http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/ Don't lose any opportunity, however small, of being gentle toward everyone. Don't rely on your own efforts to succeed in your various undertakings, but only on God's help. Then rest in his care of you, confident that he will do what is best for you, provided that you will, for your part, work diligently but gently. I say "gently" because a tense diligence is harmful both to our heart and to our task and is not really diligence, but rather over eagerness and anxiety...I recommend you to God's mercy. I beg him, through that same mercy, to fill you with his love. - Francis de Sales en-us 2008-05-16T07:19:44-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/voyages_and_gra_1.html To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.- Ralph Waldo EmersonToday Seabury is graduating yet another class of students...M.Div, MTS, and DMin folk shall walk, share the eucharist with all gathered, and sing. It should be a good time. This morning I was reminded that today is the feast day of St. Brendan. How fortuitous. Yep...Today is about journeys. Wandering and milling about in the name of God. Some of us live lives as if we were cast adrift at sea. Some of us have direct flights with no stopover at O'Hare. We are on a journey...a pilgrimage. Today our journeys end and begin again. A ministry colleague reminded me that these times are bittersweet. True enough.... liturgy tripp 2008-05-16T07:19:44-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/and_the_mental_1.html We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.- Albert EinsteinSome day I will have to learn how to enjoy my small successes...like finishing the thesis. Not to be cruel to myself, but I woke up this morning with a small war going on in my brain. One voice was crying out "There is more to write! There is more to write!" Another voice was responding "It's done! Caloo! Callay! It is done! Hooray!" I am elated and anxious all at once. I half expect the thesis adviser to call me at any moment to tell me that there is something else I need to do. I am a mite frustrated with my brain right now. Ah well...It's PTSD...Post-Thesis Stress Disorder, a common affliction around this time of year. So, today is a less frantic day than I had anticipated. I have been given a great gift. It seems that I am not preaching Sunday after all. Yes, I wrestled with this. It's Trinity Sunday. I love Trinity Sunday. I want to cue up cool science fiction themes when Trinity Sunday comes along. Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, The Holy Trinity (cue theme music)! I was reading Arturo's post (ala Jorge) on "a strange and colorful orthodoxy." But then I received an e-mail from someone who attends Community Church. Their parents are coming in to visit. Their father is a pastor working in an academic setting. He knows what it is to finish a thesis and then entertain one's friends for graduation in the same week. So, he offered to preach. We discussed some interpretive things online and I said "Thank you." It is a great kindness...though it feels strange to not preach on Trinity Sunday. If my brain continues to flail about for the rest of the week as it has been the last 12 hours, no sermon would come anyway. I will simply have to get over myself. Anyone know how to do that? other things to obsess about 1. the title "suburban abbot" 2. desert monastics 3. why I have not been to see the mandoguru in two months 4. American Sign Language and liturgy 5. The University of Chicago Divinity School's "Bridge" program 6. badminton 7. croquet 8. Inter-congregational celebrations in Wilmette That should hold me for a while. Pray that I am less cranky today than I was yesterday. Yeesh.... conjecture tripp 2008-05-15T06:26:28-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/seabury_folk_at.html Friends have started to arrive. Jane Ellen is here. Luke and Susie are on the way. Lovely. Graduation and the ensuing madness will be great fun.... SWTS tripp 2008-05-14T21:40:36-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/and_now_for_the.html The thesis is done. Done. Fini. That's all he wrote, folks! Thanks for all the good karma, the prayers, the general kind thoughts etc. I appreciate it all greatly. Keep it coming!... thesis tripp 2008-05-14T14:01:06-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/roger_williams_3.html Tony and I agreed that what God wants us to do is sit the bench in humility and turn the other cheek like Gandhi, like Jesus. We decided that the correct place to share our faith was from a place of humility and love, not from a desire for power.- Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz (p. 116)This past Sunday our study group met and it seems that all of us were deeply touched by the chapter on confession. It seems that Miller and his friends set up a confession booth at a college festival. Students would come and the Christians who hosted the booth would confess their sins and the Church's sins to the students who came in. I wish we would have explored this more...and if there was any sense that we could do something similar somehow. What would it look like for our congregation to apologize for the sins of the Church...even the ones we have worked so hard to distance ourselves from. Such an act is in part a claim of ownership of things like the Crusades and African slavery in the US...not to mention the genocide of the native Americans and various other things some of us have done in the name of God. There's a long list. The wisdom in the passage I have quoted touches on this somewhat. There must be a stated intention of humility and love. This is not to clean the slate so that we can be influential...or powerful, to use Miller's word. It's not to increase the number of people on the roles. It is simply the act of confession, plain and simple. Such an act is to humble ourselves before God. I suggested that this is also the purpose of having a confession in the liturgy. We don't usually do this. I bring one in during Lent and sometimes in Advent. But that's about all. Corporate confession is a rare thing in Baptist life. Though, I wish it were not. It can be an opportunity to do exactly what Miller is talking about...or at least it can lay the ground work for such a profound confession.... Blue Like Jazz tripp 2008-05-14T06:00:11-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/been_busy.html Wang Zhenyao of the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs said 11,922 people have died in the quake centered in Sichuan province.- www.cnn.comThe natural disasters in the Pacific basin and Asia are unbelievable. Myanmar and China are struggling under the weight of these two events. And, as I understand it rain is predicted for the Burmese peninsula. That's what they need. Rain. Pray for them. I submitted yet another draft of the thesis yesterday. Graduation is Friday, people. So, this is much closer to the wire than I had anticipated. It appears, however, that I simply cannot follow directions. Astounding, I know. It's the citations and bibliography that have been slowing me down. Little periods, semi-colons, parenthetical citations in the midst of a foot note...and all of them have to be formatted in a specific way. Details. Tiny details. They are important. I get it. I'm not denying it. But I have very few healthy brain cells to begin with. To burn a few out on semi-colons is still somewhat maddening. I should hear this morning if there are any other changes I have to make...crazy bibliography stuff. Sigh.... current events tripp 2008-05-13T06:46:45-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/pentecost_poem.html April 26-May 6, 1988 No doubt the light has shined on our proceedings But light alone falls short of what we’re needing. Give us fire. Sufficient, not illumination lacking, Flow thoughts, juxtapositions, logic’s trackings. But we need fire. Fire, not just inspiring fresh ideas; Fire, not merely bright’ning this arena Where words are strung together with precision--- Syntax and tense and text display cohesion--- O, Give us fire! Ignite a flame that kindles in our minds And burns the rotting wood; mount in its path A holocaust to cool sophistication. Fire will warm, but not to warmth confine, Fire that destroys, consumes and yields to wrath The smallest tinder-twig of resignation. O God, Your fire! With friction of the Word and Wind entreat And sear with fiery tongue and glowering heat To melt our will, all hard and ice-encrusted; To forge an alloy with no threat of rusting Burnished in the white-heat, flames out-thrusting: Living fire. No sacrifice, however erudite, Will ever be consumed by only light. Give us fire. Jaime Potter-Miller. ©1988. Songs of Quiet Trust 1994-1995, United Theological Seminary. Dayton, Ohio. Y'all have a good day. I'm going to grab a cuppa.... conjecture tripp 2008-05-11T06:12:56-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/pentecost_sermo_1.html The Spirit, Freely Given How do we know how to receive? How do we know what it is to receive love? These are the questions that have been haunting me this week as I have prepared for this sermon. Do we really know how to receive love? How do we learn to do this? The scripture readings this morning are about the Holy Spirit, God’s abiding presence in the Church…and the Church’s responsibility to share that Spirit with the entire world. It is the Feast of Penecost. The scriptures are very clear that God gives Love. God pours out God’s Holy Spirit upon all gathered. They suddenly understand one another’s languages. They suddenly speak languages that they had never known. It’s a miracle! When I read this passage, however, I am struck with the ease with which the followers of Jesus receive the Holy Spirit. There is almost an involuntary quality to how they receive God. It’s like they are possessed. But what we are witnessing here is not possession. The Holy Spirit does not possess us. We receive the Holy Spirit. It arrives, and we have to receive it. We receive God’s Love. Who were these men and women who received the Holy Spirit? And what did they know that I don’t know about receiving it? Because sometimes I think I just don’t know how to receive love. The Holy Spirit is God’s Love, a Comforter, Advocate and Guide…a wind…the breath of God with a mother’s voice saying, “I love you. Be made new.” Perhaps the hardest thing about love is learning to receive it. True love, divine love, is a free gift…no strings attached. You cannot buy it. You cannot earn it. It is simply Given. All you can do is receive it. And though it sounds so very simple, it is the hardest thing about Love…even God’s Love. Sometimes I get greedy with love. I want to be the only one to receive a certain kind of love. As a young boy I may have said that my mother’s love is only for me. It is not for my little brother. I would invent ways to be her favorite. I would compete with my brother for my mother’s affection. We still do this as adults. I sometimes might find myself competing with the cast of one of Trish’s shows for her attention. It’s entirely unnecessary, but in a fit of insecurity I might just get greedy. We also compete for accolades and acknowledgements. We strive to outdo one another in greatness. We compete, plain and simple. And the winner receives love. The loser…well…Have you heard about the lonesome looser? Somehow we think that we can earn love. We can purchase it with deeds and smarts. It’s social Darwinism. Those who evolve (succeed, produce, etc) are the ones rewarded. Love does not work this way. God’s love does not judge in this way. God’s love sees us all as equal. God pours out love upon all. Pride, too, can be a barrier to receiving love. I am a pastor! What do I need with love? I give! I do not receive. I am ordained! I received One Big Infusion of Love. Ah well…with pride… We can shut ourselves off somehow…thinking we don’t need love…or the Holy Spirit, or in the end even God. We look at our lives and our accomplishments and believe we have it all. Or our giving becomes a form of control and it’s not love at all. We can give to keep people at a distance. We give so that we do not have to receive. It is a form of judgment. “Those poor people out there. They are not like me. I should give to them.” Often this is because we are hiding some wound of our own. We don’t want people to come too close to see where we are broken. So we toughen up and give to distract from our own brokenness. Maybe it feels safer somehow to give than receive. It is certainly less vulnerable. But in then end…this kind of giving is not even about love. It’s about ego…and a need for self-importance. Jesus always ranted against pride…Religious pride, economic pride. Jesus said that we are measured by our weakness. Blessed are the meek, the lowly…but woe to those who think they have it all. Another barrier to receiving love is shame. We think of ourselves as unworthy to receive Love. We are not beautiful enough. We are not tall enough. We are not talented enough. We are not smart enough. The list can go on, and on, and on. Somehow we can think that we simply are not enough…something in us is deficient. This shame can be institutionalized as well. It becomes our various “-ism’s.” Racism. Sexism. Social Darwinism. That one goes both ways, doesn’t it? We can be abused and shamed by one another. We can be told we are 3/5ths a person, or no person at all for so long that we come to believe it. So we lock ourselves up, shut ourselves off from everyone. We harden our hearts. We define ourselves by shame. And we cannot receive love. We shame one another. We injure one another so horribly sometimes that Love becomes impossible. We create leper colonies. We create entire social structures where people are permanently outcast. Jesus, he moved among the outcasts, he slaves, the women. He gave God’s love freely to all…no such judgment existed for him…no such shame. Receiving love can be so very difficult. Seeing beyond competition, pride and shame so that we can receive something freely given is harder than it looks. The congregation in Corinth struggled through this. Paul is writing to them because it seems that they have lost a little perspective. They have forgotten some basics about the nature of God and how God gives. They have, it seems, begun to rank the gifts of the Spirit. And it shows that they may very well... liturgy tripp 2008-05-10T19:45:21-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/le_baptiste_hok.html I even went so far as to become a Southern Baptist for a while, until I realized that they didn't hold 'em under long enough.- Kinky FriedmanThis morning we ABC types in the ABC-Metro Chicago region will gather to talk and plan and eat carbohydrates. Generally speaking this is a good time. I like my colleagues in ministry. Somehow we seem to uphold one another pretty well. We are a diverse group ethnically and theologically. And we honor a certain creativity...I don't know quite how to explain it yet. I'll get there some day. Suffice it to say that they think I have something to offer the Church. That's a terrifying notion to be sure. Each of these gatherings is an opportunity to discuss what is going on in the region (summer camp, for example) and broader issues important to many of us. This morning we'll talk about racism and "the prophetic preaching voice." I'll let you know how it goes. I turned in yet another draft of the thesis yesterday. I'm at the altar of Kate Turabian now. Citations, people. Get the citations right the first time. Unless you have some research assistant willing to go back to the library for you, get it right the first time. Oy. Veh. Yuk! So, it continues apace. It's truly done. I'm walking "sans asterisk" next week. What joy. See you all later on. The sermon is complete. I'll post it Sunday morning. Until then, enjoy your weekend as you are able.... random foolishness tripp 2008-05-10T07:29:53-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/finishing.html Sorry to be away today. I've been reworking my thesis per my adviser's recommendations. And there's this sermon thing. Oh, there was also playing with my four year old neighbor. He needed someone to watch him for an hour or so. I'll get back to the blog soon.... Wilmette tripp 2008-05-09T13:10:07-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/huh_6.html random foolishness tripp 2008-05-08T10:00:16-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/roger_williams_4.html Because in the end, the undercurrent running through culture is not giving people value based upon what they believe and what they are doing to aid society, the undercurrent is deciding their value based upon whether or not they are cool...Eminem believes he is a better rapper than other rappers. Profound. Let's all follow Eminem.- Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz (p. 105-6)Miller struggles with his own self-defined shallowness. He recognizes his own tendency to follow trends, fads and generally anything "cool." Christianity, he says, is not cool. Thus it is hard to share. And the ways that it is shared most often, or most overtly, are part of the reason that Christianity is not cool. Televangelists, mega-churches, and "tracts" handed out to unsuspecting tourists on the beach all contribute to a necessary and perhaps even healthy cultural backlash against Christianity. Miller struggles with what makes the uncool relevant. Henri Nouwen speaks about the struggle with relevance as well. He switches the terms around a bit and I had to do a little translation to sort through some of my own confusion. Nouwen says that Christianity is not relevant. It's not meant to be. Nouwen means "cool." He also means pragmatic, utilitarian, and useful. It's not something one can package and sell. It's not marketable. In the end, Christianity is about loving and following Jesus. And Jesus leads us to the places of utmost darkness and vulnerability where our egos are useless and cool/relevance matters for nothing at all. Jesus takes us to the places in our lives and our neighbors' lives that are most broken and offers healing. Most of what Miller writes in the two or three chapters rambling through my head right now are about that vulnerability. It's about getting away from trying to be hip, chic, cool, or relevant. I am a mandolinist. So what. That's not the Gospel. My mandolin is not Jesus. People are not coming to church looking for a mandolinist. The mandolin may be cool...but that is not going to save them. Now, where I think Miller and Nouwen both struggle (and I do as well) is the reality that sometimes being cool opens the door. Being relevant opens a door. But they are right. The fruition is uncool. Vulnerability is uncool. It does not get you elected. It does not win you the adoration of countless fans. You will not get your picture on the cover of some magazine... ...unless you are Robert Downey, Jr. But then, he's very cool. Heh.... Blue Like Jazz tripp 2008-05-07T09:44:42-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/happy_birthday_6.html Today is my wife's birthday. I am madly in love with my wife. She is talented, lovely, creative, funny, and generally speaking a fine specimen of a human being. We met ten years ago, started dating about eight years ago, were married a little over three years ago, and I hope to be celebrating many, many more birthdays with her. Tonight, sadly, I have a church council meeting. So, Trish and I will have to enjoy the birthday dinner tomorrow evening. I've made reservations. It should be great! So, if you get a chance, drop her a note (She's on Facebook.). I love my wife.... random foolishness tripp 2008-05-06T06:29:22-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/sermon_the_grea.html Sermon: Ascension Sunday, Year AThe Community Church of WilmetteMay 4, 2008 The Great Escape "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." Acts 1:11 “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” It’s a cry of desperation by a sideshow magician in the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy and her friends have been on a long journey to find the Wizard. He lives in a distant city, far away. He is “great and powerful.” He is to be feared. But he is the only one who can restore them. He is the only one who can give them a heart, a brain, the nerve, and can send them home. So the heroes journey and struggle, obsessed with what lies in Heaven…or Oz…and wonder what kind of wizard the Great and Powerful Oz must be. Of course, as most of us here know, what they discover is that the heart, a brain, the nerve and the way home were with them all along…and Oz was just an illusion. This is the nature of speculation. Sometimes it can be circuitous. Sometimes it can be it’s own trap.Questions without answers can become distractions, ways to uphold illusion. They can keep us from the work that is set before us.This is one facet of the context that Luke speaks from in this Passage from Acts this morning. “Tell us about Heaven.When will Jesus come back?What will it be like?” Luke is writing to the second generation of the Church.He’s trying to tell them how the first generation of the church lived together.Acts is the record of that history.Luke wants this new generation to understand how they should live.But there seems to be a problem. They are distracted. You see, from the very beginning of our history, those who followed Jesus wanted to know what the Future would bring. Political reform? Economic renewal?How would it benefit them?Won’t somebody tell us? Because God seems so far away. And when will Jesus be back? The very first thing that Luke does, however, is to help his reader to move beyond this line of questioning. “Our faith is not about predicting the future,” he says.“Our faith is about redefining the present.” Jesus will Return. There is such a thing as Hope.God is not far away.Scripture is consistent in expressing this.This is the core to Christian belief.In the end, God sets everything aright.Luke expresses this same hope. But Luke also offers a warning. Do not become fixated upon the Heavens…distracted.“’Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven…’…on a pie in the sky…afraid that you might be left behind?You will, instead, find God in the world around you.This is Christ’s promise at his Ascension.” We will receive the Holy Spirit, which is the presence of God in the world. It is a gift given to us. It defines who we are…and empowers us to do the work of the Kingdom. This is such a strange story to tell. Jesus is lifted up into the clouds. Here it is, like something from the SciFi Cannel. And he opens his history of the Church with it. But he moves so quickly. He affirms the story. He does not deny this strange tale. But he moves on. He gives it only eleven verses. He rapidly moves on to the history of Being the Church. What does it mean to be the Church? This is the question Luke wants to ask. In Acts, the followers of Christ still think of Following Christ as a political movement…”When will you restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus’ answer is, yet again, not what they expect. It’s not a timeline or a carefully wrought strategy. The followers of Christ are still struggling with their question. They struggle with illusion. They struggle with how to act… What do we do? Tell us what we’re supposed to do.Luke, understanding the nature of such a question, responds by encouraging them to ask another question: Who shall we be? Michel Quoist is one of my favorite poets. A Baptist mystic introduced me to his poetry many years ago. What I love about Quoist is his willingness to encounter God in any context. This is a poem about just such an encounter. This is one way to answer Luke’s preferred question. “The Subway” The last ones squeeze in.The door rolls shut.The subway rumbles off.I can't move;I am no longer an individual but a crowd,A crowd that moves in one piece like jellied soup in its can. A nameless and indifferent crowd, probably far from you, Lord.I am one with the crowd, and I see why it's sometimes hard forme to rise higher.The crowd is heavy - leaden soles on my feet, my slow feet - acrowd too large for my overburdened skiff.Yet, Lord, I have no right to overlook these people; they aremy brothers,And I cannot save myself, alone. Lord, since you wish it, I shall head for heaven "in the subway."from Prayers by Michel Quoist This is how I understand the nature and identity of the Church. It is inseparable from the world. The salvation of everyone in the Church is intrinsically tied to the salvation of all Humanity.It is a chaotic, difficult, and slow business. Being the Church is complicated and messy…like soup in a can…each of us moving with leaden feet.Interconnected…none are to be overlooked. We are not to be distracted by something else, something distant. It is not the nature of Christ, the Kingdom, Heaven, God, or the Holy Spirit to be distant. Luke wants us to remember that by being the Church we give witness to Jesus, Immanuel, “God with us”…We find Heaven in our midst. Luke tells the story about the Ascension twice…in Acts and in his Gospel. And in each, the response is prayer and worship. This prayer and worship, however, is not an escape, but... liturgy tripp 2008-05-04T08:35:06-06:00 http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2008/05/roger_williams_2.html I think my desire to believe in a god other than Jesus had mostly to do with boredom. I wanted something fresh to think about, to believe, to twiddle around in my mind.- Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz (p. 91)One of the strains I struggle with in Blue Like Jazz is Miller's own frustration with self-imposed disciplines. At one point he teams up with some other guys who take on this austere lifestyle of prayer, a certain diet, and the study of scripture. Typical of such endeavors, once they all go their separate ways the discipline falters. So true. What Miller does in response, however, is what bothers me. He blames discipline for his failure to find God. He blames boredom. I must come across at times like some drill sergeant. Discipline! We must have discipline! It's simply not true. I'm the poster child for the INFP-Adult-ADD-has-anyone-seen-my-keys lifestyle. I understand that faith disciplines do not exist to punish us, but to edify us, to help us find God. Not everyone is called to any one spiritual discipline. There are many gifts, says the scriptures. I usually add, "and each has its own set of disciplines." Miller's response to my frustration is found in the quotation above. Boredom comes. He imagines himself as one of the Jews in the desert with Moses. "Are we there yet?" Yeah, now that's a truism for any discipline. It, like faith in God, is not here to entertain us. Boredom comes. There are times when we simply wander in the desert, unable to follow the same God we were so deeply in love with just last week.... Blue Like Jazz tripp 2008-05-02T05:31:31-06:00