Hermiocide

Every night I go to check on my (almost) 2 year old son after he is asleep. I make sure he is still covered by his little blanket. I tuck in his stuffed animals, kiss him, and tell him I love him.

He absolutely loves the Hermie and Wormie stories (which we read frequently and learn how God makes everyone special)... and he sleeps with his Hermie stuffed animal every night.

Tonight I went to check on my sweet and innocent little man and found the horrible crime scene you see below. At first I was mortified because of my own peaceful tendencies... but then I just couldn't stop laughing.

I laughed so hard I can't believe I didn't wake him up.

Good thing I wore my "peace" shirt all day. Perhaps it should have read "pieces" instead. :)

Gospel According to... Green Eggs?

I am sure most everyone (with eyes to read) has seen "The Gospel According to... whatever." Harry Potter, Simpsons... It's everywhere. So, for this week, a friend of mine, Chris Lyons, saw my sermon from John 14:15-21 that I weaved with "Green Eggs and Ham" (to keep kids listening) and titled it "Gospel According to Dr. Seuss" and he designed art work to drop into media shout. He designed the picture you see here.

I have three main points this week, all related to Green Eggs and Ham.

1. There's Sam who constantly goes after the main character to try green eggs with ham on the side, no matter how many times he says no. This sounds a lot like previenent grace to me. God is constantly reaching out to us, constantly offering us a platter of true life in the Spirit.

2. There's the nameless main character (whom I named "nasty-face" for story-telling purposes) who says, "no, no, no... not with that, not on that," and so forth. This sounds a lot like humans in opposition to God to me. Or "the world" in this passage from John. The scripture passage reads, "the world cannot accept him, because it does not see or know him." And it is important to note here that we cannot use this passage to prove "the world" is beyond redemption. For if we actually ARE the Church and ACT like the Church, then the world will see Christ through our very embodiment of him. What this passage is saying is that Jesus tells us the world, those in opposition to God, cannot see God because when we choose ourselves over God again and again (not in the boat, not with the goat, not in a house, not with a mouse)... if we choose ourselves over and over instead of the gift, it gets harder to see God.

3. And in the end of the story we see that all Sam wanted for "nasty-face" was to enjoy the goodness being offered to him, to obey his command to "eat them." It sounds a lot like this scripture passage... If we love Jesus, we will obey his commands and "eat them, eat them, and SEE."

I also use the wordplay between "Sam I am" and the Great "I AM." Just because its fun.

And I re-wrote the story two times to go with my sermon. I am weaving the actual story with my new writing.

1. This is our "nasty-face" response:

I do not need my God above.

I do not need anyone's love.

I do not want the Spirit, God's gracious gift.

I do not want to be saved from this dividing rift.

2. And, this is God's constantly reaching out to us (like Sam to "nasty-face"):

Would you come worship in my holy house?
Would you come to me with the humility of a mouse?
Would you reach out to the one living in a box?
Would you stop being as sly as a fox?
Would you not argue with your family in the car?
Would you stop running from me so far?
Would you see what I’ve done in creating the tree?
Would you see what I could make you to be?
A train, a train… do you see how selfishness is coming at you like a train?
If you come to me, I could hold you in your pain.
Would you, could you, see you are in the dark?
Would you, could you, let me take away sin’s mark?
Would you, could you, allow me to wipe your tears falling like rain?
If you come to me, I could comfort you in the midst of all your pain.

Top Ten List, From District Kids Camp

Summers are filled with VBS, Kid's Camp, and a whole lot of fun for youth. Since it is rapidly approaching I thought it was time to dig out my top 10 things that happened at Kid's Camp list. I hope you enjoy it and laugh with me. This was written, July 2007, after I returned home from my first Kid's Camp experience as a children's pastor. This year I will be speaking at camp, so we might end up with a whole other list after this!

Top 10 Things From Kids Camp that Seminary Didn't Quite Prepare Me For:

10. Realizing how many bacteria can congregate in one location.
9. Having the need for a new invention where coffee is pumped to the veins.
8. Singing songs about praising God with your toes.
7. Being afraid to lay your head down at night knowing children once sat on your pillow.
6. Hearing sermons that compare the heavenly streets of gold to cheese… and actually appreciating the correlation.
5. Being irrationally afraid that out of the camp mud hole they call a pond, the origination of leprosy will be discovered.
4. Needing a GPS devise to find the bathroom.
3. Developing the defense mechanism of imagining problem children (and adults) stuck on a Velcro Wall.
2. Having the ordination command to "endure affliction" constantly ringing in your head.
1. Leaving camp with the promise of returning only if the church board approves the finances for my therapy.

:)

Jesus for President, Part II

Since I am not preaching this week and giving the time to my friends who will share with our kids about their upcoming missions trip to Nicaragua, I just finished the second part of this text, Jesus For President. It contained much of what I expected. Having discussed the Old Testament in the first part, here we see the New Testament and the life of Jesus. According to the authors, whereas Abraham and Sarah were intended to be the "new family" the disciples were meant to be the "new humanity" (137).

Where Israel had failed to be who they were called to be, Jesus came and embodied this new way of life for us and calls his followers to do the same. The authors spend a lot of time explaining how Jesus was political which was slightly mundane to someone who has already read John Howard Yoder's "Politics of Jesus." Although when the authors made a joke about reading Yoder's entire text instead of just one sentence they quote, I did laugh.

The author's sense of humor began to come out a bit more in this chapter. I found myself laughing out loud several times, which makes for a fun read. At one point they make emphasis on the fact that a Messiah who could only cry and poop was already a threat to the big, bad Caesar (81).

I also found a unique perspective and fresh way of viewing the temptation of Jesus. According to these authors we should view the first temptation as great irony. They say, "The Bread of Life is starving in the desert" (83) which is a fun play on words. The second thing the devil offers shows Jesus being tempted by the kingly throne. Jesus could have taken it, ended "Herod's genocide and wars" put "social services to set all things right again. And the people were ready for it" (85). But Jesus did not do this, for according to these authors, "governmental power" was not "a coveted position" (85) and they passively imply that it is not the answer for the world's problems. The third temptation calls for something "spectacular" and something that would grab the attention of the people but "Jesus resisted the spectacular" (86-7).

The authors also set up a political campain (much like the ones we see today in the 2008 election) for Jesus that is funny in many ways. They make his campaign slogan "Jubilee!" (88), his plan for economics "sharing, debt cancellation, and land redistribution" (90), and his plan for national security involves "giving away your life" (95). Their word choice is quite entertaining.

One of the points in this section really grabbed my attention and calls for further discussion. The authors talk about how when Jesus asks people to turn the other cheek, he is making sure you look the abuser in the eye and say, "I am a human being, made in the image of God, and you cannot destroy that" (92). This causes me to ask, how would this change our daily lives if we responded to injustice by forcing people to see our humanity and the humanity of the suffering? The authors claim Jesus is saying that if you do this, "it will become increasingly harder for that person to hurt you" (93).

I was really impressed with a theme that ran throughout this portion of the book: Jesus' imagination verses our failure of imagination. According to these authors Jesus breathes "fresh life and imagination" on our failure to be creative (76). Jesus calls us to figure out how to love our enemies in a new, creative way, Jesus calls the preachers to have more imagination to teach and instruct, and true imagination involves embodying Christ himself. This whole imagination discussion causes me to question where I might also have my own failure of imagination and where Jesus needs to breathe fresh creativity.

It looks like the next section involves Constantine's involvement in Christianity which will certainly be interesting, if nothing else. :)

CW Crew Mission & Vision

I am working to forumlate a mission and vision for my children's group. It is still a work in progress but this is what I am bringing to the table for discussion in my Sunday meeting with my children's volunteers.


MISSION AND VISION
WICHITA FIRST CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE


The Children’s Department at Wichita First Church of the Nazarene purpose is twofold:
1. All children should sense, feel, and see their own value to God and the church community.
2. All children should be given opportunity to learn how the scriptures enable us to form the right patterns and habits in our lives so that we might be a part of the community together who reflect the character of Christ in our love for God and neighbor.


Therefore, because who we are as the people of God comes out of both being loved and how we are formed by scripture-based habits and patterns in our lives, everything we do as a children’s department must have the specific intention of both loving our kids and helping our children be formed Christianly, so we might be the church who embodies and reflects the character of Christ.

Jesus For President Part I

Since a friend's recomendation, I am reading "Jesus for President" by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. So far, this book is quite facinating. Each page is filled with color and pictures to keep the wandering mind entertained.

The main focus of Part I is to enable the reader to view the Old Testament scriptures through the lens that all we see within the pages of our OT scriptures is God's attempt to "save the world" by helping the people of Israel be "an alternative society on the margins of empire for the world to come and see what a society of love looks like" (60). God chooses the people of Israel to be set apart and embody a different way of living, a way that's different then the violence and tragedy of the empire.

So we look at Adam and Eve and see a people who want to be like God. This selfish choice sets in motion the action of God on behalf of creation. We see the flood, not as a "violent" thing against creation but instead, as "an act of protection from the corruption and violence that plagued the creation" (28). We then view the tower story as a people seeking "limitless power" and God stops them not because they were a threat to God but but because "they were a threat to themselves" (30). God continues to reach out to these people in order to set them apart to live as creation was intended.

Before long we see Moses and his people under the authority of an empire. When God saves them from the empire's oppression, they whine and cry to be back under the empire again. And this book says something that caused me to stop for a moment and ponder it awhile. They said, "it may take only a few days to get of out the empire, but it takes a lifetime to get the empire out of us." God had acted on behalf of the people but the empire they were under had a philosophy that ran through their veins and plagued their thoughts. They did not know how to think God's way because the empire was so engrained in how they viewed the world. Wow. You can't help but start to apply this Old Testament example in today's world.

Then we move to view the prophets through our lens of the Old Testament's story of God saving the world through the people of Israel. These prophets are a "wierd" people who choose to "set themselves apart" from society's "pattern of destruction and war" (41). The prophet's task is to "point us to what is ahead- the fulfillment of God's dream for creation. And they invite us not simply to wait but to begin enacting that dream- now" (46). You can't help but start to think about the role of the pastor in the same way; that our calling is to always set God's vision for how creation was intended in front of a people who are often plagued by the dominating view of the empire of the day.

So far this book has painted the Old Testament to be a beautiful story of God seeking after a people, no matter what they do, no matter what choices they make, or how many times they mess things up. God keeps reaching out and hoping humans will respond in a way that will be as creation was intended. The last paragraph of this section points to the hope in Christ by saying "God's Son will embody all that Israel was meant to be" (60) and failed to be.

What is the point of viewing the Old Testament this way? Having only read the first part, my opinion will be limited. However, I believe the "Introduction" may give us hints on where they are leading us in this book. This quote hit me hard and I had to read it out loud several times. They said, "we assume America is God's hope for the world, even when it doesn't look like Christ." Ouch. Is America the empire of the day that runs through our veins and taints the way we view things?

Perhaps this text is encouraging us to have eyes to see where the empire is so engrained in us we act as if our empire is our savior who we need to save and protect us instead of Christ. May the prophets of today help us see our lives through a new lens and view ourselves as the Church of Jesus Christ, who embodies a different way as creation was intended.

Idol Sheep

I figured my first post on this blog could be about the sermon I will preach this week. I call it "Idol Sheep" from John 10:1-10.

I am setting up a contrast between an idol and an icon. According to my teacher's teacher, Jean-Luc Marion in "God Without Being" an idol is something that reflects ourselves. An idol is like a mirror. However, an icon reflects its Creator, something we cannot master, because it reflects God.

I will talk about the false shepherds and stranger in this passage, and how often by idolizing characters on the Disney Channel, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, or whomever... we make them our false shepherd and stranger. When we try to BE that character or REFLECT that character, we make them an idol and look like an idol ourselves.

If you're worried my kids will not get the difference between thinking the Disney Channel IS bad and idolizing the Disney Channel is bad... I have a plan to take care of this. I am going to talk about donuts. Donuts are so good. Donuts are awesome actually. But if I try to clothe myself in glaze, roll around, and try to BE a donut, that is bad. It is the same with famous people. When we try to BE them and REFLECT them, this is bad. This is idolatry.

However, Jesus was the perfect Icon. He knew the will of the Father and was ready to lay down his life (or what he wanted) for what God wanted, for the sheep. Jesus is the good shepherd and the gate. The voice of our shepherd calls us to LIVE as icons and not BE idols or MAKE others idols. Famous people are not our gate, they cannot save us. Only Jesus can do this.

The Prayer Inside Bulletin Will Read: "Lord Jesus, You reflected the Creator God and not any idols the world had to offer you. You were ready to lay down what you wanted for what God wanted. Help us not to be a reflection of how we see ourselves, what we wish we were, or what we see in famous people. But help us to be like you, a reflection of the Creator God, someone beyond ourselves in the way we give up what we want for what you want. Amen."

And our discussion questions will be: 1. How have we made famous people an idol in the ways we try to BE them or try to REFLECT them? 2. How should we look at famous people? 3. How do our lives look a whole lot like an idol in the way we only reflect ourselves and not our Creator God? 4. What are some ways Jesus reflected His Creator God? 5. How can we reflect our Creator God?