Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Jesus, Justice, Jazz UNofficial Blog
I have set up the UNofficial blog for the New Orleans youth gathering and have invited several "on the ground" authors as contributors. While this page will feature some of our group's adventures, the other blog (http://jjj09.blogspot.com/) will hopefully give a variety of perspectives from authors from around the country.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Blog, Tweet, Pray: New Orleans Youth Gathering
Our contingent from Bethlehem will be joining about 37,000 other youth and adults from around the nation in New Orleans for the National Lutheran Youth Gathering. The theme this year is Jesus, Justice, Jazz.
You can follow along (virtually) in a couple of different ways:
1. I hope to post at least a few blog posts here on this site (http://7daydevos.blogspot.com/).
2. You can also follow the Twitter stream on Twitter (username: houseofbread) or in the right hand sidebar of the same site (http://7daydevos.blogspot.com/).
3. The Facebook Page (search for Bethlehem Lutheran Church) should also capture these feeds as status updates.
4. No promises, but I might be able to upload pictures or audio.
5. This should really be #1: Please pray for all attending this Gathering, that we all might grow in what it means to walk in the way of Jesus.
You can follow along (virtually) in a couple of different ways:
1. I hope to post at least a few blog posts here on this site (http://7daydevos.blogspot.com/).
2. You can also follow the Twitter stream on Twitter (username: houseofbread) or in the right hand sidebar of the same site (http://7daydevos.blogspot.com/).
3. The Facebook Page (search for Bethlehem Lutheran Church) should also capture these feeds as status updates.
4. No promises, but I might be able to upload pictures or audio.
5. This should really be #1: Please pray for all attending this Gathering, that we all might grow in what it means to walk in the way of Jesus.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Levitcus 25 and Matthew 18: Jubilee and Forgiveness
In my morning prayers this past week I was reading through the last chapters of Leviticus. Chapter 25 has always been one of my favorites, with its detailed description of the Year of Jubilee. This was a "sabbath of sabbaths," the great 50th year following the sabbath of sabbath years (7 x 7). The emphasis of this Jubilee seems to be the return of everything back to how God intended it. Land is returned, relationships are restored, etc. It is a literal enactment, though perhaps only a taste, of the final Day of the Lord where God will be all in all.
The Jubilee Year got me to thinking about forgiveness. In Matthew 18:21-22 Saint Peter asks our Lord Jesus how often he should do this forgiveness thing. Some translations give Jesus' answer as: "77 times." I once heard someone say: "Anyone who has been married for more than a year has already hit that number!" A better translation is the more difficult 70 times 7, pointing us not just to 490 times (still keeping track!) but to an impossibly perfect number. If seven is the number of perfection, then 70 times 7 points us to perfection squared... and then some. In other words, something like the Year of Jubilee. Perhaps even a Jubilee of Jubilees.
The emphasis seems to be not just on "keep forgiving" (although that is certainly the point too), but on forgiveness as the main thing, the central thing, forgiveness as a way of life, forgiveness as God's intentions for the whole creation. In choosing to forgive, we choose not just a set number of times (How many times as a parent have I begun my threats with "Next time..."?), but to enter into a pattern, a way of life, a Jubilee year that points us toward God and to God's final plan for the fullness of time.
In other words, when we forgive like God forgives, we walk on holy ground, we glimpse and taste the Divine.
Want to read more? See the verses that follow: Matthew 18:23-35.
The Jubilee Year got me to thinking about forgiveness. In Matthew 18:21-22 Saint Peter asks our Lord Jesus how often he should do this forgiveness thing. Some translations give Jesus' answer as: "77 times." I once heard someone say: "Anyone who has been married for more than a year has already hit that number!" A better translation is the more difficult 70 times 7, pointing us not just to 490 times (still keeping track!) but to an impossibly perfect number. If seven is the number of perfection, then 70 times 7 points us to perfection squared... and then some. In other words, something like the Year of Jubilee. Perhaps even a Jubilee of Jubilees.
The emphasis seems to be not just on "keep forgiving" (although that is certainly the point too), but on forgiveness as the main thing, the central thing, forgiveness as a way of life, forgiveness as God's intentions for the whole creation. In choosing to forgive, we choose not just a set number of times (How many times as a parent have I begun my threats with "Next time..."?), but to enter into a pattern, a way of life, a Jubilee year that points us toward God and to God's final plan for the fullness of time.
In other words, when we forgive like God forgives, we walk on holy ground, we glimpse and taste the Divine.
Want to read more? See the verses that follow: Matthew 18:23-35.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Forgiveness
Preaching Conference
The preaching conference (Poets, Prophets, Preachers) I attended early this week was outstanding. The only downside, I suspect, is that expectations are automatically raised when you go to one of these events. :) Perhaps by the grace of the Holy Spirit I'll be able to deliver.
Church at Cherry's
Join us for "Church at Cherry's," a series of theology discussions at Cherry's pub in town, hosted by Pastor Jim Miller and me. We begin this Tuesday with a discussion of the End Times. We'll continue on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of July and August (all at 7 pm).
Forgiveness
This week I'd like us to begin to think about and practice forgiveness.
Sometimes the best thing I can do as a pastor is direct you to someone who teaches/preaches better than I do on a given subject. So... rather than give you a long series of written reflections on the topic, I suggest you listen to Pastor Rob Bell's June series on the subject of forgiveness. I think he does an outstanding job. Simply go to the the Mars Hill Teaching Page and click on each of the titles (also listed below) to listen to the audio. You can also subscribe to the podcast via iTunes if you are into that kind of thing.
06.28.09: It Stops Here! - Rob Bell
06.21.09: Tortured By Books - Rob Bell
06.14.09: Drop the Jawbone - Rob Bell
May the Forgiving God who loves you and restores you in Jesus Christ begin to work that forgiving love in you.
The preaching conference (Poets, Prophets, Preachers) I attended early this week was outstanding. The only downside, I suspect, is that expectations are automatically raised when you go to one of these events. :) Perhaps by the grace of the Holy Spirit I'll be able to deliver.
Church at Cherry's
Join us for "Church at Cherry's," a series of theology discussions at Cherry's pub in town, hosted by Pastor Jim Miller and me. We begin this Tuesday with a discussion of the End Times. We'll continue on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of July and August (all at 7 pm).
Forgiveness
This week I'd like us to begin to think about and practice forgiveness.
Sometimes the best thing I can do as a pastor is direct you to someone who teaches/preaches better than I do on a given subject. So... rather than give you a long series of written reflections on the topic, I suggest you listen to Pastor Rob Bell's June series on the subject of forgiveness. I think he does an outstanding job. Simply go to the the Mars Hill Teaching Page and click on each of the titles (also listed below) to listen to the audio. You can also subscribe to the podcast via iTunes if you are into that kind of thing.
06.28.09: It Stops Here! - Rob Bell
06.21.09: Tortured By Books - Rob Bell
06.14.09: Drop the Jawbone - Rob Bell
May the Forgiving God who loves you and restores you in Jesus Christ begin to work that forgiving love in you.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Haiku for Herod's Banquet
This coming weekend we will hear the gruesome telling of the story of the beheading of John the Baptist in Mark 6:14-29. It is a tough text to wrestle with. I think it is best understood in its juxtaposition with the Feeding of the 5,000 in the verses that follow it (Which we will hear about for the next six weeks in Mark 6 and John 6). The implicit question seems to be: Do you want to go to this (Herod's) meal that ends in death, beheading and love of self... or do you want to feast with Jesus, at his banquet, that ends in life, where there is food for all?
I offer this Haiku as a meditation on the text.
Herod's Birthday Feast
Quickly descends: gruesome death
Contrast Jesus' Meal
[Image (c) 2009, used with permission, Augsburg Fortress Liturgies, annual license #20800]
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Technology and Faith
I just finished reading Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps last week, in preparation for a preaching workshop I will be attending in July. The first several chapters were review for me, but the last 2/3rds were helpful and insightful reflections on what technology is doing to us--especially if we are not paying attention.
I have ventured into Facebook Land and am even on Twitter. I own a cell phone (prepaid), but am no texting champion.
One of Hipps' central arguments is that the medium and the message are inseparable. In other words, what we are watching on TV is not as important as the fact that we are watching TV and what TV, as a medium, is doing as it shapes our brain and how it receives information.
His argument has enormous implications for preaching and worship.
What are your thoughts on technology and faith?
I have ventured into Facebook Land and am even on Twitter. I own a cell phone (prepaid), but am no texting champion.
One of Hipps' central arguments is that the medium and the message are inseparable. In other words, what we are watching on TV is not as important as the fact that we are watching TV and what TV, as a medium, is doing as it shapes our brain and how it receives information.
His argument has enormous implications for preaching and worship.
What are your thoughts on technology and faith?
Monday, June 15, 2009
Children
This week is Vacation Bible School for us, so I'd like to consider children as our topic for this week.
Our culture is a bit neurotic when it comes to children. On the one hand, we try to protect them and indulge them, often in ways that are completely over the top. On the other hand, we still want them to be "seen and not heard" and present a most unwelcome posture toward them in certain places and spaces.
But rather than consider what we think about children, what does God think about children?
Children Show Us the Unity of God
Did you ever wonder about the deeper meaning of the Scripture that says that "the two shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5)? We often call to mind the physical coming together of a husband and wife in marital intercourse, but the "one flesh" also points us to the fruit of this act: children, literally the "one flesh in person" from the two. A child gets literally half of her DNA from her father and half from her mother.
The same word is used in this "one-ness" that is the fruit of marriage and the oneness that is internal to God. In John 10:30 and 17:11, Jesus says that he and the Father are "one," using the same word. In a wonderful and beautiful way, children in their very being, show us the "oneness" of God. And, of course, as human creatures we all bear God's image (Genesis 1:26-27).
Children Show Us Faithful Dependence
Children are utterly dependent on their parents and other caregivers. They remind us that it is God who gives us our daily bread, our breath of life, that we live only by God's gracious care and provision.
Children Show Us How to Be Present
Have you ever noticed how children--especially small children--get from point A to B? Answer: With lots of little stops along the way: pick the flower, watch the squirrel, laugh at the breeze.
Children Show Forth the Resurrection
Some of the first Christians also saw in children a foreshadowing, a "type" of the Resurrection. For children usually outlive their parents, they "continue" the live of their parents in their own lives. They "live beyond death," our death. And in this way they are literally hope incarnate. In their very being they show forth and remind us of the promise we have in Christ for Resurrection, for new life!
Jesus' words to the children, of course, are a word of welcome: Let the little children come to me! (Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16).
Terms: "Children" vs. "Kids"
One final word about what we call our children...
A Mennonite pamphlet I read raised this issue and I think it is worth consideration, because how we name others shows, to a large extent, how we regard them. Do we call children "children" or do we call them "kids"?
I would venture to guess that most of us refer to children as "kids." I have tried to make it a personal discipline to use the word "children" instead--at least as often as I remember to. I find it to be, on the whole, more honoring to children. "Kids" carries with it at least a slightly negative tone, as in "kids these days," where the word "children" conveys a mix of innocence and vulnerability.
May we tend to our children, who are God's children, in a way that is honoring to our Creator. And may we see in them the life that God intends for us all.
Our culture is a bit neurotic when it comes to children. On the one hand, we try to protect them and indulge them, often in ways that are completely over the top. On the other hand, we still want them to be "seen and not heard" and present a most unwelcome posture toward them in certain places and spaces.
But rather than consider what we think about children, what does God think about children?
Children Show Us the Unity of God
Did you ever wonder about the deeper meaning of the Scripture that says that "the two shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5)? We often call to mind the physical coming together of a husband and wife in marital intercourse, but the "one flesh" also points us to the fruit of this act: children, literally the "one flesh in person" from the two. A child gets literally half of her DNA from her father and half from her mother.
The same word is used in this "one-ness" that is the fruit of marriage and the oneness that is internal to God. In John 10:30 and 17:11, Jesus says that he and the Father are "one," using the same word. In a wonderful and beautiful way, children in their very being, show us the "oneness" of God. And, of course, as human creatures we all bear God's image (Genesis 1:26-27).
Children Show Us Faithful Dependence
Children are utterly dependent on their parents and other caregivers. They remind us that it is God who gives us our daily bread, our breath of life, that we live only by God's gracious care and provision.
Children Show Us How to Be Present
Have you ever noticed how children--especially small children--get from point A to B? Answer: With lots of little stops along the way: pick the flower, watch the squirrel, laugh at the breeze.
Children Show Forth the Resurrection
Some of the first Christians also saw in children a foreshadowing, a "type" of the Resurrection. For children usually outlive their parents, they "continue" the live of their parents in their own lives. They "live beyond death," our death. And in this way they are literally hope incarnate. In their very being they show forth and remind us of the promise we have in Christ for Resurrection, for new life!
Jesus' words to the children, of course, are a word of welcome: Let the little children come to me! (Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16).
Terms: "Children" vs. "Kids"
One final word about what we call our children...
A Mennonite pamphlet I read raised this issue and I think it is worth consideration, because how we name others shows, to a large extent, how we regard them. Do we call children "children" or do we call them "kids"?
I would venture to guess that most of us refer to children as "kids." I have tried to make it a personal discipline to use the word "children" instead--at least as often as I remember to. I find it to be, on the whole, more honoring to children. "Kids" carries with it at least a slightly negative tone, as in "kids these days," where the word "children" conveys a mix of innocence and vulnerability.
May we tend to our children, who are God's children, in a way that is honoring to our Creator. And may we see in them the life that God intends for us all.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The Lectionary
By the way, our website is back up and running, virus clean! So browse on!
The Lectionary
Just where do we get the Sunday readings? And why? The Lutheran Church, along with Roman Catholics and many Protestant denominations, all follow the Revised Common Lectionary or something very close to it.This three-year cycle of readings is meant to expose us to a broad sweep of the Holy Scriptures.
[It has actually been proven that Christians that attend churches that use some form of a Lectionary get a broader exposure to more of the Bible in worship than those that attend churches where the Pastor selects the Scripture each Sunday. However, the other side of this argument is that in many non-lectionary churches, members participate more extensively in Bible study and Sunday school, an area in which we as Lutherans could stand to grow.]
From the earliest days, Christians followed a pattern of readings, a pattern we inherited from our Jewish forebears. The Revised Common Lectionary was developed to meet the desires of many Christians (and God: see John 17) to be "one" with their brothers and sisters in Christ.
But how does the lectionary work? And what will we be hearing for the next several months?
The lectionary is divided up into three years. We are in Year B, the year of Mark (Year A is Matthew, Year C is Luke), so most of the Gospel readings are drawn from St. Mark's Gospel, although we will occasionally hear from John's Gospel since Mark's is the shortest gospel.
To understand how the readings fit together, think of a periscope and how it uses several mirrors bouncing light so that the person in the submarine can see what is on the surface. The first thing that is "reflected" is the Gospel. The Old Testament reading (which we confess proclaims Christ as much as the New Testament does) "reflects" the Gospel reading, echoing and reflecting backs its central themes. Then the Psalm "sings back" or reflects the Old Testament reading. The Epistle (New Testament letter) reading is the odd man out. Usually, the Epistle reading follows a continuous pattern of reading through parts of a New Testament letter over several weeks or months.
The Light, of course, that is reflected in the whole Bible (Luke 24:44) is Christ our God.
So... from now until the end of November, the Gospel readings will be drawn from St. Mark's Gospel, primarily chapters 4-13 (we got chapters 1-3 during Advent and Christmas and 14-16 during Lent and Easter, coinciding with these seasons). We get a treat this year with readings from the 6th chapter of St. John's Gospel for 5 weeks this summer (7/26-8/23). This is the famous "Bread of Life" discourse and speaks deeply about Holy Communion and how Jesus is, quite literally our Bread. The Old Testament readings will reflect the Gospel themes and then the Psalms will "sing back" to us those same themes, reflecting and amplifying both the Old Testament reading and the Gospel. It's Jesus, three times amplified!
In the New Testament letters, we will hear from 2 Corinthians (6/14-7/5), a wonderful letter to a troubled Church. Next we will be treated to Ephesians (7/12-8/23), a wonderful letter about what it means to be the church. Finally, the letter of James (8/30-9/27) and the letter to the Hebrews will round out the year (10/4-11/15).
The lectionary can be confusing, but I prefer to think of it like a rich banquet, a "three year banquet" as a book I recently read suggests. Come and feast!
Online and Adult Education
I am hoping to post sermons online from the last several weeks. I have a backlog of those and some Sunday school teachings. In the meantime, I'd like to invite you to try to the new calendar feature on our website and to consider attending one of our summer Sunday school courses for adults. We will study "Poverty and the Poor in the Bible" from June 14 - July 5 and the book of Ephesians from July 12 - August 23.
The Lectionary
Just where do we get the Sunday readings? And why? The Lutheran Church, along with Roman Catholics and many Protestant denominations, all follow the Revised Common Lectionary or something very close to it.This three-year cycle of readings is meant to expose us to a broad sweep of the Holy Scriptures.
[It has actually been proven that Christians that attend churches that use some form of a Lectionary get a broader exposure to more of the Bible in worship than those that attend churches where the Pastor selects the Scripture each Sunday. However, the other side of this argument is that in many non-lectionary churches, members participate more extensively in Bible study and Sunday school, an area in which we as Lutherans could stand to grow.]
From the earliest days, Christians followed a pattern of readings, a pattern we inherited from our Jewish forebears. The Revised Common Lectionary was developed to meet the desires of many Christians (and God: see John 17) to be "one" with their brothers and sisters in Christ.
But how does the lectionary work? And what will we be hearing for the next several months?
The lectionary is divided up into three years. We are in Year B, the year of Mark (Year A is Matthew, Year C is Luke), so most of the Gospel readings are drawn from St. Mark's Gospel, although we will occasionally hear from John's Gospel since Mark's is the shortest gospel.
To understand how the readings fit together, think of a periscope and how it uses several mirrors bouncing light so that the person in the submarine can see what is on the surface. The first thing that is "reflected" is the Gospel. The Old Testament reading (which we confess proclaims Christ as much as the New Testament does) "reflects" the Gospel reading, echoing and reflecting backs its central themes. Then the Psalm "sings back" or reflects the Old Testament reading. The Epistle (New Testament letter) reading is the odd man out. Usually, the Epistle reading follows a continuous pattern of reading through parts of a New Testament letter over several weeks or months.
The Light, of course, that is reflected in the whole Bible (Luke 24:44) is Christ our God.
So... from now until the end of November, the Gospel readings will be drawn from St. Mark's Gospel, primarily chapters 4-13 (we got chapters 1-3 during Advent and Christmas and 14-16 during Lent and Easter, coinciding with these seasons). We get a treat this year with readings from the 6th chapter of St. John's Gospel for 5 weeks this summer (7/26-8/23). This is the famous "Bread of Life" discourse and speaks deeply about Holy Communion and how Jesus is, quite literally our Bread. The Old Testament readings will reflect the Gospel themes and then the Psalms will "sing back" to us those same themes, reflecting and amplifying both the Old Testament reading and the Gospel. It's Jesus, three times amplified!
In the New Testament letters, we will hear from 2 Corinthians (6/14-7/5), a wonderful letter to a troubled Church. Next we will be treated to Ephesians (7/12-8/23), a wonderful letter about what it means to be the church. Finally, the letter of James (8/30-9/27) and the letter to the Hebrews will round out the year (10/4-11/15).
The lectionary can be confusing, but I prefer to think of it like a rich banquet, a "three year banquet" as a book I recently read suggests. Come and feast!
Online and Adult Education
I am hoping to post sermons online from the last several weeks. I have a backlog of those and some Sunday school teachings. In the meantime, I'd like to invite you to try to the new calendar feature on our website and to consider attending one of our summer Sunday school courses for adults. We will study "Poverty and the Poor in the Bible" from June 14 - July 5 and the book of Ephesians from July 12 - August 23.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Ordinary, Green
If my liturgical calculations are correct, we are now officially fully in "ordinary" time (affectionally known also as "the long green season") in the church's year. This makes almost fully one half of the year and will stretch to the celebration of Christ the King at the end of November. Occasionally it is interrupted--in a good way, in my estimation--by a Saint's Day (cf. St. Luke on October 18), but for the most part we get a continuous string of readings from the Gospel of Mark (and John in late summer) and from the New Testament letters. Personally I'm looking forward to the six or so weeks we are in the Letter to the Ephesians beginning July 12.
Ordinary?
This time after Pentecost (used to be "time after Trinity") is called "ordinary" time because of the numbers used to count these Sundays after Pentecost: ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). However, in recent years I've been increasingly convinced that the "ordinariness" of the time makes "ordinary" time a quite appropriate name. For it is in the ordinary, daily lives that our faith in Christ and his redeeming work is lived out. It is the everyday, the humdrum, the ordinary that we encounter the God who is beyond our comprehension.
Green!
Green is the color of this new season. In Rublev's icon of the Visitation of Abraham (above), the angel that suggests the Holy Spirit (right side) is clothed (mostly) in green. For the Holy Spirit is "the Lord, the giver of life," as we confess in the Creed. And so the color the church has chosen for this time is green: the color of growth and new life. I also love that this time of the church year largely concides with the "green" agricultural seasons. Our garden is in and I look forward each day to seeing new growth.
Blessings to you all this green, ordinary time.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Pen to Paper
First, I've changed to the name of this blog (slightly) from "Pastor Matt's Musings" to "Pastor Matt's Meditations." This seems fitting. While I enjoy the work and role of the muse, in Ancient Greek thought they were considered the source of knowledge, spirits that inspired the creation of literature and the arts. And while I love the creative gifts I have been given by the Holy Spirit, I think the vocation of pastor is more one of meditation, of a disciplined turning of our attention to something other than ourselves, something outside of ourselves. It is the hard work of being attentive to the Triune God.
While I reserve the right to "muse" on occasion, I hope what you will find here most weeks are meditations.
Early this Resurrection Day morning I'd like to reflect on the good old handwritten letter. Yesterday I purchased something I don't purchase much anymore: stamps. (Are they really almost 50 cents?!) I like chosing stamps with care, and this is partly because I am have a high regard for the handwritten letter.
Like you, most mail I get consists of catalogs, magazines, bills and "preformatted" mail of various kinds: credit card offers and the weekly ad circular. I rejoice, however, every time I get a hand-written envelope. Perhaps it is because they have become so rare. Perhaps it is because they have a "weight" to them that ephemeral email messages do not. Perhaps we are tactile creatures deep in our DNA.
The main reason I love handwritten letters is that they are personal. They are not the same letter copied over and over again and sent out to everyone in town. Instead they come addressed and intended for us personally.
In a world that has mass-produced and mass-marketed just about everything, the handwritten letter is a breath of fresh air.
While I reserve the right to "muse" on occasion, I hope what you will find here most weeks are meditations.
+
Early this Resurrection Day morning I'd like to reflect on the good old handwritten letter. Yesterday I purchased something I don't purchase much anymore: stamps. (Are they really almost 50 cents?!) I like chosing stamps with care, and this is partly because I am have a high regard for the handwritten letter.
Like you, most mail I get consists of catalogs, magazines, bills and "preformatted" mail of various kinds: credit card offers and the weekly ad circular. I rejoice, however, every time I get a hand-written envelope. Perhaps it is because they have become so rare. Perhaps it is because they have a "weight" to them that ephemeral email messages do not. Perhaps we are tactile creatures deep in our DNA.
The main reason I love handwritten letters is that they are personal. They are not the same letter copied over and over again and sent out to everyone in town. Instead they come addressed and intended for us personally.
In a world that has mass-produced and mass-marketed just about everything, the handwritten letter is a breath of fresh air.
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