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Words Worth Sharing

read more21The path of least resistance in our house is to the couch and turning on the television.
“What do you want to do?” one of us will ask.
“I don’t know, what do you want to do?” we live forty minutes from the glory of the beach and the wondrous Atlantic, but after a reflective pause, someone says, “Want to watch tv.”
We watch television together, on the same couch, in front of the same set, speechless during and after. The television does the work for us. The adventures and the dialogue are all set out before us. Little is required. The greatest distance crossed is to get some popcorn if we can agree on a show and a snack.
We are losing the power of words shared, of life expressed. Books, especially poetry, are often life giving when shared together. My favorite example is from D.C. Berry,

Continue reading “Words Worth Sharing”

Have a Funky Christmas

My favorite Pat McLaughlin quotes…

When asked to sing at church, “I don’t know any sacred songs. Well… perhaps they’re all sacred songs.”

After I finished worship, “That’s the best #*^##* sermon I ever heard.”

This song is not a carol, and it won’t ever be in a hymnbook, but it brings me joy inside. Shouldn’t all Christmas gifts bring us joy inside? With that intention, have a Funky Christmas.

Don’t know what to get your music lover for Christmas? Support quality song writing in Nashville and have yourself a funky Christmas.  http://www.patmclaughlin.com/

Seek Don’t Get Stuck

I grew up in a textile mill neighborhood in South Carolina where the language we spoke was far from prose, yet it had a poetic cadence and was often quite colorful. Returning to my roots, here is my retelling of Saul’s conversion in Acts chapter nine.

There once a fellow named Saul. He was going about, hounding all of Jesus’ followers in the early church, throwing them in jail as the lawbreakers he thought they were. He’d even promote a lynching or stoning if there wasn’t a prison close by. Saul believed in God, and in a way that the confident often are, he was certain he was carrying out God’s will by preserving the right, the true, the holy tradition.

The risen Jesus was getting tired of Saul’s shenanigans. While on the road to a place called Damascus, Jesus caught up with Saul and smacked him to the ground. Jesus appeared in a blinding light, the kind of light you go toward when you’re dying but don’t want to see until then. Then Jesus spoke, “Saul, what the hell are you doing? Why are you being such a pain in my backside?”

Saul didn’t have any idea who would smack him down in such a way and then accuse him of doing wrong when he was so sure he had been in the right persecuting all of the followers of Jesus and shutting that movement down before it could get going good.

Saul asked, “Who is this?” Continue reading “Seek Don’t Get Stuck”

Put Down the Phone or Remote and Pick Up a Book!

read more1In the Bible, words, especially God’s words have power. God speaks and the worlds are created,

Genesis 1: 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good…

Psalm 33: 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

The gospel writer of John refers to Jesus as The Word or expression of God.

John 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Continue reading “Put Down the Phone or Remote and Pick Up a Book!”

Orthoducksy or Orthopraxis?

The knowledge of God is very far from the love of God. Pascal

   Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis are two distinct approaches to faith, life, and love. One is more popular and the other far more productive. Like all good paradigms, each has its own fancy Latin word.

  • Orthodoxy, or right thought, assumes that thinking comes before action, and if you think the right thoughts, accept the correct precepts, then you’ll make the right choices and do what is right. The application within the church is – believe in Christ and you’ll act like Christ.
  • Orthopraxis, or right practice, asserts that action precedes thinking, and if you do the right actions then you will think the right thoughts, and what’s more, you’ll become who you are trying to become. The application in the church is – act like Christ and not only will you believe, you will become Christ-like. Continue reading “Orthoducksy or Orthopraxis?”

Where the Wild Things Are

where-the-wild-things-are-2-1In Genesis chapter one, God creates both/ands…
God makes both light and dark and calls them “Day.” Each day has both bright and night.
God makes both land and sea as the earth.
God makes animals that are both wild and tame.
This world of both/ands, God calls, “Good.” God doesn’t say “perfect” though, in this balance there is a perfect unity of both/ands.
In this world of the tame and wild, there is a peace that can only be found outside of the walls we surround ourselves in for protection, beyond control and into the naturally ordered chaos, where the Wild Things Are.
Here are two poems that capture the essence of this wide wild world as good, among the wild things…


The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

World Communion

Image result for communitySunday, October 7, is World Communion Sunday when we envision a table and the world that is beyond our divisions and walls that separate us as expressed by poet Jan Richardson.

AND THE TABLE WILL BE WIDE
And the table
will be wide.
And the welcome
will be wide.
And the arms
will open wide
to gather us in.
And our hearts
will open wide
to receive.
And we will come
as children who trust
there is enough.
And we will come
unhindered and free.
And our aching
will be met
with bread.
And our sorrow
will be met
with wine.
And we will open our hands
to the feast
without shame.
And we will turn
toward each other
without fear.
And we will give up
our appetite
for despair.
And we will taste
and know
of delight.
And we will become bread
for a hungering world.
And we will become drink
for those who thirst.
And the blessed
will become the blessing.
And everywhere
will be the feast.

 

 

Wisdom Rocks

   A man encountered Sophia at the market selling used books. As he searched through a pile, Sophia reached below the table, pulled out an old book with a ratty cover, and when certain no one was watching, whispered, “Try this one. It is a treasure.”
   The man bought it for a few pennies, took it home, read it, and to his surprise, on the inside back cover he found scribbled in tiny letters a few sentences, a brief description, about a magic stone that could turn anything it touched into pure gold. According to the book, the stone was lying somewhere on the shore of the Black Sea among a million other pebbles that looked just like it. The one difference was that the magic stone was warm to the touch whereas all others were cold.
   The man set up a tent on the shore and went to work. Each stone he picked up, if it was cold to the touch, he threw it far into the sea so that he wouldn’t keep picking up the same stones.
   Stone after stone, he picked each up, felt it, and hurled it deep into the water. Stone after stone…
   He worked a week, a month, ten months, a whole year, patiently feeling each stone and tossing it into the sea.
   Then, one evening, he picked up a pebble, and it was warm to the touch! Through sheer force of habit, he threw it far out into the water.

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.  Leo Tolstoy

Cayla’s Way

I have a magician in my church. Her name is Carolyn Baumgartner. She can make a handkerchief disappear and then reappear again. I’ve seen it.

She can also make some books disappear as well. For their sixtieth wedding anniversary, instead of gifts of more stuff they don’t need, they asked for donations and bought a book for every student in the local elementary school. Continue reading “Cayla’s Way”

The Way God Is

When I chose the artwork for the cover of the 2014 edition of The Psychology of Jesus, I picked this painting by Bartolome’ Esteban Murillo.

8 Murillo return-of-the-prodigal-son-1670

        To me the subject of the painting and the story it tells is obvious. To my surprise, even the most Biblically literate have not immediately recognized this story brought to art by Murillo. I even asked my son, “Who is in this painting?” Not knowing what to answer, he gave the answer most twelve-year-old pastor’s sons would offer, “God.” The painting’s subject matter is given away in the title, “The Return of The Prodigal.”  Painted later in his life, Murillo was part of the Brotherhood of Charity. The group felt that charity was the only activity that people could do which touched the heart of God and eternity. All accumulating, whether power, wealthy, or even knowledge was temporary and lost in death. They highlighted seven acts of charity and mercy. Besides, retelling the story of the prodigal, Murillo’s painting highlighted the act of clothing the naked visually clear in the large pile of clothes the servant holds for the son.  Continue reading “The Way God Is”

The Journey is Home

Travel with those who love a journey,
accompany those who enjoy adventure,
be a companion to those who laugh often.

 If you heart is like a house with no door,
how can you ever feel at home with anyone?
If your heart is open, you can be at home
with anyone, everywhere.

 The people of The Way are never lost
because they are always at home,
no matter where they are.

Be like eagles,
why care where your nest is,
when your home is the sky?

Blessings at the Crossroads

Martin Guitars has an ad campaign called, “Crossroads.” In the ad, they retell the legend of Robert Johnson’s encounter with the devil. It’s a gloomy night at a crossroads on a rural Mississippi plantation in the early 1930’s. A struggling blues musician named Robert Johnson has a burning desire to play his guitar better than anyone else. At this lonely intersection, the Devil waits for Johnson. With the moon shining down, the Devil plays a few songs on Johnson’s guitar. When Robert Johnson gets his guitar back, he has complete mastery over the instrument. His soul now belongs to the supernatural being, and for the next 5 years or so, he creates music that will live past his tragic, suspicious death in 1938 at the age of 27.

A closer look at the lyrics of “Crossroads” shows not a man struggling with the devil and fame but with loneliness and pain. The crossroad is whether or not his pain will overwhelm him or whether or not he can come through it with a song. Continue reading “Blessings at the Crossroads”