Boulevard Presbyterian Church

Follow My Blog At It's New Home

2011-04-21T13:21:00.002-04:00

Faithful followers, avid readers, sympathetic family members, and international community,

As of Sunday, April 17th I am no longer serving as Associate Pastor of Boulevard Presbyterian Church. Therefore I have moved my blogging to a new site I am very proud of.

Please visit & follow my new blog at:

pastorbrettswanson.com

This new site will feature articles, blog posts, featured content, and new section entitled "Live at Gobbler's Knob" which will feature observations and dispatches from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania - my new home. I hope you will check back often.

Peace,
Brett Swanson

www.twitter.com/bjswanson74

It's Official

2011-04-11T09:24:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, April 10th I was officially voted in/accepted/etc. as the next Pastor of The Presbyterian Church of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania - home of Groundhog Day. It was an exciting, terrifying, incredible, humbling experience that left me without words (something of a rarity).

While Boulevard Presbyterian Church has known about my departure for sometime, I have waited to make it "Facebook Official" until this one hurdle has passed. I am thankful now to share this joy with all who will hear.

My last Sunday here at Boulevard Presbyterian Church will be this approaching Sunday, April 17th aka. Palm Sunday. At that point, I will stop blogging under the Boulevard Presbyterian Church blog where you are currently reading this. When a new online home is settled, I will make sure to let you know.

Peace and thank you for the support.

Finding New Favorites

2011-03-29T10:33:00.003-04:00

If you are not familiar with West Virginia Public Radio's Mountain Stage then you should be. For the cost of a pizza I saw the Indigo Girls (the partial subject of an earlier blog post entitled Rowdy Ladies & Live Music ), and last Sunday I sat 7 rows back from the stage for Dar Williams, David Wax Museum, Raul Malo, and three of the greatest living musicians, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussain playing as a trio. All in all, I am not sure there is a better "more for your money" concert experience than Mountain Stage.

When I bought these tickets for my wife's birthday, it was all about Dar Williams and Bela Fleck. Williams, with her incredible voice and wonderful lyrics, and Fleck, easily the most accomplished banjo player living. With these two on the same ticket, it was easy money & when we arrived at the venue I started thinking, "I hope she plays..."

Dar Williams, with her beautiful voice, didn't sing a single song I wanted her to play. While I am no super-fan and am certainly not familiar with her extensive catalog in a way that would have been happy to hear any of her works, I thought I would get at least one tune from my personal wish list. Alas there was nothing. Hopes were dashed when the final song closed. No encore. No The Christians and Pagans. No The Babysitter's Here. She closed with Hudson, a song I was hearing for the first time.

Normally, I would have said I was disappointed. Having an opportunity to get exactly what you want and not getting it seems to be a fair definition of disappointing. It was possible, she could have sung my songs. Not out of malice or an attempt to ruin my evening, Dar just didn't. Concert goers know what this is like. Yet, as it turns out, I wasn't too disappointed. Sure, I didn't get my songs but something else happened.

There is this band called David Wax Museum. They opened the show, and they are awesome. I didn't know much about them when I picked up the tickets. They, like a lot of acts on Mountain Stage, are the green beans to the pork chop that is the headliner. Well, as it turns out, I really like green beans, and when the pork chop isn't exactly to your liking, the side dishes are that much better. David Wax Museum made a fan out of me with their upbeat, original music, and the shear love they had for what they did. I bought their two albums yesterday.

Life never 100% of the time gives you what you want. You don't get everything all the time. This fact can make people bitter; hating the fortune of some while lamenting the disappointment in their own lives. When your best laid plans fall short, and your proverbial pork chop is dry, you can't help but be disappointed. There is no cure for failed expectations other than have no expectations to begin with, and that seems impossible.

What my concert experience re-confirmed for me is that expectations cannot crowd out an openness to what life, God, and others have in store. While Dar Williams didn't give me exactly what I want, David Wax Museum gave me something I didn't think I would find: a new favorite band. Being open, flexible, and willing to learn something new is the only way I know how to combat the disappointments of life. I will still hope I hear the songs I like. I will still hope that my favorite food is still on the menu, the book I want to read is at the library, and the exhibit is still at the art museum but in the event that the food, the book, and the art is gone, I will do my best to try something new, and be open to finding new favorites.

Sermon for March 27th - Christian Identity: Accepted

2011-03-29T10:25:00.005-04:00

The following sermon was delivered on Sunday, March 27th and is a reflection on John 8:1-11. Footnotes and citations have been left out for purposes of blog publishing.

In college I was instructed to read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Thankfully it wasn’t the thousand page tome but an abridged version. I fell in love with the book, and read it in a weekend. Being that our scripture today carries with it so much silence, my mind fills the gap with Les Miserables. Like the woman caught in adultery, Jean Valjean is red handed and expecting swift judgment. He, similarly, stands silently before a servant of God, in our case a Bishop, who rejects the law of the land in favor of an abounding & mystifying grace. Hugo writes of the moment when the Bishop “buys” Jean Valjean, buys him from the imprisonment and hardship he is to endure as someone who stole silver from all places but a House of God, penning, “Jean Valjean opened his eyes & looked at the Bishop with an expression which no human tongue could describe.” I re-read those words and instantly attribute them to John the author of the Gospel, serving as narrator. I hear, “the woman who was brought before the crowd for judgment, opened her eyes and looked up at Jesus with an expression no human tongue could describe.” Like Valjean, our unnamed woman comes face to face with a sort of love that is an affront to the status-quo, and the law that would order and guide our days. This is a love that, I still stand silently before, like many of you.

I am a sinner from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, and while the Apostle Paul writes in First Timothy that he is “the worst” of all sinners, I think that I can give him a run for his money. Left to my own devices, I fear the good and turn to the easy. Amazing Grace has got me dead to rights, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” I can say this now but it acknowledging the actual state of things wasn’t always easy. I have, from time to time, been like the guy who came up to me after his aunt or mother’s funeral (I can’t quite remember) and complained that singing Amazing Grace was offensive because the dearly departed was certainly no wretch.

I spent a great deal of my life trying to be perfect, not in the way the scripture tells us to be perfect as God is perfect , but perfect in the eyes of others. Applying for college, I coveted letters of reference from my Pastor that said I was a “good Christian”, from my coaches that said they were impressed with my commitment, from teachers that said I was a skilled student, and from anyone who could write that I was a wonderful human being. During my time in college and beyond I kept those letters in a binder and just about any stroll down memory lane included the affirmation those letters contained. I tied my worth to my ability to be a good friend, to always do what is right, and when others gave up, I selfishly pressed forward hoping to be like Sally Field and proclaim “you like me, right now, you like me!” Yet, as we all know, Sally’s moment fades away.

I have recently come across a poem To An Athlete Dying Young, that described it all eerily well. “The time you won your town the race, we chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high. Today, the road all runners come, Shoulder high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town.” The poem continues, “Smart lad, to slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay, And early though the laurel grows, It withers quicker than the rose.”

The unnamed woman brought before Jesus is a beloved child of God. She is a sinner, standing accused for a crime caught red handed, and according to the law she (along with the absent male) was to be taken outside the city gate and before all who gathered, the victim of her infidelity was to throw the first stone. If her intention was to be perfect, she failed. If her intention was to escape the consequences of her sin, she failed at that too. Jesus does not condone this woman’s sin nor ours because we cannot be relieved of the consequences of our sins. We must live with the fruits of what we have sown yet, in Christ’s love we can be relieved of the consequences of being sinners. Christ embraces this woman sins and all. Will her marriage be harmed? Most likely. Will she face scorn on the part of the community? Probably. Will her sins keep her from experiencing God’s love? Absolutely not.

The truth is, God is a sucker for screw-ups like me. Where the world withholds its love and acceptance for those deemed worthy and valuable, finding precious few to love, God does not seek value; God creates value through love. “It is not because we have value that God loves us; it’s because God loves us that we have value.” Sinners unite! We are the beloved children of God; accepted not only for who we are but what we are – the beloved children of a God who loves us, accepts us.

Allow me to close with a thought about stones. Symbolically the stoning of the accused was about rejection, ostracizing the sinner from your community, and literally the throwing of stones chased the life right out of a few. If you find yourself with a rock in your hand, you have a choice: do I use it as a tool of separation, judgment, and punishment, or can it be a building block? Stones large enough to deal deadly blows usually are large enough to have been included in walls and buildings during ancient times, and today we have the same opportunity. The energy and zeal spent all the world throwing stones and hating others that we are so convinced are different, sinful, or otherwise is a poor use of time and materials that could be used for good, and for building. Sinners loved by God, we can build together. We can take our stones and united, use them to build rather than kill. Our own church stands as a testament. Stone upon stone built a House of God for everyone to hear of a love above all others. What else can we do when we use our stones to build up rather than tear down?

Effective Not Efficient Dialogue

2011-03-16T09:17:00.008-04:00

Maybe it is because I like getting my money's worth out of those blood pressure meds, or maybe it is because I, like many Ohioans, enjoy rubbernecking, but I have been reading Facebook wall posts/discussions. Perhaps name calling should have been given up for Lent.

I should clarify. Unlike the usually captivating banter surrounding what someone had for lunch or what their dog is up to that usually suck me in, the reason for this particular season was disagreement of a fundamental kind. Strongly held beliefs, over-the-top black and white comments, and the like are something akin to currency on Facebook and Twitter. Where friends and followers are tallied in their respective platform's corner, what you say & how often you say it can often mean more people to hear it (read it). The stronger, funnier, well-crafted update or comment can engender comments on your comments; replies and retweets pile up when you skin the proverbial smokewagon & fire off a round or two into an issue/controversy/etc. This is percisely what happened.

Disagreement is a building block of community. Like my favorite television President, I am a life long holder of minority opinions. Chances are we don't agree on many foundational elements of life, faith, politics, etc. That is the way it should be. In my limited understanding, disagreement has the opportunity to carve out a spaces for dialogue; an opportunity to "argue it out" as the book of Isaiah puts it. Facebook and Twitter are pretty good at aranging the meeting of important issues and strongly held beliefs. Folks seem to be braver digitally, and the comments testify to that fact. What might have been a civil dialogue regarding the ins-and-outs of our denomination, or what is/is not being said/done about this/that can quickly become a battle of complimentary skills: loud rhetoric + fast typing. Add free time and a decent internet connection and quickly you are the Nelson Muntz to our Martin Prince.

Effective not efficient dialogue is what the world, the denomination, the faith needs and deserves. Whereas efficiency is great for a myriad of things, exploring the relationship between the faithful and their community is not one of them. Effective dialogue means voices don't just weigh in but they are heard, and respected when they reciprocate. For this reason, the shouts of ideological bullies can never be conversation partners producing effective dialogue; they neither hear nor respect their oppositional counterparts. Sometimes the most important voices come from the smallest places & do not have historic traditions to claim and corresponding vocabulary to wield to ensure their voice is heard. Therefore, if we are to indeed "argue it out", then we must bring respect to the table first and foremost, and recognize efficiency at work when the loudest shouts, and those who possess superior words per minute hold court.

Ash Wednesday on a Rainy Day

2011-03-09T18:31:00.003-05:00

Today is Ash Wednesday, and Boulevard's service begins in less than 30 minutes. Not the best time to be blogging.

In my short pastoral memory, this appears to be the first time it has rained on Ash Wednesday. The imagery is striking for me. Within the hour, many people will join us for worship and, at a certain point, have an ashen cross scrawled on their foreheads. I will say "remember you are dust, and to dust you will return"; one of our strongest statements in the Christian church. What my meager words convey is hopefully a sense that we are temporary, and the ashen cross serves as a reminder of such. As a people we don't think of ourselves as temporary very often; Ash Wednesday is one of the few days that it is made plain.

What strikes me about our rainy Ash Wednesday is how quickly the ashen cross will be washed away; how quickly a reminder of our temporal selves will be forgotten.

A Grey Day in Columbus

2011-02-28T16:45:00.000-05:00

Sunday Sermon video - Kingdom Ethics: Ad d'Lo Yada

2011-02-28T16:23:00.000-05:00

Sermon: Ad d’Lo Yada

2011-02-28T11:20:00.003-05:00

Note: The following sermon was delivered (more or less like it is here) on Sunday, February 27th. It is taken from Matthew 6:24-34 but also heavily inspired by I Corinthians 4:1 and the 4th chapter of the Book of Esther.

In the Book of Esther, good and bad are laid out a plain as day. There is good, his name is Mordechai, a blessed man who seeks to protect his native Jews. Then there is bad, his name is Haman, a cursed commander of the military who plots to wipe the Jews away. Plain and simple, Mordechai is good & Haman is bad, and our book’s namesake Queen Esther, ascends to royal dignity precisely so she can refute Haman, stand up to the King, and save the Jews, her people; “for just such a time as this.” No grey area. No ambiguity. The right & only decision that honors God and saves God’s children is Mordechai. It’s an easy call.

For centuries observant Jews celebrate the Festival of Purim with costumes, gifts of charity, sharing huge feasts, and truly having a great time. Purim is often the favorite of all Jewish holidays. In a way, with a world filled with shades of grey and ambiguity, who wouldn’t love to celebrate a day when the right and wrong thing to do were so clear? Purim highlights Esther’s courage and strength to speak potentially lethal words to her captor, her husband, and king, and in so doing, emphasizes Esther’s courage. Esther is able, fully able, to step into the throne room and speak to her king words that result in her native Jewish population receiving warning of an eminent attack at the hands of Haman. Given the attention on Esther as the able, right-minded, courageous, and strong savior of the Jews, it is peculiar the way the Jewish tradition prescribes a certain celebration in her honor: getting stupid drunk.

The tradition is called Ad d’Lo Yada, and it is found in the collected wisdom of the Rabbis called the Talmud. In a festival filled with fun, food, and charity, getting hammered is a controversial way to honor God. Men are instructed to drink wine to the point of intoxication, to the point when they are no longer able to distinguish the different between “cursed in Haman” and “blessed is Mordechai.” So blitzed, their faculties fail them, and they can no longer tell the difference between Haman, the would-be butcher of the Jews, and Mordechai, Esther’s counsel and the man who shows her a call in this foreign court. So drunk, if Haman and Mordechai walked into the room right now, you would be useless to tell the difference.

Rabbis seeking to figure out the wisdom found in this practice, especially considering drunkenness is despised in much of Judaism, are not of one mind. Some believe it should be avoided, pointing out that the Rabbi who gave such a prescription owned a vineyard. Other Rabbis look for loop-holes, and others still try to offer advice on how to navigate the prescribed drinking. Yet, I am intrigued by the traditions that claim the practice. Not being much a drinker myself, and generally favoring Diet Coke to fine Red Wine, as purely an object lesson, I am taken by the idea of getting smashed to the point when you no longer depend on your ability, your knowledge, your experiences or plans to steer you away from certain death, and trust that God will point you in the right direction. Whatever happens, Haman or Mordechai, you did not rely on anything under your command and placed the matter in God’s hands. It is the ancient Jewish version of that country song, Jesus, Take the Wheel.

Please brothers and sisters, don’t get drunk. Let me say that again: please don’t get drunk. Drinking to excess is bad for Jew and Gentile alike. Drinking to forget, to no longer worry about the rigors of the day is a common cause to take up a bottle but not a good one. I don’t believe I have ever heard a sober rendition of “Don’t Worry Be Happy!” or have been counseled to “just forget about it” by anyone not drunk. The worry-free life seems impossible for those not plied by too much to drink. We have bills to pay, promises to keep, hard decisions regarding life’s realities; we avoid variables like long lines at Giant Eagle lest we get caught waiting, dependent on forces far outside our control. The non-stop news of downsizing, unemployment, increased costs for health care, vanishing Social Security, and the like, don’t lend themselves well to a “biblical approach”, do they? Now is the time for proper vigilance; keeping awake, alert and ready to seize a fleeting opportunity while others slumber. “Today is what we have to prepare for tomorrow”, an economics professor told my whole freshman class in college. He was telling us how we might turn $8,000 now into one-million by the time we retire.

As a nation we have made ignoring Jesus on this specific point of not worrying a matter of civic pride. Our history as a nation has been forged by those who struck out across of western expanse and wrestled for everything they had. Telling the cattle rancher “do not worry” as storm clouds rumble in will pack about as much punch as telling virtually any of you to not worry about filing your taxes or planning for life’s eventualities. The children of God, all the world around, face worry, anxiety, paranoia, and when we hear Jesus tell the comfortable not to pine and worry over being on par with the Jones’ and tell the hungry and poor not to worry as they wonder where the next meal will come from, we might begin to think “Oh, that is just Jesus. He must mean spiritually/symbolically.” We have been saying that a lot as of late. “Love your enemies,” “Be perfect”, and now today “do not worry”; not exactly greatest hits for the human experience.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he instructs the church to think of him and his ilk as “servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.” I heard this passage a lot in Seminary. It was the President’s favorite verse and one he used to charge many an incoming class. Like Paul, we should strive to serve Christ and be stewards, be caretakers of God’s mysteries. Perhaps it was Dean’s way of speaking about it, or maybe it was Paul’s simple way of spelling it out, but I saw something about what we do as a church and certainly as individuals as indeed being stewards of God’s mysteries. The holy, the odd, the other, the peculiar way God loves us and creates for us is pretty well summed up in the word mystery. There really isn’t anything that is not mysterious about God. Mysterious is the way in which God loves us, mysterious is the way God operates, mysterious is the way in which God interacts with God’s people, mysterious is the way that God orders the world, mysterious is the way God calls us, and certainly, mysterious is the way God shows God-self in Christ. While the world scratches its head, we claim the mysteries of God and struggle to be their caretakers. We as a church embrace the mystery, sometimes uncomfortably, and in times of true baffling, when an infant dies or tragedy strikes, when nothing makes sense – where do we go? We journey deeper into the arms of God and , and speak out our prayers and pain. Mysteries require a deeper look. Mysteries require a commitment. Mysteries require you make a choice whether to embrace only what you know, only what you can taste and touch, or embrace something bigger than simply knowing all the answers.

When I hear Jesus’ words on the Sermon on the Mount, I hear a call to be participants in the mysteries of God. When an economics professor tells you that $8,000 today could be one-million tomorrow, we hear Jesus point to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. We are invited to join them. When hundreds of books and seminars hit the shelves each year promising to fulfill whatever you lack, we hear Jesus say you cannot serve two masters. We are invited to seek only righteousness. When the rat-race has got you convinced that what you drive and what you wear are more important that you who are, we hear Jesus say indeed God knows you. We are invited to strive for the Kingdom of God. The true call in these verses is to be people of trust and faith in a God who feed & clothes, who sustains & who is indeed mysterious. As our brothers celebrating Esther’s courage drink to symbolically illustrate God’s care, we too participate in the illogical, mysterious, other-worldly truth that by NOT sowing or reaping we are fed abundantly & by NOT worrying about tomorrow we are clothed perfectly for it. This is the Kingdom of God, not a coming Kingdom, but a call to be citizens today and follow a new King who does not want to fruits of anxious worry but only right relationship. Day by day our call is to focus not on money in the bank, clothes on your back, the car in the driveway, or who the world says you are, but to be in relationship with the mysterious God who frees us to people pursuing righteousness & living into the Kingdom of God with the same freedom as the birds fly through the air, the lilies reach towards the sun, and the grass sprouts in the spring.

Valuing Comfort/Risking Discomfort

2011-02-21T10:58:00.006-05:00

Note: The following is my submission for the March 2011 Good News, the newsletter of Boulevard Presbyterian Church

I am a big guy. I am over six feet tall and 300 pounds. I have long arms, thick legs, and thanks to football, bad knees. I am the poster child for being uncomfortable on commercial flights. The cramped quarters and little leg room mean that I spill out into the aisle (where I like to sit) with my right leg and its bad knee creating obstacles for flight attendants and antsy passengers alike. I am not the guy you like to see boarding the plane; I am not the guy you want sitting next to you. I am an experienced passenger, and know the tricks; I no longer pray for safe flights. My prayer is usually, “Dear Lord, please let this empty seat next to me stay empty.” AMEN

Being uncomfortable is part of flying; a necessary trial that allows for incredible experiences. Standing on the Great Wall of China more than makes up for the prolonged torture I experienced on Korean Air. 14 hours from Seattle to London was instantly forgotten when I heard Big Ben chime. I look back on terribly uncomfortable experiences of travel and compare them to the incredible adventures they afforded, and I can’t justify limiting any potential adventure just because I might be cramped for 5 hours. Yet many people would decide otherwise.

Fear of being uncomfortable arrests so much progress, so many adventures, so many new and exciting paths to explore before the first step is ever taken. And I am not just talking about airline seats either. Comfort is prized so highly - the desire never to be stressed, to be forced into making new decisions, taking unknown leaps, trusting and discovering on the fly - that many will never abandon it no matter what they stand to gain. Many never jump because they don’t know where they will land; we are afraid of being uncomfortable and it is killing us.

Personally and together as a church, can you/can we remember a time when being unsure of how it would all turn out stopped a really good idea or the possibility of a great adventure? Can we/can you think of something we/you have always wanted to do but was afraid to try? I know I can. I think of what it will cost me (money, security, professionally, etc.), what it will require (trying and learning new things, trusting without proof), and what others will think, and rarely weigh what I could gain. I wonder what would have happened if I went into the Peace Corps instead of teaching for two years. Fear of being uncomfortable arrested my adventure, and I wonder at times what God would have done in my life if I would have named my fears and gone ahead into the great unknown. I do not regret (even in the least) the life I lead, and the path I have taken; it continues to be an amazing ride. I do regret not weighing what I could gain against what I could have lost.

As church and congregation, being uncomfortable is part of being faithful. We are challenged by the Holy Spirit to look past the stone walls of Boulevard Presbyterian and claim flexibility. We are challenged to place our trust in a sovereign God who asks us to humbly walk rather than hunker down and ride out the generations. Fads in culture and ministry will pass, and with them opportunities for new ways of thinking and attracting new members. We can’t possibly participate in each and every one but when something special comes along (perhaps it is a community garden?), we must be willing to claim the discomfort that comes with new adventures, and without all the answers walk in the direction the Spirit leads us.

"It is our desire to be a friendly people..."

2011-02-16T22:20:00.001-05:00

Maybe Not Better But Much Faster

2011-02-16T10:44:00.001-05:00

I have created an instant blogging function that allows me to email my posts and they "go live" instantly. By doing, I hope to usher in a new era of poor grammar, misspelled words, & instant blog posts.

I hope this becomes an asset but only time will tell.

Emotional Meteorology

2011-02-16T08:17:00.006-05:00

Turns out there is an article out there about "Emotional Meteorology" as though it were a real thing...the following is not a so-called real thing.

I am tired of snow and winter. Truthfully, it is just the snow but winter is the snow's accomplice and so they are tried together. I enjoy cold weather. I enjoy snow. Each in moderation which is precisely what we are lacking here in Central Ohio as of late. It has been cold, snowy, dreary, and when it was not those things & the sun peeked through, the winds reminded you of the actual state of affairs. Like many Ohio transplants, I am growing cynical and jaded about the wonders of white Christmases.

But today is a day for some Emotional Meteorology. According to the weather app on my iPhone (it is awesome by the way), Columbus is going to be treated to a high of 56 today and, brace yourself, 62 tomorrow! Central Ohioans from Dayton to Zanesville and Marion to wherever those outlets are on I-71 South will see the sun and be warmed by her rays. Pigment and color will return to the cheeks of those lucky enough to be outside today, and the Columbus Zoo will (I am guessing here) see larger crowds. Even as I type, the sun is shinning through the cloud cover and I think I hear someone in the distance singing Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. Wait a second...it is coming from inside my office...

I am guessing that the studies I hear about regarding the weather and emotional well-being have enough factual mustard for me to say "people generally feel better when the weather is better", and while I am not sure places like San Diego and Salinas, California have people skipping down the street, here in Ohio the equation is simple: Sun + Winter Months + (Insert Name Here) = More Excited.

Funny thing is, come summer, I am craving the 40 degree days of winter, and now, after months of snow and cold, I am craving the Spring to Summer transition. Life, like the seasons, happens in cycles that naturally create in us a desire to have what is currently unavailable. When it is hot we want it cool, when it is bitterly cold we want it warm, and when it rains during a kids birthday party we wish and sometimes pray for the rains to stop; rains we might have otherwise welcomed. Longing for a shining sun is natural and celebrating nice weather when it arrives is encouraged but the weather provides proof that living involves cycles that neither you nor I can control.

Good times and bad, ups and downs, victories and defeat, and the like are part of being human. We win some and lose some. Sweet victories and goals met. Bitter defeats and broken dreams. All part of being ALIVE. The scriptures I hold to be sacred show me in Matthew 5:45 that both the sun and the rain fall on everyone regardless. In my opinion, we should be willing to embrace the reality of life: things happen both good and bad. The sun will shine again, and the rains will come again each in their season. None experience the metaphorical sun only, and equally, experience only the rains. Living well, being alive means both sun and snow are to be embraced (expect in cases of injustice).

Today I embrace the warmer weather, the small glimpses of the sun, and the satisfaction of the snow melting without the dispensing of salt. Tomorrow I am told there will be the same. The days to come be they rainy and cold or warm and sunny are outside of my jurisdiction. Whatever they bring, I will be ready to embrace reluctantly or otherwise.

For another piece of scripture on this idea of the seasonality of life, check out the Book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3.

Peace

Ice Storm 2011

2011-02-02T10:12:00.006-05:00

Like most of the nation, Grandview Heights/Columbus, Ohio is getting hit pretty good. Yesterday seemed to be the worst when it came to ice & today we have bitter cold and blowing snow/winds.

Here are a couple of shots I took yesterday as I made my way into work:

On the left is a bush that sits outside the West 2nd Ave. entrance of Boulevard Presbyterian Church.

On the right is my car windshield yesterday morning. I took the shot from the inside looking out.

Life's Classroom - Jan. 30 sermon

2011-02-01T13:27:00.000-05:00

A Future Worth Winning?

2011-02-01T11:38:00.004-05:00

The Micah & Matthew lectionary passages for January 30th were embedded in my mind as I listened to President Barak Obama's State of the Union address on January 25, 2011. Like many, the President's charge to "win the future" gave me pause. The following is a meditation and a prayer I wrote on January 26th.

As I read the lectionary this week, I think of all the people Jesus is indeed talking about. The Poor, The Hungry, those crushed into meek and meager existences by a world that is not for them. I think about the men, women and children who fall under the description of poor, hungry, meek, and in a week where our President foretells of a future that must be won in order to be had, I lament another future not available to those Jesus describes.

“The future is ours to win”, said my President. A coming future where victory will be measured by the advances of learned men and women. When those who grasp the promise of the coming day are, once again, not those who sleep under bridges, in shelters, or in the camps of refugees, but those with worldly power: powers of wealth, of privilege, and the respect that comes with America’s greatest dream: the ability to grow into whatever you want to be. The future, that future is not for the poor, the hungry, the meek and the meager. Their moment will not conclude with victory.

If the future is to be won, if the journey for the promise of a new day is to be a race then many will not finish. Left behind will be those who need the promise the most. Left behind will be those whose life demands the meager energy their hungry stomachs afford and do not have the strength to run the races of this world. Their race is ultimate. It winds along the centers of power, along the steps of government, the seats of influence, and the high walls of wealth but unlike privileged sons and daughters they do not make these places their stop. Their race continues and is a marathon of ultimate things. Their race ends not in the promise of a future but in the hope of a different day, a final day when the promise of an inheritance and a great, filling banquet is set for the children of God who now gaze upon the Almighty. Their hope lies only in the promise of a great reversal, a great comfort born not of confidence in able body or ample wealth but in God Almighty whose Angels long ago promised a day when the hungry will be filled with good things.

Can a future where millions are left out truly be a future worth running for? A future worth winning? If we truly are on the verge of this generations Sputnik moment, where they look to the lofty heights & upper reaches of possibility and make that our national goal, then should we not set our sights on the nature of the very future itself? The great challenges facing our society are the ones, that by ignoring, rob the very future from our whole nation, and the world. They are not conquered in labs or libraries but in fair housing, justice for all, living wages, peace in communities, equality in marriage and life, and in an earth sustainable enough for generations that inherit what we have begun. This is the only future worth winning. Its foundation was laid centuries ago in the words of a prophet who told us what the Lord requires: to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Old words for a bright future.

True victory comes only when the future is available to all. That is the only future worth winning. Let us turn head on into the challenges of this generation, and lean into the promise that races run to bring together a more just world will be the only races worth wining.

Let us all look forward to a future worth winning: one where the hope of a new generation is available to all God’s children.

Sermon: Life's Classroom

2011-02-01T10:50:00.003-05:00

The following is a meditation on Matthew 5:1-12. It was delivered on Sunday, January 30th

Many of you know that I am teaching a class entitled Our Favorite Jesus during the Christian Education hour this month. The class ends today with a look into the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 70s. In fact I have a slide entitled “Hippie Jesus” saying that the peace, love and understanding Jesus of the era was born right in San Francisco & his parents were two former druggies named Elizabeth and Ted Wise who raised Jesus and a population of so-called Jesus Freaks. They believed Jesus to be a drop-out like they were. An outlaw and revolutionary on a mission to awaken the disillusioned and open the eyes of the drugged out young men and women who slept in the parks of Haight Ashbury. A well-known Jesus Chant of the time went: “Give Me a J”, they would chant. “Give Me a E, Give Me a S, Give Me a U, Give Me a S. What does that spell? What will get you higher than acid? What will keep you up longer than speed? What does America need?"[1] The answer to each was Jesus, and the folks who embraced Christ as the “Everlasting High” started to take the whole imitation of Christ-thing to a whole new level growing their hair long, wearing robes and sandals, bushy beards, and generally trying to be as Christ-like as they could manage.

From the hilly road of Haight Ashbury San Francisco to the slopes of Southern California, the Jesus Freaks spread carrying with them a Jesus that spoke their slang, knew their vibe, and promised something longer lasting and potent than the drugs that personified their culture. Coffeehouses-slash-Nightclubs popped up wherever the Jesus Freaks went be it The Living Room in Haight or His House in Hollywood, the message spread and these community pads overflowed with the young men and women that later would go on and populate many of the gigantic & mega-churches of Southern California. In His House, which was started by a preacher named Arthur Blessitt (which seems almost too good to be true), marijuana & heroin users seeking to get higher and higher would hear the Word of God translated into their street slang by Blessitt himself. A rite of passage for anyone who sought to “get high” on Jesus rather than drugs, Blessitt had recent converts throw their grass and pipe right into the toilet of the His House bathroom, and as they repeated “I don’t need these anymore, I’m high on the Lord”[2] Blessitt would baptize each and every one there in the toilet. Emerging from the stall, hair wet, the newly minted Jesus Freak was reminded that “Jesus is no namby-pamby character. In fact, Christ really socks it to you with some really heavy stuff.” [3]

That quote, “Christ really socks it to you with some really heavy stuff”, sums up the attitude of those who helped form the Jesus Movement and created the safe-havens Jesus Freaks flocked towards. Back in the Bay Area, a buttoned up, straight laced professor named Jack Sparks moved from teaching at Penn State University to University of California at Berkley. Sparks teaches and is involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, an evangelical organization still present today that in the 1960s wanted nothing to do with the “growing problem” of youth counterculture. Sparks is convicted by the Apostle Paul’s words in the 9^th chapter of his First Letter to the Corinthians, “For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them ”[4] and he jettisons the ties and blazers that served as a uniform for the culture the youth who flocked to Berkley rebelled against.[5]

A modern term for what Sparks did might be embed. Like the war journalists that live, breathe, sleep, and eat with the fighting groups they cover, Sparks embeds with the Jesus Freaks, a term he appropriated away from those had only criticism for him and his flock who then wore it like a badge. Leaders like Sparks begin taking the sacred scriptures of our Christian faith and begin translating them into the slang of the streets. By unlocking the message of Jesus Christ from the “words” of a culture that didn’t want these dirty, drugged out hippies, Sparks especially in his New Testament translation, Letters to the Street Christians, allowed the words that we as people of faith hold as sacred to be heard again anew. Behind all the “dig it” and “far out”, Letters to the Street Christians opened new ears and minds to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Toilet Baptisms. Slang Scripture. Hippies and Haight Ashbury. For some of you, you might remember seeing it happen, yet as we sit here it seems like a long time ago, in a far away place. If you were asked to throw your iPhone, or whatever you happen to be addicted to into the toilet by James or myself and be baptized, one of the many things you would probably do next would to find a different church. Imagine being so overcome by the Gospel you found yourself willingly being plunged head first into the toilet of a popular nightclub. Yet this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a life-changing, mind-altering, world-rocking Gospel and nowhere is this more evident that in the words of our Beatitudes. Great reversals will take place, Jesus tells the crowds. Reversals of the sacred institutions of our very lives, where those made meek and forced to live out meager lives will inherit the very earth that now seems like a prison. A reversal will take place where the hungry will one day dine along side the thirsty at a great & ultimate banquet, and those who strive to make peace in a world of war will be called the Children of God, and those who despite the great injustices visited upon them remain pure in heart, they will be those who see God. A great reversal will take place, a reversal of ultimate things, and with it a day to look forward to; a day to order your lives around and a day to give you courage and strength. Our gospel lesson today provides for us Jesus at his most dangerous, his most radical, his most counter-cultural for he speaks of a Kingdom to come where we will not be seated upon the throne.

This is a message to live by. This is a message to order your lives around. This is a message to live into by reaching out to those who God loves. This is a message that could change the world: that God loves the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, and meek…and a reversal is to come that will bring love and justice. But can we hear it? Or maybe we just don’t know how yet?

In a week, I will once again be heading out to Camp Akita & help direct the Presbytery’s Winter Youth Retreat. This year’s theme is “The Presbyterian Survival Guide.” Our Subscript is “what every Presbyterian needs to know to make it out alive.” With the popularity of Zombies continuing to grow, we are talking about what it means to be “alive in Christ” and not dead to God’s grace. In one of the survival scenarios, the couple that has found themselves at a church filled with “Christian Zombies” spends the sermon time ignoring a bland, boring sermon wondering what to have for lunch and what Jesus would think about the sermon they were hearing. When I wrote the skit, I had this scripture and Jack Sparks in the back of my mind.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the breaking in and reversing of the world that is to come where the poor will be filled up and the rich brought down, needs to be heard again. The message of love for the poor and the hungry, the meek and the meager, the message of what God requires of us, needs to break through the baggage, the waxy build-up of years and years of domestication, and be heard. A message so transformative, so enlightening, so energizing, so empowering that it orders our very lives, sets our feet in the right direction and teaches us how to live with one another. When you hear a message like that, you want to be a part of it, and then maybe toilet baptisms don’t sound so crazy after all.

[1] Prothero, Stephen, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York 2003, pg. 122-126

[2] Ibid, pg. 129

[3] Petserson, Duane, Jesus People, Regal Books, Glendale, CA 1971

[4] NRSV I Corinthians 9:19

[5] Prothero, pg. 127

Check Out the NEW Boulevard Website!

2011-01-29T10:28:00.003-05:00

With a huge debt of gratitude to our web designer/developer Lance Osborne and I photographer Ken Frick, I am VERY proud to announce that Boulevard Presbyterian Church's new website has been launched! Check it out by clicking the link below:

Boulevard Presbyterian Church

My Blog Ate My Post

2011-01-25T13:34:00.002-05:00

I am not going to type it again. Over an hour down the tubes. I had (what I thought) was a decent post about the cries of people reaching out for help and the scams that try to feed on people's desire to help. I even had two references: The Simpsons and a book. It is gone.

I am sorry I can't post it. I am also aware this is going to make me skittish about blogging again for a bit. Like the people in the blog you can't read, I have grown jaded about blogging because I have now been burnt.

Stupid Blogger...

Get Your Free Post-Worship Burritto!

2011-01-25T09:05:00.004-05:00

The other day the church got a call from our local Chiptole offering buy one - get one burritos for "Boulevard Presbyterian Church." Since it was just us staff at the time we got our orders ready and had discount burritos for lunch. Very tasty!

When I got to the Chipotle on West 5th Ave. the manager (or promotions coordinator) informed me that the West 5th Ave. Chiptole was offering Boulevard Presbyterian Church buy one-get one burritos on Sundays after worship (that location ONLY). Mention your are from Boulevard Presbyterian Church and enjoy the savings.

Very Cool.

Good & Great

2011-01-19T13:49:00.002-05:00

What would you choose if you could be made good at something instantly? Would you become a good cook? Perhaps a good investor? Maybe a good basketball player or skilled with the rod and the reel. The choice is yours. What would you be good at? For me, it would be music.

I do wish I had even remedial skill at playing the guitar or the piano. To be called “good” at tickling the ivory would be fulfillment of my one unrequited love. In my dreams I picture myself sitting on my porch playing guitar for hours on end as I work my way through the Eric Clapton catalog or sitting at the piano as the family gathers for Christmas playing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Professional aspirations aside, I would be good playing the guitar and the piano. If only wishing made it so.

Would you choose if you could be great at something? Would it be the same? Would you choose to be truly great at cooking or basketball? Would you elect to have your named etched in stone for generations and generations because you were great at fishing? As much as I dream about playing an instrument, I am confident that it would not be the thing I elect to be great at. Perhaps it would be peacemaking that I would choose. Then again it might be communication. Maybe I would elect to be great at something yet unrealized; a skill and talent for the next phase of my life and ministry. To choose what to be truly great at would require some serious discernment, and then hard work and commitment.

The difference between good and great is epic. Good is fine but great is better. This truth led Jim Collins in his book Good to Great to bluntly call good “the enemy of great” for its ability to arrest effort, progress, innovation, and discernment. If you were good at fishing would you put in the time, energy, effort, focus, and rugged determination to work to become a great fisher-person? We often work towards good and settle there; good is good enough. Good gets you in the door. Good makes you some money. Good can produce but how much less than Great? Imagine the different between a good signer and a great one. Imagine the difference between a good pitcher and a great one. Imagine the difference between a good restaurant and a great one. Imagine the difference between a good church and a great one.

One last question, do you want Boulevard to be a good church or a great one? If good is good enough then we have very little left to do. Yet if great is where we are called, if great is where we are to aim, if becoming a great church is how we are going to provide for future generations and our community then there is no time for just being good. The first step is simple: a decision. Shall we band together with a common focus as we begin the journey to make Boulevard great or shall we rest here at good?

Wool Socks No Match for Snow (Updated)

2011-01-11T14:07:00.005-05:00

I am wearing a new pair of wool socks I got for Christmas from my in-laws. On spec, they are awesome. They are both woolly without being itchy, fairly fashionable (well, maybe not), and when I put them on first thing in the AM it is like my feat are wearing a blanket. Overall pretty great. Thanks Steve & Barbara!

I wanted the socks for days like today. Columbus is covered in snow. A white blanket covers just about every surface and there is no avoiding it. Because (for whatever reason) I don't own "working" snow boots/shoes, I thought the wool socks would be a fine insulation choice to the unavoidable snow covered shoes that boast no real winter protection. For three days I have worn them in very cold but not snowy weather & they were great. Enter the snow, and as I type my feat are both damp & cold. I bet you saw that coming.

The truth of the matter is sometimes things don't work out how you planned. My socks/shoe situation is a minor example. My best laid plans of warm woolly socks were sunk by the larger, real issue of crummy winter shoes. I got what I wanted & it didn't work out. Life, like the socks, were no match for snow and terrible shoes. Getting what we want and life still being difficult is a hallmark of being human.

If I really wanted dry, warm feet socks aren't where I should have invested. As quick fixes go, socks were the logical choice. Affordable, easy to obtain, and requiring very little if any commitment, I got what I wanted but what I wanted wasn't what I really needed. What I need are winter shoes - high quality, dependable, most likely expensive winter shoes that will keep my feet warm and dry. Requiring effort, finding the right "fit" isn't going to be cheap, easy, or immediate but in the end my money, time and patience will be rewarded.

By now I hope you realize that I am really not talking about socks and shoes. As Jim Collins pointed out in Good to Great the enemy of great is good, and in our case the enemy of what you need is often what you want. How often does this play out in our daily lives? Diets busted because we want a cheeseburger. Sobriety busted because we want a glass of scotch like our friends. Relationships severed because we use our friends to get what we want. Want and need may be one in the same from time to time but to equate them in all things is ultimately destructive.

Because I am a Pastor and not a psychologist, let me end this with an observation. In our celebration of Communion/Lord's Supper we pray something called the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving. As you might have guessed, it is a prayer about thanking God, and as the title suggests it is a "great thanks" and not a short nod to the Man Upstairs (also God isn't a Man but you know what I am talking about). In this prayer we thank God for faithfulness across generations despite the many and varied times we have sought our own wants over the plan God has laid out for us. We thank God for not stopping with the Ten Commandments, or the Judges, or the Prophets, or Kings - all things we ran from to follow our own wants - and we thank God for sending Jesus into the world as the ultimate reconciling act of a loving God. We thank God for what we needed (Jesus/Reconciliation) when all we could recognize is what we wanted (control).

This Great Prayer of Thanksgiving is said before the Communion Table. A table where we celebrate the life of grace found in God's steadfast love. When we wanted socks God gives us shoes.

Sermon: Moving In (John 1)

2011-01-01T20:03:00.006-05:00

I am a proud native son of California. Routinely for the first years of my time in Washington, Kentucky, and then from time to time still here in Ohio come winter I would be asked some variation of “why did you leave California?” If you remember that the question is a commentary on the winter here and not some passive aggressive jab, it makes sense. California, most years, is warm and sunny. The Southern California beaches are still populated even on Christmas Day in, but so Lake Tahoe’s many ski resorts. Growing up in Gilroy, Christmas Day was a day for shorts and polos, not layers as it is here. It was a day filled with friends and family, with great food and a bright shining sun, and here am I, a reverse Snow Bird, wearing two pairs of socks. “So why did you leave California?”

As much as I love California, I love Ohio, and Washington and Kentucky before it. I love Grandview, I love the Thurman Café, I love going to Ohio State & Bluejacket games, and I love my neighbors and friends Kate & I have. But some of you might remember that it didn’t start that way.

Not all of you know, but Kate and I lived in another house here in Columbus, before we landed here in Grandview. Moving from Louisville, Kentucky & only being in Columbus a handful of times in the run-up before the move, Kate & I did most of our house hunting online. Together we toured as much of Columbus as we could during the brief time we were here, and in the end we picked what we thought would be a fine house to rent at a price we could afford.

Three months later a different moving truck arrived and three broken car windows and a stolen car radio later, we left our first Columbus home and neighborhood in a cloud of dust. Every time we have friends or family visit we take them by the old house; the widows are rolled up, the doors are locked, we don’t get out of the car. I have a name to describe the house. I can’t use it here. Cursing from the pulpit is frowned upon. Well…usually

Not too long ago, my errands took me back to the old neighborhood. Driving down the street where I used to live, I drove slowly looking at the homes, noticing where the high-priced, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliance gentrification ended, and where the row apartments began. Creeping down the block in a different car than before we moved, I avoided eye contact and was grasped by two competing emotions: remorse & contentment. Remorse that I didn’t give the neighborhood a chance, that Kate & I didn’t look down the block and try to make friends, or at the least, avoid enemies. Maybe we should have embedded ourselves, showed them that we weren’t going anywhere, and maybe they would have respected us. Yet I was content.

Content that Kate & I got out of there before someone broke into the house. Content that our dog is going to be ok, and that if I accidentally leave my garage open all night there is a good chance that everything will be there when I awake the next morning. Content that I can walk down the street to the library or get a cup of coffee without fear. Moving was the best and easiest decision we ever made. I have no love for the old neighborhood.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

Such icon scripture; John wrote the prologue to his Gospel likely not out of his own words but from the hymns and songs of his time. Piecing together this rich language, John surgically inserts his overarching theme of coming to know who Jesus is before you know what Jesus did. John wants his readers to know the Jesus who heals the blind and feeds the hungry so that the healings and feedings can mean something beyond sight to the blind. John wants us to know Jesus and what Jesus was about from the very start; John wants to show us God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Last Christmas, Christmas 2009, Merri Bame read John’s prologue at the 10:30 Christmas Eve service, and she made it come alive; it was inspired. Leaving the service, I found Merri and told her that I want to read Scripture like Merri Bame when I grew up. She captured the meaning of the poetry; her rhythm & cadence was perfect for the reading and I got lost in it.

Scripture can do that do you. You can get lost in the words, the construction, the poetry, and lose the forest for the trees. Every funeral I have ever lead since becoming a Pastor has included Psalm 23 in the King James Version. “He leedth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul”[1]; when I die and my remains are shot into space, I want the King James Version too. There is poetry there, just as there is a poetry in John 1, but the life and reality of Jesus Christ, the very thing John seeks to describe is not poetry, it is prose. It is the everyday reality of a God who takes on flesh and blood, and came down.

Hear now the Word of God as it comes to us this day in the Gospel of John, taken from an interpretation called The Message[2]

The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out. There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed, and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John pointed him out and called, "This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word."

We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift. We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, This endless knowing and understanding— all this came through Jesus, the Messiah. No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day.

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. From the streets of Calcutta, to the mansions that border golf courses, Jesus moves into the neighborhood. From the slums of Nairobi, Kenya to Beverly Hills to communities that form under bridges to Park Avenue West, Jesus moves into the neighborhood. Jesus moved into my old neighborhood too. He came down and found us along the very streets where we live out our lives. This is the very great and wonderful news of the Christmas miracle, that Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, lives in our neighborhood, and he lives in the ghetto. God came down & in Christ, finds us where we lie down and where we rise up and it is there that the Word Becomes Flesh.

So what does all this mean?

First, I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about how dangerous the Son of God is to our neighborhoods. Car Windows, car stereos, living with the house alarm constantly engaged set on no-delay, was enough for Kate and I but those seem insignificant compared to the danger that lies within our gates. $120 and a phone call repaired my car window; got me back to status quo. Imagine the danger to “the way it has always been” to business as usual, to the comfortable when the Love of God moves into the neighborhood. But then again, we don’t have to imagine.

Last week’s scripture, the story of Jesus’ and his family’s escape to Egypt gives us a clue as to exactly how threatening the Word Made Flesh truly is. “When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."[3]

Second, it is important to understand even though Jesus moved into our neighborhoods there still will be darkness. The darkness cannot overcome the light but the darkness is still there. Crime on our streets, wars rage, little girls are sold into prostitution; the darkness is still there yet we know a light does shine and for many this is impossible to believe.

As I went to bed each night wondering if this would be the night someone would break into my house, I didn’t find a bit of light, only darkness. Light seemed foolish when the darkness was everywhere yet in every neighborhood, in every city and nation, in the darkest of places, there is a light shining & as people of Christ we can live knowing that in everything there is light. Foolish? Naïve? Ignorant of the sickness that plagues our society? Jesus has moved into the neighborhood.

My prayer for this new year is that we may come to understand that the Love of God, the Word Made Flesh, the Son of God Jesus Christ is found and walks along the intersections of every neighborhood reconciling the world to God, and as we have heard, whoever “believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.”[4] Praise be to God

[1] King James Version, Psalm 23:2b-3a

[2] Peterson, Eugene, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, “John 1:1-18”, NavPress 2002, Colorado Springs, Colorado

[3] New Revised Standard Version, Matthew 2:16-18

[4] The Message, John 1:12-13

Two Great Newpaper Articles about Boulevard Presbyterian

2010-12-23T10:51:00.005-05:00

Check out these two great articles about Boulevard Presbyterian Church...

This first is about our beloved Boulevard Quilters and their +30 year commitment to the traditions of handmade quilts. Click the link below to the article.

Quilters pursue traditional craft

The second article is about Boulevard's Community Christmas Basket program that partners with a multitude of Grandview and Tri-Village groups to make Christmas a bit brighter for over 380 families and their +1000 children. Click the link below to go to the article.

Boulevard Christmas Package project aids more than 380 families

Cartoons, Child Abuse, and Facebook

2010-12-23T09:10:00.008-05:00

On December 6th every Facebook profile photo was to be a favorite childhood cartoon. Why? To raise awareness of child abuse.

For the weeks leading up to December 6th the Facebook landscape slowly (and sometimes not even all that slowly) turned into a red-carpet Who's Who of cartoon characters from our respective childhood. Older Facebookers had Yogi & the Flintstones. Those who were closer to my age donated their spaces to GI Joe, the Thundercats, the Adventures of the Gummi Bears, and more. Still others resisted, often with the following status update:

Please do not think that I support child abuse because I haven't changed my profile picture to a cartoon. I just don't see how it will help.

When the rumors died down the meme was the work of pedophiles, or that it was a crafty way to hack your Facebook profile, and December 6th came and went, the question remained unanswered: So did it help? Were children less abused during the Facebook run-up to December 6th? I doubt it.

I also doubt that it was a waste of time, or some viral stunt just to see how many folks could get rolled up into the eSnow-Ball barreling down the slope of the information super highway. The creators of the meme hoped to raise awareness & I got to believe the thousands if not millions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that popped up in the days leading up to December 6th did in fact create "awareness" of child abuse. Someone had to have asked "why do you have Papa Smurf as your profile pic?" Hopefully the wise old Smurf replied.

Like it or not, we are going to be seeing more and more of these kinds of things via Facebook, Twitter, and the myriad of other social network sites. The success of the Cartoon/Child Abuse campaign cast that in stone, and truthfully, I am a fan. In a world where this humble, often neglected blog already has 10 views today (now 10:00 AM Eastern), and since its launch has been accessed 18 times from users in Malta, I can communicate across a landscape that is both humbling and empowering. From Malta to Turkey to the Netherlands to Palm Springs, CA and right back here to Columbus, OH, folks have read what I wrote (mostly opinion) and when you amplify that by the traffic of Facebook or Twitter, the potential grows in a way that should produce humility...hopefully.

I am small potatoes. My sphere of influence is minuscule. Just ask my dog. Yet somebody somewhere reads this (thank you by the way). Somebody read my Facebook status update today and when I "donated" it to the Human Rights Campaign they read that update too. I missed out on the Cartoon profile pic meme (sadly) but I do not need a blog, a Facebook page, Twitter account, or one of those banners they tow behind planes at football games to raise awareness and neither do you. Every time you tell somebody that you are busy Sunday because you are going to church, every time you object to a racist/sexist/homophobic joke, every time you stand firm for your convictions be they reusable grocery bags or animal abuse you live out the best campaign ever - a person who puts their faith and convictions into action.

As Jesus said, "Go and do likewise."

Mulitple Personalities

2010-12-13T15:57:00.003-05:00

In January of 2011 I am teaching a class about the changing face and character of Jesus in America. The topic has been an interest of mine since that first Religion in America class some 10 years ago at Whitworth College (now University) in Spokane, Washington. I found it compelling that from the Puritans to Thomas Jefferson to the Pro & Anti-Slavery movements, and beyond to the Hippie “Jesus Movement” and now in modern times, Jesus has undergone a series of radical face-lifts and personality changes. For some he is a enlightened teacher of morals. Others see him as the sweet and loving savior who wouldn’t hurt a fly. In the time of Billy Sunday, who once called the current state of Christianity in America as “effeminate” and “sissified”, Jesus was a manly, hard-nosed, take no prisoners Son of God who told it like it was, and was a stark contrast to the Hippie Jesus who graced the cover of Time magazine in 1971. Today we have Jesus “characters” like Buddy Christ who is everybody’s friend, and the popular t-shirt slogan “Jesus is My Homeboy” that stand in stark contrast to the Jesus of the Westboro Baptist Church whose members picket the funerals of soldiers with signs proclaiming all the things Jesus hates. Using photos, music, video, scripture, a bit of theology, history, and pop culture, we will dive into the “American Jesus” and see just how the Son of God became such a iconic American figure.

History tells us that Jesus was “used” differently by different groups at different times. The Pro and Anti-Slavery movements both invoked Jesus’ name to add credence to their interpretation of scripture and the events of the day. Their visceral, opposing rhetoric made it seem that their Jesus was the just and correct Jesus and the other side’s Son of God was an imposter. Like the two football teams that pray before kick-off for victory over their opponent, Jesus gets drafted into service and wields his holy dominion for both sides. Both sides, each with competing agendas and opposing viewpoints or goals, claim Jesus. The truth is, this reality plays out on a personal level as well.

I saw a woman pray out loud at the counter of the gas station where she purchased her lottery tickets. “Jesus, make these numbers the right ones”, she prayed as the machine randomly selected her lotto numbers for the hundreds of millions of dollars up for grabs later that night. I assume she didn’t win because I didn’t see her on TV or in the papers that next day but for our woman in question Jesus had thoughts about the possibility of her being rich.

Millions of men and women prayed on the Sunday after the earthquake that rocked Haiti about a year ago. We prayed for the health and well being of those who survived and for the families of those who died in the quake. We prayed because we believe Jesus had thoughts about those who suffered in Haiti.

“Jesus, make me rich” and “Jesus, care for the poor.” Can it be both? Are we giving the Son of God a split personality?

Broken TV = Blog Post About Habits

2010-12-07T16:02:00.002-05:00

Anybody who knows me even a little bit knows I am a fan of TV. I watch about seven programs religiously with the help of my TiVo, a computerized video recorder known as a DVR. Figure in following my favorite sports teams, watching games that are interesting, and sports related programming like SportsCenter on ESPN, and my total TV time can grow to levels not usually deemed acceptable. Adding to this grand total is the new acquisition of Netflix, an on-demand video service that allows me to watch whatever available show/movie I want whenever I want. All in all TV is a fairly consistent presence in my down time.

Now that you get the general gist of things, you can understand my despair upon discovering one November day that the TV had died. Given up the ghost and where my sitcoms and endless sports coverage once was proudly displayed was a momentary field of thin blue lines followed by nothing. No amount of smacking and pounding brought the picture back.

Being that this is a January Newsletter- the first letter of the year - you might be prone to think I am going to say something like “I decided we would go without the TV and spend more time together as a family” or perhaps “I put the broken TV in the garage and have now spent the time I used to watch TV reading.” You would have a fair amount of justification for such an assumption. January newsletters, blogs, sermons, and other transmissions are often full up with pity stories of turning a new leaf and discovering the benefits of starting afresh in the newly minted year. Advertisers bank on such a spirit blowing through the culture, and now that it is January I can bet each of us has received or heard something about the low rates at our local gym or Jenny Craig. Something in the way we do business as a society provides the first month of the year to make, to start, to promise, or to commit to do something that would seem to make life better. The term we tend to use is a “New Year’s Resolution.” I think that it is bogus.

It wasn’t 12 hours before I hauled our 2nd TV down to the basement & within minutes had everything hooked up and ready to go. Sure, I could have taken up reading in the place of TV. I could have spent my time learning the art of French Cuisine, learning how to work on my car, or brushing up on my fading Spanish language skills but I didn’t. I plugged the TV in and got back on the couch.

Going from TV to no TV would be a radical change in my life; a radical change which would almost certainly result in epic failure. The key would be a step down approach. Now that the College Football season is over, don’t watch TV on Saturdays. That is something I could live with. Incremental, baby-steps, slowing chipping away at the excuses and variables can over time lead to an ingrained habit. The same is true for someone’s spiritual life. Nobody wakes up on January 1^st and says, “I am going to be spiritual now.” Or if they do, it isn’t met with much success. Like anything else cultivating a habit takes repeated exposure over and over again. Setting aside a five minute window to be still and silent is more doable than a weekend of silent meditation, and saying a prayer while the car warms up is a lot more productive than saying you are going to read the Bible cover to cover and then not doing it.

In the end life is about creating habits. What we begin slowly now can lead to a rich life in the future. Like deciding to run a marathon, you start running a mile before you tackle all 27. If a deeper connection and relationship with God is something that you desire for your years to come then lose the New Year’s Resolution and begin small.

Another FAIL in Relgious Literacy

2010-12-06T09:45:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving

2010-11-23T11:29:00.003-05:00

When I think of Thanksgiving I think of Grandma's house. My Grandma was a better cook than your Grandma. Her Oyster Dressing was better than your Grandma's Oyster Dressing, that is if your Grandma even had the guts to try making Oyster Dressing. Everything was awesome. Grandma and my memories of Thanksgiving are why I rate Thanksgiving right behind Christmas as my favorite holiday of the year.

One especially memorable Thanksgiving (you will see why in a minute) took place during those years when I was too old not to be useful but still too young to be trusted with anything of value or importance. Grandma was making dinner and it was almost ready. The family who had gathered that day were milling around in the family room (where the TV was) which was only steps from the dining room. My job, handed down by Grandma herself, was to announce that Thanksgiving was ready and it was time to go to the table. After much anticipation the time arrived. Grandma gave me the nod and off I went.

"Thanksgiving is ready. Come sit down", I announced to the gathered family in a fashion that I remember was much like the guy who announces the President when he/she enters the Senate for the State of the Union. Unlike the guy who does the announcing, nobody seemed to either hear me or care. Everybody sat there unfazed by this very important news. Thanksgiving was ready. Perhaps they didn't totally understand what that meant. The Oyster Dressing was ready. The Turkey was ready. Even that Cranberry Sauce still in its canned molding was ready. Nobody moved.

I tried again. "Thankgiving is ready. Come sit down." It was like I was wasn't there. "Thanksgiving is ready. Come sit down", I tried again. And again. And again. Finally I walked over to the bar that opened into the kitchen and shot Grandma one of those "its not working - HELP" looks. "Its ready", she said loud enough to be heard from the kitchen but not nearly loud as I had been proclaiming. You can guess what happened.

When everyone was gathered at the table, but before they sat down I sensed my moment to actually complete the task set before me. "Everyone sit down", I once again proclaimed in my be-heard voice. Once again nobody sat down. "Everybody sit down", I said for maybe the fourth time. Nothing. It was at this point that I remembered something I saw on TV.

When people on TV wanted to be heard and do so with dramatic emphasis they would spell out the important word. "I L-O-V-E love you" & "Get out! O-U-T out!" and the like. Turns out you need to be able to spell in order to garner the desired effect. Turns out I didn't know how to spell sit. I gave it my best shot. Turned out to be the trick to getting attention.

"Everybody sit down. S-H-I-T down. Sit down." The word "sit" has no "H" in between the "S" and the "I". I had everybody's attention now. Yet nobody was sitting; mostly they were staring. Then came the yelling. I am not sure I did an adequate job defending my ignorant outburst but to my credit I have always been a turibble speller.

Now that I am older, I look back on those times with a fair amount of perspective. As a kid Thanksgiving equaled the meal. Thanksgiving was about eating, something that could happen with or without other people. Thanksgiving was about Oyster Dressing, Turkey, Cranberry Sauce. People were like those goofy paper hats they put on the ends of the Turkey legs; they might have added something but not in any real way. Maybe that is why I remember proclaiming "Thanksgiving is ready" and nobody getting up to run to the table. Thanksgiving was about what was happening in the family room: family gathered, laughing and joking around, telling stories, and watching TV together. The real "feast" had nothing to do with Turkey and Oyster Dressing.

I am away from my family again this Thanksgiving. My brother in Oklahoma and my parents in California. I long for a table for all of us to gather around. My wife's parents and grandparents will join Kate and I in Columbus on Thursday. Around that table with Kate, with Steve and Barbara, with Grandfather and Othenia, I imagine a table big enough for the WHOLE family and am immensely thankful for the one I will soon share with them. Thanksgiving Day carves out a space to recognize that despite the distance, we remain in the family room laughing and having a good time purposefully ignoring the call to a table we are unable to share.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sermon: Sympathy for a Pharisee - Luke 18:9-14

2010-11-13T12:09:00.004-05:00

Note: This sermon was delivered on October 24th. It is a taken from Luke 19:9-14

My education has not done a good job over the years showing Black Hat we like to see the Pharisees wearing when we read the Gospels wasn’t always earned. The fact that the Pharisees were something of reformers, seeking to move the focus of personal religious life away from the temple and into the every-day life of the home – in effect being some of the first “Priesthood of all Believers” fans[1] - alluded me in college. So much so that when I was asked to help design the dorm t-shirt I proposed the witty “4 out of 5 Pharisees agree Warren Hall stinks.” Aren’t I clever?

If what I say is true, if the Pharisees as a whole weren’t crazy about the Temple, then what can we make of the Pharisee in out story? He is labeled a Pharisee but isn’t acting like one. As someone who often gets labeled “Christian” and isn’t always found acting like one, I have sympathy for our lone Pharisee, and through this story find cause to locate those inconsistent places in my own life where I might seek to bolster my own self-esteem by crushing and stepping on others.

Many of you know that I don’t like to write my sermons in my office. Too sterile, and all those books remind me that I am forgetting something but they don’t make it easy to figure out what it is I am forgetting, so I do most of my sermon reading and writing at places like Panera and Coffee Shops like Stauf’s. Safe bet that if it is the 3^rd Thursday of the month around 2 pm you will find me, my laptop, a stack of copies, and a plastic cup of soda I have refilled more times than the Panera people might appreciate, sitting by the front window of the Grandview Panera working away.

I was doing some research on a Saturday at the Upper Arlington (UA) Panera Bread, and from the moment I walked in there it was the State of Nature, the Lord of the Flies. Here I am trying to study the Bible, listen for the Spirit, and the UA Panera is kill or be killed. People are getting yelled at for cutting in line, numerous if not countless people are stealing soda and coffee, moochers are trucking in their outside food and laptops are bogarting the free wireless internet connection as their users nurse a cup of the most inexpensive thing on the menu and pilfer the free samples. And here I am feeling like an island of civic responsibility, eating and drinking the things I paid for, and thinking “at least I am not like those line cutting, soda stealing, internet mooching, sample hoarders.” Now, where have I heard something like that before?

Where my sympathy finds its end with regard for our Pharisee is precisely the same place that I recognize my own inconsistency. I too, am like those soda stealers. I too, am like those sample moochers. I too, am like that Tax Collector; I have nothing to boast. I am proud, and I am righteous; arriving at those conclusions on the backs of others. History tells me that I am not alone.

The prayer that the Pharisee lifts up to God, no matter if it is uttered in the Temple or in the home, is nothing unique to the times. Prayers of the day drip with the language we hear in this parable. One well known example praises God for the decision the supplicant to be in the library studying the word of God and not like those shopkeepers opening their stores and hocking their wears. Out in the rabble the shop-keeps undertook lesser pursuits. One should be thankful for God’s ordering their life to desire study over making money and the like. The issue at hand is as real today as it was back then. It is the thing that keeps the Pharisee from going home with God’s justification.

There is nothing wrong with living a Pharisee life. There is nothing wrong with living like the Older Brother of the Prodigal Son. There is nothing wrong with ordering your days around God and seeking to follow God as best as we are able. There is nothing wrong with that; the church wouldn’t exist if it were not for people who sought to live their lives pleasing to God. Live your life, but avoid the word “this” like the Pharisee uses it. Avoid the comparisons, avoid contrasting; stay away from believing yourself to justified because you are not like them. There is already so much of that in the world.

How many of us turned on the TV, the radio, or the computer to find story after story of young men and boys taking their own lives? How many of us heard stories of bullies kidding, joking, exposing these young men and boys to humiliation because they were or were thought to be gay? In perhaps one of the most depressing, anger inducing, crushing news cycles, report after report came in from all over the nation telling us that this was not a local incident; it was a national disease. What this Parable has to teach us, what this parable reveals is that those who seek to bully, those who seek to lift themselves up on the backs of others find themselves in relationships with these so-called “lessers” – the Tax Collectors, the “different” middle-schooler, the closeted college student. These relationships are essential for their own understanding of self. The bully needs a victim. The Pharisee needs a Tax Collector. And as Christians seeking to follow in the example of Jesus, we too often look for the Tax Collector in our own midst; someone to be thankful we are nothing like. Forgive us, O God.

Justification ends this parable as told by Luke. The Tax Collector beats his chest before the Temple and walks home with it. The Pharisee finds justification elusive, and we are reminded that our rightness before God is not found in the purity of humanity but in the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Understanding that no matter how you are, or what you are, or who you are, none of those compares to whom which we belong; we lean into the grace of a God who places us in right relationship to the world around us. Right relationship with the Creator and Sustainer of Life, right relationship with our fellow brothers and sisters, right relationship with the creation, and right relationship with ourselves; this is the justification of a loving God who provides for us the only thing we have in which we can boast: the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[1] Johnson, E. Elizabeth, “Luke 18:9-14 Exegetical Perspective”, Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 4, WJK, Louisville, 2010

Continuing Education

2010-11-01T11:17:00.003-04:00

Forgive me for my hiatus. I have been away on what we call Con Ed.

Continuing Education, aka. Con Ed, is one of the wonderful things about being a pastor. We get to go off to conferences big and small and hear new ideas and be reminded of old ones. My 2010 Contuning Ed year has divided up into small, medium, and large conferences/festivals/gatherings/etc.; ranging from a small gathering in Penfield, Pennsylvania to a medium festival and reunion in Louisville, Kentucky, to a massive Festival of Homelitics (aka. preaching) in Nashville, TN. But now I am done. Out of money and out of time. Now is the time for reflection.

Here are some things that I learned & some things that I have be reminded in 2010's Con Ed...
- Every profession has its celebrities pastors included. Mention Tom Long, Craig Barnes, Anna Carter Florence, or Barbara Brown Taylor to a group of pastors and they exhibit the same behavior as folks talking about their favorite athlete, musician, or actor.

- Lectures are where the money is at. Anything featuring the words "break out", "home group", "cohort", or the like is going to be disappointing. If you want to get a question answered, say that you enjoyed their sermon/book, or try to network, you are better off finding the presenter at a bar or during the refreshment time.

- Stay away from anything called a "christian comedian."

- Con Ed is always better when you are with some friends. I take most of my Con Ed collaboratively with fellow pastors and Louisville Seminary alumni. The experience is ALWAYS better. You have someone to eat a meal with, someone to share an expensive hotel room with, and most importantly, have someone to hear your snarky comments about terrible "break out" groups.

- Understand that jealousy is par for the course. The finest preachers in the world think of things, write sermons, string together stories, and do it all with a presentation style that you will make you burn with envy.

- It sounds counter-intutive but stay away from Q&A sessions. They are 100% dominated by folks with axes to grind, those wishing to show off, or well-meaning folks who tell stories with implied questions. Actual Q&A happens at the aforementioned bar or refreshment time.

- Beware of the post-Con Ed sermon. A week spent with your mind on super-stimulated overdrive will no doubt feed whatever it is that you were excited about on Monday through Thursday into Sunday's sermon no matter if it fits or not. I am very guilty of this.

- If you return year after year to the same events, you will see the same people year after year. This is a blessing, or at least can be. Knowing this, it is a good idea not to say such things as "let's work together on this", or "I will come down and visit you", or "let me send that to you." Better keep it relational, or at the least, network in such a way that they will remember you if/when you call.

I love Con Ed. I feel blessed to be in a profession where it is not only expected but often mandatory that a PCUSA pastor engages in it. You don't have to twist my arm.

Complete Book of Etiquette

2010-10-20T10:25:00.004-04:00

Last month I picked up a 1952 copy of Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Book of Etiquette: A Guide to Gracious Living from the Covenant Presbyterian Rummage Sale. I was attending a meeting at Covenant and walked past the book table and this tattered copy jumped out at me. To be honest, I bought it for a joke or maybe a sermon illustration here and there. It has some real gems. There is a section on welcoming a new servant to the household, or how to rank the people at your dinner party in order of importance. The section on religious holidays is, for me, pretty darn funny for its outside-looking-in generalizations about Advent, Lent, etc. One dollar very well spent.

The more I read, the more I was reminded that from Amy Vanderbilt’s perspective this was all serious business. There were things happening behind the scenes of the dinner party or the way in which you welcomed people into the home that conveyed something foundational. In one section entitled Making Your Overnight Guest Feel At Home, Vanderbilt lays out the bare essentials a host should provide the guest. The list would put the Holiday Inn or Hilton to shame. Bathrobe and slippers, current magazines and a mystery novel, ash trays and a bed time snack on the bed table; these are the bare essentials. She goes on to list the contents of The Well-Appointed Guest Room which further convey that for Vanderbilt, the host was charged with caring for the needs of the guest whatever they may be including the shining of shoes or the occasional headache. Burden or blessing, it was important to show the guest welcome.

Many of my generation would laugh at Vanderbilt’s “no gray area” commands for gracious living. Myself included. Yet I wonder if we would be remiss if we didn’t recognize that behind the dos and don’ts there was something important about hospitality and how it wasn’t allowed to be a “gray area.” Guests or visitors never went unacknowledged, never walked around without a cup of coffee or someone asking to take their coat. Love them or hate them, a guest is a guest and hospitality was the only response. We could all stand to remember that. Myself included.

The Promise of a Prepetual Tomorrow

2010-10-11T14:28:00.005-04:00

Someone reminded me that I have promised a "blog tomorrow" for sometime now. Like the neon sign in the window of the local bar promising "Free Beer Tomorrow", tomorrow seems to either never come or you realize that you are living in the tomorrow you still thought you had.

Today I am feeling like the latter. I am living in the tomorrow that I thought would perpetually be there. A date on a calendar months away, a promise made for something you never think will happen, an amorphous project without a deadline; there is always another day. Until there isn't. Worse yet, when you realize that your far off dreams of what was possible have slipped past you, and are now old-hat. Like a parent wishing that they could see and talk to their child living overseas whenever they wanted but isn't aware of Skype, or video chatting, let alone web-cams. The futuristic "video conferencing" of decades ago is what he or she thinks of when he or she dreams of seeing a grandchild or talking to their son or daughter. Locked into the dream, they miss the reality. Subservient, captive to the "dream" of decades ago, so often we fail to see the truth of today because we have spent too much time dreaming of "what it should look like when it gets here" and not what it really does. If you were waiting for the 1960's dream of video conferencing, you would miss the 2010 reality.

A trip to Best Buy and $50 solves the video conference problem. What seemed far-fetched at one point is now accomplished in an afternoon. Tomorrow is today, and tomorrow will quickly be yesterday if we do not continually renew our dreams of what is possible. I will give you an example. I have a good friend who lives in the Cayman Islands. We both have BlackBerry Smartphones and will frequently send messages back to each other via a program called BlackBerry Messenger. For the first couple of months after I got my BlackBerry, I was amazed that I could be "chatting" with my friend instantly from across oceans. It was cool, but I got over it. If I stayed impressed, convinced that chatting with folks in other nations would be the apex of what I thought to be possible, then I would quickly be left in a cloud of innovative dust.

This is a personal lesson we can learn from the world of technology. We must never believe our dreams are too big. Like the dream of a video conference "machine" in your own home, the danger of seeing an idea as too big, too complicated to ever happen will always result in you being asleep too long and unaware when the tomorrows of the past become the yesterdays of the future.

How this applies to your life, the church, etc? I will leave that up to you.

Busted Stuff Update

2010-10-04T14:09:00.001-04:00

My finger isn't 100% by any stretch of the imagination but I am back to normal typing duties.
Look for a blog post tomorrow.

Sunday Sermon - From Here to You

2010-09-29T10:50:00.000-04:00

Busted Stuff

2010-09-27T14:41:00.003-04:00

It appears as though I have broken, or at least really jammed by left pinky finger. I will spare you the details and tell you that no, it didn't happen while playing kickball.

Sufficed to say, this is a rather detrimental injury to my typed correspondence & blogging. I am trying to answer emails with my BlackBerry (speaking of my BlackBerry, that is where the crummy photo came from) so I can type with my thumbs, and avoiding Facebook Chat for fear of lagging behind my fully-functional friends.

Therefore, I am calling for a blogging hiatus. I will post last Sunday's sermon at some point but for at least a couple of days I am on the DL.

October Newsletter Article

2010-09-20T13:15:00.001-04:00

Late last night while Kate & I watched TV, we found a program entitled “Freaky Eaters”, a show about people who have severely abnormal eating habits like a man who only eats cheeseburgers, or a woman who eats candy three meals a day. Almost always the diagnosis saw their habits as evidence of addictive behavior, including last night’s individual who drinks 30 cans of regular cola (aka. not sugar free or diet) a day, and has so for many years. If you do the math, the totals are staggering: 30 cans a day times 365 days a year gives you a whopping 10950 cans of cola a year which equates to roughly 25 pounds of sugar every couple of days. Was this individual 500 pounds? No. Was she diabetic? No. Was she someone who sat around all day? No, she is a medical professional! She works in a hospital as a nurses aide.

Evidence like our soda-swilling friend and experiences that we all share go to show that knowing something is bad or good for you and actually applying that belief to your life are very different things. As a church & as people of faith we fall into this trap too. We often know precisely how it is to get the things we want - involvement into the community, mission projects, fellowship, an active prayer life, opportunities to serve - and recognize that without these things we might move in unhealthy directions but something often prevents us from making it happen. Something that we can not always name immediately.

I would like to suggest that we take the month of October and be intentional about finding the things that we can do both personally and together as a church family that continue to propel us in a healthy direction, and for some, provide a new path towards a greater sense of church and self. It might be a month of hard questions and difficult answers, but like the transformation the leaves undergo during the start of fall that ultimately leads towards a rebirth in the spring, what we do now carves out a place for the rebirth and renewal God can bring in the days to come.

Total Depravity beats Beloved St. Luke's, Makes Playoffs

2010-09-14T10:33:00.003-04:00

Despite a rocky start, Total Depravity managed to secure their 3rd win of the season in a 9-6 defeat of upstart Beloved St. Luke's. Victory over St. Luke's not only cemented Total Depravity's first winning season but also forced a 3-way tie for 3rd overall in the Grandview Parks and Recreation Kickball League, a tie that resulted in Total Depravity's #3 seed in the four team 2010 Kickball Playoffs.

Making the playoffs for the first time in team history was all the motivation Total Depravity needed to rebound after 2 rough innings that featured St. Luke's jumping out to a 4 run lead before the first Total Depravity run crossed the plate. Forcing the defense to make outs in high-pressure situations, St. Luke's kicked through the heart of the order before the first out was recorded in the top of the 1st inning yet when things settled down Total Depravity began to put together a fine defensive outing with latter innings featuring no St. Luke's base-runners. Highlighting the defensive effort was Mary Clifton's 1 out "triple-play". Catching the shallow pop-up at 2nd base, Mary doubled up the runner at second, and for the "extra" out of the Triple Play tagged the runner on 1st who failed to tag up. Despite not officially counting as a Triple Play Mary Clifton becomes the first player in Total Depravity history to achieve such a feat.

While defense played a large part in the 9-6 victory, smart base-running and strong individual efforts pushed Total Depravity into the win. Jon Stephens, Total Depravity's all-time leader in Home Runs, added another round-tripper to his season total of 3, as his blast scored Mary Clifton around from 1st and put Total Depravity's first 2 runs on the board. Hustle and heads-up play on the part of Total Depravity, the kickball team of Boulevard Presbyterian Church, turned the tables on St. Luke's, forcing them to make outs in high-pressure situations as runners advanced on every opportunity.

As Total Depravity looks ahead to their September 19th playoff contest against #2 Bird is the Word it is worth noting the playoff structure. Like a classic bracket tournament, teams in the Grandview playoffs will play a single-elimination qualifier with victory insuring a place in the championship game to be held at 7pm on that same day. Early favorites have to be reigning champs #1 overall The Sparkly $2 Bills who remained undefeated for the 2nd year in a row as the beat Total Depravity's future opponent Bird is the Word 4-0.

Fans of Total Depravity may remember 2009 season's opening game against the blue-clad Bird is the Word. Like most of the season, Total Depravity was on the ropes in the early innings, allowing 6 runs before they settled down and scored a few of their own. This loss was "officially" avenged this year as Total Depravity was scheduled to play The Bird is the Word in the first game of the season but when The Bird's were not able to field enough players to make it an official contest Total Depravity took how the forfeit victory.

Root Total Depravity on as they take the field in the first playoff appearance in team history on Sunday, September 19th at 5:00 PM at C. Ray Buck Sports Park located off Gooddale Blvd.

The Official End of the Summer

2010-09-09T13:49:00.002-04:00

Just a short note to say that today is officially the end of the summer for us here at Boulevard. Regular Season begins on Sunday, September 12th as we get back to our "regular" life - 2 worship services, educational programs, etc. As I take the last 15 minutes I am going to spend in the office today to write this, I thought that I would conclude the summer with a highlights blog post.

So, without further ado...

The 2010 Summer in Review: Highlight Edition

Our kickball team, Total Depravity, wasn't the worst team in the league this year. At least there is that
I developed a taste for coming into work early, but still haven't figured out how to get out of here before 4pm.
Thanks to very industrious members, we have some newly renovated spaces here at Boulevard. Sadly, all the junk that I was storing in those spaces is now in my office. You win some, you lose some
I was "defriended" by a friend because of something that I said on Facebook regarding Prop 8 in California.
I fulfilled something of a workplace fantasy, and started wearing shorts to work fairly regularly.
Went on vacation to rural Oklahoma - yes, you heard that right.

Well, there were more highlights to be sure...they might have just been things that I remember about the summer that was, but that is as close to a highlight as I am going to get.

I hope that you enjoy your weekend, and I will write again during the Regular Season.

Is Jesus for Hire?

2010-09-07T12:52:00.009-04:00

My feathers have been ruffled, and continue to be so every time I hear of the church in Ganesville, Florida that is planning on burning copies of the Koran on 9/11. To be honest, it makes me furious. Furious that such an event will could even be conceived, but furious also to think that when described over NPR or various other news outlets, this lunacy is couched in "Christian Minister Plans to..." or "Christian Church will..." It turns my stomach because "Christian" is the word that they use for me, my congregation, and the beloved community of churches that seek to follow Christ. We are all called "Christians."

Christians are a diverse lot. For every Koran Burning congregation, or one that will bring its guns to church on the invitation of their Pastor, there are churches that march in gay-pride parades as a sign of solidarity, or are instrumental in interfaith dialog. For every every church that protests funerals, or advocates racism, there are other churches that provide free HIV/AIDS testing, or congregations that provide shelter for teenage mothers. We are diverse, and thankfully so yet in the end there is, or should be, the one foundational element found at the so-called heart of the "Christian" church: Jesus Christ. Christ is the uniting factor, and Presbyterians can work with Baptists, Episcopalians, Evangelicals, and the like because, at the end of the day, we are all rooted in Christ. At least that is what we say. Sometimes it is hard to tell.

Christ comes across looking fairly schizophrenic in the religious landscape of America. In Stephen Prothero's wonderful book American Jesus, Prothero showcases the variety of ways Jesus has served as the spokesperson for a variety of causes; lending his voice and integrity to issues both far and wide. Slavery and Abolitionists both used Jesus to back their cause. In modern times, both human rights groups and those who fight to limit rights to homosexuals and their relationships use Jesus to stump. One might conclude that Jesus has become a contractor - like that of Blackwater - and is fighting for whoever pays. For modern American and international congregations, churches, movements and causes, it is time to pause and ask: is Jesus for hire?

Jesus is getting dangerously close to becoming a Mall Santa - looking the part, live in the flesh. He says the right things at the right time, and even has answers for doubters, yet if there is a "real Santa" out there somewhere this guy isn't it because the other mall has one too. Hundreds of Santas dot the landscape, each with a red suit and convincing jiggle. Each hired to lend their "ho ho ho" to the cause until the time comes when New Year's and Valentine's Day replaces the candy canes and gingerbread houses, and Santa's Village goes dark. Jesus, like Santa, is a seasonal employee: there when we need him, off the payroll when we don't.

In the end, Jesus is all to often co-opted into unfamiliar territory. The man who proclaims loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, and treating such neighbors as if they were Christ himself, seems to be advocating the opposite through the pulpits of many congregations. The man who spoke about money more than just about anything else (including all the really hot-button stuff) is often full of good news on how to get rich, and how God wants you to fly 1st class. What is there to do? The answer comes, I believe, when we move from the labels to the person. A personal, engaged faith can transcend labels of "liberal", "conservative", and yes, even "Christian" and seek to follow Jesus along the road as an individual walking in the midst of a community. Hope comes in getting to know Jesus "on the road" and not from a fixed position behind dogmatic bunkers. If we have any hope of combating the Mall Santa approach to Jesus the Spokesperson, we must become an engaged faith community - one where we know Jesus not through slogans or soundbites but through encounters with the Risen Savior.

Total Depravity Falls to 2-2 After Beatdown

2010-08-31T15:34:00.002-04:00

The Sparkly $2 Bills, the reigning champs of the adult kickball circuit, lived up to fears and handed Total Depravity their 2nd loss in as many games. Moving Total Depravity to 2-2, The Sparkly $2 Bills improved on their undefeated season and cemented their standing as the juggernaut of Grandview Kickball with a 13-0 beat-down of the short-staffed Total Depravity, the kickball team of Boulevard Presbyterian Church.

Hopes were high as game time inched closer and closer to the 8 PM first pitch. The Sparkly $2 Bills, known by many as the Pink Team due to their t-shirts, appeared to be set to declare a forfeit as they lacked the necessary number of female players to make the game official but like most of the evening, Total Depravity's hopes were dashed as two females clad in pink emerged out of nowhere. With hopes of a forfeit gone, TD took the field and from the 1st pitch forward found themselves playing catch-up as a lead-off home run was surrendered before the defense could even exhale.

To Total Depravity's credit, the Sparkly $2 Bills were held to a 2-0 lead for a number of innings thanks to solid defense and less than stellar kicking but all good things come to pass. Eventually scoring 13 runs over 7 innings, the $2 Bills employed their trademark agressive base-running and solid defense to both blank Total Depravity and run up inning after inning of runs. In the end, no one thing could be pointed to as the cause for Total Depravity's shutout.

With our Labor Day hiatus, Total Depravity looks forward to a pivotal game against fellow church group The Beloved St. Luke's, kickball franchise of neighbor St. Luke's Lutheran. With Total Depravity sitting at 2-2, a playoff bearth hangs in the balance as St. Luke's (0-4) looks for their first win, and Total Depravity looks for a chance to compete for the title.

Plan on attending the Sunday, September 12th contest at 6 PM (C. Ray Buck Sports Park) after attending the Boulevard 2010 Fall Fun & Food Block Party running from 2-7 PM. Free food, music, activities for the kids, and more await all those who come on by. See you there!

Two Game Win Streak Snaped, Total Depravity Drubbed 11-1

2010-08-23T13:40:00.002-04:00

If excellent defense and big-time kicks were responsible for propelling Total Depravity to a 6-5 win over Barley last week it was the lack-thereof that doomed Total Depravity as they fell to a younger, faster Grasskickers team 11-1 on Sunday. Scoring only one run, Total Depravity never was able to find a rhythm and settle down into the play that prevailed the week before.

The Grasskickers, a youthful newcomer to the Grandview Kickball League, jumped out to an early lead on solid kicking and shaky defense going up 4-0 before Total Depravity ever lined up to kick. From the 1st inning on, The Grasskickers superior speed was able to exploit the cracks in the defense, scoring runs in most if not all subsequent turns at the plate, and holding Total Depravity to the one run scored by "rookie" Jim Savage who scored from 2nd.

By looking at the score, one might conclude that nothing went right but that was not the case. Total Depravity's showing last Sunday provided a lot of opportunities to celebrate as we welcomed back 2nd year stand-outs James Sledge, and Travis Williamson. Both Sledge and Williamson pick-up where they left off, with Williamson showing some solid defense from the Right Center position as he saved numerous runs and recorded many spectacular outs. Sunday's outing was also our largest turn-out of the season as first time players Ian, Kyme and Julie Rennick, Kristy Wathen, and Ken Odiorne took the field for the first time.

Next week Total Depravity takes on defending champs Sparkly $2 Bills (aka the Pink Team) at 8:oo PM at C. Ray Buck Sports Park.

Special Teams

2010-08-19T18:29:00.003-04:00

Note: The following has been taken from the September 2010 Boulevard Good News, our monthly newsletter.

Special Teams in football is dirty work. Thankless except for the kicker and the guy who catches the kicks, players on Special Teams got virtually no credit for when it went right and all the blame when something goes horribly wrong. I remember one game in particular when we had given up one touchdown and one near touchdown to what could best be called a mediocre team. Guys were not tackling, which happens to be the sole job of kickoff special teams, and so when the kickoff team took the field after an interception turned touchdown, the Special Teams Coach raced up and down the sidelines shouting “If not you, who? If not now, when?” Flapping his arms, shouting at his players, the coach continued up until the point the opposing team fumbled the ball, picked it up again, and went 80 something yards for yet another score.

I took the field as the kickoff return squad came off the field, and was not present for what had to have been an intense sideline intervention. Perhaps unluckily, my offensive unit made short work, scored quickly, and upon kicking the extra point, the previously inept kickoff crew took the field. Much to everyone’s shock a tackle was made minus any fanfare or celebrations. The 2nd sting Linebacker who made the stop trotted off the field, took off his helmet, and awaited what happened next. Being a friend of mine, I asked him the day after what transpired on the sidelines, and he said the Special Teams Coach went to every member of the squad and asked “If you don’t tackle this guy, who will?” My friend later remarked, “he made it personal.”

Boulevard has not fumbled the ball nor have we given up any touchdowns. We have not shirked our responsibility nor have we thought following the Call of the Spirit was “someone else’s job.” Boulevard has been faithful and true to the Call that runs throughout this congregation, and it is not because we have not, but precisely because we have listened for God’ Call that we are embarking on a new era of being the church; an era of imagination and possibility.

Starting now, and continuing into the Fall, meetings are happening and plans are in the works to provide opportunities for everyone to get involved on personal level and take ownership of how you engage your faith. We will see more and imaginative missions and community outreach, we will see the formation of small groups around topics, service, and much more, and we will see the dreams many of you shared with our Appreciative Inquiry group, the aptly named Dream Team, work to come alive and viable. But none of this happens automatically just because we want it.

“He made it personal”, replied my friend. Like the responsibilities of a special teamer to tackle the runner, we here at Boulevard must also take the work of the Church personally too. We must
reorient our passions, our energy, and even our time to help make the things we dream about like mission trips for the youth, outreach to the community, and fighting hunger and poverty personal and by doing, make these things possible. I hope you will join us!

Finding Jesus in the Scrambled Eggs

2010-08-18T10:11:00.004-04:00

Today was the Men's Prayer Breakfast. It started at 7am. But the food doesn't cook itself. So to say it started at 7am is a little misleading. I really started around 5:15am when I got out of bed.

Folks here at Boulevard have heard me say that there is very little in life that cannot wait until 9am. It is not so much a personal rule but a guideline. I, as you may have already picked up, am a reluctant morning person. I am highly functional, articulate and require no assistance from coffee, but I am those things only when duty and service to humanity calls. For the great guys that make up the Men's Prayer Breakfast here at Boulevard I will gladly wake up early and do what I can to make a tasty breakfast. It is my pleasure. The same holds true for the other times in life when early rising & productivity is helpful to those folks I care about like my wife who will need to be at the airport on a chilly Sunday in November for her 6am flight to Denver. I am glad to do it. But I have to wonder... would I get up at 4am make breakfast, drive to the airport, or wait in line for concert tickets for a total stranger? Would I sacrifice my sleep, my routine for you, unknown blog reader? The honest answer is probably not.

Jesus always seemed to have something to say about loving and respecting your neighbors. Love them as you love yourself was one of his greatest hits & a personal favorite of mine but the rub is this: 4am. I am ready to wrestle bears for the Lord or neighbor at 10:30am, but 4am seems like a deal breaker. It is a bit more than I am willing to commit, which is personally convicting in light of the passage from Romans that we read together at this morning's Men's Prayer Breakfast. Paul writes, "present yourselves as a living sacrifice...", which as James pointed out, meant that like the saricifces of old, what you brought to the Temple you were not bringing back. To put it bluntly: what we give to God isn't ours anymore.

We all have growing edges when it comes to understanding the personal side of faith. The work of God in Christ isn't available for personal compartmentalization in the same way that many of us can distinguish and separate between the pulls of life (ex. work life vs. personal life). We will all need help seeing that the love Christ speaks of when it comes to our neighbors is bigger, more expansive than our limited understanding, and one that will provide constant opportunity to be stretched and moved to a more inclusive faith - one that compels us to serve without limitations and barriers.

So 4am it is.

Walk Off Home Run moves Total Depravity to 2-0

2010-08-17T12:09:00.004-04:00

Solid defense and smart base-running set the stage for Jon Stephen (pictured to the right making a catch) & his walk-off home-run in the bottom of the final extra inning to propel Total Depravity, Boulevard Presbyterian's Kickball team to 2-0.

The game began with some ambiguity as Barley, our black-clad opponents were unsure if they had the minimum of number of players to field an official team for the August 15th 6:00 PM outing. A last minute female, who came to the game as a spectator, thus explaining her stylish footwear, stepped in gave Barley the minimum and cleared the way for the contest.

In the early innings, solid defense prevailed for Total Depravity as it held Barley scoreless and jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the 1st of Jon Stephens' two home-runs. Barley's scoreless streak would become short lived, as they found their footing and quickly tied the contest that would turn into a sew-saw battle all the way into the bottom of the 7th and only extra inning allowed by Parks and Recreation rules.

With the game tied at 5-5, Barley stranded the go-ahead run when the last out was recorded on an infield fly. Clearing the way for walk-off heroics, and Total Depravity's second win of the season, Barley took the field in their standard alignment. Enter Jon Stephens, who had already recorded Total Depravity's 1st home-run of the year with a shot to right field, lined up and booted the ball deep left field, bouncing past the left fielder as Stephens rounded 1st. Hustling, Stephens approached 3rd when the cut-off fielder got control of the ball, and sensing destiny and his chance at Boulevard recreational sports immortality, Stephens rounded 3rd and beat the throw home amid the cheers and celebrations of his fellow teammates.

For Total Depravity historians this game represented a number of milestones. Our 6-5 victory over Barley represented the first time back-to-back victories were recorded, as well as the first time a player has kicked two home-runs in one game, as well the first walk-off victory. Individually, Stephens' home-runs puts him in the All-Time lead. Also Adam Anderson, a 5-tool newcomer for Total Depravity, executed the first (intentional) slide to reach 3rd base.

Join us next week Sunday, August 23rd at 6:00 PM as Total Depravity defends its win steak against newcomers The Grasskickers at C. Ray Buck Sports Park.

Sermon: The Present Time - Luke 12:49-56

2010-08-17T11:59:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday it was hot.

Let’s be honest, its been hot just about all this month, and try as we might, sometimes it is hard to get this sanctuary comfortable for worship. Because the choir was singing this old fan right above me was flipped on to blow some relief to the members of the choir. Depending where I stand up here I can feel the breeze it produces, and last Sunday I really enjoyed having it on. But something funny happened.

Did you ever have one of those memories that just shows up, out of nowhere, and hijacks your thoughts? Maybe it was triggered by a smell, a sound, a song, or in my case, from the breeze from a blowing fan. Standing up, singing the opening songs and hymn, I was transported back to my early high school years and there before all of you I stopped singing and I was terrified to realize I could think of only one thing: Baywatch.

The fact that my mind flashed back to Baywatch when we were worshiping the Holy, Everlasting God may be counted as further evidence of my depravity, but there is was: Baywatch. With it’s red swimsuit beach bunnies, and slow motion running; hair constantly being blown to and fro, and its almost universal appeal to my former demographic of 14 year old, puberty riddled high school freshmen. I say “almost universal appeal” because even at 14 I didn’t like the show. Now, I understood why my friend David did. Shoot, I understood why everybody did (I am not sure if you can see me but I am raising and lowering my eyebrows suggestively), but I needed something a little more than buxom beach babes to require my attention. But then again, I have always been the holder of minority opinions.

I don’t like Bob Dylan’s music, I like Oatmeal Raisin cookies over Chocolate Chip, I unabashedly wear white after Labor Day, I voted for John Kerry, I think Pete Rose should go into the Hall of Fame, and on that summer day in high school I told my friend David I didn’t like Baywatch. Actually I told him I thought it was dumb, and he was being a jerk for running the ol’ bait and switch. I rode over to David’s with a 12 pack of Mountain Dew under my arm, for promises of pizza & a night of video games. When I arrived the pizza was there but the video games were replaced by the blondes of Baywatch bounding across the aptly named boob-tube. What happened next was what I think it was what the fan was trying to get me to remember as I had our scripture floating around in the back of my head. I got up, and made sure that David, and really anyone within ear-shot heard my thoughts on his shenanigans, Baywatch, and a few choice remarks on friendship, and left. Riding home that night, sans my Mountain Dew, I knew that standing up, and speaking out was going to affect my friendship with David, and it did.

Maybe for you it isn’t Baywatch, or TV at all. Maybe for you it is politics, or your work situation. Perhaps you and your brothers and sisters don’t agree on how best to care for aging parents. Then again, maybe it is TV, but it is here that you make your stand. You lend you voice to an issue, you debate, engage, enrage, isolate, alienate; your cautioned that you are making a scene, coming too close to the 3rd rail. So you abdicate, regress, confess, readdress the issue softly, jokingly like it never was a big deal, and hearing the words of Rodney King echoing somewhere in the corner of your mind, you decide “yes, I think that we can all just get along.” Certainly Baywatch, Bob Dylan, or Pete Rose isn’t worth the social equivalent of the Alamo – an ill-fated last stand that everybody seemingly wants you to remember.

“Can’t we all just get along?” seems like a worthy goal, doesn’t it? For many of us it might even be a prayer. Wars rage, genocide is a word our children will grow up knowing all to well, and in the crucial moments of history, when a glimmer of hope shines in the darkness of terrible situations it seems that we always find men and women arguing rather than coming together to effect change. Wouldn’t it be easier, or rather, wouldn’t it be better if we put our partisan bickering aside and got to work? Rolled up our sleeves and helped people without all the hot-air and blue ribbon committees? What if we all just got along? If this is indeed our dream, the passage from Luke today is profoundly upsetting.

"Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” Father against son, daughter against mother, and while I didn’t need Jesus to tell me that I wouldn’t always see eye to eye with my in-laws, the hard truth of this message is that disagreement will be a constant companion for anyone seeking to live out the Gospel. Families, communities, groups of people all the world around exist in some way due to the harmony that comes with the status quo. The perpetual predictability, the entrenchment in safety, and the elimination of the stress of doing something new, trying something different is built into the fabric of society & we are taught at an early age that individuality is ok but conformity is better. Schools reinforce it, companies exist by it, but the “voice crying out in the wilderness” was not proclaiming the coming age of business as usual.

Like John the Baptist before him, Jesus raises his voice to offer a new way, a different way; a minority-report on how to live, love, show grace and mercy, and to care, and respect the stranger. It is from Jesus that we hear “you have heard it said, but I say unto you”; words that help us understand that Jesus sees his mission not to ordain and validate the status quo but rather to show a new, a better way. Jesus was, and still is the voice of dissent. The Gospel that we believe in and seek to live our lives by should never be put on the back-burner in favor of conformity, in favor of the status quo. The Gospel is by definition something different, something loud and obnoxious to be lived out in the very communities that tend to favor everyone getting along. It requires decision and commitment, and therefore families will disagree about it, communities will splinter along issues, and churches will have its factions but ours is the faith of a “new way” and silence is never golden.

The world today, the Present Time, needs your voice. The divisions that come will one day lead to a true reconciliation, but first we need to divide, to set apart – not by splintering and forming new churches and institutions but by grabbing the 3rd rail, and speaking out when it isn’t popular, or perhaps even welcome, but we grab the 3rd rail confident that its there that we find all the power. Power to be part of the Kingdom of God breaking into the world. A world where evil goes unchecked because as Edmund Burke famously remarked good people “do nothing.” Power to stand on faith though our voices may still shake. Power that by speaking out, we inspire others to lend their voices, just as those who came before have inspired us. The Book of Hebrews speaks of the “great cloud of witnesses”; generations of the faithful who have gone out before us, inspiring us, and giving us a model of how to live faithfully in trying times. From their ranks we find those who spoke up against tyranny, slavery, injustice, and oppression when the culture wanted to hear none of it, but it is there too that we find men and women much like yourselves who have stood up for what they thought was right, and have paid the price. My relationship with David wasn’t ever the same, and many of you have paid far worse but in that moment I hope you can see that you were not alone.

We need men and women to speak out and show that faithful, intelligent, passionate people disagree over the fundamental, the elemental building blocks of life – human rights, law, the poor, the oppressed, and more – and in so doing crave out place where with respect, grace and love we engage the issues that define our life. I remember the first time I had a fundamental disagreement with my Mom. Neither one of us would concede, and I remember thinking “My mom is kind of crazy.” Around and around we went, and it wasn’t until she paused and told me she understood what I was saying, why I said it, and why it was important to me but she just didn’t agree with what I had to say. She went on to suggest that perhaps we could start over, this time with an understanding that we didn’t come to our views casually but they were born out of something deep and impacting.

I am found of a story I heard from a Rabbi, who told of two men who both worked in a mine, and whose job it was to carry heavy loads of rocks from the valley to the top of the hill. One day, one of the workers lingered too long at the top of the hill and overheard the men who took his rocks that what he carried contained diamonds. What an honor he had been trusted with, especially when the other man carried only rocks. The next day he lingered at the top of the hill and overheard that the rocks the other man carried contained emeralds, and so each and every day thereafter the man walked up the hill with deep respect for his fellow worker. If we, brothers and sisters, know of the diamonds we carry, it is easy to see the emeralds in the basket of others.

It will not be easy.We cannot do this alone. We must lean into the witness of those who have come before and into the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.We pray that our voices be strong, our convictions steady, and may we walk in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ with confidence that the Kingdom of God is indeed near, and with it comes a true reconciliation.

I don't like Bob Dylan's music

2010-08-10T09:57:00.007-04:00

There I said it. It has been brewing up for sometime now and I have decided it is time to stand up and declare that despite the fact that he is a so-called "genius", despite the fact that he is an "icon" in American music, despite his intriguing life and lyrics, I just plain don't care for Bob Dylan's music. I could get into why. I could tell you all about how his voice drives me nutty, or how fans of his music always want to sing along in an impersonated Dylan voice, but my reasons aren't the point. The point is this: I don't like Bob Dylan's music.

I bring this up because in my specific circle of friends, like many of your friends, there are some realities that will distance you from the pack if made public. The music of Bob Dylan is my social leprosy; casting me out to the far reaches of the acceptable circle where only those along the watchtower can keep an eye on my movements. Knowing this, I keep my mouth shut for the umpteenth time and I grin and bear it. But no more! I am standing up before cyberspace, and whoever else may read this and declare I vote NAY on yet another spin of Blonde on Blonde. Popularity be damned.

Real dissension isn't usually centered around Bob Dylan. Real dissension, the kind for which your standing up might produce fractures and upsets along relational, social, and institutional lines, is the 3rd rail of living in community. Touch it and die. Resist the status quo by standing up for what you believe, what you feel your faith, your love, your sense of right and wrong dictates and you quickly become "that person" who "crashes" city council meetings, and can't leave well enough alone. How many voices have been silenced because we prefer the status quo? How many times have we settled on preservation of the institution rather than listen to voices of dissent?

The 3rd rail might kill you but it is only because that is where all the real power is. Stand up and let your voice be heard.

Kickball Begins Sunday, August 8th

2010-08-01T08:30:00.004-04:00

I just got word this weekend that the Grandview Heights Adult Kickball League begins Sunday, August 8th. For the good folks at Boulevard who are risking (or guaranteeing) pulled muscles, minor injuries of body and pride, and the occasional over-zealous Kickball All-Star, the season truly is a highlight of the year and a great way for people to get together and have some fun.

Come on out next Sunday, August 8th. Games are held at C. Ray Buck Sports Park located on Goodale Ave. Game time is 4pm.

A Brief Look at the 219th General Assembly

2010-07-28T10:13:00.004-04:00

Note: the body of this post came from my August Newsletter article for the Boulevard Presbyterian Church Good News.

Last month Presbyterians from all over the nation gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), our denomination’s biennial gathering. General Assemblies or GA, for short, can often be ripe with hot-button issues and less than civil behavior, and while the 219th GA was full of controversial issues, it was reported that all was civil and faithful dialog was the norm. By the end the seven day event, some 300 actions were taken, including the following:

Elder Cindy Bolbach, a lawyer from the National Capital Presbytery (Washington DC area) was elected Moderator after 4 ballots. Her Vice-Moderator is a very good friend of mine, the Rev. Landon Whitsitt, a pastor from Liberty, MO. The photo above is of Landon's installation as Vice Moderator

The assembly voted to approve the report of the Middle East Study Committee entitled “Breaking Down the Walls” which affirms Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation within secure and internationally recognized borders. The assembly also recommended for study “A Moment of Truth”, a statement by Palestinian Christian leaders, and a paper on Christian-Muslim relations that calls for greater dialog, understanding and cooperation was adopted.

The often debated section in the Ordination Standards of the PCUSA that requires “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and woman or chastity in singleness” was recommended for deletion by a close vote of the assembly. This action will be sent to the individual 173 presbyteries for approval.

The assembly voted to maintain the PCUSA’s current definition of marriage as “between a man and a woman.”

By an over 200 vote margin, the massive revision of the Form of Government that has been in the works for four years was approved. The hope of this revision is to make the way we do government more in line with the changing shape of “being church” now and into the future.

The Belhar Confession, 1980s response to racism and apartheid by South African churches, was approved for inclusion in the PCUSA’s Book of Confessions.

15 new Missionaries (known as Mission Co-Workers) were commissioned and sent out to their various appointments.

A number of actions were taken falling under the heading Social Justice, including a vote to refrain from holding national meetings in states where immigrant Presbyterian or Presbyterians of color might be subject to harassment or racial profiling. Similarly, a number of peacemaking actions were taken including a call for the end of military operations in Afghanistan.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the actions taken at GA and the ramifications of these actions here are some links to explore:

Boulevard's eRecycling Day

2010-07-19T12:07:00.001-04:00

Saturday, July 17th Boulevard Presbyterian Church held its first ever eRecycling Day in the parking lot. Thanks to the hard work of many members and some great advertising, we collected an entire moving truck worth of old computers, monitors, printers, keyboards, and the like. The photo to the right was taken roughly one hour before we closed up shop and quit for the day.

To read the newspaper article that ran about the event please click the link: Boulevard Church to host eRecycling event Saturday

Like the articles mentions, the idea for this event started in an Adult Sunday School class and was nurtured by people who wanted to find ways to put what they learned and what they believe into action. It was something truly inspiring to be a part of.

This is the new model, the new "norm" for Boulevard. No longer letting faith become something academic, something to learn and remember, but rather to ingest like food and let the energy it produces propel us to new places. It is going to be exciting!

Christmas in July

2010-07-12T15:36:00.003-04:00

I wanted to let you know about the book I am now reading. It is called Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present by Hank Stuever. Perhaps a little sadistic to be reading about Christmas when it is in the 90s and 100% Humidity but it was next in the stack.

Tinsel takes place in Frisco, Texas, a suburb in the shadow of Dallas. By all accounts Frisco is built for commerce and the town is growing. Stuever embeds himself in the Christmas preparations of Frisco, a place the dust-jacket refers to as "happy, megachurchy, shoparific", to witness the excesses and beauty of the modern Christmas.

I will keep you updated as to what I find. I will note, that I am reading this with a special eye towards a potential book study here at Boulevard. If the book lives up to my hopes then I would imagine that it would be ripe for discussion during the holiday months.

And Now for Something Completely Different

2010-07-12T12:02:00.001-04:00

Church can sometimes feel like a Monty Python sketch. You show up one Sunday and everything looks as you expect it. The Choir is singing, the sacraments are celebrated, the Pastors are in their robes, and preaching and everything seems decent and in order. The next Sunday there is one service instead of two, there are balloons everywhere, and a pot-luck after the service. Come back the next Sunday and everything is just as it was the first time. The Sunday after that they are back to one service but it is at a different time then it was two Sundays ago, there is no choir only a couple of singers leading music, the bulletin is different, the robes are gone and one of the pastors isn't even wearing a tie, communion is every week and the services are a little longer. Just when you get used to it all it changes again. The choir is gone but so are our music leaders. In their place is an amplified band with guitars and a bass. They are playing "contemporary" music - some not even expressly Christian - and it is loud. The pastor isn't preaching, a member is, and when it was all said and done there was cake. Next Sunday, you ask? Oh, we are back to our normal Summer worship.

Some might say that it is too much. Too much change. Too much experimentation. Too much like the normal 11:15 AM service and not enough like the 9 AM service, and visa-versa. Some might say that it puts people on edge - never knowing what service they are going to walk into - and others might say that it keeps folks on their toes. Two sides of the same coin I suppose. Yet it forces us to confront something very important and usually not very popular. It provides a space to ask why. Why do we do it? Why do we invite a band to worship? Why do we change the time? Why do we have members preaching when we have pastors? Why is there different music? Why no choir? Why do any of this at all? Why?

There is this hot new workout routine that I have been hearing a lot about. It's secret to success is apparently something they call muscle confusion. Meaning that their workout is constantly changing exercises and motions so that the muscles do not get into a habit and plateau. By changing motions and exercises, muscles don't know what is going to happen next and thus have to work. What might be good for the body is difficult for the Body of Christ. We have been exercising for so long in one way that the muscles of the church know the motions and what it can bear without much true exercise. Incorporation of different exercises feels funny & it requires our muscles to go in different but still very beneficial directions. In the end, the "new exercises" help make us stronger because they show that we are strong not just in one way but strong throughout. New ways of worship, new ways of church, new ways of community life force us to exercise muscles long dormant so that we may be fit for all expressions of what it means to follow Christ in the current age.

On Vacation

2010-06-29T15:19:00.003-04:00

This is going to be the last post for a while as I am on vacation. My goal is to spend this time reading and NOT watching TV. So far so good.

Today I finished a book that I really enjoyed but neglected for a couple of months entitled A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome by Alberto Anglea. More than causal readers of this blog might remember mention of this book in January as a much beloved Christmas present from my Dad. I mentioned it in a sermon entitled A Tale of Two Lords that, for whatever reason, is not on the blog.

Riding the excitement of finishing the abovementioned book, I am going to start War by Sebastian Junger this afternoon. Follow this link to read a good treatment of the book & its aims by NPR: Click Here

Something we do together...

2010-06-26T09:56:00.001-04:00

The video is a little cheesy but I can't deny the power of the footage of people from all over the nation (and the globe) coming together to watch Team USA's game against Algeria.

The World Reacts to Landon Donovan's Goal @ Yahoo! Video

July Newsletter Article

2010-06-22T12:39:00.003-04:00

Despite not being much of a soccer fan, I am enjoying watching and keeping up with the World Cup. Any time nations compete I am interested in the outcome be it soccer, the Olympics, or even those lumberjack competitions ESPN broadcasts every once in a while. While I am pulling for the American team to do well and go far in the tournament, I have other “favorite” national teams that I like to watch and root for. I like Argentina, I like Nigeria, but my favorite team is Mexico.

The sports opinion website SB Nation published an article entitled 2010 World Cup Likability Ratings, Or How to Pick Your Team in Scientific Fashion and ranked Mexico #28 out of 30 teams on the likability index. Italy and North Korea being the only two nations less likable than Mexico when it comes to soccer, the author writes, “Mexico may not be pulled for at any time unless you are actually Mexican. If they play Italy somehow, root for a meteor to strike the stadium. There are no exceptions to this rule.”

Mexico gets a bad rap. They are a very physical team that some would call dirty. Their exploits are legendary and it is safe to say that most teams know what they will be in for when they enter the pitch with Mexico. With that said, most World Cup teams carry around with them baggage of some sort that creates expectations, and preconceived notions of their ability, play and style - true or not. It is the way the game works and when it comes down to it, it is up to the team to either cultivate or dispel.

Expectations, preconceived notions, & stereotypes are dangerous - that much is clear - but in a real way they also present opportunities. Just as a student who is dogged by expectations of unruly behavior can be hampered all year long with teacher expectations, we as a church have the great opportunity to change minds and hearts by the way we fight to change minds and hearts. Jesus said it best as he delivered the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said...but I say unto you” (Matthew 5) - Jesus himself was at work breaking and transforming the expectations of life to something more full and whole. We as a church need to be mindful that transformation, reformation, regeneration is the most feared enemy of the stereotype and mundane expectation. Our fight will be uphill and won’t take place on a soccer pitch where the rules of the game dictate. Our rules come only from the Spirit of the Living God who moves within this community and calls us to abandon precedence and fear as we seek to live within the community of our common Presbyterian heritage and strive to be the church that thrills the heart of God.

Sermon: Opposite Galilee

2010-06-21T15:49:00.006-04:00

The following is a reflection on Luke 8: 26-39

First, let me say Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads, and those who have been like Fathers to many.Secondly, since it is indeed Father’s Day I thought that I would tell a story about my Dad & me.

Sometime in the late-1980s my Dad moved to Michigan, which, in case you were wondering, is a long way from California. My brother and I lived in California but would spend the entire summer in Michigan with Dad and we would have a lot of fun. When we were younger we went to camp in Michigan, and went to baseball games, and when it was time to return to California for the start of school we would load up the old 1984 Chevy Blazer and hit the open road. To be honest, I have no idea how long it took to drive from Michigan to California, but as a kid it seemed like forever. But as an adult, looking back, I wouldn’t trade those trips for anything. We saw Mount Rushmore, had a cool drink of water at Wall-Drug, ate Buffalo Burgers in the Dakotas, fell into a creek in Idaho, played at Circus Circus in Reno, endured psychological torture involving a stuffed pig and an open window, got caught in rainstorms with the luggage on the roof in the plain states, and stopped for picnic lunches featuring my Dad’s famous Tuna Sandwiches at rest stops that dotted the route west. But when you total up the amount of time spent forming these memories at Mount Rushmore or eating the Tuna Sandwiches it pales in comparison to the hours and hours driving. Yet, it is this part that my memory is the sharpest. There were these tapes that we purchased at a Shell Gas Station. Greatest Hit compilations from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, that featured Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, The Temptations, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, and all the other sounds that defined their eras. We would pop these tapes in when our own singing of Christmas Carols, and songs from a Winnie the Pooh VHS would grow wearisome, and we had each perfected the Three Stooges shtick Swinging the Alphabet.

Those tapes were the soundtrack of my childhood and it was some time before I cared or knew anything about any music recorded anywhere near my then current era. I can close my eyes and picture the interior of the Blazer, the landscape of the plain states passing by and hear “Good Golly, Miss Molly”, “Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of Fire”, and “I know you want to leave me but I refuse to let you go” which still to this day I would contend is just about the clearest description of God’s relationship to us every written, and today, on Father’s Day, I am especially reminiscent of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

“Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you.” Marvin Gaye sang it, but Jesus embodied it, and it is in our scripture that I hear it echoing... functioning as a refrain, a prayer and a promise; poetry for those who find themselves in the far off places in their lives. Places like that feel like the opposite of Galilee.

The Jordan River connects the Dead Sea to the Sea of Galilee, and just as modern day Israel and Jordan are on opposite sides of the shore, so too is the landscape of our story. Galilee on the western shore, populated by the people of Israel who knew their God and what was required of them. People could make sacrifices, people could pray at the Temple, and if you could afford a lamb at Passover, avoid the gentiles, and appear to keep the law as you eek out living then you are all set; you can blend right in. On the eastern shore was Gerasea, one of the Decapolis, ten cities belonging to the Roman Empire. Gentile as gentile could get. The temples were Roman, the customs were suspect, and the rules of Galilee and the rest of Israel don’t apply here. No Sabbath to keep, no kosher, no anything; it was a different land. It was very much the opposite of Galilee, and a place that we hate to think of ourselves residing in. And I say that, because I do believe that many of us struggle with the places in our lives that are opposite of Galilee, places where we hide the things we don’t want anybody to see, things that would upset the status quo of our lives as we seek to live them out exclusively in Galilee.

I recognize that I am really trying to work this metaphor. I think that it is a good one but let me say it another way. There are places in our lives, like the cemetery from our reading, that we would really rather never discuss, or have exposed. Places where we hide pain and shame, guilt and regret, and these places seem to exist solely for this purpose. We chain those memories up, throw away the key and try to do our best to live a Galilee life, but like our story, the chains simply do not hold. The people of Gerasea hid their problem in the tombs by the sea shore, places where people rarely go, yet time and time again the problem came back to haunt them. In the cemetery across the lake of our own lives hides many of the regrets of life yet the chains break away and do not hold.

Rabbis were never to enter cemeteries. They were unclean by ritual custom. So where the possessed, and Gentiles were no prize either. Everything in this story screams this land is not your own, this is foreign, Godless territory, and yet Jesus goes there too bringing light to the darkness, healing to the broken, meeting every objection and trepidation with something a whole lot like “Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you.” The deepest and darkest places of our lives where the no one is welcome are the places to which Christ will cross the sea to get to, will stride through a cemetery to get to, and will walk right up to the shame, guilt, the pain, the anger, the forgiveness you never accepted, and say, “What is your name?”

Naked except for the broken shackles, unruly, and unacceptable – there for all to see – the man we have come to call the Geresene Demoniac falls down upon his knees and when he arises he is a new man. So it is with Christ. What falls down before him arises anew. If our scriptures are true, if Christ could heal this man, if even the darkest demons are overcome with just a word, will you too open those places in your own life to Christ? Will you accept the promise that there isn’t a shameful memory, a guilty heart, or a bruised and broken piece of your created soul that is too dark, to far away, too bedraggled and neglected to overcome the liberation, the freedom of the irresistible grace of a loving God? Will you?

What happens next is the work of the Spirit. I can’t pretend to tell you what lies in store but I can say this: Christ never once healed without creating a witness. Christ never once healed without creating a missionary. Our unnamed, formally broken man was left there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee not because Jesus didn’t want him but rather because Jesus needed him. Our scriptures tell us, “The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.” Jesus left the man right where he found him. “Remember me?”, he might later say. “Remember where I was? Remember the chains, the wailing and the tombs? I am healed, a new man. Do you want to know why?” Brothers and sisters, the Gereseas of our lives are precisely where Christ leaves us. Leaving us there in the midst of the community where we previously hid our shame and buried our pain. It is here that we are left so we might too become missionaries, proclaiming to those who too may be on the opposite of Galilee and need to hear about the Liberator, the Christ, the Prince of Peace, who holds us in his had and sings “Ain’t no Mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough to keep me away from you.”

A note about sermons

2010-06-16T14:16:00.002-04:00

James is out of town & with him went the sermon videos. Also because last Sunday's sermon entitled "You & Me Both" featured 2 stories that I didn't bother to transcribe, posting a sermon text would have been a little misleading. Next week should be a different story as I am preaching again and will be taking a look at one of my favorite stories from the New Testament that is commonly know as the Gerasene Demoniac from Luke 8. I personally like Mark's version better as Luke leaves out the detail about the man bruising himself with rocks.

Check back later on and see what gets posted. Since it is going to be Father's Day on Sunday & since the only person I know for sure who reads this blog besides the Chinese Porn spammers is my Dad I am sure I will tell a Dad story. And Dad, don't worry, it won't be about Gordon Foods.

When it actually happens...

2010-06-10T09:14:00.003-04:00

Tim Kurkjian, my favorite of all the baseball commentators, interviewed rookie goldenboy Stephen Strasburg after his MLB Debut. Strasburg who was the #1 overall pick in the 2009 MLB Draft, was given a boatload of money in signing bonuses and has a lot of expectations tied to his very young professional baseball career. And rightly so. Strasburg is being called the greatest pitching prospect of recent memory (if not all-time) and in one college game he struck out 23 batters - an amazing feat. Being drafted by the Washington Nationals, a perennial cellar-dwelling team, may not have been what Stephen was hoping for but the Nationals have treated him right and a couple of days ago when he made his MLB debut the stadium was packed (a rarity) and some 200 press credentials were issued.

Up until the 7:05pm first pitch, Strasburg was all conjecture and hype. 23 strikeouts in college was awesome but it was college. He has been dominate in the minor leagues but minor league hitters swing at anything. Years and years of "phenoms" have come and gone with many ending up pumping gas by the time they are 25. Sadly, experience tells us that rarely, if ever, does "real life" live up to our expectations. Many times our hopes and dreams are all too lofty to ever fully manifest themselves in reality. For every lottery winner there are countless numbers of folks who were sure their numbers were golden and the money was already spent in their minds. Sadly sometimes hype is just hype...except when it isn't.

Stephen Strasburg took the mound for the Washington Nationals and proceeded to dominate the Pittsburgh Pirates. Over 7 innings Strasburg struck out 14 batters, one shy of tying the MLB Debut record of 15, and looked better and better as the game went on. Fanning 9 of the final 10 batters he faced, Stephen was nothing short of amazing. In Kurkjian's post-game interview of the shaving-cream covered Strasburg, Kurkjian asks Strasburg if reality has lived up to his dreams. Watch the interview to see Strasburg's answer.

What are our dreams? Are they fodder for reality? Do we pin unrealistic expectations and hopes on individuals and situations only to come away disappointed? Certainly there are some who saw Strasburg's outing and walked away upset that he didn't perform like they wanted. Today is a good day to ask ourselves what can we do to make our dreams into hope. Dreaming of loosing 150 pounds can be anchored in the hope for a healthy future and a better body image. When we deal in hope we can find strength in the transformative work of the Holy Spirit, who transforms all things into a fuller and truer expression than we could ever accomplish on our own.

Sunday Sermon - "Still Speaking"

2010-06-01T15:43:00.002-04:00

Shocked to learn

2010-05-27T14:21:00.002-04:00

Blogosphere brace yourself...
I didn't get named to Columbus Monthly's "List of Titans" that run Columbus. I am as shocked as you are. Apparently you have to be either crazy powerful or filthy rich to make the list and, as my accountant reminds me, I am neither one of those things. But I am not going to give up. I hear that Columbus Monthly is doing a Clergy Swimsuit Calendar. I like my chances there.

Power, Money, Media Attention, other things I can Capitalize, we all want for something, we all want to make our mark. There is something validating about being "something" that few, if any are. I remember one summer in California I was attending camp at Mount Hermon in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There, before God and a video camera, I did a belly-flop off the high dive and landed with an incredible clap. It hurt for sure but for the rest of the week I was "The Belly Flop Guy" which sounded a whole lot cooler then than it does today as I type this. Title aside, I was well known, liked, and my celebrity gained me access to all those places the non-belly flopping proletariat were excluded. All this to say, being well-known, popular and powerful gave me an outlook that was intoxicating but stepping back produced in me a "me & them" mentality.

I don't know any of Columbus' Titans of the City personally. They could all be wonderful, humble, awesome people but then again they might be jerks. I don't know. What I do know is that no matter if they are Titans or Tinkertoys they fall under the same category just as the starving children all the world around, the prisoners locked away in a dank cell, and those uppity brats on reality TV: humanity. Powerful, Uppity, Incarcerated, Near Death, we are all the same in the way that matters, and for me, that is the love that God has for all of us.

So here is to you Columbus Titans: you are rich and powerful but what you and I share money can't buy.

Pentecost 2010

2010-05-24T10:35:00.003-04:00

Here is the view from the sanctuary entrance on Pentecost 2010. Thanks to Merri Bame, Jeremy Roberts, Grace Parks, Phyllis Miller, & Mary Ann Stephens for decorating the pews and giving us the "on fire" look.

Pentecost is something of a mystery to many folks & as such it is often regulated to the minor leagues of church events. Lumped in there with Ascension Sunday or Reformation Sunday, Pentecost tends to get the brush off despite being the birthday of the church and the day dedicated to remembering the gift of the Holy Spirit. This short-changing (in my opinion) has to do with our understanding of the Holy Spirit as something intangible, free-form, & "not really our thing" as Reformed folks. We jettison the Spirit for something more tangible, something more cerebral, something measurable, testable, & definable. We jettison the Spirit for "understanding" rather cultivating a sense of the presence of Christ in our lives which is the classic understanding of the Spirit's presence. In other words, we would rather learn about Christ than feel his presence.

It has been a while...

2010-05-23T08:21:00.002-04:00

I am back from an awesome conference in Nashville & back at Boulevard just in time for Pentecost. The whole world here is decked out in Red and soon enough we will be having our 1st combined Pentecost event with one worship service, breakfast and, from what I have been told, balloons. Should be a good time.

I will be back blogging this week which will feature my work on my upcoming Trinity Sunday (May 30th) sermon. Should be fun to weave in Trinity Sunday & Graduate Sunday.

A sobering look into the actual state of global wealth

2010-05-12T11:12:00.003-04:00

Brett Swanson is the 153,913,044 richest person on earth!

Discover how rich you are! >>

Rapid Fire Thoughts on 3 Things

2010-05-05T14:52:00.004-04:00

Like many Blogs, I have nothing to say today.
There is a lot going on, and there is a lot to do but unless you are interested in stories of me making the May Adult Education Poster or my travels visiting members I don't have anything for you. James is preparing for a busy weekend with 2 funerals & preaching at both services. I have a wedding on Saturday which, as always, I am looking forward to. So rather than fall back to my usual baseball-christian faith analogies I present...

Rapid Fire Thoughts on 3 Things

Ohio Weather is crazy. Today in the 80s, tomorrow in the 70s, Friday in the 80s, & Saturday? Mid 50s
I am attending a Preaching conference in Nashville in a few weeks. We will be smack-dab in the center of an area devastated by flooding. Rather than ignoring the damage and pretending that it isn't there the conference is organizing an afternoon work day to help with clean water distribution.
A friend of mine is catching all sorts of grief on Facebook for an update that read something to the effect of being tired of all the people whining about their vacations being canceled due to the BP Oil Disaster. People are coming out of the woodwork decrying his post because they lost money on the effects of the spill. I have been good at holding back my comments but some are painfully short-sighted.

Back in the Office

2010-05-03T11:03:00.003-04:00

Last week was wonderfully crazy.

Immediately after preaching & getting the Home-bound Communion servers all set I threw off my robe and headed home. Less than an hour after saying my goodbyes here at Boulevard I was heading down I-71 South on my way to Louisville, Kentucky for Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Festival of Theology and Reunion. Every year for the past 3 years I join some of my very best friends from all over the nation for 3 days of lecture, fellowship & hitting some of our favorite Louisville restaurants. Like every year we stay at the same hotel and often have surprisingly deep and theological conversations while sitting in the hot-tub or hanging out in one of our rooms. This year's festival theme was the Global Church and the Belhar Confession & conversations ranged from the merits of interfaith dialog, famous people named William, and the theology of Howard Thurman. When we pulled up the stakes and parted ways on Wednesday we all had a great time & were sad it was over.

Since getting back things have been very productive yet sad news keeps rolling in. Friday & Saturday the Christian Education Committee had our annual end of the year planning retreat. We shared a wonderful meal together and then planned out the 2010-2011 "Academic" year for Boulevard's Rotation Sunday School as well as the Adult Education program. When we departed our retreat on Saturday late afternoon we had a theme and direction for the year ahead. Yet the excitement was short lived as word spread that in just a short 24 hours two of our beloved members had died.

Such is the seasons of life. Rest gives way to production. Happiness gives way to sadness. But they work the other way too. Production gives way to rest and sadness gives way to happiness. Life is full of seasons.

Sermon - "Rewind"

2010-04-29T12:37:00.002-04:00

Sermon: Rewind - John 10:22-30

2010-04-24T21:18:00.005-04:00

Let me begin today with a question: what do you expect from God? So let’s think together. What do you expect from God?

Answers. In a real foundational way we want answers. We want help in making a decision so we pray for guidance, discernment, for thy will to be done. We look around the world and ask about suffering, famine, abuse and neglect. Why O God. But our quest for answers isn’t always so altruistic is it? I know mine isn’t.

Why O God do you keep your mouth shut when things start to go haywire? Why O God are some of the best and most loved people in my life suffering? Why O God does my nose start itching every week right after I am done sanitizing my hands for Communion? Why O God did you call me to be a Pastor when the overwhelming smell of Easter flowers give me headaches and Palm Ashes make my forehead red and blotchy? Why O God did you make many of the foods I love so terribly unhealthy & caffeine addicting? Why O God why?

I don’t feel bad about bringing these questions to the Lord. There is nothing wrong about going to God for answers. In a real sense there is no better place to bring our questions and because I am often going to God for answers I have a fair amount of sympathy for the folks we meet in our reading. They wanted answers and so do I. They wanted to know if Jesus was in fact the Messiah and if he was, a clear and definite yes or no would suffice. No roundabout Jesus answers thank you. Like Dragnet they just want the facts. It is a fair question; I think especially when we consider circumstances. The winter stroll along Solomon’s Portico took place during the Festival of Dedication, which goes by the name Hanukkah in today. Hanukkah celebrated the retaking of Jerusalem by God through the heroic faith of the Maccabees and when people gathered to celebrate the successful revolt of the Jews over an oppressive empire, trying to sniff out a potential Messiah takes on all sort of political flavor. “How long will you keep us in suspense?”, they ask. “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” The problem is that this is the Gospel of John & what they don’t know is that Jesus is hardly ever saying much plainly.

The other day I had the youth group go around and label all the stained glass windows. They got most of the them right including the ones of the Gospels that have their names right there on the windows. Think of it as a warm-up. The Gospel of John is pictured with an Eagle and has been for sometime. The image is a strange one but the Eagle is attached with the forth Gospel because John seeks to write at the lofty heights of Christ’s mind. Things in John are spiritual, they require thought or as one of my books put it, “People who like black and white answers and who prefer plain meaning to subtlety and allusion may find reading the Gospel of John frustrating.” The Jesus we encounter in John is frustrating & no doubt the vibe we get from the story is that those who asked Jesus if he was the Messiah were frustrated too. They are tired of the dodgy rhetoric. They are tired of the “sound of one hand clapping” type answers they are getting from Jesus and they want to know. They want to know. They want to know. They want to know. They want to know and Jesus is talking about sheep again. They want to know if Jesus is the one who will overthrow, take back, and establish. They want to know if Jesus is the one they are to follow and the answer is of course, yes but they will never be happy. They will never get the relationship, the love, the embrace of Christ because what they want isn’t going to be available to them. They want answers about Jesus, they want information, they want to know A or B, Left or Right, Up or Down, but Jesus is a Shepherd and not an ATM, spitting out what you want when you ask for it. There are sheep who hear his voice and follow, and there are sheep who do not. What the folks in our reading aren’t accepting is that it is in the following that we can ever know anything about Jesus and through him God.

Brothers and Sisters, knowing Jesus may come in handy if you ever get on Jeopardy but we have not been redeemed, overcome by grace, and embraced so that you could win the Daily Double. We are not called to know, but to hear. We are not called to answer, but to follow. This is where faith is formed. Not in answers but in experiences; experiences that we may never be able to articulate or explain but experiences of following. Let me ask you a question. Did any of you learn to drive just by reading a book? Learn to play the Piano without touching the keys? Learn how to pray by Google’ing it? Did any of you go to the Library to find Trusting God for Dummies (that is what I should have called this sermon…)? No you didn’t because you can’t learn to drive without actually driving, play the piano without actually playing the piano, pray without actually praying, and you certainly cannot learn to trust God from a book, a pastor, or even Oprah. Like my old Little League Baseball coach used to say, the only way to know what it is like to get hit by a pitch is to have actually been hit by a pitch. The only way to trust the Shepherd’s voice is by following where he leads time after time.

Now if you are here today and you are thinking about the “what ifs”, if you mind is saying, “I don’t know”, or maybe you are thinking about what your friends would say, or you are wondering about the risks then you are in the right place because Jesus has one more thing to say. If you are thinking about risks, if you are terrified at what might happen if you trust a Messiah like Jesus who isn’t handing out easy digestible answers to make us all feel better but instead wants you to follow then hear these words one more time: No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. Brothers and Sisters, the hands of Christ are filled with people just like us. People who seek to follow where he leads but are afraid, people who hear the voice of the Shepherd and venture out slowly but lucky for us there are others here in the hands of Christ too. Grasped in the same hands that held Christ to the cross we find those who have followed Christ’s call and have learned to trust despite the world telling them not to. Here you will find the woman who made it through the death of her husband by placing her burdens on the Lord. You will find the couple who, despite making just enough, tithes more than 10%. You will find those who will pray for you. You will find those whose trials and trust have borne great wisdom. You will find someone who knows what you are going through. In the hands of Christ we find that we are not alone but surrounded by those who hear the voice of the Shepherd and will walk with you as you take your first steps because those first steps are some of the hardest.

Let me wrap all this up with a story from college. I was a Religion major and I had to take a class entitled American Christianity. I loved that class. One of the required books was In His Steps the book that first asked What Would Jesus Do? Now while I was in college WWJD? was everywhere. Bracelets, t-shirts, I even remember seeing a WWJD Cremation Urn. Of course there were those who parodied the phrase, my Dad being one of them, who had a number of WWJD items that he believed stood for What Would Jeff Do?, Jeff, of course, being my Dad’s first name. There was also the briefly popular We Want Jack Daniels, and then the take offs like What Would Shaq Do, and the now infamous What Would Jesus Drive? The culture ate it up but my professor thought that it was fundamentally the wrong question. What Would Jesus Do, was about an answer for every circumstance and had little to do with what he believed we should be asking. He cam up with the slightly less marketable WHJDITPAWCTDITF? – What has Jesus done in the past and will continue to do in the future? If we want to know what lies ahead then we need to look back to the places that Christ has taken us & remember Amazing Grace - Through many dangers, toils and snares  I have already come;  'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.

My May Newsletter Article

2010-04-20T17:06:00.003-04:00

Huntington Park, the home of the Columbus Clippers, was named the 2009 Ball Park of the Year by Ballparks.com, an independent site dedicated to all things Baseball Ball Park. What makes this designation interesting is that the award has virtually no restrictions or quantifiers. It isn’t the Best Minor League Park, it isn’t the Best New Park, it isn’t even the Best Designed, Best Concession, Best Turf Park. It is just the plain old Best Park in 2009; a year when the new Yankee Stadium, the new New York Mets’ stadium, and others debuted. It is no wonder that that you can’t see a single piece of advertising from the Clippers without this fact front and center. I can’t blame them. If my park beat out both the Yankees and Mets - two of the top-5 wealthiest teams in all of baseball - I would make sure everyone knew about it too.

Huntington Park teaches us a valuable lesson. Rather than trying to build a park to rival the biggest, the most luxurious with the fanciest foods, or the most hip and modern, the people who planned this park took a good look at who they were , who the Clippers were, who their fans were, and the location where they would find themselves in and from there they began designing. Huntington works so well because it is a testament to honesty. By not trying to be something they weren’t they were able to be something great.

For people of faith it is an important lesson. When we struggle to become
something we are not we often feel disconnected from God and God’s embrace. Rebelling against the gifts we have been given means that we will never truly be the most fulfilled. It is only by being honest can we ever be the “Best (Insert your name here) of 2010.”

Going to the Clippers Game

2010-04-15T09:28:00.002-04:00

I am taking part of the day today and heading out to the Columbus Clippers day game. First pitch is 11:35am and the weather forecast is legendary - no clouds, 83 degrees, slight breeze. I am looking forward to my first game of the season.

When I get back into the office today I will fill you in.

Life Changes Fast

2010-04-14T14:41:00.002-04:00

The other day I learned that a good friend of mine was told that after years of working on an adoption that a birth mother had chosen her and her husband and they would be the adoptive parents of a beautiful little boy. They went from childless couple waiting for a call to parents of a newborn boy in something like 72 hours. Life changes fast.

Things change in a instant. I am going to let you wrap your minds around this rather than hear my thoughts on the matter. Or better yet, if you are not some sort of Spammer, feel free to post your thoughts in the comment section.

Mystery Trip

2010-04-12T09:22:00.002-04:00

Yesterday the Youth Group here at Boulevard took what we call a Mystery Trip. Mystery Trips are essentially outings where the participants have no idea where we are going and what we are doing. Yesterday's trip took us to the Dublin Corn Statues, a Wendy's for Dinner and then the Chief Leatherlips monument and park. We had a great time!

On the way to the Leatherlips statue we had a conversation about some other churches and their groups. One of the kids in the car mentioned that she went with a friend to one of the "big big churches" for what that church calls the Girls Cell Group. She said that while she didn't love the church she thought it was interesting that the group read the Bible and found ways to tie that to real life. The way she talked about tying the message of Jesus to everyday, 24/7 life seemed like this was the first time (or at least the first time she noticed) she ever experienced the Bible being informative to the way she lives out her days.

Her comment got me thinking. Isn't connecting our faith & our life what most churches are up to? Why did it take her so long to piece this together? The person that I am talking about here is smart, perceptive, and while her 6th grade taste in music is suspect, she is exceedingly bright. Therefore I am going to guess that it wasn't her fault that she never made this connection; never found faith & life informing each other "interesting" before this specific Cell group encounter. I think that this is the fault of the gathered church.

As a faith community we need to do a better job of talking about the everyday, mundane and challenging life as a place where we can see the Gospels come to bear. We tend to do a good job with Christmas and a slightly worse job with Easter but other than those two Sundays we lose the "this is a big deal & it is important for here and now" vibe that is at the foundation of Christ's message. The truth is that Jesus redeemed the everyday by living an "everyday" life. The events and parables that we read of in the Bible didn't just happen on important days but everyday. When we lose the "everyday" nature of Jesus we make Sunday Holy and the other 6 days fair game. But the good news is that we can do something about this.

As a church, as a community, as people, parents, brother and sisters, we need to do a lot more talking about living a faithful life. We need to talk about the "why" along with the "what and how." We can begin to turn the tide by talking to our children about why we made the decision we made, what informed it, and how we know it was the right decision. We can talk about why it is painful to see the hungry on the streets & why you choose to support a homeless shelter. We can share our struggles with choosing to do the right thing when the opposite is often the most convenient. We can talk about why we pray, why we give, why we volunteer, and the like. By living out our faith in dialog with our children, spouse, friends, family, and faith community we can begin to pool a common witness that shows that faith and life so intrinsically connected that separating one harms both.

Love One Another

2010-04-06T15:09:00.004-04:00

I am on a big reading kick right now. I finished a wonderful book the other day entitled This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public & Private Lives of Two Ministers which I am willing to now call a "must read" for Pastors but especially younger clergy like myself. I am going to recommend it to my Young Pastor Squad during our next meeting.

Along with three other books I am reading (different books for different places...at work, by the bed, etc.) I just picked up a forth inspired by our staff meeting today. It is called Love One Another: Becoming the Church Jesus Longs For by Gerald Sittser, my college professor of church history. I finished the first chapter in 5 minutes - not because it was short but because it was good. Sittser tells of the story of his daughter who was hit and cut up badly by a motor boat while studying abroad in Quito, Ecuador. From time of accident all the way through recovery she was surrounded by people who gave of themselves, stood by Catherine (the daughter), and ushered her though all stages of her recovery for no other reason than "she needed to be loved." For Sittser this is the image of the church that Jesus longs for. A caring community that loves because people need to be loved.

So I think that once I get through this other book I am going to let Love One Another become my full-time "at work" book.

He is Risen! - Happy Easter

2010-04-04T10:24:00.003-04:00

Today is Easter, the most significant day in the life of Christianity. This is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his defeat over the power of sin & death. Currently the sanctuary is all decked out in lilies, daffodils, and white which is used to symbolize resurrection. Thanks to my mom, who keeps me well stocked with stoles, I have a number of white ones to choose from.

We don't wear white all that often. While green (which symbolizes what we call "Ordinary Time") is the most common color, white is reserved for funerals which the church refers to as Services of Witness to the Resurrection, & Easter. The two actually have a lot in common. In a Funeral/Memorial service we proclaim that death is not the end which also serves as a foundational claim for the Easter celebration. In Easter we claim the promise that sin & death are defeated by the life & death of Christ and new life abounds.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Sunday Sermon - "Stones Cry Out"

2010-03-31T15:04:00.002-04:00

Standing in the doorway

2010-03-31T11:20:00.005-04:00

What is it about my office that seems to attract conversation taking place in my doorway? Virtually no one comes in and sits down. Seems that all my conversations happen in the doorway. Maybe I smell bad...no one wants to get close.

Today somebody started crying in my doorway. He was looking for something he couldn't find in a place he didn't know and I think that he was scared. But he started crying. Now I have joked with those in my doorway, been challenged, discussed sermons, spoken out loud credit card numbers, and done a great deal of business with someone in my doorway but never had anyone cry.

I don't want to make light of this because I can't shake it. Maybe he thought that he was being taken to the "Principal's Office" church-style. Maybe he thought that he was in trouble & he didn't dare approach to close lest he be detained. Maybe a lot of things. Yet I can't shake the scene... but I know why. I am humbled/disappointed by my inability, in this case, to recognize when something looks like business as usual but isn't. What he needed I didn't ensure he got. What he got was what I give seemingly everyone who stands in my door: an answer. I answered his question but failed to ask one myself.

So much of this job can be providing answers. When do we serve dinner again at the homeless shelter? May 16th. Do we have Sunday School this week? No. Standing at my door is something akin to Google. Type in what you want to know, get it answered, move on. Truthfully "handling business" with expediency can often be a springboard for success as an administrator, something Pastors are asked to do often, but at the end of the day I didn't feel God calling me into middle management. I believe that my relationship with God through Christ is indeed a relationship & it is also how I should live in community with others. It isn't economical, it isn't going to be the "best use of time", nor will it be the easiest way to live but I got to believe, especially when it is tough, that it is the most important thing that I do as a person and as a Pastor.

Sermon: Stones Cry Out - Luke 19:28-48

2010-03-29T09:19:00.006-04:00

NOTE: This was the "script" that inspired the spoken sermon. There were, as always, points of departure.

With a well known & important scripture like ours today I think that it is important to set the scene - know what we are dealing with. Jerusalem would be the destination for pilgrims and faithful from all over the land and this city would be teeming with people taking up residence in every nook & cranny. Jerusalem at this time isn’t a very big city & with the population swelling for Passover there eventually was a point with it couldn’t hold anymore folks. This is where Bethany & Bethphage come in. Only about a mile away from Jerusalem, just on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, these cities became something of a hub for the travelers who were not staying in Jerusalem but making the journey into the city day after day. So it is safe to assume that the route Jesus takes on his journey would have been well traveled and well known.

When pilgrims were not in Jerusalem they would have been in ground zero for Jesus related chatter and fandom. These cities, not too far apart, were the backyards of Mary, Martha, & Lazarus. Just about anyone taking advantage of the hospitality of these lands would have heard the story of Lazarus’ raising from the dead at the hands of Jesus & might have had encounters with Jesus’ disciples or other locals who had first hand experiences with Christ’s teaching & healings. The Gospel of John even goes as far as to say that Lazarus himself was around at the time of the Triumphant Entry & that a “great crowd” had gathered to see for themselves Lazarus & Jesus. If we roll all this together we get a pretty compelling picture of a crowd, swelled with stories and firsthand experiences of the power and person of Jesus Christ who now climbs atop a donkey; a ritualistic clue as a fulfillment of prophesy. King Solomon rode a donkey to his coronation. The Prophet Zachariah tells us that the King comes triumphant & victorious riding on a donkey. The King is coming. The new King has arrived and he does great things! He raises men from the dead, upon him rests the power of God! His teachings are with authority! “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna! And now we are parading! We are waving our palms, we are shouting, whooping & hollering because today is the day! Today is the day when we finally can give those Romans a piece of our mind! And all this happening during Passover! We are being delivered! “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” What? What are those Pharisees saying to him? No we won’t quiet down! Even louder now “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” If I tell them to stop the stones would shout out.

Since college I have been captivated by this phrase: The Stones would shout out. When I learned it I was reading another translation - the Stones would cry out. That is the one that sticks with me. If I tell them to be quiet the stones will cry out. For years I have thought of those words of Jesus when I think about Palm Sunday, Easter, all of Christ’s life to be honest. Lately, as I have been working on this sermon I have begun wondering. What would the stones have said?

What would the stones have said if the “multitude of disciples” had stopped their parade? Jesus seems to give us the impression that the stone would echo the sentiment of the parade but I wonder - how many marching in this parade knew where it was heading? Did the palm waving, praise shouting, Pharisee denying average parade go-er know what their new King was up to? See, the popular understanding was the Messiah, the one who comes in the name of the Lord, would come in and establish rule, a government & civil rule in the classical sense that would ordain a season of God’s will upon the land. The King they were looking for was like the Kings of old. They were looking for another David. Did those men and women marching along the path know that this King, this Lord was not going to assume the throne? Did they know that this King wasn’t going to raise an army, defend the land, throw out the Romans & begin the rebuilding? Did they know that in just a few short days they would be shouting something different when it came to Christ? Did they know where this parade was headed?

What would the stones have said then?

One of my regrets is that I never had a chance to talk to my grandparents about their lives in more depth. I was either too young or too interested in Football, and girlfriends, and maybe school to sit down with them and ask about the war, the dust bowl, the history that they lived through & the experiences that shaped their lives. I treasure the little nuggets I have but I regret that much of their lives is a mystery. I believe that the mistakes that I make honestly come from my lack of wisdom when it comes to living & working and wisdom is something that I think age can get you. Wisdom to see the big picture. Wisdom to see the long, hard lessons of life played out over the course of your years. Wisdom gathered from the good & the bad, from a life spent in prayer, in love, in work & for some, in pain. And I bring this up because this is what I believe the crowd lacked: wisdom born out of a long life observing the coming and going of all things.

You see crowds will turn. Give them a little hope, give them what they want, answer a prayer or entertain them and they are like lambs. Any politician, celebrity or sports star will testify to this. But fail to meet up to the impossible, misguided, or self-serving expectations & lambs become lions; seeking to feast on the carcass of another disappointment. Crowds have virtually no memory but the stones have been around since the beginning. They have seen the comings and goings for centuries. Conquering Kings, outgoing slaves, the blood of the poor & the gold of the rich. They have seen it all. The stones have seen their fair share of parades of adulation. They have seen their faire share of funeral processions too. War Horses arrive all the time & yet what the stones have that we do not is the wisdom to see that our systems, our fixes, our Kings of the here and now are not ultimately able to save us. They are not ultimately what makes things right. The stones cry out Hosanna, Hosanna, they cry out Save Us, Save Us. A testimony born out of wisdom speaks of the whole world needing redemption & this does not happen with coronations, elections, or surrenders. The redemption that the world needs happens at Calvary. Redemption comes not from the makings of our governments no matter how popular. Redemption comes not in teachings, healing, popularity contests, or memorable slogans. Redemption is the work of God. Who can redeem the creation other than the Creator?

Palm Sunday & to a larger extent Easter happens apart from our ability to recognize what we need. The life & death of Christ, and the redemption that happens therein is the will of a God who’s ways are not our own & who’s message challenges the status quo yet twenty centuries later we still fail to recognize what ultimately saves us. Twenty centuries later we still cling to our colorless dreams of a world made better but hardly the fundamentally different world Christ spoke of.

Brothers and sisters, the stones are still speaking. Can you hear them? The concrete where the homeless sleep, the asphalt of our busy streets, the marble of the luxury condos, the very stones that make this church, all of them, they are shouting because twenty centuries later we continue to, as the scriptures say, put our trust in princes & reject Christ. Yet twenty centuries later Christ stands overlooking our city seeking to enter. Waiting to overturn our tables, to bring the Kingdom near, to redeem, to make whole, to sustain.

Do you want something that lasts forever? Immutable, unchanging, true today as it was the day before? Then we must find the one who comes in the name of the Lord. He makes his way to the Temple to do a new thing. If we hurry we can catch him.

AMEN.

Writing my sermon

2010-03-22T15:32:00.005-04:00

I am preaching Palm Sunday & there is a little dance that happens in those sermons. Palm Sunday, the day that we remember Christ's entry into Jerusalem, is also called Passion Sunday. Whereas Palm captures the joy that accompanies Christ riding into Jerusalem, Passion describes the ordeal that awaits him the week ahead. To find a balance between the two is required. So that is where I am at.

I am just about 1/2 way done and I think that I will have the 1st draft in the can by tomorrow at this time. My hope is that despite the many things happening this week (my Mom arrives from California tomorrow) I will be able to have something that is faithful to where I feel God is calling me in this scripture.

Stay tuned for some external processing...

A Trailer & Website for our Wednesday Lenten Dinner & Class - Session 4

2010-03-16T14:06:00.003-04:00

Ok, I know...tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day which usually means green food & other products, awful Irish accents, and other blarney. Coincidentally we also have our 4th Lenten Class & Dinner where we will be having homemade Corned Beef, Cabbage, Boiled Potatoes, and Green Sherbet (Hot Dogs for the kids) & we will watch and discuss the 4th video in our series entitled "Today."

This video asks us the fundamental question for mainline churches (& Christians): are our best days behind us? Come and tackle this questions with us together! Click below to go to the website and watch the trailer!

Go to the Website & Watch the Trailer

I am big in China

2010-03-15T15:10:00.003-04:00

So I have been getting a few comments on the Blog as of late. Usually there are none or one to two rare ones here and there but normally zero. Sadly it isn't the feed back I was looking for. Someone or some people have been leaving pithy sayings in Chinese characters followed by a long line of periods like an ellipsis gone awry.

It looks like this: ..........................................

Now here in lies the problem: each period is not just a period but actually it's own link. Each dot takes you to a different website that can best be described as "not safe for work."

Some cyber-investigating shows me that this is a common practice on blogs. Blogs taking about art and geometry, new styles of crochet, and many others have been hit. As a precaution to whatever latent security risks these links and comments might hold I have begun deleting the comments as I find them. You can still see your comments (if they are appropriate) but the malicious ones are going away.

What I want to do & What I am doing

2010-03-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

An idealized day for me would be spent reading something I can't put down in a room with lots of natural light and cool air. I would grab a chair, a seat on the couch, or sit on the steps of the back porch and read all day. I currently am reading 3 books that I would love to devote that much time and energy to. Reading for me is a passion. An idealized day would be spent reading but how many days do I give over to something I like doing so much? Very few.

The truth is that if you are like me our passions end up on the back burner for the busyness of work, life, and responsibility. We put so much of ourselves into the things that seem to be the most pressing, the most lucrative, the most productive that on some level we loose the ability to prioritize justly. Let me unpack this...

Paying bills has to be a priority. Going to work has to be a priority. Spending time with your children, your spouse, partner, friends, whatever has to be a priority. Exercising your passions for art, literature, cooking, music, etc has to be a priority. All these things have to be a priority but how do we rank them? Is work more important than spending time with your children? Is reading more important than getting a jump on filing your taxes? The answer I think is a matter of understanding what it means to prioritize justly. We must work to see ourselves as a whole and not a compartmentalized body. Wholeness means that the work that we do and the books that we read are both formative in the construction of ourselves & that while work pays better than reading (in most cases) we cannot be whole unless we seek a just balance between passions and promotion. Scripture ( and the Byrds...click here) teaches us that "to everything there is a season" which means for me that I must think in terms of the totality of life rather than those things that seem to be either most pressing, lucrative or the like. I must ensure that the passions of being alive are not oppressed by what it takes to afford to do them.

So today I am going to thank God for the things that I have been given. For my love of reading, travel, and the like but also the gifts that I have been given for the Call that I have. My prayer is that I can find the harmony, the just priorities between what I want to do and what I am doing. This is my prayer for you as well.

See you Sunday.

A Trailer for our Wednesday Lenten Dinner & Class - Session 3

2010-03-09T11:34:00.003-05:00

For the 3rd session of our Lenten Dinner & Series we will seek to tackle the 3rd of our "Five Good Questions": What Does it Mean to Trust God?

To do this we will be watching the Nooma video entitled Kickball which helps us understand our call to trust in God is rooted in the truth that God is indeed good. Check out the link to the video website & trailer.

Watch the Trailer

What is that bright yellow thing in the sky where the grey clouds used to be?

2010-03-08T14:51:00.003-05:00

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the flowers are busting loose from the soil & the nasty ice/snow is fading into the cold recesses of properties where sun isn't likely to find it. I am always amazed at the staying power of a plowed up pile of snow. Once white and fluffy, once ripe fodder for snow-people or angels, or snowballs, this grayish white pile of snowy ice lasts forever even as the sun shines and the temperature climbs. One such pile lives in the 2nd Ave. parking strip that lines the church.

Taking up residence in a single parking space this pile of snow is about the size of of my old Ford Festiva. Jr. High Science tells us that heat, sunlight, and salt form a deadly combination for snow and ice, yet after many days of being exposed to at least the first two the pile remains & my guess it has a few more days left in it. But this, despite my surprise year after year, should be expected. After all there is a lot of snow. The outer layer reflects the sunlight which also insulates the bulk of the snow residing inside the mound & with tons of snow and ice the pile is built to last. It puts up a good fight for the changing environment that it currently finds itself in.

If I am honest, I am impressed with the pile. I think that it does something that we as a church have struggled with for sometime. Whereas a single layer of snow won't last an afternoon with a shining sun, the pile takes all those individual "layers" and brings them all together to form something stronger and more stable as a collective than could be achieved as a single individual. The "strength in numbers" lives out as the temperature climbs but the pile remains. As a church, not just Boulevard, but as an universal church we often fail in pile building because we are so accustom to individuality. We want to build up individuals but we often forget that wisdom exists as a group, that strength exists as a group, and it is only as a community that we can survive when the rising temperatures of our time arrive.

Are you part of a pile?

A Trailer for our Wednesday Lenten Dinner & Class - Session 2

2010-03-01T11:24:00.002-05:00

We are now in Week 2 of our 5 week Lenten Series & Class & this week we will be looking at the question: "What does it mean to have a relationship with God?"

Like the first week we will be using the Nooma video series to help us explore this question and others as we try to find harmony between the living out of our faith and our lives.

To get us ready for Wednesday, here is a link to the video's website and trailer:

Website & Trailer

Sermon: What Happens in Jerusalem - Luke 13:31-35

2010-02-27T22:27:00.002-05:00

I want to spend a little time with you today talking about Jesus.

Not Christmas Jesus – all swaddled in cloth. Not Transfigured Jesus – glowing white upon the hilltop. Not Palm Sunday, Good Friday, or Easter Jesus either, in as much, as you can talk about any Jesus without those things. No, today I want to talk to you about a different Jesus. A Jesus I like to call Jerusalem Jesus.

Jerusalem Jesus – he is the Jesus that we tend to forget about sometimes. He isn’t a kid, he isn’t yet betrayed, this Jerusalem Jesus is in his stride. He is a bonafide preacher, healer, prophet, and pain in the neck to the religious status quo. This Jesus is on a mission, singularly focused on the Kingdom of God drawn near, and this Jesus knows and is living out God’s plan for his life. This Jesus – Jerusalem Jesus – knows where the Greatest Story Ever Told is going to end, he is confident in God’s plan & he isn’t taking any junk from anybody. This is the Jesus who says seemingly crazy things like the kingdom of God is for the poor, to love you enemies, to turn the other cheek, he tells the storm to quiet down & a dead girl to wake up. He is healing on the Sabbath, forgiving sinners in the homes of Pharisees, telling is disciples to hit the road ill-prepared, comparing greatness to a little child, and he tells a grieving son to let his dead father bury himself. Jerusalem Jesus knows that the only way the Jewish businessman stuck along side the road is going to make it is if the Good Samaritan stops to help him, and the only way our sins will be forgiven is if forgive the sins of others. You see, Jerusalem Jesus has got his Mustard Seed, and as the Blues Brothers might have said – he is on a mission from God. And, while reading over my old sermons, I noticed a warning against having a favorite Jesus; I will admit that if pressured I would say that Jerusalem Jesus is my favorite.

I like this Jesus because he is radically, 100% committed to God’s will and the Truth of God’s love. He doesn’t cower at the foot of authority, he doesn’t let precedence determine what is right and wrong & he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the light of God is the best disinfectant & the truth will set you free. And so it is too bad for those Pharisees that Jesus wasn’t even the slightest bit scared, not even a little chicken of Herod’s wrath. For all it did was show them and us that Jerusalem was where Jesus needed to be, where he needed to go. This prophet needed to go to the place where they killed prophets. This was the road and Jesus was walking down it. Jesus was going to leave the relative ambivalence of the country and head right into Jerusalem where the truth is deadly. “…I must be on my way”, Jesus said.

“Yet today, tomorrow, an the next day I must be on my way.” Luke, as an author, makes sure we hear Jesus use the word “must.” “I must be in my Father’s house.” “I must proclaim the Good News.” “Zaccheaus, I must stay at your house.” “ I tell you the scriptures must be fulfilled in me.” And of course, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering & be rejected by the Elders, the Chief Priests and the Scribes, and be killed on the 3^rd day and be raised.” Jesus Christ knows that the will of God, the Truth of God is not a collection of Ifs, Ands or Buts. God’s will, God’s Truth, God’s power to transform, God’s hope for the hopeless, peace for the oppressed, forgiveness for the broken, rest for the weary is a Gospel of MUSTS. Jesus must enter Jerusalem. Jesus must heal on the Sabbath. Jesus must forgive the sins of Prostitutes. Jesus must because it is first and foremost the truth and the manifestation of the Kingdom of God that we say draws near in Christ. So let me ask you, brothers and sisters, what must you do?

We might not all undergo great suffering but those who claim Christ must take up their cross and follow him. We too must proclaim freedom to the captives. We must welcome the stranger, the widow, the orphan. We must do all this and more because the Truth that propelled Christ right into Jerusalem, the same truth that we claim, did not die upon Calvary. It was not crushed under Herod’s foot or washed away by the hands of Pilate. The truth of God’s kingdom is the same today as it was yesterday & during the days of Christ. And so we must ask ourselves, where must you go? Where must we go as a church?

You see, the truth that Jesus knew was a Marching Order. It didn’t tolerate standing still, sitting idly by, or growing moss. The Gospel is a road narrative, a travel log – it inherently resists atrophy & immobility. It, at its core, wants us to get out there and recognize that our excuses are worthless, our assumptions are baseless, and when you do hit the road and your face, like Christ’s, is turned towards Jerusalem, you clearly see that the way things are not the ways things should be. To put it another way, when our Savior willingly marches right into the fire and his only lament is that he couldn’t embrace all his children and not why did I ever open my mouth, we discover that this truth will take us to places we have never gone, & see Truth in places formerly far too dark.

I think that it is time for the church to reconnect & remember Jerusalem Jesus - the Non-Negotiable, the No Win-Win situation Savior who saw God’s Will & Truth as a collection of musts. We need to liberate this Jesus from the stained glass windows, the Sunday School art projects, & take him to the streets and see which direction he starts walking. For a man named John Fife & his congregation in New Mexico Jesus began walking to the US-Mexico Border.

Finding the Spirit pulling them to the plight of those men, women and families that seek something they believe living and working in America provides them, Fife & his congregation began providing medical aide to those who made it across the harsh desert that US Border Patrol believes is a sufficient deterrent to illegal immigration. Yet to describe the desert as harsh is sadly not harsh enough. For each and every year souls perish as they set out amid the scrub brush, the rocks and the 120 degree heat and with each death they join the 5,600 who have already fallen. Fife and his congregation deep down knew where Jesus was going. They knew that if they were going to truly minister to these people they must enter the desert themselves & so they began a ministry called No More Deaths. Providing water, first aide, and emergency treatment, No More Deaths sets up outposts in the hot desert, hangs jugs of water from the trees, and walks the trails calling out in Spanish that they are from the Presbyterian church in New Mexico, they have water, first aide, and they can help.

Some of you may be cringing right now. I don’t blame you. No More Deaths make some people uncomfortable yet ask Fife or any of the volunteers who patrol the desert or administer the aide and they say that they followed the Spirit out into that desert. They are told almost everyday that they should get out of the area. They have had their fair share of death threats. Yet rather than running they turn their faces deeper into the desert. This summer Kate & I are going to head down there. See if we can help. We are going to see where Jesus leads us. It feels like something we must do.

What must you do?

Amen.

A trailer for our Wednesday Lenten Dinner & Class

2010-02-22T13:55:00.006-05:00

Join us this Wednesday, February 24th for an evening of great food & great conversation as we will be watching a DVD that helps us answer "Do we have to love everybody?"

Want to learn more? Follow the below link to a video page & watch the trailer. I think will spark your interest. Hope to see you there at 5:30pm for dinner & then 6:15-7pm for Class. Childcare is provided.

Watch the Trailer & Learn More!

Ash Wednesday

2010-02-17T14:51:00.002-05:00

Today is Ash Wednesday. Its kinda a big deal.

As a Pastor, Ash Wednesday is an intensely intimate day. Sometime after 7pm I will touch the foreheads of half of the congregation and will remind each and every one of them that "they are dust and to dust they will return." Young and old, male and female, whoever comes forward hears these words reminding them that life is temporary. The sweep of my thumb across their forheads imposes upon them an ash cross - made of the Palms of a bygone Palm Sunday - and with it gives a physical, visual reminder of the call for repentance. Essentially I am saying "the clock is ticking" but that is always followed with "but its not too late."

Ash Wednesday isn't all about impending death and the reckoning of God. There is in the midst of all this a reminder, a foundational reminder, that things can (& have) change(d). We can take this very day as a starting line to do some of our reckoning & begin something anew. More than giving something up for Lent, more that an emotional response to a moving service; we can turn today into a charge to live a life in relationship with God and our brothers & sisters all the world around. Today can be the day when realize that we don't have a minute to loose.

Come on out and share a Spaghetti Dinner & a service of Ashes with us tonight. Dinner starts at 5:30pm & the service is at 7:00pm.

"Making" Ashes

2010-02-16T16:21:00.005-05:00

Today I am working from home. Amongst the emails, this blog, and phone calls I am also "making" ashes for imposition during the Ash Wednesday service at Boulevard tomorrow night. I guess we can say that these ashes were homemade.

I miscalculated the amount of ash would be produced from the leaves of the palms. Figuring I would need to burn maybe two or three palm fronds in order to get enough ashes I quickly realized that even an armful of palms reduced down to far less than a cup of ash. So I have been burning for most of the day and now that I have torched the last of the fronds I am still amazed at what is left. A garbage bag full of fronds reduces down to less than one ounce.

A lot of life, I am discovering, is this way. Like Cotton Candy there are things in our lives that are big and bulky, taking up an inordinate amount of room despite having virtually nothing as its foundational backbone. What happens when Cotton Candy gets wet? It almost totally evaporates. What happens when, in the case of the palm fronds, fire is applied? The remaining ash - what is left - barely weighs an once. What are the things in our own lives that are like the Cotton Candy or the bag full of fronds?

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Tomorrow is an opportunity to, along with the fronds, throw those big and bulky phantoms into the fire and see what they are made of as we begin this season of Lent.

Youth Retreat this weekend

2010-02-11T12:20:00.004-05:00

The Presbytery of Scioto Valley's Confirmation Youth Retreat is this weekend. Starting Friday evening and lasting until 11am on Sunday (Valentine's Day), 76 youth, 13 adults, and some other folks will be having a good time in the winter wonderland that I am hoping Camp Akita (Logan, OH) will be.

This is my 2nd year helping lead the retreat and it is a lot of work. Crossing the Ts and dotting the Is can be a mountain of work for someone who likes ideas rather than details. But I enjoy it. This year's theme is Be Mine, inspired by those awful candy hearts, we will be looking at what a God who loves us means for us and the world. My good friends, Rob & Karen Jackson (both local PCUSA pastors) will be providing the message and a host of presbytery pastors will be leading the small groups. I know that it is going to be awesome.

In the remaining hours leading up to kickoff at 7pm on Friday I have a host of errands to run. I need supplies ranging from Balloons and Dice to Brownie Bites and maybe, if I can find them, a pair of winter boots. My trusty pair are broken and need of life-saving repair.

Because this retreat runs until Sunday I will not be here for Worship. Hope it is a good weekend for you and I will fill you in on how it went.

Everybody watch the sermon? Good. Let's move on to something else.

2010-02-08T12:14:00.002-05:00

I am needing a little Peace today. This always happens when I take on too much, spread myself too thin and then discover that stuff has fallen through the cracks. Stupid cracks. Stuff always falls down into there. Truthfully, I am not sure I am the best person at fixing cracks. Maybe it is my personality but I am the king of all or nothing, cold-turkey, off or on, over-reacting to the dropped balls by swearing to never be the one to catch them again or by going above and beyond the call of duty in an attempt to catch everything. Neither one is very healthy & I know that.

Truth is failure is part of life. Dropping balls makes us normal not deficient. The fact that my mouth is bigger than my capacity to carry everything is unfortunate but it is more about what I do with that realization now that I recognize it than over-reacting in an ultimately self-destructive way. Today Peace must come from that place of realization. From a place that shows me that my quest should be set upon living into the gifts that God has given me (& understanding what those gifts are) and not trying to shoestring other things better handled by those who have a gift for them. Maybe this is a trust thing. Maybe I don't trust in the gifts of others. Maybe I am narcissistic enough to think that I am the only one able to do a good job on something important. If I do think that way I guess that I am not alone.

Today Peace is going to need to come in the form of trust. Trust that God has the right people in the right places. Trust that things outside my wheelhouse are better left to those people who God has called to work in that venture. I need to trust that there are gifts in the community that far surpass mine in many ventures where I foolishly try to operate.

Sermon Video: Connective Tissue

2010-01-26T15:39:00.002-05:00

Sermon: Connective Tissue - I Corinthians 12:12-31a

2010-01-25T10:53:00.003-05:00

The following sermon is exploration of I Corinthians 12:12-31a.

I heard a story once that I hope is true. In a room full of violins, when one violin is struck all surrounding violins will sound the same note without being touched. Maybe you are like me and this story gives you hope.

It gives me hope because it tells me what you and I do has an impact on others. It tells me that when people stand up for what they think is right, when people reach out to help others, when people live in a way that gives glory to God, something can happen in the lives of others. It tells me that my ability to affect change, to impact the world and the people who occupy it just by what I do, how I live my life means that we are connected. You, me, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ all the world around are connected, linked in a way that makes me pause & take seriously the call that I have, the commitments that I live by, the truth that orders my days and carries me through my nights. It makes me consider the gifts that God has given me not for my own benefit but for the building up of the body of Christ. It makes me consider the gifts that God has given you too. Paul understood this better than just about anybody.

Paul writes that together we form the Body of Christ. Like a real body we are diverse in our make up, our utility, our placement in this world, yet we all have gifts, we all have jobs and calls that are required to work in harmony for this body to survive. If I, blessed with talents of hospitality, do not show welcome, then you with your gifts of compassion will be impacted. If you with your gifts of compassion cannot show love and mercy to the world because I did not provide welcome to those who needed it, then like Painter with a broken hand, we cannot be about the task before us. Paul’s complaint against the Corinthian church was that they understood gifts like we understand talents. While we may all be talented in some way, my talent for packing a suitcase cannot even begin to rate against Eric Clapton’s talent for music, or Einstein’s talent for thinking outside the box. The church thought that despite us all being blessed with gifts there were some better gifts and some inferior gifts and who got what was the providence of God. The danger here far surpasses who got the ability to speak in public, compose beautiful music, or something equally wonderful. The danger found in the Corinthian understanding is in the equating worth of gifts with worth of people. Lesser gifts, lesser people; inferior gifts, inferior people leads far away from the Kingdom of God causing Paul to point out that the gifts of those who face hardship are some of the most necessary for the Body. The poor must be our eyes showing us the face of Christ today. The oppressed must be the tips of our fingers, touching the bars that keep them at bay so that we may all know. Those who thirst must be our tongue, dry and cracked yearning for something that quenches. So it is written, “one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” Brothers and sisters, today the Body is suffering. Like bird with a broken wing, because some suffer, we all suffer.

The visuals emerging from Haiti have made it impossible to escape the truth that today and for some time now the Body of Christ is suffering. The Earthquake, the pain, the destruction, the orphans, the widows, the death and the trapped - all of it paint a picture that cannot be denied: though we live many miles away, though we didn’t feel the rumble, or lose our home, we are suffering all the way up here in cold, wintry Ohio because our eyes have seen collapse, our fingers have felt the broken concrete of a fallen nation, and our tongue is parched. We are suffering because our Haitian brothers and sisters are suffering . Yet the truth is that there are members of our body who are suffering in places where there have been no earthquakes or floods. They suffer in places of different disasters. Disasters of Human and Civil Rights, collapses of peace and security, and not unlike hurricanes, floods and earthquakes people will and continue to suffer, lose everything and some will indeed die. For as our scriptures tell us that when part of the body suffers we all suffer. Made one in Christ, connected by the Spirit, when the poor cannot find shelter we all suffer. When young girls are sold into sexual slavery we all suffer. When a partnership is broken because of domestic violence we all suffer. When the love shared between two people is called wrong we all suffer. When the elderly are neglected and the young exploited we all suffer. When the Body neglects the suffering of its members we all suffer. This is the hard work of unity.

On October 17th, 1989 I was at my childhood homes playing outside before the World Series was to begin. Neglecting my chores for too long I was called into the house to unload the dishwasher before the start of the game. Making a snap decision on how to expedite the process I opened up every cabinet we had that housed our dishes, glasses, and the like so that I might speed through the chore and get back outside. At 5:03pm this was a great idea, but one minute later when the 7.0 Earthquake now known as the Loma Prieta Quake hit the plan showed its obvious flaws. For 15 seconds my whole world rolled and rumbled as plates, glasses, and the like rained down upon me breaking over my head, arms and hands. When the shaking stopped & I had the wherewithal to look around at the sea of broken dishes and shake the glass from my hair, I noticed my hand was bleeding. There in the flesh between the thumb and the finger was a small but pretty good cut. It bled some but nothing a wad of paper towels and a little water couldn’t took care of it. My hand was bleeding - it was minor - a bookcase fell over - not a big deal. I thought that was it. It was only then that I turned on the TV and came face to face with the collapsed bridges, the crushed cars, the sink holes, the broken buildings & pain. Trying to wrap my then 11 year old mind around the destruction that I saw unfolding on the TV screen I wondered how my toppled bookcase and small cut could be my shared experience with those who lost everything. How was it that I shared in this experience with those who were trapped on the bridge or buried in buildings when I have only this small scar? Standing there watching TV, struggling with what I was witnessing, I saw men and women, some cut just like me, running not from the rubble but into it. They pulled people from their cars, they helped put out fires, they drove people to the hospital, and when they had no car they carried those far more injured then themselves to a place of safety and care.

20 years later seeing the same events play out in Haiti, I see the injured, the suffering themselves carrying those who cannot walk, liberating those who are trapped, fighting for those who cannot lift their own heads. Seeing these men and women, I am reminded of the story of the friends who carry the paralyzed man to see Jesus. They carried their friend when he could not walk. It is our job to now carry, to support, to liberate those who are trapped, injured and suffering. It is our job to carry the load so that we may rejoice when the whole Body is at peace, free to live into the call set upon our hearts, and free to be the children of God, the Body of Christ unified in the Spirit.

Let us all work to end suffering in our time. AMEN

Preaching this Sunday

2010-01-21T11:09:00.003-05:00

A pastor friend of mine told me that Sundays like last week's were those sermons that he "loved/hated to preach." The Haitian Earthquake was only a few days old, the world is horrified at the sights emerging from the television and on Sunday people are going to show up to a place where we talk about hope, peace, trust in God. I can understand his comment a little more now as I engage my text for this Sunday: I Corinthians12:12-31a

Paul writes to the church at Corinth regarding the gifts God gives to each of us for the betterment of God's people and church as different parts of the same body. Hands and Feet, very different in make up and utility, are all part of a body that requires the full participation of all the "parts" (re. gifts God gives) in order for it to work the way that it should. What strikes me about this is what Paul writes towards the end of this discussion: "If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it."

This short verse has captured me. Paul tells a church that wants to rank the gifts of God that harmony in the sharing of all of God's gifts is what ultimately produces life & when some gifts are disregarded because they are seen to be lesser, or when the people that posses them are seen to be lesser the body suffers. Like an athlete playing with an ankle injury - the whole body of Christ suffers when those who God bestows cannot exercise their gifts.

Our brothers and sisters in Haiti are suffering with a destruction very unfamiliar to us. Because they suffer we too suffer. Because they do not have peace, we do not have peace. This is the connective tissue of our faith.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Confirmation Soundtrack

2010-01-16T16:28:00.002-05:00

Listen to these tracks before Sunday, Jan 24th...

Jesus Walks (Clean Version) by Kanye West

One of Us by Joan Osborne

Grace by U2