So Long, Jason

J-Bay has been traded to the BoSox in a 3-team deal involving the Dodgers. The Pirates got 4 prospects, 3 of them major-league ready. From the Sox they gote a solid at best everyday OF in Brandon Moss and a closer in Craig Hansen with wicked stuff that hasn't done anything on the major league level but I guess has potential. I'm betting we let him close until Capps comes back, and re-evaluate our closer situation when Capps is healthy. We also got Adam LaRoche's younger brother, Andy LaRoche, from the Dodgers. Hopefully a change of scenery will make him realize he must live up to his billing as a top prospect. Finally, we got some guy I'd never heard of in Bryan Morris, but he's the guy with the biggest upside. Of course, he has arm problems and sat out all of 2007 after Tommy John surgery, so who knows what'll happen? My evaluation:

Pros:
1. Moss and Hansen can help now and are still young enough that they might help for several years down the road.
2. Bryan Morris' upside.
3. Andy LaRoche's arrival means organizational depth at 3rd for the first time ever for the Bucs, and hopefully he can convince his brother that hitting during the first half of the season is a positive thing.
4. J-Bay's salary off the books means more money free to sign our yet-unsigned top 5 picks from this year's draft. Not that it was a motivating factor in the trade, but it's surely a bonus.
5. J-Bay's playing for a team I pull for on occasion. Good luck in Boston, Jason.

Cons:
1. J-Bay is gone, so we lose our resident boringly consistent Canadian. It's tough to see him go, but perhaps our future is better for it.
2. Yet another pitcher in our organization will be a top pick with arm problems. He'll fit right in.
3. Dealing with casual fans that can't see the long-term effects of this will be incredibly annoying for the next 2 years.

Here we go Steelers, here we go...

Communion Sunday

I've already spent a lot of time thinking and preparing for communion this Sunday, the first time I'll be presiding over the Lord's Supper. I'm very excited about the opportunity, and am weaving some eucharistic theology into my sermon. Apparently, West Newton UMC doesn't celebrate communion that often, and I'm not sure why. But usually it's due to a lack of understanding or a misunderstanding of what this sacrament is, what it represents, and how it is supposed to transform us. Part of me wants to just read J-Dub's "On the Duty of Constant Communion" sermon so the congregation can get some exposure to his works, but of course that would make for a very boring and unfulfilling time of worship. In any event, I'm thrilled that we'll be celebrating the Lord's Supper this Sunday, and I hope that I can show the congregation why it's meaningful.

That's something I've been thinking a lot about lately. We use the terms relevant and meaningful, particularly with regards to worship, but what do we mean when we use them? Are we trying to make irrelevant and meaningless scripture and liturgy come to life and become relevant and meaningful, or is it already relevant? In talking with my seminary pal Lance, I began to understand why I've always been uncomfortable with talk about "making worship relevant." We don't make it relevant. Worship, scripture, liturgy, prayer, singing old and new hymns...all these things are already relevant and meaningful. The problem is, we don't see how it's relevant and meaningful for us. That's what we should be striving for -- to show the meaning already present in these things. We're not doing congregations any favors by pretending that we have some magical key that attaches meaning to otherwise meaningless aspects of God and worship of God.

Well, I'm blogging

We've been in West Newton about a month now, and almost all of our socialization has been with people over the age of 70. We're getting kinda lonely, especially Lisa since she's sitting at home all day while I actually go to work. We finally have internet at the house, so things are a little better now that we can somewhat connect with the outside world.

The town is nice -- reminds me of Ada. We can walk almost everywhere. I take a 5 minute walk to work every day, and walk home for lunch.

Our house is huge. It has a walk-in, semi-finished attic. Today I'm going to do some work up there to make it a game room. Darts, video games, maybe a couch eventually...

I've found that ordained ministry is sometimes hard, sometimes easy, and always interesting. I'm definitely enjoying it most days. This week I'll be throwing my congregation for a loop by using Bob Dylan lyrics for the call to worship. I've already used John Wesley and poet George Herbert for calls to worship, and I'm trying to find interesting and new ways to do the call to worship and opening prayer. I've added a worship notes section in the bulletin so people actually know where these things are coming from. I think my church worships a certain way because they always have and it's the "traditional" UM service, but most of them don't seem to really think about why they do what they do. I'm hoping to change that over the coming months and hopefully years.

The Steelers report to training camp Sunday, and someone in my church has a grandson who works there. Apparently, he might be able to get us family passes, which means we could actually stand on the sidelines as they practice. See, this is why I moved back up here -- so I could serve churches where people really "get" me. They understand that Lisa and I love the Steelers, and they find it rather normal because they all have season tickets.

Sorry this post is all over the place; I feel like there's a lot of updating to do in my life.