How Many Spiders Is Too Many?

I can't say that I'm awfully fond of spiders. I don't think that I am arachnophobic, but I would just as soon spiders keep to themselves. When we were on safari in South Africa, I still remember coming up on a beautiful web and the guide making sure that we saw it and didn't walk into it--he told us the spider was very poisonous. At any rate you spider fans might be interested in an article in the New York Times today on an enormous web that they have discovered in Texas.

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Thought for the Day

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
--Thomas Alva Edison

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Boston Sports Thoughts

OK, I haven't said anything about the Red Sox and the Yankees match up this week, but I'm going to say something now. I can't say that I am having a panic attack, but it sure would be nice if the Sox had been able to win two out of three and pretty much put the Yankees on ice. But no, I suspect this may have to go down to the wire--again. The Sox (perhaps like most of us) like to do it the hard way.

Concerning the Patriots, they have the horses to do it this year, I think, barring big injuries to key players (of course this is a huge unpredictable factor). I am eager to see how Laurence Maroney does this year. I think they need a big season from him if they are going to go all the way. It will be interesting to see how they do tonight.

Anyone want to weigh in on either the Sox or Patriots?

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Thought for the Day

Love is the subtlest force in the world.
--Mahatma Gandhi

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What to Read?

I am an avid reader as many of you know. For me a great day is having several good books, a warm sunny day, sitting out on my back porch, feet propped up, a cup of Starbucks at hand, and hours of reading ahead!

The frustrating part for me is how to choose books to read. I probably have a backlog of 10 to 20 books that I really want to read, but just can't get to them. Then I will see other books in magazines or journals that look interesting and I order them, only to make my reading list longer. Sometimes parishioners hand me interesting books. My interests far exceed my ability to actually read about them. Sadly, I rarely read fiction. I read one or maybe two books of fiction in the last year. I am a Lincoln fan and have two books on Lincoln that a couple of folks from the church have lent me, and I only am 20 pages into one. I don't know when I 'm going to finish it and am afraid that it will be later rather than sooner. The other one looks equally as good and have no clue when I will be able to begin reading it.

Then there are the great books that I never read in high school or college but would like to read. Several years ago I started (notice the emphasis on started) reading The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer which discusses great books and how to go about reading them. Early on I became overwhelmed and never finished it (nor have I read any of the books that she recommended since!). In the last fifteen years or so (before beginning The Well-Educated Mind) I have read Homer's Iliad, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, and reread Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. That's it.

So my question: how do you choose the books that you read? Do you ever purchase books that you intend to read and then never read them? I'm pretty good about reading the books that I buy, but I bet there are 10-20 percent of them that I never read/fully read. [I used to think that it was almost a sin (OK, I can be pretty neurotic) not to finish a book that you started. But now I have the freedom to stop if it isn't doing anything for me.] How about you?

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Thought for the Day

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away.
--Sir Arthur Helps

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Thought for the Day

Meekness is nothing more than a true knowledge of oneself as one is. Anyone who truly knows himself will be meek indeed.
--The Cloud of Unknowing

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The Monday Morning Quarterback

Yesterday I preached about worship--again. I often preach about worship because I believe that worship and prayer are at the core of the faith. If we don't worship "well," if prayer isn't a high priority, then I have no doubt that our faith will be anemic and our lives will look no different than those around us. In other words, we will be poor disciples.

I shared in my sermon, "Worship's Who's Who," some of the thoughts that I have been wrestling with since reading Robert E. Webber's book, The Divine Embrace. I have been well aware that the fundamental question that worship answers is not, "How do I experience worship?" That question clearly implies that worship is first and foremost about me and my experience. It emerges out of a consumer culture that has invaded the church in which people who visit and attend churches are consumers looking to consume and be satisfied by the spiritual goods that churches deliver. Don't we even say if we are looking for a church, "I'm shopping for a new church?" The fundamental question is, "What do I get out of it?"

I think that up until reading this book, my attitude was based more on the question, "How does God experience worship?" I have used the analogy in sermons before how the congregation is not the audience being entertained by those who are leading worship and providing the music, but that the congregation and the leaders are involved in worship and that God is the audience. As Webber points out in his book, this way of thinking means that God is the object and that we, the worshipers are the subjects. This means that worship ultimately originates in me, the subject. In a kind of convoluted way, this kind of worship still ends up with the focus on me. Is God pleased with what I have done in worship?

The question most appropriate to ask of worship according to Webber is: "Did God's story which was proclaimed and enacted today make a transformative impact on my life? Or How has the weekly rehearsal of the meaning of human life that is rooted in God's story changed the way I treat my family, my neighbors, the people I work or go to school with" (94)? Webber argues that in true worship God is the subject, not the object. God is the one who has acted, is acting, and will act in the world, and "Worship is then not the acts of adoration God demands of me, but as the disclosure of Jesus, who had done for me what I cannot do for myself...worship...is the doing of God's story within me so that I may live in the pattern of Jesus's death and resurrection" (232).

Worship, then, is our proclamation, enactment of what God is doing in the world for the purpose of our transformation. The true test of worship is not how I feel at the end of the service, but how has the service made an impact on my life, so that I am more able to life the Jesus Creed (love God and neighbor) in the world in which I live.

This understanding of worship ties my worship experience with my living the discipleship life in a much closer connection. I believe that one of the major reasons that the Christian church is so anemic is because our worship is so self-focused and so "practice poor." We seek marketing gimmicks to enhance people's worship experience, rather than invite people into a different and much deeper sense of worship.

Webber writes,

True worship generates the sense of "What a great story," or "I can't believe that God would do that for the world and for me," or "What a God to become human and to restore all things through Christ." For some people the truth declared in worship will be received with exuberance, and for others the truth of God's story will be received with reserve, with a quiet sense of joy, or even with relief. But for us all, a worship that sings, proclaims, and enacts God's story should result in a delight that produces and ongoing participation in the purposes of God in life" (238).

I couldn't have said it better.

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Thought for the Day

People see God everyday. They just don't recognize him.
--Pearl Bailey

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Sunday's Prayer

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in my heart the love of your Name; increase in me true religion; nourish me with all goodness; and bring forth in me the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
--The Divine Hours

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Saturday's Poem

I want to share with you part of the Scott Cairns poem, "Replies to the Immediate," from Compass of Affection (158) that I read this morning and meant a lot to me.

No, he mumbled from the podium, the poems
are not my songs....Nor,
the man continued, nor
are they my prayers. At that word, the air grew still,
and across his face passed both
a tremor and a calm. Song, he said, attains
to a condition the poem
dare not attend. And prayer? Who would frame a poem
when he had better find
his knees, in silence, having put his art away?

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Thought for the Day

Worship needs both truth and passion. Truth without passion is dry. Passion without truth is empty.
--Robert E. Webber, The Divine Embrace

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Mother Theresa's "Dark Night of the Soul"

The latest issue of Time has an article on the recent publication of a book which contains the letters of Mother Theresa. It turns out that almost from the beginning of the time that she began her work in India, she experienced almost continuous spiritual aridity, or what St. John of the Cross referred to as the "Dark Night of the Soul." Behind all of the years of incredibly self-giving ministry to the poorest of the poor, she struggled with her faith and felt as though God had abandoned.

I was first alerted to the article on my AOL email account and read the synopsis story with some interest. I actually had read an article in First Things some months after her death in which the author who had access to some of the letters described the spiritual aridity under which she worked for most of her life in India, so I was not surprised by this "news." Some of the comments that I have read by journalists and others indicate surprise or shock at her experience and seem to think it demonstrates the shakable foundation of religious faith. The more I read the "spiritual masters" of the Christian faith (I am currently reading St. Theresa of Avila's Interior Castle) the less surprised I am by this phenomenon. I think a common understanding of faith is that people expect that God is a kind of genie in a bottle (and, in fact, I do think many Christians have this grossly mistaken understanding of God). However, all sincere followers of Jesus have times of trial and a feeling of God's absence as even Jesus did on the cross. St. Theresa's seems to have been far longer than most.

Are you surprised by Mother Theresa's struggle? Any comments?

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Thought for the Day

A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.
--Arthur C. Clarke

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Flash Forward

The topic for this Sunday's service is worship. The title is "Worship's Who's Who," and the texts are Psalm 95:1-7, Hebrews 13:20-21, and John 4:23-24. Two themes to which I keep returning are prayer and worship. The health of the church hangs, I believe, on these two vital aspects of our faith in Jesus Christ.

Lately I have been challenged in my notion of worship and what what happens in worship. I recently finished Robert E. Webber's book, The Divine Embrace, a book I have referred to in earlier blogs, and was thoroughly challenged by what he said. I have continued to wrestle with it and am using this sermon as another way of grappling with the heart of worship.

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Thought for the Day

A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues.
--Cicero

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Thought for the Day

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that shall make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
--Marcus Aurelius

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Thought for the Day

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
--Alfred Adler

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The Monday Morning Quarterback

Yesterday I preached on listening to God and to others. My primary text was I Samuel 3:1-10, and the verse on which I zeroed in was verse 10 (which reads in The Message), "Speak. I'm you're servant, ready to listen." In context, Samuel is addressing God.

One of my observations is that we are so consumed with fitting everything into your lives that we hardly take time to listen to God. I think that most of us want to hear a word from God, but we can't see how, or we don't know how to listen to God. The key word in Samuel's response to God is, "ready, " "ready to listen." If we are not ready to listen, we won't listen.

So the first thing to do is to check out your hearts and ask yourself the question, "Am I ready (and wanting) to listen to God? If an honest answer to that question yields a "no," then you can stop there and focus on the issue of the desire to be ready. Honesty before God is always the best policy, so tell God that you don't have the readiness to listen and ask God to put that desire into your heart.

If you are ready to listen, then I think you must carve out time in your life, even if for only five minutes at a time, to slow down and wait and listen. My experience and the experience of faithful followers of Jesus whose stories I have heard or read all indicate that God will not be rushed. It is not so different from marriage or a close friendship. If you don't slow down and take time to listen to your spouse or friend, you won't hear them, and the relationship will suffer.

Theologians refer to God at times as Deus Abscondus, the hidden God. If we are truly ready to listen, God may/will speak to us through prayer, scripture, circumstances, and others. God will not only speak to us through family and friends, but through the marginalized, our opponents, those who are mentally challenged, etc.

Are you ready to listen?

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Thought for the Day

One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.
--Helen Keller

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Sunday's Prayer

O God, you make me glad with the weekly remembrance of the glorious resurrection of your Son my Lord: Give me this day such blessing through my worship of you, that the week to come may be spent in your favor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
--The Divine Hours

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Saturday's Poem

I am just about finished with Compass of Affections by Scott Cairns and have thoroughly enjoyed his poetry. I want to share part of his poem with the title "Adventures in New Testament Greek: Mysterion"

What our habit has obtained for us appears
a somewhat meager view of mystery.
and Latinate equivalents have fared
no better tendering the palpable
proximity of dense noetic pressure.

....

Mysterion is of a piece, enormous
enough to span the reach of what we see
and what we don't. The problem at the heart
of metaphor is how neatly it breaks down
to this and that. Imagine one that held

entirely across the play of image
and its likenesses. Mysterion is
never elsewhere, ever looms, indivisible
and here, and compasses a journey one
assumes as it is tendered on a spoon.

Receiving it, you apprehend how near
the Holy bides. You cannot know how far.

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Thought for the Day

Always put off till tomorrow what you shouldn't do at all.
--Anonymous

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Flash Forward

For this Sunday's service I will be using I Samuel 3:1-10 and Mark 9:2-8 as my texts, and the title of my sermon is, Who's Listening? We live in such a fast-paced world that we barely have time to get those things accomplished that we think are the bottom line for us. We can get so caught up in life that we don't have any time to listen: to God, to our spouses and children, to our friends and neighbors, to colleagues, to our opponents. Who has time to listen?

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The Historical Jesus

Scot McKnight, our guest speaker at the UCC Weekend Away in January 2008, has spent the week blogging about the Search for the Historical Jesus studies. They summarize a great deal of material and I enjoyed reading them. If your interested, go to his "blogsite" and read his blogs.

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Thought for the Day

Wisdom is divided into two parts: (a) having a great deal to say, and (b) not saying it.
--Anonymous

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Thought for the Day

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.
--Buddhist Proverb

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Thought for the Day

Our life is frittered away by detail...Simplify, simplify.
--Henry David Thoreau

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A Distressing Statistic

In the Op-Ed section of the New York Times today Bob Herbert had an article with the title, "100,000 gone since 2001." Since 9/11/01 over 100,000 people have been murdered in the United States.

That figure takes your breath away. According to the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, Chuck Wexler, each year approximately 100,000 cases of aggravated assault with a firearm are reported. While in some cases the gunman misses, the number of those who are actually shot is 60,000. The number of robberies committed by juveniles increasingly show little regard for their victims' lives. Rat-packing, the use of cellphones to by robbers to reach other assailants for the purpose of surrounding the victim, has emerged as a new strategy.

Herbert wants the federal government to become more involved in addressing this surge in violent crime, something that makes sense to me. The causes for this problem, it seems to me, are multiple and complex, but surely one of the primary causes is the breakdown of the family and the problem of fatherlessness in so many families. He doesn't mention this, perhaps because in our current cultural confusion about marriage and parenting, it would be politically incorrect to point out family breakdown as a prime suspect in the problem.

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Thought for the Day

Love is never abstract. It does not adhere to the universe of the planet or the nation of the institution or the profession, but to the singular sparrows of the street, the lilies of the field, "the least of these my brethren." Love is not, by its own desire, heroic. It is heroic only when compelled to be. It exists by its willingness to be anonymous, humble, and unrewarded.
--Wendell Berry

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Thought for the Day

Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead.
--Chinese Proverb

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Sunday's Prayer

O merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature: Make me always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that remembering the account I must one day give, I may be a faithful steward of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
--The Divine Hours

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Saturday's Poems

It's hard not to experience the beauty of God's creation at Mohonk. Yesterday it was overcast and rained almost the entire day and I don't think the temperature reached 60 degrees. This morning I arose early and was treated to a deep blue sky and the valley to the west between the ridge upon which Mohonk is located and the Catskills further west looked as though it had been blanketed with a thick layer of snow: it was ensconced in clouds. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

I then went out to the gardens whose vibrantly colored flowers glistened in the moisture from the previous day's rain and hung on the flowers and leaves in crystal beads. A couple of Mary Oliver's poems (from her book, Thirst) about roses came to mind, portions of which I want to share with you. The first poem has the title, "When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention."

"As long as we are able to
be extravagant we will be
hugely and damply
extravagant. Then we will drop
foil by foil to the ground. This
is our unalterable task, and we do it
joyfully."

...

Their fragrance all the while rising
from their blind bodies, making me
spin with joy.

The other poem is "The Poet Visits the Museum of Fine Arts."

For a long time
I was not even
in this world, yet
every summer

every rose
opened in perfect sweetness
and lived
in gracious repose,

in its own exotic fragrance,
in its huge willingness to give
something, from its small self,
to the entirety of the world.

I think of them, thousands upon thousands,
in many lands,
whenever summer came to them,
rising

out of the patience of patience,
to leave and bud and look up
into the blue sky
or, with thanks,

...

Have I found any better teaching?
Not ever, not yet.
Last week I saw my first Botticelli
and almost fainted,

and if I could I would paint like that
but am shelved somewhere below, with a few songs
about roses: teachers, also, of the ways
toward thanks, and praise.

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Thought for the Day

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
--Anonymous

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The Cultivation of Sacred Idleness

It has been raining for the last eight hours and I have some "idle" time on my hands. I won't be golfing this morning or playing tennis and am looking forward to nestling in a chair in a few moments with several books. One has to stay active at Mohonk if one plans not to return home not larger than when one arrived--the food is plentiful and delicious.

During devotions this morning, I used Darryl Tippen's book, Pilgrim Heart, to think about sabbath, or as he phrases it in his book, "sacred idleness." He notes how important rhythm is to life. Concerning human life, rhythm is essential to its flourishing. Yet in our modern 24/7 world we have lost the sense and importance of rhythm. Many physiological and psychological problems are related to the lack of rhythm in our world as some studies have indicated, and we continue to rush at breakneck speed.

He shared the story of an 80 year old orthodox rabbi who stayed with him one time so that he could walk to sabbath service and wouldn't need to drive. Tippens observed how the quiet peacefulness of the rabbi's weekend contrasted with the frenzy of his and his family's own life and wondered who was living the healthier life?

Tippens believes that a proper understanding of sabbath rest is that we receive it as a good gift of God as a way of refreshment, re-creation, "down-time." It can be any day or any part of a day. We need to be intentional, however, or cultivate an attitude of sabbath rest or sacred idleness. The sentence that caught my attention and challenged me the most was, "We have to challenge the dubious assumption that our world or our work will fall to chaos without our constant presence and control" (69). We can become so wrapped up in what we do that we have an unconscious (or conscious) belief that the world depends on us and that it will fall apart if we aren't johnny-on-the-spot.

This is a great reality check for me. How about you? Are you cultivating sacred idleness in your own life?

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Thought for the Day

...solitude is not abandonment of the world, but a way to silence the distracting chatter that leads to compassionate insight...every follower of Jesus needs a place of retreat. We have to challenge the dubious assumption that our world or our work will fall to chaos without our constant presence and control.
--Darryl Tippens

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Thought for the Day

Joy is the destiny of love.
--Stephen N. Williams

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Thought for the Day

Being considerate of others will take you and your children further in life than any college or professional degree.
--Marian Wright Edelman

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Thought for the Day

I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.
--Harry Emerson Fosdick

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Thought for the Day

God asks no man whether he will accept life. This is not the choice. You must take it. The only question is how.
--Henry Ward Beecher

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Sunday's Prayer

O lord my God, to you and to your service I devote myself, body, soul, and spirit. Fill my memory with the record of your mighty works; enlighten my understanding with the light of your Holy Spirit; and may all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do. Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care, and let me by my life and speaking set forth your true and living Word. Be always with me in carrying out the duties of my salvation; in praises heighten my love and gratitude; in speaking of You give me readiness of thought and expression; and grant that, by the clearness and brightness of your holy Word, all the world may be drawn to your blessed kingdom. All this I ask for the sake of your Son, my Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
--The Divine Hours

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Saturday's Poem

Perhaps it is because I am at Mohonk and am among the trees here that this the poem by Mary Oliver from her book Thirst (4) catches my eye. I think it captures the goodness of God's creation and our place in it.

When I am among the Trees

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

........

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."

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Thought for the Day

A little integrity is better than any career.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Thought for the Day

If charity cost no money and benevolence caused no heartache, the world would be full of philanthropists.
--Yiddish Proverb

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Thoughts about the Proposed Casino

I have been following the proceedings about the proposed casino in Middleborough with interest. I won't hide my hand: I think gambling is bad for the human spirit. God has made us for such dignity and glory, gambling only works against and impoverishes this. I am surprised that I haven't seen anything in the papers from the UCC which has steadfastly taken stands against gambling and especially casinos.

In today's Boston Globe, former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger asks, in my opinion, some important questions about the race to embrace casinos, and makes some important points as to why the current rush makes no sense in his OP-ED piece, "Casinos--the new gold rush." He doesn't raise moral questions about the casino frenzy, but raises important questions about who will bear the brunt of it, who will make out the most, what effect it might have on other businesses. He writes, " As with prior casino proposals in Massachusetts, the Middleborough proposal is all about money, special interest, and politics...This is an invitation to casino owners to fest on gambling profits, with few checks and balances. The gold rush has just begun. The only winners in this game are the casino owners."

He finds the rush to approve and construct a casino particularly troublesome given some of the formidable legislative and regulative requirements needed to insure fairness. I think turning to casinos is short-sighted and ultimately a cowardly way of addressing fiscal responsibility. Any thoughts?

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Thought for the Day

Compassion and nonviolence help us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Life on Nantucket

I always enjoy visiting Nantucket where my wife's aunt and uncle have a home and who graciously invite us to visit during the summer. Unfortunately, Beth and Rachael could not come because of their work schedules this year, so only Michelle and I were able to make the trip out here and spend several days. Yesterday we spent the day at Cisco Beach on the south side of the island where Michelle, who earlier this summer spent two weeks in Brazil learning how to surf, rented a surf board and surfed in the much tamer waves. Although she tried to get me to rent a surf board and try surfing, wisdom prevailed and I elected to watch her from the beach and spend time reading.

Here are a few pictures of us roughing it on Nantucket.

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Thought for the Day

The renewal of the earth begins at Golgotha, where the meek One died and from thence it will spread. When the kingdom finally comes, the meek shall possess the earth.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

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