Advent III Worship

Sunday's shindig, Guadete Sunday, went better than expected. The music sounded great, folk were overall in a good mood and my sermon was short and off-centered.

Advent has been frustrating for me, just havent been able to get the sermonic activity going. Advent iv, xmas eve and xmas look better though.

This week ones can celebrate Ember Days. I think these ancient Celtic seasonal celebrations copted by the Christian Church as days of fasting and abstinence are quite cool. Hawk gave the following description:

According to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (every
Anglican leaning Baptist needs one of these in their bookcase), ember
days are four groups each of three days, in the church year, viz., the
Wed., Fri., and Sat. after St. Lucy (13 Dec.), Ash Wednesday,
Whitsunday, and Holy Cross Day (14 Sept.) respectively, which are
observed as days of abstinence and fasting in the Churches of the West.
The name is perhaps a corruption of quatuor tempora which in Latin means
'four seasons'. Their early history and original purpose is obscure,
but they seem to be tied to seed time, harvest, and autumn vintage. The
connexion (Oxford spelling, not mine) of the days with the crops has now
been largely lost, and they are associated to-day almost entirely with
the ordination of ministers.

On a practical matter, Bishops typically use the Ember Days as
opportunities to check up on their postulants and candidates for Holy
Orders. While in seminary I was required to write a letter to my Bishop
on or around an Ember Day and he would respond on or around the
following Ember Day. As for fasting and abstinence I don't know of
anyone who still practices this on the Ember Days.

The Anglobaptist offered this:
hen I was at SWTS I befrinded a bishop who served as one of the
trustees. I
actually sent him an ember day letter once. Mentoring makes sense and
we
baptists forget that sometimes.

How would you go about it? Is your EM bishop-ish? Pastoral? L. G.
is our EM, I would have sent him an Ember Day letter had he been
serving while
I was in seminary.


Look like a tradition worth reviving, minus the focus on bishops and ordination. Perhaps they could serve as parish wide days of preparation for xmas-epiphany.

ReRead, part IV

The other day I picked up my brother-in-law a copy of Dialogues with Silence by Thomas Merton; buying the copy got my Merton juices flowing again. I began to think about Seven Storey Mountain, how would it read now? I read, reread and rereread it in college and seminary but what about now that I am married, have a family and no immediate possiblity of entering the seminary. What about now that I have studied and read so many Merton titles, performed academic Mertonian studies, sat with Merton scholars, emailed Merton scholars, claimed Merton snobbery, etc.

How did it read? Like a breath of fresh air.

I wish I could read the Bible the way I read Merton. I love the bible, no foolin'. But it is hard to read that thing after semesters and semesters of classes. On the one hand I wish I could go back to the large blue, huge print kids bible my grandma and great aunt bought me one year. it had large pictures to color and was a great read. Someday I'll get back there and have some fun.

The Need for a Few Young Families

Last night we had a good mix of church people, friends and neighbors. It was great to have about ten young families with their kids running around making a mess of our house. It was also nice to imagine how great it would be if only a few of them would take a liking to LRBC. We need a few young families, just a couple willing to commit to the church to help build a new community of faith. Over my three year tenure several young families have come to the church but havent stayed, I dont blame them. Our Sunday School needs a 100,000 mile overhaul, we have no nursery or anyone to staff it, and our youth program is lagging. But if a few would be willing to stay and work with us I feel we could really turn the corner.

But I dont want the people who were at our open house to come to our church, yes I would. However, there is a great freedom of having friends who have no desire to join our church, or any church for that matter.

At my ordination I had Dan read a section from Harry Emerson Fosdick's autobiography, The Living of These Days concerning how he was commiting himself to adding to the spiritual life of his generation. I would like to make my our contribution. So I wonder about that contribution.

Third Annual Parsonage Open House

Last night we had our third annual parsonage open house. The wife and I love to cook, host and throw a party. The folk from church, friends and neighbors love to nose around, snoop through our stuff, eat our food, and mingle. The open house builds lots of social capital and is a great time. All in all about 60 people gathered at our house.

The Spread:

Appetizing Stuff
Vegetable Tray
Fruit Tray
Chips and Salsa
Bean Dip
Sausage Balls
Mixed Nuts
Spinach, Artichoke Dip in Bread Bowl

Heavier Fare
Buffalo Wings*
Pepperoni Calzones
Ham and Cheese Calzones

Desserty Stuff
Guiness Brownies*
Corn Flake Chocolate Balls
Toffee Chip Chocolate Cookies*
Turtles
Rasin Oatmeal Cookies
Brie with Caramel
Peppermint Bark

Drinks
Rolling Rock
Bottle of Pinot Grigio
Bottle of Pinot Noir
Punch (Pineapple Juice, Seltzer Water, Pineapple Sherbert)


*marks items I actually made. The wife worked her tail off baking, cleaning, cutting, preparing, "dealing" with the kids and other various activities that I have a knack for unnoticing.

Just for posterity's sake. If it were not for the wife and I was left in charge of the open house, it would consist of some saltine crackers, bbq chips, beer and chocolate chips.

The New Yorker

Several weeks ago I began to threaten others that I was going to start a subscription to The New Yorker. Why? I appreciate the essays, short stories and general art coverage, oh yeah the cartoons (it took about three issues before I started to understand the cartoons). Then one day in October on nytimes.com there was a one day deal, 36 issues for $20, I took it.

The issues come weekly and after a few weeks I realized that I am not a member of the target audience. So I took the first 60 pages to look at the major advertisements and how much the products cost.

A Cartier watch $2,350
An Audi A8 $63,000
Cole Haan handbag $350
Bergdon Goodman pjs $895
Aquos tv $5,000

The magazine may want me to read and appreciate their articles, but their advertisers need to shift a bit for my income.

Shouting

How come Donald Trump and the guy on Fear Factor always shout when they talk?

You would think they would go to a voice coach who could teach them how to gain some volume without screaming all the time!

Advent II Worship

Last Sunday went well. The choir sounded great, the flow of the service went smoother and the folk seemed warmer to the newness. Considering that we had a snow storm right before church started and did not stop till after the benediction, it was a good service.

Early Baptist pretty much banished the practice of the Christian year; there was no Easter, no Christmas, no Advent, no Pentecost, no nothin'. Every Sunday was an Easter, no need for one special day. There is part of me that likes this idea and would like to take this to the extreme and uplift the Sabbath every Sunday. Then there is the part of me that has a deep appreciation for the Christian year and its marvelous ability to teach theology. I feel the latter part today is important as more and more people become less familiar with the Christian narrative. Perhaps the best way is the incorporation of the Christian year, at least that is the route I am currently taking. Who knows a few years from now I may be a Sabbath solely kind of baptist.

Mixing Metaphors

During the writing workshop I participate in this summer I was reinstructed on the sin of mixing metaphors. In one sentence I referred to both a plant blowing in a breeze and a fish taking bait. I have repented and seem to witnessing better writing fruits of the spirit. My 2 1/2 year old son on the other hand is still learning this skill.

Yesterday morning he stood next to our manger scene complete with wise men, sheep and the baby Jesus (which did not arrive parcel post). He stood looking at the manger and told it I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down. Not exactly a mixing of metaphors but definitely a narrative mix.

Sausage Balls

This Friday the wife and I are hosting our Third Annual Parsonage Open House. It is our way of having the church, friends and neighbors over for a little holiday festivities. The open house also gives us a chance to try some new recipes and produce some old favorites. Luckily not too many folk with a northeast palate appreciate our down home favorites, which means lots of leftovers for us. Our preeminent favorites is sausage balls. The wife has perfected this recipe and I offer it to y'all.

1 lb of good quality hot sausage, patty style.
10oz. of grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
2 and 1/2 cups of Bisquik
2-4 tbls of milk

form into 1-2in balls and bake at 350 for 15-20 mins

These little jewels not only make a great snack they are prefect warmed up in the morning with a cup of coffee for breakfast. that is what i did this morning along with an omelet.

Camera Happy

Yesterday, after viewing the recent posts, the wife told me she was going to take the camera away from me; my pics were getting a little ridiculous. I have always had a snap happy finger. As a kid I would take pictures of mud puddles, endless snaps of our dog Amos, pine trees with snow on them, etc. So today I signed up with flickr.com as a way to better communicate my pictures without clogging up the blog. Enjoy the selections.