Green Day

Four young women at Harvard had an inspiring idea based on existing technology and proven business models. Motion captured as energy is nothing new, neither is consumer model of buying a product that you take home while the proceeds purchase one for someone else in need (see companies like Tom's shoes). The inspiration came when these four students linked a need with a solution that fit existing cultural structures. What do people in the developing world need? Power. What do they all have in common? They play soccer. In fact, over half of the 265 million soccer players globally live in the developing world.

So the students invented a soccer ball that could store the energy used in a game in a battery that could then power an electrical device. Two hours of play time can power and LED light bulb all night. The "s0ccket ball" has the feel of a traditional ball with only 6 ounces of extra weight. For more information, see their website or the videos below.

It's Funny 'Cause it's True

So often, we say that comedy is funny because it's true. In one of my favorite movies, they say that politicians use lies to hide the truth while artists use them to reveal it. In an old black and white era comedy, Charlie Chaplin plays a barber who is mistaken for Hitler. In the end of the movie, he's put on international telecast to deliver a speech. The lie that is his mistaken identity leads to a speech that still rings true today. Truly, it's not very funny, and in some ways, it's ironic that it takes comedian under absurd circumstances to speak such words with sincerity. Thank you, Charlie...

- Watch MoreFunny Videos

Please Let Me Get What I Want

I love Christmas. I love Advent because it celebrates the anticipation, the giddiness, the hope leading up to the birth of Jesus. All too often in the secular world, it's a shopping season that anticipates everything else we are about to receive. This short video stands that idea on its head...

The track 'Please, Please, Please let me get what I want', was originally recorded by the Smiths, and has been rerecorded by emerging artist Slow Moving Millie.

Green Day

Very exciting fun invention for saving power in the third world. May be useful here too...

God's Big Bang

Today was Wellshire's first annual Faith & Science Sunday. We read from Genesis 1 (the Creation story) and Job (most of Chapter 38 and 40:1-2).

Listen to it here.

God's Big Bang

I’d like to tell you the simple story of how the universe started… To begin with, 13.7 billion years ago, the building blocks of everything that ever existed were packed into a space smaller than one hundred-billion-trillion-trillionth of a meter across. The universe entered the Planck Era, a time from that beginning up to one ten-million-trillion-trillion-trillionth of a second later. Gravity came into being, and by the end of the first trillionth of a second, the strong and weak forces and nuclear force, along with a seething ocean of quarks, leptons, antimatter and bosons. The entire universe got as big as our little solar system.

And after that first whole millionth of a second since that beginning, quarks turned into hadrons, and then everything turned into photons, and light was all that existed. And now the first whole second of the universe was over. 90% of everything in the universe turned into Hydrogen and the other 10% was Helium. And by now two whole minutes had passed. Then nothing much happened for 380,000 years before all the electrons everywhere combined with free nuclei and turned into every other substance we know about, from stars and rocks and rainbows to potato chips and pianos and politicians and porcupines. Did you understand any of that? Me either.

Those words I just read are excerpts from a wonderful 6 page article written by Neil deGrasse Tyson who won the 2005 Science Writing Award from the American Institute of Physics. Tyson is one of the most brilliant scientific minds in the world, with a gift for explaining the most difficult scientific principles in the history of time to school children on PBS shows and planetarium visits. Those words are his watered down version of how scientists think the universe came into existence.

Holly was going to read that version for the children’s sermon, but I talked her into the more kid-friendly version she used with flashcards. I imagine their reaction would not have been terribly different from the reaction God could have expected from a farmer or goat herder three thousand years ago, even if he’d watered it down as much as Tyson did. As a Christian, I am deeply thankful that the God I believe in was far more poetic than Dr. Tyson and far wiser when he breathed the words of our creation into the ear of the Biblical writer. I say this not to dissuade you from clinging tightly to an interpretation that God created the world in precisely six 24-hour days as we know them, but to offer you the concept that a loving and compassionate creative almighty God might have the same approach most loving parents do in explaining the difficult and often impossible to understand concepts of the world in an accessible and simple and poetic way.

The translation we read said “to begin with…” rather than the familiar, “in the beginning…” The Hebrew doesn’t actually use the word “the” here and so the less familiar translation leaves room for some of the mystery that surrounds creation, the same mystery that still plagues scientists. What existed before?

We believe in a God who laid the foundations of the cosmos, as he tells Job. And what greater feat of engineering is there than to determine the four forces of physics in under a trillionth of a second? We believe in a God who created absolutely everything, forming the universe from chaos. These beliefs are not contradicted by science, but rather science, also authored by God, lends us the tools for understanding the vastness of God’s majesty. Proverbs says wisdom will protect us, that God gives wisdom and that we are commanded to seek wisdom and knowledge. So God provides us with that which helps us to gain wisdom.

Too often, however, we make science and faith out to be so different from one another, even enemies. Science and faith share too much in common to believe they are so fundamentally different. They have their own language. They share the same potential to unify and divide, to heal and to harm. No other forces on earth have as much power to do both. At its best, faith can provide hope, healing and community, even peace. When twisted and perverted, faith can breed hate or violence, even war. At its best, science can bring people together and heal wounds and disease. And unchecked by morals and people of conscience, it can maim, harm and destroy beyond measure.

And yet, time and time again, science and faith have worked hand in hand, and helped one another, or even taught one another great lessons. The Catholic Church is more often credited with standing in the way of science, most notably astronomy. It was only recently, in 1992 that the Catholic Church officially acknowledged that Copernicus, and later Galileo, was right in claiming that the earth was not the center of the universe. But it is Pope Gregory XIII to whom we owe credit for our modern and highly accurate calendar, created by astronomers. The Church wanted Easter to remain fixed in the calendar, not slowly shifting later and later. Pope Gregory established the Vatican Observatory, staffing it with Jesuit priests who observed the night sky to determine a more accurate calendar. Thanks to him, Dr. Pholenz can now plan for Easter Sunday music well ahead of time each year, without worrying the Super Bowl will interfere.

Science has provided the discoveries and methods needed to save lives through medicine that is one of the greatest missions of the Church. The hospitals and clinics of every nation that people of faith build and operate rely on the science of medicine to carry out that mission. And science relies on people of faith who care about the sick and hurt to carry those means to the people in need. If ever there was an example of the Gospel lived out, it is caring for the sick, the partnership of science and faith.

Despite examples of God’s creation working together, we plead ignorance and continue to pit them against one another. We turn from our own disputes just long enough to weigh in on the larger ones. Believers pause from debates on economic and legal policies that affect the poor and arguments over ordination of homosexuals to disagree with scientists about the proof that God exists. Scientists set aside arguments over whether intelligent life can exist elsewhere in the universe or if we already found life on Mars to weigh in on the archaeological evidence of the life of Jesus or proof the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. And we pretend that either of us can answer questions for the other. We pretend to be experts. Time and time again, scientists pretend they are evolved and believers prove none of us truly are yet.

Many Christians try claiming the Bible as a science text book, and fail to claim it as the inspired Word of God, gifted to us by a creative and loving redeemer who yearns most for us to be in right relationship with God and all of God’s creation. We lose something important when we forget that and I think we disappoint the one who created both science and faith. God is our creator, sustainer and redeemer. An understanding of God as creator does not discount a big bang or expanding universe as the method and mechanics of that creator. An understanding of God as sustainer does not discount evolution and extinction as being the tools of that sustainer. By arguing that God created and then never allowed for, planned for or guided changes in that creation, we theologically argue ourselves out of a sustainer entirely.

To limit the tools of God is to limit the creator and sustainer’s power. And for a people naturally inclined to limit God’s power as redeemer to our favorite in-crowd, we should think twice before we force God into a tiny creator/sustainer shoe box.

I stand here this morning, not before a panel of leading scientists (my apologies to any actual leading scientists here this morning), but before a community of believers, a people of faith. And as people of faith, to what calling are we charged? We are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, heal the broken and sick and visit the lonely no matter where they are and to care for all of God’s created world. In a world this full of hungry, naked, homeless, broken, sick and lonely people, a world we’ve done so much to neglect and to harm, we need all the help we can get to fulfill this command to love one another and this world as Christ did. So much that science has to offer can help us do just that.

Medicine, psychology, technology and new methods and ideas can save people, improve quality of life and protect all God’s people and God’s creatures great and small. And don’t imagine for a moment that embracing the ideas and encouraging the people who participate in their discovery will fail to give purpose to the scientists who labor in their passions, nor show them the love of Christ. We are called to benefit from science and to benefit science. We have been given a great gift for understanding the world around us and to work toward the good of all. We are called to be thankful for that and to use that gift responsibly. Only when we are grounded in our beliefs and eager to learn can faith and science both reach their full potential. I encourage each of you to embrace faith and science, and to study both and to challenge both. Read articles, watch shows, ask questions, engage in debates, sure, but be a living example of someone who can live in both worlds: faith and science. Encourage your children, your friends and your peers to open their minds and open their hearts and remember that faith and science are not enemies, but both gifts from a God who loves us, a God who is creator, sustainer, and redeemer, who takes delight in his creation. Shouldn’t we take delight in it too?

A Hand Up for the Environment and the Poor

The Department of Energy hosts an annual Solar Decathalon in D.C. on the National Mall. One of this year’s most exciting entrees is Empowerhouse, a superefficient, solar-powered family home, built by a team of students from three universities in the Northeast. It is unique for a number of reasons, including its low cost and real-life feasibility. It will be moved after the competition to a neighborhood in Northeast Washington and become a home for a family from Habitat for Humanity and be a model for future energy efficient and green housing in the future for this organization.

This is the first year that homes will be graded on both their energy efficiency and attractiveness… as well as their affordability (in construction and purchase), moving the competition toward real-life application and not merely a concept that might provide ideas to the construction community. Last year’s winner was a house covered in solar panels, which produced more energy than the house needed. The problem… the house cost over $2 million.

One of the most attractive aspects of Empowerhouse is that employs “passive house” design principles, including thicker walls, insulation and air-tight design, even triple-glazed windows. They can reduce energy consumption by 90% compared to the average home and even 40% less than the average “high-efficiency” home. This reduces the need for expensive renewable energy sources on the home and the repair and upkeep of such systems.

As with energy efficient appliances, the upfront costs for Habitat are greater, but the long-range costs achieve the organization’s goals of making homeownership affordable in the long run. The cost of this kind of home is 10-15% more than Habitat for Humanity currently spends, but over the life of a 25-year mortgage, a family could save somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000 to $130,000, a dream come true for some families.

The group behind Empowerhouse will host a conference in June of next year for Habitat for Humanity affiliates across the United States to share information about passive house design technology. This could mean a huge leap forward in green design and be a way for the organization to lead the way in giving a hand up to the poor and to the environment.

Why Men Should Not Be Ordained

Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained

(note: this blog is also sarcastic, please take the proper precautions against feather ruffling)

10. A man’s place is in the army.
9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.
8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do other forms of work.
7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.
6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.
5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.
4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.
3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.
2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, and maybe even lead the singing on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.
1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

SOURCE: By way of David Jones... Presented by David M. Scholer on February 20, 1998, at the Fuller Follies at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. David’s version was taken, with small modifications, from a November 24, 1997 internet communication from W. Ward and Laurel Gasque, who have long been champions of Biblical equality.

First Follower

Whether it's Jesus or a leader you admire, this video demonstrates a fascinating lesson about being and recruiting followers.

Spiritual but Not Religious

As church attendance drops in many churches across the US, we’re seeing a trend toward the “spiritual but not religious” category amongst Americans. Being of the younger generation and having my own issues with power and authority, there is a lot I respect about this stance. However, today I do want to challenge it a little with a few quotes and superbly written post by a UCC pastor. Fair warning, if you are SBNR (spiritual but not religious) and cannot handle small doses of sarcasm with your sunsets, I bare you no ill will, please take the opportunity to exit here: (intended to have a link to sbnr.org here, but it is now inaccessible due to being reported as a malware attack page).

Standup Comic Jim Gaffagan says he hates living in California sometimes because girls come up to him at parties and say, “Hey, I’m spiritual but not religious.” To which he responds, “Well, I’m not honest, but you’re interesting.” It’s not just girls in California, nor most of the residents of Colorado. LifeWay Christian Resources did a survey in 2009, in which 72% of millennials (18- to 29-year-olds) said they're "more spiritual than religious." According to a recent Barna Group survey only 21% of self-identified Christians believes that spiritual maturity requires a vital connection to a community of faith.

Christians and secular Americans alike seem to responding to the snobbery they perceive to be associated with that statement as much as to the snobbery of religious folks who look down their noses at church truants. The UCC is not at all known for their religious imperialism, but a recent brief post by Lillian Daniel, senior pastor of a church in Illinois, wrote is worth sharing in its entirety… (This is actually the passage on which I recently preached)

Spiritual but Not Religious? Please Stop Boring Me.

August 31, 2011
Matthew 16:18

"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

On airplanes, I dread the conversation with the person who finds out I am a minister and wants to use the flight time to explain to me that he is "spiritual but not religious." Such a person will always share this as if it is some kind of daring insight, unique to him, bold in its rebellion against the religious status quo.

Next thing you know, he's telling me that he finds God in the sunsets. These people always find God in the sunsets. And in walks on the beach. Sometimes I think these people never leave the beach or the mountains, what with all the communing with God they do on hilltops, hiking trails and . . . did I mention the beach at sunset yet?

Like people who go to church don't see God in the sunset! Like we are these monastic little hermits who never leave the church building. How lucky we are to have these geniuses inform us that God is in nature. As if we don’t hear that in the psalms, the creation stories and throughout our deep tradition.

Being privately spiritual but not religious just doesn't interest me. There is nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community, where other people might call you on stuff, or heaven forbid, disagree with you. Where life with God gets rich and provocative is when you dig deeply into a tradition that you did not invent all for yourself.

Thank you for sharing, spiritual but not religious sunset person. You are now comfortably in the norm for self-centered American culture, right smack in the bland majority of people who find ancient religions dull but find themselves uniquely fascinating. Can I switch seats now and sit next to someone who has been shaped by a mighty cloud of witnesses instead? Can I spend my time talking to someone brave enough to encounter God in a real human community? Because when this flight gets choppy, that's who I want by my side, holding my hand, saying a prayer and simply putting up with me, just like we try to do in church.


More resources on SBNR:

Beliefnet
More than one fifth of Americans describe themselves with this phrase. What does it mean?

CNN
Are there dangers in being 'spiritual but not religious'?

If It Feels Right...

The following excerpts are from a NY Times op-ed by David Brooks...

If It Feels Right ...

During the summer of 2008, the eminent Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith led a research team that conducted in-depth interviews with 230 young adults from across America....

Smith and company asked about the young people’s moral lives, and the results are depressing.

It’s not so much that these young Americans are living lives of sin and debauchery, at least no more than you’d expect from 18- to 23-year-olds. What’s disheartening is how bad they are at thinking and talking about moral issues.

The interviewers asked open-ended questions about right and wrong, moral dilemmas and the meaning of life. In the rambling answers, which Smith and company recount in a new book, “Lost in Transition,” you see the young people groping to say anything sensible on these matters. But they just don’t have the categories or vocabulary to do so.

When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot.

“Not many of them have previously given much or any thought to many of the kinds of questions about morality that we asked,” Smith and his co-authors write. When asked about wrong or evil, they could generally agree that rape and murder are wrong. But, aside from these extreme cases, moral thinking didn’t enter the picture, even when considering things like drunken driving, cheating in school or cheating on a partner. “I don’t really deal with right and wrong that often,” is how one interviewee put it.

The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. “It’s personal,” the respondents typically said. “It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?”

Rejecting blind deference to authority, many of the young people have gone off to the other extreme: “I would do what I thought made me happy or how I felt. I have no other way of knowing what to do but how I internally feel.”

Many were quick to talk about their moral feelings but hesitant to link these feelings to any broader thinking about a shared moral framework or obligation. As one put it, “I mean, I guess what makes something right is how I feel about it. But different people feel different ways, so I couldn’t speak on behalf of anyone else as to what’s right and wrong.”

Smith and company found an atmosphere of extreme moral individualism — of relativism and nonjudgmentalism. Again, this doesn’t mean that America’s young people are immoral. Far from it. But, Smith and company emphasize, they have not been given the resources — by schools, institutions and families — to cultivate their moral intuitions, to think more broadly about moral obligations, to check behaviors that may be degrading. In this way, the study says more about adult America than youthful America...

Charles Taylor has argued that morals have become separated from moral sources. People are less likely to feel embedded on a moral landscape that transcends self. James Davison Hunter wrote a book called “The Death of Character.” Smith’s interviewees are living, breathing examples of the trends these writers have described.

In most times and in most places, the group was seen to be the essential moral unit. A shared religion defined rules and practices. Cultures structured people’s imaginations and imposed moral disciplines. But now more people are led to assume that the free-floating individual is the essential moral unit. Morality was once revealed, inherited and shared, but now it’s thought of as something that emerges in the privacy of your own heart.

What have you observed?

Spirit-breathed

Presbyterians love the words Holy Spirit. We love the idea of it. We love to invoke the concept. We don't often try to nail down exactly what it is or what's in its job description. And in some way, I am very glad of that. We also like the concept of human imagination. And though we are perhaps more brave in our invocation of the term and concept and more apt to assign it certain tasks, we hesitate to nail it down either. And we cringe at the idea of defining the boundaries for the two, or where they may overlap.

The discomfort level rises among my more secular friends in trying to determine where humanity ends and divinity begins, particularly in the cretive process. And if there is a major difference between my more spiritual and more secular friends, it is who gets the blame when it all goes to hell (divine concept) and who gets the credit when the artist really nails it. Many pastors I know struggle to remember to let themselves get out of the way in the creative process and to remember they can take very little credit for good sermons and try not to shoulder too much blame for the bad ones.

Saw a fascinating TED Talk from the recent author of Eat, Pray, Love. She struggles with the same ideas in her creative process, although the concepts and vocabulary are new to her. Without the same ideas about how God or the Holy Spirit intervene in her work, she stumbles, sometimes awkwardly and sometimes beautifully to capture the essence of inspiration, blame, responsibility and reverance in ways that express her own experience and hope for others. I think it's worth watching to gain a perspective of one person's search for the relationship between the human and the divine in the creative process.

Seeking to Serve

This week's text and sermon I preached... (audio)

Romans 12:9-21

English Standard Version (ESV)

Marks of the True Christian
9(A) Let love be genuine.(B) Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10(C) Love one another with brotherly affection.(D) Outdo one another in showing honor. 11Do not be slothful in zeal,(E) be fervent in spirit,[a](F) serve the Lord. 12(G) Rejoice in hope,(H) be patient in tribulation,(I) be constant in prayer. 13(J) Contribute to the needs of the saints and(K) seek to show hospitality.

14(L) Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15(M) Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16(N) Live in harmony with one another.(O) Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.[b](P) Never be wise in your own sight. 17(Q) Repay no one evil for evil, but(R) give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18If possible, so far as it depends on you,(S) live peaceably with all. 19Beloved,(T) never avenge yourselves, but leave it[c] to the wrath of God, for it is written,(U) "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." 20To the contrary,(V) "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.



In 1824, a small group of young women in Paris felt a strong call to ministry and service amongst those in need of medical care. These 12 young Catholic women wished to serve those in greatest need, starting their own new and very unique order of nuns. They lived at a time of great conflict and distrust of the Church, especially the Catholic Church in France and a time of rampant illness, disease and poor sanitation. Most of the poor could not afford to go to the hospital and many saw hospitals as death traps. The poor often resorted to relatives for home healthcare, most of whom had no experience in tending the sick.

It is into this world, these brave young women sojourned. Popular belief at the time was that, if nuns left the safety and security of a convent, they were to return by nightfall. However, the needs of the sick could not be scheduled solely in daylight hours. The young sisters would stay on floor mats and tend to the sick all night, if need be. These sisters would tend not only to the patient, but to the patient’s whole family. If the mother was sick, they would care for the children and cook the meals and tend to any housework. If it were the father, they would work the land or his shop. They practiced a tireless, faithful hospitality… not in a church or a convent or a hospital, but they sought out those in need and when they found them, they did all that was needed and more.

The sisters broke the tradition too of going only to those within their faith tradition and they refused to offer their help upon contingency of belief or repentance of sins. Their radical love acted out in their “sisterly affection” was unmatched. And while the Catholic church was skeptical about granting them their own order, by the end of their first year, they had more than doubled in size and continued to grow. More sisters flocked to “associate with the lowly.”

These young women, who became known as the Sisters of Bon Secours, the sisters of good help, would go on to become a large order that established hospitals internationally, including throughout the United States. I worked at a Bon Secours hospital as a chaplain in seminary, and they continue their holistic ministry of seeking to show hospitality even today. They do not merely extend medical care to all those in need, regardless of ability to pay, but they will do all they can to serve the entire family of the patient in whatever way may be needed.

In this way, the Sisters continue to serve in a way that reflects Christ’s ministry in a way that so many hospitals, hotels… and churches… do not. They do not merely provide the highest level of hospitality to those who pass through their doors, but they seek out those in need. It is that seeking that is unique in Christ’s ministry and teaching. Try to imagine a gospel devoid of seeking. Jesus opens up a back room in his father’s carpentry shop and takes applications for 12 spots in his disciple visioning team. He tells these disciples that the son of man has come to save the lost who stop by his shop. He tells them stories. Once there was a shepherd who lost one of his sheep. He sat around all day and when the sheep never came back, he was very upset. A young man takes his inheritance early, squanders all his money in a foreign country and when he heads home, his father sees him coming and sits at the kitchen table till his son peeks his head in the door and gives him a disapproving look before hugging him.

What kind of Gospel is that? Where is the Jesus who seeks to save the lost? Where is the good shepherd who goes looking for his lost sheep? Where is the prodigal son’s father who goes running out to his lost son? Where is the seeking? Where is the associating with the lowly? Without leaving the house, without getting out in the world, without turning over stones, without seeking, hospitality is just good customer service. It’s not “brotherly affection.” It’s not “associating with the lowly.” It’s letting the lowly associate with us. And it’s certainly not “overcoming evil with good.”

We worship a God who seeks us. It is the example he sets from the beginning of creation. Adam and Eve, for all their stupidity, know that their God is a seeking God. They go and hide. And sure enough, God comes looking for his children. The Bible is a history book… in that it is a history of the times God has gone looking for his people. As Presbyterians, we often baptize infants and small children. We do this as a symbolic act that before we ever profess faith or go seeking God… he is seeking us. It is one of the most deeply important reminders for us as Christians… that we worship a God who seeks us. And he sent his son to find us and to show us that same example, to seek out the lost, to seek to show hospitality.

As a freshman in college, I can only remember one or two care packages I received. One of them was a complete surprise. I received an air mail package from my home town. I couldn’t imagine who would send me an air mail package or why they would do it from only 2 hours away. I opened the box and found 2 dozen fresh chocolate chip cookies, made with love by my best friend’s mom. She had shipped them air mail so they’d still be fresh when I got them. More than cared for, I felt sought out. I felt found. I felt loved. That is seeking to show hospitality.

Many of us know that kind of love. Many of us have experienced the feeling of being sought after. This is a feeling, a knowledge and a hope that we cannot deprive another from feeling, from knowing, from sharing. In seeking to show hospitality, we show others the radical love of Christ in a way that we cannot do passively. We can be good people by being kind to those who walk through our door. But we cannot be good Christians, good disciples if we do not run out our own doors and go look for those who are lost or in need. We are to be a church on the move. And what is it we must do when we get our own doors? We must seek out those in need and seek to do everything we can for them. And there are even deeper needs than those of a lonely, hungry college student.

Emperor Julian of Rome once remarked of the early Christians that “the godless Galileans feed our poor in addition to their own.” In order to feed people who didn’t come to their churches and homes, the Christians had to leave their homes and go find these hungry people. And it was so common a practice and so radical a notion that even the emperor knew what this fledgling group was up to. It’s the Gospel manifest in the faith of a people who are convicted.

What is the Gospel if not a collection of the hope we are promised and the expectations we are given by a God who loves us? If the Gospel you profess is full of love, so too should be your life and faith. If the Gospel in which you believe is full of forgiveness, so too should your life be. If your Gospel is full of stories of seeking and saving the lost and seeking to show hospitality, shouldn’t your life be a story of the same?

The prophet Isaiah was big on hospitality. And his brand of it was not an easy one. If you don’t like being challenged in your lifestyle, stay out of Isaiah. It’s one of the bad neighborhoods of the Bible. If you decide you’re gonna read Isaiah, don’t go in there unprepared. Have your excuses ready. Be ready to defend your lifestyle choices with arguments about how much you need your creature comforts and expensive possessions to be happy, or how you need an expensive car because it’s reliable. And if you get backed into a corner, do what I so often do and pull out the big guns and be ready to say your biggest concern is the safety and security of your family. Because Isaiah is tough. Isaiah isn’t interested in excuses and good intentions.

Isaiah says we must not only make up a nice room for relatives and even the in-laws. Isaiah says we must not only give money to the homeless and provide them places to stay, low income housing and shelters. Isaiah says we have to invite the homeless into our own homes! Most of us get around that by living in nice neighborhoods and high rises where the poor dare not venture. We seek safety and refuge far more often than we seek to show hospitality to those in need.

The people with whom I worked in inner city Richmond moved into the worst area of town for just that reason. Richmond, like many cities, Denver included, is designed to minimize the interaction those in different socio-economic groups must have with one another. There are skywalks that connect office buildings so you don’t ever have to risk running into a homeless person. Not only are the bad neighborhoods separated from the good ones by geography, but even the highways that pass through have strategically placed trees, planted by the city, that hide the lower income neighborhoods from view.

This had to be pointed out to me by my mentor there. As I drove from my safe home in a neighborhood that had one car break in over the course of a year to this neighborhood where homicide was a daily reality, I had never noticed all the carefully constructed barriers that kept me not just safe from crime, but safe from ever seeing the need. The people who moved into this neighborhood found the need because they were seeking. I hadn’t even thought to look.

We have had 9 baptisms this year at Wellshire. Each is a reminder that God seeks us. Each is a reminder that we are called to seek. My prayer for each of you as you leave today, a church on the move, that your eyes be wide open to need, always seeking those in need. I pray that when you look, you find everything but the excuses that will keep you from showing hospitality to all. Seek to serve. Amen.

The Gates of Hell

Matthew 16: 13-20
English Standard Version (ESV)

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[c] in heaven." 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Hear It Here

It’s a dangerous business, going out your front door. So starts the Children’s book, The Hobbit. I’ve been rereading a lot of those recently, in anticipation of the arrival of our little one... It’s well documented that stepping out your front door is dangerous business. A lot can happen out there. In many ways, it’s the hardest part. It’s how Jesus begins his ministry, calling the disciples out of their homes, out of their lives, out of the boat. It’s no accident that Jesus does this. Once he’s got them out the door, they can do almost anything.

I was among the group from Wellshire this summer that visited the Holy Land. We had the privilege of visiting the house of Peter where Jesus very likely said these words. Beside the house is a little beach on the Sea of Galilee, a beach covered in small pebbles. A reminder of the words he spoke. “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” Does this choice seem odd to any of you? At first glance, it should. This is the guy who couldn’t sit still. We don’t have one instance of Peter in scripture twiddling his thumbs or sitting on his hands, meditating or reading the paper. Peter would not have made a good Presbyterian. Peter is the hyperactive disciple of the twelve. Jesus is transfigured… Peter has a hammer and nails out, ready to build mountain cabins for the group. Jesus is taking a stroll on the water… Peter is jumping out of the boat to go skipping across the waves. Jesus is being arrested… Peter has a sword out, ready to defend his Lord and teacher.

So why on EARTH, does Jesus turn to this wiggle worm, busy body, robe-full-of-springs bouncy fidgeter and say, “you’re a rock and I’m gonna build my church on you?” Could it be that Jesus is building a church that will never sit still?

What the heck kind of rock is that? If Peter, whose name is Greek for ROCK, was an ordinary rock, he wouldn’t have made it two steps out of the boat when Jesus called him. He would’ve sunken immediately. In fact, the moment we begin looking at rocks in scripture, we start seeing that they don’t sit still much longer than Peter does. A very small rock takes down the Philistine giant in the hands of a young shepherd boy who would become king. Rocks are the backup singers that are ready to shout if the people who welcome Jesus fall silent. And a rock rolls away as our savior rises from the dead.

All three of the verses from Psalms this morning speak about rocks on the move, rocks that save and protect…

The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation!

To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.

Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me!

Our Lord is a rock that lives. Our Lord is a rock that can hear our cries for help. Our Lord is a rock that goes out to save. This is the kind of Rock that God sets his church upon. Jesus doesn’t say Peter is his immovable steady rock upon which the church will stay, unmoving, still, motionless, invulnerable to and unconcerned with the outside world. This rock is not a sinking stone, but a Holy Rolling Stone!

A favorite classic movie of mine is Sister Act. Whoopi Goldberg’s Reno lounge singer character witnesses a violent murder and is hidden in a convent till she can testify. As you can imagine, she turns the place upside down, and the convent has an effect on her as well. She becomes Sister Mary Clarence and tries to fit in… in her own way. Everything about the convent is designed to protect the sisters from the outside world, and so is a perfect place to hide Sister Mary Clarence. However, she cannot abandon the outside world so quickly, and finds that many of the sisters share that passion, desiring to help those outside the walls.

When Sister Mary Clarence succeeds in bringing people in off the streets with her music, the Monseigneur is delighted. Mary Clarence takes the opportunity to speak for the mother superior, the very protective head of the convent, purposely undermining her, and says, “She wants us to go out into the neighborhood and meet the people.” As the mother superior begins to protest adamantly out of fear for herself and her nuns, the other nuns plead with her… “Oh, sister, that’s why many of us became nuns.” And an older nun says, “There’s a lot more that we could for these people than pray for ‘em.”

And so they go out to meet the people and their church gets moving. It gets outside itself, outside the walls, outside its own gates. “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” So Jesus is not building a Church that is heavily fortified with gates that can withstand the attacks of hell and evil… he’s building a church that will attack the gates of hell! The Church can certainly be a sanctuary for those in need. The church in Sister Act began by extending hospitality to those who came in off the streets. But if that’s all they had done, they would have missed the whole point. Only the people within hearing range of the church came in for the music. There were many more people dwelling in poverty, in hunger and oppression and sickness and hopelessness than who lived within a block of the church building. How sad it would be… if the Church became confined to the buildings in which it resides and worships.

As the church in Sister Act begins to turn the tide in the neighborhood… feeding people, loving people and bringing music, joy, hope… the aging mother superior becomes incredibly nervous about their new direction, terrified of the real-life danger it invites into the lives of her nuns. Discouraged, she tells Mary Clarence, “Could I keep this going, even if I wanted to? No. I am a relic… and I have misplaced my tambourine.”

When a Sister Mary Clarence inspires us, we all desire to rise to the occasion, to help Hunger Task Force pack boxes, to travel to Haiti, to head to Galveston or Joplin or the local Denver schools and shelters. But how often do we misplace our tambourines? How often do we see the Church as our refuge, the safe base of operations from where we conduct our saintly chores? How often do we associate our church attendance, Sunday school, worship, Bible studies, youth groups, fellowship groups, circles, committees and sessions on tap… with actively storming the gates?

I don’t mean to say that any of those is bad. Holly would have my head. Those are recon, strategy sessions and battle plans. But imagine science teachers who could never hope for a student that would go on to cure cancer or invent a new sustainable energy source. The last thing any Sunday school teacher hopes for is to inspire their students merely to a life of good Sunday school attendance.

Jesus does not say, “Peter, you are the immovable object on which I will build my church and the gates of it will never be penetrated, scaled or obliterated by hell and evil.” The Church of Jesus has no gates. What then, are the gates of hell? What in this world is evil? What is so deeply entrenched that it cannot easily be removed? At one time, the gates of hell in America looked like the institution of slavery… and then Jim Crow laws. And not one of us should pretend that racism, bigotry of all kinds or indifference is not a part of daily life in this country and all over the globe. We cannot pretend that children all over the world, even in Denver, don’t go to bed hungry each night or that our economy isn’t contributing more and more intensely to our homeless population and putting a greater and greater strain on our food banks. Those are the gates of hell… the seemingly-impenetrable barrier that separates us from one another. And the Church is called to assail, to attack, to bring down those gates.

It would be foolish to believe we could put a real dent in any of these gates from within the walls of this building. A church full of people who are so well-educated, so aware and so passionate cannot be content to try. We cannot be stones on which holy moss grows. We must be a rock like Peter, fidgety and discontented. We have to get out there. For some of you, this will look like family vacations that look more like mission trips or field trips, so your children will learn your passion for God’s children everywhere. For some of you, this will look like volunteer hours at MetroCareRing or Denver Inner City Parish. For some of you, it will be going somewhere here in Denver or to Joplin or Haiti in October during our week of Work-ship. We cannot be content to see ourselves as relics who have lost our tambourines.

Mark Yaconelli, author and profound story teller, meets with small groups of adults and will ask them, “at what time in your life did you stop dancing?” The question gets at the heart of our transition from childlikeness to adultness… as opposed to our transition from childhood to adulthood. When in our lives does joy stop being a reason in and of itself to dance? When do we stop moving? When do we become settled? When does our church stop moving?

This morning, we celebrate in joy with many among us who have gotten out of bed and walked or run for a purpose, for a cure. They walk and they run and they stand with others to attack the gates, to fight for a cure. This is a church on the move, God’s people storming the gates, a rock that will not stay put. God built his Church on a moving rock, and upon that Rock, the Church should always be moving toward the gates of all that hurts and oppresses and stands against the good news of life and love. It was no accident that God built his church, our church on a rock that would never sit still. God never wants us to sit still.

In this passage, Jesus not only establishes his Church, but he makes a promise… that building this church on the rock he has chosen… the gates of Hell shall not prevail. We are a part of a church built on the rock God chose, the rock that God set in motion. When I was in Galveston, I saw a motivational poster in the hallway of the small church in which we stayed. It portrayed a beautiful beach sunset and in lovely script, it shared the wisdom of a wiser generation and the enthusiasm of a younger one… “May the Lord bless you and keep you… and rock your face off.” Go, be not the church that fortifies gates against the storm. Be the church that storms the gates. All glory be to God. Amen.

Green Day

Fly Me to the Moon... A recent post on Lonely Planet is about some of the least Eart-like looking places on Earth. These pictures are of places here that look just out of this world. Please check them out.

Also, if you have a picture of somewhere that looks just out of this world, send me the picture or a link and I'll enter you to win this month's little prize: pick the topic of Brian's next blog. This can be anything related to culture, the Church or religion that you think needs to be discussed.

Green Day

"We are the only species that celebrates Shark Week. Sharks don't even celebrate Shark Week." -Jeff Winger, Community

It's True. We do celebrate Shark Week. Discovery Channel has been hosting it for 24 years now. It's gotten so popular, pop icon Lady Gaga does their promo song. If you've never experinced Shark Week, you don't know what you're missing. It's phenomenal... for more than a few reasons. First of all, it's a whole week dedicated to one kind of animal... every year... for a quarter of a century! Perhaps even more interesting is that it's sort of the "bad guy" of the animal kingdom. Despite the very few shark-related fatalities in the history of the world (compared to car crashes and lightning strikes), sharks get an awful rap.

So for one week each year, the media redeems itself by bringing us a realistic look at one of God's most spectacularly fascinating and awe-inspiring creatures, one of the oldest species alive. They've outlived the dinosaurs and some experts believe they may even outlast Survivor. So, if you have cable (we don't), tune in and get hooked. Or just watch Jaws on Netflix.