iHOPE

Getting the Big Picture

This week I am out of the office because I am working on sermons for the coming year.

It is an annual tradition. Every year after Easter, I grab some materials and meet up with my friend, Rich Gantenbein. He is the pastor at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Sonoma, CA. 

I have forgotten how many years we have done this together, but it has become part of the rhythm of my year- and my life.

I don't know if it is just coincidence that the sermon series I am preaching right now is "The Big Picture", but it is appropriate. Sermon planning week is one of the ways I use to step back and try to get the Big Picture for New Hope and the year ahead.The time we spend and the thoughts we share, help us get and keep, perspective.

How do you get the Big Picture in your life? It is one thing to talk about it, but it is another thing to have a way to step back, refocus and get the Big Picture.  Over the past 20+ years of sermon planning together, here are some things I have learned:

This Should Be Interesting

Ever felt like this?

You start out thinking you don't need much in life to make you  happy. Just a few things, and that's it.

Then, maybe a few things more.

Before you know it, you have more stuff that you know what to do with. Your closets are full. Your basement, too. You have a three car garage- and there isn't enough room for your cars.  You have a storage unit. Maybe two. You're thinking about getting another- or larger, one.

You've got stuff. In fact, you sometimes wonder if you have your stuff- or if your stuff has you. At some point, you may even feel…like a jerk.

Did the Clergy Get a "Time Out"?

  For the record, I think New York's Mayor Blumberg's decision to hold a Memorial Service without clergy or religious representation is misguided.  I can understand how 'religion' might be considered too volatile at a time like this, but it can also be a source of comfort and strength. The picture on the left is the iconic shot of the Firefighters carrying out Father Mychal Judge, the Franciscan priest who lost his life while administering last rites in one of the Twin Towers.  Faith is powerful. It can create chaos, but it can also heal hearts. There have been other inter-faith, 9/11 memorial services- including in New York, and they added to the healing.

  That said, I don't see the exclusion of clergy as comparable to 'banning God'.

  First, all but the most egomaniacal of clergy would readily blanche at the notion that their presence is somehow on par with the Almighty. God didn't get banned- Religion did. There is a deep suspicion in some that Religion may be at the heart of this and many other tragic events. I think that is oversimplified and frankly, just wrong (a recent study about this was just released). At the same time, there is no denying the danger of Religion Gone Wrong. Maybe Blumberg still remembers all the fuss kicked up by clergy-types over the proposed construction of an Islamic Community Center a couple blocks from "Ground Zero. Maybe he decided he didn't want to try and navigate the through the minefield of, 'Which faiths should be respresented?', 'By Whom?', 'Doing What?'  Maybe, Blumberg decided the clergy needed a "time-out" so the memorial service could focus on the victims, and their families. Based on some of the hyper-ventilated responses, maybe he was right.

  Second, God isn't so easily 'banned'.  Just because religious representatives won't be on the platform, doesn't mean God's not around. Some of God's best work is done out of the spotlight. God specializes in showing up in the least expected places at the least expected times. If God was present in the hell of the first 9/11, God will certainly be at the memorial service for this 9/11, too.  You can't keep God out. Try keeping prayer out, for that matter. God's people have never needed to have a spot on the 'schedule' in order to pray.  That site has been bathed in prayer for the past 10 years. People all over the world will be praying for the victims and their families that day. I know we will.

  Which brings me to my last thought. I can understand why Mayor Blumberg may have made the decision he made, but here is why I think he missed an opportunity:  The answer is not to try and ban Religion Gone Wrong as much as it is incorporate Religion Going Right.  How much more powerful would it  have been to have representatives from all the major religions up front in a show of unity? How much more healing? The combined witness of all faiths standing against violence, would have signalled that Religion Gone Wrong is an aberration, not the norm.

  Earlier this year, an interfaith statement was crafted called, The Charter for Compassion . It is as simple as it is powerful. There is nothing controversial here- and that is the point. For all the significant differences that exist between major faiths (and there are many), one value that all can agree on is the need for Compassion. Maybe if more folks (clergy included) could embrace things like the Charter for Compassion, others wouldn't feel the need to give religious leaders a "time out" at memorial services like this. Then again, if more people embraced Compassion, maybe there wouldn't have to be as many memorial services like this in the first place.

 

 

Worship: What's the Question?

 

I LOVE the changes in worship!

I don’t like the changes in worship!

I like some of the changes, but don’t care for …(fill in the blank)

Keep going! We want more

Stop! We don’t like this

I’ve been away for a few weeks. What’s going on?

 

  Do you recognize any of those statements?  I have been hearing them throughout the month of July with regards to our worship services. That’s why I wanted to follow-up on last month’s article on worship.

 

  There have been some significant differences in worship the last few weeks. Most people assume that since Nick Rossi came on as our Interim Director of Worship & Music about the same time,  that he must be the one responsible (aka, ‘the One to Blame’).   Actually, many of the changes in July were in the works before Nick arrived. They came in response to some questions about worship that I wanted to address over the summer.  In order to understand the answers Nick helped us come up with, it might be good to understand the questions that inspired them. Here are a few:

Recharging Batteries

  This is 'Sermon Planning' week. Its the week I go off and think through sermons for the next year.  I do it with my good friend, Rich Gantenbein. He's the pastor at St.Andrew Presbyterian Church in Sonoma, California.

  We've been doing this together for more than 20 years.  We gather up ideas that we have been thinking about (or people give us) and then talk through how we might approach them. We create series and then plan when we might tackle them. Sometimes we will preach the same series at the same time, sometimes we won't. The important thing is we bounce ideas, think through issues and sharpen one another's thinking.

  I'm not going to go into what we have planned (you'll find out soon enough!). The point of this post is that there are relationships that are vital and life-giving. One of the ways God blesses us is with good friends who know us and enrich us. They aren't to be taken lightly. The longer you have them, the better life gets. Rich is one of those friends in my life. I hope you have some friends like that, too.

  There is an old saying, "It takes a long time to grow an old friend".  Indeed, it does. But its worth it. They will recharge your batteries and renew your life.

  Got any friends you haven't contacted in awhile?

Mid-Week Memo: Snow Day

Memo to Self:  Pay Attention!

  Today was a Snow Day- one of those days that are part of living on the Front Range. Within a few hours we went from a mild day to blizzard conditions. It is one of those things that is welcomed (mostly by kids who get out of school) and dreaded (people who have to brave the roads and go to work anyway fall into this category). Either way, it shouldn't catch you off-guard.  The message through it all:  Pay Attention!

• Pay Attention to the Things You Take for Granted: Its easy to forget that practically EVERYTHING in the house requires electricity- until you don't have it.
• Pay Attention to Others:  It was amazing how many people were driving last night as if they were unaware of everyone else. The parking lot that was I-25 was part of their legacy. Paying attention to others means to watch for the good things, too. What a great neighbor who came and cleared the snow off the driveway before you had to go out and shovel!
• Pay Attention to Opportunities:  Just because the regular schedule was altered doesn't mean that the day was wasted. Did you see all the parents who were out in the snow with their kids? Long after the snow melts, those memories will endure.
• Pay Attention to God's Provisions:  Did you notice the Hawthorne bush in the back yard? Everything was buried in snow. About a dozen Robins were sitting in the bush looking for berries that had been left. Their big, puffy, red bodies looked like Christmas ornaments against the snow-laden branches. It was a post card with a message.  The berries provided food for birds. The birds provided a reminder for you. If God has provided for birds in the midst of a sudden blizzard, how much more will God provide for you?

  Today was a Snow Day. Nothing went as you had planned, yet God was here. Pay Attention!

A Time to Dance?

 
I was struck the other day by an article about Haiti and Carnival. Normally this season is full of celebration, revelry and general raucousness. This year, it has been called off. There is nothing to celebrate.

“I live on the street. I lost everything. Today, I should be dancing but the earthquake ruined everything.”

  There is too much tragedy for celebration, too much sadness for dancing. As one woman said,

“I’m sad not because we don’t have Carnival,” she said. “I’m sad because I lost eight people of my family. They’ll never dance again.”

  Carnival/Mardi Gras is a little foreign to us Presbyterians (that is what is known as an 'understatement'!). Today is Fat Tuesday which is the last day of Carnival before Ash Wednesday and the traditional rigors of Lent (that is a little foreign to us, too). It seems the idea is to have all the fun you can before you have to get 'serious' with religion. That is too bad.

Living With a Future

I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, 

plans for your welfare and not for harm,

to give you a future with hope.   (Jeremiah 29:11)

  Dan's book, Everyday Courage, has me thinking about the future this week. The first theme we are invited to read, think about, pray over and discuss in our Life Groups is 'courage for the future'.  If there is one affirmation that permeates scripture, it is that the People of God have a future.

  So, how do you live when you aren't afraid of the future?  You give your best energies to the future you believe is coming. That is easier said than done! Let me give a couple examples:

Fight Club Evangelism?

  OK, I appreciate the creativity and the passion for evangelism, but I think we crossed a line here. The latest trend in evangelism for some churches is ...mixed martial arts?

  Yep, according to the the NY Times story (February 1, 2010) the latest scheme for getting people to follow the Prince of Peace is to encourage them to beat one another to a pulp.

Recruitment efforts at the churches, which are predominantly white, involve fight night television viewing parties and lecture series that use ultimate fighting to explain how Christ fought for what he believed in. Other ministers go further, hosting or participating in live events.

  Evidently church softball teams are for wimps. If you want to attract men today, you need something with a little more testosterone- and a lot more blood.

The goal, these pastors say, is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing...The outreach is part of a larger and more longstanding effort on the part of some ministers who fear that their churches have become too feminized, promoting kindness and compassion at the expense of strength and responsibility.

  So much for that 'turn the other cheek' thing. If only Jesus wasn't so 'feminized' and had a little less compassion, he could have kicked some serious tail and avoided the whole incident with the cross.

  Still, far be it from me to buck the latest trends. Maybe its time for New Hope to toughen up a bit. We should probably start with our motto as a church where people 'Find a Home, Build a Life and Make a Difference'. From now on our stationary should say something like, 'The First Rule of New Hope...'

  Hmmm.

Are We Distracted into Incompetence?- PBS Documentary Raises Questions About 'Benefits' of Technology

 Since I mentioned Facebook (yes, I use it) yesterday in the sermon, I thought this might be timely. Part of the issue seems to be the myth of multi-tasking. Haven't seen the PBS documentary yet, but looking forward to it- maybe while I'm working on taxes, emailing and working on dinner :)
  The issue of developing out focus has never been more important. It looks like we are in the situation of having so many ways to connect that we can distract ourselves into complete incompetence.
  I'm curious about how all you 'connected' people (if you are reading this, you're one of us!) have wrestled with this in their own lives. What have you found that helps you stay focused even as you are more and more connected?

Click in the link below to read the article that got me thinking.

via news.cnet.com