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I forgot to mention in my last post that the reason for the 1-week hiatus from TV and the internet was because we were going on holiday to Spain. So I didn't have internet access, but a TV was in the room - which we did not watch. So it was partially a forced break, but still a cleansing one.
We stayed at an apartment in Mijas on the Costa del Sol, and true to its name, it was SUNNY!! Seven straight days of bright sun and mid-70s. There was a pool ten steps from our front door, including a separate kiddy pool that the girls loved. We were often the first people on the beach in the mornings, and were joined by at most ten people by mid-afternoon, except on the weekend when it was more crowded. A very relaxing, refreshing week. The girls were semi-independent, which allowed Somer and me to do lots of reading. I finished The Name of the Rose, caught up from two weeks behind on my Bible reading plan, finished Postmodern Children's Ministry, and read half of The Lost Message of Jesus...more on some of those in a little bit. I also came back with about five significant questions...again, I'll share more later.
For now, it's good to be back.

Self Control

So I love my wife. She's right, a lot. We've been doing this read the bible in a year thing. The other day she says to me: "I thought about you today while I was doing the reading. It said 'We haven't been given a spirit of timidity, but one of self-control.' I thought about you and your addiction to television and the computer. You have a spirit of self-control...so use it."
Wow.
So, for the next week, I'll be watching no television, and using no computer. Kind of a cleansing.
See you in a week!

Doing good to enemies

The sermon went well yesterday. See the previous post for a link to the full text of what I said. One of the things that made it good was the discussion afterwards. It was quite a lively time of interaction, and not everyone was in full agreement with each other or with me, which is the whole point. In particular, I had said something about "turn the other cheek" not meaning that people should quietly submit to domestic violence. A woman pointed out that many of the Chrisitans in Eastern Europe during the cold war were willing to submit quietly to the tortures of the totalitarian governments, because they believed they were responding the way Jesus would want them to in light of this passage. I didn't disagree that it was right for them to respond that way, but I did say that just because it was good and right for them to do so, it doesn't mean that every person who encounters violence must quietly submit to it on an ongoing basis. Jesus' words are more in the "wisdom" genre than the "commandment" genre. That is, they are totally authoritative and binding, but that authority will demand different actions in different situations. Make sense? She didn't really agree with me, and I guess that's the point of a discussion. Also the point of this blog...so disagree away!

Rose quote

I've decided to continue providing short quotes from The Name of the Rose as they strike me along the way. I'm about half way through the book, and really loving it.
Adso the narrator writes:
"I was upset. I had always believed logic was a universal weapon, and now I realized how its validity depended on the way it was employed. Further...I had become aware...that logic could be especially useful when you entered it but then left it."

Tomorrow's Sermon

Well, you (whoever you are) have kept me honest, and forced me to finish my sermon before the day I'm giving it. Sorry it's so late, but hopefully some of you will still have time to view and comment beforehand. Here it is, again, as a PDF that will download automatically. I welcome your thoughts, whether before or after the fact.

Eco Quotes

Two quotes from The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

"But as you see, heresy in many cases is wed to the revolt against overlords, and this is why the heretic begins by preaching Madonna Poverty and then falls prey to all the temptations of power, war, violence."

"...the order of things must not be transformed, even if we must fervently hope for its transformation."

two good warnings to us who are working for change in the church.

Shockingly Generous

So i'm preaching on Sunday. it's wednesday, and I decided it was probably time to look at the passage they want me to preach on. i open the bible to Luke 6:27-36, feeling very depressed because of another hard night at the Hub. and what does Jesus have to say? "love your enemies. do good to those who hate you...lend without expecting any return...God is generous to the stingy and the wicked, and you must be merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful."
I don't know what I'm gonna do...this thing's been bugging me all day. who cares what i'm supposed to say to the church, i feel like this is Jesus speaking right to me. when i read it, the first thought that came to mind was "i should take the guy who slapped me in the Hub out for a meal." i read the passage to Emma (co-worker at Bethel) - just because it was bugging me, and without any prompting from me, she said what I'd been thinking. I'm excited and freaked out at the same time. Tom Wright says this passage is all about which God you know: is it the God of astonishing, scandalous mercy or is it someone else?

The random order

Tonight I cut my wife's hair. I do it about once a month or so. I'm a terrible hair stylist. tonight i managed not to cut any fingers for the first time in four attempts. her hair comes out looking chunky and a bit like it's been hacked with a hedge cutter. it also looks very cool. she makes me do it because she's unwilling to pay money to have a professional do it. I can't stand the thought of paying money to have my hair cut either, so I just haven't had it cut since last year. tomorrow Somer will go buy a $4 cup of coffee at starbucks, then use $12 worth of hair coloring to turn parts of her head pink. i will put a bit of $15 gel in my hair, mostly to keep it from looking like a 'fro, but also because it smells good.
yesterday we went to an 800 year old church, and loved it. It was church of England, and between the Apostles' Creed, the Prayers of the People, and other items from the book of common prayer liturgy, we sang Matt Redman songs and watched a projection from the vicar's Mac.
Eclectic? A bid random? Exactly.

Unity in the church

At LCM's divisional day on Wednesday, John Nicholls spoke about unity in the church. He said when you look at the New Testament, there's very little instruction focused on the individual. Almost everything addresses the church as a community, giving instruction on life together. The splintering of the church in Western world is one of the great impediments to its having a significant impact on society.
John lamented the fact that every Sunday, there are many churches that meet withing blocks of each other (for example, in Ilford, a Baptist, a Catholic, and an Anglican church are all right next to each other on the main road). Other times, churches with only a handful of people continue to meet separately, meaning that several pastors are spending most of their time planning Sunday services, when all the people could easily fit into one Sunday service, freeing up the other pastors to pursue evangelism. He challenged us to think about ways we can be agents of unity - how we can begin to get churches to work together in our communities.
One of my initial thoughts is that maybe the problem of disunity runs even deeper than redundant Sunday services. Sitting together in a building and falling asleep together during a sermon doesn't make for much unity. Having a common vision, a common purpose in the community, and common passion for God and love for one another - these are the things that unite the church. I suggested it at New Life last year, and I'll say it again now: Maybe one of the healthiest things a church can do is call off its Sunday morning services for a month and provide other ways for people to stay connected to each other and pursue worship and evangelism together, so that people learn to focus their lives on worship of God and service to one another, rather than focussing on Sunday.

Lectio Divina # 2

So, I couldn't bring myself to write a monologue (i.e. a sermon) for the Wednesday afternoon meeting. Instead, we did Lectio Divina. If you don't know how it goes, see my previous post on the subject here. It was beautiful. Julian was skeptical of how it would go over with the group (everyone is over 60). But it was beautiful. God met us in a powerful, worship-inspiring, healing way.
We meditated on Psalm 46.

Thank You

I don't even know most of you, but you sent an entire suitcase of gifts with my parents last week. Three packs of Oreos (down to two packs plus four cookies at the time of this writing), five tubs of American peanut butter, several movies (we've already watched three of them), stuffed animals that the girls have named "Boris" in honor of Joe's rubber ducky from Blue's Clues, lots of crafts for the girls, sidewalk chalk (see picture) and so many other things that I can't type them all out. Jesus' love shines through you...Thank You!! May God return your generosity on you many times over.

I'm back...refreshed

We had a wonderful week with my family. The weather was great for the easter weekend, and we spent several days out in the city. Monday we went to Greenwich, as in - Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian. Here we are at the top of the observatory hill with Canary Warf business district behind us. After a little exhaustion from all the activity, we've had a couple days of minimal time at the centers to recover (Friday is usually finished after moms & tots, and yesterday there was nothing to do at Ley Street because kids are on easter holiday here). I've enjoyed the break from the internet...kind of a cleansing of sorts. But I'm back, with lots of thoughts brewing.