Wake Up Call

The other day in fiddle class, a member brought a piece of music they had just heard for the first time. The teacher played it, all thought it was lovely but had no idea what it was. It was Be Thou My Vision. I stood there stunned, how in the world could the people there not know this hymn?

I was never a regular church-goer until high school, since then the majority of Sundays have been spent in a church somewhere. I even think of myself as having an ear and knowing spirit for those unfamiliar with church. I make sure worship is open and welcoming and even though the service is a bit high for a Baptist church I believe newbies can slip into it quite easily after a Sunday or two. But sometimes you develop blinders and forget that most folk are not in church on a Sunday morning.

Now the interesting part is not that folk do not go to church, but that when the person from fiddle class went, she loved the music and thought it was one of the most beautiful she ever heard. That is the promising part. I am not ready to give up on hymns, or congregational singing. In fact I want to spend more time developing some quality new hymns that speak to your soul and cause your heart to sing too. This can be done. I am thinking more along the lines of taking modern music and hymnifying them. What that exactly means is still a work in progress, give me some time on this one.

By the way, it appears I will be making my first public fiddle playing appearance this Spring during the concert series. My teacher and her band will be playing and part of the deal is that i have to play too! Oh brother...

Sermon is done. A preparatory sermon for Lent, not giving into the temptation to God's abiding and constant presence. I will post it after Sunday, between now and Sunday morning there will be some editing and minor sentence changes. I also hope to have it up as a podcast on Monday, now, now, just sit on those hands to keep from waving to everybody - I cannot make any promises.

The Wreck

Like many of you I too have been in my share fair of fender benders, but nothing tops the experience from yesterday. After a visit in Providence I headed home via I-95. I-95 for RI is both the main thoroughfare from West Warwick to the Mass border after Pawtucket and the major artery for the east coast. As I neared the portion where the Providence Place Mall is, I began to slow down as traffic congested and thickened. I was traveling perhaps 20mph. All of the sudden a minivan in front of me slammed on its brakes. I slammed mine on, but could not stop. I skidded and saw the back of the van coming at an alarming rate. Then Boom. I hit the van. The traffic is thicker than fudge, all kind of zipping and zooming by of automobiles, we cannot pull over. The driver of the van gets out! I look for my emergency flashers, cannot find them. He looks at the back of his van, then comes to my window. "Hey man, I checked first to see if my kids are okay, they are. There is nothing wrong with my car and nothing wrong with your truck. Lets get out of here." Indeed there was nothing wrong with either automobile. So I shifted into 1st gear, he put his van in drive and off we went. Amazing. I still can not believe it, I barely have a neck ache today. Thanks be to God is all I can say, and yet that sounds pretty lame.

Giuliana as Attorney General, a new possibility

Big exits today. Edwards withdrawal from the race has me scratching my head. I must believe his wife's cancer and treatments need his attention. Why else would he withdrawal, not being able to keep poverty front and center as an issue - at least through super tuesday. I look for him to endorse Obama. The Giuliana withdrawal is no big surprise, but his endorsement of McCain and McCain's warm words for him most certainly alludes to some kind of spot in a McCain administration - if he is the nominee and the 44th.

The New Baptist Covenant begins today. On the one hand I long to be there, on the other hand that many Baptist gathered together in one place makes me a little leery. I am interested to see what news is generated from the event. I had planned to go but events in the late fall shifted my availability. My prayers are with the gathering.

My goal of 8.3333 books for the month of January came up a bit short (100/12). I read 7.something (even though one week of sleepless nights and sickness prevented me from reading at all.) I am quite happy with that number and look to make up the number in February. Initial lessons learned: sticking with a book and reading it from front to back is well worth it, even if the book is sub-par; the more I read the thicker my sermons and ideas become; I enjoy picking up on an author's use of language and their favorite words; finally, reading begets more reading...

We are weaning #3 from night time nursing. The VOR and I take turns, shifts, nights getting up and rocking him to sleep. Last night #3 got up at 9:00pm and not again till 4:42am. I mention this because a couple of weeks ago I thought it would be a good idea to wean myself from coffee. After one morning of a headache, fuzzy brain and sluggish feet I had a Steve McCroskey epiphany: Looks like I picked the wrong time to quit caffeine. Give me a couple of weeks so I can slowly switch over to tea and I'll get there.

Apparently Bob Novak reads Theobilly

Although I was not quoted either directly or indirectly, something tells me this conservative contrarian is using my work as a source...

Go here.

Then here.

Grisham & Preaching

This note is more for an idea for later... Something here when thinking about the accessibility of preaching.

Last night Bill Moyers interviewed John Grisham

BILL MOYERS: Were you born again?

JOHN GRISHAM: Sure. When I was eight years old first Baptist church in Parkin, Arkansas. I felt the call to become a Christian. I felt the need to. I talked to my parents. I talked to my pastor. And I accepted Christ when I was eight as old, just a little small boy And-- like most of the kids, you know, in my church, and my brothers and sisters --that was very much a part of growing up.

BILL MOYERS: And when you look back half a century later, how do you think that moment has played out in your life and in your work?

JOHN GRISHAM: Well-- you know, once you make that conversion, you are and always will be something different, a different person. I can't say it impacts what I choose to write. But it certainly impacts how I write. The great secret to THE FIRM, and this is what, you know, people don't realize--

BILL MOYERS: The second book.

JOHN GRISHAM: --second book, that book was-- first printing was 50,000 copies, which is nothing to sneeze at. People read that book And when they finished it, they realized they could give it to their 15-year-old or their 80-year-old mother and not be embarrassed. It sold a zillion copies because of that. My books are exceptionally clean by today's standards. There are things I don't want to write, can't write. I wrote a sex scene one time and showed it to my wife. And she burst out laughing. She said, "What do you know about sex?" But--

BILL MOYERS: Spoken like a true Baptist--

JOHN GRISHAM: --the language-- the content, the language, even the violence, is something that is easy to stomach. And I would not, because of my faith write any other way.

First Sale & Pinto Beans & A New Definition of a Watch Tower

The VOR made her first sale from her etsy shop, a customer from Norway.

Last night the VOR made Pinto Beans and Cornbread.  Growing up I refused to eat Pinto Beans. But life changes your taste-buds.  The wife soaks them overnight, then cooks them with garlic, onions, salt and pepper (if you want some spice, occasionally she will add a jalapeno).  The secret to the beans was a three chunks of the country ham, oh man it was pure heaven.

The corn bread came from a recipe in the best one volume vegetarian cookbook I know of.  I would have added bacon grease, corn cornels and perhaps some jalapeno. 

I only mention this recipe because it is part of a reoccurring theme in my life: re-evaluation of my past, both religiously, culturally and gastronomically.  Religiously: wanting to have a centered pulpit, sermon at the last of the service, longer sermons, an invitation to the faith/discipleship; culturally: learning to play the fiddle, loving mountain music; gastronomically: pinto beans, chopped or minute steak.  

The interesting part is re-evaluating with a new outcome.  Surprises keep emerging.

Today me and #3 played with Lincoln Logs.  #2 built a watch tower, he said it was a place that sells jewelry. 

Influences

I never in a million years believed I would have kids who were born outside of Appalachia, #1 was born in Beckley while #2 and #3 were both born in Providence.  If you listen close to their speech patterns you can easily detect which is from where.  #1 will occasionally slip a little twang into her speech while #2 is all the time dropping vowels and adding "hah" to the middle of words.  But the other day beat all I ever heard.  

While looking at a picture in a book, he called hey dad look I found Walder.  That's right not Waldo, but Walder.  Oh brother.  

Worship Order, Lenten Series, Sermon Movement, Response to Frontline

As noted before the Organist/Choirmaster of the church I serve recently accepted a new position in another part of the state.  His departure constrained the planning and order of worship.  We had developed an order of worship highly dependent on sung responses, seasonal music, singable hymns and service parts that fit the mood and tone of the worship act.  Currently the church is hiring people on a four week basis till we find a permanent replacement.  Since we are and will have a series of different musicians I streamlined the order of worship, here is the latest installment:

Prelude

Ringing of the Bell

Sentences from Scripture

Invocation

Hymn

Prayer of Confession

Gloria

The Congregation Seated

(by the way, like most churches we place asterisks in front of the service parts indicating when folk are supposed to stand - and most follow.  Most, however, never know quite when to sit down.  When I placed the congregation seated part it worked like magic.  Nothing like simplicity to ease confusion.)

Psalm

Anthem

A Time with the Children

Lesson from Scripture

Sermon

Invitation

Hymn

The Morning Prayer with response

We shall trust in your steadfast love

and our hearts will rejoice in your salvation.

The Lord's Prayer

The Peace

Offerings

At the Offertory

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication

Hymn

Blessing

Postlude

Lenten Sermon Series

I toyed around with a Great Questions series but it would not come together.  My plan b on The Temptations of Jesus, however, came together very easy.  As I looked for second lessons for each Sunday they almost jumped off the pages of Paul's epistles.

The series will start the Sunday before Ash Wednesday (a preparatory sermon) and will run through to Easter morning.  The following are embryonic titles, they usually change as the Sundays get closer.

3.Feb.2008  A Non-foundational Foundational  Jeremiah 23:23-32 and Psalm 139

 

10.Feb.2008  Almost Persuaded  Matthew 3:1-17 & 2 Corinthians 4:1-12

17.Feb.2008  Side Show Bob or Something Else  Matthew 4:1-4 & 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

24.Feb.2008  Testing 1, 2, 3, Testing  Matthew 4:1-2, 5-7 & Romans 8:28-30

2.Mar.2008  My Kingdom for a Horse  Matthew 4:1-2, 8-11 & Philippians 2:1-11

9.Mar.2008  Yeah...Right  Matthew 5:1-13 & I Corinthians 1:18-31

16.Mar.2008  Forget About It...I'm Done  Matthew 27:45-50 & I Corinthians 15:50-58

23.Mar.2008  Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream  Matthew 28:1-10 & I Corinthians 15:1-11

You can see that I have disavowed the use of the lectionary.  Although I see the value of the lectionary I cannot for the life of me fully buy into using it.  I feel too constrained and locked in. I am more comfortable chewing on ideas that bubble up through contact with folk in pastoral situations, cultural events, and metaphors/symbols/mutterings that emerge from prayer, then forming the raw material into a sermon series.

Moving the Sermon

In seminary I first became exposed to the placement of the sermon in the middle of the service.  At first I was all eggs and bacon over this idea.  But as I have used and worshipped in this order for some time now I find myself missing the placement of the sermon nearer the end of the service.  I know worship can and does flow nicely with the sermon in the middle followed by the offering.  But does the centrality and importance of the spoken word become diminished somewhat.

Response to Frontline

Last night PBS ran a special on kids and the internet.  I came away thinking pastors and churches can and will have a unique place in the coming future.  I houses of worship maybe the one places that are offline and unplugged.  They will seem like relics from distant times and places, responsive readings, communal singing, close physical proximity, the spoken word, silence, attentive listening, etc.  

I am not a technophobe, but I am betting the uniqueness and special quality of worship is/will be a rediscovered phenomena in future years.  Why?  There will come a time when computer advancements, virtual social networking, technological infatuation will come to an end.  I do not mean in a few years we will stop using all of these components, to the contrary they will be even further integrated into our lives, but their ultimate promises will come up empty, lacking and wanting. 

Rather than run head on into the stream of technology, I believe, pastors (especially pastors) should be folk running and swimming in the opposite direction.  If no one else is reading hardbacks (students instead employing sparknotes), if no one else is thinking systematically pastoral about how all of the events of life are affecting the soul, if no one else is trying thinking parts to whole or whole to parts we should.  We are in the information age and business but from a different angle and perspective.  

I am not afraid of being a dinosaur, a dinosaur that is technologically proficient, but a dinosaur nonetheless.  

In an odd way I think the rise of Barack Obama may give some fodder to this.  Have you listened to folk who exit his speeches?  They talk in "revivalistic" tones: "they saw the light"  they feel "saved"  and etc.  Why?  Because of his great experience?  No.  Because he has the ancient power or oratory, of putting together nouns and verbs in a fashion that can raise consciousness.  He can form sentences.  He can speak in a clear manner.  He does this and folk think he is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I know there is more to him than simply sentences, but a good part of his appeal is his words and his usage of them.  

Link

Go here to read the story from the Providence Journal concerning the MLK, Jr. Breakfast.

They captured the essence of Jim's sermon.  They failed to mention his call for further reaching gun control legislation, especially on college campuses in light of the VT tragedy.

Sunday Bread

On Sundays I like to make a loaf of bread.  The recipe is the simple one that was in the NYTimes a short while ago.  Obviously the bread is not as good as one that rises for several hours, uses a starter, blah, blah, blah.  However, one doesn't always have that kind of time and attention.  I have had success with All-Purpose and Bread flour, but throw some Whole Wheat and my bread turns into a thick, heavy brown rock. 

To the recipe I used 5 cups of A-P flour and 1 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat, and I upped the water by 1/3 to 1/2 a cup.  It came out, was edible and quite good.

Add a nice cheese tray and chardonnay (I know that a red wine is more ideal, but the chard. was on sale @ $7.00 a bottle).