conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

girls and precepts

One of the Girls has landed a few gigs for the St Patrick's Day festivities here in Chicago. Go here for the details. We are working up one for the 15th or 16th as well. I'll let you know as soon as I do.

Now, about those precepts...

Megan posted: Show up. Pull your weight.
Cristopher posted: God is. God loves.

I have been thinking about mine a bit...It has been a struggle getting away from the creeds. Ha. But I wanted to get away from overtly religious language for a moment. I think I failed. Well, that's something to know. Here are two to "catch up" with Megan and Cristopher.

Be compassionate. I know of very few people who are actually bad. I know many people who have done bad things. I am one of them. Most everyone I know of is trying to live by the Golden Rule or some approximation. To assume otherwise is to cheapen what God has made, namely the person who receives God's compassionate grace every day. If I do not offer compassion, I am attempting to thwart God's grace. Or, more simply, life is a pain in the ass. Why make it worse? Instead, try to lighten the burden of one another a bit as we all muddle through. Give us each room to be human...or enough rope to hang ourselves. Heh.

The ballance to this is...

I don't know a damn thing. This encourages an open mind. If I walk in to a new relationship or new situation assuming I know anything, those assumptions often cloud reality and do not allow me to hear someone else's story, or to experience something new. As a hospital chaplain I explained this as allowing people to tell me what they believe, to tell me their own story, to tell me how to best care for them. Then, and only then, would I be able to apply what knowledge or wisdom I have to their situation. But first I had to empty myself. The same is the case in congregational ministry, but it's much less intense and fast paced. Call it "welcoming the stranger" with the foregone conclusion that everyone is a stranger...someone I know nothing about. Finally, in day-to-day life, almost all of the relational mistakes I have made have been based on my assumptions about the other person, culture, or situation. If I am patient and assume I know nothing walking in, I am less likely to confuse my understanding of the truth for the truth that is being handed to me. God is a mystery, no? Well, since we are created in God's image, we too have something of the mysterious about us. I am trying to make room for that.

Okay, these are pretty slipshod, but it's what I have. They stem from the great comandment...Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and body...And love your neighbor as yourself. The first kind of love always brings about humility for me. When I love God, I encounter God. And that encounter is humbling. And in my humility, I discover compassion. And I pray that I will learn to love my neighbor more.

I repeat daily the Agnus Dei...Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on me...because in the face of such love, I see my own loss, my own sins. I am not a bad person. Not at all. But a reality check such as this is ultimately hopeful.

Well, that's a muddle.

sabbath 15: time and money, the fundamentals

The fundamental precepts by which we guide our life are cultivated, nourished and harvested in time. It is useful during Sabbath to clarify or reaffirm those principles that calibrate our inner compass to illuminate our inner direction.
- Wendell Berry

How many of you out there understand economics well enough to explain how the GNP is measured? Would someone please take the time to give us the formula? And would you then, as succinctly as possible, tell us how valuable a measure this is and why? I ask this only because Wayne Muller, in this most recent chapter of his book, has taken it down a long dark road. He is not a fan of measuring wealth or success or, most accurately, value, with the GNP.

Megan posted about Wayne's heavy-handedness, but she liked the exercise. Cristopher posted about creeds...it's actually an interesting route to take with the chapter and the exercise suggested. Good stuff, both of yez.

Essentially the whole point of the chapter is that we measure value with the GNP. A civilization's value is measured in what it can sell, but not by how it lives, who it is. This is bad. I started thinking about the whole "doing and being dichotomy." What is measurable? What is more ephemeral? The line between the two is so blurred. And, honestly, usually one is an outgrowth/ingrowth/innertwining of/with the other. But the GNP is all about doing/selling/product...But the fruit of the Spirit...

Yeah, how do you measure love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? There is no spiritual GNP. It is impossible. Christianity wrestles with grace and works...we are saved by grace and not by works but a faith without works is dead. And this is why I think Muller is so bent out of shape. We have seen salvation in works in our national economy. And that just blows. Well, that is my perhaps inaccurate inference. It is why I would be bent out of shape if I spent too much time thinking about the GNP.

I immediately go to church growth and such issues. How do you measure the size of a church? Numbers in the pews? The ammount of money given away? It's ability to hold hands with old or young people? It's diversity? "525,600 minutes?!...How about love?" All of that is running about in my imagination right now. The issue again lies in the whole doing/being dichotomy or system. It's a mess to understand.

Muller's suggested exercise, to make a list of precepts for Sabbath, is a good one really. Useful, even. What he is asking is for us to find some way to discern what we value and then on the Sabbath to measure it, remember it, hold it up to be honored and understood. Megan suggested that we should all give it a shot. Cristopher agreed. I agree that it's worth a go. Here is the assignment in Muller's words. Why not give it a shot yourself and tell me how it goes. Make a list in the comments or on your own blog and let us know what they are.

What are some of the inviolable precepts that guide your life? To be kind? to be grateful? To be honest? To serve your neighbor, to help the earth, to love children? Make a list of principles that shape your days. Include both those you currently follow and those you would like to follow. On Sabbath, take time to speak them aloud, alone or with loved ones. Notice how you feel when you hear them. What resistance, what relief arises? Notice how the memory of these spoken precepts resonates in your body through the day.

Here is what Megan said.
Here is Christopher's first, and second.
I need to think a bit.

well...

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
        Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
        From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
        If I lack'd anything.

"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
        Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
        I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
        "Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
        Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
        "My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
        So I did sit and eat.


- George Herbert

I think I may be officially back among the living. Holy cow, was that something else. Suffice it to say that the ER took me immediately when Trish took me there on Friday (very early) morning. I slept for 24 hours (the occasional break) when I got home. I lost almost fifteen pounds. And last night was my first venture back into the world of solid foods. Yeah. It was like that.

Community Church really stepped up. My music director, God bless her, took the sermon. I suggested a hymn sing. She did that and more...taking the congregation through our hymnal supplement's Lenten offerings as if journeying through Lent. Rich, an occasional commenter here, led the prayers of the people and such. Lovely. Just lovely.

At Reconciler, Larry and Laura+ also stepped up. I e-mailed Larry and asked him to tap into his pietist roots and preach from the hip. He did so without expressing hesitation. Wondrous. Laura was a wonderful neighbor.

Members of Community Church brought lots of chicken soup, a book, and many get well cards. The one that the children signed is my favorite. The children and several adults signed it...my favorite: "Heal Thyself Soon!"

So, many thanks to all. I will endeavor to get back up to full speed this week. Keep me in your prayers. I am told this thing will be with me for at least a week. Dern bug.

Now, some of you have likely been paying attention to the news...So, you will have to get me caught up with this. Jesus' tomb? Oh shit. Am I going to be out a job? I need to know if I need to go back an audition for that theme park again. They wanted to pay me good money to sing and stuff.

jonathan coulton

AKMA pointed to this. You really must watch it. Lovely. Indeed, thank you, Jonathan.

I am slowly recovering from a nasty bug that landed me in the hospital for a few hours...litres of iv solution, anti-nausea meds...great fun. I'll post tomorrow or Tuesday when I am finally functional. Oy. Veh.

Peace and all good things to you all.

mary

I've been playing with the digital camera. This is a shot through the stained glass pendant hanging in the basement window.

the table

Ash Wednesday went well enough. We had a quiet service in the lounge. Here is the table we had in the center. The bowl of sand was for candles we lit to symbolize the hope that is intrinsic in Lent. The small jar held the ashes from the palms I burned yeaterday morning.


Click on the picture to see more images if you are interested.

ash wednesday...

No blogging today...well, except this blog...right.

May Lent uphold and challenge you.

you know who you are...

Blessed are you, O God of all the prophets,
you knew us and chose us
before you formed us in the womb.
You fill us with faith that speaks your word,
hope that does not disappoint,
and love that bears all things for your sake,
until that day when we shall know you fully,
even as we are known by you.
For these and all your mercies, we praise you.
Amen.

I praise God for you.

some links on a tuesday

Here are some sermons for you.
The Sacristan+
Rev Ref+
Real Live Preacher
Rev. Laura+

Here's a musing on narrative preaching.

And the Winged Man is thinking about liturgy and Transfiguration Sunday.

Finally, One of the Girls was rehearsing last night at Chateau Ouilmette. It was a blast. I'll let everyone know our showdates.

exorcisms

"A Romanian priest has been jailed for 14 years for conducting an exorcism that led to the death of a nun who he believed was possessed by devils." - BBC On-line

ballanced?!

You Are 50% Extrovert, 50% Introvert

You're a bit outgoing, a bit reserved Like most people, you enjoy being social But you also value the time you have alone You have struck a good balance!

Are You An Extrovert or An Introvert?

Thanks to Jane Ellen for making all this possible.

where's your altar?: sabbath 14

"We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.

- Thomas Merton

Wayne is at it again. I imagine that trying to come up with a pithy title and a helpful exercise for each little chapter is difficult. Well, I know it is. I don't title all my sermons because it's difficult. Anyway, I am trying to get the connection between these parts.

Title: Seize the Day
Exercise: Make an altar for yourself (not to yourself).
Read: Megan's thoughts.
Read: Cristopher's thoughts.

Okay. Right. Strangely, I have a bit of an altar in my house.

I guess it is more like an iconostasis...but it's not. As it stands, I don't have a place for all my icons yet. They are still in a box. I swap them out from time to time depending on my mood or a feast day or some spiritual need I perceive in myself.

The chapter is about the great businessman, W.K. Kellogg. He responded to the Great depression by shortening the workday in his factories to six hours from eight thereby adding an extra shift in the week...and more jobs were available. No, not full-time jobs, but something. And people were pretty desperate. Eventually the six-hour work day became the norm. People were payed a full-time wage, but had more time to spend with their families.

Well, according to Muller's account, people enjoyed the schedule, the extra time for other duties at home, the extra time for family. But, as we all know, this did not last. You see, leisure time, time with family, time to spend in sport, charity, church, clubs etc became comodified somewhere. And in the 60's and 70's the workday went back to eight hour days. The national economy demanded the higher production hours...and, says Wayne, TV's cost too much.

Somehow time off became something we have to pay for. Money affords us more enjoyment during our non-working hours. "Passive consumption replaces traditional activities." Now, I want to warn Wayne away from agrandizing the halcyon days of 1930-40's yore. I remember that there was a World War in there somewhere.

But the point he's attempting to make is interesting. We work to have monet to do what we like. We work so much that we don't have time to spend our money on the things we would like to do, but only on the things that pass the time like flat screen TV's. I know some of us like the tube. But I get his point.

So, what about the altar. It seems that Wayne is trying to establish a practice of sitting with family and friends and sharing the day. Sitting around the dining room table, for example...or within a sharing space, before a family altar. Interesting.

This is not what my altar is for. But, and this is where the chapter is somewhat convicting, neither is my diningroom table. I am a pastor married to an actor. Last week was the first time we have had three consecutive nights at home in a week in longer than I can remember. And it happened only because my meetings were cancelled due to the winter storm. Otherwise I would not have seen Trish at all. We seldom have the time to get cought up on our days...to know where one another is in life. It's something that we struggle to make time for. We try, but it's hard.

Wayne is right that there has to be time for this. Wayne may also be right that our culture no longer supports the practice. We consume time. Whether it is the memory of the six-hour day or the hope that computers would free us all up to play more, it seems that culturally we realize our shortfall. But we also don't know how to let go.

Will making an altar help us let go?

sermon, transfiguration sunday

Well, no title this week. Alas.

Sermon: Transfiguration Sunday
Community Church of Wilmette
February 18, 2007
Luke 9:28-36

Have you ever had one of those experiences where time seems to stand still? Do you know what I mean? Maybe for you it was when you were lying under the stars one summer night. You were completely relaxed. And then you felt it, the turn of the planets, the will behind creation and your small, small place within it.

Maybe you are one of those people who heard a voice. Maybe you were sitting in a pew one Sunday morning and you distinctly heard God tell you something like “Follow me.”

Maybe you saw a light…a bright, all-consuming glow. It had no point of origin, but seemed to emanate from everywhere all at once.

Perhaps you were singing…and the music and the words transformed your heart and you finally understood what it means to be in the arms of Jesus.

Perhaps you have not had one of these experiences. That’s okay, too. You see, not all the disciples were on the mountaintop with Jesus that day. Those of us who have never been to the mountain have the story. And that in itself is a great gift. There is more than one way to experience the presence of God.

This morning’s passage from Luke is known as The Transfiguration. You will find versions of this same story in the gospels of Matthew and Mark. It’s a strange story. A few of the disciples follow Jesus up the mountain to pray. What they experience leaves them awestruck. The encounter they have with the divine is more than they can measure and manage. They have gone to the mountain and encountered Christ in his fullness. And when they return they are silent.

Well, they cannot have been silent about it forever. We have the story, don’t we? Somewhere along the line someone spilled the beans and said, “You know, one day I was up on the mountain with Jesus and a couple of the guys and this amazing thing happened.” But for now, we have to trust that Peter, James and John keep this thing under their hats for a while.

There’s so much to say about this story. It’s a lot like those experiences some of us have had…seeming to defy definition. Even it’s place in the larger story of Jesus’ ministry is curious. Why is this story in the middle of the Gospel? This is only the ninth chapter of Luke. There’s plenty more that has to happen and yet here we are on the mountaintop with Jesus.

And he’s glowing. Glowing! There are clouds and a voice and Moses and Elijah are there. This is the climax to any good story, don’t you think? But this is not the end. It’s the middle.

It’s in the middle.
And there it is…

Many interpreters like to remind us that the writer of Luke was crafty. He wasn’t sneaky, but he was very particular about how he wrote about Jesus and the church. So when something like this pops up, it’s a good idea for us to pay attention.

Immediately before this story in Luke Jesus had been trying to tell his disciples about the eventual end of his ministry, how he would have to go to Jerusalem and be turned over to the authorities.

He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

And the disciples were confused. In other Gospel accounts the disciples even try to dissuade Jesus from this mission. There they are enjoying the miracles and the teaching and their friendship with Jesus and he says something like “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” There’s no context for this. There is no precedent. No one really understands what he means. And by the end of the story, there in Jerusalem, Judas will turn him over to the authorities, Peter will deny him three times and many of the others will run off to the hills in fear.

The disciples needed the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration is in the middle of the story, serving as a touchstone, because it foreshadows Easter. It proclaims the resurrection. But it is only a glimpse. After this mountaintop experience, Jesus, Peter, James and John will go back to work healing and preaching.

How many of us have ever been to a concert where the music and its performance were so sublime that we were transported somewhere else? Has this ever happened to you? Abraham Maslow, the famed psychologist, calls this a peak experience. There are many kinds of peak experiences. Some are more dramatic than others. One of the common reactions to a peak experience is to try to make it happen again…to try to re-enter that space…to go back in to the concert hall. The disciples are no different.

Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" -- not knowing what he said.

The other gospel accounts have Jesus correcting Peter for even suggesting such a thing. But in Luke’s account Jesus simply keeps on walking and let’s God speak. And the clouds descend and a voice is heard. “This is my son.”

And they say nothing. The curious thing about a peak experience is that they cannot be described. We cannot discuss them, we can only talk around them, about them. But they cannot be described. They are about encounter…about meeting something other than ourselves in some unfathomable way. Beauty. Divinity. Perfection. Nature. We use words like “wow,” “amazing,” or “unbelievable.” The experience the disciples have leaves them utterly speechless. This was an experience beyond beauty…

The most powerful peak experiences are relatively rare. For Maslow, the highest peaks include "feelings of limitless horizons opening up to the vision, the feeling of being. Simultaneously more powerful and also more helpless than one ever was before, the feeling of great ecstasy and wonder and awe, the loss of placing in time and space" (1970, p. 164). They have been portrayed by poets as moments of ecstasy; by the religious, as deep mystical experiences. This is the nature of our story this morning.

So, it’s in the middle. Why? Well, one possible reason, and it’s the one I want us to consider this morning, is that Luke is providing a hint to the reader about what is to come in the end. The Transfiguration is the foreshadowing of Easter… “and on the third day be raised.” This experience of the disciples is a glimpse of the Kingdom, a bit of hope.

Sometimes I wonder if the disciples just tucked the experience of that day away somewhere in their minds…like we may sometimes do with our own experiences. We put it in the “strange and inexplicable” file in our minds. But when Jesus came to them after his crucifixion, Peter, James and John remembered that day on the mountain. And then they told their friends.

The liturgy of the church year holds on to that possible answer. Next Sunday is the First Sunday of Lent. This Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent begins. And like the disciples, there is work still to be done before we get to Easter. We have to leave the mountaintop of the Transfiguration. We must go down to the valley. There will be more healing and preaching and works of wonder. There will also be suffering and struggle and Jesus will be handed over. But on the third day…

…on Easter...
…On Easter we will encounter God again. Our visions of the divine, of beauty, or perfection, will be given context. They will finally have their purpose revealed.

The Transfiguration is God’s gift to us, the disciples. It is the promise of the resurrection. All things in Christ point to the resurrection, which is the fulfillment of God’s will for humanity. All Christian life is this encounter, the mountaintop. Whether it is work and prayer, Christian life is about this encounter.

Abraham Maslow said, "We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.” My hope for us this approaching season of Lent is that, as we walk the valley, we will remember the mountain.

May God grant you courage…and give you light.

Amen.

A wee bibliography:
Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality (rev. ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

awake...

Trish's show on Saturday night begins at 10pm. She gets home between 1am and 2am. I woke up when she got home. Snoozed off and on until 4am listening to the TV downstairs...and eventually gave up, convinced her to go to bed, and here I am.

My sermon is almost complete. I have too many ideas in it when all I really want to say is that the Transfiguration is God's gift to us. You see, all things in Christ point to the resurrection. All Christian life, whether it be prayer or work (false dichotomy), is encounter with the Risen Christ. All is transfigured.

So, um, yeah. Maybe I'll stand up and give that very short sermon. As it stands now, there are too many ideas.

Things that did not end up in the sermon:

I don’t know about you all, but I sometimes am surprised by what memories are triggered and when. Rhodenheiser stuff here…One of my professors in college was a man by the name of Bill Rhodenheiser. He taught classes in Hinduism. I took two or three classes from Dr. Rhodehheiser. He was an interesting guy. Perhaps you know the kind of teacher…the one that may assign a text book or two, but mostly he lectures you from memory. He had been teaching for so long that he had all he wanted to convey to you at the tip of his tongue. He would sit before us, take off his glasses, and begin to extol the virtues of contemplative prayer and Modern Hinduism.

Now, to be honest, as a twenty year old, I probably did not realize exactly what sat before me. My first thought was to bring the New York Times crossword puzzle with me to class and tune out once he closed his eyes. But, thankfully, it was to no avail. I learned more than I can convey in those classes.

Dr. Rhodenheiser was a Baptist minister. He often shared with us the story of his mission trip to India. In good Baptist form he went to India to convert the Hindu…But what made his story so interesting was that he ended up being converted in stead. His love for Hinduism and the culture of India exuded from him in every class. His understanding of Hinduism, interestingly, allowed him to hold to his Baptist identity while exploring the meditation and prayer traditions of Hinduism. Every one of his classes was, in essence, about the Transfiguration.

And there's this one too...

“exodus” 9:31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure [exodus], which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

• The word that Luke uses is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word “exodus.” Though this story exists in Matthew and Mark, Luke’s is the only account that uses this one word. Luke is a crafty author and many interpreters suggest that his use of this word is intentional. It is such a strange word to use in speaking of a basic leave-taking. Luke wants us to understand that what Jesus is about to accomplish in Jerusalem is the same as happened for the Israelites in Egypt. This is a saving act, a movement from slavery into freedom. But this time it is not simply for the nation of Israel, but for the entire world.

• Prayer leads us from slavery into freedom in God
• It takes us from the mountain into ministry

And wait, there's more!

Pennington
• Benedictine monk, spiritualist, writer and retreat leader
• A student asked “How do we repeat the “mountain top?”
• Pray!
• Create your own Rule/Regula.
• “Take time to be holy.”
• Accept Jesus’ invitation to come away to the mountain.
• I would say: Be a good Baptist, follow Jesus’ example!
• This is Sabbath…

Things I realize:
• Our discipline of prayer serves as an example to others about the importance of encountering God. It proved a context for our good works. If we want to be disciples, we have to follow Christ up the mountain from time to time.
• To pray expresses our hierarchy of needs. Here we come full circle to Maslow again. If we do not make time for prayer, what are we communicating? A lack of a desire to be in communion with God? Perhaps…even if that is not our intention. Perhaps we desire to focus our lives upon “right action.” This is one particular religious stance. But I wonder if it is lacking in its emulation of Christ. Somehow there needs to be the both/and of following Jesus.

Oh, and finally...

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God; your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. – Nelson Mandela 1994 Inaugural Address

snow gnome

Someone has been coming by to shovel the snow at the parsonage. Today is the first time I have been home to see and meet the guy. Until this moment he has been known simply as the snow gnome. Mysteriously the snow would disappear! Snow gnomes!

Now I have met him. He's painfully shy and I think I frightened him when I went outside to introduce myself. I understand that these things happen. But I still don't know the guy's name!

I can't call him The Snow Gnome. Can I? Really?

the peak experience

"We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves”

-Abraham Maslow

This is the direction I have am taking with the sermon.

American psychologist and philosopher Abraham H. Maslow (1908-1970) coined this term to describe nonreligious quasi-mystical and mystical experiences. Peak experiences are sudden feelings of intense happiness and well-being, and possibly the awareness of "ultimate truth" and the unity of all things. Accompanying these experiences is a heightened sense of control over the body and emotions, and a wider sense of awareness, as though one was standing upon a mountaintop. The experience fills the individual with wonder and awe. He feels at one with the world and is pleased with it; he or she has seen the ultimate truth or the essence of all things. (link)

And...

The most influential part of Maslow's theory was his model of the hierarchy of needs, which includes the full range of human motivations. His most important concept was self-actualization, the highest level of human need. Maslow also investigated peak experiences, special moments in each individual's life. He distinguished between two basic kinds of psychology, deficiency psychology and being psychology, and pioneered in the development of the latter. Maslow was also deeply intersted in the social implications of his theory, especially with eupsychia , his term for a Utopian society, and synnergy, or cooperation within a society.(link)

Finally, all of this talk has me thinking about a former professor of mine who passed away a while ago. Here is my entry about his passing. Rhody introduced me to the notion of the peak experience in the context of a Modern Hinduism class. Light and Sound and the loss of self in meditation and prayer. Yeah, light from light, and a voice from the clouds. Amazing. Unorthodox perhaps, but who knows where God is not?

for the Ref+

And this one...oooooo political

thinking around the sermon

The Transfiguration...heavy stuff...so lots of things are running through my mind lately.

- uncreated light (light from light)
- booths we fashion trying to recreate the mountain top
- sabbath as a discipline that allows for spiritual peaks
- the daily valleys we live in..."It's hard work."
- the Transfiguration is not the climax of the tale
- the lectionary or the liturgy of the church calendar is interesting in placing the Transfiguration before Lent. Ya get the mountain top before you begin the hard work of the Great Fast.

Lots of stuff here. Several sermons. I guess I'll just go downstairs and see what begin while I stand in the pulpit. But first, I need to order lunch.

rest in peace...

A great intellect has passed...

Princeton's Bruce Metzger, authority on biblical manuscripts, dies at 93

Home News Tribune Online 02/14/07

PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) … Bruce Manning Metzger, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and an authority on Greek manuscripts of the Bible, has died at age 93.

Metzger, who was born in Middletown, Pa., died Tuesday of natural causes, according to The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home Princeton.

At the time of his death, he was the George L. Collord Professor Emeritus of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary.

The son of Maurice and Anna Metzger, he earned a bachelor's degree from Lebanon Valley College in 1935, a bachelor of theology degree from Princeton Seminary in 1938 and a doctorate in classics from Princeton University in 1942. He became an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church in 1939.

Metzger began his teaching career at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1938, where he stayed in the New Testament department for 46 years. During his time at the seminary, Metzger developed 25 courses on the English and Greek texts of books in the New Testament.

He was also involved with committees in the production of three new editions of the Scriptures: the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (1966), the Reader's Digest condensed Bible (1982) and the New Revised Standard Version (1990).

In 1986, Metzger was elected to the American Philosophical Society in the class devoted to the Humanities and in 1994 he was awarded the F.C. Burkitt Medal by the British Academy for his contributions to biblical studies.

Metzger is survived by his wife of 62 years, Isobel Mackay Metzger, two sons and a sister. A memorial service is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 20, in Princeton.

Here is a list of some of his work:

* The Text Of The New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, And Restoration (2005, with Bart D. Ehrman)
* New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content (2003)
* The Oxford Essential Guide to Ideas and Issues of the Bible (2002 with Michael D. Coogan)
* The Oxford Guide to People & Places of the Bible (2001 with Michael D. Coogan)
* Greek New Testament (2000 with by B. Aland)
* Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation : Leader's Guide (1999)
* Revelation 6-16 (Word Biblical Commentary 52b) (1998, with David E. Aune)
* Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (1997) ISBN 1-56563-264-8
* The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (1997)
* Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (1994)
* The Oxford Companion to the Bible (1993)
* The Reader's Bible (1983)
* Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek (1969)
* List of Words Occuring Frequently in the Coptic New Testament (Sahidic Dialect) (1961) available online - note: "occuring" is misspelled in the published title
* Introduction to the Apocrypha (1957)
* The Oxford Concise Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible (with Isobel M. Metzger)

stevie wonder was right

Our great ignorance of the Divine Beings most naturally runs in two streams; whereof the one in harsh and coarse tempers, as in dry and stubborn soils, produces atheism, and the other in the more tender and flexible, as in most and yielding grounds, produces superstition.
- Plutarch De Superstitione (pdf)

The venerable AKMA posted an entry on his blog stemming from a conversation he and I had yesterday via IM. I was reading Prior Peter's blog and he had linked to this interesting little piece on Shakespeare. My wife's keen interest in the Bard has encouraged me to pay special attention when Will shows up. So I checked it out. I thought that it was an interesting article on the recovery of Shakespeare from irrelevance or cultural relativism. Prior Peter suggested that it may be an interesting lense through which to study scripture. Thus, I sent it AKMA's way.

One of the directions our conversation took orbited around the issue of superstition and faith. Jorge posted an entry on magical thinking and miraculous thinking the other day that touches on the same issue in the context of prayer. What makes for superstition. How is it different from Religion? How does it invade religious thinking and praxis? I find it curious that the default stance for some when they encounter superstition is atheism. Athiesm, in this case at least, is almost a reaction formation. "Magic does not work. Thus, no God." Gross oversimplification of one brand of atheism, but there you go. Blogging at its best.

Anyway, I wanted to point you all in the direction of AKMA's thoughts on the matter and on historicity, and one particular pdf. Follow the link in the gray box. I find it interesting to read thoughts about superstition from Plutarch. Lucian, as AKMA linked, is another voice against superstition from long, long ago (a wiki bio). Larry's sermon touched on some of this issue as well. Belief in any Christian theological/doctrinal notion has always been met with skepticism. The middle line of atheism/superstition may have shifted somewhat in 2000 years, but the issue is the same. Well, I think that the questions have at least. So, here are some questions to distract us all from work today:

When is Christianity (or the Christian) superstitious?
When is Christianity (or the Christian) religious (In that good healthy way)?
When is Christianity (or the Christian) atheistic?

Yes, all three streams are likely to exist within the wider Christian conversation...and at any given moment in any given Christian community.

What do you guys think?

and there was laughter...lots of laughter...

Hey...some of us proved this fifteen years ago!

ya!

oh yeah!

Well, it seems that the weather will keep the meetings at bay this evening. So, that's good news. I'm going home. But before I left, I had to share this:

Every night I say a prayer in the hope that theres a heaven
And every day Im more confused as the saints turn into sinners
All the heroes and legends I knew as a child have fallen to idols of clay
And I feel this empty place inside so afraid that Ive lost my faith

Show me the way, show me the way
Take me tonight to the river
And wash my illusions away
Show me the way

And as I slowly drift to sleep, for a moment dreams are sacred
I close my eyes and know theres peace in a world so filled with hatred
That I wake up each morning and turn on the news to find weve so far to go
And I keep on hoping for a sign, so afraid that I just wont know

Show me the way, show me the way
Take me tonight to the mountain
And take my confusion away

And if I see a light, should I believe
Tell me how will I know

Show me the way, show me the way
Take me tonight to the river
And wash my illusions away
Show me the way, show me the way
Give me the strength and the courage
To believe that Ill get there someday
Show me the way

Every night I say a prayer
In the hope that theres a heaven...

So, I had lunch with a member of the church. He suggested that we should work this up for worship during Lent. Lent and Styx!!! That is a sign of the divine! Huzzah! I am so happy right now. I can barely contain myself!

Yahoo!

*heavy sigh* blogging from the office...

O Christ, you are united to every human being without exception. Still more, risen from the dead, you come to heal the secret wound of the soul. And for each person the gates of an infinite goodness of heart are opened. Through such a love, our lives change little by little.

Yes, I am blogging from the office. It's sad to be certain. But this is the "city that works" whatever that means. Schools are open. The park district is open. I must be a wuss...or the only sane one around. I would like to think the latter. But the jury is still out.

The meditation to the right is from the book Peace of Heart in all Things. It is one of many Taize resources that I have with me. Today's prayer and reflection are good for me to mull over. In reading it, I found myself working backward.

"Little by little..." This has certainly been my journey. And it has been encouraged and affirmed by spiritual directors and mentors. I realize that for some Baptist traditions, this may seem a little weak. Where is that great coversion experience? But that is not how God has come to me...or at least I have not been willing to meet God in that overwhelming way. I have been taking that great leap of faith little by little. Slowly my faith has grown...sometimes in fits and starts. But, I pray this daily, that God will redeem me. I believe. Heal thou my unbelief.

"Risen from the dead, you come to heal the secret wound of the soul." This is the bridge for me. Healing and faith is a tricky combination. So often I find myself rushing to the magical end of the paradigm. I pray. God heals. I walk home. But this is not what is going on here. Little by little I am healed from what ails me. I know that there is a tradition in the Church of miraculous healing as well as "theotic" purifiying where it is said that the body of the saints do not decompose after death. I will leave that to the Orthodox. It's not that I disagree, it is that I have no place to parse that out in my faith. But I do know that through things like AA, that my body and soul have been nourished. Through song and prayer, my anxiety has been lifted, my heart has been healed. And, finally, I know that what cannot be healed in me because I am mortal and not immortal, will have its final resting place in God through the Love given witness in the resurrection. It is the ultimate act of justice and mercy. Even death cannot keep me from the Love of God. Well, Paul said so at least. I'll cling to that.

"O Christ, you are united to every human being..." Yes! I think that I knew I knew this from my first breath. It has always been the theological foil for me...the litmus test, the final measure. It took years of musing and confusion to accept that that the Church offers this in its Truth if not always in its practice. So, I joined the Church in Truth allowing for sin to exist in its practice...in the hopes that God would redeem us within the Church through Christ's resurrection (little by little as necessary) and our life together would reflect such Love.

Well, those are my thoughts for today. This coming Sunday is the feast of the Transfiguration. For me, the above is the whole point of the revealed Christ in the Transfiguration. Light from Light. True God from True God. Amen.

Wow.

a snow day?

quick linkage

Hugo is talking about predatory evangelism.
Jorge is talking about magic and miracles.
Larry posted a really powerful sermon.
Ref+ posted his sermon from yesterday as well.
Oh! Jeff+ posted his, too. Ref+, Jeff+ and I went to seminary together. Sometimes I read our sermons and wonder at God's humor.

snow days and play dates: sabbath 13

Thanks to you, O God, that I have risen today,
To the rising of life itself;
May it be your glory, O God of every gift,
Ad to the glory of my soul likewise.

O great God, aid my soul
With the aiding of your own mercy;
Even as I clothe my body with wool,
Cover my soul with the shadow of your wing.

Help me to avoid every sin,
and the sourse of every sin to forsake;
And as the mist scatters on the crest of the hills,
May each ill haze clear from my soul, O God.

- traditional Celtic prayer

The snowfall last night seems to have crossd over into the morning. The sky is still heavy. The radio is telling stories of traffic woe and commuter frustration. We may see a couple more inches as the day continues. I love the snow. No, wait, I used to love the snow. Now I miss the snow.

You see, when I was living in Richmond an amazing thing would happen when it would snow. Everything would stop. Perhaps neighborhood shops would open if the shopkeeper could walk to work. But schools would close. Offices would close. There are many nuts and bolts reasons why this was the case. But a snow day was always a gift. It was instant Sabbath! Want Sabbath time? Play time? Just add snow. It was like this when I was a child. As far as I know it is still like this.

Chicago is different. Yes, again, the nuts and bolts have their say. It snows more frequently...no, the snow sticks around longer. I would say that it snows just as much in Hanover Co. I could be wrong. But in Hanover, the snow melts. Anyway, Chicago does not stop for snow. Nothing closes for snow. Sometimes a suburban school district will close. But it's not really the norm. And no self respecting downtown business will close. I no longer get to play when it snows. Snow is no longer an instant Sabbath. The mighty dollar rules. Pride in Chicago's muscle, its bravado that stands against the snowstorm, is valued beyond measure.

So, I am trying to figure out what my day will look like...if I should postpone my errands or not or if I should find a way to enjoy the snow even if that means sitting by my window and enjoying hot cocoa.

Muller's chapter this week is entitled "A Life Well Lived." Essentially he bemoans the loss of liesure time. In the proposed exercise at the end of the chapter he holds up the example of friends who make room to play with their families to the exception of other options. Wayne is trying to get us to understand that our values have shifted around. We have allowed the virtue of success in our vocations and careers to trump all other aspects of our lives. It it's exaggerated form, as I understand Wayne, success is no longer a virtue but a sign of a deep spiritual loss. Well, that is the risk at least.

I don't know if the lack of snow days really underscores his point or not, but I make that connection. So, my advice to you today is this, if you live in Chicago take the day off. Keep your kids home if you have 'em. Fix some cocoa. Bundle up. Make a snow angel. Have a snowball fight. Read a book. Just give yourself time to play today.

I think my errands can wait.

Megan's post
Cristopher's post (as soon as he posts it)

sermon: plain speaking

Follow the extended link for this morning's sermon.

Sermon: Community Church of Wilmette
The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1
I Corinthians 15:12-20
Luke 6:17-26

Plain Speaking

The Beatitudes…The Beatitudes, or the Sermon on the Mount, is one of the better-known passages of scripture, one of the most beloved. But, at least in my experience, when I encounter them, I think of Matthew’s recollection and not the way that Luke would have us hear them. I want to remember blessing. I want to find myself within God’s gaze as the blessed. That’s what Matthew does…”Blessed are the peacemakers…”

But this morning we don’t have that luxury. This morning it is Luke’s word that meets us and not Matthew’s. Jesus’ sermon as Luke recalls it is delivered on a level place. It is called The Sermon on the Plain. And Luke’s word to us this morning is “woe.”

There’s little escape from it.

24‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

If you are like me at all, you are trying now to imagine how you simply do not fit into these categories.

I think of my wealth in relation to Bill Gates. That helps! I feel much better. Bill, on the other hand better watch out!

I only had a cup of coffee this morning before coming to church. Boy, am I hungry.

I try to remind myself not to laugh.

However, thanks to the kind words of John Jacobs this week, I must confess that I am experiencing the woe of the last statement. It would seem that I peaked as a preacher last weekend. That’s it. If you missed it, you really missed something spectacular. John says that I’ll never top it. Woe indeed to have peaked so soon! Woe to me when John speaks well of me…I must be a false prophet.

I am trying ever so hard to find out how to escape woe…to escape these harsh words from Luke’s Gospel. And, sadly, I am not having much luck.

For today Jesus is taking sides. Like his mother, Mary, proclaims in the Magnificat, that song she sang for us in Advent (Luke 1:45-57), Jesus proclaims a Gospel where the poor will be lifted up and the lofty will be laid low. There’s no good way around it if we want to take these passages seriously.

“Blessed are you who are poor.”
“Woe to you who are rich.”

There’s no escape into a middle class in this passage.

It’s a difficult passage to hear. According to statistics, if you make an annual income of $47,500, you are in the top 1% of wage earners worldwide. By this definition all of us here are rich. That’s a sobering thought.

The poor, and the word in Greek that is used here is ptochoi, are the destitute. These are not just the simple folk, no. We are talking about the people who have been completely cast off by our economic life together. Jesus aligns himself with these people…the economic outcast. Jesus once again focuses his attention on those whom humanity has forgotten. Praise be to God for doing what we have not.

So, what then is the Good News this morning? Well, the Good News is that there is more to the Sermon on the Plain than what was presented to us in the assigned reading from the lectionary. The sermon continues beyond verse 26.

27 ‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 ‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37 ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’

The woes that seem to leap off the page for me are within the context of this deeply challenging sermon on the nature of God’s love and judgment. It is such an upside down and backward perception of the world…and it is beautiful. Suddenly the woes are not a condemnation, a sentence of some punishment. They are descriptions of where we find ourselves when we experience God’s love.

This sermon is a description of the Kingdom that is to come. It is eschatological. It is about what God is bringing to fruition but has not quite yet come to be.

It is a prescription for how the Church should understand itself. Jesus turns to the disciples and proclaims these words. They are not delivered into the ether. They are delivered to the ones called out by God. Luke shares them with his community because he believes that they are the cornerstone to the identity of the followers of Jesus. Mary says them. Jesus says them. We who follow Christ are to cherish them for they speak plainly of what it is like to experience and to express God’s love for all of humanity.

There is grace in plain speaking such as this. Luke's Jesus is speaking plainly about what it is like when we live in the Kingdom. Our poverty is no longer crushing; it is lifted from us. But the opposite is also true. When we find that God is in charge, our need of things to define us, to comfort us, and the so-called "Gospel of Prosperity" are shown in their true light. They are proven false. What is destitution in us is lifted up when God’s grace is poured out on the world. Our riches are given purpose.

We find that we have been struggling because we have been seeking something not of God all along. The economic system we have learned to navigate is found wanting. The order of things is reversed. What we thought was success is no longer success. What we thought was comforting no longer comforts. When we finally find grace, our lives are given new focus, new meaning, and new truth.

Grace is truth-telling. Grace opens the doors to love. Grace admits failure and fear. Our sense of woe is as sign of grace…it is our admission to ourselves of what is not of God in our lives and it is a great gift.

God's grace reaches within and beyond wealth and our own measures of success. It reaches beyond what we do to comfort ourselves. What we find when we open ourselves to God's grace is that none of these things that we think comfort us really do. It is God who comforts.

And as Christ’s body here on earth, what we find is that our wealth is meant for others, that our skills and talents are meant for others. We are vehicles for grace.

Jesus casts his lot with destitute, the depressed, the starving, the deeply burdened and troubled, and asks us to do the same. Though the Kingdom has not yet come in its fullness, the congregation that follows Christ can point to God’s coming by how it lives in the world.

This is not a glorification of poverty and pain, but a recognition of intense need. God recognizes that need promises to be present within it. We are called out to stand within it.

How is this so? We who are promised woe are also given the way out. We are shown grace and the door to the Kingdom. We are shown a way out. We too are met by God’s love and are released by our own burdens

We are called to be witnesses to God’s grace. We can stand and say “This is how God has freed me. This is the grace I have received.” When finally see ourselves in the light of God’s grace, whether poor or wealthy, we are shown the door to the Kingdom.

That, brothers and sisters, is good news.

a quotation for preachers...and the rest of us

"A sermon is a sermon when it's about God. We learn implications for human behavior only after we learn who God is and what God is up to."

- William Willimon

And here I sit with my coffee thinking about myself. And I have God's voice walking through my imagination: "What have you done for me lately." Preaching is like that.

"A sermon is a sermon when it's about God."

sermon thoughts...

I've been working through this for a few days now. It's tricky somehow. First there are the potential concerns that Matthew and Luke are saying something different with the Beatitudes. Then there's potential discomfort with "woes" in general. But what I think Luke is doing here is simple truth telling. It is not a sentence, but a description under the new perception that is the Kingdom of God.

So, what is a parallel. Well, I am thinking about the 12 steps and the "fearless moral inventory" that one has to make. You have to withstand the naming of your own truth...and how the Church is asked to function as it reveals the Kingdom. Thus, woe.

The Luke version of the Sermon (on the Plain or "level place") has this section of "woes" that the Matthew passage does not contain. I've read a few commentaries about this difference and have encountered as many opinions as there are scholars. Other than the woes, the sermon is very much the same. It continues beyond the passage for Sunday and says wonderful things about loving our enemies and the like. Read it here.

As I said, the assigned reading is just the first third of the Sermon, vs. 17-26. The passage is split into thirds for the purposes of the lectionary. If the claendar allowed for it, we would see the other two parts over the next two Sundays. But Transfiguration Sunday is next Sunday...and Ash Wednesday is close on its heels. There's not enough time in the calendar. So, I think I will draw out a single theme from the whole of the Sermon...

...Grace.

There is a grace in plain speaking (Ha! A pun!). Luke's Jesus is speaking plainly about what it is like when we live in the Kingdom. Our poverty is no longer crushing, it is lifted from us. But the opposite is true. When we find that God is in charge, our need of things, the so-called "Gospel of Prosperity" falls to the wayside. We find ourselves struggling because we have been seeking something not of God all along. The order of things is reversed. What we thought was success is no longer success. What we thought was comforting no longer comforts. When we finally find grace, our lives are given new focus, new meaning, a new truth.

God's grace reaches within and beyond wealth and our own measures of success. It reaches beyond what we do to comfort ourselves. What we find when we open ourselves to God's grace is that none of these things that we think comfort us really do. What we find is that our wealth is meant for others, that our skills and talents are meant for others.

Something like that...now I am wondering if there is anything in the 12-steps worth putting out there. I always feel selfish when I preach from that experience. I want what I say to point beyond me to God.

Anyway...that's where I am right now. Read what Willimon said. Holy cow! Sarah is saying some good things as well.

Jesus' sermon is a repeat of Mary's song (Luke 1:45-57.) God takes sides and loves with a love that is not impartial. If we are going to be with this God, the sermon implies, we've got to get down on God's level.

six years...

It's been six years, people. Six.
Right.

Now I have to write a sermon on blessings and woes. The Sermon on the Plain is an interesting piece of scripture...Go, Luke. Tell it like it is, bud. Oy. Veh.

clean sweep

Trish and I had had dinner with our friends Jorge and Spouse Thursday night. It's always good to spend time with them and their little boy. One of the things that is kind of inspirational is the way they live. Simplicity is beautiful.

Trish and I do not live simply. What we are discovering, especially now that we are living in the suburbs, is that we only sleep at Chateau Ouilmette. We don't really live here. Maybe that's a bit of an overstatement. But the extra time commuting makes a huge difference. We still spend time in the neighborhood...but Andersonville is seven miles from Chateau Ouilmette. And that's 25 minutes of commute to see friends...in the car and not on the "L" and there is a qualitative difference in the experience. The car is self-contained. The train, at least in my perception, is more communal, more part of the city.

Sabbath time comes to mind. The car is hardly Sabbath time for me. The house has not yet become a place where Sabbath can occur. We still have something in each room of the house that suggests we are not moved in. There are always distractions, the band, the play, work, something to keep us from making the parsonage a home.

So, this morning I was watching Clean Sweep on TLC...a guilty pleasure and a guilt manufacturing pleasure at that...and I began to see what we werre not doing to care for ourselves in the house. Chateau Ouilmette needs a face lift. The way we live in it needs to change somehow. It cannot be a place to simply store our things...or to veg in front of the TV. That's what it has become. I don't want to live like that.

Simplicity is the fruit of intentionality. I want to live intentionally and not by accident.

le can du worms

Larry is blogging about God and gender. He has three posts up currently: 1, 2, 3. Take a gander. He's saying some interesting things and, I think, walking a bit of a tight rope.

I am at a loss though, for I never made the journey I seem to be asking everyone else to make, from hearing in Father Son and Holy Spirit, an all male deity, to encounter something else in Father Son and Holy Spirit, something beyond gender, beyond conception beyond knowledge, beyond human experience.

I think that he's trying to do something important. Saunter on over.

We have been e-mailing about this series and the whole issue. The pastoral team at Reconciler is comprised of two men and one woman. So, it has been a challenging conversation, fraught with many pitfalls. So far, fortunately, the dialogue has been generous and we have heard one another...I hope.

a gig tonight...

The Sons of Susan

February, 9 2007 <---- TONIGHT!
Duke's
6920 N. Glenwood
Chicago, Illinois

I am stepping in for their usual mandolinst. I guess that makes me the unusual mandolinist. Be ye warned. It should be great fun. The show begins about 9pm.

just keeping up

I cannot believe this, but blogging is at a minimum today...Who knew?

I am speaking with friends about gender and God language.
I am speaking with a parishoner about the dating and authorship of the scriptures...the results of a Bible study at church.
I have breakfast and lunch meetings scheduled with parishoners.

Incredible stuff. Wondrous stuff all!

But, yeah, nothing to blog today...well, except that.

leonard sweet speaks...

"I think God is defragging and rebooting the church," Sweet said, alluding to computer terminology for reconfiguring and restarting a system. "I think what he is doing is he is getting us back to the original operating system of Christianity."

sad...

This is from the Bluegrass Chatterbox

Really sad to announce that Bill Jorgenson, the Father of Wisconsin Bluegrass passed away this morning Feb 5th at about 1am. He is survived by his daughter Jenni and three grandchildren Tegan, Ashley, and Amberlee. He left a wonderful legacy of bluegrass music in the form of 8 CD's dedicated to saving the old classics and his bluegrass in the schools program which visited 90 schools and over 20.000 children. It was a free program.

Bill's Heritage Farm Bluegrass Festival will be renamed the Bill Jorgenson Memorial Bluegrass Festival and will be held this year June 8-9-10th with a special tribute to Bill.

Grace and peace to Bill's family...And that's gonna be one fine string band in Heaven.

sermonator - bible links

Nice sermon here...check it out. Well done, Spud! The Feast of St Brigid was done proud.

The Winged Man is musing on one of my old sermons again. Wow. You know, preaching is a big hairy deal. People will chew on your words for years. There are some sermons like that for me.

Geoff is working through some ideas about biblical interpretation and the place of scripture as a devotonal aid and not simply an historical document. This (scroll down to question five) is what I said a couple of years ago.

An interesting video on translations of the Bible...this is the third of a series.

Y'all have a good day. I'll see you around.

liturgy as sabbath: sabbath 12

Megan's post...Cristopher's post

This week the reading from Muller is entitled "The Book of Hours." It is a reflection on keeping regular rhythms of prayer. And, as is likely expected by my co-readers, I loved almost every word. I am thinking of copying it in it's entirety and posting it...and using it to explain how I understand prayer. But, for the sake of the brief e-attention span:

Liturgical ritual is meant to be repeated. We are not supposed to do it right the first time, and then be done with it. We are not supposed to do it better each year until we get it perfect. Each year's Easter does not have to be new and improved, more dramatic than last year's. The perfection is in the repetition, the sheer ordinariness, the intimate familiarity of a place known because we have visited it again and again, in so many different moments.

From here he speaks about even boredom having a place in this rhythm and repetition. Easters may be sad, dull, happy, festive, reflective...even when the liturgy changes very little. So much of the difference actually resides in our own lives. The liturgy simply provides context for where we are. And that context is a "spiral" of engagement and deepening into the divine, and not a skating on it's surface. He continues on this riff and then says this about progress:

When liturgy is ensnared by progress, all these quiet, mystical qualities are replaced by responsibility and obligation.

Preach, Wayne! Preach! I agree completely. So often we think that the feelings of obligation and responsibility are because liturgy is static. Same thing...different Easter. But it is actually the other way around. We over-work ourselves, struggling to make the flashy and evocative (whatever that is), and in the process doom ourselves to an exhausted engagement with the holy. Liturgy then is no longer sabbath but a chore.

Liturgy is work. Make no mistake about that. There is an effort in this kind of spiritual discipline. It is an effort in the same way that we make time for Sabbath...we make the time. It does not happen without our participation. Liturgy is a subset of the same kind of work. Repetition, perhaps leading to meditation, are a part of the discipline of liturgy.

Wow.

the prayin'est people

Here is the sermon I preached yesterday at the regional meeting.

Have a great Sunday.

Sermon: ABC/MC Family Council Meeting
February 3, 2007
Mark 9:14-29

Make these words more than words, and give us the spirit of Jesus.

“Why could we not cast it out?
He said to them, “This kind can come out only through prayer.”

I used to live in a monastery. Those of you who know me well will have to bear with me. I know you hear these stories all the time. But, yes, I lived in an old monastery in the east end neighborhood of Richmond, VA called Church Hill. When I lived there, the monastery, known as Richmond Hill, was being run as a retreat center and housed a residential community. We represented a multiplicity of Christian traditions...Catholic to Quaker. It was an amazing time in my life.

One of the ministries that Richmond Hill offered was that of reconciliation. It provides a neutral ground for congregations to meet and work through their life together. Often the issue of race and racism was the topic of conversation. Richmond is a city divided by race. It remembers the slave trade to this day. White congregations would meet with black congregations and puzzle through their differences and struggle to undo generations of damage. I was honored to be in the midst of those conversations...even if I was frequently on the sidelines of that ministry. One day, however, I was informed that I was no longer to sit to the side and watch...no, I was called out.

I was standing in the dining hall one afternoon, minding my own business...likely pouring myself a cup of coffee when one of the elder statesmen from a local African-American congregation walked up to me to talk. In the middle of what was idle chit chat, he started to share with me a dream that he had the previous evening.

He said that God had appeared to him in a dream. I try to pay attention when people say these things to me. I was being brought into someone's dream. Time to wake up.

Well, this is what he told me.

“God came to me and he said, __________, it used to be that your people (That's black people, Tripp) your people were the prayin'est and singin'est people I had. And I praised you for it. But now you are just the singin'est.”

I asked him “What do you do with a message like that?” Really what do you do when God points out a fault like that, when who we are is held up and found wanting? Well, we get on our knees and pray. That is what we do. We can do nothing else. He told me he prayed. Prayed.

We spoke a little while longer... about his church...and his children. When we were done, looked at me, smiled and then walked away.

“Why could we not cast it out?
He said to them, “This kind can come out only through prayer.”

At Richmond Hill we kept a rhythm of prayer. Three times a day the bell would ring. Three times a day we would gather together, and the chapel doors would open. People from the neighborhood would come in and join us. Sometimes it was boring repetition. Sometimes it was lovely and generous. Lives were changed in those prayer services.

I did not realize it when the dream was recounted to me. I'm sometimes slow off the blocks about that kind of thing. “What a lovely dream.” I thought. Only later did I realize that the message for me in that dream was that I was to pray. No, it wasn't about me. But sometimes a dream like that can be for you even if it is not about you. The Bible is full of dreams and visions that are for us and not about us. We have an entire book called “Revelation.” It is one long dream!

There I was in prayer three times a day. There I was thinking that I was sitting on the sidelines of reconciliation and peacemaking when I suddenly discovered that God was asking me to pray...It is not enough to simply sing. And, Oh, I would much rather sing...and sing and sing.

But no, I am to pray.

By participating in the prayer life of the Richmond Hill community, I was making possible the holy and just work of God. Prayer, brothers and sisters, is no mean thing. Prayer is the foundation of who we are and how we work.

Our passage of scripture this morning underscores the remarkable power of prayer. There are the disciples again, but this time they seem to be doing things right. They have been casting out demons. They are known for it. They are approached by a desperate father, but to no avail. And, as this is Mark's gospel, Jesus is less than gentle in his response. Jesus seldom pulls any punches in Mark's gospel.
This is a faithless generation.
The child has been suffering for years with this demon.
The father believes and he does not.
He simply cries for help.
Jesus casts out the demon.
The disciples are confused.

The disciples didn't do anything wrong. As usual, they simply did not know. They did all that they knew that was right. The father did no less. I imagine in my mind that they laid on hands. They spoke the words, “In the name of Jesus, come out!” This is what they knew. It is what they were taught. Heck, they may have even formed an exploratory committee like any good Christian group. But it was to no avail. Why? Well, because sometimes it takes prayer.

We'll gather together. We will stand together and proclaim “Demon come out! In the name of Jesus, come out!” This is a right, good and holy thing. But sometimes it is simply not enough. Sometimes we are not enough.

Sometimes it is not enough to sing.

For we will find a child who will tremble and convulse.
A parent will stand on the sidelines, powerless, simply trying to keep destruction at bay. That is all they can do. And they will turn to the church. They will turn to us as followers of Christ and say “Heal my child.”

And we will try. We will cry out. We will cry.

“Why could we not cast it out?
[Jesus will say to us,] “This kind can come out only through prayer.”

Prayer itself, the private devotion and the gathering of the faithful, is an act of justice and mercy. For it is an encounter with God and all encounters with God are filled full of justice and mercy. They set things right even if to do so means turning all the world on its ear and a child who was sick is made well. The unclean is made clean. The prisoners are set free...and the poor march. These things are the result of prayer.

We are called to holy work. We are called to stand up and cry out...from the wilderness of urban planning and budget crises. When the poor are oppressed, where there is division and strife, racism, class-ism, and unwarranted suffering we are to cry out...to cast out these demons...in the name of Jesus.

But sometimes a demon will come and we will be unprepared. We will see it, name it, and nothing will come from our work. And then we must pray. We must get down on our knees and pray. It is the greatest act of the church.

It is Christ's own words, sometimes the demon is more than we can handle on our own. The demons of the world can overwhelm us, can send us back to our holes wondering what we did wrong.

But I believe that we can pray. Prayer is the beginning and the end of discipleship, of shepherding, of who we are as a people.

Prayer empowers good work.
It begs humility from us.
Prayer informs righteousness.
It is the encounter with God.
Prayer teaches us who and whose we are.

Know now that we are God's children, Christ's own disciples.
In all that you do, pray. Pray without ceasing.

And may God bless our work, our hearts and and may Christ teach us to pray.

Amen.

cold...

Todays' high temperature will be three degrees. Right now it is a hearty negative six degrees outside with a windchill approaching negative thirty. Now, that's pretty cold. And Chateau Ouilmette is struggling to stay warm. And here I was thinking that I was going fishing.

Luke 5:1-11

5:1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God,5:2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

5:3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

5:4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."

5:5 Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets."

5:6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 5:7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 5:8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"

5:9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 5:10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who are partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."

5:11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

I think I am ready to preach this text. I am going to push it in a slightly different direction. Many of the preacher blogs I read are focusing on the generosity of God. I am not. It's a fine interpretation, but I am going to focus on identity in all of this. Our identity is not based on success...like a good haul of fish. No, the ammount of fish is not even on the radar for Jesus...not really. It's just another miracle. Now, following Jesus, that's on the radar.

Well, that's where I am going to take it. A fisherman is a fisherman whether or not he makes the big catch. He just is. A Christian is still a Christian whether she is successful or not...for it is not about the doing. It is about the being. The being may lead to doing, but the doing is not the goal.

Again, I'm pushing the text, but there you go.

Go Bears!!!

breather

One sermon down...two to go. I'll post the first one latser tomorrow or something.

Oh, Happy Birthday, Justin!!! You rock.

30

fallout

This is an interesting find. The sign is posted on a building on the corner of Davis and something in Evanston...right near the Davis Street Fish Market. I always find these signs a strange reminder of what was The Big Issue when I was a kid. It's still a worry, of course. Now, more because of dirty bombs and the like than a full thermonuclear attack.

Strange set of emotions for me in this.

friday test: happy groundhog's day

My Personal Dna Report

birthday picture

This came to me in my e-mail in box today...

Love it! Thanks, Dames. You made it a swell birthday!

a musing...

I have a few things to do this morning that will take all my attention. Who knew? Is there really such a thing? It would seem so.

Sermon 1: The ABC/MC (American Baptist Churches-Metro Chicago) meeting is at Community Church this weekend. I have already prepared the worship bulletin. Now I need to work through the sermon. The text I have chosen is Mark 9:14-29. It is a powerful text. And preaching to a room full of preachers will be an adventure. Oy. Follow the extended link for the worship service.

Sermon 2: This Sunday at Community Church is the annual Boy Scout Sunday. We have Scouts here. Yessir! So, the boys and I crafted a liturgy using Scout resourses. They chose the hymns. It should be fun. There will be some Jewish Scouts with us, so I'll compose a letter of welcome and explanation for families about how we worship. The sermon text is Isaiah 6:1-13 and Luke 5:1-11. I am going to try to say something about the Scouts in the sermon, but I am not sure how that will work. It may be a stretch. Much to do.

Sermon 3: I am preaching at Reconciler. I think that I may have to tweak the morning sermon a bit more than usual this time. The Scouts change up the context a little.

As an aside, I have been musing over this quotation from Brother Lawrence. It is from The Practice of the Presense of God.

Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is to think often of God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions. God is always near you and with you; leave God not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you: why then must God be neglected? Do not then forget God, but think of God often, adore God continually, live and ide with God; this is the glorious employment of a Christian; if we do not know it we must learn it.

So, there you go...more than enough to keep me busy today.

In other news, I had an amazing time last night with The Sons of Susan. They are an old timey band here in Chicago. The bass player with One of the Girls, Roger, plays with them as well. It would seem that their mandolinist is going to be out of town for a few months and they need someone to step in and play. I was honored to be asked. And last night's rehearsal was awesome...absolute joy playing two-step and swing. Wow. Not jigs. Swing!!! Hotchachacha!!! That I finally crawled into bed at 1:00am is another issue entirely. Oy!

So, come on and hear us play.

The Sons of Susan

February, 9 2007 at Duke's
6920 N. Glenwood, Chicago, Illinois

I'll get the time to you as soon as I have it.

Morning Word and Table

I wait for you, O God, my soul waits and in your word I hope. My soul waits for you, O God, more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. - Ps. 130:5-6

Preparatory Silence

Opening Prayer

    L: O God, come to our assistance.
    P: O God, Make haste to help us.

        Here a prayer is read aloud.

    All: Amen.

K Hymn: Sweet Hour of Prayer (see insert)

Gospel: Mark 9:14-29

Sermon:             "The Prayin'est People"

Silence and Shared Reflections

K Hymn:  #339 Be Thou My Vision

K Intercessions (Stand, sit or kneel as you feel led or are able)

    L: O God, you summon the day to dawn,  
                you teach the morning to waken the earth.
    P: Great is your name. Great is your Love.

    L: Among the poor, the proud, the persecuted, the
         privileged,
    P: Great is your name. Great is your Love.

    L: For you the valleys shall sing for joy,
    the trees and field shall clap their hands.
    P: Great is your name. Great is your love.

    L: Your love and mercy shall last forever,
    fresh as the morning, sure as the sunrise.
    P: Great is your name. Great is your love.

    L: Let us pray for the whole people of God, for all those in
          need.

Prayers are offered, concluding with the words...
Great is your name. Great is your love.

Pastoral Prayer
The Lord's Prayer
The Peace