And so it begins. . . .

Wow! Lent is already upon us! Wasn’t it just Christmas?
Anyway, I’ve discovered something interesting about myself. I think I actually like Lent. This year I’ve actually spent significant time thinking about and planning out my Lenten Disciplines. In fact, I’ve actually had to work hard to limit the number of Lenten Disciplines I’m embracing. Ironic isn’t it, to deny oneself opportunities for self denial?
And even though I have limited my Lenten disciplines, I am still embracing three types of disciplines.
The first type of Lenten discipline is corporate. I have encouraged all three of my churches to embrace a Lenten discipline as part of our worship life together. One of my churches is giving up large sections of their seating. This forces the people of the congregation to actually sit and worship together. Instead of 60 people spreading out in a space designed for 300, they now spread out in a place designed for 100. (Granted they still all sit in the back…..Grrr!) Another one of my churches has decided to pray at the altar during Sunday Morning worship. It was a beautiful sight on Sunday to see the entire church come forward. There was not enough room at the altar for everyone. The third and final church is an incredibly musical church. They have decided to give up musical instruments. Throughout Lent all of our music (including Choir Anthems) will be done a cappella. We hope to re-discover that the true instrument of worship is the human heart and not the piano, organ, guitar or any other man-made device. I am so proud of all three of my churches for stepping out of their comfort zones. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do.
The second type of Lenten discipline is professional. I am trying to spend the first and last half-hour of my work day in prayer for these churches and the people within. I hang my head in shames as I admit how difficult this actually is. It’s so easy to get sucked into the tasks of the day. And regardless of whether that task is administration, bulletins, pastoral visits, worship planning, prepping for a bible study or even sermon preparation, it can actually become a hindrance to my relationship with Christ. If as a pastor I am not praying, how can I expect my people to?
The third type of Lenten discipline is personal. These are disciplines that are on my own time and solely for my own personal benefit. I say “these disciplines” but truth is there is only one. My wife and I have cut the cable. (Cable man came today and completely disconnected it!) That means for the next seven weeks, we are without television. (Because of where we live, picking up even local channels with an antenna is impossible) And already it is proving difficult. It is so easy to just turn on the television and let it fill the space. Neither my wife or I watched a whole lot of television, but we definitely feel it’s absence. But as difficult as it’s been, there have already been some benefits. Our evenings are more intimate. Instead of turning on the television, we curl up on the couch and read together. We share what we are reading, what questions we are asking or what thoughts the reading inspires. We have also found interesting enough that we are sleeping better. Our evening as are much more peaceful and our minds and bodies prepare better for rest. We go to bed and we fall asleep sooner. We sleep deeper, We wake up earlier and are more rested than we were before.
One final thought. I said I am embracing three types of Lenten Disciplines, but the truth is there is a fourth type. I have not so much chosen to embrace these, instead they have been thrust upon me. These are the disciplines that my wife has chosen. Whoever says that these disciplines won’t impact my spiritual life has never lived with a woman who has given up coffee!
Peace be with you.

Halloween as a spiritual discipline?

In our local newspaper there was a little blurb about “Beggar’s night” (Trick or treat night or whatever you call the night when children go around dressed in costumes hoping for candy.) All fine and good, but at the bottom of the article was an announcement that one of the local churches was hosting an “alternative event.” And of course being the “flaming liberal” that I am, I rolled my eyes and groaned. (For those of you new to blog, the humor in that last sentence comes from the fact that I am NOT a flaming liberal. Truth is I am actually quite conservative!)
Now I get why people might be concerned with “occultic overtones.” And I know that supposedly some child was once given razor blades in an apple or arsenic in a Hershey bar or some horrible thing like that (although, I once saw a news story that claimed that such heinous acts were not committed by strangers, but rather by family members) But, do we really need an “Alternative?”
Again, I get the occultic overtones, but do we really think that just because some little girl (or boy for that matter) dresses up like a witch, Satan is going to posses that child? Besides, if kids are out looking for candy, can’t we rest pretty assured that they’re not off somewhere sacrificing a chicken?
Instead, it seems to me like an evening promoting imagination, generosity, and community should be supported by the Church. In fact, I think there is something inherently Christian in the practice of Halloween.
Strangers show up at our door. We have no idea who they are, and yet we give them the “best” that we can. (I know candy is hardly the best, but it’s a metaphor!) To me that sounds like the Christian practice of Hospitality.
Everybody gets candy, apples or whatever “gifts” are being given out. It doesn’t matter whether they’re pretty or ugly, old or young, creative or boring. To me, that seems like a pretty clear picture of grace.
Perhaps, what we need is not an alternative, but eyes to see the gospel enacted in our world? Well, this “flaming liberal” needs to go dig up my witch costume…and where did that darn chicken go

Kathy Griffin got it........right!

I didn’t actually get to hear her make the comments (apparently I turned on the Emmy’s a little bit too late), but Kathy Griffin has earned the ire of many in the Christian Community.

I say many, because (if you’ve been paying attention to my blog this won’t surprise you!) because I happen to think she got it right!

According to The Christian Post the evening went something like this:
"I guess hell froze over," said Griffin, whose show overtook ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus.”
Holding up her statuette, Griffin topped off her off-script speech by saying, "Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now."\

I get it. I understand why this is so offensive, but Kathy has accidentally hit upon truth with which the church needs to grapple .

Why does it not offend us when celebrity after celebrity thanks Jesus, yet their lives and films show very little (if any) of actually following him? And do we really think that the Emmy Board is spending time in prayer and fasting to determine who Jesus thinks is the best actress in a comedy series? Doesn't thanking Jesus for an award imply that Jesus prefers Ricky Gervais over Charlie Sheen?

The truth is that Jesus has very little to do with the Emmy’s. In fact, a night designed for the rich and beautiful to be patted on the back and told how wonderful they are, a night filled from top to bottom with glitz, glamour and self-promotion, seems very much to say to me “Suck It Jesus.” Kathy Griffin called it like it is. Jesus is not God in Hollywood. Self-promotion, fame, fortune and popularity are.

Perhaps we as a church should be more offended by the celebrities who drag Jesus name into a place where it doesn’t belong, than by someone like Kathy Griffin, whose comments, although offensive, happen to be right on the mark.

Suicidal Evangelism

Earlier this week Michelle and I went to the Great Clearfield County fair (yes, great is officially part of the name!). While there, we popped into Sunday Night Vespers and the the speaker was giving the classic evangelistic schpiel, “If you die tonight, do you know where you will spend eternity.” He spoke for a while, telling us several stories about people that he had been in meetings with one minute and who were killed on their way home and about teenage girls who had brain aneurysms and died “right there in the parking lot of Denney’s.” God you see is giving us a choice, heaven or hell. We all deserve hell, but Jesus was brutally beaten and killed so that we could go to heaven when we die. So now all, we have to do is raise our hand when no one else is looking and the deal is done, and we’re given “fire insurance” so to speak.
Now, I don’t want to question the speaker's motives. I’m not questioning his sincerity or really even his message, but this strikes me as a rather anemic gospel of “delayed gratification.” And I began to wonder, does this form of evangelism encourage suicide?
The only promise contained in the schpeil is that when you die, you get to go to heaven. Your may be horribly lonely. You may feel inadequate and unworthy. You may feel unloved and unwanted. You’re life may suck. But things will change……when you die! So I raise my hand, get right with God and then go home and wait until I die? What if I owe more than I can pay? Well, things will be better in heaven, What if I am suffering from a debilitating illness? Things will be better in heaven. What if my family is falling apart and it’s all my fault? Things will be better in heaven. So, why endure “hell on earth,” when all I need to do is raise my hand and heaven is just a few sleeping pills away?
It seems to me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is more concerned with life than with what happens after death. The point of the gospel is not that we get to go to heaven when we die, but rather that we can experience life as God intended it, now AND forever. Shouldn’t our evangelism offer people this hope?

The Eucharist and Sex

All right now that I have your attention. . . . . No this is not a non-sequitir. I actually think it's a deep thought.

I've been thinking about frequent communion. I would love to celebrate Communion every week, but we usually only celebrate it once a month. For many folks this is plenty. The thought is that celebrating it more frequently will somehow drain it of meaning and make it less "special." This at first seems to be a desire to protect the meaning of communion, but I'm not sure it's a valid argument. Let's apply it to other areas of our life. Does anyone think that singing the national anthem at every home football games drains it of meaning? Should we only sing it the first game of the month? Or perhaps (getting to the sex part as promised in the title) husbands and wife should only say "I love you" once a month? Maybe they should only kiss on their month-iversery. And sex? Well, having sex frequently will only drain it of meaning and make it less special.......

If what we claim happens in communion happens, if our prayers are honored, exactly the opposite is true. If God indeed pours out his Holy Spirit "on those gathered here," wouldn't this mean that every week we would experience more of the Holy Spirit? If at the table God really does make us "one with Christ, one with each other, one in ministry to all the world", then each time we celebrate it aren't we experience greater unity with Christ and with one another?

Now I don't know this from personal experience, but every sexual encounter between a husband and wife is not a mind0-blowing experience. Some of them are fine, some of them are good, and despite what you've heard, some of them are disappointing. But the truth is that despite the feelings or experience of the individual, each sexual encounter is an expression of the love they feel for each other. Regardless of the quality of the encounter, sex remains a physical expression of the theological fact that "the two become one."

Likewise, the Eucharist, regardless of how meaningful or special the feelings, remains an expression of our relationship with God. Regardless of how we feel before, during or after receiving the bread and cup, we still have received the body and blood of Christ. Every celebration may not leave us basking in the glow of God, but God still gives us something of himself.

That;s the beauty of both the Eucharist (and of sex)

Theological thought of the day

Right Now I'm reading The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard.

He writes. . .

Human beings can lose themselves in card games or electric trains and they think they are fortunate. But to God there is available, in the language of one reporter "Towering clouds of gases trillions of miles high, backlit by nuclear fires in newly forming stars, galaxies cartwheeling into collision and sending explosive shockwaves boiling through millions of light years of time and space." These things are all before him, along with unfolding rosebuds, souls and songs- and immeasurably more of which we know nothing.

This got me thinking about a God who loves to create.....I was sitting on my porch staring at my yard and I began to ask what if each blade of grass were not simply the result of some natural process, but rather each blade of grass were an act of creation by God? What if at this very minute God is active in the depths of the earth using the natural processes to create new rocks? What if God is reaching into the far reaches of the universe and creating new stars, planets, galaxies? What if God is personally reaching into the wombs of millions of women around the world and knitting new life? What if God enjoys creating so much, that each day does not simply follow the previous one, but instead each day is it's own creation in which God takes delight?

Suddenly, each plant, each flower, each star, each animal, each breath, becomes not just another of its kind, but a unique creation, a gift in which God delights to give. What if this, as Dallas Willard says, is love?

To Blog or not to Blog......

That has been the question. And so far, it's been answered in the negative. I've never counted myself among those deluded folks who think that the rest of the world actually cares about the random thoughts that flit through their brains.
But after two years in pastoral ministry, I've discovered that not only do some people listen to what I have to say, they actually think I should write it down. I've also discovered along the way that even if the rest of the world does not care what I have to say, I might actually have something to say that the rest of the world needs to hear. I suppose that such delusions of grandeur are the inherent risk that goes along with being a minister of the Gospel.
I'll admit that I'm not quite sure whether it's intoxicating or humbling to think that people will log in to read my thoughts on everything from the silly to the sublime. I can only hope that at the end of the day, I have said something worthwhile that will put a smile on someone's face, that will challenge someone to think a little bit differently, or something that will inspire one of those rants calling me a moron that I just can't wait to delete.
Anyway, the blog begins..........