Livefish

2011-12-02T13:51:00.003-06:00

At a recent event for local mentors a group was shown videos by the late Dr. Pete Benson. His work with the Search Institute has inspired many educators to think differently about how they approach education alongside young people. He uses a quote from Plutarch about how he felt education should be;

"the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.”

I recently overheard a radio program where they were talking about Vivaldi's work at an orphanage in Italy. Turns out that he spent 40 years training young orphaned girls how to become some of the best choral singers and musicians in the country. He was so successful in training these forgotten young people that they had to put a plaque on the orphanage threatening parents with eternal damnation if they tried to pawn their children off as orphans in order to get a better education! On his website Richard Cross writes the following:

Vivaldi's Girls: Music Therapy in 18th century Venice

La Chiesa di Vivaldi - The Church of Vivaldi in Venice. S. Maria della Pietà

We moderns may take pride in our "enlightened" treatment of the handicapped and unwanted of our society. Yet a phenomenon unequaled in our day occurred in 18th century Italy that may cause to reflect on our progress in this area. I am speaking of the ospedale movement in the therapeutic use of music. Ospedale (literally "hospital") must be taken in a broader sense than we use the word. It can mean hospital, of course, but it also connotes "sanitarium," "orphanage," or any number of therapeutic institutions of that era.

Music schools, as such, date back to much earlier times. The schola cantoruum (singers' school) dates from the 6th century (Pope Gregory the Great) and perhaps even further back to the 4 th century (Pope Sylvester). But these were schools for training clerics for liturgical functions. In 18th century Italy, however, there occurred a veritable explosion of musical activity in these ospedali, orphanages-turned-conservatories. This was especially true in Venice and Naples.

In Naples, for instance, the concern was primarily for the care of young boys. After the French had laid siege to Naples in 1528 thousands of children were left homeless and destitute. Benefactors took them off the streets and put them in different orphanages, each with its own distinctive dress. The institutes were run along monastic lines and the stipends earned from their musical performances contributed to their support. The orphanage of Santa Maria di Loretto maintained 800 boys and was started by a priest who begged his way around Naples to get his project under way. Even though schools like this were for the children of parents too poor to support them they developed into first-rate, no-nonsense music schools. Eight years of strict training turned urchins into finished musicians.

In Venice as early as the 14th century there were already four functioning ospedali: the Ospedale dei Mendicanti (originally for lepers and later beggars), once visited by Goethe who wrote of it, "I never imagined such voices could exist," the Ospedaletto di SS. Giovanni e Paulo (a poorhouse and orphanage), and the Conservatorio degl' Incurabili as the name implies. Finally there was the extraordinary Ospedale della Pietà- of main interest here.

This Pietà Hospital had been founded in 1346. It was an institution for orphaned or illegitimate girls, foundlings and the female children of poor families. In fact there remains a plaque on the church threatening with damnation parents who tried to pass off their children as orphans. One can see the beautiful church of the Pietà, Santa Maria della Visitazione on the Grand Canal pictured above. It is but a short walk from the Saint Mark's Square and the Bridge of Sighs. Already in the 17 th century day this ospedale had achieved fame for its work with disadvantaged girls, especially for their singing and instrumental musicianship. Composers like Antonio Lotti and Scarlatti had served as musical directors.

But this church and the ospedale attached to it will forever be associated with the name of the great Italian priest-composer, Antonio Vivaldi (1675-1741). It was here that Vivaldi composed for the girls such marvelous works for chorus and especially for various combinations of instruments. No less than the staunch Lutheran Johann Sebastian Bach paid the highest tribute to this "red-headed priest", as Bach called him, and his music. How much Bach revered Vivaldi and was influenced by him is well known. Not only was Vivaldi progressive in terms of his music education and what we surely might safely call "music therapy" for these girls. It is also interesting to note that, while it was not until the Romantic era in the 19th century that themes of nature would pervade music literature, including actual attempts to imitate nature, Vivaldi was already writing "weather music" in his Four Seasons with all its sounds of nature, bird song, storms and the like. Another aspect of his work can be seen on a plaque outside the church that attests to his hand in the design of its marvelous acoustics. Vivaldi`s connection with the Pieta began in 1703 and lasted nearly forty years until 1740. In 1704 he was named Maestro di Violino di Choro. He also was in charge of of purchasing musical instruments- some of which may still be seen in the little museum of the church. He later became a violin teacher, Master of Concerts and resident composer. He was required to compose two masses per year (for Easter and the Feast of the Visitation), two Vesper services a year and two new motets each month among other things. Vivaldi worked daily with these disadvantaged girls, writing and performing music for their special needs, choral and instrumental works.

The young ladies for whom Vivaldi composed and directed music were known as the putte or maidens. By 1738 there were about a hundred putte in residence at the ospedale. The girls were divided into two categories: the figlie di comun or commoners who received a general education and the figlie di coro or choristers and musicians who received an exacting musical training in solfeggio, singing and instrumental technique. Vivaldi supervised the teaching and served as concert master and composer-in-residence as mentioned. The reputation of the Pieta surpassed anything in Europe and drew visitors from all over Europe. Even Pope Pius IV came to hear the girls play and sing. The putte did not travel and were not allowed to perform outside the ospedale.

Descriptions of contemporaries of the day give a nice picture of what a visitor might encounter at the Pietà.

William Beckford: "The sight of the orchestra still makes me smile. You know, I suppose, it is entirely of the feminine gender, and that nothing is more common than to see a delicate white hand journeying across an enormous double bass, or a pair of roseate cheeks puffing, with all their efforts, at a French horn. Some that are grown old and Amazonian, who have abandoned their fiddles and their lovers, take vigorously to the kettle-drum; and one poor limping lady, who had been crossed in love, now makes an admirable figure on the bassoon."

Dr. Charles Burney: "It is a kind of Foundling Hospital for natural children, under the protection of several noble citizens and merchants who contribute annually to its support."

Dr. Brasses, president of the Dijon Parliament, France: "They sing like angels, and play violin, flute, organ, hautboy (oboe), violincello, bassoon, in short, there is no instrument so large as to frighten them."

Ever since the Renaissance, which began in Italy and eventually later spread beyond the Alps, Italy became a Mecca for students and musicians who would make the long pilgrimage to Italy to absorb the spirit and culture found there. In later centuries the trek continued until modern times. Mozart, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Liszt were but a few of the many great musicians who drew inspiration from all that sunny Italy had to offer. Yet it seems the miracle of the 18th century ospedale and the Pieta was never to flower again. (1)

Today at the church of the Pietà there remains a vestige of the tradition with an ensemble of young women, Le Putte Veneziane di Vivaldi, (pictured) professional musicians who perform at the church and wear the original 18th century Venetian costumes. Another instrumental group, Le Venexiane, composed entirely of female members, is also associated with the church.

My wife and I were privileged to perform in concert in Vivaldi's church as part of the New York Festival Choir under the direction of J. Scott Marrone. My wife Kathleen had the great thrill of singing the soprano solo in the "Laudate Dominum" of the Mozart Vespers. We were accompanied by group of resident musicians at the church, I Virtuosi Dell'Ensemble di Venezia. We experienced the marvelous acoustics envisioned by Antonio Vivaldi. It is noteworthy that the church is now used exclusively for concerts and, as of this writing, visiting groups of musicians who wish to perform there must do at least one work by Vivaldi as a prerequisite.

It would seem that our own age has much to learn from Italy's 18th century's enlightened tradition. The accomplishment of disadvantaged girls and women on the fringes of 18th century Venetian society and the "red-headed priest" who directed and promoted them should be more than a footnote in history.

Richard Cross

(1) The music school at Boys Town I once visited was certainly an exceptional effort in that direction.

References

Camajani, G. Hospital Music of 18th century Italy. Music Journal. Volume 30, Number 9. November 1972.
Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pietà. Giugno-Luglio, Venice. 1999
Gélineau, J. Voices and Instruments in Christian Worship. Liturgical Press. Collegeville, Minnesota. 1964
Miller, H.M. History of Music. New York: Barnes & Noble. 1960.
Music Educators Journal. Volume 59, Number 1. September 1972.

It speaks to the in-breaking of God's kingdom here on earth when I here about some of the most gifted Christians sharing their gifts with the most forgotten poor people in the world. That is God's power at work; when those who have no family are not only given one, but are also given a voice and a song. One so beautiful that all the world is drawn to see and hear it. Let's light some fires.

2011-11-21T15:34:00.002-06:00

“How do young people become adults in a culture that wants to look and act like children?”

After reading Soren Kierkegaard's work, “Purity of Heart: Is to will one thing,” I was impressed with how often he mentioned young people in a work that was written for adults about the practice of confession. What follows are questions a young person might ask alongside quotes from Kierkegaard's work:

Does being an adult mean being busy with lots of stuff?

“For this press of busyness is like a charm. And it is sad to observe how its power swells, how it reaches out seeking always to lay hold of ever-younger victims so that childhood or youth are scarcely allowed the quiet and the retirement in which the Eternal may unfold a divine growth.”

Does being an adult mean accomplishing lots of stuff?

“Let us never deceive youth by foolish talk about the matter of accomplishing. Let us never make them busy in the service of the moment, instead of in patience willing something eternal.”

Does being an adult mean acquiring lots of stuff?

"Let us not make them (youth) quick to judge what they perhaps do not understand, instead of willing something eternal and being content with little for themselves!”

When did you first feel like you had become an adult? Some of the youth in our congregation shared that the only rites of passage our society seems to have are getting your drivers license, consuming alcohol, having sex, or going to college. Each of us can think of people we know in these categories for which the event listed did not equal a transition into adulthood, and maybe that person is us. What event in your own life marked that transition for you? More importantly, have you shared that story of struggle with the young people in our congregation?

Many youth see adulthood as busyness, accomplishing things, and acquiring stuff. We know a different story. One of a father God who whispers to us about that which is eternal, a father who guides us into willing just one thing in the midst of a culture that prides itself on choices. Kierkegaard reminds us that when the disciples began to seem “busy,” Christ set a little child in their midst. God has set a child in our midst.

May the Holy Spirit allow us to grow in Christ as the Christ child grows in us.

Paper or Plastic?

2011-10-31T13:35:00.009-05:00

Trash, discarded on the street just waiting for another gust of wind to move it somewhere else, hopefully out of sight. That is until the bag springs to life and takes the shape of an animal on the streets of New York.

Joshua Harris (no, not that one) is a street artist who takes plastic trash bags and makes all kinds of fantastic creatures out of them. However, they only come to life over subway grates when a train passes by and enough air shoots up to fill the bags.

This brings to mind verses like Genesis 2:7

"Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

Or Job 12:10

"In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind."

A lesson on God's redeeming work in Christ Jesus with your youth or family group could involve collecting as many plastic bags as possible some afternoon and then hosting an art project night. I know behind the mall in our town there is a sea of plastic bags that get caught on the topless corn stalk roots. This activity would allow you to not only care for creation by cleaning up part of it, but also redeem that which has been thrown away by giving it new life.

You could use this clip from the movie "American Beauty," as an intro to talk about how God continues to breathe life into everything. There is also a great quote from that clip about the importance of remembering, which is the essence of theology and foundational to all faith and life.

Another fun clip is the work of Theo Jansen who makes kinetic sculptures that only move if the wind happens to be blowing strong enough. Both Theo and Joshua's work would look like heaps of garbage without the air that gives them breath and life. These verses from Psalms 39, 62, 104, and 144 talk about how fragile life is and that we too would surely die if God were to take back the breath we were given.

I also have an earlier post from a ski retreat with other breath related games and bible verses that could be used as well.

The creations you make with your group don't have to be as intricate as Joshua's, they could be as simple as making silly costumes or using them to cover other discarded objects, thus giving them a fresh look. An entire lesson about Jesus breathing on the disciples and filling them with the Holy Spirit could also be incorporated.

Psalm 150:6 - "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD."

The Burning House

2011-09-29T17:14:00.006-05:00

When my brother and I were about 10 and 11 our dad would take us into burning buildings. Yeah I don't have a messed up childhood at all do I? He worked for the University here in town and would help teach classes for smaller volunteer fire departments all over the state. It was usually cheaper for a family to sign over their unused house to the city than it was to have it bulldozed. So the city would then give permission for the volunteer fire department to use it for training. We would spend the whole day with dad as we would light different rooms on fire and then watch the crews putting them out. Not sure too many people have had their dad tell them, "Go light that kitchen on fire and then we will get started!" At the end of the day when the training was done the entire house would be burnt to the ground leaving only the chimney standing.

It was always fascinating to me to see what families would leave behind. Old pictures, books, furniture, dishes, and toys were usually scattered around the house. On some occasions the fire department would find money tucked away in a wall that was being torn apart. Money that the owner had forgotten about years ago. If you had to leave your house, what would you take with you and what would you leave behind?

The idea of leaving things behind comes up over and over in Scripture. Almost every story in Genesis involves people leaving behind a former way of life and trusting God for the future. Genesis then leads to the Exodus of an entire race which is led out of Egypt and thus slavery. Further along in the writings of the prophets you see times when God's people are being carted off from their homes back into slavery. Our theme this year in Sunday School is to think about what God is setting us free from, or the things we need to leave behind. One way to begin that process is to think of the things we can't leave behind (or think we can't leave behind).

That is when I ran across this interesting website called, "The Burning House." The premise is simple. If your house were burning down and you could only save a few of your possessions, what would they be. They then encourage you to take a picture of those items and post them on their website. Might be a good ice breaker for a group of adults or students as sort of an advanced version of show and tell. Groups could be encouraged to either bring these items in to talk about why they are meaningful to them, or bring in a picture of the items to share with the group.

What items would you try and save from your house?

The mirror

2011-09-25T14:23:00.006-05:00

"Thus in the midst of busyness, double-mindedness is to be found. Just as the echo dwells in the woods, as stillness dwells in the desert, so double-mindedness dwells in the press of busyness. That the one who wills the Good only to a certain degree, that he is double-minded, that he has a distracted mind, a divided heart, scarcely needs to be pointed out. But the reason may need to be explained and set forth, why, in the press of busyness, there is neither time nor quiet to win the transparency that is indispensable if a man is to come to understand himself in willing one thing or even for a preliminary understanding of himself in his confusion.

Nay, the press of busyness into which one steadily enters further and further, and the noise in which the truth continually slips more and more into oblivion, and the mass of connections, stimuli, and hindrances, these make it ever more impossible for one to win any deeper knowledge of himself.

It is true, that a mirror has the quality of enabling a man to see his image in it, but for this he must stand still. If he rushes hastily by, then he sees nothing. Suppose a man should go about with a mirror in his possession which he does not take out, how should such a man get to see himself? In this fashion the busy man hurries on, with the possibility of understanding himself in his possession. But the busy man keeps on running and it never dawns upon him that this possibility which he has in his possession is rapidly fading from his memory. And yet one hardly dares say this to one of these busy ones, for however rushed he otherwise may be, yet upon occasion he has plenty of time for a multitude of excuses by the use of which he becomes worse than he was before: excuses whose wisdom is about the same as when a sailor believes that it is the sea, not the ship, that is moving."

- Purity of Heart by Soren Kierkegaard

And that was written almost 150 years ago.

Papercuts

2011-09-19T07:41:00.000-05:00

One of the first pastor's I ever served alongside was an amazing artist who was proficient at doing paper cuts. He would spend many prayerful hours painstakingly cutting little lines and curves in order to carve out the most intricate designs. I recently stumbled upon artist Peter Callesen's work and received the kind of impression that makes you want to go out and try making what he makes.

Over the last few weeks I have had a number of youth come up to me and share how exhausted they are with their many time commitments. They have over scheduled themselves in band, sports, drama, homework, and extra curricular clubs. The tricky part is that many of these extra club activities are Christian based and give the impression that they are involved in something that should be good for them.

Screwtape (a devil in C.S. Lewis' book "The Screwtape Letters") tells his nephew Wormwood how to corrupt a Christian and lead them astray:

"There is only one thing we can do. We must redouble our efforts. We must do everything we can to make sure that these humans do not believe in Jesus. And if they do believe then make them lukewarm and too busy with other things to be of any use to him."

It is possible that we can be involved in so many seemingly good things that we are of absolutely no use to anyone because we become wore out and exhausted. Or as Mark 8:36 says, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" I have come to see that it is in fact our soul that is at stake, along with the things we are most passionate which feed our soul. So what follows is a small idea of a project that you can do alongside youth or adults to help reflect on the concept of cutting something out of your life.

Choose some colorful pieces of acid-free paper and grab some exacto knives for the group.

Have them sit down and write a list of 10 things that take up the most time in their lives right now

Reflect on which priority needs to be cut out of your life and then think of an image to represent it

Draw that image on the piece of paper lightly with a pencil and then begin cutting it out

Once the design is done you can lay it over another piece of colorful paper to show some contrast

Another great blog with examples of amazing paper cuts can be found here

While people are making their projects someone could read passages where Jesus tells people, "No."

Rob Bell's Nooma video called, "Shells," would be a great one to watch before this project since he talks about a Lutheran philosopher named Soren Kierkegaard who is concerned about how it is that we will just one thing. Rob's message in this particular video is about how we can get caught up in so many different things and lose focus, thus losing the most important thing in life. He quoted Kierkegaard as saying that a saint, "is the person that can will the one thing." What does a life look like that stays focused one thing, or should I say person? How do we, as Matthew suggests in chapter 6 verse 33, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness so that everything else we need will be given to us as well? Seems like we spend a whole lot of time running around being busy and trying to provide our own needs when we should be focused on sitting at the feet of Jesus.

I must admit that this is a very difficult practice since it requires saying, "No," to people. Rob Bell uses the example from Mark 1:35-38:

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”"

Bell goes on to say;

“He has a compass. He has an orientation. He has a way to orient his life, a path that he’s on. Jesus says no because he’s already said yes. He’s very clear on what his life is about. Do you have a hard time saying no? Or perhaps there’s a better question – what is it that you have said yes to? Because you can’t say no until you’ve said yes to something else.” What is your life about? How could answering that question help you to be more focused?"

May God's Word, that double-edged sword, cut from our lives those things that lead us away from Jesus Christ.

Stay Creative

2011-09-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

How many of these do you do each day?

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Creative Matters Part 2

2011-08-01T20:44:00.007-05:00

"The power of silence can be found in everything. Someone once said, 'It's the spaces between the notes that makes the music.' And on a documentary film on the Helvetica font, a type artist said that it's the spaces between the characters that makes the font." - Stephen Proctor

So who are you standing between? Reminds me of an excellent art project that Brian Kirk posted on his blog, and that we tried with our youth group.

"Creativity by its nature tends to resist utility." - Jarrett Stevens

"Whether one is an artist or not, I think as Christians we are all implicated in the horrendous deficiency of imagination, the visual illiteracy, the dispassionate celebrations of the 'the joy of salvation,' the uncaring lamentations of our sorrow for the oppressed and wounded, our lack of protest for the destruction of our ecosystem and the consumerist kitsch that is the predominant expression of faith in most of the Christian community." - Betty Spackman

"Gather the creatives in your church community and do the following;

1.) Ask them what they dream about.
2.) Ask them about the art they create.
3.) Ask them to share their vision for your community.
4.) Ask them what they find mysterious about following Christ.
5.) Ask them to dream of a place where they would be free to experiment and make mistakes.

Then the hard part is to work tirelessly as a church leader to create that place for them." - Blaine Hogan

"Man built most nobly when limitations were at their greatest." - Frank Lloyd Wright

CJ Alvarado has found that making constraints an ally frees him up to be more creative. The difficult thing he finds in working with church staff is to keep the tension creative and not emotional. "If your vision is making you and the people around you better, then carry on. You are accomplishing what needs to be done as a creative. Leonardo Da Vinci understood this when he said, 'Art is never finished, only abandoned.'"

"Nick Campbell, a respected motion designer and blogger, says that cliched or overtly imitative design shows a lack of creativity in communicating and problem solving. That's an interesting statement, because often, the church doesn't see it that way. In fact, many times, we believe (and practice) the opposite: The church imitates in hopes of relating." - Barton Damer

"Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

"smart people are always consuming new information, always staying in a posture of learning, and are not willing to live on habit." He goes on to say that we should, "give people the chance to do what they love in service of a meaningful mission." - Steven Brewster

I have to admit that most churches seem to be bad at that last one because when a task or program needs to be done unwilling volunteers are usually asked to lead something that no one is passionate about.

Mark Pierson writes about public corporate worship and says that, "one way to move in that direction is to think of a corporate worship event as an art installation. I love installation art. For some reason, I can get into it much more than I can a painting or photograph, or even a sculpture."

"God gave us eyes so that we can worship Him. If we were not able to glorify God with what we see, He would not have created us with eyes in the first place." - Anthony Lee

Draw and Drink

2011-07-24T21:06:00.010-05:00

"The area was decorated with blue and white cotton curtains tied back with purple linen cords that ran through silver rings fastened to marble columns. Couches of gold and silver rested on pavement that had all kinds of designs made from costly bright-colored stones and marble and mother-of-pearl. The guests drank from gold cups, and each cup had a different design. The king was generous and said to them, "Drink all you want!" Then he told his servants, "Keep their cups full." - Esther 1:6-8

An artist friend of mine pointed me in the direction of a guy named Cheeming Boey. He enjoys decorating styrofoam cups with sometimes simple, and other times complicated designs. You can see much of his work over at flickr by clicking here.

I began thinking of ways to incorporate a youth group project that involves decorating cups while reading various passages of scripture that center around the importance of cups. Take Joseph's interpretation of dreams for example:

Forgiveness

"The king's personal servant told Joseph, "In my dream I saw a vine with three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its grapes became ripe. I held the king's cup and squeezed the grapes into it, then I gave the cup to the king." Joseph said; "This is the meaning of your dream. The three branches stand for three days, and in three days the king will pardon you. He will make you his personal servant again, and you will serve him his wine, just as you used to do." Genesis 40:9-13

Taken in light of Joseph's entire story the group could discuss those things for which they need to be pardoned. After decorating the cups the group could take turns crushing grapes into them and reflect on who it is in their own lives that they need to forgive.

Show-offs

"You Pharisees and teachers are show-offs, and you're in for trouble! You wash the outside of your cups and dishes, while inside there is nothing but greed and selfishness. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of a cup, and then the outside will also be clean." - Matthew 23:25-27

This passage could be discussed after a youth event that required eating off of dishes that need to be washed. While washing the dishes together as a group you could talk about the things in our own lives for which we are sometimes too proud. Have the youth share examples from their own lives of when they have tried to show off in front of other people. Hand out cups afterward for the youth to decorate. Most of them will only decorate the outside of the cup. Use this as a talking point for the need to be pure on the inside. Discuss ways that God can help us be pure on the inside so that we are beautiful on the outside as well.

Sins

"The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet robes, and she wore jewelry made of gold, precious stones, and pearls. In her hand she held a gold cup filled with the filthy and nasty things she had done." - Revelation 17:4

Challenge the group to draw pictures of the filthy, nasty, sinful things in this world on the INSIDE of their cup with washable marker. Chances are this will be pretty difficult and the pictures will end up uglier than they had anticipated. This is the point. Launch into a lesson about filling the cup with something good to drink and how the sinful images now leak into the good tasting drink and thus spoil it. This lesson would work well with the one listed above concerning pride.

Suffering

"Jesus walked on a little way. Then he knelt with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, don't make me suffer by having me drink from this cup. But do what you want, and not what I want."" - Matthew 26:39

This one might require the youth to draw images of suffering on their cups. These images can either represent the suffering that others are going through right now or some kind of pain that they themselves are struggling with. Ask them what things they want God to take away from them right now? What suffering do they wish God would remove from others lives right now? How can they be a part of removing that suffering?

Comfort

"Sisera asked for water, but Jael gave him milk-- cream in a fancy cup." - Judges 5:25

Maybe after some of these deep discussions you can lighten the mood by asking the group what their favorite drink is. Which drink brings them the most comfort or relaxes them? If you can find this out ahead of time be sure to provide it for the youth to fill their cups with at the end of the lesson.

There are many other lessons you could try out like filling the cup to overflowing and talking about God's abundant life in Jesus Christ, or using the cups they decorate to actually fill for a worship service involving communion. Be creative, and know that as stewards of God's creation we should be encouraged to use paper cups instead of styrofoam. Draw and drink.

Creative Matters

2011-07-18T19:39:00.004-05:00

I have been going through a free ebook I downloaded a while back called, "Creative Matters." It is a wonderful collection of thoughts on creativity by artists and muscians. While it is no longer free you can get copies of it here.

These are some of my favorite insights, or better yet, here is what the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me through this work:

"I love that so many leaders are in conversation right now about how to change what they are doing. Unfortunately, our inability to shape culture and instead play catch-up with culture through philosophies of relevance is the result of having the wrong types of people in key positions within the church. Our hunger to become relevant exposes one of our weaknesses: that we have placed managers in roles that demand innovators, gatekeepers instead of freedom fighters, comfort keepers instead of risk takers." - Josh Loveless

"Our response to the blank canvas is far more important than other people's response to our finished product." - Jarrett Stevens

"When Solomon was getting ready to build the temple, he didn't just call for people who were passionate about what they did; he called for master artisans (2 Chronicles 2:5-7)." - Amena Brown

"But honestly, American Christianity has become consumerist and safe, and it shows in our music - safe for the whole family." - Lisa Gungor

"The question is not even, 'How creative am I?' That question often leads to unhealthy comparison or competitiveness. If you are ever going to truly reflect the creative image of your creator God, the better question to ask is, 'How am I Creative?' How, when, where, and with whom does creativity most freely flow for you?" - Jarrett Stevens

Which of these quotes resonates with you the most?

Dark Chamber

2011-07-11T07:51:00.001-05:00

In a recent National Geographic Magazine I read an article about a photographer named Abelardo Morell who uses pinhole cameras to project images of the outdoors and capture them on the inside walls of buildings. Camera Obscura, or "dark chamber," is a simple way to capture an image upside down in any room. All you have to do is darken the room completely and cut a little opening for light to come in. It seems like most youth rooms, the ones not in windowless basements, would have the potential to be converted into camera obscura's and thus create a fantastic image of the outside on your own youth room wall. You can watch this video and see how to convert your youth room, or any other room in the church, into a camera obscura.

The fun part of the this process is that naturally the image appears on the walls upside down. We often forget that our brains reverse the images we see, so unaided light will show us the reverse image of what we see out of our windows. This opens up some fun lessons for your youth group to explore together. You could discover together how Jesus turned the world upside down using parables of the kingdom of God that often were the opposite of what people expected. Going through the large block of teaching in the 5th chapter of Matthew's gospel provides many examples of Jesus telling them, "You have heard it said," "but I say to you." These teachings were often the opposite of what the people expected to hear. Ask the youth group about what things in their lives they might need to look at differently? If they could reverse the way something is going in their life what would it be?

Another direction would be to go through John's gospel and study all the references John makes to "light," and "darkness." It is quite amazing how just a small sliver of light can let in an entire image of beauty from the outside. Luke 11:34 talks about how the eye is the lamp of the body and how we can be full of light or darkness depending on what we are taking in. That verse could be used to discuss the images we see each day and maybe even open a dialogue about the destructive forces of pornography. In the end the most important lesson is to share with youth that through Christ we are invited to be tiny windows THROUGH which others see the light of God and thus have their worlds turned upside down.

little people

2011-07-04T20:55:00.000-05:00

"Abandoning little people on the streets since 2006," is the subtitle of an artists blog in the UK named Slinkachu.

Slinkachu places miniature figures in hilarious situations throughout the city streets of London and abroad. Most people passing by would never even notice these miniature little people going about their day. I have recently been thinking of a couple of ways that this artists work could be used as a discussion starter concerning how our words are sometimes used to belittle people. Like the subtitle of Slinkachu's blog, our words can often leave people feeling very small and alone in a dangerous world.

Many passages in scripture talk of how important it is to guard our tongues and not speak evil of anyone. Here are a few:

"Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." - Psalm 34:12-14

"They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows." - Psalm 64:3

"Whoever derides their neighbor has no sense, but the one who has understanding holds their tongue." - Proverbs 11:12

In his explanation of the ten commandments in the small catechism Martin Luther says that not only should we not lie about our neighbors, but we should always look at them in the best possible light. Not so easy is it? On Slinkachu's blog there are multiple scenes were people are either defacing property or creation. Those slides could be used to talk about how words are a way of literally taking the face off of a human being created in the image of God. When someone no longer has a face we feel more free to slander them and dehumanize them. This goes for spoken as well as typed words in our culture.

Many of the scenes this artist has created are very funny and I would encourage youth leaders to take a field trip to the local hobby store with your youth and buy some miniature figures. Then have the youth decide if they would like to depict a biblical scene somewhere in your town with those miniatures. The entire story of King David trying to fit into Saul's armor and fighting Goliath would lend itself perfectly to using miniatures. Maybe the youth want to focus on Jesus' words about little children or recreate the Tower of Babel. You can also buy Slinkachu's books to use as a visual for passing around the class. I am sure there will be lots of ideas so leave space for them to come up with thought provoking scenarios that would cause people to slowdown and take notice. Don't forget to take pictures that can be displayed or handed out as reminders of the lesson.

The hidden cost

2011-06-27T21:48:00.003-05:00

Luke 14:27-30

"And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’"

I have a close friend whose aunt and uncle live on a lake not far from where we both went to college. Their house became a sanctuary from late night paper writing, busy sports schedules, and test cramming. One afternoon his uncle took us over to the plot of land next to their house and shared that it had finally been purchased. He then showed us an immpressive dock that ran from the land out into the lake. His uncle told us that this family who purchased the land had spent tens of thousands of dollars making sure they had the finest dock on the lake. The only problem was the lake began to dry up and they hadn't even started building their house on the property! Already out of money from the dock purchase their new neighbors were never able to build their house on the lake. I think of this story, and of Jesus' warning to count the cost of what it means to follow him. There is a hidden price to every choice we make and I am not sure we spend much time pondering the eventual cost to ourselves and creation.

This leads me to share some insights from the book, "The Price of Everything," by Eduardo Porter which I found to be similar to "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. What fascinates me about this book is Porter's conviction that everything, AND everyone, has a price. While we may not want to talk about how much money we think a human life is worth there are decisions we make that force those very calculations. Porter shares about how after 9-11 someone had to make the decisions about how much each family of the the victims in the twin towers would be compensated. Do the CEO's families get more than the families of those who washed dishes in the twin towers? While Kenneth Feinberg worked to create a system that compensated families fairly, albeit differently, he noted that if he had to do it all over again he would have given each family the same amount.

To save a life

"After 9-11 the U.S. government spent $300 Billion bolstering its homeland security apparatus. Yet an analysis of the number of deaths likely to be averted by foiling potential future attacks concluded that the cost of each life saved was somewhere between $64 million and $600 million."

"Combating tuberculosis in Sub-sahara AFrica would cost $12 Billion between 2006 - 2015. In Ethiopia it would save 250,000 lives."

When you compare $300 billion in an attempt to protect lives that may or may not be in danger, versus the $12 billion to save those who ARE dying, we begin to see that whether we realize it or not we value the protection of our own lives far more than we do saving those in other countries. Anyone in the United States can provide food, clothes, and education to a child in another country for the same price as owning DISH Satellite TV.

To save a soul

In Jesus' analogy about the one who is going to build a tower we might guess that the person being referred to is pretty wealthy. There is an entire section of Porter's book devoted to looking at the cost of technology and how it led to our country being the wealthiest in the world.

"He (Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter) concluded that the so-called productivity boom brought on by computers was a mirage. What was happening was that technology made it easier for workers to work longer hours. Laptops, cell phones, and other appliances allowed them to take their work with them everywhere they went. "The dirty little secret of the information age is that an increasingly large slice of work goes on outside the official work hours the government recognizes, Roach wrote. The time we now devote to work on our gizmos we used to devote to other activities that were frequently more rewarding." (pg77)

We traded the things we enjoyed most, those things that brought joy to our souls, for money. There were, and still are, well meaning parents who devote more time to work in order to give their family a "better life." Yet being one who works alongside young people all I see are kids who think their identity revolves around what they buy. Not only that, but I hear from the kids I work alongside that they wish more than anything mom and dad would just put down their cell phones and have a conversation with them every once in a while. There used to be a time when television shows would depict dad sitting at the dining room table with the newspaper diligently reading while his family tried to have a conversation with him. These TV dad's would always respond verbally to their families, but rarely lower the paper to make eye contact and acknowledge their presence. Screens have replaced the newspapers and while some may argue that teens don't want to have anything to do with their parents I am here to say it is a two way street.

"These days the American Dream is a pretty misleading reverie. The hourly wage of the average shop-floor worker was lower in 2009 that it was in 1972, after accounting for inflation. The typical American family - two earners, a couple of kids- made less than it did a decade before. It's been 40 years since the last time the average worker could afford to pay the bills of the average household on a forty-hour workweek at the average wage." (pg.127)

Is all the extra work worth what we are missing?

To save a faith

"Gallup polls in 145 countries have found that people who attend religious services donate more to charity and perform more voluntary service than those who do not." (pg182)

"Religious people trust others more, trust the government and the legal system more, and are less willing to break the law." (pg 183)

"The happiness boost from praying one more time a week is equivalent to that of making roughly an extra $12,500 a year, in current dollars." (pg.184)

Porter spends much of his chapter on the cost of faith discussing the horrible ways the church has used hell to scare people into the fold and convince them to give more money. While he doesn't paint a very favorable picture of the Christian faith he does hit on something that other religious scholars and Christian writers have picked up recently. He notes that when the church require less from its members it actually gets less in return. Larry Iannaccone who is an economist of religions writes, "When they weaken the demands they make on members, they undermine their credibility." (pg. 192)

Jesus in Matthew's gospel constantly takes the law that had been handed down through Moses and raised the bar. "you have heard it said do not murder, but I say to you if you are angry with your brother you have committed murder in your heart." Jesus does the same thing with adultery and says if you even look with lust at another you have committed adultery. Jesus NEVER MAKES THINGS EASIER FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO FOLLOW HIM.

"In the United States, when the government increased tax breaks for charitable contributions, people reacted by increasing their donations but going less often to church." (pg.185)

If you think that is interesting check out Porter's take on the Reformation:

"The Church stopped working to inspire the faithful and focused instead on collecting rents. By adding sophisticated new ways to raise money from its followers, the Church became too expensive for believers and provided too little of its core services in return. This encouraged the entry of a rival into the market: Protestant Christianity, which came to offer believers direct access to God at a better price. It eliminated the rents and recovered the traditional link between costly sacrifice and religious rewards that had characterized faith since its earliest times." (pg. 195)

The Catholic church held firm to particular rules and ways of believing for centuries while Protestants began lowering the bar and making more compromises in order to attract more members. When one looks at the dismal number of active members in Protestant churches across Europe you might begin to think we are looking at our future in the United States. However, Porter notes that religion is on the rise in the U.S. and here is why:

"By contrast, religion in the United States thrived because of a vibrant diversity that flowered when independence led to the strict separation of church and state." (pg. 197)

So while we may be free in the U.S. to float between various denominations and faiths without much cost we need to ask ourselves what our faith has cost us lately?

Children at Play

2011-05-16T14:39:00.000-05:00

About a month ago I was in the final weeks of preparing to run my first half-marathon here in town. A friend of mine let me borrow a copy of her book "Born to Run," by Christopher McDougall. What captured me about this book was not only Christopher's amazing gift of story telling, but also his fascination with simplicity when it comes to running. Good portions of the book are devoted to questioning how much we really need when it comes to running. He investigates the running patterns of an ancient tribe in Mexico, tears apart the running shoe industry, and reevaluates our diets when it comes to running. My favorite quote of the entire book comes after he has watched the children of this ancient tribe, called the Tarahumara, play a soccer style game through Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons as if it were nothing. The children easily cover five or six miles while playing this game and Chris begins to wonder:

“How do you flip the internal switch that changes us all back into the Natural Born Runners we once were? Not just in history, but in our own lifetimes. Remember? Back when you were a kid and you had to be yelled at to slow down? Every game you played, you played at top speed, sprinting like crazy as you kicked cans, freed all, and attacked jungle outposts in your neighbors’ backyards. Half the fun of doing anything was doing it at a record pace, making it probably the last time in your life you’d ever be hassled for going too fast.”(Pg. 92 - Born to Run)

It saddens me that we seem to pacify kids energy and educate them out of their creativity. We don't want our kids to go off and explore the neighborhood anymore because they might get kidnapped, so instead they sit at home and stare at screens all day while becoming obese. We shove math and science down their throats until they eventually pass at the expense of giving them space to see if they dance, sing, or love to make art. I recently stumbled upon an amazing collection of books by an artist named Shaun Tan. The book is called "Lost & Found" and is an amazing collection of three separate stories. The first being an exploration of ones self which he wrote while struggling with depression. The second being a tale about what happens when we take the time to observe the world around us. The third being a tragic retelling of the exploitation of native peoples. The second story was made into a short film, the trailer of which you can watch here. I have included artwork from throughout the book in this post.
The three stories Shaun creates make me wonder to what extent young people will find joy and fulfillment in life if they don't explore the world around them sans screen. The first story reminds me of the danger and eventual loneliness we all feel when we isolate ourselves from one another and creation. The second story could easily be a parable for the beautiful things in life we miss when we become too busy or self important to observe each other and the world. The third story is a lament of the exploitation that can happen when we follow the dictum of "the majority rules," and forget how to live alongside the minority who are different from us.

Gabe Lyons brings into question the popular societal concept of "majority rules," in his book "The Next Christians, The Good News About The End of Christian America." He notices a HUGE difference between societies concept of "the most good for the MOST people," and Aristotle's concept of "the most good for ALL people." (emphasis mine) Can you see the difference?

"The common good is defined as—"the most good for all people." Aristotle first conceived it, but Thomas Aquinas, a thirteenth-century Roman Catholic philosopher, honed it well as a Christian conception for how Christians ought to live alongside others who were different in society. This strict definition of the common good doesn't prefer one human being over another; instead, it values all human life and wants what is best for all people—Christian or not." (Q Conference by Gabe Lyons)
We often see how society prefers the "most good for the most people," because it is an easy majority rules option. Gabe Lyons argues that what Aristotle taught, and Aquinas expanded on, shows us a way to live in a pluralistic society for Christ. Shaun Tan's final story in "Lost & Found," shows how imperialism and colonialism, on whatever continent it happens, is not the most good for ALL people. Tan's art makes me wonder in what ways things like running and art can bridge the gap between different cultures. Especially between people who have been pushed to the fringe by the majority. Most of us are sharing in the benefits reaped by such exploitation. But can their be healing? Are things like simplicity and art ways to present an offering of healing? N.T. Wright has some wonderful insight into this in his book "Surprised by Hope." He writes this;

"When art comes to terms with both the wounds of the world and the promise of resurrection and learns how to express and respond to both at once, we will be on the way to a fresh vision, a fresh mission."

Amen. May it be so.

The Next Christians

2011-04-04T13:41:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back I finished listening to Gabe Lyons new book, "The Next Christians," and found it to be great company on my long runs through town. Gabe notes six characteristics of the next Christians that seem to set them apart from those in generations prior. His book is broken up into chapters that cover each one. Gabe argues that the Next Christians are:

1. Provoked, not offended.
2. Creators, not critics.
3. Called, not employed.
4. Grounded, not distracted.
5. Community, not alone.
6. Counter cultural, not relevant.

While I won't get into my insights from each of these chapters I would like to share a few of the examples he gave of those who have found their faith embodied in their immersion with culture. One of the stories Gabe tells is about Catherine Rohr who decided to start a Prison Entrepreneurship Program with some of Houston's most hardened criminals. You can read her amazing story here.

Another story was about the founder of an organization called "To Write Love on Her Arms," which began as a way to help a friend and now reaches out to millions of people struggling with depression and suicide. Here is the story about how taking risks in unknown territory ended up becoming an entire ministry to those who feel they are with out hope. If you work with young people and have never heard of this organization, chances are they have so check it out.

The third story that stuck out to me was about Josh Jackson, Nick Purdy and Tim Porter who decided to start a magazine that incorporated music from the indie scene. The twist is that they didn't want to shy away from musicians who produced excellent music and were also Christians. They also didn't want to exclude amazing musical talent that would be considered too edgy for Christian radio because of the artists lack of faith. So Paste Magazine was born. Many of the musicians featured are faithful followers of Christ, and many are honest about their doubts and questions when it comes to faith. Their immersion in the culture has provided an amazing platform for Christians to share their music in a secular indie setting while encountering like minded artists they might not otherwise meet.

Another amazing group Gabe mentions is XXXchurch which seeks to share the love of Christ with porn stars and provide resources to help Christians who are struggling with addictions to pornography. My wife and I attended a Youth Workers convention last fall and actually ran into this group. They had a huge blue elephant that was blown up and sitting in the middle of a large open area that we all had to walk past to get to our small group sessions. They were quick to remind all of us youth leaders that pornography is the elephant in the room when it comes to working with youth and adults. If you have never heard of this group check them out online because they have been criticized heavily by other Christians groups for their ministry. It is not unusual for this group to hand out bibles that say, "Jesus loves porn stars," at adult movie conventions and be told at the same time they are going to hell by other Christians. They also provide amazing online accountablity software that I have actually used before with a close friend.

I was captured by the passion this next generation has boldly go to the dark places of humanity in order to spread the gospel message trusting that God will provide. It seems that Gabe has not found any "Next Christians," who are comfortable staying in the Christian ghetto. It is encouraging to hear stories of faithful followers of Christ taking risks, trying new things, and being creative with the gifts God has given them in order to spread the love of Christ. Gabe is quick to note that there are many whom he could have mentioned that strayed from the faith. What guy wouldn't face temptation at an adult porn convention? If we ourselves are not grounded in Christ we can quickly get lost in the mirage of pleasures that culture seeks to entice us with.

So while it might be easy to get wrapped up in the list I provided above, the one Gabe gives towards the end of the book is far more important. He reminds us that each of the people mentioned above practice daily disciplines to keep them firmly centered on God's desires and not their own. Among the disciplines Next Christians engage in:

1. immersion in Scripture
2. observation of the Sabbath
3. fasting for simplicity
4. choosing embodiment
5. and posture by prayer.

We cannot faithfully follow Christ into the fringes of society if we are not first grounded in the knowledge of whose we are. What groups of people are untouched by your community? Who do you know personally that needs help but you don't know the next steps? We are on a kingdom building mission with God providing the supplies, the Holy Spirit bringing the creativity, and Jesus bringing the food so if the next Christians are anything its not passive.

Almost Christian

2011-02-08T14:48:00.000-06:00

It took me two months to get through the entire book "Almost Christian," by Kenda Creasy Dean, but it was well worth it. Kenda takes a look at the results of a multi-year study called the National Study of Youth and Religion. The results of this study found that most American Teenagers of faith believe in what has been called, "Moralistic, Therapeutic, Deism." This means that most teenagers believe that God wants them to be nice to everyone, that God is here to meet all of our own personal needs, and that God isn't really involved in the day to day stuff but is instead somewhere far off.

"Moralistic Therapeutic Deism makes no pretense at changing lives; it is a low commitment, compartmentalized set of attitudes aimed at "meeting my needs" and "making me happy" rather than bending my life into a pattern of love and obedience to God." (pg. 30)

"MTD is what is left once Christianity has been drained of its missional impulse, once holiness has given way to acculturation, and once cautious self-preservation has supplanted the divine abandon of self-giving love." (pg. 39-40)

While most would see this as a failure of the church to communicate effectively the life transforming work of the gospel, Kenda believes that youth are mirroring back to us exactly what we have taught them. "We have received from teenagers exactly what we have asked them for: assent, not conviction; compliance, not faith." Instead of there being some massive miscommunication between adults and children or the church and youth when it comes to passing on the faith, Kenda argues that most adults believe and live out lives consistent with Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and our youth have actually listened and lived it quite well.

One of the most interesting findings in the National Study of Youth and Religion was that out of all the different denominations and faith groups represented, the Mormon church was the only one cited as actually retaining youth after high school. The reason? They actually expect something from their young people after high school - and before. How many of you have ever had Mormons come to your door? After high school it is expected that they go into the mission field for two years going door to door sharing the faith. Not only does this expectation come from the entire Mormon community but also from the family. The family requires that young people attend seminary every morning before school, meaning that most Mormon youth are up at least two hours before other kids learning the scriptures and the teachings of their faith. Kenda notes that, "separating family and church is inconceivable in Mormon culture," and that, "To Molly (Mormon youth) the purpose of faith formation is mission."

Here are some fun Mormon stats from the book to chew on:

"more than half of all Mormon teens give presentations twice a year to the congregation, half participated in a meeting where they were part of making the decisions, they assume their contributions of public testimony, fasting, baptisms, and blessings actually matter." (pg. 55-56)

"Mormon youth are 70% more likely to go on mission trips, share their faith, participate in youth group, and speak about their faith publicly in a religious service." (pg. 57)

So where most mainline protestant churches have consistently lowered the bar of challenges in hopes of bringing in more youth, the Mormon church has raised the bar and expected more from them. This resonates with Kenda's other book, "Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church," where she talks about how teenagers are looking for something worth pouring their whole lives into, something worth living and dying for, something risky.

"Like Esau, American Christians tend to think with our stomachs, devouring whatever smells good in order to keep our inner rumblings at bay, oblivious even to our own misgivings. American Christians are a restless people who come to church for the same reasons people once went to a diner: for someone to serve us who knows our name, for a filling stew that reminds us of home and makes us feel loved, even while it does a number on our spiritual cholesterol." (pg. 8)

"Put simply, churches have lost track of Christianity's missional imagination." (pg. 37)

I would be leading others astray if I believed that all we need to do is raise the bar at church and it will be filled with passionate and devoted young people. Every survey I can find, including the National Study of Youth and Religion, cites a young persons parents as the BIGGEST factor in their faith formation. That being said, I wonder often why we have not returned to what Martin Luther originally set out to do before the Reformation, and that was to educate and equip PARENTS to pass on the faith to their children. Kenda writes, "We have not invested in their (youths) bank accounts: we "teach" young people baseball, but we "expose" them to faith." "Luther was convinced that Christian formation began with youth ministry and he was convinced that youth ministry started at home." Now I know most parents and adults fear this role, and sometimes are even afraid of young people in general. However, Kenda reminds us in her book that, "What awakens faith is desire, not information, and what awakens desire is a person - and specifically, a person who accepts us unconditionally, as God accepts us." She goes on to say that, "We fall prey to the myth that teaching is a display of competence rather than an act of love."

Let's be honest. Many youth find themselves in situations where love at home, or at church, is in short supply. Some youth in the study still came through as highly devoted even though the odds seemed stacked against them. Kenda points out that highly devoted young people seem adept at using at least four cultural tools in ways that mark them as members of their traditions:

1 They confess their tradition's creed, or God-story

2 They belong to a community that enacts the God-story

3 They feel called by this story to contribute to a larger purpose

4 They have hope for the future promised by this story.

5 They also have families and churches that model that these tools matter.

Kids may repeat the creeds at church once a week, but if they are not lifted up at home they will see the pledge of allegiance at school to a flag as more important. Through scripture reading at home families should encounter what God has done and see needs in their own communities to be addressed. Families should call communities of faith out when they are not living up to what God has called them to do and be in the world. No matter how many times the church talks about vocation and God's calling on a young person's life, it won't have near the impact if parents are constantly talking about jobs and careers implying that they are simply ways to make money and buy more stuff. If our congregations are not sharing with young people God's redemptive plan for our communities and the world why should a young person want to be involved? Why would church look any different than any other philanthropic organization?

Passing on the faith requires being bilingual. Kenda talks about our dual role of speaking both the language of the culture and the language of faith when she writes;

"Unless the church cultivates a behind the wall conversation that reminds young people who they are, who they belong to, why they are here, and where their future hope lies-unless we hand on a tradition that gives them cultural tools to help them lay claim to this alternate vision of reality-then the empire's conversation is the only view of reality they have." (pg. 115)

We have to remember as parents and mentors to young people that there are thousands of other gods competing for their attention and trying to convince them that their story is THE story. These gods demand worship, sacrifices, and obedience but are false gods nonetheless. One of the surprising findings was that highly devoted youth tend to use the name of Jesus more than any of the other youth interviewed. So in a sense we have to speak Jesus name before we may really believe, or understand, what Jesus is doing in us. Or as Thomas Long contends that we, "talk ourselves into being Christian." Long sees talking about Jesus Christ as actually deepening our identity as people who follow him, while at the same time sharing Christ's call to others.

"Since youth do not hear a language of faith, they do not speak one. The "God-talk" young people do absorb from the surrounding culture is much closer to what the homiletician Thomas Long calls "God chatter," rather than a usable vocabulary of faith. Without a narrative to give such chatter coherence and meaning, teenagers are left to cobble together a patchwork religious system, borrowed-not from deeply anchored faith traditions or a growing recognition of God's activity in the world-but from appealing parts of a number of myths Americans live by." (pg.138)

Kenda mentions that conversational Christianity requires Jesus-talk, not just God-talk and cites Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann who maintain that conversation is the most important vehicle we have for maintaining a reality. Smith and Denton, who led the National Study of Youth and Religion, cite the philosopher Charles Taylor who believes,"inarticulacy undermines the possibilities of reality" and warns that "religious faith, practice, and commitment can be no more than vaguely real when people cannot talk much about them."

So as not to leave us totally in the dark with how to translate the faith to young people, Kenda gives us some guidelines;

1. the best translators are people, not programs.

2. The best translators are bilingual. (culture & God's story)

3. The best translators invoke imagination.

4. Translation can threaten the people in charge.

"We frequently say, 'the church has a mission,' according to missional theology a more correct statement would be 'God's mission has a church.'" - Alan Hirsch (pg. 91)

So what would it look like for most denominations to start rejecting Moralistic Theraputic Deism and start living transformed, articulate, missional lives for the world? Whatever it looks like young people are watching and waiting for something worth their lives.

"Do we know ourselves to belong to the One who made us, who loves us too much to lose us, and do we live as though this matters?"- Kenda Creasy Dean.

Let is soak

2011-02-07T21:50:00.000-06:00

Makoto Fujimura - The Art of "The Four Holy Gospels" from Crossway on Vimeo.

"some people like to read so many chapters (bible) everyday. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scriptures, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart!"

- Charles Spurgeon -

Who are your letters?

2011-01-31T09:48:00.000-06:00

Who are your letters?

"Tweet Me," "Text Me," "You Rock," "Soul Mate," "Love Bug," "Me + You," "Puppy Love," "Sweet Love," "Sweat Pea," and "Be Mine." What do these messages have in common? They are some of the messages that get printed on the candy hearts that NECCO makes each year for Valentine’s Day. These “heart felt” letters were first printed on candy in the 1860s by the brother of NECCO's founder. The very first hearts had printed paper notes with love messages that were hidden inside the packaging. This raises the question of whether or not we are hiding our message of love or sharing it with others.

The theme for our Rend Lake Retreat this year is “Be Mine.” Youth and adults will use the image of the candy heart to focus on Paul’s letter in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3;

“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Who are our letters? Have we been actively making disciples of Jesus Christ? Are we helping to remind others that Jesus says, “Be Mine,” or are we too captive to all the other things in this life that want us to be theirs? Rob Bell reminds us in one of his Nooma Video’s entitled “Flame,” that it is somewhat odd in our English language that we can say we love a new pair of shoes and we love our wife. How is it that we can use the same word, “love” and have it mean two totally different things. The Greek language has a word for brotherly love, erotic love, and godly love. Agape is the word for self-sacrificing Godlike love. Rob Bell says this in his book Sex God which talks about the connection between sexuality and spirituality;

"Agape doesn't love somebody because they're worthy. Agape makes them worthy by the strength and power of its love. Agape doesn't love somebody because they're beautiful. Agape loves in such a way that it makes them beautiful."

Who have we made feel worthy lately? Who have we made more beautiful because of our attention and time? Just like the NECCO candy makers only have space for 8 or so letters on their hearts, so we only have so much time to share the love of Jesus Christ with others. Someone once told me that when people ask if we are Christians, instead of just saying yes we should be able to give the names of those who are disciples of Jesus because of the Holy Spirits work in us, and then say, “ask them if I am a Christian.” Paul was known by his letters and we will be too. What do your letters say about you?

Breathe your Baptism

2011-01-19T14:40:00.000-06:00

What follows is the outline for a Winter Ski Retreat we held last weekend for the families from our congregation and two other churches.

Friday Night Mixer

Breathe Your Baptism

Blow Pop Game

Buy enough Blow Pops for three times the amount of students and adults you have. Everyone gets 3 Blow Pops and is asked to take turns in the circle sharing about their week or day up to that point. They are to share as much info as possible without using the word "I." Everything must be said in third person, this helps everyone else learn peoples names quicker because they will hear it multiple times. If you use the word "I" and someone catches you, they can have one of your Blow Pops. This can be quite funny because when someone catches someone else, they usually blow it by saying, "I caught you!" or, "I get one of your suckers!"

Last Sunday we heard about the Baptism of Jesus and we may be wondering why the God of all creation would need to be baptized? I believe that our baptisms are so important that we should remember them as much as possible. The only problem I am finding is that most of the water I use to splash around in is now frozen during these winter months. So how can we remember our baptisms in the winter?

Well when it is cold out we are able to see our breath much easier than when it is warm. And if baptism reminds us of our new life in Christ then our breath should remind us of the physical life God breathes into us. No breath - no life. “Each man’s life is but a breath.” – Psalm 39:5 This passage reminds us how fragile our lives are. This will be the verse that we will have next to our lift tickets tomorrow and it may take on new meaning throughout the weekend.

Have each person share a story of when they were out of breath in small groups

I can remember in 3rd grade going out to play on the playground and there was this curved monkey bar sort of structure that just days before I had learned how to swing on. I would climb all the way up and leap across to grab the bars then swing underneath the structure. It was quite fun, until the day I tried it after it had rained. Grabbed the bars, swung, and fell flat on my back knocking the wind right out of me. I can remember gasping for breath and not being able to get any. I thought I was going to die. Baptism is death. And just as God’s breath descended upon Jesus at his baptism so God’s breath fills us.

Evening prayer; “Guide us waking oh Lord and guard us sleeping, that awake we might watch with Christ and asleep we might rest in you.”

Saturday Morning

Breathsaver

What is the longest that you can hold your breath? I remember in 7th grade science class with Mrs. Robinson looking at the clock and it seemed like class was taking forever. I used watch the clock and have contests with myself to see how long I could hold my breath. Usually not more than 35 seconds or so, but it passed the time. What do you think is the world record for longest held breath underwater? It was Stig Åvall Severinsen from Denmark on April 01, 2010 who held his breath underwater for 20 min 10 sec in the shark tank at Kattegat Centre, Grenaa, Denmark.

The human body is amazing, but one thing it can’t do is come back to life after our last breath has been taken. Or can it? John 20:19-23 is the story of the disciples holding their breath behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. They killed Jesus and would probably do the same to any who followed him and his teachings. Jesus decides to pull one of his best pranks yet and walks through the wall to scare the crap out of the disciples. You can always tell when Jesus scares the crap out of his disciples because right after he does it in Scripture the first thing he says is, “Peace be with you!” Notice the exclamation point after each time Jesus says, "Peace be with you!" That is because he has to yell to them over their screaming in terror. Notice that Jesus is not a ghost because the disciples put their fingers in the wounds on his physical hands. Then Jesus breathes on them. Just as the father sent me so I send you. This is what our baptism means, we are sent by God into the world. Our baptism isn't meant to be kept to ourselves in a locked room but to boldly speak peace and forgiveness to others.

What do you think Jesus’ breath smelled like?

Have you ever had someone breathe on you? Here are some Breathsavers and we are going to play a little game where we breathe on each other – just kidding. Have John Read Job 19:17 – everyone give John your Breathsavers! In Baptism we are claimed and sent. God in the garden breathed life into Adam and gave him work to do, Jesus is doing the same thing with the disciples. Think about Psalm 144:4 today while we are surrounded by people we don't know, “My life is like a breath.” Every time you see your breath today think of it and what it means.

Saturday Evening

Breathalyzer Test

Holy Spirit Blows Game

Someone is the “Holy Spirit” and says "THE Holy Spirit Moves" At this point they must specifically state what the Holy Spirit moves, a statement which must be true about themselves. Everyone this applies to finds a different spot in the circle. One person will be left over, they are now the wind and the game continues. There is no winner or loser, just a lot of fun.

When a balloon loses it’s breath Game

A balloon is blown up (no knot is tied) on the starting line and then let go. At the point where the balloon lands, it is blow up again and let go again. This procedure is carried on until the balloon flies over the finishing line. How does this game relate to our lesson on the disciples this morning?

Biggest Lunger Game

Who can blow up the largest balloon with only 1 breath?
Each person gets a balloon and on the count of three everyone takes the biggest breath they can and breathes into the balloon filling it as much as possible. Once filled and out of breath close the balloon off so no air escapes and find a partner with the same size balloon from another church. Introduce yourself to the other person and ask them this question; "If your breath had to smell like one smell for the rest of your life, what would you want it to be?"

Show clip from Sandlot in the classroom- Why did I pick that clip, what does it have to do with our theme?

I remember running a race in High School for the Central Cross country team and we had a meet in Danville. The course was a simple shape with no loops or figure eights, pretty much a donut shape. We had to do about 3 laps to complete our 3 mile race and it happened on the second lap. No not the kid who fell over in front of me puking that was the third lap. It was on the second lap that I was gaining ground on this kid in front of me and a strange thing happened when I got right next to him. I noticed that our breathing was happening at the exact same time. We were in sync with one another and it was probably for only 6 or 7 seconds, but at that moment time seemed to slow down and there was a peaceful rhythm towards the end of that crazy race.

Genesis 1:1-2 talks of God’s Spirit or Breath hovering over the waters.

Have someone read the Baptismal Prayer

Jesus chooses to be baptized but when we were baptized it was not us that chose to be baptized, instead it was the Holy Spirit moving in us and our families, and the faithful bringing us to God so that God could baptize us and breathe new life into us.

Luther explains the 3rd Article of the Apostles Creed that says, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”

Have someone read the Creed and Explanation

We cannot believe in Jesus Christ, instead it is through the Holy Spirit who gathers us and brings us to baptism and faith that we can be a part of what God is doing through Jesus Christ. God is the mover we are the moved.

Sending Prayer – read baptismal prayer again

Sunday Morning

Dirty Disciples or Washed Witnesses?

Bubble Gum Sculpture Game

4 teams with one person making a sculpture of a person out of the gum the rest of the team is chewing. First team to finish wins – person must stand freely and must be 4 inches tall.

Genesis 2:7 – “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

God breathes into dirt clumps life. We were reminded yesterday that everyone has the breath of God in them. If this is true how should we treat one another? How does this helps us see our lift ticket verse a little differently that “Each life is a breath.” – Psalm 39:5

We are not just dirty disciples, through baptism and the breath of God we also become washed witnesses to the new life God is bringing into the world.

Sunday Night

Breathe in Breathe out

Pop-a-palooza Game

As kids come in have each one write his/her name on a piece of paper and put it in a balloon. Each student blows up their own balloon and all the balloons are put in one area (away from the students). When you are ready to begin the activities for the night, give each student a balloon. The point is to pop the balloon and find the person whose name was in the balloon you popped. Remember, someone is trying to find you too. Play some upbeat music during this game.

Balloon Master Game

4 Teams with people from each church- Give each team a roll of masking tape and 30 balloons. On "Go!" have members of each team roll the masking tape (sticky side out) around one of their teammates below the neckline. Next, have kids blow up their balloons as quickly as they can and stick as many as possible to the taped-up team member. The team whose player has the most balloons still attached at the end of time is the Balloon Master.

This morning we learned of God breathing into the dirt clods nostrils and giving it life. It reminded me of how I sort of fell into running Cross Country in High School accidentally. One of my friends asked me at the beginning of the summer if I would want to run with him the following week so I said sure. Got up early and ran for 40 minutes with the group. I ran with them the next week and the next until the end of the summer came and he finally asked me if I wanted to join the team. So it was probably my third or fourth race when I was about 10 minutes into it a teammate was next to me. He turned to me and noticed that I was running with my mouth closed and only breathing through my nose. “Dang it Fisher open your mouth and get some air!” We are filled with the breath of God and we often forget to use it.

There is a rhythm to breathing, inhale and exhale, there is a balance to what we breathe in and breathe out. I am fascinated that the poisonous gas we breathe out, CO2, is exactly what plants take in. And what they then “breathe” out is the very oxygen we need to breathe. We are going to look at this fragile and amazing balance through a video – which just happens to be the Greek word for Spirit or Breath.

Nooma Video – Breathe

Sharing of insights from the film.

Everyone gets a post card and is to take the next half hour to write down areas of your life that feel fragile or vulnerable, write down things you are angry about or need to let go of, things you need to breathe out and write them outside the picture of the lungs. Also write down the things you need from God, areas where you need some strength or guidance, things you need to have breathed into you and write those in the picture of the lungs. If you have extra time read Psalm 62 over and over in rhythm with your breathing, meditate on that passage.

Monday Morning

Don't Hold your breath

Review high’s and lows – highlights from the trip.

Bubble Gum blowing contest. Have each person see how big of a bubble they can make.

Now which of you, with your life from this point on, will fill the world with the most amount of God’s Spirit and breath? How much forgiveness will you fill the world with? How much healing and hope will you fill the world with? How many disciples of Jesus Christ will you fill the world with?

One breath prayer around the circle and sending.

Becoming what we Worship

2011-01-04T14:17:00.000-06:00

What is it we worship? Sometimes it is easy to look back at pagan cultures and find them a bit silly for their devotion to various statues of gods. I mean why would you burn up crops that took months to plant and harvest for a stone statue that someone made with their own hands? Yet in some ways we do the same thing by spending the money we have worked for on that which we devote our time and energy. I know for myself I bow before the screen of my laptop in daily ritual each morning and evening. I give the computer my time, attention, and even money once you consider we are paying to have access to the internet. The trouble came when I heard Psalm 115 on my iPod while running a couple months ago:

"Not to us, LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.

Why do the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.
But their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk,
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them."

I have a laptop that has a speaker and can "talk," to me. It also has a built in camera and can "see." This same laptop has a microphone and can "hear," but as of yet it does not have a nose, hands, or feet. It occurs to me that the time, energy, and money I put into this one device can be a dangerous form of worship and can even transform me into something less than human. We become what we worship. What does that look like in your own life if you took the things you focus on to the extreme? What would you become?

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote:

"A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives and our character. Therefore, it behoves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshiping we are becoming."

What fills our imaginations and thoughts? Maybe we dare not tell anyone, but then what does that mean we are becoming? To think that these things will determine our character may give us pause to reevaluate our focus. Paul tries to lend some encouragement in this direction when he writes to the Phillipians in chapter 4 verse 8:

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

As followers of Christ we are to worship a God who became human. This God's desire for us is to be the humans he created us to be, nothing more and nothing less. Rob Bell mentions this in a chapter of his book Sex God which deals with the temptation to live like an animal giving in to our urges or try and be perfect like an angel. Neither of which are what we were created to be. Touching on this same theme I have a video of N.T. Wright when he spoke at Wheaton College last summer focused on the theme of renewed humanness. Oh yeah and he also quoted Bob Dylan.

May we find the courage to abandon the idols in our lives that make us less human, and devote our worship to the God who makes us more human. Amen.

Promise of Despair

2011-01-03T21:07:00.000-06:00

Finished Andrew Root's book The Promise of Despair a couple of weeks ago and it was excellent. I can't recommend this book highly enough for those in ministry. I appreciate the honesty it takes to look theologically at death and despair and say, "I don't have a clue what is going on but it isn't right." To meet others in the midst of pain with our own questions instead of a handful of well rehearsed answers is difficult. It reminds me of the story of Job and how all of his family, wealth, and health is taken away. He is in deep suffering and along come three of his friends. Before they begin their 30 chapter explanation of what he has done wrong to deserve this punishment from God they sit with him. They sit with him in silence for 7 days. We need to do this more. It amazes me that they sit first and speak second, we usually do the opposite and only sit silently when we have exhausted all other options for comfort. I have heard far too many stories of good intentioned people trying to explain away the death of a loved one with some trite sentimentality.

A great example is in the preview of the movie Rabbit Hole. Becca and Howie struggle for years after the death of their child and find themselves in a support group for grieving parents. One couple mentions that their child died because God needed another angel. Becca responds with, "Then why didn't he just make another angel? He is God, why didn't he just make another angel." We search for words when confronted with death and there are none. We are left with emptiness and feel alone. Which is why I love Root's book so much because he says it is in that emptiness that God chooses to die as well and thus never leaves us alone. It doesn't mean that we can avoid pain, but we can be reminded that God suffers with us.

"In the mystery of being, in the mystery of letting go and giving ourselves over to despair, we will not acquire more or better knowledge, but instead we'll come up against the very being of the crucified God." - Promise of Despair by Andrew Root

Art is one of the ways I see God redeeming this broken and hurting world. So when I saw this videobeautiful example of someone dealing with despair and the grace of God, I was blown away. These were put together by an organization called People of the Second Chance. I would love to put videos like these together with members of our own congregation. Many times youth, or adults, feel uncomfortable getting up in front of others during worship to share what God has been doing in their lives, but the prevalence of video technology allows people to share in a non threatening way. It has also been my experience that the living testimony of God's activity is sorely needed in many mainline denominations.

The difficulty comes in trying to actually be honest and reflect on our brokenness, let alone share it. We have had so many years to practice covering up all of our flaws that it becomes painful to bring them to light, so painful that we avoid it at all costs. Root shares all kinds of examples of how we constantly run away from death and deny its power in our lives. I think it is related to how we run away from ourselves, knowing full well that our lives are fragile and one day we too will die.

"The trouble is that we live far from ourselves and have but little wish to get any nearer to ourselves. Indeed we are running away all the time to avoid coming face to face with our real selves, and we barter the truth for trifles." - The Way of the Pilgrim

This post is born out of a desire to listen. A desire to listen to the youth and adults in my own congregation, and outside of it, for ways that God is bringing grace to this world. It is born out of a conviction that we can lead from our weaknesses because this is where God has found people in the past and used them to bring grace and peace to others.

Loomis Lectures

2010-12-13T20:50:00.000-06:00

This fall we tried something new with our youth ministry and encouraged the young and old from our church to attend the Loomis Lectures on various topics related to Physics. There are about 6 hosted at the Physics Lab at our local University and are typically well attended by the community. After multiple conversations with a local Episcopal Priest we realized the need to engage in issues related to modern science. Many of the issues that churches are wrestling with today won't even be the questions that future generations will be wrestling with. Sadly the church has never had a great track record when it comes to staying ahead of the curve with breakthroughs in science.

One of the first lectures I attended with a couple of our high school youth had to do with the Physics of Genes. I thought it was interesting that the speaker of the lecture began by saying that most Physicists want a formula, a formula for life. "It's not going so well," he said. This is one of the reasons I love science, because no matter what we discover there are always things that remain hidden. Here are a few of the things I found interesting in the lecture:

DNA is 10,000 times smaller than a human hair and packs 7 feet of self repelling string into one cell. In other words, the things that make up our genetic code naturally repel each other with opposite charges AND YET they stay together without flying apart. 50% of Genes have an unknown function. We have mapped the human Genome, which is pretty remarkable, yet we don't even know what half of it controls. Genetically only 2% of our Genome is different than Chimps. Now I realize that statement could open a can of worms, but it is important to note that Chimps and humans lead drastically different lives. Just visit the zoo to confirm this.

Some physicists are frustrated with the challenge of recording DNA because it moves too fast to catch it and record it. Modern technology can record a persons genetic make up in 6 months. Yet our very own bodies only take around 24 hours to replicate our entire genetic code when it forms a new cell. Our bodies are amazingly efficient! It is as if our body is overflowing with more life than we can imagine.

Some have wondered if there is a way to use DNA as a more efficient way to store data, since it basically stores everything that makes us us in such small chromosomes. Think of the possibilities that future generations might face with being able to store immense amounts of data in their own bodies. Who needs jump drives or computers when your tattoo could be read by a nearby scanner for information?

They showed clips from the movie Gattaca which portrayed a child whose blood sample revealed upon his birth that he would live to be 38, be 87% likely to have ADHA, 43% chance of hypertension, etc. The potential to know from our genetic make up what diseases and health issues we might have could help us take more preventative measures early on in life. There was another clip that showed a job interview only involved taking someones blood sample and seeing if they were genetically a good fit for the work required. No conversation needed. We talk today about racial profiling, or sexism, but what about the potential for genetic profiling in the future? This lecture reminded me that we have done well with creating technologies that help us respond faster to a health crisis in a humans body, but we have not done so well with using technology to help us take preventative health measures.

The second lecture I attended was called "Tricks with Light," and looked at the physical properties of light.

The lecturer noted that electric fields are much larger than magnetic fields, and light is a self sustaining system which means that electric fields generate magnetic fields which generate electric fields and so on. We heard about how sound waves bend around corners and so does light. This is demonstrated when we look in the pool and an object seems to be one place but is actually in another. Being able to bend light has allowed various groups to play with, and create, cloaking devises for hiding objects.

We viewed a Youtube clip about how light can actually trap and move things! This video shows someone actually doing this and reminds us that optical tweezers and trappers are possible. Can you imagine the pranks being pulled at schools when kids have technology in their hands that could float and move physical objects! We are already seeing many of the benefits of lasers in the medical profession but from a faith perspective I love the fact that light can move things, because that statement functions on a couple of different levels.

I actually learned about this little fact in art class that without light there is no color. Wrap your head around that one for a second. Chlorophyl production stops in the fall, which changes the chemical composition of leaves in the fall, allowing us to see different colors. If these absorption characteristics could be controlled we could manipulate what colors other people see in objects. Fashion trends could model that Back to the Future movie with that clothes that change colors.

We know that light moves more slowly in matter and that the ability to steer light a certain direction would help solar cells collect more light and store more energy. Being able to bend light could render multiple advantages when it comes to saving and storing energy to be used later. Blue light refracts more than red light which scientists have used to their advantage to monitor solar gases.

How about this one; in 1999 scientists slowed light down to 38 miles per hour! How did I miss that in the news? There is potential to store light in a material using a coupling beam. The holding time before releasing it again is very short, only a couple of seconds, because the excited state of the material calms down. But think of the potential to be able to actually store light in objects!

So what questions will the next generation have to deal with? And more importantly, will the church be there to wrestle with those questions too?

Abram Game

2010-12-06T11:52:00.000-06:00

A few years ago I came up with this game as a way to walk through the entire Abraham narrative in scripture with our high school class. We had lots of extra cardboard laying around the church so I unfolded some and painted the path on which Abraham is said to have journeyed from the land of Ur onward. In preparation for the lesson I typed out all the verses that we would use for the game. I then cut out all of the verses that I think we will have time to go over during our lesson and have teams pick the same number of verses from a bucket. This may mean that a team gets multiple turns in a row. If youth get a verse where God or an Angel are speaking they have to determine if their is a 'Command,' 'Promise,' or both coming from God. If they answer correctly they get to roll the six sided die and move forward. The other verses will provide situations for me to share with them whether their teams verse leads them forward, backward, or if they have to stay put. Here is the link to the Key for the game. And here is the link to the first set of verses, and the second set. The verses that I have chosen not to go through with the group were cut purely based on the limited amount of time we have during our class hour. I made sure to know the story well enough that I could give the background information for some of the verses that didn't seem to make sense after skipping portions of the story. Each team gets to pick a "GoGo," or "Crazy Bone," from my collection to represent them as their team travels through the game. You can get packs of 3 or 5 at Walgreens for about $2 or $3. I like using these toys as their game pieces because they look like aliens and allow me to share the theme of Abraham being a foreigner in a strange land. This visual aid reminds us of our story as Christians in that we are all resident aliens here on earth. I also let them keep the toys after we complete the game as a reminder of this story being our story.
The students really get into the game and enjoy reading ahead to see if the verses their team has chosen are good or bad verses. The main focus of the lesson is to talk about faithfulness and doubt. Looking at the promises God makes to Abraham over and over again that he will be the father of many nations SO THAT all nations will be blessed through him, yet year after year he and Sarah do not have a child to call their own. We ponder together how long we would continue to trust God, or anyone else, who keeps making promises but seems to never fulfill them. Would you still trust someone whose promise has not come to fruition after a week? A month? A year? 31 years? We are cramming this game into two weeks this year when ideally you could make this last a whole semester going over various issues like; promises made and how long do you keep trusting, God's commands and our obedience, relationships, hospitality, jealousy, miracles, faith, doubt, sexuality, etc. It has been fun learning from the youth who must decipher if God is giving a command or promise to Abraham in the verse they have chosen. Many times they will find a hidden command or promise that I had not noticed in my own study. May we all learn from Abraham and Sarah the value of arguing, bargaining, trusting, doubting, and walking with God.

What are you looking for?

2010-11-29T22:56:00.000-06:00

What is it we want the most? What is it that consumes our thoughts and hearts because of our desire for it? Is there such thing as religious desire? What, or whom are we looking for? Peter Rollins writes in his book How (Not) To Speak of God that,

“Rather than desire being fulfilled in the presence of God, religious desire is born there. In short, a true spiritual seeking can be understood as the ultimate sign that one already has that which one seeks or rather, that one is already grasped by that which one seeks to grasp. Consequently a genuine seeking after God is evidence of having found.”

The wise men in Matthew’s Gospel come to King Herod and ask, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” Their seeking was already a sign that God was in control of their life. Or was it the other way around? Could they have been enamored with the idea of a Jewish king leading them, rather than God? This was the same temptation of the Israelites in the wilderness. Rollins goes on to say,

“Of course, much desire that appears to seek after God is nothing of the sort. For instance, to seek God for eternal life is to seek eternal life, while to seek God for a meaningful existence is to seek a meaningful existence. A true seeking after God results from an experience of God which one falls in love with for no reason other than finding God irresistibly lovable. In this way the lovers of God are the ones who are most passionately in search of God.”

I sometimes wonder if those clunky boxes full of gold, frankincense, and myrrh ever got in the way of Joseph’s carpentry work. I can just picture Joseph moving some boards around a table and stubbing his toe on a box of gold hidden underneath causing him to take his own sons name in vain! What is it you seek this Christmas season? My hope is that as followers of Christ we will continue to fill our lives with God and not stuff. Philosopher Anna Brackett wrote in her book The Technique of Rest, that

"We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties."

It is not that giving material possessions is bad, we just know they won’t save us. In some ways Wendell Berry has argued that we need to be MORE materialistic, in that we should care for the materials we already have more. Upon seeing the Christ child the wise men knelt down and paid homage. When we kneel these coming months will it be because we have stubbed our toe, or because we already have that which we seek? God’s grace and peace this Advent and Christmas.

(artwork by Banksy)

Almighty Architecture

2010-11-08T20:59:00.000-06:00

A friend and I had an interesting conversation this past weekend about experiences we both had about ten years ago. It seems that at various times we went through a type of phase were we would go to worship at beautiful Catholic Cathedral and then, like Judas, complain that all the money spent on the building could have paid for countless ministries to the poor. We had both been inspire and discouraged. However, we have both since then come to see dozens of large congregations build structures out in the corn fields across the United States that could be mistaken for tractor sheds. So there must be a balance between inspiring buildings that reveal an inspiring God, and those which seem to suit very utilitarian purposes and are thus uninspiring.

Here are some pictures and an excerpt from a recent article in Wired Magazine:

“Historically, religious architecture and church-building have been the main motor of architecture,” says Lukas Feireiss, coeditor of Closer to God, a new book from German publisher Gestalten that documents 93 awe-inspiring examples of sacred spaces from the past decade. “If anything could be done, it was first tried in a cathedral or other religious building. With religious architecture, you always expect more meaning.”

Take the church at the Sao Paolo Parish Complex (interior shown here), designed by Italians Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas for the Umbrian town of Foligno and completed in 2009.

Parishioners pass through the doors and gather under an imposing concrete box that’s almost as big as the church itself. The hollow structure hovers disconcertingly over the floor, without a single column in sight. “I tried to give a spiritual sense of life inside the building,” Massimiliano says. “You have something that is simple but also complex—complexity to make a human emotion.”

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from N.T. Wright's book Surprised by Hope;

"And when people cease to be surrounded by beauty, they cease to hope. They internalize the message of their eyes and ears, the message that whispers that they are not worth very much, that they are in effect less than fully human."

"When art comes to terms with both the wounds of the world and the promise of resurrection and learns how to express and respond to both at once, we will be on the way to a fresh vision, a fresh mission."

The Box

2010-11-01T20:49:00.000-05:00

"There will always be more things in a closed, than in an open, box. To verify images kills them, and it is always more enriching to imagine than to experience." - Gaston Bachelard

Little Decisions

2010-10-11T21:32:00.000-05:00

A week ago I was honored to be sent by my congregation to attend the National Youth Workers Convention put on by Youth Specialties. This event allowed me the chance to hear some amazing pastors and speakers talk to an audience of youth workers about finding rest and keeping accountable. It makes sense that these two things seem to be related. There are plenty of stories of busy adults who over time may neglect their spouses or families and then eventually end up making a series of small decisions that ruin the lives of those they loved. When we are tired we make dumb decisions. In a fast paced society our decisions have become more impulsive which makes them all the more susceptible to temptation.

A couple of the guests this year were Gayle and Ted Haggard who were in the news about 4 years ago when Ted was confronted with allegations about using drugs and being in a relationship with a homosexual man. These allegations proved true and Ted had to step down from being one of the pastors at his church. This devastated their church community and fueled the fires of rage within many other Christian communities. Tic Long, who was hosting the Convention asked a series of questions to Ted and I was amazed by the strength of his wife and their commitment to help those who would never have graced the doors of his former congregation. He talked about how he had been involved in Pastoral ministry for almost 30 years and yet this one shameful event would be all that he will ever be remembered for. I knew it wasn't some out of the blue one time decision he had made, but a series of compromises over many years that had led to him getting caught in a destructive lifestyle.

I know firsthand the value of one to one accountability with a trusted friend, especially when ministry with others is on the line. My hope was that the youth workers and pastors at this conference would find more than a once a year shot in the arm about how to rest, rearrange priorities, and lay their burdens before God. We all need someone to be accountable to, someone to confess to each week. I wonder if Evangelicalism has made confession of Jesus Christ such a public event before so many witnesses that we sometimes don't know how to confess to another person in private. Has confession become a form of YouTube one hit wonderdom. Does the word itself remind people of a quick fix or of a lifetime of challenge and hard work as we follow Christ? It seems to me that the short term pain of being vulnerable before another human being is worth trading for the long term agony of years of secrets that just burden you more and more until you break and betray those you love most.

Randy Alcorn has a lecture on Christian Audio for free that talks about this very issue of how we make small decisions every day that lead to who we will become. He is one of those guys that I only agree with about half of the time, yet what he talks about but in this case seems to speak to what I have heard God saying these last few weeks. Little decisions make a huge difference each day. In his lecture he even mentions physical health and how we make little decisions every day about exercising and eating right, and how those things will most likely determine our health down the road. It reminds me of a quote from the TV Show The Office:

Michael: Hi, everyone. Corporate has given Dwight two strikes. They are very, very upset with him. So, as a disciplinary measure he is going to have to issue a formal apology. Dwight, have you prepared your statement of regret?

Dwight: I have.

Michael: Let's hear it.

Dwight: [clears throat] "I state my regret."

Jim: You couldn't of memorized that?

Dwight: I could not, because I do not feel it. Okay, everyone. I am going to need you to sign this statement of regret as an acknowledgement that you heard it. Okay? Everyone come on up here. It's not a big deal.

Phyllis: It is a big deal. You almost killed Stanley.

Dwight: Yeah, right. I filled him full of butter and sugar for 50 years and forced him not to exercise. Now, take a lesson from Stanley and jog on up here and sign this, okay? Make a line. Just form a line right here. Sign it! Sign it now!

I lost count already this month of how many times I have heard people complain about their weight. I want to scream - "Do something about it then!" But then I remember how difficult it is when you have no one who is willing to journey alongside you. I have to remember that any kind of accountability, maybe even especially physical accountability, always works better when you have someone who is willing to exercise with you and eat well with you. I really doubt we would have the kind of pastor and youth leader burnout that we seem to have if we focused on equipping leaders with accountability partners that would encourage them to rest and confess.

(Artwork by Scott Erikson)

If our leaders are struggling with this then we can be pretty sure our youth are also struggling. How young is too young to encourage kids to confess to one another? Does the turnover rate of friendships in junior high negate any possibility of true accountability? Does trusted confession quickly become locker room gossip the next day in the world of high schoolers trying to fit in? Would confession be taken seriously, or would we be surprised at how some youth would step up to the mature task of being more vulnerable than they already are in junior high and high school? I think as youth leaders we deal regularly with the question of "What influences help kids make their decisions?" But do we spend enough time talking about finding an accountability partner and confessing regularly?

May God continue to give us one another, and may the Holy Spirit embolden us to take up the cross and enter into the pain together.

Icons

2010-09-20T16:56:00.000-05:00

My imagination has been captured by this story I recently heard on the radio. Most people know I am a lover of art and thrift stores so when these two were combined in an experiment I took note. (You can hear, or read the story by clicking here.)

Oxfam is an organization that raises money to help fight poverty and the use of thrift stores is one major way they raise funds for various relief efforts. Recently an Oxfam shop in Manchester England was contacted by Chris Speed who is a digital artist at the Edinburgh College of Art. He wanted to try and get people that were donating items to talk about them while he recorded their stories.

"Each story was paired with its object in the Oxfam store using a couple different tags. One was a 2D bar code that shoppers could scan with their phones, and listen to the story in a rather intimate way. The other was a tiny radio frequency tag that, when tapped with a special remote control, would send the story over the loudspeakers in the store."

What happened was that people no longer looked at discarded junk, but instead saw items with a history that was captivating or emotional. The interview goes on to talk about how items where flying off the shelves faster than they could get recordings.

- Artist helps objects tell stories

- Stories connect people to history

- Being a part of that history leads to a purchase

- Purchase leads to justice for the poor

How beautiful is that?

The idea that an artist helped objects connect people to the larger story of God's justice in the world is inspiring to me. After hearing this story I couldn't help but think of our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church who are surrounded by icons all the time. A couple of my middle school students have had the chance to worship at a local Antiochian Orthodox Church during their season of Lent. Those visits made our students very curious about all of the imagery (some of which was being kissed by members as they entered the sanctuary). Trying to explain icons to kids who have grown up in a world surrounded by icons seems a little strange. These kids are constantly clicking on images that take them somewhere else, whether its on their computers or phones. The image of a folder takes me to my documents or a picture of a swirling fox gets me on the internet. The images are everywhere and they all take us somewhere.

So I begin to wonder. What images do people see in worship and where, if anywhere, do they take them?

"We wondered about worship in the post-television world. (Gutenberg vs Google, in a church that hasn't entered the television world but the children have already left it.)" - Rich Melheim

It makes me wonder why more Protestant churches have not played with using icons or images in worship to help connect us to God's story. (I should note that many churches use imagery during worship for singing while others use them for contemplation of God, both interactive and participatory). While searching for a definition of Icons in Orthodox traditions I came across this paragraph:

"Only in the ascetic and liturgical life of the Church is the world transfigured, and only in the iconographic tradition of the Church can one find the visual formulas appropriate to that higher reality. It is not necessary that an image duplicate precisely the colors, shapes, and composition of an accepted formula; but whatever changes are made must conform to, and confirm, the true meaning of the subject, and this presupposes an artist who is immersed in the life of the Church. An image changed to suit an individual's taste is as dangerous as a doctored Scriptural text."

Images and icons seem to be the way in which our world is organizing itself. If the Orthodox Church understands icons as the way in which we get a glimpse of the world to come, maybe we can remind youth that the icons they are surrounded by should point to something other than consumerism. Companies use icons to get us to the online check out counter quicker. Look for example at QR codes, or Quick Response codes, and how they seem to be on every book or magazine in stores right now.

"QR Codes (short for Quick Response) are two-dimensional bar codes that were invented in 1994 by Denso-Wave, a Japanese technology firm. These handy little scannable squares make information gathering lightning quick. With the point and click of your smart phone (with a QR code reader installed) they immediately unlock the embedded code and take you to a webpage or contact form with all the details." (Taken from here.)

In Leonard Sweet's book "The Gospel According to Starbucks," he talks about the power of images and icons to feed off of our desire to connect with each other. The church then must struggle with how we connect God's story with our lives. He talks about how passionate spirituality is experiential, participatory, image-rich, and connective. Here is a quote from his website;

"The lesson for the church is simple: images generate emotions and people will respond to their feelings.

Postmodern culture is image-driven. The modern world was word-based. Not until the fourteenth century did truth become embedded in principles and positions. Its theologians tried to create an intellectual faith, placing reason and order at the heart of religion. Mystery and metaphor were seen as too fuzzy, too mystical, too illogical.

The church now enters a world where metaphor is at the heart of spirituality. Propositions are lost on postmodern ears; but metaphor they will hear, images they will see and understand. These come as close as human beings will get to a universal language. Indeed, it seems clearer than ever that metaphysics is nothing but metaphor.

Someday I will hold up my Bible before a congregation, shake it, and yell at the top of my lungs, "This is not a book about propositions and programs and principles. This is a book about relationships."

The church, not Hollywood, ought to be the world's greatest image factory. The greatest image in the world, the image that draws people into real, life-giving relationship, is the image of God in Jesus the Christ."

Amen.

Where do you sit?

2010-08-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

What follows is the message that I gave our congregation on Sunday August 29th 2010.

There was this pretty arrogant guy on the football team that went to my college who always seemed to think he was the greatest thing to ever happen to our school. He was always very intimidating to the incoming freshman and while everyone seemed to admire him in public, few seemed to really respect him. We had chapel at our school three times a week and he was in charge of giving an announcement about that was meant to be inspiring before the big Homecoming game later that week. It was in the middle of his prideful rant that he said this, "Just remember it doesn't matter if you get knocked down, all that matters is whether or not you get knocked up." Everyone in the room lost it and began laughing. From where I was sitting I saw someone who always seemed to be exalting himself very much humbled that day in front of the entire student body.

Jesus says, "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Another story I remember hearing was of a friend named Ben who attended a Blackhawks game a couple years back. They were watching the game when a contest was introduced. If the Blackhawks scored a goal in the second period at 10 minute mark the Illinois Lottery would give away 1 million dollars to someone sitting in the stands. Well as it happens the Blackhawks scored a goal right at the ten minute mark. Guys in suits quickly came down to where Ben and his friend were sitting and apparently Ben's friend's seat had been chosen ahead of time to be the winner should the Blackhawks score at the 10 minute mark. The guys in suits took Ben's friend up with them and about 15 minutes later came and got Ben to join them in the executive offices of the Blackhawks where they sat around the board room table that all major decisions are made regarding the team. Turns out all the guys in suits were just as amazed as Ben and his friend were. It was only the third game that they had been running this particular promotion and they had hoped it would last all season. Ben decided later to look up the odds of this happening and here is what he found:

The odds of a goal being scored at the 10 minute mark of any given night are 1 in 1077, multiplied by by the odds of getting picked, which were 1 in 22,000 seats means that, his odds of winning that night were about 1 in 23.7 million. After signing all the paperwork and being handed one of those huge checks they moved Ben and his friend up to the sky box suite and treated them like royalty. From where Ben was sitting he was very jealous because all he needed to do was take that first seat by the isle and that Million dollars would have been his. But his jealousy was short lived because he too was exalted to a higher seat that night. From where Ben was sitting, a million dollars or not, the view was much better.

Pastor Tim Conder writes;

"We live in a society of vast abundance that runs on the perception of scarcity. There are only so many spots on the school team, on the admissions lists of the elite schools, in the club and in the boardrooms. Our perception of the value of the...seats keeps us in competition with each other. The greater our status the more we are driven to compete. Jesus challenges this whole dynamic."

Think of all the resumes and college applications that were filled out before many of the students and faculty were invited back on campus. Aren't these things ways of glorifying ourselves? Aren't these things ways to make ourselves stand out in hopes that we are noticed over others? One student that I read about in Rob Bell's book Drops Like Stars decided to turn the whole system on its head and not play that game. Here is what he wrote on his college application essay:

“I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I’ve been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees. I write award-winning operas. I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes.

I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru. Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding.

On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge. I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles.

Children trust me. I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations with the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery.

The laws of physics do not apply to me. I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four-course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis. But I have not yet gone to college.”

Instead of competing and trying to make himself look good with real facts, he mocks the whole process thus turning the tables on the college. They would be the ones honored to have him at their school. The colleges must now compete to offer this creative person the best deal on room and board. So where do we sit? It seems to me that our modern sports stadiums are the closest thing that I can think of to what people experienced in Jesus day around a huge banquet table. You have the seats of honor, the sky box luxury seats, and then there are the rest of the seats. Jesus sees how the guests at this banquet all rush to take the seats of honor. And I am guessing that if seating at the Assembly Hall or Memorial Stadium were on a first come first serve basis there might be a rush to the good seats that place us next to those in power. But unlike sporting events, these banquets were by invitation only which means people didn't buy their seats... or did they?

Jesus says, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid." Maybe many of these people did in fact buy their seats by inviting the host to their house earlier that year.

In Luke's gospel meals and feasts are one of the major themes of Jesus' ministry. "Many of the most dramatic moments of Jesus' life-feeding the multitudes, making wine, dining with sinners, dramatic self-disclosures-occurred at meals and feasts." (Tim Conder) One of these sinners that Jesus talks with at a meal is the man with dropsy. This is a condition where fluid accumulates beneath the skin. So I begin to wonder was this man even invited? Did he just burst in after hearing about how Jesus was healing others and hoped to be healed by him? Did the Pharisees invite this man on purpose to test Jesus? The text says, "On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely." They were hoping to trap him in humiliation with this man who they knew should not be healed on the sabbath. The guy everyone is avoiding at the party is the one Jesus spends time with, as if he was the only one at the party. Think of the people of faith in your own life that hardly knew you but were "captivated by you and treated you as if no one else mattered." (Jeremy Begbie) There is always risk with humility because it throws reputation to the wind. Turns out that humility might have something to do with humiliation. Instead Jesus shows mercy and heals this man on the Sabbath. Jesus calls out all those at the party by asking them if they would do the same thing for their child or their ox and yet ignore this stranger. The Pharisees are comfortable showing mercy to family or friends but not to strangers.

This is where we move from Jesus teaching about humility to hospitality. The root word in Latin for hospitality is "Hostis," not the delicious snake cake but instead a term that literally means stranger or enemy. It can be found in other words like Hospice and Hospital where people care for strangers on a regular basis. It is my hope that when doctors are in the emergency room they don't say, "Oh I don't know this guy we will have to treat him later." Hospitality is showing mercy to strangers or even enemies. Hospitality is not something that happens with friends and family.

I remember a cafe in Rockford called the King's Table that used to have an interesting sign which read, "You prepare a table before me, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life." This sign really bugged me and I could figure out why until I went and looked up the 23rd Psalm which many of us know by heart. Here is why that sign bugged me, they completely left out the part about how God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. I have always taken that passage in the Psalm to mean that someday we will eat with the Lord and all our enemies will be sitting below us watching us eat. But maybe it actually means that our enemies will be eating with us at the Table of the Lord, and when someone eats with you they are no longer your enemy but instead a friend or family. So where do we sit at the Lord's table? I must say it brings me some comfort in my own brokenness that the disciples themselves argued about who would get to sit closest to Jesus at the feast celebrating his reign.

You see we have been using this term hospitality all wrong in our culture. I keep reading all these books about emerging church and missional churches and intentional communities and many of them use the phrase "radical hospitality." I am afraid that Christians have started using this phrase "radical hospitality," because we have forgotten that hospitality is radical if it truly means eating with strangers and enemies. We go over to a friends house or a family get together and talk about the amazing hospitality when in fact we know everyone who is present. That isn't hospitality. Henri Nouwen once talked about hospitality as receiving the stranger on his or her own terms, and asserts that it can be offered only by those who, "have found the center of their lives in their own hearts." And a Danish proverb says that, "When there is room in the heart, there is room in the house."

Samantha and I stayed in a house once in Indianapolis. We were visiting for a conference and Englewood Christian church offered to host us in their guest house. The house itself was an act of hospitality to strangers. When the church decided they would remodel and furnish the house for guests they had one requirement from the members of their congregation. Everything that was donated needed to be nicer than anything in their own house so that they were truly offering the best of what they had to the strangers they would host. Hostis - hospitality - stranger - enemy.

There was a pastor I read about who was leading the youth in the congregation through an experience of extreme poverty. For one of the activities they went into the food pantry and made a meal from what they could find there. The kids thought the food was disgusting and tasted horrible which led to a discussion of why they always donate their leftovers or the food they don't like to the food pantry. Is it an act of hospitality to give strangers food that even we won't eat? Let's take it a step further and challenge each other to actually eat the food we are serving with the homeless when we go to places in town like Daily Bread or the Times Center instead of just dishing out food and then going out to a local restaurant to eat.

Jesus reminds us that hospitality is really eating with those we don't know or are afraid to associate with because there is no possible way they can ever going to repay us. Jesus has the audacity at this feast to tell the host how he should throw his party next time. "invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind." These are people who need the help of others just to survive from day to day. Fear keeps us from doing these things. We fear the unknown, we fear the stranger. We are afraid they might take advantage of us, steal "our" things, not like us, make fun of us. We can come up with plenty of excuses and if we read further in Luke we will hear Jesus telling a parable about just that. Some of our excuses may in fact be very religious or biblical. But what is the other option? To live like the Pharisees friends who are always trying to take advantage of every situation, putting others down so that they are glorified, competing with one another to see who will be on top?

I mentioned earlier that Hospitality is showing mercy to strangers or even enemies. Hospitality is not something that happens with friends and family. But here is the amazing thing that I pray God speaks to us this morning. God's grace makes friends and family out of strangers and enemies. Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon in their book Resident Aliens say this;

"The most interesting, creative, political solutions we Christians have to offer our troubled society are not new laws, advice to Congress, or increased funding for social programs-although we may find ourselves supporting such national efforts. The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers."

Many of you have welcomed strangers into your homes and they have become family. Things like Katrina, tsunami's, earthquakes, etc. all provide a chance for people to show hospitality in a way that transforms this world.

Like the hymn we will sing this morning, "May our worship be our witness," we gather at the Lord's table to share in forgiveness and strangers become our family. This is where we sit, with the least and the lowly risking humiliation ourselves so that one day all may be invited to the table to feast with God.

Apocalyptic Humanity

2010-08-09T21:16:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I went through a kick were I watched a couple of post-apocalyptic scenario movies. The first was The Road which featured a father son team trying to make their way through an American wasteland after some sort of horrible nuclear holocaust. The second was the movie The Book of Eli that has a mysterious guy safe guarding some sort of religious book (The Bible) as he makes his way to a particular destination. While both movies had gruesome scenes of cannibalism and violence I was struck with how each chose to deal with the struggle to remain human in the midst of limited resources. The first has a father that is hopelessly optimistic about his sons survival in this death filled landscape and uses every opportunity to teach him how to survive, but also how to be hospitable even when there is no one you can trust. I love how the father refuses to give into fatalism. The second has a guy who is extremely skilled at hand to hand combat who reads from what seems to be the last copy of the Bible left in the United States. There are multiple scenes in this movie that could be used for a Bible study. The main character of the Book of Eli recites the 23rd Psalm, engages in a table blessing before a meal, and also quotes from the book of Hebrews about blind faith and how to trust God to show us the way. There are scenes in both movies where things as simple as clothes and food, things we take for granted, become things people kill each other over. A simple human touch, or sharing a limited supply of food with someone else who is hungry, gives us a glimpse at how a few people can still remain human.

Then this past week my pastor forwards me a video of something that we both found a bit disturbing, if not completely odd. It is a video promoting a product that feeds off of our fear of germs. Its a communion dispenser that looks like something from a Science Fiction movie which shoots out communion wafers with the click of a trigger. You simply load the communion wafers through the top and as people come forward to receive the BODY of Jesus Christ, the pastor shoots them... I mean clicks the host into the person's hands, never once making physical contact with the person. Now with these post apocalyptic scenarios in the movies I always like to think that the church will be the last place to still preserve human contact and compassion but maybe I am wrong. Pretty sure Martin Luther encouraged Pastors not to flee as the plague was spreading in Europe and instead challenged them to stay and do what they could. (For an interesting paper on technology and Luther's response to the plague read this.) As Christians we are no longer to fear death, but alas fear makes money. Now I understand peoples concern for staying healthy but if God chose to come to earth in human flesh it makes me think that physical human contact is probably pretty important ESPECIALLY at the Lord's Table. But what do I know, I am still working on getting people to give hugs instead of handshakes at worship!

Check out the promotional video and let me know what you think. Not sure which is more disturbing, the actual product or the fact that they forgot to enter text at the very end of the video.

Between the Trees

2010-08-02T15:10:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we took a group of youth from our church out to Lutheran Outdoor Ministry Center for three days of reflection and team building. Our theme for the weekend was "Between the Trees," and we looked at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil at the beginning of scripture and the Tree of Life mentioned in the Revelation to John at the end of scripture. Our focus was to try and figure out how we are to live between the trees each day. (At this point I must admit that I borrowed the idea from a Rob Bell Nooma video called Trees.)One tree reminds us of our past and our broken relationship with God, neighbor, and all of creation, while the other gives us a vision of that relationship restored. Each day at camp we looked at a few snap shots of stories from scripture that mentioned trees. It is amazing to me as I worked my way through the Old Testament just how many significant encounters with God happen under, or near a particular tree.

Genesis 18:1-15
"The Trees of Mamre"
Hospitality

In this snapshot we see a frustrated Abraham and Sarah who have been promised multiple times that God will give them descendants and yet are still without a child of their own. 3 visitors pass by Abraham and he makes sure that they get food and drink in hopes that they will stay with him. As a follower of the Triune God I find it beautiful that God speaks to Abraham through 3 traveling strangers. These strangers promise that in a year when they return Abraham and Sarah will have a son. It is in this act of hospitality to strangers under the Mamre trees that we learn of one way to live between the trees.

1 Kings 13:1-14
"The Oak Tree"
Prayer for Enemies

Jeroboam has been arguably the worst king that Israel has ever seen, due in large part to his desire to listen to friends his age and not the wisdom of the Lord handed down by the elders in his community. A mysterious man of God comes to warn Jeroboam that all the altars to pagan gods will be torn down and their prophets will be burned on the altar which will also break in half. Jeroboam calls for guards to seize the man and his hand shrivels up. Begging for mercy the mysterious man of God prays and restores this evil kings arm back to normal. This prophet forsakes everything that this king would offer him in order to follow the Lord. Later this prophet is found sitting under an Oak Tree before he is lied to and eventually killed. It is under this Oak Tree that we learn of the importance of praying for our enemies.

1 Kings 19:1-9
"Broom Tree"
Daily Bread

You would think Elijah would be on top of the world after his showdown at mount Carmel results in the death of 400 prophets of Baal, yet this story picks up Elijah running for his life and asking that God would kill him. Elijah flees into the dessert and asks God that he might die but instead he falls asleep under a broom tree. Then an angel meets him and gives him food and drink so that he might continue on the mission God has given him, but instead he falls back asleep. The angel meets him again feeding him and sending him on a forty day journey that mirrors the time of Jesus in the wilderness. This story under the broom tree reminds us that part of what it means to live between the trees is to trust God for what we need each day and not to rely on our own strength. As followers of Christ we come to worship to be fed so that we can be sent out in God's power to serve the world.

Luke 17:1-10
"The Mulberry Tree"
Forgiveness & Service

In Luke's gospel Jesus has just finished sharing about a rich man, who interestingly enough isn't given a name, and poor Lazarus who only ate the scraps from the rich mans table. Jesus then instructs those around him to be careful how they live because little children are watching and should not be led astray. After talking about forgiveness he shares with the disciples about how we are to see our work as servants and not as those meant to be served. It was at this point that I shared with the students how awkward it seems that after Sunday worship most Christians go out to be served at local restaurants instead of seeking to serve others. (My family is equally guilty of this.) We also talked about how not learning the names of those who are serving you or making your food at a restaurant is an act of violence. It is violence because you are treating them as an it and not as a human being. In this forth snapshot Jesus tells the disciples that through faith a mulberry tree could be uprooted and planted in the sea. It's through this story that we learn to live as forgiving and serving people of God.

We closed our time at camp with a Lectio Divina reading of Revelation 22:1-7

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place. Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book."

For each lesson we either acted out the story, read it under the type of tree mentioned, or played a game involving trees. There are so many options for studying these tree stories and there are many more that we didn't have time to go through in just 3 days. I felt like these four gave us a good grounding in the Lord's Prayer which teaches us to live in such a way that we are working towards that future Kingdom of God, trusting God for our daily bread, and praying for our enemies by forgiving those who have done us harm.

May God anoint us, like Saul by the Tree of Tabor, that we too may be filled with the Holy Spirit and become different people for Christ as we live between the trees.

Light

2010-07-26T15:36:00.000-05:00

God says, "Let there be light," and there is light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called night.

There was a darkness during the 1880's when a war was being waged. It was called, "The War of the Currents," and it was being fought between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. At the time there was huge amounts of untapped potential pouring over the side of Niagra falls on a daily basis. A contract was ready to be issued to whoever could come up with a way to get electricity from the hydroelectric powerplant to travel the distance to near by Buffalo. Thomas Edison was promoting Direct Current while Tesla was convinced that the only way to get electricity over long distances was through Alternating Current. The problem with Direct Current was that over long distances it would actually burn up the wires. Edison began running a smear campaign against Tesla and his ideas of Alternating Current, or AC. Edison's workers would go from town to town and electrocute stray cats, dogs, lame cattle, and horses to show how dangerous his methods were. Even though Edison was against capital punishment the electrocution of all these animals across the country eventually led to the development of the electric chair. Well a contract was finally given to Tesla to use his idea of AC to carry electricity from Niagra Falls to Buffalo. On a quite night in November the lights went on in Buffalo, but hardly anyone was there to witness this historic event. It seems that Edison's smear campaign worked all too well and by the time history was being made no one much cared for Tesla or anything associated with his name.

This story reminds me of the church. We seem to forget to follow the light into dark places and instead we argue with one another about the best way to take the light, which is Jesus Christ, from one place to another. We bicker and fight with one another and the whole time the world is watching us and suffering in the dark. Jesus didn't call us to be the light of the church. Think about that. That is like saying we are called to be the light of the light. (Leonard Sweet) No, we are called to be the light of the world, following in the path of the "true light," the light of life. Jesus says, "I am the light of the world whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

First there is light then there is life. Sometimes we get confused and think that we are the true light and all life should pay attention to us instead of God. So what kind of light are you?

Candle light, maybe your the kind of person who is doing so many great things at church or at school but eventually you burn out. Maybe it only takes a few harsh words from someone else to blow your light out and you end up staying in darkness

Neon Light, were is the Vegas crew? They know all about neon lights, they have seen how people will do whatever they can to attract attention to themselves. Maybe you are one of those people that just wants everyone to see you. You seek praise from others and lead people to yourself but refuse to show them the path to true life.

Some of us are sensory lights and when people walk by we look and sound like Christ followers but as soon as they are gone we turn off our light and bask in darkness. Then someone walks by again and we put on a good show.

Strobe light, Some of you may relate to the strobe light in that you do good things for others then you do things that are evil. You love and you hate. You bless and then you curse. You are on and off and never consistent.

Spotlight, Maybe you like to put people on the spot and leave everyone else in the darkness. You show love to your friends and family, but gossip about those you don't like. As soon as someone does something bad to you, the lights go off for them.

Blacklight, If you are blacklight you are the kind of person that likes to point out all the imperfections, dirt, and stains in another persons life. You tell other people what they are doing wrong and forget that you try to hide your problems too. (For more light analogies go to the source written by John W. Woodall, III)

The Blacklight reminds us of the author of Hebrews 4:13 when he writes, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account." In the vision given to John in Revelation we see a new heaven and a new earth joined together yet there is no need for night and day in this Kingdom because God lights everything from the center of this new city. God is the light. God brings light and life and there is no longer death. If everything is going to be revealed before God we might as well start living in the light now since that is our future reality. We need to quit running and hiding from God.

Accountability. Seek an accountability partner. Someone whom you trust that you can confess to on a regular basis. Bonhoeffer wondered why it was so easy for him to confess his sins to God yet so difficult to share his sins with his brother in Christ. Bonhoeffer believed that was because Christ was truly and very concretely present in the other person. Don't run and hide from God, no one makes those kind of running shoes.

Story of me working at a shoe store and the power goes out. With everything we have created it still only takes one good storm to bring us to our knees.

Remember that story I was telling you about Tesla and Edison. Here is the speech Tesla gave at the opening of the Niagra Falls ceremony,

"We have many a monument of past ages; we have the palaces and pyramids, the temples of the Greek and the cathedrals of Christendom. In them is exemplified the power of men, the greatness of nations, the love of art and religious devotion. But the monument at Niagara has something of its own, more in accord with our present thoughts and tendencies. It is a monument worthy of our scientific age, a true monument of enlightenment and of peace. It signifies the subordination of natural forces to the service of man, the discontinuance of barbarous methods, the relieving of millions from want and suffering."

Has the invention of alternating current relieved millions from want and suffering? Like everything else we have learned how to exploit it for our own gain. We now get less sleep as a culture and less sabbath rest means more impatient and agitated people. Much of God's creation has been exploited or ruined because of our use of artificial light. Like most enlightenment thinking we have come to believe that through progress and right thinking we can save ourselves. But that is a lie. We have forgotten that everything is a gift. All of these artificial lights are completely dependent on what God provides.

Spectrum of light is dangerous but there is beauty. Somewhere between cooking our food and cooking our selves we see all the beautiful colors in the light spectrum. Think about the most beautiful things you have ever seen.

Story of the stars over El Paso on our Mexico mission trip.

2 Peter 1:19 "So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."

We shouldn't sit around and blame the dark for being dark, we should instead ask why has the church failed to provide the light? (Leonard Sweet)

Pliny the elder used to squish glowing Jellyfish on sticks to light his way as he explored caves - maybe we need to be spread all over so that we can reflect God's glory in the dark places. It is true that if we spend time with the poor, the widow, the orphan, the lonely, the outcast, the prisoner that we might get hurt. Jesus never handed out permission slips to the disciples, they knew full well there would be risk involved. One of my favorite Lutheran philosophers is Soren Kierkegaard who once said, "without risk, no faith."

We might do well at this point to remember the words of the psalmist who says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

Jesus says, "I am the light of the world whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

God has blessed you and kept you
God has made his face shine on you so that it might shine on others, now go follow the light of Christ into the world. Amen

Inspiration

2010-07-12T15:12:00.000-05:00

Not long ago I watched a video from the TED conference which invites speakers to talk about things like; creativity, design, technology, and entertainment. This particular video featured the author of the book, "Eat, Pray, Love," Elizabeth Gilbert. If you feel you have been gifted with creative impulses this video is worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch it. Here is the link, enjoy.

Heroes

2010-06-30T15:32:00.000-05:00

Deathlok. Hands down my favorite super hero when I was in 5th grade. Why? Because he was a rookie at the time with a perfect win record. Going into junior high, who wouldn't want a perfect win record? I remember collecting every single issue of Deathlok comics up until he got canceled. I guess there wasn't much market for a pacifist brain locked into a killing machines body that never killed anyone. Heroes are hot right now. There have been multiple TV shows dedicated to super heroes in recent years and dozens of movies based on comic book heroes and villains.

A few weeks back there was a story on ABC's show 20/20 called "Superhumans!" that talked about humans with super powers. It captured my attention because it was ordinary people that either had extraordinary gifts, or lived extraordinary lives. One guy could withstand cold temperatures that would kill most human beings, another guy could run marathons multiple times in a row without showing signs of weakness. There was a guy who climbs skyscrapers by hand and a girl that could hold her breath underwater for 5 minutes at a time. One of the mermaid girls used her gifts to actually raise awareness to help endangered animals. With the exception of this mermaid I was not sure how many of these other super humans used their gifts to help others.

That is the temptation though isn't it? In our culture as soon as we have an edge, or a gift that makes us stand out, we are encouraged to exploit it and use it for our own glory. What a challenge to use the gifts we have to glorify God by helping others. I was encouraged when later in the segment they highlighted a photographer that takes pictures of real life super heroes and heroines around the country. These people actually dress up in costumes and do good deeds in their neighborhoods and cities. I printed out pictures of some of these people along with their stories and posted them on a bulletin board in our church. The following week was our Vacation Bible School program that just happened to have the theme of "Heroes joining forces with God." So I encouraged our leaders to read more about these real life people who help others and care very little about what they look like in their costumes.

Vacation Bible School was so much fun because the kids got to make masks, capes, and logos to complete their altar egos. What a great hands on lesson to have with middle or high school youth. Gather them for an evening and talk about what they would want their superpower to be if they could have one. What would their logo look like, or their costume? What kinds of games could you use that evening to incorporate rescuing, leaping, and utilizing special skills? You could do a whole series of lessons talking about the masks we wear each day and our identity as children of God. Dungeons and Dragons, along with other role playing games, have often caught flack from churches. However, I have found that the process which leads up to the game, making your character, reveals a lot about yourself. Maybe you would choose skills which are ones you currently lack, or maybe you would craft your character to be similar to yourself. Both processes say something valuable as youth craft their super heroine identities. It would also be helpful to youth leaders as they see what youth in their church are thinking about when it comes to themselves and what God has or has not given them.

What youth group would be complete with out some wacky event. Why not have the group actually make their costumes one night and then later that week go out to soup kitchens or regularly scheduled service events dressed as their super characters! Youth often dress in such a way to bring attention to themselves, this might provide good discussion about the difference between eyes on us and eyes on God. Incorporate this with a discussion on the spiritual and physical gifts God has given us and have them use those odd looks and questions from innocent bystanders as jumping off points to praise God publicly for the gifts they've been given to serve others.

After a week of leading Vacation Bible School games I have to share my favorite quote from one of the little kids. I asked them what their super powers would be if they could do anything and one super hero boy responded;

"my super power is stripes!"

The once and future king? Or something else?

2010-06-07T14:33:00.000-05:00

I am about halfway through N.T. Wright's book, "Surprised by Hope," and it just keeps getting better and better. In the most recent chapters that I have read Wright discusses two problems that have arisen with the ascension of Jesus Christ. (pun intended) One route is to believe that Christ was raised from the dead and is now in heaven but is not really anywhere on earth so everyone must put their hope in the church. This thinking lends itself to a sort of triumphalism where the church supersedes Jesus as the answer until Christ returns. Or as Wright says, "What happens when you downplay or ignore the ascension? The answer is that the church expands to fill the vacuum." (pg.112 SBH)

The other temptation is to believe that Jesus has risen to heaven and is now in essence everywhere. This is where a form of liberalism emerges that believes the church is the answer to all the worlds ills, yet forgets to mention that Jesus is actually doing the healing. It is when we get caught up helping others and forget to share with them that it is Jesus who has really helped them, not us. God's power not ours. Or as Wright says, "The church presented itself to the world instead of Jesus." (pg.112 SBH) Wright believes that when Paul says Jesus ascended to heaven we have usually interpreted it in one of these two ways instead of seeing it in its 1st century Jewish context.

"At no point in the Gospels or Acts does anyone say anything remotely like, "Jesus has gone into heaven, so let's be sure we can follow him." They say rather, "Jesus is in heaven, ruling the whole world, and he will one day return to make that rule complete." (pg.117 SBH) How often have we made following Christ the means to our own selfish heavenly end? Maybe we should see discipleship, or followship of Jesus, as a form of stewardship of this world and our neighbors until Christ returns to marry this home with heaven. It's tricky because Christ is both here and yet to come. Wright talks about how the desire to escape this world and leave it to its own devices is problematic. "The transition from the present world to the new one would be a matter not of destruction of the present space time universe but of its radical healing." (pg.122 SBH) So there is this balance between understanding earth as an essential part of what will be married with heaven and thus a need to care for it, and each other, while doing so in Jesus name and not our own.
There is this wonderful concept that I first ran across in High School while reading T.H. White's book, "The Once and Future King." It was a story about King Arthur, but the most intriguing character for me was Merlin. Merlin in this story lived through time backwards. In other words he was born in the future and got older as the world got younger. Think of the opposite of the movie "Benjamin Button." The coolest concept of living life this way was his magic. Merlin's magic was not so much smoke and mirrors as it was technology and artifacts he had brought with him from the future. People thought the things he did and used were fantastic and amazing because they really had seen nothing like it before. One of my professor's, Andy Root, encouraged us to think of miracles in much the same way. They are not the norm, but they give us a glimpse into that future life with God which will be more life than we can possibly fathom now. So when Wright talks about eschatology (the study of last things) he believes that in Jesus Christ's kingdom and lordship, "The future has already begun to come forward to meet us in the present." (pg. 122 SBH) Something I believe deserves a lot more dialogue in the church.

N.T. Wright goes on to say, "The main truth is that he will come back to us." (pg. 124 SBH) Sometimes we can get caught up in a bunch of language that puts the pressure on us to find God, and thus our salvation. This is counter to my understanding of Lutheran theology that believes in a God that always comes down to us. A theology that reminds us there is nothing in our own power we can do to draw closer to God or become more godly. Everything that draws us closer or makes us more holy is a gift from the Holy Spirit and thus still comes from God's power, not ours. It reminds me of a classic scene in the movie "Forrest Gump" when Lieutenant Dan and Forrest are hanging out in a rundown hotel room. Lt. Dan asks Forrest if he has found Jesus yet? Forrest responds with, "I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him sir." It's less about finding Jesus and more about the Holy Spirit guiding us towards that heavenly kingdom that we only have hints about in this present life.

Wright tells those of us who are not Greek scholars that one translation for the word "Parousia" is "presence." Many translate this world "second coming" and use it with more of a rapture theology understanding of Jesus. However, this word was often used when a gods power was revealed through a healing or used when a king or emperor was visited by the people in the kingdom. Wright argues that Paul is intentionally hijacking this language and using it in reference to Jesus instead of Caesar. "Parousia is itself, in fact, one of those terms in which Paul is able to say that Jesus is the reality of which Caesar is the parody. His theology of second coming is part of his political theology of Jesus as Lord." (pg.131 SBH) It's not so much that a rapture will take us up into the heavens, as it is that we will go to meet Christ and usher him back down to his rightful place as lord over heaven AND earth.

The question then becomes, "who do we really believe is in charge here and now?" Do we live in such a way that we believe Jesus is already reigning over heaven AND earth? Or do we let the powers and principalities of this world sway us into believing that they are really in charge? Rapture theology, Wright suggests, avoids this whole political confrontation because it suggests we are removed from the wicked world. And while it may seem that the liberalism of some churches takes on a type of political confrontation through activism, I would argue they have abandoned Jesus name in order to even have a voice in the political landscape. There is a third way which shows the world we don't need many of the systems it has put in place. A deep dependence on what the Lord provides can in many ways be a huge challenge to our current political system. But they may be for another post. I will finish with another quote by N.T. Wright, "We live between ascension and appearing." (pg.143 SBH) My question is what does that living look like in between?

How Convenient?

2010-05-10T21:13:00.000-05:00

I am not sure why, but lately I have become interested in figuring out how much time modern conveniences are supposed to actually save us. We all know that "Time Savings" is one of the big ways that companies will market to us, so how much time have we saved with all our purchases? Lets start with the dishwasher. By the time you load and unload dishes we will say that the average dishwasher saves you about an hour.

Then there is the oven and stove top. I can't even imagine how long it would take to get a fire hot enough in our fireplace to try and cook some food, so we will just guess that the average oven saves you about an hour as well. This seems to make sense because you can throw something in and usually just walk away until its ready.

Then there are the washer and dryers. Lets be really conservative in our guessing and say that the average washing machine saves you 2 hours of washing clothes by hand. (I know you, you have a lot of clothes!) You can pretty much just throw everything into the dryer so that saves you from having to hang everything up and take everything down which could be another hour depending on how many clothes you have. This includes multiple trips outside to check to see if the clothes are actually dry. We will pretend there is no such thing as winter!

Then there is the microwave which promised full course TV Dinners in less than 5 minutes. I am no professional cook, but I would guess that a full course dinner (of American portions) might take anywhere from an hour or two to prepare from scratch.

So lets just add all these really non-scientific numbers up shall we. According to my rough estimates the average home with a microwave, oven, dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer should be saving an average of 6 to 7 hours a day.

So what is everyone doing with all their extra free time?

How far is Heaven?

2010-04-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Wheaton College hosted a conference called, "Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N.T. Wright." Having read some of Wright's work in college, and being greatly influenced by it, I was excited to have the chance to hear him speak. My friend Casey and I met up at Wheaton and registered early. He has some wonderful insights into the conference that can be read on his blog (Ir)Regular Christian. On the train ride up I began reading one of his recent works entitled, "Surprised by Hope; Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church."

It was interesting how Wright starts off the book by looking at our current views of death. Wright notes that there has been a surprising increase in the number of Christians choosing to be cremated within the last 50 or so years. Country's like Italy however, have very limited physical space for burial and yet there is still a desire to have a funeral service and burial with the persons physical body present. The contrast is made even clearer when we look at what most Christians believe happens to us when we die and what the holy Scriptures actually say. I am guessing that most people when asked would say that when you die your soul goes up to heaven to be with God. For Christians who affirm the Apostles Creed, "I believe in the resurrection of the body," this brings up a number of questions.

Does our soul then at some future point come down from heaven to be united with our old body?

Do we get a new body while in heaven and our first one never really mattered?

Is there some in between phase between when we die and when we are joined with Christ?

When we die are we actually dead, and that is why we look with hope at Christs resurrection?

"If the promised final future is simply that immortal souls leave behind their mortal bodies, then death still rules." (Surprised by Hope, pg. 15)

1st Corinthians 15:26 reminds us that death is not some friend, or window that we must pass through, but instead is the very last enemy to be destroyed. Wright would argue that the problem comes up because we read into scripture with our modern mindset and don't actually understand what the writers of scripture meant when they used words like "resurrection," and "heaven." If we believe in the resurrection then we must believe that our bodies have value to God, otherwise we are tempted to slip into forms of gnosticism where we can do anything we want with our bodies as long as we know our soul is saved and going to heaven. THIS IS DANGEROUS because it leads to a way of thinking and living that says, what I do on this earth doesn't matter because God is going to fix it all anyway.

The problem with heaven language is that it is hardly used in scripture. Jesus is understood by the early Christian community as the bringer of the 'Kingdom of God' and Wright argues that this language is being filtered out by the church. In some Christian congregation the fact that Jesus was proclaiming the Kingdom of God as here and now is left out entirely for some select passages in the Old Testament and St. Paul's writings. The understanding is that the mission of the church is to save souls so they can go to heaven, so there really isn't any need to focus on the pesky Gospels or book of Acts which show Jesus bringing salvation to people in the here and now. Or as Wright says in one of his lectures from this past weekend, "The Gospels and Acts say, 'Jesus is raised from the dead,' not, 'we go to heaven.'" Before I run too far on my high horse Wright also warns that the church can focus too much the other direction working to cure social ills and losing sight of the fact that it is God who is doing the saving work through Christ.

Wright is passionate as a historian to uncover the Jewishness of Jesus in His 1st century context and shared during one of his lectures that, "the traditional Western Church has invented another Jesus and super imposed it on the Gospels." Resurrection therefore first points to Jesus as Jewish Messiah, and His Messianic death then means that God's Kingdom has been established here on earth. So it comes down to whether or not we believe God's Kingdom has been established on this earth or not, and if we are working towards its fullness. (I plan on writing more about this later.) In the Lord's Prayer we pray, God's Kingdom come, His will be done, on EARTH as it is in Heaven. God's goal, according to Wright's understanding of first century Judaism and early Christianity, is the marriage of Heaven and Earth. Many references in scripture point to God's Kingdom coming down to earth and I remain convinced that if Christians spent time studying all the references to "the Kingdom of God," mentioned in the Gospels they would see something drastically different than the self-centered soul saving heaven seeking of our present day church.

The things I have looked at to this point have been selfish questions. What happens to me when I die? What will my heaven look like? Last winter there was a Christmas episode of American Dad that dealt with the concept of the rapture. While I don't recommend any Sunday school class ever watching it, I was impressed by how well they critiqued Christian evangelical understandings of life after death. I was surprised to see that they ended the show with a concept of heaven that is actually closer to the biblical witness than most churches. The concept of heaven in most Christian lives is a selfish ideal. We are forgetting to ask in all this, "where is Jesus?" A quick glance shows that some Christian language lends itself to an understanding that Jesus is not here but gone on vacation or something. Look at all the titles in Christian book stores that talk of Jesus in the past tense; "What would Jesus Say," "What Would Jesus Eat?" or "What Would Jesus do?" Wright says that the church needs to wrestle with the twin questions of "is Jesus alive?" and if so, "is Jesus present?" I will end with a quote from Wright during one of the last panel discussions this past weekend;

"Jesus is in heaven, but heaven is closer than we think."

I encourage you to check out all of N.T. Wrights lectures from the conference here. His chapel address to the Wheaton College students was especially inspiring.

Spring Break Service Trip

2010-03-29T22:36:00.000-05:00

Last week a group from our church had an opportunity to serve in the St. Louis area during spring break. I can't speak highly enough of the hospitality and organization that was put into our service trip thanks to our host church Union Avenue Christian. Normally they fill up their summers hosting groups who come to stay at their church and serve in their area, but this time they allowed us to visit during Spring Break. Not only were their accommodations amazing, but they even set up various service projects with local agencies for us before we arrived. What follows are some of the stories from people I met while serving with our church in the St. Louis area.

The Five Star Senior Center was our first stop Monday morning, which gave us the chance to talk with some of the elderly before packing lunches to deliver for the meals on wheels program. All of our students quickly wrapped up meals and took off with their separate drivers to deliver food for the morning. I was paired up with a guy named Nick who had been working for Meals on Wheels for about seven years. It took a while for our conversation to get to a point where we finally found a common interest, mostly due to the fact that I was jumping out of the car every couple of minutes to run meals up to peoples front porches. Nick is a big fan of cross country and track races and loves working with international students who have been recruited for running. Turns out that Nick had actually watched a track race that I was in 10 years ago in St. Louis! Small world. Once he knew that I had run cross country I had no excuse for taking my time delivering the meals for our route! I really got a kick out of how he quizzed me the next day to see if I remembered which doors I was supposed to take food to and which ones were not on our list. I think overall I was only 3 for 25.

In the afternoons on both Monday and Tuesday our group headed over to East St. Louis to work at the Christian Activity Center helping kids with homework and just hanging out with them in the park. This was an amazing experience and I highly recommend any group that is in the area to check it out. Drew Phillips, who is the resident chaplain shared some of his story about how he ended up serving at the CAC. After he gave our group an orientation to the building and introduced us to the staff we were able to talk more about various books he and I were both reading. Have you ever met complete strangers and after talking with them for only a few minutes you feel like you have known them for a long time? Turns out Drew and I have been influenced by similar voices within Christianity and could have talked for hours. His story of growing up in a county that was, shall we say less than diverse, and then encountering people whose radical hospitality welcomed those different from him was very powerful. Indeed it was so life changing for him that he now serves in a predominantly African American neighborhood in East St. Louis having grown up only knowing one black family in his county. I was so glad that he quoted Frederick Buechner to our group about vocation,

"The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done....The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

The third place we served was a shelter for battered women and children. We didn't get a chance to meet any of the residents because confidentiality is so high. However, the coordinator Janel had an amazing testimony about what God has done in her own life and the lives of her children. I am sure many women and children have been blessed by her leadership and wisdom during very difficult times. We spent a beautiful morning doing yard work and getting a garden ready for planting. My prayer is that just as new seeds are planted in their garden this spring, so might God do a new thing in the lives of those who find shelter in that place.

In between these service projects our group had a chance to see some of the gorgeous parks in St. Louis, go up in the Arch, tour the old Capital building, see the Cathedral Basilica, walk the Loop, and just enjoy the fellowship of a meal together. But by far the most interesting person we met was while we were walking through Union Station. As we were leaving there was a shop with knives and guns in the window which caught the attention of one of our students. He quickly walked in the shop to check out all the deadly weaponry and we soon followed. One of our leaders asked the store manager, whose name was Vic, about paintball and he began sharing about a program he is involved with that uses metal balls. Believe it or not, they actually shoot metal balls at each other because the liability is cheaper than paintballs.

As he continued sharing about the program he runs we found out it was for troubled youth and their parents to learn discipline and how to work as a team. Vic was an ex-marine and I am sure that much of what he had learned in the military was valuable to young boys who lacked that kind of discipline in their own lives. I can't remember when in the conversation it happened, but somewhere in there he mentioned Jesus. Of course my mind wandered to the multiple times I have had people ask me if I have "accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior," and I had already begun to stereotype this guy. Once he realized that we weren't leaving even after he mentioned Jesus, he began to ask about our group. We shared that we had just spent the last few days serving with different agencies in St. Louis and were getting ready to head home. Next thing we knew he launched into multiple biblical riddles.

"God told Satan that he could do anything he wanted but he couldn't touch Job. Satan then destroys everything Job has but never touches Job's wife, why?"

"God gives Job back a double portion of everything he had taken away except for Job's sons. Why doesn't God give back Job's sons?"

I was floored. As someone who loves a good challenge I was immediately drawn in. This guy was the last person I expected to meet walking into a knife and gun shop. We remain engaged in this riddle mode for the better part of a half hour as he is selling Samurai swords and dart guns. After I floundered through the first three riddles with our group we talked about issues of discipleship and he kept bringing up Satan as a fallen angel. I asked him point blank where it talks about Satan as a fallen angel in the bible and he responded with, "well it might not be in YOUR bible." That is when I realized that he was probably Catholic and at least somewhat fluent with the Apocrypha. I would have loved to have talked with this guy for another couple of hours about his ministry with troubled youth. His personality was definitely one of tough love and you could tell that he was brutally honest. I'm not sure I have ever met anyone whose personality was so polar opposite of mine and yet we could have talked about scripture till the mall closed.

"Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" Luke 24:32

I know we encountered God in many places this past week. As Holy Week begins we will find God in many more places;

at our feet,
in the garden,
in betrayal,
on trial,
in silence,
on the cross,
suffering,
doubting,
and dying.

Give us faith oh Lord to follow you into these places trusting that you will give us more life than we could ever imagine. Amen.

slow

2010-03-08T15:59:00.000-06:00

I have recently been enjoying a book by Carl Honore called, "In Praise of Slowness." As you can imagine I have been reading it very slowly, and have found it to be part of my Lenten devotional. He begins the book with a quote by Gandhi:

There is more to life than increasing it's speed.

Carl talks about how speed has infiltrated about every area of our lives; work, travel, leisure, meals, sex, health, etc. The growing problem is that we are getting used to the speed of things and get easily frustrated when things don't happen as quickly as we are used to them happening. This of course leads to impatient drivers and angry people at fast food restaurant lines of all places. We all have stories of witnessing people flipping out over the smallest things, maybe we have even had those moments. Carl also notes how the word "bored," didn't even exist 150 years ago and how we hardly know what to do with ourselves when something isn't scheduled or engaging our attention. I just recently saw a Youtube video of a girl who was stuck all night in an airport and decided to videotape herself doing crazy things all night long until her next flight. It reminds me of a quote I heard once, "If you are bored it is because you are boring."

Living in the fast lane means we reflect less and react more, we write poetry less and swear more, we make art less and destroy things more. I am not sure how we can even begin being creative without the art of reflection. This crazy fast paced life we are leading also makes us tired, easily irritable, and is known to cause any number of health problems. Even our vacations are so over scheduled that we get back from them and usually feel ready for another. I even heard from one of my students about how competitive club baseball is in middle school and I can't help but think, "they are playing a game," why is this so stressful to a middle school student? We can't even play in a way that is slow and enjoyable.

Carl goes on in his book to look at the effect of clocks on society throughout history and how being able to measure time has created an even greater pressure not to "waste," it. I blogged during Advent about how people used to have two phases of sleep before artificial light, which also happened to be before the prevelance of alarm clocks. People actually had time in the middle of the night to enjoy a book, each others company, or play some games. While clocks and watches are not to blame for our speed, the way we use them has changed us.

I can remember having the coolest watch in junior high. It was a Casio Universal Remote Control watch. All I had to do was program it to whatever Television was around and I could change channels and volume without anyone ever knowing I was the culprit. I was especially notorious for frustrating substitute teachers at school while they attempted to play videos for the class. For no reason at all, it seemed, the volume would get really loud or the channel would change... mysterious. I am pretty sure Casio still makes that watch, and I am pretty sure it was the last watch I ever had. My grandmother got tired of getting me a watch every Christmas because I would always misplace them. In fact I haven't worn a watch since middle school and I have never looked back.

Now Ephesians 5:16 does say that the "days are evil," but I think we forget the first part which says to "make the most of every opportunity." There are ways to do that without speeding through life. Our high school class has been looking at the Christian discipline of simplicity and been striving to adapt that into our daily lives. I think slowing down and living simply are connected. It seems that when we live so fast we consume more and use resources that damage our bodies and planet. Richard Foster has these 10 guiding principles to help people live simple lives:

1.) Buy things for their usefulness not their prestige
2.) Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you
3.) Develop a habit of giving things away
4.) Refuse to be taken by the marketing of slick gadgets
5.) Learn to enjoy things without owning them
6.) Develop a deeper appreciation of creation
7.) Be skeptical about, "Buy now, pay later," schemes
8.) Obey Jesus' instructions about plain, honest speech.
9.) Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others
10.) Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the Kingdom of God

Which of these 10 are you best at?

Which of these could you work on more each day?

I believe that as we slow down and live simply we will actually be more free than most people in society to enjoy the gifts of family, friends, and creation that God has blessed us with. I began with a Gandhi quote and I will end with one as well,

May I live simply that others may simply live.

Sexuality & Spirituality

2010-02-15T22:58:00.000-06:00

I wish people would try harder today to use pick up lines from the Bible.

"Your hair is like a flock of goats,"

or

"Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone."

or

"Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon,"

and my all time favorite;

"Your belly is like a heap of wheat."

Somehow that last one has lost its appeal over time which is quite sad. It is ironic that in most church communities you hear people share about how important it is to have a relationship with Jesus, and yet they spend very little time actually talking about the dynamics of an intimate relationship with someone else. Apparently most church goers are only interested in others being friends with Jesus and not going all the way with him. All the way to the cross at least. I like Rob Bell's approach when he discusses how spiritually and sexuality cannot be separated. He does a wonderful job in his book, "Sex God," talking about how living a godly life will be connected to our relationships. You can read the first chapter of his book at this link.

Things I have learned about relationships:

- Spend less time trying to find the right person and more time on being the right person.

- Men and women communicate differently, learn how they share love and know how you share love.

- The 10 Commandments are not rules, they are conditions for being in relationship with God, all good relationships have boundaries.

- People are more complex than how they act around just you, see how the other person treats their family, co-workers, strangers, and know more about who they are as a whole person.

- Listen.

- Love is hard work. If you don't work in your relationship then you don't love the other person.

- Love is courage. People are mysteries who are only known fully by God, being in a relationship requires taking risks of vulnerability and humility. Knowing your limitations and trusting God to do what you both cannot do together is key.

"for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire
like a mighty flame." - Song of Songs 7:6

For more of Rob Bell's thoughts on love, sexuality, and spirituality check out his NOOMA video for free online here. Rob uses the 3 words in the Hebrew language for love to talk about how there are 3 flames involved in love and that anytime we focus on one, but forget the other two, we are missing out on the real passion of love that God has created. He hints at how when we balance all 3 flames in a relationship it burns so bright that it gives light and glory to the one flame that is God.

"for our God is a consuming fire." - Hebrews 12:29

May we both consume God in our gathering together, and be consumed by God in our following of Jesus Christ the faithful one.

The Fish

2010-02-01T14:59:00.000-06:00

Want God? Go buy a can of StarKist. At least that’s where I found salvation: For me, God came in the form of a fish. It was the winter of my 21st year, just after another important discovery in my life: the joy of kayaking, and how shoehorning yourself into what amounts to a floating plastic coffin can feel so, well, goddamn good...

What’s important is that I was just starting to shape—with conviction, one might say—my religious views. I borrowed them initially from a girlfriend in college and took title to them free and clear with the help of that Fish...

It was simply this: God was Gravity. Not only was it universal, but gravity was literally the glue holding everything—and everyone—together. It was all-powerful, yet it was invisible. Not a bad God candidate, based on those qualities alone...

My problem with the whole Gravity as God idea came not from its seemingly opportune smugness, its airtight, plumb, and flush paradox of explaining the inexplicable with a known-but-not-understood natural phenomenon. Instead, my problem with this theory was with its inherent lack of an organic component. Namely, turning God into a lifeless energy force somehow seemed unfulfilling to me.

So I found the Fish instead.

I was in my kayak, just below Great Falls outside Washington, D.C. It’s where the Potomac River plunges off the foot of the Piedmont Plateau and onto the Coastal Plain and fills the ancient and eerie slit of Mather Gorge below.

I was surfing a wave called the Anvil there, a perfectly curved and pointed crest that forms below the massive tumult of the falls. (To understand, know that when you’re in a kayak, you can surf a river wave just like an ocean swell, and it’s as good a ride as any you’ll have on this planet.)

The Anvil is a throaty beast, a commanding force that closes out instantly, one that will swallow you and your tiny boat with indifference. As I floated there, skipping violently down its roaring face and concentrating intensely to avoid getting slammed in the trough, a glint caught my eye.

The Fish.

Just a flash of silver at first, the glare of flotsam in the pale winter sun. Then it broke the surface. It jumped out of the wave, over the bow of my kayak, and shuddered in surprise when it saw me. It was inches from smacking my face—and sending me pitch-pole into the foam—before it plunged back into the green again...

At the exact moment we became aware of each other’s existence, the paralyzing, primordial fear connected us. In a universe ruled by Gravity, the moment proved, irrefutably, that neither of us was alone. The thought was strangely comforting. But it was paired with the knowledge that we were born of the same source and had the capability to destroy one another.

(To read all of Joe Bousquin's article go to Soulpancake's blog)

Has there ever been a time in your own life when you have encountered something so terrifying, or beautiful that you couldn't help but reflect on God and your place in all of creation? Where have been the places that you have encountered the living God?

"As timely as a river
God's timeless life passes
Into this world. It passes
Through bodies, giving life,
And past them, giving death.
The secret fish leaps up
Into the light and is
Again darkened. The sun
Comes from the dark, it lights
The always passing river,
Shines on the great-branched tree,
And goes. Longing and dark,
We are completely filled
With breath of love, in us
Forever incomplete."

- Wendell Berry -

Drawing Lines

2010-01-25T15:48:00.000-06:00

Dandelion_New from Sennep on Vimeo.

Dandelion

"What: “You use a hair dryer to blow the seeds off the dandelion, which is projected on a large canvas,” says co-creator Lars Jenssen, describing the piece. “After the seeds are blown off, they will reform and you can blow them off again. We also have a speaker in the hair dryer that plays an adaptive hair dryer sound and speakers in front of the screen which play a soundscape that changes depending on where you blow.

How: An infrared camera tracks a beam of light coming from a source in the tip of the hair dryer. Programming languages include Processing for the camera tracking, Unity for the visual expression and Max/MSP for the sound. Open Sound Control sends the values from Processing to Unity and Max/MSP. 3D Studio Max is used for the 3-D modeling.

Why: “Our aim was to get away from the often fast-paced nature of computer graphics to create a calm and almost meditative experience,” says Jenssen. “The intent of the piece was to make a playful and magical experience with a simple and satisfying interaction.”

Who: Danish studio Yoke combines interactive design, programming and audio engineering to create responsive installations. Webby Award-winning Norwegian-British partnership Sennep designs websites, database-driven applications and interactive installations." (this was take from Wired)

There is an art display in London called, Decode: Digital Design Sensations. The exhibition takes data and rearranges it in such a way as to make something beautiful, poetic, or engaging. I read somewhere once that the real shapers of the next century will not be those with the most money, power, or information, but instead it will be those who make sense out of all the information floating around. Which might be why this art exhibit in London is so fascinating to me because it takes things as mundane as air travel, and charts every flight made in a single day to produce a very sleek image of the United States.

"Several exhibition pieces showcased at Victoria and Albert Museum depend on human presence to produce their full effect. A motion-detecting eyeball, for examples, blinks each time a visitor blinks. In another piece, a video screen enables visitors to “paint” smears of color through the power of their gyrations."

Just as there can be too much physical noise in our lives, so too can there be an overabundance of visual noise. Or as Rob Bell puts it, "Do we have enough billboards yet?" It would be easy for all of us to get lost with such an overwhelming amount of information bombarding us each day. Remember in school when you had to do a writing assignment and the teacher said those four dreadful words: "Pick your own topic." I still shutter when I think of how completely depressing that thought was in middle school because the whole world was at your disposal. We think we are setting people free by giving them so many choices but more often it can leave us paralyzed, until of course that last minute suggestion from a trusted friend comes along. I prefer the route another teacher took with our theology class in college. We were each assigned a theologian, and then each week there would be a given topic for which we had to research and see what our theologian would have believed. I was assigned Hans Urs Von Balthasaar, which is probably part of the reason I am even writing about art an why we need a theological aesthetic.

Let's think of it another way. If each movie we see is actually millions of single photographic shots (data) all lined up in order to create a sense of motion and share a story, how does the story change if we move each of those photographic shots around. The movie Momento played with this idea, and our sense of time, by chopping up the story and playing the last half of it in reverse chronological order in between the parts of the story that are told in chronological order. Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto describes his experiment with photos and movies this concept this way:

"I'm a habitual self-interlocutor. Around the time I started photographing at the Natural History Museum, one evening I had a near-hallucinatory vision. The question-and-answer session that led up to this vision went something like this: Suppose you shoot a whole movie in a single frame? And the answer: You get a shining screen. Immediately I sprang into action, experimenting toward realizing this vision. Dressed up as a tourist, I walked into a cheap cinema in the East Village with a large-format camera. As soon as the movie started, I fixed the shutter at a wide-open aperture, and two hours later when the movie finished, I clicked the shutter closed. That evening, I developed the film, and the vision exploded behind my eyes."

With so much data will our picture of the world be clear or muddled. I believe the artists and prophets in the future will be the ones who rearrange the information in ways that remind us of God's activity in the world, instead of leaving us feeling overwhelmed and near despair from focusing on ourselves. I won't even begin the discussion about whether something is or is not art. If you want to jump in on that conversation see Rainn Wilson's philosophy website that explores this very topic. Rainn plays Dwight Shrute from the NBC show The Office and explores all kinds of deep thoughts on Soulpancake.com. I like the quote he uses from G.K. Chesterton, “Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.”

What is being drawn from all the information around you each day?

Name

2010-01-18T21:51:00.000-06:00

Theologian Paul Tillich believed that sin was:

"The alienation of the self from the self."

Anytime we are being someone or something other than who God has created us to be... it is sinful.

"Name" - was the theme of our Winter Ski Retreat this past weekend that focused on our identity in God. You can read the outline for those devotions here.

Art and Artifacts

2010-01-11T19:21:00.000-06:00

Why is it that art has a greater ability to connect me to God than anything else? I cannot read poetry, watch a movie, listen to a song, or walk through an art gallery without thinking about our relationships with each other. There is something in these things that makes me yearn for deeper relationships with those I know and love, AND with the stranger and outcast whom I have never met. I don't believe we can be in relationship with God and not be in relationship with our neighbor, which may have something to do with the power of art.

"Relationships with other hand crafted artifacts put us in a relationship with the creator as well as with our fellow subcreators. Art and artifact (created beauty) are less products than relationships with the holy." - Leonard Sweet

I cannot get this story out of my head from the texts we read in worship a few weeks ago:

"But Samuel was ministering before the LORD -a boy wearing a linen ephod. Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice" - 1 Samuel 2:18-19

The love of a mother who would make her son little clothes as he worshiped and served the Lord. And this text even comes after the beautiful song that his mother Hannah sings a few verses earlier. Or take two of my favorite characters from the 1st Testament; Bezalel and Oholiab. Never heard of them? These two men were filled with the Spirit of the Lord as talented craftsmen:

"Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you: the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent- the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand- and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you." - Exodus 31:1-11

The scriptures are full of creative people making things, not to be worshiped, but to give glory to God. Ideally the things we make should draw us into more loving relationships with one another, which in turn gives glory to God. Here are three movies that I have experienced over the last couple weeks which I have found visually amazing and relationally inspiring.

Avatar
Hands down the most gorgeous movie I have ever seen. It probably helped that I watched it with 3D glasses on, but I am sure it is still amazing in 2D. The world of Pandora that is created on screen was so breath taking that during multiple parts of the movie I could have cared less if the story line continued, I just wanted to walk through their world. The life and color and connection that is given to the plants, animals, and native people was no doubt rooted in an understanding of traditional Native American spirituality and the connectedness of all things. It isn't too long into the movie that you begin to see how created things can be worshiped and exploited when we forget how to live in relationship with those different than us. "I see you," will be the new "you complete me," from this movie. I was struck with how emotionally drawn in I was to the cause of blue human like creatures that were 8 feet tall and had tails!

It was that connection to creatures (instead of humans) that caught my attention in the movie District 9. In that story you have aliens who are found starving and malnurished in a spaceship above Johannesburg South Africa. The government doesn't know what to do, so temporary housing is set up for these aliens to live in and the community quickly becomes something like a scene from the movie Slumdog Millionaire, complete with alien shanty towns. Most alien movies show them as powerful and seeking to destroy the earth, but these creatures were presented as totally taken advantage of and at times I felt sorry for the alien race. One of the main alien characters is found to have a son and the story line is very similar to that of Moses who is hidden at a young age to escape death and is then called upon to save his people. It is like segregation during the civil rights movement only with aliens.

The third movie was My Sister's Keeper. Let's be honest, after all these action type movies I owed my wife at least one sort of movie that she would enjoy! Thinking it would just be another chick flick I was truly surprised at how much I cried during this movie. It touched on the pain of dying while contrasting the difference between fighting for life and actually living it. My desire after the movie was to enjoy each precious moment I have with my wife and children and not take them for granted.

So why is art important, and why am I writing about movies as a form of art? Here are 3 quotes from Leonard Sweet that explain why;

"To be 'in the moment,' with our artifacts is to allow them to put us in touch with God."

"Our inability to help people develop healthy relationships with things has actually fueled consumerism and materialism."

"the absence of the creative energies of art and culture are evident in any city, any mall, any suburb. All of them look alike. They are uninspiring, bland, boring."

May God fill us with the creativity of the Holy Spirit to be builders, not of how the world is, but of how it will one day be.

Grandma

2010-01-04T11:43:00.000-06:00

Two things my grandmother shared with me the other day:

1.) Be thankful for what you've been given

2.) Be content with what you've been given

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:12

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."

Watcher

2009-12-28T21:25:00.000-06:00

This past Christmas I was blessed to receive the Graphic Novel version of Fahrenheit 451. Sounds like a weird gift until you find out that my brother and a friend played a board game called Zombies!!! later that day. Sadly I have never read the original Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, but was still blown away by the story told in graphic novel style.

Hands down my favorite character was Clarisse McClellan. She is the neighbor of the main character Guy Montag and he has only just met her one night walking home from his work as a firefighter. (In this story firefighters destroy books to keep society happy.) She is wise in a way that calls Montag into a deeper intimacy than he has had with anyone else. She gets him to question everything he has known, which becomes the driving force of the story. While most of society is content to watch the screens in their rooms, Clarisse describes the world around them and even Montag in ways that make you wonder if she knows him better than he knows himself. The difference is set up early between those who watch life, but really aren't happy, and those who live life but risk pain and death.

Growing up as a kid I was never much into sports, so instead of collecting baseball cards I got into collecting comic book cards. Similar to baseball cards in that on the front was a picture of the comic book hero or villain, and on the back was a little about them and their statistics. Instead of runs, errors, and at bats, it was strength, stamina, speed, etc. My knowledge of the comic book world is limited at best, but I do remember one cosmic other worldly character that I found interesting. His name was "Watcher," and as the constant battle between comic book hero's and villain's played out he was only allowed to watch. "I dare not intrude, I am forbidden to act," was a quote from him in a comic book some 45 years ago.

This mysterious watcher character who seems to posses great cosmic power, yet refuses to interfere with history seems to make multiple appearances in my favorite sci-fi television show Fringe. It is very difficult for me to believe they didn't base this character off of the comic book one. Each week on Fringe some horrible scientific experiment is played out in the lives of unsuspecting people, and eerily in the background is the Watcher taking notes before disappearing until the next crazy event. In this show the character is also played by a bald man who looks more like one of the Blues Brothers than a comic book character. It wasn't until a recent episode that we find out there is more than one watcher. The one whose picture I have included below dared to do what only one other watcher has ever done, and that was to interfere in human affairs. Doing so cost him dearly.

To watch or to act? This question seems to be sticking with me these past few weeks and months. Not only from these stories but from people I love and am trying to love. I continue to find that in loving others we will hurt and be hurt. If we didn't care about others we would just smile, pretend we are happy, or that they are happy, and ignore what is really going on. Through acting we actually give others a chance to truly live life. "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ." ~ Ephesians 4:15

When we venture to be more than watchers we welcome pain and death, which is a greater adventure than being a rock or an island. Would we rather feel no pain and never cry in the words of Simon and Garfunkel? "I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly." ~ Psalm 40:1

Here is a poem I wrote a couple of days ago:

"A bored and unadventurous young man once shared with me:
'I wish I had been born in a different time period.'
Asking him why, he shared that 'everything has been discovered,'
if he was born earlier he could find wilderness.

I ran miles tonight in uncharted walkways covered with freshly fallen snow
my footprints the first ones to ever fall there
If only this boy could open his mouth to catch the falling snow outside
then he would taste manna from heaven."

Advent Experiment

2009-11-30T08:41:00.000-06:00

Advent is a time of waiting and anticipation of the coming of "Dear Sweet Baby Jesus," in the words of Ricky Bobby from Talladega nights. One tradition is to light a candle each week on an advent wreath to symbolize Jesus as the light of the world coming into a dark place. While it was originally our Jewish brothers and sisters who celebrated a festival of lights during Hanukkah, its seems that Christians have followed suit by using grand displays of artificial lights outside of their homes this time of year. Many are eager to welcome the beauty and joy that the Christmas season brings by creating such displays. Here is a fun website with some of the more over the top Christmas displays.

This year our family is diving into a little experiment. Starting last night we have decided that during the whole season of Advent we will not turn on any light switches, or lamps in our home. Once it is dark each night, which is around 4:30pm now, we will only light candles throughout the house. Last night went really well with some popcorn, a movie, and a fire in the fire place. I have hung up Bible verses about God's light on each light switch around the house so that our habit of using artificial light might help remind us of God's light in the world.

What was life like before artificial lighting? Jon Henley who writes for the UK paper the Guardian has this interesting article which talks about how people actually had two phases of sleep and would wake in the middle of the night to have friends over, chat, play games, and then fall back asleep for the second round. He also discusses how having more man-made light may be diminishing our sense or our selves, our neighbors, and the universe.

"Of all this have we been robbed by the onward march of industrial lighting. (By we, of course, I mean most people in the developed world. It's worth remembering that there are still large parts of the globe where it's still up at sunrise, and to bed pretty soon after sundown.)"

He continues,

"City-dwellers, and many others, have now all but lost their view of the heavens, a source of awe and wonder since the beginning of time. And since affordable artificial lighting now allows all of us to go to bed so much later, consolidating our sleep into one more or less continuous spell, our dreamlife has been disrupted and our understanding of ourselves impaired. "With darkness diminished," he says, "the opportunities for privacy and reflection are lessened." Which is perhaps not entirely a good thing."

What is it that we hope to learn from this little experiment? My first hope is that as a family we get more rest by going to bed earlier. I would also hope that candle light would draw us closer and create space for us to have more intentional time together playing games, reading, or just telling stories. It has been my experience that typically when I try and go extended periods of time without something I grow closer to God. Something tells me that as a family we will not only cherish our time together at night, but also make the most of the light we have during the day!

"Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path."

Psalm 119:105

Get Outside

2009-11-23T23:47:00.000-06:00

Two things.

First, I remember posting not long ago about Lenore Skenazy's book Free Range Kids which talks about the perception of danger that faces our kids today in the news versus the reality of danger present in their everyday lives. As parents, when we fear for the safety of our children we tend to keep them close at home. But what are the unintended side effects of children that grow up without being allow to explore outside? It seems that we are not only holding onto our children tighter, but possibly encouraging them to stay more plugged into all of the gadgets we have in our homes. I found this short article in Adbusters magazine this past week and thought it was worth posting:

"In his seventh book, "Last Child in the Woods," journalist Richard Louv speaks to a young boy who sums up the sentiment of younger generations with one sentence: "I like to play indoors better cause that's where all the electrical outlets are." Louv cites several studies - one shows children are better able to identify Japanese cartoon characters than common animals and plants; another reports that the radius from hoe which children were able to roam freely was 9 times greater in 1970 than today - as evidence of a nature deficit disorder. He argues that disconnecting children from the natural world, through overwrought parenting, urbanization and a reliance on electronic distraction, has resulted in generations of children prone to obesity, depression and attention deficit disorder. Their intellectual, creative, and even physical development is stymied by a sedentary existence. Far from striking out into nature and discovering the world and themselves, they are leashed to their home by cords - seemingly umbilical as they are electrical." - Sarah Nardi

Nature Deficit Disorder - Our grandparents would have never dreamed of such gap in our engagement with the natural world around us. I can remember the freedom of getting a bicycle and being able to journey more than a mile or two from home. Then the freedom of a car and realizing you could drive a couple of states away if you had the desire. Just look at all the signs around now that warn against children being unsupervised. Somewhere along the way we gave up on looking out for each others children. I worry that in an effort to keep our children safe from danger we may be endangering them in other ways. If kids are kept from danger, harm, and suffering how will they learn to deal with pain when they are older?

This brings me to the Second article I found this week.

After reading part of Jonny Baker's blog I found a link to an article written by a man named Tobias Jones in England. Tobias sold his home and bought a woodland where he plans to move his family and run a communal shelter for people going through a time of personal crisis. He has had many people confront him about the dangers of bringing strangers into his home, especially with two young daughters. Tobias has personally spent time at 15 or 20 communal living sites and feels that Jesus sermon on the mount was a perfect primer for taking this leap of faith to help others. What follows is an excerpt from his article.

"We're also doing it, funnily enough, for our children. Friends who are skeptical about our project are aghast at the prospect of us taking such a risky step with tiny daughters in tow. And we know that, despite all sorts of safeguards, they will be exposed to the rough end of life. But we've never wanted our children to be brought up surrounded by the most privileged in society. If anything, we hope for exactly the opposite. We don't want to pretend life is a breeze and insulate them against suffering. We want them to see it early and learn what might be done to mitigate it. Over the years we've met many children brought up on comparable shelters and their maturity and humanity, their gentility and empathy, are astonishing. The hope is that our children, too, will learn about vulnerability when they're still living in a warm loving home; that they will, over the years, begin to learn about addiction, displacement, bereavement, poverty, prison and so on. That, to us seems much more important than A-level results or a good degree."

This whole article is worth reading if you have time. Tobias really challenges our modern concept of the nuclear family. It also reminds me of an earlier post I had about walking alongside young people. If setting our children loose to encounter the natural world and all its suffering is too scary then maybe we should invite that world into our own families. Families becoming larger than biological and, in the name of Christ, going through suffering together. What could be better for children to learn from their parents except that they are made free in Christ for their neighbor. This post is quickly reminding me that I need to get off this computer and spend time outside.

May God give us the faith we need to take risks that really matter.

Alien Advent

2009-11-16T16:14:00.000-06:00

Well Christmas must be coming because the house across from our church put up their Christmas lights last week. We can put up all the lights we want but nothing says Christmas like a good movie. And there has never been a cinematic masterpiece that has touched on the true meaning of Christmas like the movie, "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians." In some ways the church has dropped the ball by not only allowing Santa Claus to usurp Christ during Christmas, but to also get the chance to hang out with aliens on other planets. Why does Santa get to have all the fun? Where are all of the Mel Gibson's and Kirk Cameron's when you need a good Jesus meets Aliens movie?

It sounded like a tag line for a great winter blockbuster when I read that the Catholic Church was interested in exploring the possibility of life on other planets. The first ever conference on alien life will be held by the Vatican's Academy of Sciences! So this must mean we are either giving up on ever learning how to love our own human race in hopes that loving some furry foreign life force just comes more naturally, or we as a church are actually interested in challenging some of our own long held ideas of God's work in the universe. Check out this article from the Telegraph for some interesting questions to how this might stretch Christian thought and imagination along with our understanding of God in the world as revealed through Christ. After reading the article though I will have to disagree with Pual Davies when he says,

"They (Christians) believe that God became incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ in order to save humankind, not dolphins or chimpanzees or little green men on other planets."

I will give him credit since I know nothing about theoretical physics, his field of expertise, yet my understanding of God's salvation and redemption stretches far beyond humanity to the full restoration of all of creation. Now granted when most people talk about God's creation we are usually limiting ourselves to thinking of our tiny little planet. So maybe now is the time to expand our thinking.

"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt." (Exodus 22:21)

A quick glance at Exodus shows that aliens should be welcomed by Christians as long as they don't eat anything with blood in it, honor the sabbath, oh yeah and are circumcised. (That last part could get a little awkward should we ever encounter an alien race.) For anyone who knows of my love for the show X-Files it is obvious that, "I want to believe." During a service trip down to Biloxi with our church a couple of years ago we had a chance to visit the French Quarter in New Orleans on one of our off days. I met an artist named Stuart South who had an amazing painting of the St. Louis Cathedral with a UFO flying over it. I wanted to buy it so bad and hang it in my office at the church, but alas my budget did not even allow for the classic X-Files poster.

"Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other." Zechariah 7:10

I guess as Christmas approaches and we think of the wise men looking to the sky for guidance, a sign of new life, we can also look to the sky and ponder what else God might have created long ago.

NYWC

2009-11-02T22:48:00.000-06:00

If my math serves me correctly I have, in some capacity, been involved with Youth Ministry for 10 years now. And for at least 9 of those years I have always wanted to attend the National Youth Workers Convention which is put together by Youth Specialties. Well I am blessed with a very supportive congregation that decided to send my wife and I to Cincinnati this past weekend to attend NYWC for the first time.

What follows are some of the highlights from that trip.

Friday morning we decided to use one of my wife's awesome thrifty coupons that she printed out online to go to a restaurant called "Tucker's." This place has been run by the same family since the 40's and was the most hoping place around. Tons of people were pouring in and out of this little diner that sat maybe 24 people tops. We finished an amazing breakfast and had an extra breakfast sandwich that we were able to give to a guy named Eddie who was sitting in a doorway around the corner.

After getting candy thrown at us during registration we worked our way to the conference room where we were introduced to the theme, "Time." We heard Reggie Joiner speak about our churches needing a systems upgrade and the importance of being willing to change things in the church that even we have created. The session after that we listened to Crystal Kirgiss talk about gender differences between boys and girls and how that relates to church activities. Overall my favorite was Tony Campolo, who was the main speaker that night at the convention hall. He ran with the theme of "Time," and talked about the importance of the present moment. Here are some quotes from his talk:

"God cannot be known, God must be encountered." - Paul Tillich

"Christ is eternally crucified" - Soren Kierkegaard

"I am present in the now, but now doesn't exist in time." - St. Augustine

"Most people are not present." - Erich Fromm

Campolo shared some really deep stuff about God existing outside of time and yet within it through Christ so that God experiences every moment in time as if it where now. This idea of time, and now being all we really have, is played out well in the television show "FlashForward." People catch a glimpse into the future that is so real they have trouble living in the moment before them.

Saturday found my wife and I eating at a cafe a few block away that she had also found coupons for online! We used up the rest of the couple to buy 3 more breakfast sandwiches that I then gave to three homeless guys sitting outside of the Macy's store. One gentleman went by the name, "Country" because he used to love playing guitar and apparently got in trouble at some point for helping play a jingle for Taco Bell that was not politically correct. He had lived on the street for a number of years and explained to me the horrible smell and thefts that would occur at the mens homeless shelter. He showed me the variety of medicines he had to take in his bag and before I could begin to question how he was able to afford such medicine he shared that he had cancer. His friend in the red hoodie went by the name, "Pup" which came from hanging around his dad a lot who went by the name, "Dog." After asking them where they all sleep Pup shared most of them stay under the bridges in Cincinnati. He was lucky enough to actually have his own tent. It quickly became clear to me as two police officers rode up on their bikes that these men had a good relationship with a number of police officers. The third man's name was Norbert and he went through that breakfast sandwich pretty quick. In fact he encouraged Country to eat his while it was still hot. While it was still hot. Can we even begin to think of the things we take for granted?

Saturday afternoon my wife and I were able to explore our creative sides with Lilly Lewin who is passionate about art reclaiming space within church buildings once again. We talked about art as prayer and spent about thirty minutes studying and playing with the passage from Mark's gospel about the women who broke the expensive perfume on Jesus. It was so fun seeing all the different things people came up with from the same passage. One young man couldn't create anything but shared with the group a question that kept coming to his mind as we read the passage Lectio Divina style. The question was, "Do we find worth in the waste?" I found this to be a very powerful question. There was also a resident artist at the convention named Scott Erickson made beautiful murals while the band was playing. We looked through his scrap book of pictures and found this quote:

"How did the church go from commissioning some of the best art ever made to only being able to utilize visual artists for logos and murals in the nursery? Something has to change..."

Another deal that my wife had found out about was that Chipotle was giving away free burrito's if you dressed up like a burrito for Halloween. Turns out all anyone had to do was wear some foil around their head and they got a free burrito. It was great to see so many of the homeless gathered sharing with one another their pieces of aluminum foil so that they ALL could get something to eat. Once we had our Burrito in hand we headed off to ride roller coasters at King's Island and it was amazing. I had never been to an amusement park on Halloween before with all the fog machines and employees dressed up trying to scare you everywhere you went. Good times.

Sunday I forgot about the time change and had the pleasure of meeting Anne at the convention center. She was the night security officer and the only other person in the building besides myself. Sweet lady, we had some good laughs. After breakfast my wife and I bumped into one of my professor's named Andrew Root who was leading a couple of seminars that weekend. The speaker that afternoon was Liz Murray, who had apparently had a Lifetime Movie made about her transition from being homeless at 15 to eventually graduating from Harvard. An amazing story and very encouraging to hear how one person can make a difference in a young person's life.

After lunch we went to a seminar that talked about equipping drama teams at your church. It was led by the Skit Guys, who I think are hilarious. They did a number of impromptu skits later that evening that had me in tears and my face hurting from smiling so much. Check out any video's you can find of them on youtube, it's good stuff. After that session my wife and I went to the contemporary art museum downtown and wandered around till we found the interactive section that let you make your own artwork. A couple of fashion designers joined us and we had a pretty good conversation about the fashion industry. Eventually the museum personnel had to kick us out we were having so much fun. Walked across the street for dinner where we again had way too much food so... you guessed it... we found Aaron who was begging for change and cigarettes a couple of blocks from the convention center. He talked about having lived in Cincinnati his whole life and how he just wanted to find some affordable housing. I asked him if he knew any other people on the street that he trusted and turns out he knows Country and Pup pretty well. I prayed with him for a little while and then wished him well.

The speaker at the conference that night was Lisa Anderson who performs on Broadway. She did a monologue about a women whose life was change when a teenager in the United States decided to sponsor her brother through Compassion International. If you have never hear about this organization I would encourage you to look it up. My wife and I have support Christine Espsinoza for 5 years and Era Fatima Alivo for 3 years. The monologue was extremely moving and brought both my wife and I to tears. My hope is that many children were sponsored after this event. To this day when comparing whether or not something is worth investing a lot of money into I always figure out how many children I could sponsor for the same amount. Is it really worth it to buy this thing that I think I need when I could provide food, clothes, and education for a child in need?

Looking back it looks like a lot, but I am just thankful that with such a full schedule I made sure to rest and be rejuvenated. I can't teach about taking Sabbath if I don't take it myself as well.

To Ohio

2009-10-12T20:11:00.000-05:00

Every one needs that place where they yearn to go because for some mysterious reason it seems to renew their soul. That place that helps you breathe a little easier. That place that seems to connect you with those who have gone before and those who will walk there long after you are gone. For me that it is a small park in Ohio. My family has been visiting this place for over 50 years now. It is right on a lake with lots of trails and this time of the year the leaves always seem to be on fire. We get a cabin for the weekend and spend the days hiking through numerous caves. It isn't far from where my father grew up and where my great great grandfather and his family are buried. They once owned and farmed some land only a few miles north of a Lutheran church in the area. Now they are buried behind that church. It is a strange connection to a place that I have only visited once every year growing up. I can't explain it, and when I try none of the words seem to fit. That is, until I went for a hike one afternoon and stumbled upon this poem:

"These gentle hills
surround my body
and nurture my mind"

I recently bought a copy of Wendell Berry's collection of poems entitled, "Given." I took it with me on this most recent vacation and enjoyed reading these poems deeply over and over again until they sunk in. Here are a few of my favorites as I reflect on our connection to particular places in creation.

"How to be a poet"
(to remind myself)

Make a place to sit down
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill - more of each
than you have - inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgement.

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

"The Future"

For God's sake be done
with this jabber of "a better world."
What blasphemy! No "futuristic"
twit or child thereof ever
in embodied light will see
a better world than this, though they
foretell inevitably a worse.
Do something! Go cut the weeds
beside the oblivious road. Pick up
the cans and bottles, old tires,
and dead predictions. No future
can be stuffed into this presence
except by being dead. The day is
clear and bright, and overhead
the sun not yet half finished
with his daily praise.

Sabbaths

"V"

In a single motion the river comes and goes.
At times, living beside it, we hardly notice it
as it noses calmly along within its bounds
like the family pig. But a day comes
when it swiftens, darkens, rises, flows over
its banks, spreading its mirrors out upon
the flat fields of the valley floor, and then
it is like God's love or sorrow, including
at last all that had been left out.

(an excerpt from "VI")

But won't you be ashamed
To count the passing year
At its mere cost, your debt
Inevitably paid?

For every year is costly
As you know well. Nothing
Is given that is not
Taken, and nothing taken
That was not first a gift.

ALL

All bend
in one wind

Abundance

2009-10-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

As our High School class finished up our introduction to the book of Hebrews we closed with a reflection on these two questions:

"Where have you seen God this week?"

and

"Where do you need to see God this week?"

When it comes down to it this entire blog is really a reflection on both questions. Thinking back to this past week it became clear to me that I saw God in the sheer abundance and overflow of things around me. Last week we had a High School event that fell through leaving my wife and I with tons of food at our house and no one to eat it. So we quickly called up multiple people from church and had an impromptu dinner party at our house the next night which was really fun. It gave some members of our congregation who had not met each other a chance to play some games and get to know one another. We are looking forward to helping plan more of these events in the future since we love hosting people at our home.

Most people would assume that I was really upset that the first dinner didn't work out, but having worked in Youth Ministry for 10 years now I have developed a pretty fluid understanding of events. If you can show up great, if you can't no worries. I have met people from other cultures where you don't need to RSVP or call ahead you just let your friend know that you are coming over for dinner and they are overjoyed to have you. None of the worry about who will bring what, and will there be enough food? Our society seems to have pretty much killed the spontaneity of eating in each others homes.

I heard a quote about this kind of worry on a show recently. I have succumbed to the networks mind games and fallen for the show they have hoped to hook all the LOST fans on before the season is over. It is called FlashForward and has a pretty cool story line. Everyone in the world blacks out at the same time for just over two minutes, and during that time each person catches a glimpse of the same day in the future. The kicker is apparently one or two people did not black out and were up walking around while everyone was passed out... pretty creepy. One of these suspect persons said to the main characters, "he who foresees calamities suffers them twice over." I read somewhere that a similar proverb uses the word worry instead of calamity and it still makes sense. There is wisdom in understanding that worry actually creates more suffering than necessary.

The other situation where it seemed that my friends and I were being showered with more than we could ever use was at a local football game this past weekend. I had heard that a couple of college buddies were going to be in town and after getting in touch with them I was asked to look into getting some football tickets. I had heard Ebay was as good a bet as any so I found 3 seats that were together and put in a bid. After the bidding was over I had scored 3 $60 tickets for $15 bucks a piece. Maybe it was the ominous weather, maybe it was the teams horrible record, all I knew was that we were going to a football game. After parking we began to walk towards the stadium and a car pulled up asking us if we needed tickets to the game, we said that we already had some and that is when they told us they were free. We said sure, thinking that maybe they would be better than the ones I had bought and sure enough they were... much better! After a serious upgrade in our already cheap tickets we were about half way through the 2nd quarter when the guy my friend had been talking to got up to leave and gave us his 3 tickets. So there we were with $540 worth of football tickets and we had only paid $45 for all of them.

A few weeks ago I challenged the children in our congregation to bring in 931 bars of soap which would be sent off to Lutheran World Relief. I shared with them the passage from Job 9:30-31 (New International Version)

Even if I washed myself with soap
and my hands with washing soda,

you would plunge me into a slime pit
so that even my clothes would detest me.

I told them that if they brought in that many bars of soap I would let each of them dump a bucket of slime on me at our annual Halloween event at church. In this case our abundance can be a blessing to those in need. So here is hoping I get slimed, but either way those in need will benefit. God definitely gives us more than we need each day. But that abundance is only truly enjoyed when it is shared with others. May we be creative with the places and people that we share our blessings with.

Ready for Risk

2009-09-21T20:16:00.000-05:00

After receiving Shane Claiborne's first book Irresistable Revolution in the mail via Swaptree, I figured I should finish the other book of his that I had started about 5 months ago called, "Becoming the Answer to our Prayers, Prayer for Ordinary Radicals." I think what attracts me to people like Shane is that I have a deep respect for people who see a problem and decide to quit complaining and actually commit their lives to doing something about it. An example from the book is a group that sees a family that needs a ramp built for their home and instead of sitting down to pray for God to provide it they get together and build it. Here is another one of my favorite stories;

In the early days of the Simple Way, we had a young woman from Brazil named Lydia living in the community. She was petite and, like many of the women in our community she was a fireball: sassy, bold, somehow able to be both gentle and direct.

One day when Lydia was traveling on the train, a fellow sat down next to her and pulled a knife. "Listen carefully," he said, "Here's what's gonna happen. You are going to hand me your bag, get off at the next station, and not say a word."

Lydia looked at the man directly. "My name is Lydia," she said winsomely, unflinchingly, "and I am from Brazil."

The man stared blankly, taken aback. Lydia continued. "My bag is filled with photos and addresses of my family, and those mean a lot to me but will do you not good. I'd imagine what you want is money. There is no money in my bag. However, I have some money in my pocket, so here is what we will do. I'll get out my money, give you $20, you get off at the next station, and we won't say a word." At the next stop the man did exactly what Lydia had told him to.

I may have mentioned in an earlier post that Leonard Sweet argues for a need within the church to develop a "Theology of Risk." In a recent blog post by the Rethinking Youth Ministry guys they talk about taking risks in youth ministry and include this interesting quote from a Christian classic;

"In C.S. Lewis' The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe we find the young protagonists chatting with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. The Beavers are trying to describe Aslan, the Lion (a metaphorical stand-in for Christ in the story). Lucy, taken aback by the notion of meeting a lion, asks, "But is he safe?" Mr. Beaver replies. "Safe? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't. But he's good."

The whole article is wonderful and worth a read. Another source I am interested in checking out is a book by Lenore Skenazy who made headlines recently when she announced that she let her 9 year old son ride by himself on the subway in New York. The first chapter of her book is available for free here. As a reporter she did some investigating and has realized, along with many others, that the hype in the media far outweighs the reality of tragedies. The book Freakonomics also talks about how statistically kids are more likely to drown in their neighbors pool than be killed in a car accident while not in a child safety seat. Yet because the image of a child being killed in a car accident seems more gruesome we hear more about it. In the mean time we are constantly being given a new type of safety seat to buy for our kids every time they gain 2 pounds.

What things did your grandparents worry about?

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" - Luke 12:25

What things did your parents worry about?

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" - Matthew 6:27

What things do you worry about?

The problem with worry is that we eventually become slaves to all of the variables in life we think we need to keep track of and control. Or as Sojourners Jim Wallis once put it, there is another word for gated community; jail. We can lock our doors, hide our valuables, constantly call our kids on their cell phones in an effort to be safe and in the meantime find that we have spent a lifetime protecting things that are not ours anyway. Everything we have is a gift. Which brings me back to why I admire people who take risks. They are living life in a way the rest of us are not. They are choosing not to buy into all the hype and choosing to live in radical ways.

One example is a friend of mine that I bumped into at a wedding recently. She took part in a short term mission trip and loved it so much that she went back 6 months later. She has fallen in love with Mexico and has committed a year, or more, of the life God has given her to serving the poor. You can read her story here. The reason I mention her is that in our conversation at the wedding reception she told me that 6 youth groups canceled their plans this past summer to come down to Lantern Hillover fears of getting the Swine Flu. She has been trying to explain to the people down there why so many have stopped coming.

May God wash us clean of worry, may Christ fill us with concern about compassion, and may the Holy Spirit make us ready for risk.

Let Yourself Feel

2009-09-14T21:12:00.000-05:00

let yourself feel. from Esteban Diácono on Vimeo.

"The thinker without a paradox is like a lover without a feeling: a paltry mediocrity."

-Søren Kierkegaard-

Bear Fruit

2009-08-31T20:38:00.000-05:00

What does it mean to "bear fruit," When it comes to ministry? Some friends and I have been wrestling with the importance of bearing fruit for a couple of months now. Some believe it means that we are making disciples, others understand it as making the lives of others a little better, and some probably see it as a combination of both. One of these friends shared with me the audio book "So Beautiful," by Leonard Sweet (the introduction to which can be found here). After about 9 hours of listening to this book I left with many notes and ideas that seemed to relate to this idea of bearing fruit. What follows is a collection of those ideas.

Leonard Sweet points out that we need more M.R.I. churches and less A.B.C. churches. M.R.I. churches are focused on being Missional, Relational, and Incarnational. Sweet says that being Missional is in a sense to have the mind of God or to think about the things God thinks about. To be Relational is the way of having the heart of God and being Incarnational is to have the hands of God and to participate in the kind of work that God is doing in the world.

The problem comes when we become A.B.C. churches which focus more on Attendance, Buildings, and Cash. Churches more focused on these things tend use models of Attraction, Proposition, and Colonialism. Both types of churches may talk about the importance of bearing fruit in ministry yet they will understand it in two totally different ways.

The M.R.I. church will see bearing fruit as helping create Missionaries, Disciples, and World Changers. The A.B.C. church will tend to see bearing fruit as making members, believers, and consumers. I realize this is a gross over simplification but the M.R.I. church lends itself to equipping and sending while the A.B.C. church seems more concerned with homogenization and hoarding. Or as Sweet writes, "we are called out, not in."

My favorite section of the book by far was when Sweet writes about the deep need for the church at large to develop a theology of risk. Maybe it is because he references Soren Kierkegaard so much, but part of me really resonates with his comment that, "Faith is the opposite of control." From what I have gathered from other books about church growth issues it seems that one of the reasons many people, especially in the 20's - 40's something age range don't attend church is because they don't want to be manipulated. Or put another way they don't want to be told that Attendance, the building, and money are more important that being on a mission, being relational, and being incarnational in the world. Sweet puts it this way, "Does the church want you to fall in line, or does the church want you to fall in love?"

Back to fruit.

It was towards the end of the audio book that Sweet talks about Jesus cursing the fig tree and that it is the only place in scripture were we find Jesus cursing anything.

"The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it...In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"

Mark 11:12-14, 20-21

I have heard people talk about these verses in relation to making disciples, which ties into the conversation I have been having with my friends lately. Is a successful ministry one where you are getting people to become members of your particular church through converting their beliefs to yours, or is a successful ministry one in which people are invited into a way of living which gives life to others? My bias may already be evident, but either way let me share another wonderful resource I found inspiring on PBS.

PBS had a documentary on called "The Queen of Trees," which was the result of a two year project alongside a single Fig tree in Kenya. My whole family was captivated as we watched and learned more than we ever knew about Fig trees. Fig Trees have an amazing relationship with wasps in that they both seem to need each other to produce more life. There are over 700 different species of Fig Trees believed to exist, each with its own species of wasp to help it pollinate. The wasp that is able to wiggle inside the fig has the task of releasing its young into the safety of the fig. Inside the fig grows numerous flowers that all seem to form a womb all the baby wasps growing inside. The seeds inside the fig then become food for the growing wasps who typically only eat half of the seeds. The other half of the seeds either fall to the ground with the fig or are spread by a number of animals that eat, spit, or carry them all over. Kinkajou, coati, monkeys, bats, squirrels, agoutis, pacas, spiny rats, peccaries, tapir, and elephants all feast on this delicious fruit and spread its seeds thus ensuring its future growth.

If you get a chance to watch the whole program it is amazing. They have a couple of videos on their website here and here. There is also a great article about the variety of religions that have figs or fig trees as significant in their traditions. I guess I think bearing fruit has less to do with making members or converting people into believers and more to do with inviting people into the kind of relationship with Jesus that produces life wherever you go.

Is worrying about attendance, buildings, and money really life giving? Or is being on a journey that requires risk and self sacrifice for others more life giving? The fig tree has no control over where its seeds will be spread, yet it has developed a relationship with the wasp that blesses many more lives than just its own. May we too live in relationship with those around us in ways that bring forth life for all to enjoy.

Does this offend you?

2009-08-24T21:02:00.000-05:00

The following is the message I gave to our congregation on Sunday August 23rd 2009. The image above is taken from Jonny Baker's website. The texts for the Sunday message were as follows:

Joshua 24:1-18
Psalm 34:15-22
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69

Paul’s words to church Ephesus: “Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”

Jason's words to the church in Champaign; “Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”

Word becomes flesh
Flesh becomes bread
Bread becomes body
Body becomes word

God is bread
Bread is broken
Pain becomes wine
Wine becomes joy

Wine bursts the wineskin's
God bursts the tomb
Bread bursts into song
Holy, Holy, Holy,
(http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker/)

It is interesting to note that we have been reading from chapter 6 of John’s gospel for five weeks now. The chapter begins with the feeding of the 5,000 by the sea of Tiberias and ends with the passage we read this morning. The feeding of the multitude is so important that it is actually mentioned 6 times between all four gospels… yeah you do the math… some of us are scratching our heads and thinking, “I better go home and do my homework on that one.” Now with all of this feeding and eating we would expect John to mention the Lord’s Supper, but he doesn’t. In fact the Gospel of John is the only Gospel that doesn’t include the story of the Lord’s Supper. The closest thing we have is the text read this morning where Jesus basically says, “Eat me.” Some believe that John has done this on purpose because sharing in the Eucharistic meal does not mean that we simply remember or symbolize this event, but instead share in the life of Jesus.

So how do we share in the life of Jesus?

1.) The first way to share in the life of Jesus is to eat his body and drink his blood.

Coming together for communion is how we can feast on the Word made Flesh. I was sharing with the families of our confirmation students that one of the ways we keep track of attendance in this congregation is by how often you have participated in communion. It makes sense that if we are not feeding on Christ then we have no part in His body. Otherwise communion just becomes some simple act of remembrance or commemoration like I mentioned before, instead of a sharing in that life which gives us abundant life.

Or as St. Catherine of Siena in the 4th Century once wrote:

“By this light I shall come to know
that you, eternal Trinity,
Are Table,
And Food,
And Waiter for us.”

In Catherine’s simple poem there is no way for us to be separated from Christ who is at the same time our food, that which holds our food, and Him who provides us our food. Historian Justo Gonzalez writes that,

“throughout most of its history, the Christian church has seen in communion its highest act of worship. Only at a relatively recent date has it become a common practice in many Protestant churches to focus their worship on preaching rather than on communion.”

"In his book the Essential Jesus, John Dominic Crossan points out that one of the most popular visual representations of Jesus in the early years of the Christian movement was the feeding of the multitude. Long before Christians portrayed Christ crucified they showed him breaking bread. Crossan suggests that this reflects the context of the first Christians as urban poor people for whom bread was a daily concern. Perhaps it is also a reflection of the fundamental insight: Jesus and bread, eating and feeding, table fellowship and faith, food and life - these things go together." (source - www.textweek.com)

Or as Jesus says, “Whoever eats me will live because of me.”

It is important to remember how offensive this all sounded to the original hearers of Jesus. This idea of eating the body of a god and drinking the blood of a god in ancient culture was nothing new, but to the Jews that heard Jesus, and even to his own disciples it crossed the line. Even after Jesus rose from the dead rumors circulated about these groups of Christians that would gather in crypts and eat the bodies of the dead, or these Christians who would bake little babies into their loaves of bread. The people Jesus was addressing had eaten their fill of the bread and were still stuck on that physical miracle and couldn’t see past it to the spiritual. The problem is the same today as it was then in that God is still trying to get us to look to the spiritual and not stay focused on the physical.

Martin Luther writes that there is a two-fold eating of Christ’s flesh. There is the physical eating of Christ’s body and blood, but first is the spiritual kind of eating. Luther says that this spiritual kind of eating is nothing other than faith, faith and trust that God will truly give us abundant life with his flesh and blood in the Eucharist. Faithfully coming to the alter for communion is the spiritual feast before the physical meal. Just like the disciples we are to trust in God before we ever understand what it is God is calling us to do.

2.) The second way to share in the life of Jesus is to Feast on the Word.

To feast on Jesus daily is to regularly be reading the Word of God. I heard someone once say that if we ate food like we read the Bible we would all be anorexic. In talking about the importance of being in God’s Word daily Martin Luther asks in the Large Catechism if we,

“Should so flippantly despise such might, benefits, power, and fruit- especially we who want to be pastors and preachers? If so, we deserve not only to be given no food to eat, but also to have the dogs set upon us and to be pelted with horse manure. For not only do we daily need God’s Word just as we need our daily bread; we also must have it every day in order to stand against the daily and incessant attacks and ambushes of the devil with his thousand arts.”

Martin Luther even goes on to quote the passage we have from Ephesians about God equipping us with good armor so that we can withstand the flaming arrows of the evil one. Luther says we would be fools to not even examine the weapon and armor which God gives us in a world of enemies and devils. That weapon and armor is God’s Word, the Bible. No matter what your take is on spiritual warfare the writers of our Scriptures took very seriously the dark forces at work around us which keep us from God and each other. CS Lewis wrote that it is a mistake to either ignore demons or to take an excessive interest in them. So to feast on God’s Word regularly is part of feasting on Christ and being equipped for daily life.

3.) The third way in which we share in the life of Jesus is to follow faithfully even when it offends us, even when it is difficult, and especially when we have no idea where it will lead.

Ignatius of Antioch before he was martyred in Rome in the 2nd Century wrote,

“I am God’s wheat ground fine by the lions teeth to be made purest bread for Christ.”

To be part of Christ’s body in the world means things will be difficult. We sang not too long ago the Psalmist lament that

“Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them from every one.”

Faithfully following Christ into the world and having our bodies broken for the sake of others is difficult. There are many people over in Philo that are working day and night to prepare a new home for the Montgomery family as part of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition TV show. There were members of our own congregation just yesterday helping a blind family empty, clean, sort, and organize their house so that in a very real way that family might see. This is difficult work. To some it may be offensive. Not all the neighbors in Philo are happy with the noise of so many machines and people. And not just anyone can walk into a house that hasn’t been cleaned in years and go to work, to many that is offensive. When many of Jesus’ disciples heard his teaching they said to him, “this teaching is difficult, who can accept it?”

So do we work past minor differences with the United Methodist Church in order to share our pastoral leaders, or do we say, “this is too difficult?”

Do we see sexuality as both a gift and something that requires us all to trust one another, or do we say, “this is too difficult?”

Dare we think of stopping the spread of Malaria in south-Sahara Africa or do we say, “this is too difficult?”

Can we attempt to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS or do we say instead that, “this is too difficult?”

Do we look at stopping the abuse and injustice women face or do we say, “this is too difficult?”

These difficult and confusing global issues faced The 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly this past week in Minneapolis and they voted to follow Christ IN FAITH by:

Being in full communion with the United Methodist Church.

By seeking ways to recognize, support and hold publicly accountable, those in lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships who wish to be rostered leaders within the ELCA.

By seeking to raise $75 million dollars to fight Malaria in south Sahara Africa

By raising $10 million dollars towards the ELCA HIV and AIDS Strategy.

By creating a social statement that seeks justice for women.

Pastor Donna has been faithfully serving us this past week at the Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis. She, along with over 1,000 other delegates have wrestled with some very difficult issues. In Ephesians we read Paul’s instructions for the church to “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.“ I watched a good portion of the Assembly live online and must confess that I have never seen an Assembly so soaked in prayer. Even with all of the prayers before and during the Assembly many people were talking about how as a denomination we would lose members no matter what was decided upon. But let me remind you as we wrestle with the gospel message from John this morning that there is a huge difference between switching churches because we don’t agree, and no longer following Christ. As far as I know, no one has left the Church wide Assembly and decided to no longer be a Christian. As we hear the text from John this morning which do you think is worse, to find ourselves in disagreement because Jesus’ teaching is too difficult, or for us to no longer follow Jesus? I count myself blessed to be a part of a church body that can totally disagree and yet still gather to eat Christ’s body together.

After all, we share in the life of Jesus when we eat his body and drink his blood. We do this together through communion, hearing God’s Word, and by following Christ faithfully. These things will certainly offend us and will most definitely be difficult. So when Jesus asks us, “Do you also wish to go away?“ my hope is that we will all continue to confess just as Peter did, “Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Alleluia. Amen.

Summer Trip Tour

2009-08-10T16:19:00.000-05:00

I have just completed my three week tour of youth trips, conferences, and camps. One week was devoted to Leadership Lab where we used, for the most part, the same curriculum as last year with a few video and topic changes. The week went really well, and as always I learned much from the youth who gathered for this experience in intentional Christian community. I was able to make friends with those that I would later bump into in New Orleans and at camp. I was really interested that when youth had the chance to ask the bishops anything they wanted focus shifted from being totally about homosexuality to ethical questions about living together and sex before marriage. The bishops did a wonderful job talking about how sexuality is a wonderful gift from God that can be a gift of great love for someone else or it can be a source of great pain, abuse, and destruction depending on how we use this gift.

The week at Leadership Lab also presented me with my first opportunity to use a cell phone. It is true. I may be the only Youth Leader in the country without a cell phone. My brother purchased a pay as you go phone for me 4 years ago that I finally pulled out to take with me that week in case someone from church needed to get a hold of me. Turns out that since I had not used the phone in 4 years they had given my phone number to someone else! After getting a new number, phone card with minutes for the phone, and a new charger I was ready to go. Once at Lab I had a girl cracking up because I didn't know how to set up my voicemail. Pretty sure she set it up for me in about 20 seconds. We all had a good laugh at how little I knew about cell phones but I reminded them that the reason I go without one is because of my philosophy of ministry.

In short:

Jesus Christ came in human flesh for the salvation of the world. I believe, as Bonhoeffer and others, that we meet Christ concretely in the presence of each other. I do not believe any technology to be good or bad in and of itself, like most things it depends on how we use them. I have, however, chosen not to use a cell phone so that I might be as fully present to the people that God places in front of me each day. God has given me gifts that fit well with practicing presence with others and I intend to use those gifts no matter how odd or counter cultural it may seem.

It is amazing to me how many of the kids in my small group at Leadership Lab admitted to having been really mad when asked not to bring or use cell phones for church trips, yet by the end of the week many of them had little desire to pick up those phones and start using them again at the addictive rate to which they were used to. There is something very freeing about unplugging. If there is any value at all to the three trips I have take alongside youth this summer it is just that. It gives them a chance to unplug so that space can be created for them to hear God's voice. God's voice is never absent, we just seldom take the time to listen. My ministry is to be one of listening.

"My life is a listening, God's is a speaking. My salvation is to hear and respond." - Thomas Merton

Three days after Leadership Lab I left for a trip down to New Orleans for the National Youth Gathering. The Gathering was split into three areas each day: 1.) Serivce 2.) Learning 3.) Activities. Each area was based on the focus topic chosen by the group. We decided on Wealth & Poverty as our theme for the week so we learned about how illiteracy can be one of the largest barriers to getting out of poverty. These lessons took us to the Jefferson School parish for a day of reading to the young children there. Most kids are about 2 years behind in reading because of how long it took to get families back into New Orleans and the lack of schools open post Hurricane Katrina. I was able to read to and lead some activities involving letters with three boys in kindergarten. During our break I talked with Floyd who is the plant manager at the school. He shared about losing his home during Katrina and only being able to stay in New Orleans because his current job at the school provides housing for him. He lost everything except for his desire to stay in the city he loves and calls home. He talked about the lack of affordable housing and how many tent communities for the homeless were dissappearing because of increasing laws making homelessness illegal. He spoke of why young people in some neighborhoods choose to deal drugs and make a couple hundred bucks in a half hour as opposed to working a low paying minimum wage job for 40 hours a week only to make a fraction of that money. He mentioned the bloodshed that occurred on a regular basis when perfectly good housing projects were demolished and various gangs were forced into other gangs turf. I like to think that with all the problems that have gone on and continue to plague the people of New Orleans, a group of 37,000 youth provided a ray of hope if even for a few days. It was estimated that the work done in those three days would have taken a company working full time 6 days a week 45 years to complete! Praise God. For a great article check this out.

My third and final trip for the summer was with 6 of our junior high girls to camp. They had an opportunity to sleep in Hogans, which are like covered wagons minus the wheels, canoe, hike, tent camp, team build, swim, lead campfire, crate stack, and cook out over the campfire. It was the most intense outdoor experience I have had with this age group before. Much like the other two trips, this one again provided space for kids to be who God created them to be without fear of being judged. They were allowed to play, sing, dance, and pray in ways they never had before. This space gave them time to stretch themselves physically by trying new things and using the gifts God has given them. I was delighted to see familiar faces from my last two trips at this camp that same week! Not only did we eat our weight in fresh black berries each morning, but we also got equipped with numerous games to bring home and even a few that we left with other campers and counselors. (Long Live the MOOSE Game!) One of my favorite memories was the SIMSA group that led our evening grace before dinner each night. I have included it below and am working on teaching it to my kids.

Whether it was on a college campus, a flood ravaged city, or an outdoor campground, I had many opportunities to hear stories of God's grace. I heard God's grace in the young people that want so desperately to do what pleases God but also know better than anyone else the sexual passions that fill their own bodies. I heard God's grace in Floyd who was so thankful to have a group willing to help paint his school even after our "service project" of reading to the young kids was over. I heard God's grace in the changing voice of a puberty stricken junior high boy who just loved to laugh.

Accompaniment

2009-06-29T22:17:00.000-05:00

What does it mean to walk alongside someone with no agenda?

What does it look like to be willing to be with someone through all of life's joys and suffering?

Two weeks ago our synod (or area of Lutheran churches) came together for our annual assembly to discuss and vote on various issues. It is obvious that many in the room would never see eye to eye on most of the issues on a local level, let alone a national level. But what impressed me was the message which came from various leaders that week about the need for accompaniment. The need for us as followers of Christ to walk alongside others even when we don't know how things will turn out. We may not agree on our understanding of sexuality, let along homosexuality, but are we willing to walk alongside one another as we struggle with it? We may not agree on how best to take care of creation but can we walk alongside creation long enough to know what might be best for all of us? The fact that congregation are now allowed to bring a young person of voting age in addition to the normal amount of delegates show at some level that we are willing to walk alongside young people.

The Boy Scouts of America have a program called Venturing that I would encourage any young person to check out. There is a Venturing Crew that meets at our church on occasion and they asked me if I would be willing to lead a seminar on ethics. I agreed and shared with them 5 scenarios of situations that had actually happened involving youth their age. After sharing each scenario I asked them how they would respond to the situation and then kept adding more information to make the situation even more messy. What they didn't know was that all of these scenarios had actually happened to me while I was involved with ministry alongside young people. Each one required me to make a decision on what I believed to be the right thing to do at the time. I shared with them that ethics requires suffering and that as a follower of Christ I believe Jesus calls us into the suffering of others. The BIG DIFFERENCE between ethics and morals is that morals can devolve into a moralism that says, "This is right in ALL situations, and this is WRONG in all situations," which never takes into account the suffering of the very real human being who is right in front of you and always becomes legalistic. Ethics involves accompaniment, walking alongside someone when everything hits the fan and being willing to not leave them in their mess.

I just finished a book not too long ago by Dan Kimball called, "They like Jesus but not the Church." Wonderful book that looks at the problem of ministry that trades accompaniment for an agenda. Dan begins by blasting pastors at a conference that don't spend any time during the week outside of the church building hanging out with those who don't go to church. Most of Dan's experiences have shown that many churches feel its the outsiders responsibility to come to the church instead of the body of Christ going out into the world. It seems as though Christians through up a ton of rules or beliefs that have to be followed or met or agreed upon BEFORE they can be fully welcomed in. This is a little backwards when we think about how faith works. I don't wait to love my children until they have fully learned how to crap in the toilet. I love them through the whole process trusting that someday, by the grace of God, they will see it as a better way of living life then carrying around their own feces in their pants.

Let us look at youth ministry from the perspective of accompaniment versus agenda. Andrew Root has done excellent research documenting movements like Youth for Christ and Young Life. He has noticed that much of their outreach ministry is based on the idea that leaders earn the right to be heard by young people so that eventually they can speak the truth to them. Here is the problem: What happens when the leader has dumped a bunch of money and time into a young person and finally says to them, "say this prayer and you will go to heaven," and the young person says no? The leader then feels they have wasted their time and moves on to work with another youth who might say yes. As absurd as this sounds, this is how ministry is being done all over the country and it is not relational, it is agenda based and numbers driven. Real relation ministry would stick by a young person during the times when they seem closest to God and most distant.

Accompaniment is going to be small. How many people's lives can you really be invested in at any given time? M. Scott Peck says 3 is the most number of people you can really be walking alongside and any more than that and you are not really paying attention to the lives of those next to you. How many people did Jesus really pour his life into? He had only a fleeting presence in the thousands of lives he touched or healed, but his ministry alongside 12 guys for a number of years typically manifested itself in events where he was only with 2 or 3 of them at any given time. Maybe another word for accompaniment is discipleship. Who are the 2 or 3 people in our own lives that we are discipling? It means that we walk alongside someone not for what they can offer us, but because they may very well be Christ among us. When Christ comes alongside us we will encounter more joy and suffering than we have ever known. What is life if it is not fully shared?

I will close this post with an artist I read about in Wired Magazine. I wish I could describe here how he takes such beautiful pictures but you will have to read it for yourself here. As Robert Buelteman accompanied creation in risky scientific ways he was blessed with seeing beauty revealed. May God reveal life more fully to us as we walk alongside those in our care.

Pentecost Preaching

2009-06-01T14:34:00.000-05:00

What follows is the message I gave to my congregation this past Sunday for Pentecost from Acts 2 & Psalm 104.

Picture you are at a park relaxing, enjoying the nice weather. There are maybe 200 or 300 other people all walking around or playing games at the park as well. Then all of a sudden those 300 people all start running in the same direction and then freeze. Then they start doing jumping jacks all in unison followed by somersaults and cartwheels.

Is this the work of the Holy Spirit or something else? Well last week in New York City it was part of the 6th annual MP3 event hosted by a group called Improv Everywhere. What happens before these events take place is that a guy named Tyler Walker puts an mp3 recording online, usually 45 minutes in length, and participants download it and transfer it to their iPods. These participants, also called agents, then synchronize their watches to an Atomic clock provided on the website. After viewing the maps, directions, and important information about possible travel delays the participants all head out to the same location. This all has the workings of a small scale military invasion. THEN at a predetermined time everyone who is in on this event presses play on their MP3 player. All craziness breaks loose as participants carry out ridiculous instructions delivered to their headphones by a narrator who calls himself, interestingly enough, “The Omnipotent Voice From Above.” The whole time people just going about their daily routines are trying to figure out why 600 people all stood up at the same time, did jumping jacks in unison, and then all did cartwheels.

These events have hundreds of complete strangers all converging on one public place to do things like create a 600 person conga line, or a 200 person Rock, Paper, Scissor battle, or fill every window of a major department store with people all dancing to the same music. The creators of Improv Everywhere say that sometimes their events are confused for a “Silent Rave,” or “Mobile Disco which was popularized in England when mobs would arrive at the same public place and dance to their own iPod music. The key difference (and this is what I want us to take away from these events) is that everyone in our events is listening to the exact same thing which makes it more fun."

They were all listening to the same thing. Which is where we find ourselves in this Pentecost reading this morning. Here we are, followers of Christ all listening to the same reading. There they were groups of Jews from all over the known world coming to Jerusalem to celebrate and despite all their different languages they are confronted with the same message. This message reveals the shocking fact that the Messiah they had been waiting for to redeem Israel already came, was killed, and had risen from the dead. News didn't travel as fast back then and it had been 50 days since all of this took place. I am not sure which would be more shocking, for them to hear other foreigners speaking their native language or to hear the news that the Messiah came and they missed it. But even with this bad news they were not excluded from participation in sharing the message, instead they get in on the ground floor of this late breaking news. Instead of being excluded they are included because now they are hearing the message and will be part of spreading it throughout the known world. This is the beauty of the Holy Spirit and the God we serve who loves diversity. You don’t have to have been in on the story from the beginning to be a part of it.

This kind of diversity is celebrated in our Psalm reading this morning:

Lord you make branches so the birds can sing
Lord you make grass so that the cows can eat
Lord you make Fir trees so that storks can live in them
Lord you make high mountains for the wild goats
Lord you make rocks for the coney's to hide under
Lord you made the moon so we can have seasons
Lord you made the dark for the animals that like to come out at night

O Lord how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all the earth is full of your creatures.

Then when we think the Psalmist has wrapped things up we start on the ocean and its creatures;

Lord you made the sea with too many creatures big and small to count
Lord you made the oceans for the Leviathan to play in

We serve a God who loves diversity, but not diversity for diversities sake. No instead a diversity that is dependent on what God provides, thus giving God glory. You see I am tempted to look at the story of the Tower of Babel and believe that here at Pentecost we have the reversal of what happened at Babel. At Babel all of the world is gathered in one place with one language and they build a tower to make a name for themselves. God then spreads the peoples to all corners of the world and confuses their language. But at Pentecost we don’t have everyone all speaking the same language, not everyone is even in agreement on what is actually happening, some think the disciples are drunk. Before the disciples even have a chance to make a name for themselves because of their intimate relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit pours in. And Peter quotes the prophet Joel here when he talks about the Spirit being poured out it is the kind of imagery that would remind us of all that rain we got a couple of weeks ago. The Holy Spirit steps in and opens up the message to more people than just the disciples, now they alone cannot lay claim to Jesus. It’s like open source programming, everyone gets a hand in creating it and no one can really lay claim to what is made, instead it is for the betterment of everyone that can use it.

This is a huge temptation with spiritual matters and it happens all the time. We can get so caught up in trying to make the event the point that we miss the point of the event. Whether it is Babel, or this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we tend to want to celebrate the miracle of the event instead of our God who has really provided for it and created it. So Peter steps in and draws attention away from this strange Holy Spirit as a Second Language class and brings them back to Jesus Christ. He sees this outpouring of the Holy Spirit as something the prophet Joel had talked about and then goes on to interpret King David, or what we know of as Psalm 16 and Psalm 110. I love how in trying to interpret the events taking place Peter turns to a Prophet who uses visual imagery and a musician who uses song.

Most of the music on my mind these days is Jazz. Mostly because in 50 Days 16 youth and 5 adults will be leaving here to go down to New Orleans to learn about issues concerning wealth and poverty before and after Hurricane Katrina. Like Pentecost the point will not be the event itself, but where we take the message from there. How will 36,000 young people and adults from all over the nation take the message they hear in New Orleans back to their home towns? That is Holy Spirit work. In preparation for this trip we have been blessed with 3 musicians who have led us in some Jazz music at a few of our sessions. What amazes me is how much of Jazz music is total improvisation. In fact at one of our gatherings we talked about Jazz music as one of the ways to think about the Holy Spirit because it is God using our variety of gifts to make something beautiful that we could never make on our own. Music makes you move, it makes you want to party. But you party too much and you start to get a reputation.

Let’s play a fill in the blank game. Jesus was accused of partying too much because he ate with tax collectors and ____________. The early disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit and others think they are filled with new ________. People today see Christians and think we are full of _______? Nobody felt led by the Holy Spirit huh? Was anyone thinking Joy? Why are Christians quickly becoming known for being the group that leaves worship, goes out to eat, complains about the food, and then leaves a lousy tip? We should be the group of believers described later in Acts, the ones who ate their food with glad and generous hearts praising God and having the goodwill of all the people? Think back to that improv group. How many people see how much fun that group is having and think to themselves, "I don't know what the heck just happened but I want to be a part of that!" Followers of Christ should be known as the group that has the most fun because they are the ones least afraid of meeting new people and sharing life with them.

May the the Holy Spirit fill us to send us out to new places to meet new people to share new life with them. Amen.