Snow Epiphany: Starry, Starry Night

Isaiah 60:1-6   John 1: 4-13
Matthew 2:7-12

Is there any image more compelling than a fresh white, sparkling snow on a moonlit, star-filled night? It is hard to imagine finding an image more beautiful.



What is it about the white snow and the stars and the moon blanketing the night sky that draws us in? It is impossible to say why images like this make our hearts feel warm, but they always do.

It is not unlike the images we might also conjure up about the Epiphany story... the three wise men heading toward Bethlehem following the light of a distant, but brightly-shining star. I imagine they did not have to cross a snowy plain or mountainside, like the one in this image, but the image of the wise men and their entourage, heading faithfully and diligently night-after-night, searching for a Messiah newly-born is heartwarming. And the most heartwarming part of all is the part where they decide to add a 'plot twist' after seeing the toddler Jesus... they do not return to Herod, but rather, spare Jesus' life and head a different direction.

This month we begin a new sermon series called "Snow Faith: Finding Spirituality in the Snow." This week we focus on the starry night in the snow. The Snow Epiphany, if you get my 'drift.'  Sunday is Epiphany Sunday, a Sunday when we recognize the journey of the wise men, awaken to our own inner yearnings to go a different way in order to keep Jesus alive in our own hearts and lives, and move in unexpected directions into the new year.

What breath-taking moments from the past can you carry with you into this new year?  What new light can you shine on the blanket of a new year, with no tracks as of yet tread upon it?  What ways can you bow down and worship Jesus and move forward to transform your world in 2014?

Email me or comment below.

Happy New Year!  Happy Epiphany!  May the 'light' be with you.

Keeping Christmas Well

Luke 2:1-20
another version

(From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)
Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more, and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for his was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed; and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the  Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

Scrooge has been through a lot with those three Spirits (Ghosts of Past, Present, and Future). He has felt the world he knew shift beneath his feet and alter his sense of what is right and what is wrong in the world. He has seen how his stinginess and uncaring, unkind spirit has created his own loneliness, his own despair, his own fate in life. But mostly he has seen how it has affected countless others around him, including children such as Tiny Tim. His heart is, to say it as Methodist founder John Wesley might, strangely warmed.  He sees the world a new way.

And so did all those in that beautiful account in Luke 2.  Mary's heart is changed when she gives birth to one who will save the world, even if she can't name yet.  Joseph's heart is changed when he is forced to put his family in an animal's stall or cave and help his wife to deliver this one who has been promised by the angel who came to him and to Mary.  The shepherds abiding in the fields... their hearts are changed when angels come down and shine all around them... they are at first terrified, and then strangely warmed by the message that a Messiah has been born in Bethlehem and they are the first to hear of it.

Christmas does that to us. It changes us. It sneaks in on us in the midst of candy canes and pine needles and makes us confront what we know is right and wrong in the world.  We, too, can see the message clearly proclaimed,  "Peace on earth, good will to all."  And we know, if only for this one night, we know very clearly that Christmas is worth doing right. It is worth keeping 'well,' as Scrooge found out.  May we always know what we must do, how we must change, who we must be to make Christmas 'well' for those around us.

Comments? Thoughts? Email me or comment below.  Merry Christmas, my beloved community!

The Crachits' Cry from the Wilderness

Isaiah 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-12

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.  --from Isaiah 11


This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"from Matthew 3


"I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

--from Matthew 3

Charles Dickens is able to recreate such vivid images of child labor and workhouse conditions of debtors in his  novels because he survived such conditions himself. His dad was a gainfully employed man, but a man who had a debt of 40 pounds, which, in those days was the same as stealing 40 pounds.  So he had to go to debtor's prison and his son, twelve-year old Charles, had to work ten hours a day putting shoe polish in jars.

Dickens understood the injustices of life. He understood the need to pen words in protest to such a system. The fact that he did it also in his fiction works is genius.. a lasting testimony to a man whose purpose was to make life better for those around him. His works are a cry in the wilderness to those who are in power. A cry of protest from the midst of the pain. And once he was an established, praised and successful author, but one who remembered his painful past, all the better to be the voice of change.

John the Baptist is the cry from the wilderness we hear this week. He is crying out in the words of Isaiah, begging those gathered to prepare the way for one who is coming after him. One who will demand justice, who will baptize with the fire of the Spirit. One who will see to it that the weak are made strong, that even the child will be treasured, rather than discarded.

This week why not look at the ways we avoid the cry in the wilderness? The ways we drown out the cry of the needy with the LOUD CAROLS sung all around us....  How often, as we buy the sweater on sale for $17.99, do we consider that a little boy or girl much like the Cratchit children in Dickens' A Christmas Carol likely made it for pennies and by working long hours in awful conditions?

The United Nations estimates that worldwide one in six children under age fifteen works full time---around 150 million children.1 (Warren, Andrea, Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London, Houghton-Mifflin 2011, 143)

Scrooge's famous line "Are there no workhouses?" comes back to haunt him when the Ghost of Christmas Present shows him reality.   The cry from the wilderness is hard to hear when you spend all your time counting your own good fortune. It sometimes has to be forced upon us by haunting images.

Who are the Cratchits all around us? Why do we fail them so often? How can we open our hearts, minds, and doors to them not just during Advent and Christmas, but every minute of every day of the year?

Join us this Advent season as we explore the harsh and real theological beauty of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.

"We Give Thanks for Salvation Stories"

Luke 23:33-43

Nothing says the end of the church liturgical year like this scripture reading. This visceral reminder that the world with all its frailties put Jesus to death on a cross. The mocking words of the soldiers, "He saved others, let him save himself..." and "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

On this Christ the King Sunday, it is almost strange to even think of earthly kings. There are very few around today and the ones we do have are often figure-heads, like the King of England, with lots of power in the tradition of the throne, but very little real power in terms of governing the people.  So, we don't even know what to make of a phrase like Christ the King.

So, it is better, perhaps, to focus on the acts that happen in this text. Jesus being nailed to a cross and mocked as a King. Jesus being ridiculed for saving people, but choosing not to save himself. What kind of King is he, if he allows himself to be crucified?

Today we give thanks for selfless acts of salvation.  Jesus who became the Christ in his selfless act of salvation, by choosing to not allow the rule of a governing body to affect his loving ministry to people in need.  And, in all of our holy and sacred everyday moments, we, too have salvation stories to share.

I have heard a few of your stories.  Stories of one who performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved a grandson's life, of a newlywed husband who saved his drowning bride, of parents who pull their adult children out of harm's way in abusive relationships, of out-of-body near death experiences where somehow, someway the body managed to save itself.  Amazing stuff. Powerful testimony of that instinct we all have to save each other and save ourselves in moments of crisis.

I have to think that Jesus, the fully human side of Jesus, wanted to save himself, and yet the loving, far-reaching visionary Jesus, wanted to save us more.  Jesus could see that giving in to the laws and rules of a short-sighted society would not lead anywhere, but choosing to pour God's love and compassion onto the world, no matter the consequences might indeed be life-saving for even him.

If it feels like Resurrection, like Easter, it is. The last day of the liturgical calendar is Easter all over again. To remind us why we will begin to wait with earnest for the baby in the manger next week. To remind us why it is important for that Child to come over and over again.  To remind us THAT salvation story begins not on a cross, but with a mother's obedient answer to God's call.

What salvation stories can you share?  Why are these important in our culture?  Email me or comment below.

We give thanks for new sight.

Matthew 7:1-8


This week we give thanks for glasses, contacts, bifocals, night goggles, 3-D glasses... all those tools we use to see the world in a whole new way. How thankful we are that we don't have to just see things in our blurred views of the world, but can have instruments available to us that can give us a whole new view of things?

A couple of months ago, Todd and I went to see the 75th anniversary re-release of The Wizard of Oz in theaters.  This time the movie wasn't like I had seen it before. It was in IMAX 3-D.  Unlike anything you have ever thought that movie could be.  The Wicked Witch of the West on a giant screen and a little popped out in 3-D.  Intense.  Very intense.  But the 3-D IMAXness of it all gave me new vision and new insights into some of the imagery in the movie that I had never noticed before, so it was like seeing the movie again for the first time.

If you got eyeglasses as a child because of poor vision, you can relate to this, as well. Remember what happened the first time you put on a pair of glasses and could ACTUALLY see the world? I felt like someone had cleaned up Knoxville, Tennessee for me. I was amazed at how different the world looked. So amazed. I can still see that scene in my mind's eye even today. And that was 35 years ago.

Today's gospel lesson speaks to us of what we see and don't see in the world around us. It reminds us to be careful what we notice about those around us... to take caution that we are fist noticing what is going on with OURSELVES before we decide to judge too harshly our neighbors.

Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, "Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye. 

That speck that we complain about in our neighbor's eye may be a problem for you, maybe even a problem for many, but this reminds us that our first order of business as those who want to model the way of Christ is to notice what logs we have in our own eyes first.  Kind of like putting on the oxygen mask before you offer help to another.  Notice what you need to do for your own 'stuff' first before railing on someone else's 'stuff.'

A few weeks ago I struggled all day long with a little tear in a contact lens. Those of you who wear them know that a tiny tear might be smaller than a speck, but feels like a log in the eye. I told Anna, the office admin, that I should really just sit down that very day and write the sermon about the log in my own eye.  The burden and the aggravation I was carrying around by not dealing with that contact lens IS a parallel to the burden and aggravation we carry around when we don't deal with the stuff that keeps us from being the Christians we are called to be.  The next part of this scripture reminds us to ask, seek, and knock and doors will open for us.  To be open to the Spirit moving in our lives will help us to take the log away for good.

What new vision or new insights into the world have you had? What was life like for you once you got a new pair of glasses, either in reality or metaphorically?  Email me or comment below.

We are thankful for turkey day traditions

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

One Thanksgiving tradition that we almost always observe is watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. A couple of times we have been traveling or vacationing and have not been able to do this, but most of the time, that's where you can find us on Thanksgiving morning.  In front of the TV, watching the parade.  I leave between commercial breaks to stir a pot, or baste the bird. It is just a wonderful, lovely tradition that we have of being together on parade morning.

A few years ago, we went to NYC the days before Thanksgiving and left on Thanksgiving morning before the big event. We were flying out of town as the parade was beginning.  But the night before we went up to the area of Manhattan where the parade workers begin inflating the balloons and took a good close up look at some of them.  That was certainly an interesting take on our yearly tradition.

This week's epistle lesson speaks of tradition in this way:

But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.

We are chosen by God to offer 'first fruits' (the best we have) as we work in tangent with God to save the world.  We have been called to share the good news. One way we do that is by remembering all we have learned and holding fast to the traditions that bind us together. The traditions we learned will carry us into the next generation and spread the good news to a new people.

There is a lot of talk in the church these days about 'the dying church' and the need to remodel or refashion the existing church.  Some of that talk is accurate and some of it is, frankly, alarmist.  The church of tomorrow will likely be smaller than the church of today.  Its numbers are contracting, that's true.  But the traditions that have held us steadfast for generations will continue to hold us tomorrow.

Like our turkey day traditions.  Just because we all have ereaders and tablets and iPhones nowadays doesn't mean that there isn't something strong and valuable and beautiful about gathering in front of a TV to watch a parade. Just because you can virtually play football on your Xbox doesn't mean you won't watch the big game. You know?  We owe it to our future to hold fast to the traditions of of our past.

What traditions are important in your family? Why are they so valuable to you and yours?

Email me or comment below.

We give thanks for Grandma's feather bed!

Ephesians 1:11-19

"In Christ, we have also obtained an inheritance," begins this week's reading.  We are an inherited congregation with an inherited faith, passed down from generation to generation. We are the sum total of everything that came before us in the Christian faith.  We often don't think of faith as something we inherited, or as the 'congregation' itself as something we inherited.  But, it really is.

This month we will explore all the perhaps unspoken thing we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  Things we all are aware of, on some level, but don't give a lot of credence to, in our generic thanksgiving lists.  We begin this week with 'inheritance.'  We give thanks for Grandma's feather bed, passed down from generation to generation.

Remember the John Denver song. "It was nine feet high and six feet wide and soft as a downy chick. It was made from the feathers of forty 'leven geese, it took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick."  That feather bed imagery conjures up for many of us all the many things our grandmas had in their houses, some of which perhaps we have in our houses today.

All of us have inherited something from our families. Perhaps it is an actual physical artifact or a lot of them. Perhaps it is a way of living or a belief system.  I have a ring that belonged to my grandmother.  When my grandmother died, my mom showed me two of Granny's rings while they were cleaning out her house, and told me to pick one. I asked her for the story behind each before I picked. You see, the inheritance we get is not just stuff, it is the memory, the connection to a life that came before us and joined with us at some point along the way.

In Ephesians, we read of that inheritance from Christ as the Holy Spirit... which redeems us and marks us as God's own people.  We inherit our redemption in Christ. We inherit our faith from those who believed in Christ before us. We inherit the gospel and are entrusted to carry that good news forward to those who will inherit it from us.

It is not unlike the items from Granny's house that we inherited. Both require you to care enough about the meaning and intent behind the inheritance to claim it, hold it as your own, and carry it forward into tomorrow. What have you inherited?  Why is it meaningful for you?  I would love to have you share some of those aloud this Sunday.  Or you can send me an email or comment below.

Peace.

“Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one.”

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness . . .At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

 Disney's Pocahantas has an independent mind of her own. She doesn't think her elders are always right about things. Like most of the modern day Disney 'heroines,' she wants to do things her way.  When she falls for a 'white man,' though, that is a far step off the plan, probably even for her.  But what Pocahantas really wants is for everyone to understand their own place in the whole order of creation. To understand that not everyone has to see things the same way, but everyone needs to be willing to appreciate the journey of the others.  She soon realizes this is too much to ask and finds herself, sadly, wishing that she and the white man she loves, John, had never met.

Grandmother Willow, the wise old tree, speaks to Pocahantas and John. She pokes a branch into the water and shows them the ripples, how they start small at first, but then grow bigger. She reminds them that someone has to start the ripples. That change can never occur without a step into the hardness and harshness of life.  "Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one."

Albus Dumbledore, in the Harry Potter series, says much the same thing in this quote, where he is reminding Harry about the valor his classmate Cedric Diggory who died because he dared to cross the path of the evil lord Voldemort. 

"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory." 

Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one. I would venture to say that you could almost take out the word 'sometimes' and the quote would be more accurate. The right path is not the easiest one. Robert Frost's road less taken comes to mind, as well.  We have so many choices in our Christian walk. We can choose to just come on Sunday and chill out, relax with friends and enjoy life, bring in some money or food or something to help out the needy when asked.  That's the easy path, but as the quote above suggests, it might not be the right one.

The right path likely involves getting our hands dirty. Encountering poverty and despair. Encountering broken children from broken homes. Encountering immigrants and addicts.  How do we get on that path? How did Jesus get on it?  He walked out the door.  

Oh, how hard it is going to be for me personally to walk in the world as Jesus did. Maybe your journey will be easier to take because you have already dared to tiptoe outside a bit here and there in the dirty world of being a real Christian.  I have work to do, though, on many fronts.

Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one. The right path is not the easiest one.  It's supposed to be hard. It IS hard. That's the way of walking with Jesus.  The Road less travelled is going to make all the difference. I can just feel it.

The Road Not Taken

BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

“Prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy.”

Philippians 4:4-9

Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy more than anything. He was tired of being a puppet and living at the mercy of someone else making his every move happen. And yet, he couldn't just demand that this happen to him. He had to prove himself worthy of being a real boy through the school of hard knocks.

Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus...

Pinocchio is told "prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy." In other words, you have to figure out what it means to really be a human. Do you just get to be one, or do you have to exhibit the qualities that make you 'human'?  

Stands to reason that Paul would hold the Christ followers accountable to the same sort of high standards when they are organizing the early faith communities.  To what standards should someone called Christian be held?  Paul is saying to the people of Philippi, "if we are setting ourselves apart as persons who profess to believe in the Risen Christ, who profess to follow his way, what standards do we hold ourselves to?

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

It is both very simple and very difficult. It really is just about doing whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise.  But, on any given day, there is no more challenging task.  When we would rather have our own way than follow the way of Christ, we fail to meet most of the above criteria.

Our country's political leaders have fallen into this trap. And we let them do it. Long ago we quit requiring of them to do 'whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent' and are content to hold them accountable for almost nothing.

That sentiment follows us into our everyday lives, too. We have got to learn what it means to be a real boy (girl), just like Pinocchio had to learn. We have got to align ourselves with that man who became our Savior and be brave, truthful and unselfish... then, and only then, will we become REAL Christians.

Thoughts? Comments? Email me or comment below.

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all”

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-11

I love the raw beauty of this passage. It isn't a passage about how wonderful life is or how beautiful it is that God blesses us with much abundance. It is about being in exile, being sent far away from those you love and the land you call home and living in a place not of your choosing instead.

What makes it so beautiful is what God tells the people of exile. God tells them, Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare....

This is perhaps my favorite scripture in all of the biblical canon.  Even though you have been sent to exile, says God, go on and live your lives. Build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children... and seek the welfare of the city where you have been sent into exile... if that city does well, you will do well.

So many times today we get into a "poor me" mentality. I didn't get exactly what I wanted, so I will pout and make life miserable for those around me.  We all have done it or been subject to it from time to time.  This scripture suggests that no matter what sort of exiles we have had imposed on us or we have imposed upon ourselves, the best thing we can do is to choose abundant life instead, in all its forms.

Build, plant, grow, produce.

In the Disney movie, Mulan, she exiles herself away from her family and into the army. She doesn't want to be what girls are supposed to be and runs away from that life.  This scripture isn't saying that we should subject ourselves to lives that are harmful or unfulfilling, but it does suggest that sometimes life gives us lemons and the best we can hope to do is create as much lemonade as we can and share it with others, rather than running away from or denying that a present reality exists..    Sometimes we don't get what we want, or think we want, for a long, long time. The exile in this passage of Jeremiah lasts seventy years. But there is a time when God fulfills God's promises.

Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all” is a line from Mulan that suggests we have to walk through the rain to get to the rainbow. It suggests that once we have lived through whatever exiles get sent our way, our blooming moment, our God fulfilled promises, are blessings to be praised and to be shared. And it implies that we have to be in it for the long haul or we might not get the chance to bloom at all.

Thoughts? Comments? Email me or comment below.

"There's Something There That Wasn't There Before"

2 Timothy 1:1-14

In Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the enchanted teapot notices a change in the relationship between Belle and the Beast. She notices that they are kinder, more compassionate, and tender with each other. She sings this delightful line, "There's something there that wasn't there before" and we know that their attitudes are so different toward each other that OTHERS can SEE the change.

 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

In the Christian faith it is the laying on of hands that remind us we are sacred and holy servants of God. It is the waters of baptism that bring us viscerally into the family of God.  We have these outward and visible signs that remind us of the connection we share as followers of Christ, people of faith.

In a meeting the other day at the conference office someone said, in conversation about a site visit to the Sand Creek Massacre site, that we should become different people when we leave that place. It made me think that when we remember the sins of our past and seek to repent and reconcile with those we have harmed, we should feel differently about all of our past and all of our future. There really SHOULD be something there that wasn't there before.

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday. A day when Christians all over the world unite around our sacrament of Holy Communion.  Everyone who is named Christian sharing the broken bread of life and the cup of the new covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

Perhaps on World Communion Sunday the reason we come forward to receive the gift of grace should focus more on the collective sins of society we continue to inflict upon one another. Greedy governments, corrupt leaders, suffering inflicted by apathy, turning our heads and averting our eyes to the systemic problems of hunger, pollution, violence, warmongering, and the like.

This World Communion Sunday we should strive to create instead "something there that wasn't there before" like peace, contentment, thriving neighborhoods, robust educational systems, cooperative leaders.  If we don't strive to make the world something that it hasn't been before, no one else will. Christians, along with all people of our Creator God, are called to be peacemakers.  Following the example of Jesus, the Christ, we must go the full distance, whatever it takes, to create something there that wasn't there before.

Thoughts? Comments? Email me or comment below.

Folk, Rock n Roll, and Crossing the Line

Psalm 146

The dawning of music that spoke a message. Music that had a justice thought behind it, or even if it seemed silly, hinted at a quiet protest. We might think that music is from the late 50s through the 60s, as the dawn of a genre, but it actually is eternal... music has always been a way to pour out a song of protest or a message of justice. The psalms ring true of such messages over and over again. Words of protest and justice.

"Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help."

 "Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob...who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free"

Folk music and rock and roll have their roots in young rebellion.  Folk music is the music of the working class, told in oral histories, stories about the struggles of everyday people trying to make it in the world. Woody Guthrie's music is indicative of this genre's message... bluegrass music also fits into the same mold... the message of the struggle of the working class.

Rock-n-roll music is a complicated genre with a complicated history. The combination of many kinds of music, mostly rhythm and blues and country; the blend of music that appealed to both African-Americans and Caucasians created the tension and sway that led to at least a part of the Civil Rights movement. The appeal to the younger generation had a way of creating music that had a touch of rebellion in the early years of 'rockabilly' and 'doowop' that became blatantly obvious in the Vietnam era of the late 60s to early 70s.

How do we look at both of these genres and see how they gave generations of young people a sort of permission to cross the line and challenge the established order?  What parallels do they share with the music of the psalms?

Thoughts?  Memories of your favorite folk or rock-n-roll songs and how they impacted your life? Email me or comment below.

Lost in the '50s

Luke 15:1-10

We are remembering in nostalgic ways the era of the 1950s this month as a part of our Feast of Beginnings.  But it is also important to remember the struggle of the 1950s.

Here at home:

1951:  On November 1, 1951, fire completely destroys the Evangelical United Brethren church building. While the building is a complete loss, the new organ, a piano, the pews, and some chancel furniture are spared. Damaged but not destroyed, these items will be renewed and reused in the new church building. Once again, the Left Hand Grange makes its hall available for worship services while the church is rebuilding.

And on a national level: 

When Rosa Parks refused on the afternoon of Dec. 1, 1955, to give up her bus seat so that a white man could sit, it is unlikely that she fully realized the forces she had set into motion and the controversy that would soon swirl around her. Other black women had similarly refused to give up their seats on public buses and had even been arrested, including two young women earlier that same year in Montgomery, Ala. But this time the outcome was different. 

(from Montgomeryboycott.com)

We sometimes idolize the eras of bygone years.  We see them through a lens that has faded into more myth than reality.  Have you ever seen the movie "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen? The lead character, played by Owen Wison, does that. He is infatuated with the era of the 1920s in Paris and he falls in love with someone that is infatuated with the 1890s.  They don't see any charm at all in their present era and also fail to see the dark and difficult times in the era they idealize.

The 1950s are not "Grease." They are not "Happy Days" although many of us had some happy days back then. They are just like now... some really great things happening and some really somber things happening.  Let us not get so idealized about an era gone by that we miss the beauty of this present moment.

The scripture this week reminds us of the joy in finding what was lost.  The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost soul.  We are in the midst of searching for what we might have lost along the way in the faith journey. But we might also remember to be joyous with what we have found... or kept... the church alive and well here  and now.

You won't want to miss church this week. We will be looking at a glorious slide show with many images of the 1950s... if you were around then, you might be in a couple.

If you have any thoughts on the 1950s, please email me or comment below.