January 1, 2009 — 3:18 AM
The turning of a new year brings introspection and the chance to evaluate where we are in the course of our lives. And I, like many others, pause as 2008 turns into 2009 to see if I am where I think I should be in my life.
Am I where I thought I would be?
No.
I am where I where I think God is calling me to be?
Yes. To the best of my capabilities.
Try as we might, life seldom goes in exactly the direction we thought it would. Given that, how do we react? That is the greatest lesson I have learned over the past several years of being on my own. I cannot control how life will proceed. But I can control how I will react to what happens to me.
My just-completed vacation with the family reminded me (in not so pleasant ways) that I don't always react in the way that I wish I would. Habits created early in life have a way of creeping back in when I least suspect them to. But I still have to step back and ask myself, "Is this how I want to deal with this situation?"
So as 2008 gives way to 2009, I pause once again to ask myself, "Am I being true to who God made me to be?" And my honest answer has to be, "No." But I will continue to struggle to make that answer, "Yes."
I know that God created me, and loves me, and wants me to be a healthy, happy being in God's good creation. To that end, I will continue to work on reacting in positive and helpful ways no matter the situation. And I will continue to ask for God's help in this endeavor.
May 2009 be good for all of us as we strive to make God's kindom a reality here and now.
permalink
January 12, 2009 — 10:32 PM
Next Monday, 19 January 2009, on the day that we in the U. S. of A. observe the 80th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and on the eve of the inauguration of the first African-American to be the President, I will turn 40 years old.
I am truly excited about the confluence of these momentous events. I think it bodes well for the next decade of my life that it begins on such on high note of hope for the future. The sense of great possibility is palpable. And I'm going to boldly claim that for myself as I step into this new era of my life.
My first act of boldness for this new decade actually happened a couple of months early. I decided to sign up for the AIDS/Lifecycle SF to LA ride that will happen from May 31 - June 6. I wanted to do something big that would not just be for me but would help others as well. And this is it.
Join me in celebrating my fab 40 by helping me to meet (or even exceed) my fundraising goal of $3,000 for this week-long ride. Follow this link (tinyurl.com/ride-that-bike) to donate online or print the form and mail it in. Any amount you can give will help fund the SF AIDS Foundation in their work to combat HIV/AIDS and find a cure for it.
And, if you're in the Bay Area next Monday evening. Join me at the Lucky 13 (near the corner of Market and Church streets in SF) anytime after 7:30 pm to raise a glass in celebration of four great decades and in hopes of at least four more.
Again, to donate for the ride, go here: http://tinyurl.com/ride-that-bike.
1
January 17, 2009 — 10:27 AM
"What's your sign?"
"What's your number?"
"What's your type?"
I'm sure all of us have been asked at least one of the questions. And probably many times in many different situations. We humans like to group things together to understand them better. And that includes grouping ourselves. We want to know why we do the things we do.
Part of the process for ordination in the PC(USA) is to go through a day of psychological testing. The hope is that any problems or incompatibilities will show up in this testing and the person going through the process can then receive counseling before getting into a ministry setting.
My answers to the above questions? Capricorn. One. And ESTJ.
This morning, thanks to Kate, I found a site that analyzes the Myers-Briggs type of a blog. I couldn't resist seeing what it had to say about how I write here. So I plugged in my URL. And here's what it told me:
ISTP - The Mechanics
The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.
The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.
The two strongest (read: most reliable) letters of the four are the first and the last. The two middle categories are a little more fluid and hard to pin down. So I find it very interesting that my first and last letters are the opposites of how I test in person.
Maybe I blog to give myself a space to be the opposite of me. A space to develop those other characteristics that don't get much play when I'm out living my life in the world. Maybe I'm overanalyzing this? Probably. But I find it an intriguing thought none the less.
How about you? Do your personality and your blog/writing style types match up?
1
January 17, 2009 — 8:07 PM
The [soon-to-be] First Family, Barack and Michelle Obama, have called the nation to service. Rather than sitting around spending the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday staring at our own navels, they have encouraged us to get out and make a difference in our communities. And community groups across the nation have stepped up and offered ways to make that a reality. I have a plethora of opportunities from which to choose all within a short walk from my house.
And it was with this call to service in mind that I came across the following passage in "Jesus Laughed: The Redemptive Power of Humor" by Robert Darden.
To get, you've gotta give; it's as simple as that. We're not talking about a faith justified by works theology here. This is a simple truism. You want to be happy? Help someone else because you love them, not because they deserve it. The more you're assisting someone less fortunate than yourself, the less time you spend thinking about yourself. Each time you do something like that, you're extending grace.
I agree with 95% of what Darden says there. Maybe even more. But there is one major problem with his argument - an argument I have heard from good people, Christian and not, throughout my life.
I have a problem with his assertion that we are to assist "someone less fortunate" than ourselves. That is such a judgmental statement. It encourages me to look at every person around me and assess whether or not I deem that person more unfortunate than me and therefore worthy of my help.
I believe I have God-given gifts that everyone - rich, poor, or somewhere in between - can benefit from. I believe the same of everyone around me. If I have gifts to give so do they. It doesn't matter how they appear. It doesn't matter what they are in reality. Rich, poor, or (you guessed it) somewhere in between, can all offer me something in the same way that I can offer them something.
I am excited for the next four (and dare I hope, next eight) years. Not least for the opportunities for our nation to remember that we are in this together. May the Community-Organizer-in-Chief lead us on to ever greater levels of interconnectedness.
permalink
January 28, 2009 — 9:12 PM
My boss, the Dean and Professor of Homiletics (Preaching) at SFTS, likes to say that all preachers really only have one sermon in them - it just comes out in different ways. And I think she's onto something there.
When I look over the sermons I have preached throughout the years (beginning in 2003), most, if not all, can be boiled down to one topic: God loves you. In the expanded form that topic is: God loves you with an abundant love that should fill you to overflowing so that all around you experience that love flowing through you.
I think my latest sermon, preached last Sunday at MBCC, broadly fits under that topic. The larger theme of the sermon was about worship and the tension in the Missional Church between inward and outward focus. But, in the end, I argue that worship is about relationship-building and making fools of ourselves to show God that we truly love God. And, ultimately, that means that God loves us and wants us to love God back.
So there you have it. SPOILER ALERT: If you ever come to hear me preach, that will be my bottom line. It will just have different packaging each time. Can't go wrong with that theme, can I?
permalink
January 29, 2009 — 4:37 PM
I am currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan, attending the Worship Symposium put together by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. This is my third time attending. This time I am here not only to learn more about how to do worship, but also to learn about trends in worship so that I can help the SFTS students think about these as they consider their call possibilities.
To this end, I came a day early to take part in a day-long seminar called, "Exploring the Emerging Church: Theology, Culture, Ritual, and Meaning." The panel was made up of three men talking from experience in the Emerging Church and in anticipation of a collaborative book on the subject to be coming out later this year. The three are: Jason Clark (from the UK), Peter Rollins (from Belfast), and Kevin Corcoran (originally from Baltimore and now on the faculty of Calvin).
I was old-fashioned and took notes instead of twittering during the seminar. So here are some highlights from each of the speakers.
Jason Clark
- Do we smoke what we sell? (Meaning is the church we lead the church we would attend?)
- When I started trying to figure out why people wouldn't give their lives over to Christ I realized that it was because they had already given their lives over to consumerism.
- Worship is a way of life.
Peter Rollins
- I decided to stop trying to fulfill my dreams and instead place myself in a way to be open to dreaming new dreams.
- I didn't know what I was doing but I did it anyway.
- So as not to offend anyone, I strive to offend everyone.
- Our beliefs are important because they help us to navigate life. But beliefs should not maim or kill.
- There is always doubt, complexity, and ambiguity about the historicity of Jesus' resurrection. There is never doubt about the conversion experience.
- Everyone worships; everyone prays. The question is: What is Christian worship?
- Revelation has been associated with belief. But it's not so much about knowing but unknowing. When something is revealed it blows all prior knowledge apart. (Like Saul on the Damascus Road.)
- We [at Ikon, his worshipping community] try to create a desert in the oasis.
- Ikon is like a donut with a hole in the middle of it - it's all on the edges.
Kevin Corcoran
- Theological pluralism is a good thing.
- Any theology is provisional and temporary
- We live in the reality that God's kingdom has come and is still coming. Yet if the kingdom is coming but will never fully arrive, this is not good news.
- Worship is an invitation from God to a way of being in the world.
- If you don't have any beliefs that you hold to then you won't be tolerant because you won't disagree with anyone.
Overarching themes from the day were:
- The centrality of feasting
- Incarnational community - being present to one another
- The recovery of the visual and symbolic
- Epistemic humility
- The Church is at its best when it's against the Powers (Empire)
- Re-discovery of Scripture as story
- Creating space for risk
My head is very full and now the actual Symposium is starting. Ahhhh! It's all good, though. I'll enjoy whatever I can take in.
1
January 31, 2009 — 7:59 PM
Another day at the Worship Symposium meant another session on the Emerging Church. This time I sat in on a small one-hour conversation with some of the folks from Thursday's day-long seminar. This smaller, more intimate setting allowed me to hear more fully what the speakers were saying. And so, here are some corrected, expanded, and additional quotes to go with those from the other day.
Peter Rollins
- ikon definitely pillages the past
- There are problems today that our current paradigms cannot address - questions of gender, sexual orientation, etc. The Emerging Church is trying to address them in new ways.
- Theology gets in the way of Christianity.
- Maybe there are too many churches. I want to close down churches. I want Christianity to be harder.
- I want to create deserts in the oasis of your dogmas.
- I want the Church to bring back doubt, ambiguity, and uncertainty.
Kevin Corcoran
- Jesus Christ acts as an agitator. He re-orients your way of living. He brings a new reality.
- This manifestation is probably short-lived. The Emerging Church is a flash mob.
permalink
