Reflections on Advent Worship

One time my mother, my sister and myself went to Myrtle Beach for a summer vacation. One morning we went to the K&W Cafeteria, it was pure heaven for me - rows and rows of breakfast buffet items. I piled all I could onto my plastic cafe tray (by the way bee keeping suppliers sell these as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) trays, no foolin') and proceed to eat all I could. My eyes, however, were bigger than my stomach. Sundays Advent service felt a lot like that; my liturgical appetite went well over my liturgical threshold. After talking with the deacons last night we decided to let the choir lead the responses, take out or move a couple of uncomfortably angled pews and begin with an advent song that we all know. I think this is reasonable and one that I am more comfortable with.

Advent

I can vaguely remember the pastor lighting some candles before Christmas at FBC St. Albans, WV
but cant remember much after that. During my first year of seminary at BTSR, after thanksgiving, they started talking more about Advent and how the Christian and Jewish communities share a joint Messianic hope, there was talk about purple decorations, advent hymns (you mean carols? No, real live advent hymns) and special liturgies. I was a bit overwhelmed, still am, but awestruck with a sense of historical worship and religious traditions.

So I attended worship filled with all of the images from Old Testament class and sang O Come O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoijce! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel! That was pretty amazing for me. I love that hymn.

This year I am sure that I have messed up everyones Advent. I have introduced four taize responses and put the church in the round. Here is a picture of the sanctuary and the order of service.


Order of Service
Ringing of the Bell
Prelude
Greeting (sung)
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near.
Wait for the Lord: be strong, take heart!
Silence
Advent Candle Lighting singing We Light Advent Candles
Opening Prayer (Collect of the Day from the BCP)
Opening Hymn
Call to Confession
Silence
The Kyrie
Words of Assurance
Song of Praise
Bless the Lord my soul and bless God's holy name.
Bless the Lord my soul who leads me into life.
First Lesson
Psalm
Second Lesson
Anthem
Gospel Lesson
The Word of God for the People of God
Thanks be to God
Sung Response
Prepare the way of the Lord
Prepare the way of the Lord,
and all the people will see the salvation of our God.
Silence
Sermon
Hymn of Invitation/Response
Prayers of the People of God
Response
O Lord, hear my prayer. O Lord hear my prayer.
When I call, answer me.
Lord, hear my prayer. O Lord, hear my prayer.
Come and listen to me.
The Lord's Prayer
The Peace
Announcements
Stewardship Moment
Stewardship Hymn From the Rising of the Sun
Offertory
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Departing Hymn
Benediction
Postlude

This is gonna take a few weeks to sink in.

I'd hoped to post my sermon, but you just cant go away the week before advent, come home hit the ground running and have all in place for sunday morning. So my sermon was a creation supplied by 26 hours of driving reflection, puffed up by an advent workshop earlier in the year and some astronomical observations in relation to the True Light whose coming we celebrate. Next week, watch out.

Trip Home Reflections

Usually on Monday mornings I hang out at Coffee Exchange to down a couple cups of joe, munch on a granola scone and take in all of the sights and sounds of the joint. As soon as I enter the doors and order a medium black Naragansett the creative juices start flowing. I dont what it is about the place but I like it and find it worthwhile spending time there.

WV has a pretty cool coffee shop, Taylor Books, but I never knew about places like that till I was in my mid-20s.

But I can not support the place today there is too much on the table. I returned from Thanksgiving in WV exhausted. It was by far the worst and best time at home in my life.


On Wednesday night I patronized a local establishment with the hopes of running into some friends from high school. Indeed they were there. I enjoyed getting tanked with some old pals and hangin around folk who knew me before I was rev. theobilly. An ordained human needs those kinds of relations, I miss them.

Some pics from the trip will be on after lunch.

Maybe I wait till Saturday

Leaving for West Virginia on Friday morning and planning to catch the late showing of Walk the Line, but if the CBS special this evening is any indication I think I'll wait till Saturday or maybe till it comes out on DVD.

It started out with Brad Paisley and never recovered. The Sheryl Crow voice? Kid Rock, come on that guy is about as phony as they come. Dave Grohl needs to put some bass in that voice. I digress. CBS should've bought the rights to the TNT special that came out after St. John's death and replayed it. Oh Brother.

The Turkey

Last Saturday the church I serve had their annual Harvest Supper. I decided to grill a turkey. I have been wanting to experiment with this method for some time, but never motivated enough just to do for myself. So when I heard the church needed a couple of more turkeys (no comments from the peanut gallery) I volunteered.

The Recipe:
One turkey (mine was a 14 lber)
Brine it over night in a clean five gallon bucket.
For the brine bring one cup sugar, one cup of salt, couple cloves of garlic, some pepper, some mustard powder to a boil. Cool to room temp. then put bird in bucket and cover with brine and more water if needed. Let sit overnight in a cool spot. (it was 30 degrees in RI that night, so i sat it in the garage). Next day pat it dry and let set out to come to room temp. Then coat with bacon grease and pepper. Why bacon grease? We fried some bacon that morning and it was right there. I could have used olive oil, but come on - were talking bacon drippings, the gold of appalachian cooking. the nectar of hillbillies.

Prepare grill. Light your coals (i prefer hard wood chunks). When ready put a medium size aluminum pan on one side and coals on the other. Place a small handfull of woodchips on for smokiness. The Revs. Smalls gave us a nice smoker box to place directly on top of the coals. Place birdbreast side up over top of pan and grill for 1and 1/2 to 2 hours. My son needed to be rocked back to sleep so my timer went off at 1 and 1/2 hours, kids take precedent over turkey on grill.

Put another load of fresh hot coals and wood chips on.

Rotate bird so that other breast gets cooked, about an hour. Place probe thermometer in thigh till registers at least 170. Let bird rest then eat carve about 20 minutes after coming off grill.

here are some pics. it was too beautiful to cut.

here it is on the grill


here it is resting:


here it is in a serving platter


here is my plate that night.


mmm, grilled turkey with bacon grease.

ad wizard

Perhaps you can recall the SNL "Stand Up and Win" skit from a few years ago with Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler. Regardless of the question Adam Sandler would answer "Who was the ad wizard who came up with that one." I have always appreciated Sandler's comment and wanted to use it in some type of comedic reference. Thanks to the web, a scanner and Northern Baptist Seminary's ad my perfect sarcastic storm has blown ashore.

A couple years back Northern Baptist Seminary created possibly the worst
advertisement in the history of seminary ads. I only saw it in Christian Century.



A close second, is one of the current ad for my alma mater. The people pictured are great Liberal Prostestant saints, but here is the crux: the pictures are in black and white and two were born in the 19th century. It looks more like an ad for a nursing home than a seminary. Furthermore, it looks like it was cut and pasted in about five minutes.



I know what the ad is attempting to convey but, come on; is this the best the ad wizards can do?

The folks pictured above added greatly to the history and tradition of CRCDS, but they accomplished more than a simple picture. I feel a better advertisement would show the lines and lines of people during the March on Washington. Or a picture of the consecration service with the laying on of hands for the bishop. Or how about a picture of Jim Forbes serving communion at Riverside. Better yet, a simple number - the number of Rauschenbusch books that have been sold!

CRCDS our graduates are a part of the most important religous movements of our nation. CRCDS our graduates change history!
Come and be a part of what God has set in motion.

I bemoan because I love CRCDS and I want it to succeed, I want it to be the best Protestant seminary in America. I would love if it had a waiting list, a majority of younger students, had Glen Hinson as prof of spirituality and was paving the way for liberal evangelicalism, conversed with emergent church and opened the way for broader racial reconciliation. And on top of all of this I pray to God that they would develop an advertisement that would make people want to look at the pathetic web site. Oh CRCDS how long, how long?

One last note, I have yet to find any seminary ads the whet my whistle.

Carl's Auto Body

A few years ago for Xmas a good buddy of mine bought me a used jacket, not just a used jacket but a used work jacket: specifically a Carl's Auto Body used work jacket. I love this jacket, I wear it all the time, especially when I go to The Auto Zone.

On Tuesday after a New Member's meeting I went to a local establishment to grab a Bass and to watch the Marshall University (my alma mater) vs. SMU football game (who schedules a game on Tuesday?). I had my Carl's Auto Body jacket on. While leaning against the wall and watching the game a dude comes up and starts a conversation about sports and life. About ten minutes into the conversation he asks: Are you a mechanic?

All you ministers out there, go out and by a used work jacket and wear it. You can enter into anybar, USA incognito.

Salt Crusted Pizza

Being a pastor my work week runs Sunday to Thursday. I treat Thursdays as my Fridays, my Fridays as my Saturdays and my Saturdays as my Sundays. On Thursdays we make pizzas, we make the dough, the sauce, grate a block of fresh mozzarella, and have at it. I believe we have perfected the pizza by the addition of condiments on the crust. I use kosher salt, the wife uses garlic salt.


here is the dough recipe
1 cup of warm water
3 cups of all purpose King Arthur Flour
2 and 1/4 teaspoons of Instant Yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of honey (preferably from a hive in your backyard)

Cleaner Abuse

Several years ago some good friends of ours received two brand new vacuum cleaners for their wedding; graciously they gave us one. Disclaimer. The wife wanted to say that my only vacuum cleaner activities include: one, keeping our son from climbing up the vaccum; two, moving the vacuum cleaner from the living room to the closet; and three, around the second week of January I cut out all of the icicles from the spinning cleaning rod that sweeps. Back to the meaning of this post. Shortly after we received and began using this gift I noticed how the wife would operate the cleaner as if it were made out of tungsten, or some kind of hardened cold steel. She would ram it against the baseboard, wedge it under the sofa and move furniture with it. After three years just look at this poor vacuum cleaner.

When we go to the homes of other couples I make it a point to look at the vacuum cleaners and guess what? they all look like this. Go ahead take a look at yours and lemme know.

True Matriarchy

Around this time of the year, before the cold sets in for the season, the female bees force all of the male bees out. Once kicked out into the cold the male bees die. (A male bee is nothing more than an unfertilized larvae) Here you can see a pile of dead male bees.

I feel a bit of remorse on this day when I find all of the male bees piled up and left for dead. Should I write a liturgy? Should there be a day of mourning. Should all the males of creation wear some form of black cloth?

The male bee actually has quite an extraordinary life. They don't work, build cells, make honey, gather nectar, or even ward off intruders (males have no stingers). There only job is to have sex! Once there task is completed and the sun's rays become more angled they are thrown out and left for dead. Something to admire, kinda.