarm. Some say I have an illness. I don't know about that. This morning my wife got up with me. Well, after I had fixed a pot of strong coffee. We are packing up the apartment slowly but surely since the building has been sold. We still don't know when our move out date is, but we want to be ready. Trish is sorting through mail and such. We need to clean up before we can pack up.

The coffee is good. It tastes better when my wife is around.

Here are a couple of links for you.

Cliff shares his weekend. My hope is that he too will one day go down the slide head first. Heh.

Dylan is bent out of shape about packing the pews. I think I agree with her.

AKMA is preparing to talk to the poorly dressed set about interpretation. His rough outline is interesting...and I think his points are (will be?) well made. Interpretation is not something an interpretive community can own...interpretation, knowledgable and intelligent interpretation can also come from without the community. I guess this would play into an open source understanding of scripture as well. Hmm. Does this have anything to do with commitment phobia?

Finally, i want to share this image with you. It is from Reconciler. Dan Feldstein, one of our members, took it during worship. We are discussing the sermon. This is something we allow an opportunity for in each service. I love how the communion set is in focus and in the foreground while everything else is a little blurred. This is life at Reconciler.

liberty

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

These words are inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Kudos to Gandalf.

BTW...I have a way to monitor comments. Post away!

easter sermon

Christ Jesus, from the morning of your resurrection you knock at the door of our hearts and you remain close to each one through your mysterious presence. Without imposing yourself upon anyone, through your Holy Spirit you pray within us always. - prayer from Taize

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen!

So, is it just me or can Easter just wear you out? It has been an amazing week for us at Reconciler. Our inclusion into the life of Immanuel Lutheran Church continues to reap benefits. The services were astounding. Larry's sermon was lovely. The simple fact that an Evangelical Covenant Pastor preached in a Lutheran church with Swedish roots is remarkable in the face of that history.

Personally, as much as I may have whined and moaned in the moment, I enjoyed singing in their choir. That's a lively bunch. As usual, the hospitality shown to me was incredible...and I have placed the red leather bound volums of the chanted Passion of Our Lord on my wish list at Amazon. That was lovely. Gotta get me one of them.

Maundy Thursday...
Good Friday...
The Easter Vigil and the requisite champagne reception...

I love these events, but they simply wear me out.

In anticipation of most of us being worn out either from multiple services or a lot of driving and visiting family, we keeping things quiet here tonight. Evening prayer. Eucharist. Blessed rest.

good friday linkage

Good Idea/Bad idea
Theocons?

It is a warm day in Chicago. I have some time off. I will use it to have breakfast with my wife and to practice the 20+ pages of chanted Passion for tonight. We had a rehearsal last night and I am still reeling from my ineptitude.

Pray for me, the increasingly tonedeaf. Oy! Was that a rough night!

May God bless your Good Friday.

Job 38:1-7

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up your loins like a man,
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

There is an almost comic challenge in this passage. "Gird your loins like a man." Is this some cosmic machismo? No. There is something more generous here for us. God is asking Job to ready himself. A mystery will be revealed.

This is the challenge of Job. Do we know God? Are we even ready to know God? Often, the challenge of Job is placed in the suffering of Job, the apparent willingness of God to inflict pain upon his blameless servant and the wisdom that may be gained from that suffering. Perhaps we instinctively struggle with Job. His suffering is unimaginable. Though wisdom may certainly be gained from suffering, it may not be what the book of Job is trying to share with us.

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?"

God answers Job's questions with more questions. "Do you know who I am?" A generous truth is revealed. The same will that laid the cornerstones of creation created Job. The same will that caused the heavenly beings to sing for joy at the creation of the universe brought Job into being. And did not the heavenly beings sing on that day as well? Is it so hard to imagine a heavenly choir singing with joy on the day of our creation?

Genesis 1:31 says "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." God's intention and desire for us has not changed. Job, who is wise and blameless, nonetheless struggles with this mystery. It is a truth easily forgotten. Nonetheless, God's response to Job's suffering is the reassurance of God's own desire for the world. God's will has not changed. God rejoices in it. Yet this is no pollyanna vision God presents to Job.

There is a Fall. There are choices and consequences. There is evil in the world. And it appears to have a life of its own. War, addiction, careless actions, and trauma of all sorts can punctuate our existence. It is difficult in the face of such suffering to find this promise of God. And yet it is there for us and we are encouraged rest within it.

God, grant that we may once again witness your purpose for us, that we may know that your will has not changed. On the day we were created you rejoiced. You still rejoice in us.

me and Trish

This is a picture that Mae took of me and my lovely wife at the premier of Say Hello to Clive for Me. It was a good time. People were dressed up. Mayhem ensued on the movie screen. All in all it was a great night.

from the executive minister in new jersey

Loving Our Neighbors A Pastoral Meditation on Immigration

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your forefathers who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky. (Deuteronomy 10:17-22)

Our nation is engaged in an intense debate over immigration and the status of almost 12 million non-documented people in our country. As American Baptists in New Jersey consider all the proposals being debated, I would like to ask us all to consider a number of points. These remarks will not be partisan in nature, but rather, I hope, reflective of our ministry situation in light of the Jesus’ mandate to love our neighbor (Matthew 19:19; 22:39).

Thousands of our ABCNJ members are first generation immigrants to the United States. They have arrived from countries such as Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, Korea, the Philippines, Jamaica and Liberia (as well as many other countries), and they have become valued participants in our fellowship and productive residents throughout our state. Accordingly, on their behalf I have written to our political leaders, asking them to address the current immigration debate in a compassionate and fair manner so that this century’s current wave of immigrants may experience the same kind of American welcome that my grandparents received when they arrived from Europe one hundred years ago. I lifted up the following principles advanced by Church World Service:

* Provide an opportunity for undocumented immigrants, who are contributing to this country, to meet reasonable criteria and, over time, pursue a path to legalization and citizenship (earned legalization - not amnesty)
* Reform the U.S. family-based immigration system to significantly reduce waiting times for separated families who currently wait many years to be reunited
* Create legal avenues for migrant workers and their families to enter the US and work in a safe, legal and orderly manner with their rights fully protected
* Develop policies that are consistent with humanitarian values; treat all individuals with respect; allow the authorities to identify and prevent terrorists and dangerous criminals from entering the country, and bolster our national security through enhanced border security and effective enforcement
* Protect individuals and organizations who act as Good Samaritans by offering help to persons in need without regard to their immigration status
* Safeguard asylum seekers and assure them an opportunity to prove they deserve asylum

These specific principles flow from a more generalized Biblical perspective that arose from the experience of the Israelites from Abraham’s day to the Exodus. God declared to Abraham that “the whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8). Moses named one of his sons Gershom, because he had become “an alien in a foreign land” (Exodus 18:3). God commanded the Israelites to identify with aliens in their land: “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). Leviticus 19:33-34 clearly depicts the attitude God’s people should have toward non-citizens:
“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

The Psalmist writes, “The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked” (Psalm 146:9). Having just returned from a mission trip to Egypt in February, I am reminded that this verse was literally fulfilled in Jesus’ childhood. His family fled from Herod’s wrath and became aliens for a time in Egypt (Matthew 2:13-20). Joseph no doubt was a “guest worker” there, with uncertain status. Nevertheless, God watched over Jesus’ family, blessed them, and when circumstances were better, they returned to Israel.

As members of the ABCNJ fellowship, let us minister with love and compassion to all the immigrants in our localities, and let us encourage our country to treat immigrants with justice and fairness.

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Then Job answered:
‘Today also my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
O that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his dwelling!
I would lay my case before him,
and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would learn what he would answer me,
and understand what he would say to me.
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; but he would give heed to me.
There an upright person could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted for ever by my judge.

‘If I go forward, he is not there;
or backward, I cannot perceive him;
on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him;
I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.
God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me;
If only I could vanish in darkness,
and thick darkness would cover my face!

What changed for Job? Yesterday he seemed so very wise, so very able to reconcile his suffering with God's love for him. Today he struggles to reconcile that within himself. He wants to come before God and reason with Him. He perceives God's silence and his own inability to understand as God's absence. There is even psalm of sorts in our reading for today, the antithesis to psalm 139...and it calls to mind Psalm 139.

Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Even in Job's groaning, he still rests in the wisdom of his faith. The psalm in Job calls to mind the promises of 139. I imagine that the same promises are in Job's mind. Even in despair and anger, Job rests in his relationship with God, calling upon God to own up to what he has done. For Job is in the outer darkness. And in his trust of God he will call God to task.

I am always encouraged by Job's relationship with God. It is not that Job assumes some equal standing with God. No. He knows that God is the Almighty King of the Universe and that he, Job, is sitting in darkness. But he knows the quality of the God who has true Judgment. And even though he knows that God's hand is somehow in his suffering, he believes in God's justice and mercy.

This is a different assumption than I often make. I tend to ask "Who do you think you are to do this to me? How dare you have your hand in this?" I forget my place. And even as I write this, the words seem cruel and oppressive to me.

To know my place...words that are used to oppress. But when I read Job I see something new. My place is not to accept an oppressive God. That is to forget my place as well. Job remembers his place. Even in darkness he remembers his place. Job is the recipient of God's true Judgment and Mercy. This is and has always been his place. He knows that it always will be.

Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; but he would give heed to me.
There an upright person could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted for ever by my judge.

I pray today that I might know my place. Even if I stumble in darkness, making my bed in Sheol, I am in the presence of the one who has true Judgment and Mercy.

why?

How do I love thee, let me count the ways.

Job 2:1-10

The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.’

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.

Blameless...sorrow, pain, suffering, God-permitted suffering...blameless.

Poor Job. I actually find myself fearing for the man. Will he hold up? Will his faith crumble? I imagine that mine would. I am hardly blameless. I am cynical enough that I would not be all together surprised by an unkind visitor such as Satan, but my faith might find itself in the garbage. I would not curse God. No. That takes too much work. I might find myself assuming God has nothing to do with me or my suffering. I can imagine myself saying "God is not in this."

God is nowhere.

I worked with a church that has an unusual group of friends within it. They did not go looking for one another, but they found each other at this congregation. They are from different generations, different socio-economic groups. They have one thing in common. They have lived to see their children die.

What always amazed me about this group is that they have not identified themselves with their suffering. Certainly there is comfort knowing that the people sitting in the pew with you have gone through similar tragic circumstances. But these people have managed somehow to identify themselves with the gradual renewal of their lives by the Holy Spirit within their relationships with one another.

I do not know if these people are particularly Job-like in their virtue and their faith. I don't know if one could rightly call them blameless. But in one another they have found the strength to go on and to eventually praise God for giving them friends to see them through such horror. They are witnesses to the rest of us that we are born for praise.

What Job knows, what God knows, and what these friends know is that in the end our lives our meant for praise. Can there be a more absurd notion? In the midst of the most commonplace experiences I forget this simple truth. How much more quickly do I forget when Satan puts his hand on my life?

Today I pray for the faith and wisdom of Job.

12 characteristics of an effective 21st-century pastor

I'm never quite certain what to make of such lists. But I thought I would share it. These are all good. Certainly they are. But there is this little niggling voice in my head that says "But of course pastors should be doing this!" Is this really new?

1. The ability to maintain personal, professional, and spiritual balance.
2. The ability to guide a transformational faith experience (conversion).
3. The ability to motivate and develop a congregation to be a "mission outpost" (help churches reclaim their role in reaching new believers).
4. The ability to develop and communicate a vision.
5. The ability to interpret and lead change.
6. The ability to promote and lead spiritual formation for church members.
7. The ability to provide leadership for high-quality, relevant worship experiences.
8. The ability to identify, develop, and support lay leaders.
9. The ability to build, inspire, and lead a "team" of both staff and volunteers.
10. The ability to manage conflict.
11. The ability to navigate successfully the world of technology.
12. The ability to be a lifelong learner.
Excerpted from When Better Isn't Enough: Evaluation Tools for the 21st-Century Church copyright © 2004 by the Alban Institute.

meme - tagged by cliff

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

So I tag...

Susie Q
Micah
Travis
Squeezings
Noz (This one will be great!)

This should be cool.

can you imagine this?

Wow.

www.choco-late.be

some news to think about

A friend sent this link. It is a series of images of street preachers in Miami. Some of the images are quite moving. I am not one to stand on the corner and call pedestrians to repent. I have certain issues with that style of evangelism myself. But the longer I serve as a minister, the more respect I have for the courage of people who do. Believe it or not, it is hard enough to stand in a pulpit of a church and ask people to listen to God much less to stand on a streetcorner.

In other news, a Catholic priest was kicked out of Saudi Arabia. It seems that he was asked not to practice his religion. Some day I am sure I will understand our government's relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Today is simply not that day.

The Saudi government prohibits the practice of any religion other than the fundamentalist wahabita Islam doctrine. Missionary work is forbidden as is any public manifestation (having Bibles, wearing a cross, a rosary, praying in public). The religious police, the notorious Muttawa, are well-known for their ruthlessness and use of violent torture. In recent years, thanks to international pressure, the Saudi kingdom has come to allow the practice of other religions but only in private. However, the Muttawa continues to arrest, imprison and torture people who practice other faiths even in private.*

Tags:Muttawa evangelism

this is great

This is from my alma mater:

The Octaves, University of Richmond's Men's A Cappella Group, Nominated for Awards

The Octaves, the University of Richmond's men's a cappella group, was nominated this year for two Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards by the Contemporary A Cappella Society. The group's CD "Corner Pocket" was nominated for best male collegiate album, and one of the cuts, "For Me This Is Heaven," was nominated for best male collegiate song. "For Me This Is Heaven" also was chosen for "The Top Shelf A Cappella Compilation," a CD that was released by CASA last month. The compilation includes songs from a cappella groups from 10 universities across the nation. The Octaves were founded in 1990, and they have performed for audiences from Maine to Florida. "Corner Pocket" is their seventh album.

I was one of the founding members. It is so reassuring to see them doing so well.

gospel of judas - meta

Gnostic gospels have their attraction. They are historically interesting and can shed much light on the differing theological traditions and the related debates in the early Church. The Gospel of Judas is the latest addition to the compendium. It is worth a read for those so inclined. But, as AKMA suggested, there is nothing within the writing nor about the discovery that suggests a Brownian (ala Dan Brown) plot to subvert a greater truth.

Here are some links for you.

AKMA (and Stephen Carlson)
Quotidian Grace
Joe at Pondering Perfection

Tags: Judas, gnostic

the deed is done

Trish and I returned home yesterday about noon. Let me tell ya, flying is much nicer than driving to VA. Wow.

This is a picture of the newlyweds. I have a new aunt!

Everyone had a very nice time. Weather and family were quite cooperative. We all joked, however, that standing before the living members of one's genepool is perhaps the most hostile congregation one could face. "You know, son. You may have had an easier time in front of the Republican National Convention." Much laughter was had.

We like to tease. I began my homily with a reflection on the absurdity of marriage. I think my uncle about tipped over. Great fun.

It was an honor. And now that I am safely back in Chicago I can say that I would do it all again. So, if any of you cousins are reading this, let me know if you would like me step up for you as well.

off to get someone hitched

Trish and I leave tomorrow to visit Virginia. My uncle, Joe, is getting married. I am presiding. I am honored and not just a little nervous. No one in my family has seen me in a pastoral role...unless you count ordination.

Really.

It should be an adventure. I am especially interested in how my dad will react seeing me in a collar.

Hmm.

He probably won't. Heh.

ahem...

Happy Birthday, Kate!!

eulogy

Follow the link to the eulogies for Tom Fox, the member of the Christian Peacemaker Team who was killed in Iraq.

“When I allow myself to become angry, I disconnect from God and connect with the evil force that empowers fighting. When I allow myself to become fearful, I disconnect from God and connect with the evil force that encourages flight… If I am not to fight or flee in the face of armed aggression, be it the overt aggression of the army or the subversive aggression of the terrorist, then what am I to do? ‘Stand firm against evil’ seems to be the guidance of Jesus and Gandhi in order to stay connected with God.” - Tom Fox

scripture to ponder

Job 1:1; 2:1-10 or Psalm 26

Psalm 22:1-15 or Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35 or Job 38:1-7

I will be exploring these passages over the next week. I like the challenge of them. The Psalms are especially interesting understanding them as something Jesus would have prayed. I like to think of Jesus as one who always is liturgical. His was a liturgical life, both in the sense of the cultic and in the sense of the daily. The writers of the Gospels had liturgical words at the tip of their pens as well.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus quotes a psalm on the cross. Whether they were actually his words or a literary device employed by a gospeller, it matters not to me...That those words come from a Psalm, a hymn, matter a great deal to me as I contemplate these passages.

church geek?

So, last week I was speaking with another pastor about "church geeks." I am a church geek. This is not a surprise. What makes a church geek? It is more than taking one's faith seriously...engaging in study etc. It is an obsession with all things church. Hymnody, scripture, languages, liturgy, history...can you get enough of it? If you can, you are probably not a church geek. Do you obsess about the ecclesial infrastructure of America in the 19th century? No? Then you may not be a church geek.

My previous post, and the answers to the survey, remind me of how much a church geek I am.

visions and dreams

Things are getting interesting at Reconciler. Well, to me it's interesting. We sent a survey out to the regular attendees attempting to find out what they think about ecumenism and the ministry of Reconciler to this end.

In short, they don't. They like to gather at Reconciler because of the people who gather there. This is going to be an interesting lesson for me to learn.

tuesday morning meta

If information sharing is a world flattening act, then let's get on with it. Though, to be honest, I am not sure how more people knowing aboutthe Florida Gators changes the world.

The Gators won. Yep. They handed it to UCLA.

Tom DeLay will not run again. I will not speculate what this may or may not mean for the fate of Republican leadership in Congress. Others can do that. I simply wonder what the heck took so long.

DeLay, who will turn 59 on Saturday, did not say precisely when he would step down, but under Texas law he must either die, be convicted of a felony, or move out of his district to be removed from the November ballot. DeLay told Time magazine that he is likely to change his official residence from Sugar Land, Tex., to Alexandria by the end of May. He said he informed President Bush of his decision yesterday afternoon.

And I guess we should wish him a Happy Birthday.

St Jerome's Librarian and Get Religion both point us to the Washington Post story on clergy and weight gain/control. It is actually an interesting read. All hail the Great Potluck!

Cliff and Get Religion are both talking about shifts and growth in the Church. Cliff wants us to know that the Orthodox Church in America is growing...and perhaps more than anyone else right now. Get Religion is talking about the Emergent Church again. Cliff, I knew that the ABC was shrinking. And it will drop a huge number of members at the next counting simply due to an upcomming/current split. Welcome to the ups and down's of a baptist denomination. Ah, volunteerism. Anyway, and I hope I don't offend Cliff with this statement, if there is a connection between the two posts it is that the EM and the OCA are growing because people are searching for something "authentic" and "true." Mainline churches are shrinking because we no longer feel authentic or true to a great number of people.

Here is something about Grups. Yep, I said "Grups." I think that Grups are close cousins to the zippies. I wonder if these are both manifestations of people trying to cash in on generationalism again and interesting descriptors of how people are managing to keep up with technological/cultural shifts these days. Ya gotta stay quick. Ya gotta stay young. If you cannot keep up you will be left behind. Hey. Does any of this sound familiar?

Larry posted the sermon he preached at Reconciler on Sunday. It was good. I find the idea of a "Great High Priest" very interesting. I still wonder what it means to a Baptist...clearly it is in scripture and clearly we engage it, but differently than the Roman Catholics and, it would seem, Sweedish Lutheran pietists.

I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that India's middle class is 355 million strong and growing. I just thought I'd share that.

I'll see you all around!

collaboration on the brain...

I have been reading Thomas Friedman's book, The World Is Flat this week. I have found it completely engaging. As a history of the 21st Century, it is cheeky and humorous. I cannot help but enjoy that. But what is interesting is the focus on the "flattening" through technological, economic and political transformation. Not surprisingly for Friedman, the principal focus is technological, but it is not the technology the flattens the world, giving access to opportunity to more and more people. No. It is the tremendous collaboration that, for example, internet technology affords that flattens. Internet technology is a tool and may simply have no virtue of its own. It could have just as easily been used to dominate. It may prove itself in the end to be such a tool. But that is not Friedman's concern. That's mine. Anyway...

The use of internet technology is only one example of "flattening" upon which the author focuses. There are others. But collaboration, I believe, is the great flattener, the opportunity-making force that brings the world together into Friedmand optimistic summation of the first half decade of the 21st Century.

This will come as a surprise to some readers of my wee blog, but collaboration is one of the reasons that I am Baptist. No, I was not mugged by a team of evangelicals on dark night in Chicago. Collaboration is a virtue of the Baptist tradition. It is how we understand the priesthood of all believers. It allows for volunteerism...free association of individuals into congregations, congregations into regional associations and denominations and finally denominations into national and global communities of faith.

Now, of course, not all Baptists understand collaboration in this way. "Right order" will take it's place...and a great hierarchy will emerge. "Right theology" will have its say. But I will suggest that, as a Baptist, that to allow a hierarchy, no matter how well ordering it may be, to stand in the way of the collaborative nature of the priesthood of all believers is a huge mistake. The same can be said for theology. Collaboration is hierarchical most certainly. There will always be hierarchies of sorts (popularity, administration etc). Theological litmus tests are an absurdity and only serve to isolate the community of believers into sectarian groups, trimming collaboration to such a small number of people, that the world is once again round, imposing and only what is visible to us matters.

As members of the Body of Christ and as equal participants in the priesthood of all believers - The Great High Priest "flattened" our access to God you know - collaboration becomes a virtue, perhaps even a spiritual practice. As Baptists, I would like to think we could exemplify what Friedman is highlighting in his book. Equal access to God, the Church, scripture and the Tradition...an open-source approach to community may actually be beneficial in the end. It takes courage and a willingness to be changed. Are we finally ready?

I'm just wondering.

much better, thanks

Oh, yeah. That was fun. I spent almost all of Friday in bed. I am feeling better now, but Friday was rough. Saturday evening, I managed to get up the energy to go out to play with the band. We played a benefit for a local theater company called Backstage Theater. Our guitarist, Sean, is a company member. It was fun. It was late. This weekend we changed the clocks. Morning came quickly. Oy.

Now I am getting my things ready to go to Reconciler. I am presiding at the table. Reconciler celebrates communion weekly. We do so because we believe that the table is where true reconciliation can occur.

Well, i am off. Tonight I will do dishes...and more dishes...It is not such a good thing to be ill for too long. I was behind in housework before I took ill. Now I am well behind.

Y'all be good.