Día de los Muertos is one of my favorite seldomly celebrated holidays in the US. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Like all saints day it is a day where we remember those who have come before us. Who has impacted your life and moved on to the "other side"?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Día De Los Muertos & All Saints Day
Día de los Muertos is one of my favorite seldomly celebrated holidays in the US. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Like all saints day it is a day where we remember those who have come before us. Who has impacted your life and moved on to the "other side"?
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
The Kingdom of God is Like Fine Wine.
Today I have been reflecting on the kingdom of God. The lectio divina I do at sacredspace.ie, asked to what common element in my life would I compare the kingdom of God. Jesus compares the kingdom to a mustard seed and a pinch of yeast. (Luke 13:18-21)
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Funeral: A True Expression of Church
I did another funeral this week.
- Why would we use the passages of Lazarus's resurrection for a funeral... it is not hopeful at all... Lazarus actually rose from the grave. As far as my experience no funeral I have preached has any one risen. Can we not find a more hopeful possible appropriate passage.
- As pastors, why do we spend our time considering who is in and who is out of God's kingdom. Is not a memorial actually more about the people still walking the planet
- Relationally funerals are odd. The real memorial seems to occur at lunch following.
- What do we as pastors really know about the people whose funerals we officiate. Sometimes we know a lot but most often we know very little.
- Why do we think funerals are a great place to share "the plan of salvation." People are mourning and we chose that as a time to tell them why people are "in or out"?
- Is it not similar to the old "hell house" routine?
- I find it interesting that we so rarely share the reality that Jesus experienced a ton of loss. Loss of his father, loss of cousin, loss of one of his best friends Lazarus, and then his personal experience of death.
- Something profound happens as we choose to grieve together. I think this is one of the truest expressions of the church.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
God will Give you Cavities: But only if you eat enough :)
I seek to be especially careful in how I engage children and their relationship with God and the church. I long for children to grow up and become wonderful adults that have fantastic memories about their religious experience. That way when they grow up and walk away from the church, (which I think most of us do at some point) they wont have to struggle through being hurt by a people that are suppose to be the embodiment of love.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Sin turns us inward.
I was reading a blog this week by Tullian Tchividjian. He makes a few brilliant statements that I have to share. He says that sin turns us inward and the gospels points us outward. Sin is about me... My wants, My will, My happiness. Like a little child, sin causes me to cry out Mine! "Martin Luther picked up this imagery in the Reformation, arguing that sin actually bends or curves us upon ourselves (homo incurvatus in se)"
"Many of us, in other words, think about spirituality exclusively in terms of personal piety, internal devotion, and spiritual formation. We focus almost entirely on ourselves and our private disciplines: praying, reading the Bible, and so on. That, we conclude, is what spirituality is first and foremost…The gospel causes us to look up to Christ and what he did, out to our neighbor and what they need, not in to ourselves and how we’re doing. There’s nothing about the gospel that fixes my eyes on me. Any version of Christianity that encourages you to think mostly about you is detrimental to your faith–whether it’s your failures or your successes; your good works or your bad works; your strengths or your weaknesses; your obedience or your disobedience.”
One of my favorite professors, Jim Keenan say that Sin is the "failure to bother to love." Love is outward it moves us out of ourselves. Love is gospel. To sin then is to fail to live Gospel
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Stanley Marrow 2.
The gospel is not a series of don’ts. It is a call to live life, following G-d.. each convert has a unique faith. And each Convert follows G-d uniquely"
Stanley Marrow
I’m sitting in my Thessalonians class with another real, authentic person Dr. Stanley Marrow SJ is a 80 something, Iraqi born, Jesuit, profoundly intelligent, professor. He is one of the people in my life, who if he were to ask me to follow him, like Jesus did the apostles, I would say… Absolutely
Stanley never forces his beliefs or his ideas on us. He just speaks and gives all that he is. If we choose to go where he is going, then great; if not, he is fine with that too, because it is part of us that is keeping us from going with him. And unlike most of humanity Stanley Loves people as they are.
He has given me a security that it is ok to just spout one’s beliefs. In actuality by spouting them just don’t try to force people to accept them. If they do, they do. If they don’t, they don’t. It is all Grace.
He has taught me that we have to realize our theology says more about us than it does about G-d. Thus when we talk about G-d don’t force Him (sic) to be who our neo-Platonist ideas are trying to make him to be.
G-d is G-d. Let him(sic) be.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Finished Bittersweet
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Bittersweet 2
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Bittersweet
I have to admit I am not a chocolate lover, that is unless it is very dark chocolate. Milk chocolate is way to sweet for me. Dark chocolate on the other hand encompasses both the bitterness and the simple sweetness that creates a complexity that my palate desires.
"bittersweet is the idea that in all things there is both something broken and something beautiful, that there is a sliver of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich when it contains a splinter of sadness."This yen and yang according to Neiquist is the central theme that runs through Christian history and faith is "death and rebirth." While this makes me uncomfortable because I want to avoid lumping Christianity into holding the idea of death as central to its core, truth is I know it is true in my own life. My life has had its darknesses, its deaths. It is in those seasons of death that I hope and long for life to spring forth. Those bitter moments make the sweeter moments of my life mean more.
hope and grace
These two words are two of my favorites. Hope because its what keeps me going and Grace because without it I am nothing. To my and Heathers great surprise when we were in Napa there is a winemaker who started his own wine company called Hope and Grace. He named it this because those are the names of his daughters. (which made Heather and I think about naming our child as well)
Monday, April 18, 2011
Eating Is The Most Sacred Thing We Do
I heard Anne Lamont say this today on NPR. (First, let me just tell you how much I love her) Today was not the first time I heard this. However after preaching this Sunday on what happened on Maundy Thursday this statement struck me more deeply than ever before.
I once had a professor tell me that Jesus was killed because of whom he ate with. When we look at the parable Jesus taught about loving our neighbor called the “Good Samaritan” and compare that story to the people Jesus ate with throughout his short life, it is clear that Jesus put his own teachings to action. Jesus’ table was open to everyone. This made me ask the penetrating question: Is my table is open to everyone? Who do I wish would go eat somewhere else? What am I afraid of? Could I be afraid of seeing God in someone who makes me uncomfortable?
Is your life feeling blue or broken? Who have you shared a meal with recently? Do you need more Divine moments in your life? Perhaps we should turn off our televisions and phones during dinner and just enjoy the people we are with. Have you opened a great bottle of wine with friends recently? It is in sharing this cup that we remember the new covenant.
To all my Jewish friends at Makom and beyond May you have a blessed Passover Meal. May you find freedom from your personal Egypts. To all my other friends what will you be eating tonight?