Wednesday Night Geek-O-Rama

After a long day of work and tending to the child, I have commandeered the television and the remote to watch the DCI World Championships on ESPN2.

I am Band Geek.
Hear me roar.

Sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost - "There IS An 'I' In 'Humility'"

Finally getting around to posting Sunday's sermon. I felt pretty good about this one - it rings true to me four days after the fact. The scriptures on which this sermon is based can be found here.

Most of you know the name Peyton Manning. He’s the starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, a Super Bowl champion and son of legendary Mississippi quarterback Archie Manning. Peyton Manning is one of the most important names in American sports, which makes him one of the most highly respected people in our country today. But would you expect to see this from arguably the best player in the National Football League?

What makes it funny? You guessed it: you don’t expect to see guys who get paid millions of dollars to play football chanting “Cut That Meat! Cut That Meat!” But here he is: Peyton Manning, turning the tables and putting himself in the position we occupy on Sunday afternoons.

Of course, it’s a commercial. Mr. Manning was compensated handsomely for his antics in these commercials. But he looks like a natural, doesn’t he? If he can do it, so can we, right? In our gospel reading today, it sounds like Jesus is suggesting that when it comes to how we interact with others, we should seek out opportunities to turn the tables and humble ourselves, so that our humility may be the thing for which we are praised. A friend of mine thought that she might title her sermon for today “Jesus’ Not-So-Common Sense Guide to Entertaining.” Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, help us to see wisdom in what You said and how You lived. We have so many questions, but You want to give us more than answers: You want to give us life everlasting. In our baptism You have made us Your own brothers and sisters: help us to claim the great gift of wholeness which You offer us in this place. Make us Yours, to live with You in righteousness and purity forever. Amen.

When I read the scriptures, there are times when I wish with all my heart that I could have been present to hear the way Jesus said some of the things He said. Our reading from Luke today is one of those stories. I’m almost certain that if you and I had been there to hear him say what is recorded in Luke 14.8-11, we would have heard a distinct note of heavy sarcasm in those words.

Look again at how Luke sets up the moment. Jesus goes to the house of a Pharisee for dinner. The word “Pharisee” means “separated:” the Pharisees were a group within the church that did everything they could to keep themselves holy and pure – ‘separated’ from the riffraff of society and any sinners. But the Pharisees also knew that Jesus was a teacher and healer of great power in their time, and so they invited Jesus to dinner. Why? To trap Him in arguments? To expose Him as a fraud? To use Jesus’ popularity as a way to boost their own reputations? It’s hard to say what the reason for that dinner might have been. What Luke does tell us is that from the moment Jesus entered the house, He was watched very closely. One gets the sense that Jesus’ hosts were waiting for Him to slip, to make a mistake. It’s an age-old story, of course: the rich and powerful grow accustomed to their high position, and when they feel threatened by the newcomer with a less-than-stellar background, they conspire to bring Him down. But this was not a fairy tale, and Jesus wasn’t Cinderella: Jesus knew exactly what was happening. More importantly, Jesus knew exactly who He was and why this moment would be important.

Luke tells us that Jesus watched the guests at the banquet choosing the places of honor. Again, there is a note of sarcasm and distaste buried within these words, as if the guests were hyenas snapping at a particularly juicy bit of carrion. In Jesus’ time, inviting dinner guests was a means of proclaiming the dignity and social status of the host: only the best families could expect to host dinners for those of great honor and regard in the community. So the guests had to look around and determine where they should be seated, according to their social status, which you can imagine would involve a lot of judging one’s position and, perhaps, even arguing about it.

Here is where I’m sure Jesus deflated the pomposity of the dinner guests with a particularly well-timed and sharply-pointed bit of sarcasm. Jesus suggests that the dinner guests should be fighting for the lowest place, so that they might be exalted for their humility. It is an absurd argument, even for Jesus. Can you imagine what it would look like, the entire dinner crowd trying to outdo each other in humility and deference to one another? Maybe you can imagine it after all: I see that, once again, the front pews are open this morning, while the back is overflowing with the humble! However, if a crowd of people arguing over the lowest place seems absurd, doesn’t it also seem to be absurd for a crowd of people to argue over the highest place? Here is where Jesus’ sarcasm bites the hardest – in suggesting a hypothetical absurdity, Jesus also exposes a real absurdity; a crowd of people clamoring for position and exalting themselves over their neighbors.

Jesus exposed two sinful problems in our gospel reading for today. First, he exposed the sin of pride, of self-exaltation, which is dangerous indeed. We all need to be deflated now and again. Secondly, however, Jesus exposed the sin of false humility, which may be even more dangerous because it leads us down the passive-aggressive path toward pretension, resentment and self-martyrdom. Trying to outdo our neighbor in humility is a dangerous sin, because it clothes itself in righteousness while it clamors to be recognized. “Look at me – I’m humble!” we shout, and all the while our vanity grows until it explodes in a storm of repressed anger toward those who have not recognized and praised our humility.

I’ll admit that I take far too much pleasure in pointing out the absurdities in myself and in the world around me, but today I’m going to indulge myself just a bit more in the hope that it serves the proclamation of the gospel. Yesterday was the first day of the college football season, when coaches across the country try to find ways to motivate their teams and push them to achieve great things. One of the most delicious absurdities I’ve ever heard is the tired old saying, “There Is No ‘I’ In Team.” The intent behind this chestnut is, of course, emphasizing team goals over individual glory, but you cannot build a team without individuals. The best coaches know how to build a team without removing everything that makes individual players unique. The best players balance a healthy respect for their own abilities with a firmly established sense of how those abilities serve the greater goals of the team. On a football team, players are not interchangeable. You can’t take Steve Hutchinson off the Vikings offensive line and replace him with Adrian Peterson; their abilities are great, but unique and special to themselves, and neither one has any reason to think that they are less important than the other.

It may be true that “there is no ‘I’ in team,” but I’d like to argue that there IS an I in humility. One of the words Merriam-Webster uses to define “humility” is “unpretentious;” I’d like to suggest that pretense is exactly what Jesus is suggesting we avoid. Let there be no pretense between us: we are who we are, no more, but also no less, and let us leave behind our games and our competitions about who is better or worse, who is stronger or weaker, who is more or less deserving of honor and reputation.

Why would I argue for this? Because I’m convinced that what truly matters about us is what Jesus sees within us, individually. Every one of us, whatever position we may hold in the world in which we live, is a child of God created in love by a Creator who can’t help falling head-over-heels in love with us. You are, by yourself, a person for whom Jesus of Nazareth suffered death on the cross – and if you’d been the only one, He still would have gone to Golgotha, willingly, on your behalf. At the same time, your neighbor, by herself, is a person for whom Jesus of Nazareth suffered death on the cross – and if she had been the only one, He still would have gone to Golgotha, willingly, on her behalf. What human honor could possible compare with this? What praise could I offer to the life you live that would be better than this?

There is an ‘I’ in humility: it comes when we take into ourselves the knowledge that no human honor or curse could ever be stronger than this one statement: “I am a child of God.” Let there be no pretense among us – this is the thing which makes all of us wondrous beyond words. Take a moment, turn to your neighbor, and repeat that sentence with me: “I am a child of God.” Now, turn to your other neighbor and give them the greatest blessing and praise you could ever give them, “You are a child of God.” Repeat it with me: “You are a child of God.”

Now, remember this! This is the great humility which Christ imparts to us, the thing against which nothing in our lives can prevail: “I am a child of God” This is the “I” in humility, to remember that in my moments of great achievement and my moments of darkest sin, “I am a child of God.” I can give no greater regard to my neighbor than to remember that he is a child of God. I cannot praise my neighbor with any greater words than “she is a child of God.” To argue that anything else is more important is absurd. I, in my strengths and weaknesses, am a child of God. You, in your fear and in your faith, are a child of God.

So, Peyton chants, “Cut That Meat!” and we laugh. Sure, why not? After all, he is a child of God. A gifted quarterback, to be sure, but more importantly, a child of God. Where are you gifted? What makes you a special individual on this team? Let’s leave behind the false pretense of what we cannot do, why we are not special. Let’s also leave behind the false pretense that we are irreplaceable, that our gifts make us somehow more important to the good of this world than those around us. We are children of God, with unique gifts and talents to be shared for the sake of the world without regard or comparison to others, for they are children of God also. The writer of today’s passage from Hebrews said, “Through [Jesus], then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess His name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

There’s a quote by Marianne Williamson that hangs on my office wall, I’d like to close with it this morning: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”

Don’t pretend to be something you’re not, Jesus says: be the child of God that you are. Humbly offer yourself to the world, and shine in goodness and mercy, and the children of God around you will be encouraged to do the same. God’s light shine in you this week. Amen.

My Inner European

I know, I know - I promised more content, fewer junk memes, but I got this one from Skdo's blog and just thought it looked like fun.

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Who's Your Inner European?

Monday Meme: The Cheesehead Interview

Cheesehead is interviewing folks at her blog: I volunteered. So, here's the Monday meme, interview style!

1. What (already published) book do you wish you had written, and why?
Gilead by Maryilynne Robinson. It is such a heart-rending book about the life of a pastor; it made me realize what a lifetime of this work might do to me, and yet it helped me realize that it's worth the cost.

2. Who gets to play you in the movie version of your life?
Back when I was much heavier and hairier, the kids at camp thought I looked just like Dusty from the movie Twister. So, Philip Seymour Hoffman it is. You be the judge:















3. When was the last time you were really, truly frightened?
Every two or three months I have a recurring nightmare where Beloved tells me she's leaving me; it happened again last night. There's no present cause for this nightmare; I'm sure it rises out of my divorce. Nevertheless, I always wake up terrified that I wasn't dreaming. Last night's version was a doozy. We watched the movie Driving Lessons last night (brilliant flick by the way), and so for some reason Beloved and I were in London when this happened. I lost my bicycle off the car, drove through a fossil dig in the middle of a busy London street, and had to get through a comedy club performance in the bar below our flat to get Ainsley away from Beloved. Like I said, bizarre, and nothing in our life right now even remotely suggests that such things would ever happen (London? Really?). But I woke up in a cold sweat nonetheless. The awesome thing is that Beloved knows just what to do when I lurch upright after these dreams: she wraps me up in a big hug, tells me she loves me and orders me to go back to sleep. With a big sigh of relief, I lovingly comply.

4. Where do you hope you take your final (earthly) trip?
I'd hate to choose something specifically for a final trip: we love to travel and I'd like to think that we'll still love to travel to all sorts of new places until one of us isn't able to do so anymore. We do have two big trips we'd like to take sometime, though: a long trip in Ireland and England and a trip to Berlin and Lutherstadt-Wittenberg.

5. Why do fools fall in love?
Because we love being in love: love is the domain of fools, singers and poets.


Now, here's the rest of the deal:
1. If you are interested in being interviewed, leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by posting five questions for you. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Baby Ainsley 365: It's Game Day!

Friday Five: Seasons Change...

reverendmother has the Friday Five this week at RevGalBlogPals:
It's Labor Day weekend here in the United States, also known as Summer's Last Hurrah. So let's say goodbye to summer and hello to the autumn. (People in other climes, feel free to adapt as needed.)

1. Share a highlight from this summer. (If you please, don't just say "our vacation to the Canadian Rockies." Give us a little detail or image. Help us live vicariously through you!)


Wow - can I share two? First, playing the role of E.K. Hornbeck in Prairie Wind Players' Inherit the Wind. It was a thoroughly enjoyable (and immensely cathartic) role and a real treat to work with some of my fellow cast members. Second, bringing a group of campers to Carol Joy Holling Camp in Ashland, NE, where I went to camp when I was a kid and where I served five summers as a counselor and Tipi Village site manager. It was the fulfillment of a dream thirteen years in the making: ever since I began to feel called to ordained ministry, I've wanted to do this. Glad it happened this year.

2. Are you glad to see this summer end? Why or why not?
I am and I'm not. I'm always excited about September because I'm an autumn person, but we had a pretty good summer. This summer went SO very quickly; I'd hoped to plant a garden this year (only got a garden tilled), hoped to have several woodworking projects completed (one is halfway cut and not at all assembled) and wanted to lose some weight (pants are still tight). But we've had a lot of fun with friends and family and are looking forward to a great autumn nonetheless.

3. Name one or two things you're looking forward to this fall.

I've got lots of things to be excited for this year: Husker football, the beginning of school, high school sports, Husker football, cooler weather, the beauty of Minnesota in September and October, Husker football, Husker volleyball, running the Siouxland Half-Marathon on 20 October with some good friends, Husker football, watching Ainsley learn to crawl and maybe walk, oh, and let's not forget, Husker football. :-)


4. Do you have any special preparations or activities to mark the transition from one season to another? (Cleaning of house, putting away summer clothes, one last trip to the beach)
Not really: the change in activity level at our church and getting involved at school is enough of a transition to manage. We've gone to the Minnesota State Fair the last few years (AKA Scott's End-of-Summer Gorge-a-thon-on-a-stick), but didn't make it this year; that's about as transition-y as we get.

5. I'll know that fall is really here when __________________________________.
we have a fire at night and I feel the need to put on a sweatshirt. That's the BEST time of the year. Also, when I can smell harvest in the air, when our walnut tree goes that cool, insanely red color before its leaves drop, and when Notre Dame loses to Michigan (sorry, Irish fans!).

Huskers - Wake Forest

I know, I know, I said I'd post more content and fewer links. But this was just to cool not to pass along.

Wake Forest - Army Tickets

There's a big military hospital (Womack) at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, which is about 100 miles from Winston-Salem. A large number of GIs wounded in Iraq are treated or rehab there. They also have a "Warrior Transition Battalion" for wounded who are no longer in-patients but who will not be returning to regular duty and will eventually be discharged from the army.

If you are a Husker fan who bought Wake Forest season tickets please consider mailing your Wake Forest - Army game tickets to be donated to the troops. I spoke to Shannon Lynch at Ft. Bragg on August 30th and they have received around 25 tickets so far. Let's see if we can do better than that.

Here's the mailing address (use all CAPS):

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
WAMC A ATTN: PAO OFFICE
2817 REILLY ROAD
MCXC PR
FT. BRAGG, NC 28310.

They did say they'd be happy to receive all the tickets we won't be using, not just the Army game.

So, before it slips your mind, unless you have a better use for them, please get those tickets in the mail to Womack. Thanks.

If you do mail tickets please let me know so we can add to the total.

Baby Ainsley 365: The High Point Of The Day

This will come as no surprise to anyone who's read this blog even semi-regularly. But I have to say it again: even the worst days can be made better by feeding my daughter and putting her down to sleep. I wouldn't trade anything for that pleasure.

It's been a rough month or so. Lots of stuff has been happening that's been less than positive, and some of it is ongoing. Finances are tight, due to some adjustments we didn't see coming and a few mistakes we've made along the way. Summer is over and I'm wondering how in the hell that happened so quickly: did I sleep through June or something? I'm restructuring some of my priorities at the church to meet some needs that have been identified through this summer's evaluations by our church council. But we are healthy and happy and our family feels tight to me, like we belong to each other in all the good ways a family should belong to each other.

(Speaking of family, Beloved just drove up and wanted a glass of wine ready when she got home. BRB)






Okay, Beloved is be-wined and I'm be-back. :-)

The point I was making is that recently I've not posted much beyond memes, sermons and links. Looking back it seems a desperate attempt to hide behind a flurry of activity: if I throw lots of shit onto the blog, maybe that means I'm still alive and kicking! This from a guy who's been preaching about slowing down and paying attention, that sometimes one more activity isn't the answer to our problems. Physician, heal thyself!

Sunday's gospel text is one in which I think Jesus is speaking with heavy satire about our propensity for narcissism. I'm playing with the sermon title, "An 'I' in Humility" as a means of drawing out the wholeness and self-realization which Christ desires to create in us. To be wrapped up in being "more humble" is just another way of being wrapped up in what others think of us: I get the sense that Jesus wants us to realize that we were created for more important things than what others think, positive or negative.

I need to remind myself that living authentically in my own skin is an important part of following Jesus, that false humility is as hypocritical and spiritually dangerous as despair or pride. To know myself better, to look within and call myself what I am - that is one characteristic of discipleship I need to emphasize if I'm going to be a better husband, father and pastor.

I'm listening to Dune by Frank Herbert right now, and I'm more intrigued than ever by the awareness and consciousness displayed by Paul Atreides. Even though it's fiction, I wonder: could I train myself toward that level of conscious existence, where fear blows through me and only I remain? Something to consider.

Anyway, I feel like I'm drawing back toward being "me" again - that my compass is again fixed where lately it's been wandering. Now, as to the course being charted for me? Who knows? But the voyage awaits, nonetheless, and I'm anxious to be under way.

College Football Wisdom

Well, the most wonderful time of the year starts tomorrow night: College Football Season! In honor of said season, I give you this collection of wisdom from some of the great coaches of the game - and a lot of other people not named Devaney. :-)

"At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money and we don't have any."
Erk Russell, Georgia Southern.

"Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas." Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game.

"After you retire, there's only one big event left....and I ain't ready for that."
Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it."
Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"When you win, nothing hurts."
Joe Namath / Alabama

"Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated."
Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, "Roll, tide, roll!"
Bear Bryant / Alabama

"A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall."
Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you."
Woody Hayes / Ohio State

"I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation."
Bob Devaney / Nebraska

"In Alabama, an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant."
Wally Butts / Georgia

"You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life."
Paul Dietzel / LSU

"It's kind of hard to rally around a math class."
Bear Bryant / Alabama

"No, but you can see it from here."
Lou Holtz / Arkansas...When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world.

"I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in
practice, not in a game."
Bear Bryant / Alabama

"There's one sure way to stop us from scoring-give us the ball near the goal line."
Matty Bell / SMU

"Lads, you're not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died."
Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

"I never graduated from Iowa, but I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's."
Alex Karras / Iowa

"My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor."
Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee

"I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades."
Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

"Always remember..... Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David."
Shug Jordan / Auburn

"They cut us up like boarding house pie. And that's real small pieces."
Darrell Royal / Texas

"Show me a good and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure."
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"They whipped us like a tied up goat."
Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

"I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me and he said: "Well, Walt, we took a look at you and you weren't any good."
Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State

"Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel."
Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"Football is not a contact sport-it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport."
Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his post game message to his team: "All those who need showers, take them."
John McKay / USC

"If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education."
Murray Warmath / Minnesota

"The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb."
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon."
Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

"It isn't necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it."
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches."
Darrell Royal / Texas

"We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking."
John McKay / USC

"Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad." Darrell Royal / University of Texas

"I've found that prayers work best when you have big players."
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football"
John Heisman

Monday Meme: Slainte!

You Are Guinness

You know beer well, and you'll only drink the best beers in the world. Watered down beers disgust you, as do the people who drink them. When you drink, you tend to become a bit of a know it all - especially about subjects you don't know well. But your friends tolerate your drunken ways, because you introduce them to the best beers around.

What's Your Beer Personality?

Passionate Poetry Post

Milton at don't eat alone is a wonderful writer, a former ordained minister and an excellent chef (at least, he talks like one, which is the closest a guy can come without actually eating his food).

He is also a poet, and last Thursday's poem was a doozy. Here it is.

Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost - "On the Healing of the Sabbath"

The Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and God’s Word, but consider it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

But what does that mean?

Let us pray: You give us mercy, Lord – still our lives so that we may receive it. You give us freedom, Lord – calm our hearts sot that we may embrace it. You give us healing and peace, Lord – show us our brokenness, our bondage, all that holds us captive, so that we may be healed and believe that You are healing and peace itself. Amen

When I was in college I was a member of the choir at the Lutheran Student Center. Every Wednesday night at 7:30 we’d meet in the chapel at the Student Center for an hour of rehearsal, and most of us would hang out afterwards until it was time to go home. We sang almost every Sunday during worship and two or three times a year we’d go out to a congregation somewhere in the Nebraska Synod, usually the home church of someone in the choir. It was a great time for most of us – we got to sing, laugh and worship together, and frankly, it was good to have some ‘down time’ in the middle of the typically hectic week of a college student.

One fall, a friend of mine named Kelly decided to withdraw from the Student Center choir to focus on other things. Kelly was that rarest of sopranos: she had good pitch, a clear tone and a beautiful voice that was confident but not overpowering. So losing Kelly was a great blow to our choir. Frankly, I wasn’t all that impressed by her reasoning. In fact, I think you could safely define my reaction as a combination of ignorance and open hostility. I remember saying something to the effect of how stupid it was that someone with such gifts should refuse to offer them to the church because she felt “too busy.”

When I said this, I was a full-time student, living off-campus and working 20 hours a week taking surveys for the Gallup Organization. I also put in 20 hours a week on marching band meetings and rehearsals, had at least one concert a month for Jazz Band or Wind Ensemble, sang in the Student Center Choir, sat on the council and was an active member of two Bible study groups. I was not getting enough sleep, drinking way too much coffee, feeling short-tempered and irritated most of the time and sleepwalking my way through college, getting by on luck and instincts instead of study and intellectual passion. Now, who was the stupid one again?

At first glance it might appear that the synagogue leader in today’s gospel reading is making the same argument that my friend Kelly once made. After all, the Third Commandment does insist that the Sabbath is a day to be honored and kept holy. God does insist that we honor the seventh day of creation, the day in which God stopped working, by observing a work stoppage of our own. But there is a bondage buried beneath the synagogue leader’s loud protests; something holds him, and us, captive, and Jesus is as anxious to remove this crippling bondage as he is anxious to remove the infirmity of the woman he heals. Where is healing taking place in this reading? Is it only the woman who gets healed, or are there others? We must recognize that many of the people in the synagogue that day experienced healing through the words and actions of Jesus. Healing occurs wherever Jesus removes the burdens and barriers from human life, and there is an abundance of burdens and barriers falling away in our reading from Luke this morning.

The crippled woman would be the first to mention, of course. The healing he gives to this woman is immediate, genuine and driven by compassion. Eighteen years is an eternity to be held prisoner in your own body. We must not make the mistake of looking past the miraculous physical healing Jesus gives to the teachings that often follow upon them. Jesus did not heal as a means to the end of teaching: Jesus healed, and when people questioned the healing, then Jesus taught. The woman was in need of healing, and so Jesus healed her, and if no one had said anything, then Jesus’ work for that day would have been complete.

But the crowd also was healed that day. They were healed of their predisposition to see the bent-over woman only in terms of her infirmity. It is in our nature to see our neighbors in broad terms; to seize upon their identifying characteristics and use them to define the entire person. Thus Mr. Hartman, my elementary school principal, is forever defined in my memory by the empty sleeve that hung from his right shoulder, the result of a farming accident from his youth. Thus my dad’s best friend, Butch, is now born-again Butch, because he has come to a vibrant evangelical faith in his later years. These are only parts of the whole of these two men – but because I am human and in bondage to sin, I’ve allowed the pieces of these lives to become the entire life itself. That is a mistake from which Jesus would heal us, as he healed the crowd in that synagogue long ago from seeing a woman only in terms of her infirmity.

The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus’ opponents were put to shame by his arguments against them. Here is another kind of healing entirely: a healing from arrogance and from wrong ideas about the Sabbath itself. This is not a gentle healing at all: this kind of healing hurts. When burn victims live through the immediate danger from their wounds, they often begin a more painful process of healing known as debridement: the dead and decaying skin is removed so that new, living tissue has a better chance to grow. It is intensely painful, but necessary for the growth and well-being of the patient. In the same way, Jesus’ strong words against the synagogue leader and his opponents are words intended to heal, though at the outset they would have been incredibly painful to bear. Jesus’ harsh words were always intended to heal, to tear away that which was slowly poisoning the people around him, so that health and wholeness might take its place and be allowed to flourish and grow. In healing the woman and then speaking out against his opponents, Jesus healed many who had wandered away from a healthy understanding of Sabbath and healing.

Our reading from the book of Isaiah offers us a vision of what Sabbath can be when it is embraced as God has intended. “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, ¹⁰if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted…If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs… then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. ¹¹The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. ¹²Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth…” This passage comes from what we know as Third Isaiah, the section of the book that was written after the people of Israel returned from their captivity in Babylon. They were praying and fasting and they couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t bless them in their new home and in their new work. But God used Isaiah to say, “Yes, you fast, but you do it to impress Me. Yes, you pray, but you use flowery words because you think I’ll listen more closely if your prose is impressive. Meanwhile you oppress the workers in your house and you fight with one another. You’ve taken the Sabbath and turned into a means to an end – you use the Sabbath to get My favor and to oppress the people around you. Why would I listen to you when you dishonor Me like this?”

Jesus knew that the Sabbath was a day intended to give life. After six days of hard work, God took a day of rest to be rejuvenated and refreshed. Is it any coincidence that the activities we pursue for pure pleasure are often called re-creational? It is these things which give us life and joy and make the world in which we live a place of freedom and rich blessing; but we do a terrible disservice to all of it if we make any of it a burden to be carried rather than a gift to be shared.

When order and structure become things to be protected instead of a good upon which we agree, they need to be broken, and this is exactly what Jesus did in our gospel reading this morning. The leader of the synagogue was using the Sabbath as his own personal kingdom, a place where he set the rules and he determined what was right or wrong. But protecting the Sabbath because it is the Sabbath was never what God intended, and the synagogue leader committed a sin by using the Sabbath as his own personal power trip. The Sabbath has always been meant to free us from our sins, to invigorate us with joy, to equip us for ministry in God’s creation and to recharge us with passion of the Holy Spirit: how can that happen when we use the Sabbath to protect our personal interest, deny others the right to be healed, require our neighbors to meet our needs and restrict the abundance of the Sabbath by piling on rules and regulations? Isaiah’s message from God can be summed up like this: if you stop pointing fingers, you'll be healed. Isn’t it time we stopped pointing fingers and using the church as our personal kingdom and started focusing on what actually brings joy into our lives?

Jesus breaks the rules in order to heal. He breaks bonds that hold us captive to set us free. Maybe it’s time to ask the question of ourselves: is our captivity to certain behaviors or ways of being allowing injury and disability to continue? We lament that it’s hard to get visitors and young people in the doors of the church: are we creating that problem by our insistence that there is one absolute and certain way to go about honoring the Sabbath? The Sabbath is a GOOD thing, and so were the Pharisees and synagogue leaders who protected it, but they still needed a chance to break free from their bondage to “what we’ve always done.” Could the same be true for us today?

Finally, let’s look at the woman who was healed one more time. She was bent-over, incapable of anything but mere existence – thanks to Jesus, she became free, able to move and breathe and live. Do we feel the same way after hearing the words of Jesus? Has the church become just one more item on the checklist of our incredibly hectic lives? If so, is it possible that we might actually need to stop adding more church duties and simply find Sabbath again? Is it possible that saying “No.” to the church might mean saying “Yes.” to God? It could be. Whenever we get the idea that the church or our job or our family or anything else God has created wouldn’t continue without us, we’ve lost our way and forgotten the point of the Sabbath: “You are not indispensable – you are God’s creation and only God is indispensable. When we think the Sabbath can’t happen without us, we need healing, and maybe healing that hurts, because we’ve traded life for a burden and made the church and its duties into an idol that takes the place of God. When anything, even the church, takes you to the point of near-exhaustion, where you’re burdened beyond your strength, remember these words of Jesus and see if maybe you’ve forgotten something: Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

May you be healed this Sabbath. May you find your back straightened, your load lifted, your shoulders un bowed and your strength renewed. May you find rest for your soul, an easy yoke, a light burden. May you be healed. Amen.

Baby Ainsley 365: More Pictures from Grandma & Grandpa's Visit

Some more shots from Grandma & Grandpa M's visit to Minnesota. First, Ainsley teaches Grandma M how to read:



"No, Grandma, it's I before E except after C!"


And what member of the Johnson family would be complete without a little "concentration tongue?"

A Cultural Friday Five

This week's Friday Five from RevGalBlogPals:

I have spent the week at Summer School studying the Gospel and Western culture, we have looked at art, literature, music, film and popular culture in their myriad expressions. With that in mind I bring you the cultural Friday 5.
Name a
1. Book
2. Piece of music
3. Work of art
4. Film
5. Unusual engagement with popular culture and tell how these cultural encounters have helped/ challenged you on your spiritual journey.

1. As far as books go, there is much in my faith that springs directly from the books I've read. One that has come up in my reflections prior to nearly every funeral over which I've presided is Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Yes, I know it's science fiction and certainly not orthodox, but I find in the character of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin much to admire in terms of pastoral honesty. When Ender "speaks" the death of someone, he describes them as they are, not in the glowing, saintlike terms so many of us (myself included) tend to use as we eulogize the dead (eulogy being, of course, "good words" in Greek). The entire Ender series, in fact, deals with ethics, politics and faith in thought provoking ways; I've rarely felt more engaged by both story and philosophy.

2. When I entered the University of Nebraska I intended to be a music educator, and even after I felt drawn to ordained ministry I continued to be active in the music department. I spent three years as a member of the Wind Ensemble and played lots of great music, including the Nebraska premiere of Johan de Meij's Lord of the Rings Symphony in its entirety. But the piece that continues to bring me to tears and joy is David Maslanka's Symphony 4 for Wind Ensemble. Here are selections from Maslanka's notes on the piece:

The roots of Symphony No.4 are many. The central driving force is the spontaneous rise of the impulse to shout for the joy of life. I feel it is the powerful voice of the Earth that comes to me from my adopted western Montana, and the high plains and mountains of central Idaho. My personal experience of the voice is one of being helpless and torn open by the power of the thing that wants to be expressed -the welling-up shout that cannot be denied. I am set aquiver and am forced to shout and sing. The response in the voice of the Earth is the answering shout of thanksgiving, and the shout of praise.

Out of this, the hymn tune "Old Hundred," several" other hymn tunes (the Bach chorales "Only Trust in God to Guide You" and "Christ Who Makes Us Holy"), and original melodies which are hymn-like in nature, form the backbone of Symphony No.4…

Out of chaos and the fierce joining of opposite comes new life and hope. From this impulse I used "Old Hundred," known as the Doxology – a hymn of praise to God; Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow, Gloria in excelsis Deo – the mid-sixteenth century setting of Psalm 100. Psalm 100 reads in part:

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord
with gladness; come before His presence with singing... Enter into
His gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise: be
thankful unto Him, and bless His name.

3. Salvador Dali's The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus has always intrigued and challenged me. There's a majesty to this painting, especially when one considers that the original is more than 14 feet tall. The imagery is complex and I'll admit that I know little of the analysis needed to fully appreciate this work of art. But it reeks of both grandeur and empire, which would obviously seem to speak to our modern context, wouldn't they?

4. American Beauty is not a happy film. It isn't inspiring, fulfilling, redemptive or even remotely enjoyable in the traditional sense by which I measure movies. But I've yet to discover a film that better captures the absolutely hollow nature of so many 20th and early 21st century Americans. Gorgeous on the outside and without substance within - isn't this why, in a time of unrivaled prosperity, we suffer more depression than anyone else?

5. I really don't have any engagements with popular culture - we don't run in the same crowds. J But I did have an unusual engagement in theater this summer: I played the atheistic journalist E.K. Hornbeck in our community theater's production of Inherit the Wind. Hornbeck was based upon Baltimore's H.L. Mencken, the critic who wrote scathing reviews of the "Scopes Monkey Trial" to a national audience. Even though I don't share Hornbeck's distaste for matters spiritual, I did find myself relishing the pointed barbs he loosed against hypocrisy, religious zealotry and ignorance; even though Hornbeck wasn't a sympathetic character, he was definitely interesting to play and (I hope) observe from the audience!

Bonus: Is engagement essential to your Christian faith, how and why?
Yes, I think so. I've always said that my primary sermon aid is a daily newspaper, though I'll admit I'm growing tired of the self-serving aspect of the media, especially the television media (are you listening, CNN?). I would say rather that engagement is essential to ministry - it's like learning the dialect in a foreign country, so that you can communicate more clearly.

Baby Ainsley 365: One Circle Closing

This was a picture I meant to post several weeks ago. Ainsley is posing with Megan, a counselor at Carol Joy Holling Camp in Ashland, NE, where we took our Confirmation kids in July. Megan was a camper at Tipi Village both of the summers I served as Tipi Site Manager - running into her at the pool one day and finding out she was back at Tipi was a great moment for me. Cute picture, too!

Baby Ainsley 365: Misty Morning

It feels a little like Scotland or rural Ireland/England in Barrett this morning:




Just for fun, a Me-and-MiniMe pose:

Baby's First Bodhran

Okay, so it's not a genuine Irish bodhran - but it IS a drum we made at church camp a few weeks ago, and Ainsley LOVES playing it! (more)

NEBRASKA BAND 91 CITRUS

Why? Because it's almost that time again. HTB RFL, baby!

No, I wasn't in the band in '91 - I started at NU in 1992. But this is the only decent video I could find on YouTube. BTW, Banned geeks, let's get some decent footage posted, esp. drumline stuff if we could?

Monarch Moments

Barrett is on the migration path of the North American Monarch Butterfly. Last Thursday my mother-in-law and I stood outside and just watched them fly around for at least twenty minutes - it was incredibly beautiful. Here are some pictures, and I'll post two videos if I can get them to work on YouTube.

Baby Ainsley 365: Family and Friends

Grandma & Grandpa M celebrated their 40th Anniversary with us this year. They came to stay in Barrett for a week and last weekend we joined Beloved's sister & family for a night on the town in Minneapolis: dinner at Cafe Lurcat (tres spendy but tres delicious!) and Triple Espresso - what fun!

Before we went out we took this family picture:


Here's Grandma & Grandpa M with Ainsley at our house in Barrett:


Our friend, the Divine Miss Kathryn, came to visit at Kristin's sister's house on Friday afternoon:


And Ainsley was all wrapped up in rolling around: