Bound to be Boring

Several weeks ago I was having a conversation with a parishioner about how worship becomes so routine. They were asking me how we could liven it up because it seems like we just do the same thing every Sunday. Church seemed a little boring to them. I really didn't have an answer for them at the time. I just listened and said I understood what they are saying. Which I do.
Thinking about it more however, I think church is bound to be boring. We have been doing the same thing every Sunday, for two thousand years. I've noticed that my own sermons start to all sound strangely smilar. They all sound the same because they are all about the same thing: Jesus Christ. This is what the church is about. That is why it is called the "Christian" Church. "Christian" meaning of or pertaining to Jesus Christ.

So for two thousand years we have been preaching and teaching Jesus Christ. We have been doing the same sacraments. We have been using the same Bible. I think anything that is done every week for two thousand years is going to get old.

For example: Imagine that you are huge U2 fan and you go to a U2 concert on Saturday night. There were thousands of people there and is fun and exciting. You like it so much that you go to their show again the next Saturday and finally decide to go to their show every Saturday night. You hear the same songs and see the same show week after week. Now imagine you just keeping doing this every week with a whole bunch of people. Eventually the U2 members die, but devoted followers continue to put on their show, just like they would every week. Then they start to do it in several different locations so that it is easier for people to go. And they continue this for two thousand years. At that point I think even U2 would be boring.

Church just can't compete with other excitements in the world, unless it sells out and becomes about something other than Jesus, which some churches do. A Sunday football game, hanging out with friends, or sleeping in will always seem more fun and/or exciting.

But maybe church isn't supposed to compete with these things. Maybe the Word and Sacrament offered at a worship service aren't supposed to be fun and exciting but rather profoundly meaningful and deeply significant. They can't compete with the superficial enjoyments of fun and excitement but they can carry profound meaning and dynamic truth. Football games, rock concerts, and sleeping don't compete well on that level.

So the church should stop trying to compete by being exciting and fun. Instead it should stay focused on the profound reality of Christ and delivering that to people. Sometimes ancient tradition can carry deep meaning. The Holy scriptures are powerful because they have stood strong for thousands of years. We keep talking about Jesus all the time because he is Truth. The church may never be fun and exciting but hopefully it can lead us to experience the profound truth of the divine mysteries. If not, I'm going to start sleeping in on Sundays.

One of Those Days...

Sometimes it just doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day. Time slips by, the to-do list gets longer, nothing seems to get finished, and I go to bed with a lot on my mind. Today was not one of those days. Somehow it seemed like there where some extra hours tacked on to my day. I accomplished a lot of things and it looks I will get to bed earlier than any night this weekend. Here is a rundown of the action:

-Brought my supervisor up to speed after him being gone for two weeks
-Attended the adult Bible study and I helped lead the preschool chapel
-Composed the prayer of confession for Sunday
-Proofread the entire Annual Report (FYI, high school is not capitalized unless it is part of a name)
-Wrote and sent an important planning email
-Cleared my desk (for some reason I always end up with several open Bibles amongst the paperwork)
-Sat by the pool and read a book that was not about theology
-Washed my pickup truck
-Went to Target
-Washed a load of laundry
-Deposited two checks
-Listened to the Twins lose, but at least the bullpen looked good

If I could just have 364 more days like this every year, I would be a superstar.

Jesus is with Me!!...??

Today I bought a new jar of grape jelly. I opened it in order to make a tasty, toasted, peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I set the lid on the counter and when I looked down, I saw the face of Jesus!! I am not making this up and I did not paint the jelly on the lid!! It was just like this when I opened the jar. It may be hard for some of you to recognize this as Jesus' face, but I knew it was him right away. It's hard to mistake that goofy smile of his. It's good to know that He is always smiling on me. If anyone wants Jesus to smile on them from my jar of Smuckers, I may be willing to sell it on ebay.


**While this is a true story, this post may contain sarcasm or sarcasm products.**

Foo Fighters Sesame Street Song

On the way home from church I was listening to the local top 40 pop station. (98.7 or thereabouts just about everywhere in the country.) They were playing "Pretender" by the Foo Fighters. The chorus got stuck in my head and I was singing it internally while I was biking. It goes like this: "What if I say I'm not like the others? What if I say I'm not just another one...of your plays?" In my head though, it got crossed with an old Sesame Street song and sounded like this: "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things is not just another...one..."

Black Friday

On Good Friday, after the evening service, I went to the store to buy some supplies for the Easter children's sermon. I was still wearing my black clergy shirt, black pants, and black shoes, although I had taken the tab out and had the collar open. As I was checking out, the girl working there asked me why I was wearing black.
I said, "It's Good Friday, the day we remember the death of Jesus, black is the color of death. I am also a pastor, so I wear this as a reminder that Jesus died for us." She said, "Oh." By that time our short transaction was over, the next customer was already waiting, and I had to go.

I wonder a lot about clergy shirts. If I had my way I would wear them all the time, mainly because it would simplify my wardrobe a lot. I would just have one pair of black shoes, two pairs of black pants, and four black shirts, two short sleeved and two long. But life isn't that simple.
Most people don't know what the shirt means and they have been misused. Protestant pastors have stopped wearing them so when I go to the hospital people call me 'Father' and think I am coming to deliver last rites. The shirt has also become associated with all the abuses, hypocrisies, and negligence of bad clergy. Sometimes it scares people. A lot of people have no idea why I am wearing a shirt like that, they just notice that it looks funny. I think these reasons and many more, are why clergy have stopped wearing clergy shirts. Maybe we should just let them go.

But I also think that there is a great significance to wearing a black clergy shirt. It reminds us, and the world, of our humble solidarity with the pain, oppression, violence, and death that surround us every day. That great theologian of the cross, Johnny Cash, explains this better than I ever could:


Maybe we could compromise and just wear black without the collar? I don't know, I haven't figured this out yet.

PS If you want more great theology of the cross from Johnny Cash...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

Modern Art for the Wondering Soul

I took a trip to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). They have a good collection of modern and contemporary art which I enjoy immensly. As I wandered past paintings, scultures, and pieces that defy category I began to remember some of the things I used to think about. Things like existence, truth, and what it means to be human. It is good to be reminded of the big picture and completely different ways to think. The creativity of the art draws out the creativity of my own being. It gives me a sense of peace and hope. It reminds me that being human does mean something, even if we can't really explain it.

Earthquake

At 8:27pm this evening there was an earthquake. These things are not uncommon in southern California. Several months ago there was a small one. That quake was a jolt followed by a little trembling. The one tonight was a little bigger with a few seconds of shaking. According to wunderground.com it was a 4.0 magnitude. It made the bookshelf sway but it didn't make anything fall. Like I said, these things happen here so everyone just keep doing what they were doing and I just kept doing my laundry.

Productive Day

Some days go by and when I look back I don't seem to have gotten much done. Today was the opposite. I deftly went from one task to another. It started when I amazingly got out of bed 1/2 earlier than usual. I submitted a newsletter article, had a Bible study, a preschool chapel, and a lunch meeting with some other pastors. Then I left the church and managed to finally recycle eight bags of newspaper, talk to a friend who is engaged (Hooray!), buy groceries, buy inner tubes for my bike, wash my pickup, and do the dishes. If tomorrow is as productive as today I should have a great weekend.

True Servants

There are some people who love to serve. They like to help out and take care of things that need to be done. It is not just that they will help out but that they want to help. The church here has some people like that. One of them, named Travis just had his job moved to Denver. He was given only one month's notice.
Travis was the Youth Guy organizing retreats and summer camps, movie nights, and trips to concerts. He knew the youth very well. He believed very much in relational ministry (even if he never used that phrase). Not only was he a passionate youth leader but he was also the handyman at the church. He fixed leaky faucets, changed light bulbs, put up giant banners, mopped up when the roof leaked, and moved appliances. He was also put together the projected slides for Sunday morning and ran the projector at the praise service. He was as much a part of the band as anybody and knew when they were going to skip a verse or sing the chorus again and he would adjust the slides accordingly.
Now other people are filling in and stepping up but it is hard to replace that kind of commitment and knowledge. Just this morning it was discovered that the fan was running on the projector even though it had been off since yesterday. No one is sure if this is normal, except maybe Travis, so we'll send him an email.
I learned a lot from Travis. Having been a part of this congregation most of his life he could fill me in on history and tell me why things are done the way they are. He gave me many great experiences with the youth and most of all he gave me a great example of a true servant.

Good Guessing

There are a lot of places in the Bible where we do not know exactly what is happening. The writers give us some information and leave out some details. We often want to try to fill in these gaps with our our guesses, assumptions, and sometimes all out speculations. This week I heard two conjectures about what was happening in the gospel. One of them is interesting, the other entertaining.

1) During our weekly text study, one of the pastors was asking about where Thomas was at when the disciples were in the room. I said I didn't know. I am aware of different answers to this question and explanations for his absence. This pastor said that he thinks Thomas was looking for Judas. I had never thought of that. I also didn't know where he got that from or what he was going to do with it. I don't find any reason to believe it, but I was left thinking, "Huh..."

2) During this morning's sermon, the pastor asked the congregation, "What do you think the disciples were talking about in that room? What were they saying?" People gave answers like, "They were trying to figure out what had happened to them." "They were trying to figure out what to do next." A young boy raised his hand and said, "They were talking about what they're going to do for lunch." I liked his answer best.

Resurrection

Resurrection means nothing if you are not dead.

Gird Up Your Loins

Today was Maundy Thursday, and as is customary we did a little foot washing. I say "a little" because there were probably only about ten people who came forward to have their feet washed by the Pastor and I, but it was very meaningful nontheless.
Tonight's first reading from Exodus 12 was about God's command for the first passover. One of the instructions that God gave to the people was that they should eat the meal with their loins girded. I was interested in exactly what this meant so I looked it up. It turns out that groins and loins are not the same thing. Your loins are the part of your body that connects the top to the bottom. It is your entire waist/thigh section. To gird your loins meant to hoist up your long robe around your thighs/waist and tuck it into your belt. That way your legs can move freely without tripping. This is important if you are going to work or fight or run. God commanded his people to do this so that they would be able to leave quickly.
Interestingly enough, in the gospel Jesus girded himself with a towel and used it to wipe the disciple's feet.
When I went to wash people's feet I should have girded my alb to my loins. I knelt down to wash and one time when I was getting up, I was standing on my alb and almost fell headfirst into the wash basin. It turns out that that little detail in God's instruction and in Jesus' action is quite practical and still important today. Maybe next year I'll gird.

The Cycle

Anytime I have a project or a speech or a paper or a sermon to prepare I go through a certain cycle. It starts with optimism and good intentions. I will have the assignment, see what needs to be done and see myself doing well at it. I decide that I am not going to procrastinate or stress out this time. I give myself some deadlines and get to work. I make it through the research and brainstorming part just fine. I will still have plenty of time and motivation to carry me through. Then things start to go badly. I start to think that my thesis or main idea is bad. I start to see that it is going to turn out poorly. Then I get anxious. Then I procrastinate. Time goes by. As the due date looms near I start to get anxious about my procrastination which only leads to more of both. Eventually I end up finishing at the last minute, maybe even the night before. I don't feel good about it because I think that it should be better, but I hand it in or deliver it anyway. When it is all over I feel incredibly free and high spirited. I can see how things went wrong and how to fix them next time. Next time I will get it done early. Next time I do it well. And the cycle goes on...

High School Retreat

I went with the Sr. High youth on their retreat this weekend. There were four boys, three girls, and three adult leaders. We left the church at 5:30 to avoid the Friday traffic and headed up to Big Bear. Big Bear is a resort town up in the San Gabriel mountains. A parishioner has a "cabin" up there. (It is more like a house. The house next door has permanent residents.) There wasn't a lot of snow left but we still had a good time talking about faith, being a teenager with faith, temptation, why anyone comes to church, and other such things. They also seemed to like playing Cranium and shouting out random things, like "Travis" (he's the youth guy), or "dishwasher," or "there's a chicken in left field." We also sang and worshiped and walked around Big Bear a little. We finished off the weekend with a visit to the Big Bear Candy Store. They had amazing gelato.
The weekend tuckered me out a little, but I generally had a good time with the youth. They are all interesting in their own way and I pray that God will keep them in the faith.

Topless Women

Several weeks ago I started to notice these topless women in my apartment. Actually they aren't completely topless, they are wearing stylish brassieres and they are all very attractive. They don't say anything to me and they don't do anything. They just stand there in their brassiers. And they all look at me very seductively. Sometimes they twirl their hair or look at me coyly out of the corner of their eye. I actually think it is a little mean of them to come in here without their shirts on and look at me like that. I know that they are just trying to get my attention so that I go to Macy's and buy one of those stylish bras. But I don't need one. These women started coming around about the same time I started a subscription to the newspaper.
Several weeks ago I started receiving the Orange County Register. Carl Barth says that a theologian needs to keep a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. I have a lot of Bibles but I had no newspaper so I decided it might be a good idea to have one delivered to my door every morning. But anyway...

CRISES

I saw this video on the Life at Luther blog and I am posting it here again because I think this guy (whoever he is) is right on.

I was reading another blog today and he talks about what life was like the last time the Dow Jones Industrial average was this low. I don't remember there being a crises in 1997

Here is my two cents worth:
We are living luxurious lives, including me. I have my own apartment with my own indoor plumbing. I have my own car that I can drive anywhere. I have this computer that lets me communicate with people that are far away. I have so much food that I could buy and eat that I actually have to keep myself from eating too much. And if that isn't enough, on top of that I have a nice bicycle, a guitar, several pairs of shoes, a cell phone, etc. And many people have much more than I do!
But somehow things are in a "crises," and for some people it is. Some people are losing their jobs and have no money and will have to live on the streets and beg for food. Those people are in a crises. Most other people are simply loosing some of the extravagant luxury that they had before.
To put it another way: We were insanely stinkin' rich before, now we are just rich. We had insanely luxurious lifestyles, now they are less so. That is not a crises, it is just unfortunate.

All for Alicia

1) Almost everyday I wake up with a song in my head. I don't know where it comes from.
2) The song in my head this morning: "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tommy James and The Shondells

3) I watched a movie on Hulu called "All for Melisa." It was weird and I think it would have been much better if Jon Herder had played Jared. They could have taken out all of the "F" words and it would have made a great sequel to Jon Herder's other movie. Anyway... Jared ends up with a girl named Alicia.
4) One of this morning's readings was about Elijah and Elisha. The man who read it kept saying Alicia instead of Elisha.

Mission Objective

I am a certain kind of person. Among other things, I am the kind of person who works best when there is a definite goal, mission, or objective. That is why I like math. The mission is to get the right answer. I like jobs where I know what the objective is, like building a cabinet or making a roof. I like to know what the end goal is because then I can decide what the next step is and I can see how it relates to the end goal.

Sometimes in the church I don't know what the end goal is. As an intern I know that I am suppose to preach and teach and relate to people and teach confirmation but then I don' know how to do these things because I don't know why I am doing them or what is the ultimate goal. I start asking the question, "What is the point?"

So I have spent a lot of time thinking about the goal/mission/purpose/objective of the church. This is what I came up with:
The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to all people.


Let me know what you think.

PS I realize that I may need to define terms.

It's (Relatively) Winter

One of the interesting things about the earth that we live on is that is has many different climates. Orange county has a dry Mediterranean climate with 328 sunny days every year and an average daytime temperature of 73 degrees.

If you were to ask me, I would say that it is always summer here. In fact I have actually told people, "This is the longest summer of my life." However, it is supposedly winter now. We know this because the temperatures have "plummeted" (some forecasters actually use this word) into the 50's and 60's, and it has been raining.

The rain is a big deal, as I suppose it should be since this is the desert. The weather people on TV broadcast their "Storm Watch." In Nebraska storm watch meant there were severe thunderstorms with hail and maybe a tornado, but here it means rain.
People also get into a lot of accidents. Everyone is driving to the very limits of tire traction so any little slickness is trouble. If it were to snow 1" here I would conservatively predict 100 freeway deaths.

Reminded by Rachmaninoff

I had the good fortunate of having a ticket to this evening's performance by the Pacific Symphony. They perform in the beautiful and acoustically stupendous Segerstrom Concert Hall down in Costa Mesa. They performed two works: Brahms' third symphony and Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto. They played both very well.
A young man from Russian named Nikolai Lugansky played the piano. He was awesome. The audience seemed to enjoy his work. They clapped and cheered and he came back out to bow four times. Then he played a little encore.
Experiencing a performance like this reminds me about parts of life that I don't experience everyday. It reminds me of what it means to be human, to be able to create and express, to think and to feel. It inspires and rejuvenates and puts existence into perspective, at least a little bit.

Transdimensional Travel

This past week I was able to travel back to Nebraska. I hadn't left California since my internship began so I really looked forward to this trip and I really enjoyed it. I was in a friend's wedding, saw a lot of my family, and even scooped a little snow. Like I said, it was a great trip, but returning to California was weird.

There was such a stark contrast between my life in Nebraska and my life in California. It was 10degrees when I woke up in Nebraska and 75 when I got off the plane in California. When my grandparents drove me to the airport in Omaha we drove 30 miles without seeing a car; when Pastor Laherty picked me up at John Wayne International we got right onto the freeway with hundreds of cars. My brother was loading cattle when I left; people were coming home from their offices when I arrived. These are the observable contrasts, but more than the weather, the traffic, and commerce it just felt different.

When I arrived things seemed more tense, the people more distant, and everything more superficial. Despite being surrounded by 17 million people I felt more isolated. When I moved out in August I traveled four days and was able to transition slowly but traveling that distance in a matter of hours amplifies the impact. It feels like I got on a plane that traveled to a different dimension.

Clinging to Guns and Religion

I was invited today to go out to the desert and do some shooting. Here in California there is empty land in the desert that doesn't belong to anybody and is under the supervision of the Bureau of Land Management. People can go out there and just hang out. Who knew? I don't personally have any guns but I have done some shooting before and the people I was with had plenty of guns; rifles, pistols, and shotguns. I was not much of a target shooter, but I had some success shooting trap. Then we went to the Bass Pro Shops and had some friend fish. Today guns, tomorrow communion.

New Locution

I realized that my writing vocabulary could/should be larger. I read things and I think, "Wow, that is a great word. Why don't I ever use it." I ruminated on my vocabulary and the myriads* of words that I do not use. I discerned that I have ample space in the capacious cavern under my pate to store these words. So I decided that as I read I will surreptitiously gather some of these great terms and then use them when I write. I apologize if you feel that this lubberly paragraph has been foisted^ on you. I am not trying to be impudent nor do I think it is a good idea to make new vocabulary the cynosure of a blog. I am just hoping that with practice to bring about a proliferation of superlative terminology.

*According to Merriam Webster online this is proper usage. Myriad is a noun and can be plural.
^Special thanks to Aase for this one.

On a Night Such as This

I just now, in this very moment as I sit on my deck listening to Ray LaMontagne with my bare feet up on a chair, found one thing that I like about wind: I like the sound that it makes when it blows through the trees. Southern California is currently experiencing some Santa Anna wind activity. This means that in the canyons there are particles of air moving at speeds of up to 60mph. Here on my deck I feel only a light breeze but I can hear the air through the trees.
It reminds of the howling sound that cold winter wind makes at night. Some of you reading this may be hearing it now. It is a similar sound that wind makes on humid summer evenings as it blows up a storm. I've always liked those sounds.
Don't misunderstand me. I despise wind when it becomes annoyingly loud and steals sound right from your mouth, but the respectful whisper, howl, and hum of a decent breeze is something else. I don't know why. It just is.

Trash Mail

There is something in my mailbox almost everyday. Most often it is a stack of advertisements. They come in many sizes shapes and colors and I have no use for any of them. There is a trash can by the mailboxes and sometimes I just throw the advertisements in there. I started to recycle them now.
I don't think of it as junk mail but more as trash mail. It is mail that goes straight to the trash. I think it should be illegal for people to send me trash through the mail. I'm afraid that my real mail might get lost in it. But I realize that if the Post Office didn't deliver all those adds they would probably go out of business.