How Much Does the Gospel Cost?

Well at least according to one sale, fourteen million dollars. The British Library just bought Europe's oldest book, which happens to be a copy of the gospel according to St. John. The book itself, a smart little volume, written on vellum and bound in a red cover, is known as St. Cuthbert's Gospel because it was buried with Cuthbert 1300 years ago.

TheWorld did a nice piece about it on today's show. What was remarkable to me was the journey of Cuthbert's coffin after his death. You can listen to the piece here.



And the Library has digitized the book and you can view the images here.

I am struck by the importance this book has, and that it is a biblical book. The images are really stunning. The print is phenomenal. But it is at its heart this book is rooted to the arrival of the gospel in Europe.  This book is a testimony to the missional character of Christianity. Will there be anything a millennia from now that tells of our missional impulse?

2nd Sunday of Easter -- Sin is Big, And Jesus is Bigger Yet

We have been convinced that sin is something small and insignificant, making the words from1 John ring hollow. But they remain true because sin is much bigger than we are led to believe. Sin is cosmic and we participate in it even without knowing. But Jesus is bigger even than it for he has conquered it in the resurrection. 

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How Many Women Does a Man Have to Bed To Be Considered a Real Man?

The question seems to be one many men look to answer thinking quantity matters most. Stumbling upon an interview on another blog, Joffre the Giant, the poet Remy Williams gives another answer. He writes:

We have bought into certain lies that’s are flimsy as our pick-up lines. One of the most absurd is thinking that the more women you sleep with means more sexual skills, that more women equals more experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consider the  man who declares his love of cities, all cities and talks about his vast knowledge of cities. He spends the night in a different city one day after the next. He gets off the bus, buys a t-shirt, notches his belt and hops back on the bus. He is suppose to be a grand lover of cities? Rather his is the most worthless of tourists, he’s the doofus in the fannypack mugging in front of every giftshop across the nation. He knows nothing of the city, does not love any city at all, but rather he loves to see his greasy unshaven mug in different settings each  night. The man that says he knows New York City because he was once laid-over there one rainy insignificant night is a great fool. 

So too the lothario, who beds women with tricks and well worn moves. He’s never had to please a woman night after night. He can only pick up women at the watering hole looking to be watered, the lowhanging fruit. A real man knows how to please the woman who’s dealt with screaming kids all day, who went through the day with peanutbutter in her hair, wearing sweatpants and grannypanties because the laundry is stacked to highheaven. A real man can’t rely on a couple of cheap sex tricks to please a woman, running the same two plays on an unsuspecting defense, a real man has to play the same team night after night and the things that worked last night aren’t good enough for today. Real men bed the same woman every night keeping it new and fresh and exciting. Lotharios, in the extremity of their lameness, have so little game they have to move from woman to woman with their smoke, mirrors and hand dancing.

 I like his answer, but is definitely written from a male perspective. Underlying the answer is the assumption that men are men by the sexual conquest even of the one woman with whom he lives.  Here men are men still by being able to have sex with women. Maybe men are real men by realizing that sex is not what defines their existence. I realize that the author of the post was writing specifically about sex, but I think there needs to be more than that. For instance, maybe a real man is the man who realizes that his wife really would rather not have sex at all and he can let it go because his identity is not wrapped up in whether he or not he gets some. His wife is not just there to gratify him. A real man knows that.

Maundy Thursday and Easter Sermons

I am still getting back into recording my sermons and putting them on my podcast. I thought I was already there, but then forgot to check the batteries in my recorder on Good Friday. So I lost that sermon. I did get Maundy Thursday and Easter though...

On Maundy Thursday I looked at our world's desire for certainty and the ambiguity in the word that Paul uses in the words of institution, paradidomi.

On Easter, I touched upon the abundance of hope that the resurrection lets loose in the world.

Narrative Lectionary.. an alternative lectionary experiment

I was just alerted to a new lectionary that was begun by some professors up at Luther Seminary. Rolf Jacobsen and Craig Koester started this four-year alternative lectionary, the so-called Narrative Lectionary, that lead to a proclamation of what God is doing. This lectionary also seems to help recount the grand scope of salvation history. 

I am intrigued. Intrigued enough to consider moving to this lectionary next fall. Of course, I have never done anything really apart from the Revised Common Lectionary. I do wonder, if reading only one lesson, two at most, each week is worth it. I suppose if you attend a congregation that only reads one lesson each week, then a lectionary that tried to cover the scope of salvation history might be worthwhile. If you attend a congregation that reads all four texts appointed for the day, I wonder if it is worth it to give up four years of a broader sampling of biblical readings. If the preacher in those churches would routinely only preach on the gospel lesson anyway, then maybe it doesn't matter.  

The absent books raise an interesting question. No Psalms? No New Testament texts outside of the gospel and some of Paul's letters? Nothing from Revelation. Nothing from Hebrews, the Johannine epistles or the Petrine epistles. The details of the four-year lectionary, that is the appointed texts for each Sunday, can be seen here. 

While I am still considering this lectionary, particularly for a campus ministry setting where there is a possibility that students are not well acquainted with the biblical narrative, I do wonder if preachers cannot proclaim an active God through the stories appointed in the Revised Common Lectionary, will changing minor details really change the proclamation? 

Am I a good Lutheran pastor if...

Our house went on the market a couple of weeks ago and almost as soon as I posted a notice on Facebook about it, I began receiving advice about selling. Well... sort of advice. People of various sorts  began telling me to bury St. Joseph in my front yard to help speed the sale of our house. Some simply said to bury him, but others said that Joseph's orientation mattered. Feet toward the house and head toward the street, or the other way around... I don't remember.

The stress of selling a house in a slow economy is somewhat hard to bear, especially when we need this house to sell before we can solidify a bid on a new house. To say my wife and I are anxious is an understatement. With this stress upon us, such house selling advice is tempting. Anything that promises a quick sell without lowering the price has to be good right? We have lost out on one house bid because someone else made another offer that was accepted knocking our contingent offer out from under us. We have another similar offer on another house. Knowing that you need to move but cannot until you sell your house can lead to sleepless nights.

To be honest though, as an aside, the other voices that rise up when something falls through are equally anxiety-invoking. The voices that say "Well it just wasn't meant to be..." as if God has just one perfect house in mind for me and my family and all the others are just pointless. I know they are trying to make me feel better, but just like I am certain that people do not have just one person they are meant to marry, there is not just one house that God wills me to have. This notion that is rather popular with many Christian voices wants to maintain the supremacy of God's will, but I think it misses the point. God wills many things, but what house I buy is not on that list I think. God certainly wants me to be a good steward of the things that are given to me and my family. But there is an inherent freedom in that mix. My faith will indeed help my wife and I decide which house to choose, but if the offer falls through, my faith was not likely insufficient, nor was it necessarily God putting the kibosh on the deal. There will be a place for my family and I to dwell in peace and safety. That I trust.

Now back to the original point, which is still connected to the one I trust. Burying a statue of St. Joseph in the yard, seems to be exactly the sort of thing Luther and the reformers railed against with the cult of the saints. I have a very high view of saints. I routinely commemorate saints, both biblical and extra-biblical, for the particular witness their lives have provided for living out one's faith in Christ. I have routinely responded to the advice on burying St.. Joseph with the phrase, "I have the witness of scripture and the confessions behind me. I will simply trust Jesus." And of course I get puzzled looks. But in the twenty-first article of the Augsburg Confessions, the one dealing with the cult of saints, it reads quite appropriately:

However, it cannot be proved from the Scriptures that we are to invoke saints or seek help from them. "For there is one mediator between God and humans, Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5), who is the only savior, the only high priest, advocate and intercessor before God (Rom. 8:34). He alone has promised to hear our prayers.

It is hard enough selling a house. I don't need to wrestle with this stuff as well. I trust that God will provide a place for us to live. I have to. If not I would obsess and fret and worry. I will simply let God do whatever God is going to do. God will provide. I don't need to use any saint, even one as important as St. Joseph. So I will save the time, money, and effort of burying Joseph.

But just to make sure... check with me in a couple of weeks.

Or if you know someone who is looking for a charming house in a nice neighborhood of Morgantown, WV...

Christ's Death, the end of brokenness

The Lutheran University Center sits on a well-trafficked street, and I pondered how I might engage passers-by during Holy week. After prayer and conversation with trusted friends and colleagues, I decided to build a cross with nails sticking out with a sign upon the top that read:

Christ's death on the cross promises an end to the brokenness of the world. What brokenness do you want to see put to death?

Then I mounted a box with some paper and a marker so people could put down their thoughts and prayers... jabs and snarky jokes as well...

I had no idea how people would respond. I sat and observed people's reactions. Some glance at it as they walk by. I noticed two people stop and discuss it.  Some people in cell phone conversations slow their walk as they pass, clearly pondering it in the midst of their discussion. Some never lift their eyes from the sidewalk. But I hoped that leaving people free to comment or not would free some people to do so. As I pulled into the center this morning, I was not disappointed. Several pieces of paper clung to each nail. Some are meant to be funny... some are serious... one has some drawing on it that I can only guess at what it means.

The one that had me most intrigued was the one that read "People who flaunt their religion in my face." Is that me? Or is it someone else this person knows? I had hoped that with this cross, I would give people freedom to respond or not and if this person meant me, I wonder what compelled him or her to attach this comment. I cannot tell. I do know that in God's Reign, the flaunting of religion will end. I pray for the day when our faith and display of it will be genuinely lived out, and in the meantime I pray that Christians are more aware of the witness they provide to the Crucified one.

I am interested to see how the comments will continue over this week. They will form much of my prayer life as we enter into the days of God's saving mystery that promises to end the brokenness of the world?

What brokenness do you want to see put to death?

Jumping on a Moving Train

That is a little like how it has felt over the past month. Starting the new call at the Lutheran University Center. Getting here, getting situated, getting oriented, getting moved out (of my old office) and moved in (to my new office)... all of it has been a little crazy. Throw in organizing my installation, a grand and lovely event thanks to the efforts of many others, as well as family transition issues... it is no wonder my output on my blog and podcast has dropped. I have even wondered about closing down this blog and starting a new one since I am no longer a pastor of a congregation. But I think I will leave its name alone.

I am hoping that my writing continues and picks up as things reach a steady state, or at least as steady as they can in campus ministry.

Ministry and Incarnation

The past month has been incredibly hectic.  As I wrote a few weeks ago, I am starting a new call.  December was busier as I  tried to get everything in order before I had finished as pastor.  As if getting ready for Christmas wasn't enough, I also was making sure the parish record was in order and all that sort of stuff.  Then there were the people who really wanted me to do one or another pastoral task before I left...

So during December, I had three baptisms and five First Communions... not to mention two memorial services. Granted those folks didn't arrange this task with me when I announced I was leaving... but it was just extra stuff.  At any rate, I do not think I have had such a cramped month in my eight plus years serving St. Paul. 

There was a part of me that wondered if I was doing something wrong by acquiescing to these requests.  After all, there was no need to rush.  A perfectly competent pastor would be serving as an interim after I left.  There was nothing special about me doing it.  Performing the baptisms or instructing the First Communicants did not require me.  There was a part of me that worried about creating inappropriate expectations about pastors. 

But then my last Sunday came.  That Sunday was Christmas day. I was emotional from the get-go.  I climbed into the pulpit to set up my recorder and manuscript.  As I went up the steps, I realized that this day was the last day I would climb into the pulpit as pastor.  During the announcements, when I asked the small crowd to bear with me if I got emotional, I teared up.  Once the liturgy got going I was fine.  While there are many who decry the liturgy, I find great comfort in it.  This day the familiarity acted like a friend walking with me through grief.  I didn't shed one tear as I preached and we sang and prayed together.  Until we came to the Eucharist, of course.  There I saw the families whom I would not commune again as pastor.  I would not stand again behind that rail to proclaim gracious gospel words "The Body of Christ given for you." When it came time for me to commune with the worship assistant and acolytes, tears could not be held back any longer.  I sobbed.

Body and blood met me graciously.  I wanted to do nothing but cling to them as long as I could, knowing the service would all too soon after that meal.  And at some point my mind, in its emotional state, made a connection between the incarnation and ministry. God the Father didn't just use an ephemeral spirit when humanity needed saving.  God sent Jesus to dwell in flesh, to live with us as one of us.  God doesn't use some disembodied persona to serve congregations either.  As imperfect as we are, pastors are flesh and blood creatures who form deep and abiding relationships with the people in our congregations. 

Pastoral ministry is inherently incarnational. The people whom I served wanted me to do those last few pastoral tasks not because I was somehow special. They wanted me to do those tasks, baptizing and communing them because I was a particular embodiment of the gospel for them.  I was the one they had to come to know who spoke the gospel.  It was not mere sentimentality that had them wanting me to do these things before I left.  The pastor builds a relationship with the people over the years of service, and this relationship is rooted in the relationship that Christ forms with us in the incarnation.

While it was a challenge for me, and no service would have been easy as my last, I found that Christmas was an incredibly appropriate day as my last.  I am thankful for my time at St. Paul and the relationships we shared there.  I am also thankful for the relationship begun in and by Christ that is an embodied relationship because he was incarnate.

The Decorated Pastor... like a gingerbread house

Unfortunately I forgot my recorder yesterday so I did not get my sermon recorded, but something else happened.  The leader of the youth group asked if I would come to the meeting since it would be my last opportunity.  I agreed and then she told me to wear something I wouldn't mind getting messy.  I was thinking paint, maybe a pie in the face.  Nope. 

I have heard of people who were decorated.  People of distinction in various arenas.  Now I can say that I too have been decorated.  The youth group decorated me like a big gingerbread house.  As a farewell, I am pretty sure it will be one of, if not the most memorable farewell.  The youth had a blast.  I am sure they will remember it for much of their lives.  After all, it isn't every night when they get to cover their pastor's face in icing. (NOTE: in the event that you think this might be something you'd like to do, a word of caution... After a few minutes, my eyes were starting to be irritated by the icing.  A little burn was developing.  Buy a cheap pair of swim goggles and decorate around/over them.)

Here are a couple of videos that were taken.  In the first one, the youth were trying to erect the gingerbread house on my face. In the second, they had given up and just went to smearing my face and hair with icing and candy decoration.





After I went and cleaned up from this, they also sat down with me to give me a book of photos and comments.  In the end, I cried. A wonderful evening with them.

Smashing Ice with Rob Bell

Back on Nov. 25, I saw Rob Bell in Pittsburgh for his "Fit to Smash Ice" Tour.  I had seen some of his stuff online and on DVD.  I had never read any of his books, although Love Wins is sitting on my shelf in my reading queue.  I went partly to experience him live and continue to feel out what his draw is.  I wanted to see what his delivery was like and what sort of people came out to see him.  I am not a fan per se, but I do think he gets some things brilliantly right even though he gets some things just as wrong.  And here he was in Pittsburgh on the night after Thanksgiving when I would be at my parents' house just north of Pittsburgh.  My wife and I could attend and we would have free babysitting.  So we went.

The crowd was small compared to the hall we were in.  The Carnegie Library Music Hall in Munhall, PA is a medium-size hall, but the crowd only filled about half of the lower level.  Mostly everyone was young and white, although a few older couples were there... older even than my wife and I. It seemed like a church group was in attendance since one couple (coincidentally the only African-American couple, I think) walked in close to the beginning and half of the people in front of us all waved and greeted them.  A group of four young folk in the row in front of me had note paper out.  One young man had even separated his paper into three areas: inspire, offend, confuse.  The young woman next to him just wrote almost constantly during the time.

2nd Sunday of Advent -- Good Beginnings

Reading:

Mark 1:1-8

We read the beginning of Mark's gospel as he sets the stage for the story of Jesus, who is himself the good news. 

An excerpt:

This story is meant from its outset to pull its readers and listeners into it… The story is clearly bigger than itself.  We might mistake the opening verse as nothing more than an introductory verse if we translate it as “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  We are so familiar with “gospel” as a literary genre, we might forget that at its heart the word means “good news.”  And we need to get rid of the “about Jesus Christ.”  Those six Greek words require some interpretation… but to pull us into the story, the good news can’t just be “about” Jesus the Messiah.  And one way to interpret and translate those words is to read it “The good news who IS Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  The good news is precisely Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God is on the scene.  

Read it here. 

Or listen to it. 

    

    
  
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1st Sunday of Advent -- Apocalypse and Revelation

Reading:
Mark 13: 24-37
Advent is a season to ponder Christ's return in glory.  No longer hidden, Christ's glory will be revealed for all to see.

Unfortunately I had no manuscript for this sermon.  I just went off of some notes, so here it is to listen to.

   

   
   
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Scooby-Doo, Monsters and Real Life

A friend of  mine, Ralph Hanson, shared a link on Facebook to an incredibly interesting column over at the Comics Alliance.  In the column, Chris Sims answers questions weekly.  Last Friday he was asked, "Q: On Scooby-Doo, do you prefer the monsters to be real or people in costumes? -- @heythisisbrian"

 Chris' answer is fascinatingly brilliant.  In short, he says that the monsters on Scooby-Doo must be people masquerading as monsters because the world is full of bad people who lie to kids using superstition to scare them.  Scooby Doo teaches them that the best thing to do in the face of fear from superstition is to think. 

Nativity Sets: The good, the bad, the kitschy

Ok... no good ones... but over at Mark Oestreicher's blog, he posted his list of the 27 worst nativity sets he has found.  They are amazingly bad. 

One person's comments showed a Star Wars nativity set... it is fantastic. Wrong but fantastic.

The bacon/sausage one is clearly my favorite.

Thanksgiving Service 2011 -- Praise and Thanksgiving

Reading:
Luke 17:11-19
The story of Jesus healing the ten lepers, but only the Samaritan returning is often used as a morality lesson for giving thanks.  The story though is more about Jesus' identity.  Our praise and thanksgiving is rooted in that identity.

Listen to it.
   

   
   
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Christ the King Sunday -- Power and Rulers

The text from Ezekiel 34 has the Lord railing against the leaders of Israel for their selfish outlook.  Jesus echoes the refrain of judgment as he tags the leaders of the nations for their treatment of the "least of these."  

Here is an excerpt:

The bigwigs in Israel are clearly not looking out for the best of all but just themselves.  Now I realize that much of the discussion so far has been of rich and poor, rather than dealing with rulers… and Ezekiel is dealing with rulers… but one of the stark realities that the Occupy movement is attempting to bring to light is precisely the notion that money is power.  The Supreme Court has ruled that campaign contributions are protected free speech.  Today to be rich is to wield power that most of us have no access to.  Ezekiel’s opening of chapter 34 is a brief theological summary of politics.  Those who wield political power is an opportunity to exercise righteousness.  They can be a part of ordering a community that is based on mutual love.  But in the end they reject that opportunity and seek their own good.  And the sheep are then subject to forces that treat them as prey.  The flock scatters. 

Or read it here. 

Or listen to it. 

   

   
   
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22nd Sunday after Pentecost -- The Joy of the Kingdom

I'm a little behind on posting this sermon, I know.  But here it is. 

In telling the parable of the talents, Jesus nears the end of his eschatological discourse.  Here he focuses on judgment and narrow thinking of one servant.  The servant thinks from a scarcity viewpoint.  The life of a disciple is one of joy, Jesus teaches us.  And there is more joy to come. 

An exccerpt from my sermon:

The focal point for Jesus is the perspective the servants have toward the talents.  The third servant is afraid because of the view he has of the Master and the talent. For this servant, the talent could only be lost or used up.  The talent becomes then, not a gift, but a possession.  He views the talent through a lens of scarcity.  The other two servants on the other hand see the talents not as possessions, but as the gifts they were meant to be.  Securing the gifts would be to lose them.  These two servants then use the talents in that spirit… gifts that are meant to be given. 

Read the whole thing here. 

Or listen to it. 

   

   
   
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Final Things: Leaving a Call and Eschatology

So the word is out... I am leaving my call at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Morgantown, WV at the end of this calendar year and will be beginning a new call as the chaplain at the Lutheran University Center in Pittsburgh.  As the calendar goes this year, that means my last Sunday will be Christmas Day.  I begin January 1, 2012 a the campus ministry, although there is no service that day since the campuses around the chapel will not be in session.

I have been struck more by the things that are ending.  I keep running into "final things": the last newsletter, the last calendar review... soon it will be last Thanksgiving service then last midweek Advent service and sooner or later, last service.  I have been surprised by the grief.  While I am excited about the new possibility I am moving through lots of little deaths.  This congregation was my first call.  It was where I was formed as a pastor at least as much as seminary formed me.  This congregation is where my family was started.  My oldest was six months old when I began.  I now have three children, the youngest of which is almost 17 months. 

But I reflected on the upcoming readings for the lectionary... Christ the King and Advent... all eschatological readings that put these in a new context for me.  I wrote these reflections up as my final newsletter article...

Obedience and Scandal: Football, Military, Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian made a connection in the life of faith between believing and obeying.  To believe is to obey. To obey is to believe.  There is an inherent trust in the act of obedience.  The practices and habits of developing the virtue of obedience will also likely tie people very closely to the ideals of the organization but also to the structure of the organization itself.

There are a number of organizations that seek to develop obedience.  This has become clearest unfortunately in the aftermath of scandals.  The church, the military and football programs, most recently and horribly at Penn State University.  These organizations seek to develop obedience because trust or faith are important aspects of the life of these organizations.

The church seeks to develop obedience to God and this can hardly be accomplished without some structure around it.  Whether there is a distinct authoritative structure or a less authoritative structure, as people develop their obedience to God, they become enmeshed in the structure itself.

The military seeks to develop obedience so that the organization may move smoothly even in times of great stress and crisis.

College football programs seek to develop obedience so the players will perform at an incredibly high level.  People I have spoken with who have played top level college football say that in those programs the coach's word is akin to the word of God.

I have pondered the situation at Penn State, and have been surrounded by the sex abuse scandal in churches (when I was serving my internship, I ended up going to court to support a refugee member of the congregation and it happened to be the same day that the John Geoghan was having one of his first hearings in the Cambridge courthouse).  I am convinced that the issue is our understanding of authority.  Clearly the priests who abuse children, as well as Jerry Sandusky allegedly, have misunderstood their authority and taken advantage of it.  But what about Joe Paterno?

I had been placing his failure to do more in the light of hearing allegations from a graduate assistant/former player who said something about a close friend he has known for quite a while.  Joe reported what he needed to and nothing more.  It boggles all of our minds as to why Joe did not do more.  Part of it might be due to his friendship with Sandusky, but I think there is more, but not necessarily with any nefarious intent on Joe's part.

Joe served Penn State for decades in a position where he wielded incredible authority.  If football coaches speak with a god's authority, then Joe has existed in a position where he does not wonder if people will do what needs to be done.  They just do it.  I have heard of tales where Joe was able to bar then President Spanier from the locker room and the board backed him up.  Joe speaks and players, coaches, and just about everybody else listen.

Except of course the administrators who are not part of such an environment where obedience is unquestioned.  They are less worried about obedience and try to cover up any scandal so the school is not tarnished.  Many steps were taken but not proper ones.  The administrators misunderstood their authority to be a subordinate authority to the government and believed they could save the school's reputation.  If they understood their authority properly they would have hopefully done what was required.  They mistook their authority to be greater than what it was and in the end the institution was rocked by a far greater scandal and they are going to pay a price as well.

None of this reflection should be understood as an excuse for the inaction by Joe or the cover-up by the administration, campus police and likely others.  There is surely something to be learned here for organizations that exist with structures of authority and obedience.  Soldiers cannot simply rely on "we were just following orders" anymore.  Football coaches and priests cannot understand their authority outside of the particular relationship each holds with its institution.  And when their institution must interact with others who do not hold such a high view of obedience and authority, they must not take for granted that everyone will share the same perspective.

All in all, the authority of any human being cannot own the obedience of any other when it seeks to thwart justice.  In the end, while many questions have been raised and much needed conversation will take place, not everyone will receive the appropriate human justice.  We can trust that God's authority will eventually be heeded when judgment is executed. 

In the meantime, I will pray for all involved: the Penn State community, the perpetrators and the victims.