Thought for the Day

A bad workman always blames his tools.
--Proverb

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Flash Forward

The sermon title this week is "Alive with Wonder." Advent begins this Sunday, and it seems to me one of the things that belongs in Advent is wonder, wonder about God, about God's love, about the self-emptying of God by becoming human. Birth, naturally elicits wonder in us. How much more, the birth of God?

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Thought for the Day

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
--Eric Hoffer

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Science and Faith

The New York Times had an interesting Op-Ed article, "Taking Science on Faith," on November 24, 2007. Because of my own interest in the relationship between science and faith it caught my eye.

The author, Paul Davies, the director of a research center at Arizona State University, opens the article with the ascendant myth about science and religion; science "is the most reliable form of knowledge about the world because it is based on testable hypotheses. Religion, by contrast, is based on faith. In science, a healthy skepticism is a professional necessity, whereas in religion, having belief without evidence is regarded as a virtue."

He notes, however, that "science has its own faith-based belief system." What is it? One of the basic beliefs undergirding all of science is "the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way." Clearly, if one did not believe this, there would be no reason to do experimentation. If the universe were fundamentally irrational and a meaningless and chaotic collection of matter and energy with no inherent relationship to anything else, science could not exist.

As I was reading this article I was reminded of the excellent book by sociologist Christian Smith, Moral, Believing Animal: Human Personhood and Culture. In it he argues that "The normative is organized by the narrative" (81). In other words, the way we live our lives, the things we believe, those things which we understand to be facts are all a result of the particular narrative out of which we live. The prevalent understanding that the most reliable form of knowledge about the world comes from science emerges from what Smith calls the Scientific Enlightenment narrative. This narrative goes like this:

For most of human history, people have lived in the darkness of ignorance and tradition, driven by fear, believing in superstitions. Priests and lords preyed on such ignorance, and life was wearisome and short. Ever so gradually, however, and often at great cost, inventive men have endeavored better to understand the natural world around them. Centuries of such inquiry eventually led to a marvelous Scientific Revolution that radically transformed our methods of understanding nature. What we know now as a result is based on objective observation, empirical fact, and rational analysis. With each passing decade, science reveals increasingly more about the earth, our bodies, our minds. We have come to possess the power to transform nature and ourselves. We can fortify health, relieve suffering, and prolong life. Science is close to understanding the secret of life and maybe eternal life itself. Of course, forces of ignorance, fear, irrationality, and blind faith still threaten the progress of science. But they must be resisted at all costs. For unfettered science is our only hope for true enlightenment and happiness (71).

As Paul Davies notes, there is not this indivisible wall between science and faith. Science involves faith. One of the benefits of postmodernism is its challenging the notion of science as purely objective. Faith is involved at some level in all areas of life. You can't live without faith in something or someone.

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Thought for the Day

Seven characteristics distinguish the wise: he does not speak in the presence of one wiser than himself, does not interrupt, is not hasty to answer, asks and answers the point, talks about first things first and about last things last, admits when he does not know, and acknowledges the truth.
--Talmud

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Thought for the Day

The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.
--D. L. Moody

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The Monday Morning Quarterback

Yesterday I preached on the topic of music: "Where Is God in Music?" I enjoyed doing the research on this topic and borrowed primarily from two sources: Mark Noll, professor of history at Notre Dame University and Jeremie Begbie, honorary professor of history at the University of St. Andrews; associate principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge; and an affiliated lecturer in the faculty of divinity at University of Cambridge.

In my sermon I noted that how important music is to people. There is no one, I think, that would say he or she does not like music. There are people who say they can't sing and don't like singing, but they do not deny the pleasure they take in listening to music.

Furthermore, music is important to worship. I have a difficult time imagining a worship service with no music. Frankly, I wouldn't want to attend regular worship without music. Music provides an excellent medium to both thank and praise God, and it is a powerful force for binding people together. Think of those involved in the Civil Rights movement and "We Shall Overcome."

However, music has the power to divide as well. Think of the current worship wars where contemporary praise music is set against more traditional sacred music. Organ vs. drums. On a broader scale, it is hard to sing songs and like them when the songs are from a very different culture. The hymns of Christians from other cultures can sound jarring to our ears, and our hymns can sound jarring to theirs.

In the "in between times" between Christ's first coming and his second coming, what theologians refer to as the "already and not yet," we need to display at least three characteristics in our attempt to bridge the cultural divides in general and with music in particular. We need 1) humility; 2) openness to broaden our perspectives and experiment with unfamiliar music; and 3) love. Colossians 3:14 reads, "Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony." Note that the verse itself includes a musical metaphor.

I ended my sermon with a quotation from church historian Mark Noll in his article, "Praise the Lord," in the November/December issue of Books & Culture. He recontextualizes Psalm 150:3-6:

“Praise him with syncopation and on the beat. Praise him with 5-tone (the Thai xylophone), 12-tone (most Western music), 24-tones (Arab music), and all scales in between. Praise him a cappella, with orchestra, and with drum set. Praise him with works of supernal intelligence and greatest simplification. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Together” (17).

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Thought for the Day

Without music, life would be an error.
--Frederich Nietzsche

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Sunday's Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Saturday's Poem

I have discovered another poet, Dan Gioia, whose poetry I enjoy and wanted to share an excerpt of one poem with the title, "Words." It is found in his book, Interrogations at Noon (3).

Words

The world does not need words. It articulates itself
in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path
are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted...

Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot
name them, or read the mute syllables graven in silica...

The sunlight needs no praise piercing the rainclouds,
painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving
each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it.
The daylight needs no praise, and so we praise it always--
greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.

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Thought for the Day

Friendship's the wine of life.
--Edward Young

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Flash Forward

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that music and singing plays an important role in religion. There is something powerful about music that affects us, that affects our faith, that affects how we understand ourselves, and affects the community we worship with.

The first reference to music is found in Genesis 4:21, a forgettable passage about Jubal, "the ancestor of all those who play the lyre and pipe." Music plays an important role in the last book of the Bible, Revelation. So this Sunday I would like to explore the question, Where is God in music?

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Thought for the Day

Ninety percent of inspiration is perspiration.
--Proverb

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Thanksgiving Day Prayer

God of the elements, glory to you.
Glory to you for flowing air
Glory for light beyond compare
Glory for water as it flows
Glory for soil and all that grows
Glory for life and love and birth
Glory to you, Lord of the earth.
--A Celtic Prayer

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Thought for the Day

The sign outside the gates of salvation says, "Be grateful."
--Michael Levine

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Depression and the Brain

Monday's Boston Globe had an interesting article, "New life inside the depressed brain," on depression and the brain in the HealthScience section. It caught my interest for a couple of reasons: 1) there is such a prevalence of depression in our society (it affects 19 million people in our society each year) and 2) I am fascinated by the brain and the ongoing research to understand how it works.

New research has discovered at least a correlation exists between neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons) and depression--cause and effect have not been established at this time. But researchers have found that medications and behaviors (like getting exercise) that tend to lift depression also seem to stimulate the growth of new neurons, especially in the area of the brain called the hippocampus. Things that tend to increase depression like taking illicit drugs, and stress correspond to a reduction in neurogenesis.

If further research bears out these findings, then it could have important implications for diagnosing and treating depression. For example, psychiatrists could use the degree of neurogenesis that occurs as a way of determining if an antidepressant medication is holds promise rather than waiting for the several weeks it normally takes for an antidepressant to begin having an effect.

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Thought for the Day

I hold not with the pessimist that all things are ill, nor with the optimist that all things are well. All things are not well, but all things shall be well, because this is God's world.
--Robert Browning

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Medfield Community Chorus Concert

I attended the Medfield Community Chorus (MCC) concert on Sunday afternoon and must admit that I was very impressed. I loved the Lord Nelson Mass which was performed with orchestra and paid soloists. I found it inspiring. The music after intermission was also excellent, and I especially liked the piece that the conductor, our own esteemed Michael Olbash wrote.

My main frustration is that there wasn't standing room only for the concert. I think it is a shame that we can't pack out the house for such an excellent performance. I have been wondering how we can get the word out to Medfield and the surrounding communities that the MCC concerts are truly good and worth attending. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to go about marketing the MCC to a greater audience?

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Medfield Community Chorus Concert

I attended the Medfield Community Chorus (MCC) concert on Sunday afternoon and must admit that I was very impressed. I loved the Lord Nelson Mass which was performed with orchestra and paid soloists. I found it inspiring. The music after intermission was also excellent, and I especially liked the piece that the conductor, our own esteemed Michael Olbash wrote.

that we can't pack out the house for such an excellent performance. I have been wondering how we can get the word out into My main frustration is that there wasn't standing room only for the concert. I think it is a shameMedfield and the surrounding communities that the MCC concerts are truly good and worth attending. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to go about marketing the MCC to a greater audience?

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Thought for the Day

Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.
--Jean Vanier

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The Decline of Reading

An article on the front page of the Boston Globe, "Young People Reading a Lot Less," caught my eye this morning. A new extensive report combining a number of recent studies has recently been released, and the findings are not encouraging: reading among the young has plummeted over the last couple of decades.

I was astounded by some of the findings. For example, the number of 17 year-olds who have never read a book for pleasure has increased from 9 to 19 percent and nearly 50 percent of young people between 18 and 24 have never read a book for pleasure. Wow. I was thinking that perhaps we have gone through some kind of paradigm shift and maybe in the new world this kind of reading won't be as important. But the correlations between not reading and poor social outcomes is quite high. The reported the correlation between more books found in a child's home with higher scores in civics, history, science, and on all subjects based on reading. It also found that 20 percent of American workers read at a level below the necessary level to perform their jobs, and not surprisingly, the better readers tend to find more high paying jobs. What do you think solutions to this problem might be?

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Thought for the Day

There is always a risk in everything worthwhile.
--John D. Caputo, What Would Jesus Deconstruct?

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Sunday's Prayer

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant me so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them that I may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Saturday's Poem

I want to share a short poem by Emily Dickinson concerning the truth and how we tell it.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant--
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
the truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind--

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Thought for the Day

If there is no wind, row.
--Latin Proverb

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God of the Lost Cause

In the latest World Vision Magazine, the president, Richard Sterns, has a compelling editorial. (Clicking on World Vision Magazine will take you to its pdf file. Scroll to page 4 which has his editorial.)

He refers to God as the "God of the Lost Cause":

Why feed a child who will likely die of malaria, cholera, or dysentery before her fifth birthday? Why educate a deaf child in a place like Gaza, roiling with violence and despair? Why give a loan to a widow in Zambia dying from AIDS or bring clean water to a Congolese war zone? These are the questions that World Vision has to answer every day.

As Christians we are compelled to see the world through a different lens. Our God is the God of the lost cause, the mustard seed, the lost sheep, and the widow’s mite. He values each life,each child, regardless of circumstances, as “precious in his sight.”

Our society likes to win, and in fact puts enormous effort and resources into winning. We want to "bet on a winner," not on a loser. But in God's kingdom, "the least" are immensely important, and as disciples of Jesus we need to insure that we follow Jesus in our concern and our good deeds in terms of ministering to and serving "the least among us."

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Thought for the Day

It could be said that the person lives simultaneously in two registers: in the self and in relationship.
--Dumitru Staniloae, God Is Love

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Flash Forward

The sermon title for this Sunday's services is "Where Is God in Wealth?" and the texts are Malachi 3:6-12 and Luke 6:37-38. God calls us to the honorable position of steward: stewards of the world, stewards of all with which God has entrusted us personally. In other words, God owns everything, and we are the managers, administrators of God's creation. This includes our time, our talents, our spiritual gifts: everything! The texts indicate quite pointedly that we cannot out give God. God is far more generous than we can even imagine, so that even when our generosity is at its greatest, God gives far more.

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Thought for the Day

The sacramental imagination begins from the assumption that our discipleship depends not only--not even primarily--on the conveyance of ideas into our minds, but on our immersion in embodied practices and rituals that form us into the kind of people God calls us to be.
--James K. A. Smith, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?

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A New Stage of Life

As I have mentioned in at least one other blog, I am interested in the age group of 18-30 years old. For the most part, they have disappeared from the church. What to make of this and how to address this is worthy of our attention and concern.

In an article, "Getting a Life," in the most recent issue of Books & Culture the author, sociologist Christian Smith, reviews some recent books about this cohort of young people. The name to describe this new stage of life is "emerging adulthood." As adolescence became a distinct stage of life in the 20th century, so emerging adulthood has become a distinct stage of life in the 21st century.

Smith delineates four very important social forces that have combined to create this new stage of life.
1. The growth in higher education. After the GI bill after WWII, the number of people attending college skyrocketed. Now many young people feel that they need masters degrees and Ph.D.s to prepare themselves for their vocation and so extend formal schooling well into the 20's and early 30's.
2. The delay of marriage. The median age of marriage for women rose from 20 to 25 and for men rose from 22 to 27 between 1950 and 2000, with the sharpest rise occurring after 1970.
3. The American global economy that destabilizes lifelong careers and replaces these with many job changes with much less security.
4. In part because of the above, parents are more willing to offer financial support to the emerging adulthood generation. Research indicates that parents on average spend $38,340 of material assistance on each child from ages 18-34. This helps give this age group freedom before settling down.
Jeffrey Arnett in Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the late Teens through the Twenties, one of the books reviewed by Smith, writes about the loosening connection between this group and the faith of their families. He writes,

The most interesting and surprising feature of emerging adults' religious beliefs is how little relationship there is between the religious training they received throughout childhood and the religious beliefs they hold at the time they reach emerging adulthood...In statistical analyses [of interview subjects' answers], there was no relationship between exposure to religious training in childhood and any aspect of their religious beliefs as emerging adults...This is a different pattern than is found in adolescence [which reflects greater continuity]...Evidently something changes between adolescence and emerging adulthood that dissolves the link between the religious beliefs of parents and the beliefs of their children.

This ought to give us pause. The question I have is, why the disconnect?

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Thought for the Day

Do not give, as many rich men do, like a hen that lays her egg and then cackles.
--Henry Ward Beecher

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Thought for the Day

The truth is not the stuff of edifying hymns, rather it is dangerous, dirty, and smelly business. To seek the truth is to play with fire and a way to get burned. Not everyone has a stomach for it, above all those who say "Lord, Lord" and then head for cover the minute the Lord shows up dressed in rags and smelling like a street person. Be careful what you pray for: Lord, give me the truth--but not yet! The next time we look up to heaven and piously pray "Come, Lord Jesus," we may find that he is already here, trying to get warm over an urban steam grate or trying to cross our borders.
--John Caputo, What Would Jesus Deconstruct?

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Giving Happiness a Chance

The New York Times has an editorial today, All They Are Saying Is Give Happiness a Chance," that has to do with the elusive state we call happiness. The author, Eduardo Porter, notes that in the constitution the pursuit of happiness has lagged behind life and liberty.

He writes, "Despite all the wealth we have accumulated — increased life expectancy, central heating, plasma TVs and venti-white-chocolate-mocha Frappuccinos — true happiness has lagged our prosperity. As Bobby Kennedy said in a speech at the University of Kansas in March 1968, the nation’s gross national product measures everything “except that which makes life worthwhile.” In a society of unfettered consumerism, the underlying assumption is that consuming what we want will lead to happiness. This clearly does not obtain.

In fact, understanding happiness and what makes people happy is tricky business, indeed. In one experiment leaving a dime on a copying machine in which the subjects needed to copy a sheet of paper increased their happiness. Porter notes,

happiness seems to have little relation to economic achievement, which we have historically understood as the driver of well-being. A notorious study in 1974 found that despite some 30 years worth of stellar economic growth, Americans were no happier than they were at the end of World War II. A more recent study found that life satisfaction in China declined between 1994 and 2007, a period in which average real incomes grew by 250 percent.

As I've said before, I think pursing happiness is like pursing humility: the more you directly seek it the more it escapes you.

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Thought for the Day

Make a rule, and pray to God to help you to keep it, never, if possible, to lie down at night without being able to say: "I have made one human being at least a little wiser, or a little happier, or at least a little better this day."
--Charles Kingsley

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Sunday's Prayer

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that having this hope, I may purify myself as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, I may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Saturday's Poem

I found this poem which is a hymn, apparently, whose title and tune are unknown to me in the book, Celtic Daily Prayer. It occurs in Compline for Tuesday (36, 37).

As the bridegroom to his chosen,
as the king unto his realm,
as the keep unto the castle,
as the pilot to the helm,
so, Lord, art Thou to me.

As the fountain in the garden,
as the candle in the dark,
as the treasure in the coffer,
as the manna in the ark,
so, Lord, art Thou to me.

As the music at the banquet,
as the stamp unto the seal,
as the medicine to the fainting,
as the wine-cup at the meal,
so, Lord, art Thou to me.

As the ruby in the setting,
as the honey in the comb,
as the light within the lantern,
as the father in the home,
so, Lord, art Thou to me.

As the sunshine in the heavens,
as the image in the glass,
as the fruit unto the fig-tree,
as the dew unto the grass,
so, Lord, art Thou to me.

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Thought for the Day

Though you live near a forest, do not waste firewood.
--Chinese Proverb

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Thought for the Day

He that respects not is not respected.
--George Herbert

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How Healthy Is Your Brain?

One of the things that most of us growing older fear even if it remains unspoken is that of "losing our minds." We are afraid of having a stroke or dementia. The better our medical treatment is and the longer we live, the greater the likelihood that we will contract some kind of dementia in our old age.

An article in the Op-Ed section of the New York Times today offers advise about how best to increase our chances of not becoming demented. It is not engaging in computer games or even becoming expert at Soduku although these are moderately helpful. The best way to take care of your brain is by exercising regularly. The benefits of regular physical exercise are pretty impressive. See you at the gym!

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Thought for the Day

Man was created on the sixth day so that he could not be boastful, since he came after the flea in the order of creation.
--Haggadah

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Getting Back in the Saddle

I hope to start blogging on a daily basis again. Over the last three weeks because of some serious pastoral care issues and the mission trip to New Orleans I haven't had the time I would like to blog. I attempt to have blogs that are thoughtful and I can't do that on the fly. Sometimes I find an issue I would like to blog about but literally haven't had the time to write and sometimes I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to check out the Globe and the New York Times or other journals to find appropriate topics.

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Thought for the Day

No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.
--St. Ambrose

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Thought for the Day

Ninety percent of inspiration is perspiration.
--Proverb

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Thought for the Day

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
--Aristotle

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Sunday's Prayer

Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that I may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Thought for the Day

The spiritual life embraces thoughts, emotions, and physicality. There is no event in daily life, however insignificant, that is excluded, untouched by the life of the spirit.
--Marko Ivan Rupnik

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Thought for the Day

We should measure affection, not like youngsters by the ardor of its passion, but by its strength and constancy.
--Cicero

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Flash Forward

This coming Sunday the sermon title is "Where is God in Planet Earth?" and the texts are Genesis 1:25-31, Colossians 1:15-18, and John 1:1-5. If you look up the word "steward" in the dictionary you will find that it means taking care, managing another's property and possessions. We are called by God not only to steward all that God has given to us as individuals, but to steward the creation, which, to be honest, we have done a terrible job doing. Do you think of yourself as a steward of creation? You are. I am. Or at least that is one of our callings. Former Czech president Vaclav Havel wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed article a couple of months ago that "Maybe we should start considering our sojourn on earth as a loan." Indeed. We have been rapacious with our planet and need to care for it as stewards.

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Thought for the Day

There is an interaction between seeing and being. The kind of person you are affects the kind of world that you see...And conversely, what you see affects what you are.
--Simon Tugwell

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