METEOR SHOWER

Around three o’clock on Monday morning, I couldn’t wait any longer. When I went to bed the night before it was raining furiously, but the weather forecast said that by 3 a.m. the sky would be clear.
So I got up and went over to the window facing east to see if the stars were out. The weatherman was right. The skies were clear, and the stars sparkled brilliantly.
I knelt on the love seat so I could stare out the window, but after a few minutes of watching for a shooting star, my neck started to hurt, and I had to decide whether to get serious or get back into bed.
Just as I was about to give up my heavenly quest, I saw one. It was a thin but long downward streak in the eastern sky. Unlike other times when I had sat under summer skies watching, this one was clearly a shooting star. No doubt about it.
So, instead of getting back into my snug bed, I found my bathrobe and headed down to the kitchen to pursue more miraculous visions.
The sliding glass doors were clean and clear, and they faced eastward, but the Christmas lights from the front of the house reflected clearly against the window, forcing me to take a daring step. I turned around a kitchen chair and opened the door. I knew that it was below freezing outdoors, but now I could gaze directly into the clear evening sky.
In the silence I waited, slowly turning my head from side to side just in case a meteorite strayed from its appointed location. I wondered to myself about how wonderful it was to be able to see these marvelous streaks of light coming predictably on the same day each year. Suddenly there was another. This one was a thick and short streak, like an accent mark or apostrophe angling down from right to left, like a teacher’s check mark on a test, but without the bottom part.
I wondered some more. These shooting stars were like “mini-miracles” coming into view, but only visible to those who had the patience and warm clothing to witness their brief visit to our world.
In the distance I heard a sound. The oil burner was going on. Of course, after all the glass doors were letting cold air in. Another streak, another “miracle” I thought. Then I hear the refrigerator go on. I suppose that happens often, but most of the time nobody notices. Then another streak, and then another. What a miraculous night this was turning out to be!
I saw the lights of a plane in the distance. People were going from somewhere to somewhere else, each with his or her own itinerary, traveling perhaps thousands of miles in a matter of just a few hours.
As I began to feel the chilling sir, all of a sudden I had a remarkable insight. Here I was, shivering on a December’s night to watch streaks of light in the sky as though they were some sort of miracle, but all around me were these things that were incredibly made, even by human hands, which no one pays too much attention to. Meteorites exist only for the second it takes for them to flare through the sky. Then they are no more. My refrigerator has been faithfully serving our family for twenty years, and that oil burner warms our whole house, I never gave them a second thought. And that jet in sky? I marvel that birds can fly, much less people. Aren’t these also true wonders which God mysteriously provides for us?
I’m glad I saw some shooting stars that night. It was probably my best shower-watching night ever. But what I discovered in the simple sounds and the sights of the night was much greater. be able to see these marvellous just in case a meteorite strayed from its appointed location.

GETTING STARTED AT THE CWA

Today the bi-ennial churchwide assembly of the ELCA gets underway in Minneapolis. Over 1,000 "voting members" will spend a week deliberating over some important but non-controversial issues like helping relieve Malaria and HIV/AIDS by spending increasingly rare dollars for things governments ought to take responsibility for.

The really "prickly" issue relates to a Study on Human Sexuality that the ELCA has been working on since 1994.

Departing from classical Lutheran ethical categories such as Law and Gospel and the Orders of Creation, the statement focuses on sociological concepts such as "trust" as the guiding image.

This approach reveals the clear bias of the Church toward justifying the full acceptance of gays and lesbians in their roles as clergy.

Strong resistance to this statement has emerged, not only within the ELCA but also in sister churches belonging to the Lutheran World Federation, some of which are considering approaching the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to contemplate forming an international body willing to support the traditional teachings held by Lutherans for centuries.

What that means for the ELCA's future causes many of us traditional Lutheran pastors the jitters. We'll be watching the CWA carefully to see what future is in store for us all.

MEGAN'S MESSAGE

I enjoyed the ride home with Luke and Megan Sweeney. Although I've known them for several years, I don't think I've ever had that much time to talk with them and listen to them. That's one of the sad things about being a pastor in a relatively large church-- we spend time with people, but often don't get much of a chance to spend "quality time."



One of the things I enjoyed most about the ride was hearing from Megan what she got out of the event we were part of. Simply put, I learned that she really enjoyed hearing the stories that the speakers told each night.



It occurred to me later that she was picking up on one of the key elements of the four-night event. Every person has a story, and when they get a chance to tell their stories, you get a chance to share in their lives, and your life becomes fuller and richer as a result.



When preachers talk about "post-modernism," we are usually speaking negatively. One of the frustrating aspects of the way our contemporary world has become is that there is so little that really ties everything together. What we usually have is just "fragments," little pieces of life that may or may not be connected in any cohesive fashion. In fact, many times they actually contradict each other, making life even more confusing to us.



What Megan shared was important to me because it made me aware of the fact that there is a way of making some sense out of the disconnectedness of life we experience constantly. She listened to what people actually said, and she didn't feel compelled to tie everything together.



Maybe that is a good strategy for finding meaning in a world of randomness. Listen to what people are actually saying, and don't try to force everything into a meaningful whole. Of course that won't produce a comprehensive, cohesive "meta-story" that makes sense out of everything in creation, but that may be o.k. After all, every story is ultimately just a snippet of the larger story that we think of as God's Story.



So I will try to learn from Megan. I will try to learn how to listen better and to value the stories I hear for the sake of those who tell them. Later on some theme may emerge that ties things together, or maybe not. But the very act of telling one's story and hearing the stories others tell may be enough to make the "present moments" of our lives worthwhile.

THE FINAL 24

Literally speaking, it doesn't quite make 24 hours, but the title sounds good. The Gathering is now over, and I think we all agreed that the last 24 hours were the best part.

The Final Mass Gathering gave us a chance to be on the floor level, a goal every teen at the gathering seems to have. The music was familiar and when the program started, we had a visit from the Mayor of New Orleans who enthusiastically thanked us for lifting the spirit of his city. That brief speech was followed by Bishop Hanson's reading of a letter to the Gathering from President Barack Obama.

The evening program included several other speakers, one of whom was the author I read a year ago. He had a Christian message and told us that there is the "Evil One" who is at work in God's world trying to spoil what God created good. Others spoke, including a woman who told us she was told to speak about environmental issues but chose instead to focus on God our Creator. She believes that caring for the environment is ultimately a theological issue, not a political one.

Others spoke and their concerns were important, but one shared he regret that she grew up without any faith at all and wished she had what she saw present in the teens here.

There was a final singing group, the Katinas, who come from American Samoa. Their faith was clearly articulated in their songs.

In the morning we headed out to the Dome for the closing service. Again the music was familiar and clear. The Procession included many teens carrying the supplies and the equipment they used on servant days. The sermon was pretty good until the bishop started listing what he saw as "evils" in our world including racism which he said was caused by white power and privilege and religious extremism and fanaticism which he didn't further define.

Following the service we headed out to the French Quarter. Along the way we stopped at the boarded up entrance to the former Comfort Inn where I served as Hotel Life Pastor in 1997. Later we ran into Pastor Kathleen Koran who now serves as an Assistant to Bishop Rimbo. She was with the teens from her former church in Brewster.

The French Quarter was not very impressive to me. Much of it seemed so seedy that I felt embarrassed being there with the teens. Fortunately a brief shower came up and diverted our attention as we headed out toward Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant. After a waiting period we went into a room where a group from Massachusetts was having lunch before hitting the road for their 24 hour journey home.

Looking over the last 24 hours the theme seems to have been clear: "We can change the world—there is power in One." I wonder whether that is the point the teens got from the event. Changing the world CAN be good, but looking at the way change is coming about in our country these days, it's obvious that change isn't automatically good. Perhaps the better way to state the theme would be: "God is at work changing our world, and if we are willing, he will even change the world through us." Now that's the kind of change I can believe in.

Photo Album from Youth Gathering

I've published a photo album from the Youth Gathering on my Facebook Home Page. Check it out.

FINAL NIGHT

We left for the Dome at 4:15 so we could get a chance at floor seats. The crowd was large already and we waited about an hour before the doors opened. The boys came up with the idea of being an advance party like the Navy Seals, slipping into the Dome without having bags to check and groups to keep together.
They got through the crowd as we hoped, and found a row of seats right near the center of the floor, blocked on one side by the Production Booth.
So we were now "Conga-line accessible," a major triumph.
It doesn't get much better than this!

JUSTICE LESSON #1

Someone made an innocent mistake. She didn't realize that the wristbands were color-coded, or she simply forgot to ask, "Which team are you on?" It doesn't matter.

Her mistake went unnoticed for three days, but on the next to the last day of the Gathering, when the boys went to the "Early Restricted Session" at the Interaction Center, they learned a lesson about justice.

"You can't enter," the security guards said. "You have purple wrist bands, and today is the day for the Green Team's Early Restricted Session. Only green wrist bands can go in at 11 a.m."

The idea of giving each of the three colors their own three hour restricted session in the busy Interaction Center was a good one. For three hours our kids (and 12,000 of their closest team members) would have the full run of the place. The other 24,000 would have to wait till 2 p.m. to get in.

"But we are on the green team," James said. "No, you aren't because your wrist band is purple.," was the reply.

I was already about a half mile down the hall, just about to enter into a self-directed learning center when I got Laura's call asking me to intervene. She was waiting back at the Food Center with the girls until Megan got back from changing her shorts.

So off I went to see what could be done. Five minutes later I was there, pointing out to the Security People that obviously someone had made a mistake when handing out wristbands, and we didn't even realize there was a color code. Imagine being prevented from having what you had a right to have simply because of the color of your wrist!

We could have accepted their response and walked away. That would be a peaceful approach to the problem. But they realized that this was a matter of justice, and they waited for someone with a red shirt named Jermaine to come to hear them plead their case.

I must admit I was rather angry. This was not the first injustice we had encountered this week. On the first morning I went into the T-shirt distribution room with the two "Large" shirts we were given arbitrarily. Donna had realized we needed two "Extra Large" shirts and had tried to get an exchange only to be sent out to "negotiate" with people to trade them out. I took the shirts back to the same lady and told her what we needed, and when she told me to try what Donna had already tried, I told her I would simply stand there until I got the shirts I needed. We got the shirts exchanged.

This time I was there for the boys (and ultimately for the others as well). We told Jermaine that we had done our community service and the learning centers already and wanted to get in for the restricted session. I even offered to show her video on my camera from Thursday's outing. "I believe you," she said, and they let us in. Obviously someone had made a mistake and no one realized it until it mattered.

So what did we learn about justice? 1. Sometimes injustices occur because people make innocent mistakes. 2. Sometimes injustices are perpetuated by people who are simply trying to "do the right thing." 3. Sometimes force or the threat of force can intimidate people who are victims of injustice and deny them what they are due. 4. 5. Sometimes, if you know you are in the right, in order to rectify injustices you have to be willing to stand your ground. Sometimes injustices can be overcome without shedding blood.

No one planned such a lesson for us for today, but we did learn something from the experience.

BREAKFAST AT MOTHER'S
After the Agape-led rap worship service, we walked over from the Sheraton to Mother's Restaurant where they have the world's best ham. I had the Breakfast Special with ham, grits, biscuits, and scrambled eggs. They are a model of efficiency in serving tons of people. We're full and happy.

INTERVIEW

Click on the heading: "Interview" above, and then click on the lowest link on the left side from the "Lutheran Convention" for a clip featuring AJ from our group.

THE MAIN THING

To be honest, I must admit that the mass gatherings so far are a bit confusing to me. The music is loud, upbeat, and on-the-feet style music. The fireworks were exciting too.

The words of the songs were singing were on the screens all around us, and usually they were the same as what the leaders were singing, but the words of the special music was usually indecipherable, and the echoes complicated things a lot.

I realize that these comments make me sound like an old man, but this is my seventh youth gathering, so I do have some frame of reference for these comments.

In any case, what concerns me the most about these gatherings is the fact that I am still not so clear about what the "main thing" is so far. The speakers haven't said much that is really memorable, and each one seems to offer their own list of "to dos" that come rolling out one after another. Last night a woman dressed in beautiful African clothing told us that we should learn to dance, get married, have children, and teach them to dance. Nothing's wrong with that, but is that all one of CNN's Hero of the Year can offer 37,000 of us?

So I'm taking the advice she offered earlier in her address. I'm not going to "judge" others. But I will really keep listening, and hoping that eventually I'll figure out what the "Main Thing" is.

USE YOUR GIFT

Yesterday's work project was something of a learning experience for me.

We left the hotel for our trek to the Superdome, just a mile away, to meet up with the buses to take us out of the area to our outdoor activity. The City Park is one of the largest parks in the U.S. The football stadium a few hundreds of yards from where we got out was under water as high as the goal posts.

The area where food supplies are brought in has a new wood fence around it, Our assignment was to spend five hours priming the fence so it could be painted by others today.

We had about 20 people in that assignment area, so we took paint brushes and paint pints and were pointed toward the fence. As expected, each person just started painting.

I looked at the area where I was working and realizes that I didn't want to sit on the ground to paint the bottom part of the fence where I was. But Erica was already doing that, so I suggested that we team up. I would do the "up" part, and she would do the rest.

After making some adjustments so I wouldn't be adding white splotches to her golden hair, we moved along well. "You are short. You probably think at time that your height is a problem, but here it is a real gift," I said. "Use your gift."

About two hours later on, when we finished our six hour work project, the site manager asked us if we liked pulling weeds. I sat and watched as others leaned over to pull weeds out of the ground. I hydrated and observed how people would take handfuls of weeds about 100 feet to dump them in a dumpster.

I saw some large plastic pails with handles, and it occurred to me that they could be useful. I gave one to a weed puller who was able to fill it in about 2 minutes. Then I brought over another empty pail and called an available teen to tote the full one away and dump it.

The idea caught on, and in a few minutes we were filling the dumpster so much that I asked a really tall teen from Wisconsin to use his height to reach into the dumpster to make room for more weeds. "You're tall. Use your gift," I said, and he smiled and said, "Good idea."

I must admit that as the crew moved ahead I started feeling guilty about being in a "supervisory" role until I heard my own words echoing in my mind, "Use your gift." One of my gifts is organizing available resources to get things done. I feel better now, much better.

The New Orleans Subway

The other day, after returning from an exploratory journey, Laura reported to me that there was a subway here in NO. I got excited becuase the thought of having to walk 2 to 4 miles a day in really hot weather was somewhat discouraging.
She went on, "the kids will really love it, because they can get lunch for about $5 there." Oops-- you can take the New Yorker out of New York, but you can't take the New York out of the New York.

FrIday morning
I'm at a teen worship service sitting in the back row like a typical teenager at worship back home-- texting!
Everyone else is sleeping in this morning, a well-deserved rest.
We go to learning center today. It opens later 7:30 a.m. here is 8:30 at home. V

Live streaming on Internet at www.ELCA.org/gathering!

We're at the Thursday night mass gathering, somewhat tired after leaving the hotel at 5:45 a.m. to walk a mile to the buses. After a short delay we headed over to the NO city park. Our bus pInter a fence with primer quicker than expected. Then we cleared weeds and dead bushes from the maintenance area, again, quicker than anticipated. So we wound up with some free time and were guests in the amusement park at the city park. Back at hotel at 2 p.m. sharp. Used the pool, had dinner in the Riverwalk Food Court. Now we're warming up for tonight's festivities. Some random thoughts later.
SIGNS OF DEHYDRATION
4. You find yourself drinking from the paint cup you're using-- for the third time.

SIGNS
2. You hit Send before you finish texting.
3. You begin seeing alligators in the lake and they see you. Scratch that, they're chasing us . . . .

SIGNS OF DEHYDRATION
1. You stop sweating.

Rise and Shine
We're at bus 41 by the Superdome. After a mile walk we arrived at 6:10. Laura and Donna picked up a half gallon of milk for just $4.50 at a local store for our pre-packaged cereal for our health & wellness project. It's hot but when the sun rises .... We don't know yet where we're headed or what we'll be doing but we're on bus 41 and we're ready. Impressions About last night later on . . .

TAILGATE PARTY
We walked more than a mile to the Superdome, expecting to get dinner from vendors as a "tailgate party."
We found instead thousands of people, and ice cream dots truck, a German popcorn stand, a Dominos pizza stand with a huge line, and some tables selling bottles of a water.
So now we are sitting (a different type of tail party) while kids serenade us with cool songs and joyful spirit. Just another half hour before the doors open for the mass gathering.

Is anyone reading these? Send me a note at hopelutheran@msn.com if you are.

Sports Fanatics
I never realized how athletic our kids are until watching three soccer games and a volley ball game. Several of them play soccer at home, but until now they never played it together. Film at 11 . . .

HERE WE ARE

After a nice dinner at the Crazy Lobster Bar & Grill, we split our group into two groups of explorers. One group headed out in search of canned soda (hotel machines charge $3per can) while the other group checked out the two swimming pools at the Hilton.

The pools were found—one closed, but the other still open. So we went to our rooms and "suited up" to go swimming. It was fun, but a bit chilly.

Later we met for a brief "getting organized" meeting, distributed cans of soda, and then retired for the night around midnight Eastern time.

There are already a lot of people here for the gathering. Along the streets there are banners hanging from the light posts on the main streets, and large groups of colored-Tshirt-clad teens are roaming around the streets.

AJ was interviewed by Foxnews and will be on between 5-6 and 9-10 tonight.

The Interaction Center opened at noon. Evening food vendors will open at the Superdome at 4 and the doors of the Superdome open at 5. After the gathering's first "Mass Gathering" we come back to the hotel where there will be special events for the teens.

Then, tomorrow morning, we're up at five a.m. and headed out for a few hours of community service in an outdoor setting somewhere around the city. More to come later . . .

AJ will be interviewed on Fox news (locall) showing 5-6, 9-10 tonight. All sorts of media are around. Largest group to come to NO since Katrina.

New Orleans Culture Tips:
1a. When eating beignets covered with confectionary sugar, don't exhale.1b. Don't inhale either.
2. When eating beignets for breakfast, don't wear dark colored clothing. More to come.

We're at a beautiful hotel along the Mighty Mississippi, and we're ordering dinner at the Crazy Lobster Bar & Grill. It's Perry's 18th birthday and we're eating outdoors.

We made it to JFK by 11:30, with Leslie's car stuck on the Belt Parkway with everyone else while the Highway Department scooped up a dead racoon from the highway. That's life in the big city for you.
Many others going to NO were here as well. We also ran into Don and Karen Cullen inside the terminal. We'll be ready when the plane is!

I can use my Iphone to do mobile blogging. Please excuse any typing errors. My fingers are a lot bigger than the Iphone's keys.

Greetings to all!

On to NOLA!

As I thought about leaving for the Youth Gathering tomorrow, I decided that I would do my best to keep a running commentary on the event for any folks who want to know what I think about what's going on. I'm looking forward to having a good time with our teens and their chaperones (who have done such a great job of getting the group together and ready for the event), and I'm coming along to be their pastor and to learn more about an important part of the life of the church—our teen culture.

Some may not know this, but this is the seventh youth gathering I've attended since coming to Hope. I've been to San Antonio, Dallas, Atlanta, New Orleans (Hotel Life Team), St. Louis (Hotel Life Team), and San Antonio again. Now I return to New Orleans, but for our chaperones it will be their first time.

I expect HOT weather, thunderstorms, and more HOT weather. I understand why people like Tabasco sauce so much down there—it's the only thing that's hotter than the weather. By the way, did I mention that I'm expecting it to be HOT in New Orleans? And Humid?

But it should be fun. I will bring my video camera as well as my digital one. If I can, I will post some photos. I'm hoping that there will be some streaming video from the event, but I couldn't find any evidence of a link on the website at www.elca.org.

In any case, I'm sending this note out to you now because I'm not sure I will get to send out advance notices of blogging updates each day. So, if you're interested, just go on the internet to this site: www.hopespastor.blogspot.com. If I can meet my goal of daily updates, I think you'll be glad to read them. Take care.

By the way, for those who haven't figured it out yet: "NOLA" is "New Orleans Louisiana."

THE 9:03 Sermon

I really liked the sermon I preached this weekend. In it I focused on how God is at work reconciling the whole world to himself through Christ. I get very excited about this theme, but my "Finnish Charisma" often doesn't show how excited I feel.

After the service was over, as I greeted people coming out of church, one of our most respected members spoke to me briefly about the sermon. He told me that what I said was very discouraging and that it would have the effect of making people not want to come to church any more. He asked me, "Why do you keep talking about that stuff?"

Why did he say that? Because in my 8 a.m. sermon I referred to a rather startling presentation and report I received this week at the meeting of our synod's Conference of Deans. I guess it was so much in my mind that when I got to a certain point in the sermon, I just started sharing what I learned this week, right in the midst of what was otherwise a good sermon.

He was right in his criticism of my sermon. My anxiety about the grave situation our Metro New York Synod is facing right now should not be shared right in the middle of a sermon on hope. It isn't fair to the hearers for me to just unload my sadness on them in such a fashion. They may need to know the content of what I was saying, but there are better ways to communicate that. In effect I clobbered them with information they could not readily assimilate or act on.

As a result of what his "9:03 Sermon," I simply left out the mention of our synod's grave situation and kept the sermon focused on the good news we have in Christ. I think I did the right thing.

But it's a strange dilemma I'm dealing with. For about eight years I have been one of only a few voices in our synod urging our synod to take seriously the rapid state of decline that many churches are experiencing. Having learned how Christians in other parts of the globe have dealt positively and creatively with similar problems, I have spoken again and again about what we could accomplish if we simply began thinking about how we might do our ministry differently.

But it's not easy to change any system, and the system we are living with in the larger church context (our synod and our denomination) has been working for a long time. But add to that the fact that there are a lot of people who are simply in denial of what is happening to their church and the churches all around us, and we have a real problem.

Simply put, the presentation asserted that within the next five years as many as 2/3 of the churches in our synod will be in a situation where they will probably no longer be able to sustain a traditional full-time Lutheran ministry as we have know it for decades. The implications of such a thought are overwhelming, and the "solution side" of the presentation did not hold out much hope.

As someone said to me after the 8 a.m. service, "I wonder how it must feel for people who have been members of the same congregation for decades to have to think about it all coming to an end, especially so soon." I know that the members of St. Mark's still feel the pain of the closing of their church.

I don't know what to say. For all these years I have been advocating certain actions that might offer a new way of "being church," but it's hard for people to understand such ideas, much less take them seriously. Yet I still think there is an alternative to "triage" as a strategy for "mission renewal" in our synod. Please pray for our bishop, his staff, and for the Commission for Evangelical Outreach that I still chair. We may be in serious trouble as a synod, but Christ is still Lord over all.

WHO’S TELLING THE TRUTH?

On Sunday I spoke about a problem I see more and more in our day when we take part in public discourse. Intelligent discussions about religious content or political issues or social realities are becoming more and more restricted because of changes taking place in each of these areas of our "common life."

There was a time when we believed that there was such a thing as "truth." I suppose we refer to that as the "Modern Era," a period of social and cultural history that still lingers in our DNA although the 'Enlightened Ones' of our day consider it to be outmoded. In the Modern Era people liked to think that "things normally work as they are supposed to." When something stopped working, we would take out the instruction manual and look for a "fix." And often we succeeded.

These days, however, we have stopped trying to fix things. In fact, many folks are not so sure that things were even designed to work, especially in the areas of religion, politics, and culture. As a result, they scoff at those who espouse "traditional" values based on Modern Era assumptions, and they are fascinated instead by ideas that go completely against logic and common sense, just because they are "different.

Suppose, for example, that I was managing my home and discovered that my bills were getting too high or that my income was decreasing significantly. What would I do? Perhaps I would review my expenditures, look for ways to reduce spending or save money, and see if there was some way I could also increase my income. If necessary, I might even risk taking out a small loan to fund some measures that would produce a net improvement in the near future.

I would probably not go out to borrow a huge sum of money, increase my spending using all my credit cards including my unused Discover card, and then hope for my problems to go away.

But in our day there are some folks who suggest that this is the smartest way to go, even if it seems totally absurd to me.

But here's my problem. Perhaps my strategy and approach are wrong and going on a wild spending spree is really the best way to solve my financial problems. The problem arises when I suggest that I'm right and they are wrong. They cannot produce any logical arguments that disprove my idea. They oppose me simply because I had the nerve to suggest that common sense is a better guide for moving ahead and I challenged others who know better than I do about what will work best for me.

In effect, they've shifted the focus "What is the truth?" or "Who's telling to truth?" to "Where do you get the nerve to suggest that common sense is better than 'New Think'?" and "Who do you think you are, anyway, to challenge what we all know to be true?"

I know that I'm not the only one with this problem. Ironically, I think the majority of Americans or Christians or others who share common ground with me are treated the same way. Whether something is actually true is considered of lesser value than whether one's thoughts conform to the 'New Think' principles promoted by the more 'Enlightened Ones' who are filled with hope and want to change the world.

If you don't agree with them, your ideas are not simply wrong. You yourself are to be considered as permanently disabled, and your ideas should be pushed aside as irrelevant.

At great risk, therefore, I will still suggest that there is indeed something we can point to that is true. Actually, it's not some "thing," but some "One." Jesus Christ said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." I have found in my personal experience and in the reports I have heard from others that this good news still "works," even when there are powerful and persuasive forces at work to overthrow it or obscure it. I am glad that for 2,000 years there has already been a Messiah at work in our world. One Messiah is enough for me.

mjtjmtaa

BREAKING THE RULE

On Sunday I told the congregation about the rule about preaching that I learned growing up. I didn't learn it in seminary. I learned it at the dinner table on Sunday when we sat down to enjoy this week's roast beef and talk about church that day. Sooner or later my dad would start talking about the pastor's sermon and he'd add, "The pastor was talking about money again today."

I would sit there wondering how a sermon based on the healing of the blind man or the parable of the sower had anything to do with money. I never figured it out, but I did learn a rule that has served me well for 36 years as a preacher: "Never preach about money."

Since I was preaching on the lesson from II Corinthians 8,however, I decided that the time had come to break that rule. I preached about money.

In that lesson the Apostle Paul was writing to the Christian community in Corinth to ask them to complete the collection they had started taking up some time earlier. The money was not for Paul. It was a collection for the Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem, a persecuted and poor group of believers who needed the help that the wealthy Gentiles could give. Paul had promised James, John, and Peter that he would take up such an offering, and he wanted the Corinthians to do their very best as a show of solidarity with the Jewish Christian community back home.

In this passage he spells out four basic principles to guide them in their giving, and I want to summarize them briefly here for our benefit as 21^st Century givers.

First, when we give, we give REGULARLY. That principle actually comes from the end of I Corinthians, but it is basic to his understanding. He instructed them to set aside money "on the first day of the week" for this offering. Doing this on the first day of the week accomplished two important goals. First, it linked the act of giving with the worship of God's people. Giving money is an important response we can give to the Word and the Sacrament we share each week. We should never have a worship service without providing people the opportunity to give an offering. Second, it reminded them of the resurrection of our Lord, which took place on the first day of the week. What Jesus did for us by dying and rising from the dead is the ultimate motivation for all giving.

Second, we give PROPORTIONATELY. That means we give from what we actually have, a real percentage of what we have available to give, and we choose what that percentage should be. The Old Testament "tithe" is not a New Testament principle for giving. Some of us may never be able to give 10% of what we have, while others can afford to give a much higher percentage of what we have. There is "fairness" in giving when all givers agree to give this way. Figure out what percentage of your income your customary offering actually is, and then set your "growth giving goals" based on that starting point.

Third, we give WILLINGLY. We do not give just to pay bills, and we certainly should not give because we feel guilty or afraid of some unspecified consequences. We give willingly in that we give out of our faith, hope, and love, not out of coercion. And when we begin to forget why we are giving, the decision to give becomes an act of the will and keeps us doing the right thing because we have chosen to do so willingly.

Finally, we give CHEERFULLY. The verse "Go loves a cheerful giver" comes from this same letter. We should feel good about giving to advance God's mission in the world. Our giving helps change people's lives and strengthens people's faith. Sometimes it feeds the hungry and provides shelter for the homeless. When we give our gives cheerfully, it affects others around us and encourages them to give generously as well. Cheerful giving is a product of a grace-filled heart.

In addition to spelling out these principles, I made some important comments about the funds we will be receiving soon from the sale of the property of St. Mark's Church in Ridge. I expressed two cautions. First, we must not use these funds to carry out projects we would normally take full responsibility for ourselves. Doing that would be, in effect, taking that money and giving it to ourselves. My second caution is to remember where the money actually comes from. It is not like winning the New York State lottery. It is a gift from the people of St. Mark's who gave up their life as a congregation after fifty years of worship, witness, and service in Ridge. They paid off their mortgage, and we are recipients of the legacy of their sacrificial giving over five decades. We should not say, "Now I can cut my pledge because the church has a new source of money," like some Christians do. On the contrary, we should honor their sacrifice by INCREASING our own personal giving in a spirit of matching sacrifice. By doing that the legacy will grow, and many more will share in the blessing.

So there it is. I broke the rule. But it never was a good rule, was it?

OUR “FATHER-MOTHER” IN HEAVEN?

Last Week we started using the new 40 Day Lenten Journey devotional books as part of our congregation's Lenten discipline. I really like this resource, and I'm excited about being able to work through it during the season of Lent this year.

Having said that, however, I must admit that I was a bit dismayed when I got to the reflection for Day 3 where the author asks the question: "Can we call God 'Mother?'"

What bothered me was not the question he asked, but the tired old argument that he gives for making God neuter. It never made sense before, and it surely makes sense now, especially in our contemporary egalitarian American society.

I'm not simply an old-fashioned male chauvinist, and the issue here is much more than just semantics. I raise an issue with the author simply because the words "Father" and "Mother" mean different things, and they cannot be used interchangeably. Fathers have a certain role in human families, and mothers have a different role. Even the process of conceiving a child bears witness to this fact.

I realize that there are many wounded souls who suffer continually from having had abusive or absent fathers. There are both males and females who have this past. But it is also true that there are many others who have suffered abuse from overbearing or neglectful mothers as well.

In either case, the negative examples should never make the positive use of the word inappropriate. On the contrary, one might argue that when we pray "Our Father . . ." we are addressing the very One who is the True and Loving Source and Sustainer of all human beings, the incomparable Father who should be the model for all human fathers everywhere.

To suggest that we re-write the Lord's Prayer to make it more politically correct for contemporary Christians is outright silly. Where does the revising of the "Lord's" Prayer stop? Should we change the word "heaven" into something else? How about the word "kingdom?" That's a rather male-oriented term also, isn't it? And do we really want "God's" will to be done? Shouldn't we also have a say in what God's goals might be?

I've been on a diet for almost a month now, and I have excluded bread from the menu. I suppose I could leave out that part of the prayer or perhaps I should substitute "low carbs" when I say the prayer each day. And, while I'm at it, I think the forgive part could be whited out, without comment.

And I while know that temptations are not a good thing and should be avoided, my sinful self wonders what I might be missing out on.

I understand the concern the author raises. I wish that he could also understand mine.