...I hope you like crap. These inflatable things were everywhere in Florida. I'm sorry I just think they are tacky. But the inflatable creche I'd have to say is the tackiest.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Happy Birthday Jesus...
...I hope you like crap. These inflatable things were everywhere in Florida. I'm sorry I just think they are tacky. But the inflatable creche I'd have to say is the tackiest.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
This is a picture taken of one of the side dishes from Christmas lunch. I opened the can myself and then sliced it. Mmm. Fortunately everything else was delicious.
Today was a hard day but fortunately it is over.
Peace out!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Question?
So I'm in Florida for Christmas. What this means is that I'm up well past everyone else and I'm usually watching things on TV I might not normally watch. (I mean it is 10 PM and everyone has already been in bed for hours.) So tonight I was watching the Luther College Christmas Concert. Really amazing. But they did a little Luther college commercial in the middle. It was sort of like the kind of college commercials they do at televised college sporting events only it was for a concert. During the little infomercial they said that of the 2500 students 1000 are members of the music program. So here is my question: Does that mean there is a higher percentage of gay men at Luther than there are at other campuses of similar size?
I think it probably does. But I be interested to hear your answers. I also am pretty sure that some of you actually went to Luther and can give me a first hand account.
My hope is to blog a little more while I'm here. So keep checking back.
Merry Christmas!
I think it probably does. But I be interested to hear your answers. I also am pretty sure that some of you actually went to Luther and can give me a first hand account.
My hope is to blog a little more while I'm here. So keep checking back.
Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Today's Sermon:
Throw Open Your Windows
Well we have reached the final Sunday of advent. Let's take stock of where we have been these past four weeks. In week one we discovered all that had clouded over our windows. We took note of the dust and cobwebs that build up in our heart and our souls over the course of a year or a lifetime. It may be greed or anger or jealousy. Violence or injustice. Whatever it is it prevents us from seeing a story of hope. Instead we see a story of fear. Remember we talked about the apocalypse and how that story that was intended to be one of hope of a second coming has been turned into one that makes us fear the very return of the light. It turned this story of a little baby being born into a manger into one that is dreaded because it involves shopping and cards and baking and family. There is much in our lives that clouds over our windows, obscuring what is beautiful.
In week two we sought ways to clean off those windows. We heard that in order to look forward we had to look back. We looked back to John the Baptist who looked back to Isaiah and to Elijah. We looked back to all the valleys that needed to be lifted up. We looked to the sin, both personal and corporate. And we looked at how that sin was not necessarily the dancing and drinking that many of our parents had said. Perhaps sin was the ways that we had focused solely on ourselves instead of focusing on the world around us, the people around us. The ways we had "tried to protect others" but in reality were merely protecting ourselves. The ways our ego prevent us from being fully who God wants us to be and caring for the people in our lives and in our world. And we looked at cleaning those cobwebs away by being fully human, by pointing all people toward the beauty and joy in the world. The calling that we all have to be artists, priests, window washers. Clearing away the dirt and decay and pointing instead to the love and life.
Then last week we lit a candle in our windows. We sang songs and read words that pointed us to the light. We lit a candle to remember. As we place a candle in our windows in solidarity with the victims, the missing, the returning. We place candles in our windows as beacons of sort. It is an anticipation of a homecoming. And it is a way of saying we have not forgotten. We have told the story and we will continue to tell the story.
This week we return to the window. And finally this week we get to a character that we recognize. Actually one of the main characters in the story that we have been building up to. We get to talk about Mary. Mary who will be the wife of Joseph. Mary who will be the mother of Jesus. Mary, the one who will stand at the foot of the cross as her son is crucified. This is the character that we are introduced to today. She is someone who I think is a little more complex than we give her credit for. Usually the way she is described is a virgin, meek and mild. We see her as the chosen one. The one who is fated to this deed and passively goes along with whatever is expected of her. But I really think that is not quite an accurate depiction. We have to believe that she had some freedom of choice, some free will. I mean otherwise she is not human right. And we hold to the fact that Jesus came from human and that he was fully human so Mary had to be also. Right? She gave birth like every other woman before and after her. She raised children--which means she probably potty trained and cleaned up all sorts of bodily fluids. She was a mother and a wife. She did the things that wives and mother did during that time. And she did the things that were expected of women of her day. She was a human.
So we have to assume that she had a choice in the matter. And I wonder how many times had the angel been there before. Was this the first time or had he asked before? Had she been too afraid? I mean that would certainly be understandable. Remember I just said she was a woman of her day. So there were ways that things were done. And getting pregnant before you were fully married to your husband was not one of them. And really who is going to believe that you were impregnated by God? Certainly not the man you are supposed to be married to. He would be fully within his right to turn you out or even worse. And what was a woman without a husband? She was destitute and alone. Disgraced. Out on the street.
I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. This was a television series that aired from the mid to late nineties until oh 2003 or so. I had friends who watched but I had never seen an episode until recently. It is really good. There is a character named Angel who was a terrible vampire but eventually he was cursed with a soul and so could no longer kill. He also fell in love with Buffy. Ironic, eh? Well anyway at some point in the second season the curse was broken and he lost his soul again. So in order to prevent him from entering their house Buffy had to seal the doors and place crosses and garlic etcetera at the windows, the primary place he had entered the house. Incantations and the whole shebang. I've only made it through season two so I can't really tell you how it all turns out. But this felt very familiar to me. And I think it would feel pretty familiar to Mary as well. She was afraid. Perplexed it says. And the first words that the angel said were do not be afraid. You do not have to close me out. What I bring you is good news.
We all are at times like Mary and like Buffy. We are trying to protect ourselves. So we lock our windows. We might even cover them up. We let jealousy and anger and our egos cover up our windows. Because at least inside in our protective cocoons we are safe. The world is a dangerous place. We can get hurt out there. But if we just stay in here then we are okay right? And we are right to believe that the world out there is a dangerous place. It is risky to step out.
I heard a story a few years ago about a transgender woman who decided she wanted to look for a church. So she visited a church in Tennessee where she lived. And while she was living her life as a woman, I don't know what sorts of surgeries she had had, but she still had some mannish features. And so she walked into a church, a church that she had grown up believing would offer her God's love and acceptance. She walked in and sat down in the back row, and inconspicuous place, a place where she might blend in. As she was waiting for the service to begin she noticed that a group of people had circled up and were having what looked like a fairly intense conversation. And eventually the conversation broke up and one of the people came over to speak to her. The man informed her that she would have to leave because her presence in the service was too disruptive. Just being there was too disruptive! Stepping out into the world is risky. You run the risk of being hurt and rejected. So it is easier to just stay inside and board up the windows.
But something happens when you board up windows. The air begins to become stale. Dust begins to settle on the furniture. Things begin to decay. You become more and more afraid of the outside world. The plants don't have light to survive and they begin to wither and die. You become more and more afraid of other people And pretty soon you are merely a ghost of your former self. The kids in the neighborhood view your house as the one to be afraid of. In the end you stop living--you stop loving. You begin to die.
And so Mary had a choice. She finally opened her window. And let the angel in to bring the good news. She knew it was risky, but she knew that was the only way of living, of loving. That woman in Tennessee that I told you about eventually left her house again and went to another church, a church where she was fully accepted. A church where she was able to be real and to be loved. She was telling this story in a large group of people gathered for the Alliance of Baptist Convocation. She was no longer sitting on the back row trying to blend in, no now she was telling her story. She was telling the good news to others. But first she had to throw open her window and risk being loved by someone else.
Today we are being called to throw open our windows. To risk being loved. To risk living. Because it is only when we do that are we able to fully see what is beautiful. That is the only way to let the fresh air in. That is where all the new growth happens. That is where new life happens. The flower blooms outside the window. You become more of what God desires you to be. You bare the gospel for a hurting world. Throw open your window. It is scary and risky. But it is also full of beauty. It is full of love. It is full of life. This season of advent has been leading us to a decision. We must make it every year, every day, every minute. Will we choose darkness or light? Will we choose war or peace? Will we choose despair or joy? Will we choose hatred or love? Will we choose death or life? What will we choose? What will you choose? What do you say that this year, this day, this minute, we choose life? Amen.
Well we have reached the final Sunday of advent. Let's take stock of where we have been these past four weeks. In week one we discovered all that had clouded over our windows. We took note of the dust and cobwebs that build up in our heart and our souls over the course of a year or a lifetime. It may be greed or anger or jealousy. Violence or injustice. Whatever it is it prevents us from seeing a story of hope. Instead we see a story of fear. Remember we talked about the apocalypse and how that story that was intended to be one of hope of a second coming has been turned into one that makes us fear the very return of the light. It turned this story of a little baby being born into a manger into one that is dreaded because it involves shopping and cards and baking and family. There is much in our lives that clouds over our windows, obscuring what is beautiful.
In week two we sought ways to clean off those windows. We heard that in order to look forward we had to look back. We looked back to John the Baptist who looked back to Isaiah and to Elijah. We looked back to all the valleys that needed to be lifted up. We looked to the sin, both personal and corporate. And we looked at how that sin was not necessarily the dancing and drinking that many of our parents had said. Perhaps sin was the ways that we had focused solely on ourselves instead of focusing on the world around us, the people around us. The ways we had "tried to protect others" but in reality were merely protecting ourselves. The ways our ego prevent us from being fully who God wants us to be and caring for the people in our lives and in our world. And we looked at cleaning those cobwebs away by being fully human, by pointing all people toward the beauty and joy in the world. The calling that we all have to be artists, priests, window washers. Clearing away the dirt and decay and pointing instead to the love and life.
Then last week we lit a candle in our windows. We sang songs and read words that pointed us to the light. We lit a candle to remember. As we place a candle in our windows in solidarity with the victims, the missing, the returning. We place candles in our windows as beacons of sort. It is an anticipation of a homecoming. And it is a way of saying we have not forgotten. We have told the story and we will continue to tell the story.
This week we return to the window. And finally this week we get to a character that we recognize. Actually one of the main characters in the story that we have been building up to. We get to talk about Mary. Mary who will be the wife of Joseph. Mary who will be the mother of Jesus. Mary, the one who will stand at the foot of the cross as her son is crucified. This is the character that we are introduced to today. She is someone who I think is a little more complex than we give her credit for. Usually the way she is described is a virgin, meek and mild. We see her as the chosen one. The one who is fated to this deed and passively goes along with whatever is expected of her. But I really think that is not quite an accurate depiction. We have to believe that she had some freedom of choice, some free will. I mean otherwise she is not human right. And we hold to the fact that Jesus came from human and that he was fully human so Mary had to be also. Right? She gave birth like every other woman before and after her. She raised children--which means she probably potty trained and cleaned up all sorts of bodily fluids. She was a mother and a wife. She did the things that wives and mother did during that time. And she did the things that were expected of women of her day. She was a human.
So we have to assume that she had a choice in the matter. And I wonder how many times had the angel been there before. Was this the first time or had he asked before? Had she been too afraid? I mean that would certainly be understandable. Remember I just said she was a woman of her day. So there were ways that things were done. And getting pregnant before you were fully married to your husband was not one of them. And really who is going to believe that you were impregnated by God? Certainly not the man you are supposed to be married to. He would be fully within his right to turn you out or even worse. And what was a woman without a husband? She was destitute and alone. Disgraced. Out on the street.
I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. This was a television series that aired from the mid to late nineties until oh 2003 or so. I had friends who watched but I had never seen an episode until recently. It is really good. There is a character named Angel who was a terrible vampire but eventually he was cursed with a soul and so could no longer kill. He also fell in love with Buffy. Ironic, eh? Well anyway at some point in the second season the curse was broken and he lost his soul again. So in order to prevent him from entering their house Buffy had to seal the doors and place crosses and garlic etcetera at the windows, the primary place he had entered the house. Incantations and the whole shebang. I've only made it through season two so I can't really tell you how it all turns out. But this felt very familiar to me. And I think it would feel pretty familiar to Mary as well. She was afraid. Perplexed it says. And the first words that the angel said were do not be afraid. You do not have to close me out. What I bring you is good news.
We all are at times like Mary and like Buffy. We are trying to protect ourselves. So we lock our windows. We might even cover them up. We let jealousy and anger and our egos cover up our windows. Because at least inside in our protective cocoons we are safe. The world is a dangerous place. We can get hurt out there. But if we just stay in here then we are okay right? And we are right to believe that the world out there is a dangerous place. It is risky to step out.
I heard a story a few years ago about a transgender woman who decided she wanted to look for a church. So she visited a church in Tennessee where she lived. And while she was living her life as a woman, I don't know what sorts of surgeries she had had, but she still had some mannish features. And so she walked into a church, a church that she had grown up believing would offer her God's love and acceptance. She walked in and sat down in the back row, and inconspicuous place, a place where she might blend in. As she was waiting for the service to begin she noticed that a group of people had circled up and were having what looked like a fairly intense conversation. And eventually the conversation broke up and one of the people came over to speak to her. The man informed her that she would have to leave because her presence in the service was too disruptive. Just being there was too disruptive! Stepping out into the world is risky. You run the risk of being hurt and rejected. So it is easier to just stay inside and board up the windows.
But something happens when you board up windows. The air begins to become stale. Dust begins to settle on the furniture. Things begin to decay. You become more and more afraid of the outside world. The plants don't have light to survive and they begin to wither and die. You become more and more afraid of other people And pretty soon you are merely a ghost of your former self. The kids in the neighborhood view your house as the one to be afraid of. In the end you stop living--you stop loving. You begin to die.
And so Mary had a choice. She finally opened her window. And let the angel in to bring the good news. She knew it was risky, but she knew that was the only way of living, of loving. That woman in Tennessee that I told you about eventually left her house again and went to another church, a church where she was fully accepted. A church where she was able to be real and to be loved. She was telling this story in a large group of people gathered for the Alliance of Baptist Convocation. She was no longer sitting on the back row trying to blend in, no now she was telling her story. She was telling the good news to others. But first she had to throw open her window and risk being loved by someone else.
Today we are being called to throw open our windows. To risk being loved. To risk living. Because it is only when we do that are we able to fully see what is beautiful. That is the only way to let the fresh air in. That is where all the new growth happens. That is where new life happens. The flower blooms outside the window. You become more of what God desires you to be. You bare the gospel for a hurting world. Throw open your window. It is scary and risky. But it is also full of beauty. It is full of love. It is full of life. This season of advent has been leading us to a decision. We must make it every year, every day, every minute. Will we choose darkness or light? Will we choose war or peace? Will we choose despair or joy? Will we choose hatred or love? Will we choose death or life? What will we choose? What will you choose? What do you say that this year, this day, this minute, we choose life? Amen.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Weekend wrap-up
I'm sitting at the coffee shop and I thought I should probably catch you all up. I have been crazy busy--well crazy busy for me--working through the four Sundays of Advent. This is the last week and then next week I'm off to Florida for a week with family.
But this weekend I took off for Vegas to celebrate the birthday of my friend Justin. There were 12 of us total. It was really, really fun. Albeit exhausting. I am still tired. We arrived on Friday afternoon. I had lost the amount I set as my cap for Friday by 7. It was super fun playing the slot machine Village People Party. If you got Village, People, and Party on the screen at the same time then you got to have a party in the upper screen complete with dancing village people and Macho, Macho Man song blaring. Believe when I tell you that there was no one in that casino who had any questions about our sexual orientation whenever any of our crew got to have a dance party. There was gasping, clutching of pearls, and applause, in short full out merriment. Some of our group actually won some money. I was not one of them.
That night we went to a bar off the strip called Fun Hog Ranch. It is a gay bar and a new gay bar to the city. It was a great local bar in a part of our town that our cabbie was concerned about. He thought the neighborhood was a little sketchy. However, I'm fairly certain that we might have been the unseemly sorts that he was concerned about. It was a great bar. The mixed drinks were $3 and served in pint glasses. And honestly I think beers were $5 and served in gallon mugs. (Okay maybe not gallons but they were pretty big.) It would probably not be an overstatement that some of our group consumed at least a half keg or keg a piece. (Remember, I don't drink beer so this was not me.) We rolled into the hotel room around 3 AM. (I don't remember the last time I was out that late.)
Then on Saturday we went to...wait for it....wait for it... to the Live Price is Right Show. That's right I said the Price is Right. Complete with the Show Case Showdown, the big wheel, the Mountain Climber game, and OMG, Plinko. Four of our twelve people got called up to guess prices. One of our folks got to spend the big wheel. But in the end all that anyone of us won was a conciliation t-shirt. But it was really fun. I mean really, really fun. Then that afternoon I lost what I had planned to lose for Saturday in about an hour. Both days my loss was on the table game Let it Ride with a few twenties lost on the VP Dance Party. That night we went out to a great restaurant to celebrate Justin's birthday.
At midnight we all got in the taxi line, me to return to the hotel and the rest to go to a new gay club called Krave on the strip at the Planet Hollywood casino. It is the first gay club on the strip--Vegas is not the biggest gay destination, although they are trying to recruit more gays. They know we have more expendable income. Anyway. I got to bed about 1 AM. I was leaving on a plane early Sunday morning to get back for church. Well at 4:10, 5 minutes before my alarm was to go off, my roommates rolled in from the club. So as I was leaving they were just turning out the lights to go to sleep.
I headed to the airport where I boarded a plane with the hookers who were also leaving Las Vegas early. Now I don't know they were hookers because I recognized them, but just because I could tell.
There was also this incredibly loud woman sitting across the aisle from me. Now I slept a good bit of the flight, but in the time I was not asleep, this is what I learned about her: she was recently divorced; even though her husband promised never to leave her he did for a younger woman and I'm adding this part I'm guessing a less annoying woman; she was there in Vegas because she had taken some additional contract jobs to make ends meet; she had two kids and several animals including I think an iguana; she got the house in Cheyene, WY; her brother was an optometrist and commuted 45 minutes to work every day; her sister-in-law was a teacher and had extensive education but left teaching because she was tired of it and was now the talker's brother's, the woman's husband's office manager. The woman's ex-brother-in-law was a school a principle. The woman had tried to get on an earlier flight but they would charger her to re-route even though there was available space on the flights. She was supposed to go to Nebraska that afternoon to go shopping with he mother but she just didn't know if she was going to do that now. And, and here is the kicker she was going to sleep on her next two hour flight. WTF?!? Boundaries lady. And why couldn't she sleep on the flight that everyone else was trying to sleep on? I really feel sorry for the people who were trapped in the two seats beside her. Come on people, no talking to strangers on airplanes. Maybe after you have landed and are taxiing to the terminal, then perhaps it is okay to strike up a conversation, but never ever before.
So that is it. I made it to church in plenty of time, but I was dragging. But I just acknowledged where I had been and went on from there. Then I slept for four hours that afternoon and eleven hours that night.
But all in all a great trip. So Happy Birthday Justin! Here's to a great year.
Peace out!
But this weekend I took off for Vegas to celebrate the birthday of my friend Justin. There were 12 of us total. It was really, really fun. Albeit exhausting. I am still tired. We arrived on Friday afternoon. I had lost the amount I set as my cap for Friday by 7. It was super fun playing the slot machine Village People Party. If you got Village, People, and Party on the screen at the same time then you got to have a party in the upper screen complete with dancing village people and Macho, Macho Man song blaring. Believe when I tell you that there was no one in that casino who had any questions about our sexual orientation whenever any of our crew got to have a dance party. There was gasping, clutching of pearls, and applause, in short full out merriment. Some of our group actually won some money. I was not one of them.
That night we went to a bar off the strip called Fun Hog Ranch. It is a gay bar and a new gay bar to the city. It was a great local bar in a part of our town that our cabbie was concerned about. He thought the neighborhood was a little sketchy. However, I'm fairly certain that we might have been the unseemly sorts that he was concerned about. It was a great bar. The mixed drinks were $3 and served in pint glasses. And honestly I think beers were $5 and served in gallon mugs. (Okay maybe not gallons but they were pretty big.) It would probably not be an overstatement that some of our group consumed at least a half keg or keg a piece. (Remember, I don't drink beer so this was not me.) We rolled into the hotel room around 3 AM. (I don't remember the last time I was out that late.)
Then on Saturday we went to...wait for it....wait for it... to the Live Price is Right Show. That's right I said the Price is Right. Complete with the Show Case Showdown, the big wheel, the Mountain Climber game, and OMG, Plinko. Four of our twelve people got called up to guess prices. One of our folks got to spend the big wheel. But in the end all that anyone of us won was a conciliation t-shirt. But it was really fun. I mean really, really fun. Then that afternoon I lost what I had planned to lose for Saturday in about an hour. Both days my loss was on the table game Let it Ride with a few twenties lost on the VP Dance Party. That night we went out to a great restaurant to celebrate Justin's birthday.
At midnight we all got in the taxi line, me to return to the hotel and the rest to go to a new gay club called Krave on the strip at the Planet Hollywood casino. It is the first gay club on the strip--Vegas is not the biggest gay destination, although they are trying to recruit more gays. They know we have more expendable income. Anyway. I got to bed about 1 AM. I was leaving on a plane early Sunday morning to get back for church. Well at 4:10, 5 minutes before my alarm was to go off, my roommates rolled in from the club. So as I was leaving they were just turning out the lights to go to sleep.
I headed to the airport where I boarded a plane with the hookers who were also leaving Las Vegas early. Now I don't know they were hookers because I recognized them, but just because I could tell.
There was also this incredibly loud woman sitting across the aisle from me. Now I slept a good bit of the flight, but in the time I was not asleep, this is what I learned about her: she was recently divorced; even though her husband promised never to leave her he did for a younger woman and I'm adding this part I'm guessing a less annoying woman; she was there in Vegas because she had taken some additional contract jobs to make ends meet; she had two kids and several animals including I think an iguana; she got the house in Cheyene, WY; her brother was an optometrist and commuted 45 minutes to work every day; her sister-in-law was a teacher and had extensive education but left teaching because she was tired of it and was now the talker's brother's, the woman's husband's office manager. The woman's ex-brother-in-law was a school a principle. The woman had tried to get on an earlier flight but they would charger her to re-route even though there was available space on the flights. She was supposed to go to Nebraska that afternoon to go shopping with he mother but she just didn't know if she was going to do that now. And, and here is the kicker she was going to sleep on her next two hour flight. WTF?!? Boundaries lady. And why couldn't she sleep on the flight that everyone else was trying to sleep on? I really feel sorry for the people who were trapped in the two seats beside her. Come on people, no talking to strangers on airplanes. Maybe after you have landed and are taxiing to the terminal, then perhaps it is okay to strike up a conversation, but never ever before.
So that is it. I made it to church in plenty of time, but I was dragging. But I just acknowledged where I had been and went on from there. Then I slept for four hours that afternoon and eleven hours that night.
But all in all a great trip. So Happy Birthday Justin! Here's to a great year.
Peace out!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
2 things
(1) I love those energy efficient long lasting light bulbs. I've been slowly swapping out the regular bulbs as the regular ones blow. Well I finally replaced one in my bathroom. And I love it. Do you want to know why? Well I'll tell you. The reason is that it takes a little while for them to warm up. Which means that the initial light is kind of dim. Well in the bathroom this is great because when I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night instead of getting this bright light blinding me I get a nice soft initial light. And that is with only one energy efficient bulb. Just wait until both bulbs are changed. It's great, and I'm helping the planet. Woo hoo!
(2) I went to a Christmas concert with a parishioner on Sunday evening. It wasn't great, but the parishioner has been kind of lonely lately so I did it for him. Anyway on the way back somehow he started telling me about the fact that vanity and narcissism were too different things. I think it started with him telling me about some quote he had read in the paper: "I'm not narcissistic. I'm just vain. There is a difference." So then he started telling me that the difference is that someone who is narcissistic is turned on by themselves. Then he told me that he thinks he is a little bit narcissistic because when he was younger and dressed in leather he would look in the mirror and get off. And then he told me that his late partner also like for him to dress in leather and then the partner would watch him get off and that the partner would also get off. Now here is the thing, I don't really care about the leather getting off stuff. I'm not into leather, but alright, whatever. But what icks me out just a little is that he told me about it. Ewww. I have learned things about my parishioners that I never ever wanted to know.
(2) I went to a Christmas concert with a parishioner on Sunday evening. It wasn't great, but the parishioner has been kind of lonely lately so I did it for him. Anyway on the way back somehow he started telling me about the fact that vanity and narcissism were too different things. I think it started with him telling me about some quote he had read in the paper: "I'm not narcissistic. I'm just vain. There is a difference." So then he started telling me that the difference is that someone who is narcissistic is turned on by themselves. Then he told me that he thinks he is a little bit narcissistic because when he was younger and dressed in leather he would look in the mirror and get off. And then he told me that his late partner also like for him to dress in leather and then the partner would watch him get off and that the partner would also get off. Now here is the thing, I don't really care about the leather getting off stuff. I'm not into leather, but alright, whatever. But what icks me out just a little is that he told me about it. Ewww. I have learned things about my parishioners that I never ever wanted to know.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Today's Sermon: A little better than the draft. UPDATED
Here we are back at the window. And in this second week of Advent we find ourselves also back at a river, back with John the Baptist. Much of Advent is revisiting stories that we have heard before looking again at characters we have seen many times before. And of characters in the Bible John is definitely one of the wildest. He is quite a character as my daddy would say. This usually means that he is odd, an odd bird, a few bricks short of a full load, long on dry wall short on studs. In other words, crazy! And to be sure ol' John the Baptist is a bit crazy. And what is even crazier is that Mark chooses the Baptist as the beginning of the story of the good news.
He does not begin his narrative by letting us linger in a manger, like Matthew and Luke do. He doesn't even begin with the philosophical grandeur that John does. He starts with John the Baptist. And not even a baby John the Baptist or fetal John the Baptist leaping in the womb of Elisabeth at the entrance of Mary and the in utero Jesus. No instead Mark begins with a brief fanfare and the entrance of a fully formed adult John the Baptist. And John is performing baptisms and pointing the way to someone else. People are coming to him, coming to him to be baptized, to join a movement. And what is he doing? He is saying, eh, I'm not that great Now can you imagine this? Think about if Barack Obama had appeared on the scene this election season (not back when he gave the speech at the convention four year ago) and said I am here to tell you about a new way of being, the poor will be made rich, the sick will be made well, the week will be made strong. Come join this movement. Sign up. Donate. Tell your friends. Oh and by the way I'm not actually the leader. Someone else is. Someone who is a lot better than I am. So get on board but I'm not the one. No we cannot really imagine this at all, because the leaders we know pump themselves up. They aren't trying to pave the way for someone else. They are usually trying to pave the way for themselves.
But not John the Baptist he is pointing to a future leader, a future savior, a future messiah. But first Mark is doing something else. Because in reality he is not starting the story of the beginning of the good news with John the Baptist. No he is pointing us forward by pointing us back. He is pointing us back to the prophet Isaiah. Those words that we read earlier from Isaiah Mark then uses as the brief fanfare that I mentioned. "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Now the one Isaiah is pointing to is Elijah. And to be honest, Mark wants us to make that connection as well. Because his depiction of this raggedy haired bug eating prophet closely resembles the descriptions of Elijah. It gives him credibility, John is a new Elijah, pointing the people to the messiah.
But Mark is also making an important statement. Before we look forward we have to look back. Before we can see the Messiah we have to look back, we have to take note of the low places, the valley's that need lifting up, the uneven ground that needs to be leveled. As I mentioned last week, we have to take note of the streaks and smudges.
And it is at this point that I most often get stuck. When I was young and got to this point it was pretty easy. I had a litany of things that I had done or thought that would be streaks and smudges. Although, in reality I probably had very little to confess, very little to clean away, or very little to repent of. But the point is that I thought I did. I'm sure I would have thought getting angry with my brother would have been a smudge. Or thinking about another boy in that way would have been a big ol’ smudge. Or not doing a chore around the house would have been a streak. But as I got older I realized that perhaps profanity and dancing and drinking weren't as awful as I thought they were. And that sometimes getting angry is actually healthy rather than an abomination to God. Then I went to seminary and those streaks and smudges became larger issues. The way we treat the poor was our sin, the homeless on the street was our corporate stain, war was our uneven place that needed to be leveled out. So we were all sinners, but we were sinners in a larger communal way. There was no real individual personal issue to be concerned with.
But neither of these understandings of sin and the stains and smudges that prevent us from looking forward is really sufficient. Because the first puts too much emphasis on fairly benign and sometimes healthy actions and emotions. And the latter gives me the opportunity to never reflect on the ways that I am clouding the windows of my heart and my soul.
And so finally what I have come to see as sins are those actions that prevent us from seeing clearly the heart and mind of God. The ways that we become more concerned about our own desires our own selves. In short the ways that our egos get in the way. The times when we lose sight of the rest of the world to attend solely to ourselves. The ways we try to protect ourselves from feeling, from living. The times when we treat others as less than human. The times when we think we are protecting the person by not being fully truthful when in reality we are only protecting ourselves. In general the times when we think it is all about us. And it is these words of Isaiah that come to us, "the grass withers, the flowers fade." We are the grass, we are the flowers. Now here is the thing the grass and the flowers are still beautiful, but they are only here for a season. But God's word, God's heart, God's desire for humankind and the world we inhabit remains forever.
So how do we go about repenting. I've called this sermon "Window washers wanted." How do we become window washers? I've been reading a book by Madeleine L'Engle titled "A Severed Wasp." In it the main character reconnects with a man from her past. A man who is now a retired bishop. But in her first meeting she had been told that he was a violinist. But he introduces himself as a "window cleaner" To which she responds, "A window cleaner and a violinist?"
" 'No and. Music is my window cleaning.' And he had gone on, with unexpected passion for one who seemed so languorously wan, to talk about the human isolation 'in this fragile bag of bones, where all our windows have been so fouled with futility and folly that we can't see out. So there have to be window cleaners.' Artists, he said, would clean the muddied windows with the purity of their art’
When they met up again, she says "Is becoming a bishop a way of becoming a window cleaner?" And he says "Becoming a priest. That was my hope."
Art takes us out of ourselves and points us toward what is beautiful. It clears away the muddy places. It invites us to let go of our egos and our desire of what we want it to be and instead allow it to be what it is. Sculptors and painters often talk about listening to the stone or the clay or the canvas for what it is saying it wants to be. But I think what the priest was saying in the end is that art is not the only thing that does that. For him it was becoming a priest. A priest was a window cleaner of sorts because he too was pointing people towards something greater and more beautiful than themselves, something pure.
But we are all window cleaners--whenever we live out our passion. Whenever, we are faithful and true to the person we were created to be. Whenever we point out what is beautiful to someone else. Whenever we invite others to be present to the immediate beauty in their lives. We are not John the Baptist pointing the way to the messiah. Not paving our own way like the politician, but instead paving the way for the Christ. We are all window cleaners.
This advent season we are invited to look back, to take notice of the ways we have pointed to ourselves. The ways we have focused too intensely on our own withering lives and failed to see the beauty all around us. The ways our ego has gotten in the way of caring for the people and the world around us. And then we are being invited to turn around, turn out. To wipe away those smudges and look for the beauty that is just outside our windows. To become window washers stepping out of our fragile bag of bones of isolation, wiping away the futility and the folly and seeing clearly the pure and beautiful. Amen.
He does not begin his narrative by letting us linger in a manger, like Matthew and Luke do. He doesn't even begin with the philosophical grandeur that John does. He starts with John the Baptist. And not even a baby John the Baptist or fetal John the Baptist leaping in the womb of Elisabeth at the entrance of Mary and the in utero Jesus. No instead Mark begins with a brief fanfare and the entrance of a fully formed adult John the Baptist. And John is performing baptisms and pointing the way to someone else. People are coming to him, coming to him to be baptized, to join a movement. And what is he doing? He is saying, eh, I'm not that great Now can you imagine this? Think about if Barack Obama had appeared on the scene this election season (not back when he gave the speech at the convention four year ago) and said I am here to tell you about a new way of being, the poor will be made rich, the sick will be made well, the week will be made strong. Come join this movement. Sign up. Donate. Tell your friends. Oh and by the way I'm not actually the leader. Someone else is. Someone who is a lot better than I am. So get on board but I'm not the one. No we cannot really imagine this at all, because the leaders we know pump themselves up. They aren't trying to pave the way for someone else. They are usually trying to pave the way for themselves.
But not John the Baptist he is pointing to a future leader, a future savior, a future messiah. But first Mark is doing something else. Because in reality he is not starting the story of the beginning of the good news with John the Baptist. No he is pointing us forward by pointing us back. He is pointing us back to the prophet Isaiah. Those words that we read earlier from Isaiah Mark then uses as the brief fanfare that I mentioned. "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Now the one Isaiah is pointing to is Elijah. And to be honest, Mark wants us to make that connection as well. Because his depiction of this raggedy haired bug eating prophet closely resembles the descriptions of Elijah. It gives him credibility, John is a new Elijah, pointing the people to the messiah.
But Mark is also making an important statement. Before we look forward we have to look back. Before we can see the Messiah we have to look back, we have to take note of the low places, the valley's that need lifting up, the uneven ground that needs to be leveled. As I mentioned last week, we have to take note of the streaks and smudges.
And it is at this point that I most often get stuck. When I was young and got to this point it was pretty easy. I had a litany of things that I had done or thought that would be streaks and smudges. Although, in reality I probably had very little to confess, very little to clean away, or very little to repent of. But the point is that I thought I did. I'm sure I would have thought getting angry with my brother would have been a smudge. Or thinking about another boy in that way would have been a big ol’ smudge. Or not doing a chore around the house would have been a streak. But as I got older I realized that perhaps profanity and dancing and drinking weren't as awful as I thought they were. And that sometimes getting angry is actually healthy rather than an abomination to God. Then I went to seminary and those streaks and smudges became larger issues. The way we treat the poor was our sin, the homeless on the street was our corporate stain, war was our uneven place that needed to be leveled out. So we were all sinners, but we were sinners in a larger communal way. There was no real individual personal issue to be concerned with.
But neither of these understandings of sin and the stains and smudges that prevent us from looking forward is really sufficient. Because the first puts too much emphasis on fairly benign and sometimes healthy actions and emotions. And the latter gives me the opportunity to never reflect on the ways that I am clouding the windows of my heart and my soul.
And so finally what I have come to see as sins are those actions that prevent us from seeing clearly the heart and mind of God. The ways that we become more concerned about our own desires our own selves. In short the ways that our egos get in the way. The times when we lose sight of the rest of the world to attend solely to ourselves. The ways we try to protect ourselves from feeling, from living. The times when we treat others as less than human. The times when we think we are protecting the person by not being fully truthful when in reality we are only protecting ourselves. In general the times when we think it is all about us. And it is these words of Isaiah that come to us, "the grass withers, the flowers fade." We are the grass, we are the flowers. Now here is the thing the grass and the flowers are still beautiful, but they are only here for a season. But God's word, God's heart, God's desire for humankind and the world we inhabit remains forever.
So how do we go about repenting. I've called this sermon "Window washers wanted." How do we become window washers? I've been reading a book by Madeleine L'Engle titled "A Severed Wasp." In it the main character reconnects with a man from her past. A man who is now a retired bishop. But in her first meeting she had been told that he was a violinist. But he introduces himself as a "window cleaner" To which she responds, "A window cleaner and a violinist?"
" 'No and. Music is my window cleaning.' And he had gone on, with unexpected passion for one who seemed so languorously wan, to talk about the human isolation 'in this fragile bag of bones, where all our windows have been so fouled with futility and folly that we can't see out. So there have to be window cleaners.' Artists, he said, would clean the muddied windows with the purity of their art’
When they met up again, she says "Is becoming a bishop a way of becoming a window cleaner?" And he says "Becoming a priest. That was my hope."
Art takes us out of ourselves and points us toward what is beautiful. It clears away the muddy places. It invites us to let go of our egos and our desire of what we want it to be and instead allow it to be what it is. Sculptors and painters often talk about listening to the stone or the clay or the canvas for what it is saying it wants to be. But I think what the priest was saying in the end is that art is not the only thing that does that. For him it was becoming a priest. A priest was a window cleaner of sorts because he too was pointing people towards something greater and more beautiful than themselves, something pure.
But we are all window cleaners--whenever we live out our passion. Whenever, we are faithful and true to the person we were created to be. Whenever we point out what is beautiful to someone else. Whenever we invite others to be present to the immediate beauty in their lives. We are not John the Baptist pointing the way to the messiah. Not paving our own way like the politician, but instead paving the way for the Christ. We are all window cleaners.
This advent season we are invited to look back, to take notice of the ways we have pointed to ourselves. The ways we have focused too intensely on our own withering lives and failed to see the beauty all around us. The ways our ego has gotten in the way of caring for the people and the world around us. And then we are being invited to turn around, turn out. To wipe away those smudges and look for the beauty that is just outside our windows. To become window washers stepping out of our fragile bag of bones of isolation, wiping away the futility and the folly and seeing clearly the pure and beautiful. Amen.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Slumdog Millionaire
Today I saw a movie that was really, really, really good. My friend Todd had recommended it and I had seen some other press. It is the story of an Indian man who grew up in the slums of Bombay/Mumbai and then went on to compete on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I am in love with this movie for a whole host of reasons.
(1) The way they tell the story of his life is such a clever device. It is through the questions on the show and that is as much as I'll tell you fearing that I'd give too much away by saying more. I like it when a story is told in an unconventional way. It reminds me of the movie Short Bus and the way that story was told through sex. (Different movies and devices but similar in their unconventional nature.)
(2) It gives what it is I'm guessing an accurately tragic view of life in the slums of India. I'm guessing there is some fictionalization of the setting, and since I've never been to India I can't say for sure, but I'm thinking it is fairly horrible.
(3) The children in the movie are really delightful. Well all the actors I think are really great. The children are just particularly cute. The lead actor who plays the adult lead is subtle and great.
(4) It is a movie that is full of hope and delight in the middle of tragedy and despair. An overcoming of great odds.
All in all, I loved it!!! If it is playing near you it is worth seeing. Go as date night or in the middle of the afternoon hooky from work playing activity. Just go. I give it two thumbs up. If I had three thumbs I'd give it three thumbs up. (Granted then I would be disfigured and probably would compensate by trying to hide the third finger, but it would still be sticking up.)
(1) The way they tell the story of his life is such a clever device. It is through the questions on the show and that is as much as I'll tell you fearing that I'd give too much away by saying more. I like it when a story is told in an unconventional way. It reminds me of the movie Short Bus and the way that story was told through sex. (Different movies and devices but similar in their unconventional nature.)
(2) It gives what it is I'm guessing an accurately tragic view of life in the slums of India. I'm guessing there is some fictionalization of the setting, and since I've never been to India I can't say for sure, but I'm thinking it is fairly horrible.
(3) The children in the movie are really delightful. Well all the actors I think are really great. The children are just particularly cute. The lead actor who plays the adult lead is subtle and great.
(4) It is a movie that is full of hope and delight in the middle of tragedy and despair. An overcoming of great odds.
All in all, I loved it!!! If it is playing near you it is worth seeing. Go as date night or in the middle of the afternoon hooky from work playing activity. Just go. I give it two thumbs up. If I had three thumbs I'd give it three thumbs up. (Granted then I would be disfigured and probably would compensate by trying to hide the third finger, but it would still be sticking up.)
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