Another sign I married well. In regards to this, I just had the following conversation with my wife on GMail:
Lisa: we don't get to hit brady quinn
me: I heard.
Lisa: that makes me sad
I performed a marriage reaffirmation ceremony last night for a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary. As long as Lisa and I continue to have conversations like this, I think we'll make it to 50 as well.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Global Initiative
Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club signed two pitchers from India, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Kumar Patel. You can read all about it here. These are guys who got noticed because they were finalists in some throwing contest, and have been playing baseball for about 6 months. They're actually cricket players. Earlier this year we signed a pitcher from South Africa, but at least he'd been playing baseball for awhile. I'm getting the feeling Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington has a huge world map on his office wall, and he just throws darts at it to decide where he'll sign guys from next. What's up today, boss? Uzbekistan!
Whatever. What have we got to lose? We might as well give globalization a whirl and see what happens. The Pirates may be the second-worst franchise in pro sports, but the front office definitely deserves an "A" for effort these days. I'm actually warming up to Huntington's creative thinking. Now, if we could just get more Latin American players like the other 29 teams...
Whatever. What have we got to lose? We might as well give globalization a whirl and see what happens. The Pirates may be the second-worst franchise in pro sports, but the front office definitely deserves an "A" for effort these days. I'm actually warming up to Huntington's creative thinking. Now, if we could just get more Latin American players like the other 29 teams...
Monday, November 24, 2008
Power Play
Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is a day in which we celebrate Christ’s reign as ruler of every earthly and heavenly king. It is a day in which we are reminded what kind of power God has in the world and in our lives, and how that power compares to our own experience with power.
All of us experience power from both sides. We have power over certain things, perhaps certain people. We also are under the power of other things, other people. Sometimes we think we have more power than we really do. Other times we have more power than we realize. Power, authority, control…whatever you want to call it, we are constantly engaged in struggles and relationships of power. And most of the time, we yearn for increased power. It’s in our nature as humans to feel like we have control of things.
We want our political party or our candidates to have power in government.
We want the power to choose our own healthcare provider.
We want the power to do our job the way we think it should be done and not the way our supervisor wants us to do it.
We want the power of holding the remote control in OUR hand.
We want our hands on the steering wheel of life, controlling everything that we can. The more we control, the safer we are, the more prepared we are, the less surprised we are.
But I’m always amazed by those things around us that humans have yet to master. Through scientific progress, we’ve been able to control many things that were previously untamed, uncontrollable. But there are still things that leave us absolutely helpless.
The natural world is one thing we’ve begun to have power over in a negative way. But it seems as though mother nature often fights back, and sometimes there’s not much we can do about it. Now, when Lisa and I went to Hawaii in June, we were fascinated by lava flows. What fascinated me most was that we have pretty much no control over lava flows.
Hurricanes and tornadoes we often see coming. We can predict them and hopefully get out of the way. Floods we can hold back, to an extent, with sandbags. Earthquakes, we can build structures that won’t fall down in the midst of them – or as Lisa reminds me, we can build structures that fall down in a safer way. Forest fires, we can create firebreaks for and we can battle with water. But lava flow we are completely powerless against.
You see, lava basically burns everything in its path. It is fairly unpredictable. You often don’t see it coming until it’s too late, and there’s really nothing you can do to protect yourself. And we can’t divert lava, we can’t put it out, we can’t do anything but let it go where it wants. It’s absolutely amazing to me – here is something we just have no solution for. A lava flow is something we have absolutely no control over. It will go where it wants, when it wants, and destroy what it wants, and all we can do is watch and hope to get people out of the way in time. The power of lava flow is so great that it will always have power over us.
God’s power is so great that God will always have power over us. Paul talks of God’s power in his letter to the Ephesians. He tells of God’s power at work in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ truly died, and was truly raised from the dead by God almighty. It was through God’s power that Christ ascended, or went up, into heaven, and took his seat at the right hand of God. The right hand of God – the place of honor. This is where Christ sits, this is Christ who is the king and who has all power and authority over heaven and earth. This is who we follow as Christians – the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Ruler of all Nations, Jesus Christ the King.
And we think we’re in control. We think we’re powerful. We think nothing can control us – we have control over our own destiny. But when was the last time you raised someone from the dead? When was the last time you raised Jesus Christ from the dead? Anyone here who can put that on their resume? I know I can’t.
So I think it’s safe to say that we are less powerful than God. Sure, this is a pretty basic statement – of course God is more powerful than any of us! But how often do we really act like it? How often do we truly live our lives with this in mind? Sadly, we tend to claim that God is all-powerful on Sunday, then spend the rest of the week acting as if we are in complete control. We sing praise to God who reigns above, then go home and sing praise to ourselves as we live like no one can stop us.
We have just endured a presidential election. In it, both candidates were often viewed as potential saviors to our nation. Both candidates were worshiped by many. There were people all throughout this land who anointed one of these men as their “king.” In light of this, what better time than now is there to declare that Christ is King? To me, the temptation to view our president as the most powerful man in the free world is a temptation to declare someone other than Christ to be our King. We are tempted to give all glory, laud, and honor to thee redeemer President! But you know, we don’t sing that here. We can be excited about a new administration, but we can’t lose sight that our Savior doesn’t need us to rally around him. Thankfully, our Savior doesn’t ever need to campaign, as one pastor in our conference has reminded me. Thank God that all glory, laud, and honor is bestowed on Christ the Redeemer King, and not to any human authority.
In 2006, Broetje Orchards of Prescott, WA saw 70% of their apple crop wiped out in a freak hailstorm. The insurance company gave them a choice: they could agree to no further harvesting and take the insurance money, or they could harvest the 30% left and keep the orchard open beyond that year – but that would mean no insurance money.
Ralph and Cheryl Broetje, the owners, decided to go on faith and keep it open. Had they closed down their orchard, they would have put several hundred year-round workers out of work, as well as hundreds more seasonal employees. Broetje Orchards shutting down would severely affect the area, as so many families depended on the orchard for a living. Well, the Broetjes refused the insurance money and kept it open because the faith they had in Christ’s power in their life was greater than any faith in a traditional business model that would suggest shutting down as the best option. In doing so, they allowed the power of Jesus Christ to work through them rather than trying to gain as much power as they could.
But it seems as though the Broetje’s have always run their orchard in this way. Cheryl Broetje says, “The power model is: How can I keep a little more power for me? But once you can get past that, it becomes: What can I be for others? How can I lift them up? What do they need, and how can I serve them?”
Thank God that we have people who are willing to let go and let God. Thank God that we have the Broetje Orchards, that remind us that traditional power models are about gaining more power, whereas God calls us to minimize our own power. God’s power model is to work through us, so that others can feel God’s power in their lives. Thank God that we have a Scriptural power model where we are not in complete control, because what would really happen if we were in control?
Some of you may have seen the popular movie, “Bruce Almighty” from a few years back. It tells the story of a man who became so frustrated with all the setbacks in his life that he claimed he could do better than God. So God gave him the chance to try it out. He let Bruce test drive the omnipotence car – he let Bruce have complete control over the world, as if he was God.
The next scene is Bruce waking up and enjoying his newfound power. He turns his old car into a Ferrari, parts the sea of traffic in front of him, and heads off to work where he messes around with co-workers. He walks around on water, gets revenge on people who wronged him, and he uses his powers to get his job back. Then he realizes that with his great Godly power comes the great responsibility of answering prayer. He really doesn’t want to spend all his time answering the endless amounts of prayer that keep rolling in, so he just replies “Yes” to all prayers. Well, at first it’s great because everyone gets what they want. Then, things start deteriorating. The climax of the deterioration happens when the Buffalo Sabres win the Stanley Cup and riots ensue. The story is a lesson about what would happen if humans actually had the power that God had. What would happen is we would become incredibly selfish, because the possession of power often makes us selfish. We’re not able to handle all the power that God can handle. Selfishness, revenge, destruction – this is what results when we humans get too much power.
Every once in awhile God has to remind us how limited our power is. Most people at this point know who Keifer Sutherland is. Sutherland is the actor who plays Jack Bauer on the hit TV show “24.” Over the summer, Sutherland went to an Apple store and tried to get himself an iPhone before their first release date. I guess he figured that his celebrity status gave him the power to obtain something no one else had. He could use his power to get an iPhone before the release. However, the Apple employees quickly made Sutherland aware that he wasn’t as powerful as he thought he was. After pulling the “Don’t you know who I am?” speech on the employees, they responded by saying, “Yes, we know who you are, and we don’t care. We don’t have any in stock, and we can’t get you one before the release.” As the Rolling Stones would say, “You can’t always get what you want”: even if you’re the most famous star on television. I’m willing to bet that it was a humbling experience for Sutherland when he realized that his celebrity status gave him some power, but that power was still limited in scope.
When we are reminded that we are not as powerful as we think we are, it leads us to humility. Powerlessness is humbling, because we are forced to rely on the powers above us for everything. Powerlessness frees us for joyful obedience of God. It allows us to enter into a spirit of servanthood toward the one who made us, and servanthood toward our neighbors. Our powerlessness gives God a chance to show how much he loves us, by using that power in selfless ways. While Bruce Almighty uses power to benefit himself, God uses power to benefit humanity. God uses power in love.
In a world full of power plays, a world in which he who has the power survives, it is often a scary thing to humble ourselves in service to God Almighty. We remind ourselves this morning that God’s power is at work in the world and in our lives, and we sing praises to that power. We are reminded that God’s power has anointed Christ as King! But do we really live as if Christ is our King? Do we really allow Christ to rule over our lives? Do we really know what it is like to be powerless in the presence of our Lord Almighty? Are we ready to accept Christ’s reign? Thank God Almighty that we are ruled by Jesus Christ our Savior and King. Amen.
All of us experience power from both sides. We have power over certain things, perhaps certain people. We also are under the power of other things, other people. Sometimes we think we have more power than we really do. Other times we have more power than we realize. Power, authority, control…whatever you want to call it, we are constantly engaged in struggles and relationships of power. And most of the time, we yearn for increased power. It’s in our nature as humans to feel like we have control of things.
We want our political party or our candidates to have power in government.
We want the power to choose our own healthcare provider.
We want the power to do our job the way we think it should be done and not the way our supervisor wants us to do it.
We want the power of holding the remote control in OUR hand.
We want our hands on the steering wheel of life, controlling everything that we can. The more we control, the safer we are, the more prepared we are, the less surprised we are.
But I’m always amazed by those things around us that humans have yet to master. Through scientific progress, we’ve been able to control many things that were previously untamed, uncontrollable. But there are still things that leave us absolutely helpless.
The natural world is one thing we’ve begun to have power over in a negative way. But it seems as though mother nature often fights back, and sometimes there’s not much we can do about it. Now, when Lisa and I went to Hawaii in June, we were fascinated by lava flows. What fascinated me most was that we have pretty much no control over lava flows.
Hurricanes and tornadoes we often see coming. We can predict them and hopefully get out of the way. Floods we can hold back, to an extent, with sandbags. Earthquakes, we can build structures that won’t fall down in the midst of them – or as Lisa reminds me, we can build structures that fall down in a safer way. Forest fires, we can create firebreaks for and we can battle with water. But lava flow we are completely powerless against.
You see, lava basically burns everything in its path. It is fairly unpredictable. You often don’t see it coming until it’s too late, and there’s really nothing you can do to protect yourself. And we can’t divert lava, we can’t put it out, we can’t do anything but let it go where it wants. It’s absolutely amazing to me – here is something we just have no solution for. A lava flow is something we have absolutely no control over. It will go where it wants, when it wants, and destroy what it wants, and all we can do is watch and hope to get people out of the way in time. The power of lava flow is so great that it will always have power over us.
God’s power is so great that God will always have power over us. Paul talks of God’s power in his letter to the Ephesians. He tells of God’s power at work in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ truly died, and was truly raised from the dead by God almighty. It was through God’s power that Christ ascended, or went up, into heaven, and took his seat at the right hand of God. The right hand of God – the place of honor. This is where Christ sits, this is Christ who is the king and who has all power and authority over heaven and earth. This is who we follow as Christians – the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Ruler of all Nations, Jesus Christ the King.
And we think we’re in control. We think we’re powerful. We think nothing can control us – we have control over our own destiny. But when was the last time you raised someone from the dead? When was the last time you raised Jesus Christ from the dead? Anyone here who can put that on their resume? I know I can’t.
So I think it’s safe to say that we are less powerful than God. Sure, this is a pretty basic statement – of course God is more powerful than any of us! But how often do we really act like it? How often do we truly live our lives with this in mind? Sadly, we tend to claim that God is all-powerful on Sunday, then spend the rest of the week acting as if we are in complete control. We sing praise to God who reigns above, then go home and sing praise to ourselves as we live like no one can stop us.
We have just endured a presidential election. In it, both candidates were often viewed as potential saviors to our nation. Both candidates were worshiped by many. There were people all throughout this land who anointed one of these men as their “king.” In light of this, what better time than now is there to declare that Christ is King? To me, the temptation to view our president as the most powerful man in the free world is a temptation to declare someone other than Christ to be our King. We are tempted to give all glory, laud, and honor to thee redeemer President! But you know, we don’t sing that here. We can be excited about a new administration, but we can’t lose sight that our Savior doesn’t need us to rally around him. Thankfully, our Savior doesn’t ever need to campaign, as one pastor in our conference has reminded me. Thank God that all glory, laud, and honor is bestowed on Christ the Redeemer King, and not to any human authority.
In 2006, Broetje Orchards of Prescott, WA saw 70% of their apple crop wiped out in a freak hailstorm. The insurance company gave them a choice: they could agree to no further harvesting and take the insurance money, or they could harvest the 30% left and keep the orchard open beyond that year – but that would mean no insurance money.
Ralph and Cheryl Broetje, the owners, decided to go on faith and keep it open. Had they closed down their orchard, they would have put several hundred year-round workers out of work, as well as hundreds more seasonal employees. Broetje Orchards shutting down would severely affect the area, as so many families depended on the orchard for a living. Well, the Broetjes refused the insurance money and kept it open because the faith they had in Christ’s power in their life was greater than any faith in a traditional business model that would suggest shutting down as the best option. In doing so, they allowed the power of Jesus Christ to work through them rather than trying to gain as much power as they could.
But it seems as though the Broetje’s have always run their orchard in this way. Cheryl Broetje says, “The power model is: How can I keep a little more power for me? But once you can get past that, it becomes: What can I be for others? How can I lift them up? What do they need, and how can I serve them?”
Thank God that we have people who are willing to let go and let God. Thank God that we have the Broetje Orchards, that remind us that traditional power models are about gaining more power, whereas God calls us to minimize our own power. God’s power model is to work through us, so that others can feel God’s power in their lives. Thank God that we have a Scriptural power model where we are not in complete control, because what would really happen if we were in control?
Some of you may have seen the popular movie, “Bruce Almighty” from a few years back. It tells the story of a man who became so frustrated with all the setbacks in his life that he claimed he could do better than God. So God gave him the chance to try it out. He let Bruce test drive the omnipotence car – he let Bruce have complete control over the world, as if he was God.
The next scene is Bruce waking up and enjoying his newfound power. He turns his old car into a Ferrari, parts the sea of traffic in front of him, and heads off to work where he messes around with co-workers. He walks around on water, gets revenge on people who wronged him, and he uses his powers to get his job back. Then he realizes that with his great Godly power comes the great responsibility of answering prayer. He really doesn’t want to spend all his time answering the endless amounts of prayer that keep rolling in, so he just replies “Yes” to all prayers. Well, at first it’s great because everyone gets what they want. Then, things start deteriorating. The climax of the deterioration happens when the Buffalo Sabres win the Stanley Cup and riots ensue. The story is a lesson about what would happen if humans actually had the power that God had. What would happen is we would become incredibly selfish, because the possession of power often makes us selfish. We’re not able to handle all the power that God can handle. Selfishness, revenge, destruction – this is what results when we humans get too much power.
Every once in awhile God has to remind us how limited our power is. Most people at this point know who Keifer Sutherland is. Sutherland is the actor who plays Jack Bauer on the hit TV show “24.” Over the summer, Sutherland went to an Apple store and tried to get himself an iPhone before their first release date. I guess he figured that his celebrity status gave him the power to obtain something no one else had. He could use his power to get an iPhone before the release. However, the Apple employees quickly made Sutherland aware that he wasn’t as powerful as he thought he was. After pulling the “Don’t you know who I am?” speech on the employees, they responded by saying, “Yes, we know who you are, and we don’t care. We don’t have any in stock, and we can’t get you one before the release.” As the Rolling Stones would say, “You can’t always get what you want”: even if you’re the most famous star on television. I’m willing to bet that it was a humbling experience for Sutherland when he realized that his celebrity status gave him some power, but that power was still limited in scope.
When we are reminded that we are not as powerful as we think we are, it leads us to humility. Powerlessness is humbling, because we are forced to rely on the powers above us for everything. Powerlessness frees us for joyful obedience of God. It allows us to enter into a spirit of servanthood toward the one who made us, and servanthood toward our neighbors. Our powerlessness gives God a chance to show how much he loves us, by using that power in selfless ways. While Bruce Almighty uses power to benefit himself, God uses power to benefit humanity. God uses power in love.
In a world full of power plays, a world in which he who has the power survives, it is often a scary thing to humble ourselves in service to God Almighty. We remind ourselves this morning that God’s power is at work in the world and in our lives, and we sing praises to that power. We are reminded that God’s power has anointed Christ as King! But do we really live as if Christ is our King? Do we really allow Christ to rule over our lives? Do we really know what it is like to be powerless in the presence of our Lord Almighty? Are we ready to accept Christ’s reign? Thank God Almighty that we are ruled by Jesus Christ our Savior and King. Amen.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
NFL Helmet Rankings
With the help of my esteemed sports enthusiast colleague Dan, I have compiled a list of the 32 current NFL helmets. We judged them by their uniqueness, incorporation of team color scheme, how they match with the rest of the uniform, stripe usage, and overall look. We included only current helmets, which eliminated the possibility of the white Bills helmets and all of the former Patriots helmets, which were all better than the current ones. We also found an interesting site, which gives a history of all NFL helmets: http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/. Without further ado, here is the list:
32. Seattle Seahawks. Logo way too big, monochromatic helmet-logo scheme looks awful. No redeeming qualities.
31. Baltimore Ravens. Their logo really hurts them, as they had the chance to have a scary, gothic raven and instead went with a cartoony raven head with a B on its neck.
30. Jacksonville Jaguars. They missed a perfect opportunity to pull off the white helmet and instead went with the boring black helmet. The logo is one of the worst in the NFL.
29. Cleveland Browns. Normally I'd like the classic look of a logo-free helmet, but not in this case. This is an awful color orange, they don't have a logo on the helmet because they don't have a logo period, and if you're the Browns, why is your helmet orange?
28. Tennessee Titans. As ESPN's Greg Easterbrook says, the logo looks like a flaming thumbtack. The tapered double stripe is not becoming on them, and all of this brought together looks like a 1st grader designed the helmet.
27. Carolina Panthers. Silver helmets are hard to pull off, especially when you have an awful logo.
26. New England Patriots. I encourage you to check out their old helmets of the three point hat over the number. When can they bring those back, because the current logo on the silver helmet is really ugly.
25. Denver Broncos. Another awful logo, the color scheme is the only thing that makes this helmet so high.
24. Atlanta Falcons. Yes, the logo conveniently makes an F, but I've seen this exact same logo in high school and college. Where's the creativity?
23. San Fransisco 49ers. They made a mistake by changing the middle stripes. It used to be a white center stripe bordered by red stripes, but now they have a red-black combination. Big mistake, because it dropped you way down on this list.
22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The pewter color is good, but what's up with the logo? You can't hang a flag on a sword!
21. Buffalo Bills. Classic logo, classic look, both team colors prominently used. However, I've never understood the stripe in the middle of the bill -- is he getting speared? Does he have a different colored random appendage growing from his head?
20. Miami Dolphins. White helmets are generally a good idea, and the helmet-wearing dolphin logo is creative. One question: why is the dolphin in the logo wearing a different helmet than the actual team?
19. Houston Texans. Simple, cartoony logo is okay, but nothing special. Houston had a chance to have horns on their helmets like the Vikes or Rams, but they passed it up. Not good.
18. Detroit Lions. So-so logo, nothing really special. The helmet itself gives a feeling of indifference, which fits them well, I guess.
17. Kansas City Chiefs. Another blah helmet. Nothing good or bad to say here. It's a helmet, it's red, they wear it.
16. Oakland Raiders. Few teams wear the silver helmet well. The Raiders are one such team because of the simplicity of their uniforms and helmets. It all works well together.
15. Arizona Cardinals. The white helmet looks great in contrast to the cardinal red jerseys. The simple red logo is sweet.
14. Chicago Bears. The "C" is classic, but far short of creative. This helmet is only this high because of its sheer recognition factor. Almost anyone in the country can turn on the TV, see the Bears, Packers, or Cowboys helmet, and instantly know who's playing.
13. Pittsburgh Steelers. The logo is the steel logo, adding an element of uniqueness. This is also the only NFL helmet with the logo only on one side.
12. New York Jets. Another great white helmet. It was a good choice to go back to these classic helmets.
11. Dallas Cowboys. The star is classic, the silver helmet looks nice. An All-American helmet if I've ever see one. See notes under Chicago Bears.
10. Washington Redskins. The yellow facemask contrasts well with the red helmet. The feathers coming off the back of the otherwise circular logo looks good too.
9. New York Giants. I just can't get over how awesome the single red center stripe looks on this otherwise plain helmet. Call it a splash of excitement and a whole lot of plain, brute force. Kinda like the Giants style of play, no?
8. Green Bay Packers. The yellow helmets are great, and the "G" is classic if not exciting. See notes under Chicago Bears.
7. Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals did a great job incorporating the Bengal tiger stripes in their unis, especially the helmet. This is a great, unique, fun helmet.
6. Minnesota Vikings. The horns look great. Extra points for incorporating the yellow of their color scheme in a shadow effect around the base of the horn.
5. Philadelphia Eagles. Great job on the wings. They've been wearing some variation of the wings since 1955. It doesn't get much better than the white wings on the green helmet.
4. Indianapolis Colts. I originally saw nothing exciting about these helmets, but Dan persuaded me they are indeed exceptional. Aside from changing from white to blue facemasks in 1995, the helmet has been exactly the same since 1957. Kudos to the B'more/Indy Colts for picking the horseshoe as the logo and sticking with it and these great white helmets for so long without even tweaking it.
3. New Orleans Saints. No one could ever pull off the gold helmet like the Saints. The black fleur de lis on the gold helmet SCREAMS New Orleans. Truly a royal helmet.
2. San Diego Chargers. The lightning bolt is not incredibly unique for a team called the Chargers, but you have to admit it looks pretty cool, especially since they switched back to the white helmet in 2007. Did I mention I like white helmets?
1. St. Louis Rams. Well, the Rams at least have one thing going for them, right? The classic ram horns are nothing short of amazing, classy, and fearsome. Say what you want about their play, but these helmets are the best in the NFL. We had a hard time choosing the best between the top 5 or 6 on this list, but the Rams get the edge because they wore horns starting in 1950. Longevity and only minor tweaking of the idea gives them a slight edge over the rest.
There you have it. Feel free to disagree -- everyone's entitled to their own wrong opinion.
32. Seattle Seahawks. Logo way too big, monochromatic helmet-logo scheme looks awful. No redeeming qualities.
31. Baltimore Ravens. Their logo really hurts them, as they had the chance to have a scary, gothic raven and instead went with a cartoony raven head with a B on its neck.
30. Jacksonville Jaguars. They missed a perfect opportunity to pull off the white helmet and instead went with the boring black helmet. The logo is one of the worst in the NFL.
29. Cleveland Browns. Normally I'd like the classic look of a logo-free helmet, but not in this case. This is an awful color orange, they don't have a logo on the helmet because they don't have a logo period, and if you're the Browns, why is your helmet orange?
28. Tennessee Titans. As ESPN's Greg Easterbrook says, the logo looks like a flaming thumbtack. The tapered double stripe is not becoming on them, and all of this brought together looks like a 1st grader designed the helmet.
27. Carolina Panthers. Silver helmets are hard to pull off, especially when you have an awful logo.
26. New England Patriots. I encourage you to check out their old helmets of the three point hat over the number. When can they bring those back, because the current logo on the silver helmet is really ugly.
25. Denver Broncos. Another awful logo, the color scheme is the only thing that makes this helmet so high.
24. Atlanta Falcons. Yes, the logo conveniently makes an F, but I've seen this exact same logo in high school and college. Where's the creativity?
23. San Fransisco 49ers. They made a mistake by changing the middle stripes. It used to be a white center stripe bordered by red stripes, but now they have a red-black combination. Big mistake, because it dropped you way down on this list.
22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The pewter color is good, but what's up with the logo? You can't hang a flag on a sword!
21. Buffalo Bills. Classic logo, classic look, both team colors prominently used. However, I've never understood the stripe in the middle of the bill -- is he getting speared? Does he have a different colored random appendage growing from his head?
20. Miami Dolphins. White helmets are generally a good idea, and the helmet-wearing dolphin logo is creative. One question: why is the dolphin in the logo wearing a different helmet than the actual team?
19. Houston Texans. Simple, cartoony logo is okay, but nothing special. Houston had a chance to have horns on their helmets like the Vikes or Rams, but they passed it up. Not good.
18. Detroit Lions. So-so logo, nothing really special. The helmet itself gives a feeling of indifference, which fits them well, I guess.
17. Kansas City Chiefs. Another blah helmet. Nothing good or bad to say here. It's a helmet, it's red, they wear it.
16. Oakland Raiders. Few teams wear the silver helmet well. The Raiders are one such team because of the simplicity of their uniforms and helmets. It all works well together.
15. Arizona Cardinals. The white helmet looks great in contrast to the cardinal red jerseys. The simple red logo is sweet.
14. Chicago Bears. The "C" is classic, but far short of creative. This helmet is only this high because of its sheer recognition factor. Almost anyone in the country can turn on the TV, see the Bears, Packers, or Cowboys helmet, and instantly know who's playing.
13. Pittsburgh Steelers. The logo is the steel logo, adding an element of uniqueness. This is also the only NFL helmet with the logo only on one side.
12. New York Jets. Another great white helmet. It was a good choice to go back to these classic helmets.
11. Dallas Cowboys. The star is classic, the silver helmet looks nice. An All-American helmet if I've ever see one. See notes under Chicago Bears.
10. Washington Redskins. The yellow facemask contrasts well with the red helmet. The feathers coming off the back of the otherwise circular logo looks good too.
9. New York Giants. I just can't get over how awesome the single red center stripe looks on this otherwise plain helmet. Call it a splash of excitement and a whole lot of plain, brute force. Kinda like the Giants style of play, no?
8. Green Bay Packers. The yellow helmets are great, and the "G" is classic if not exciting. See notes under Chicago Bears.
7. Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals did a great job incorporating the Bengal tiger stripes in their unis, especially the helmet. This is a great, unique, fun helmet.
6. Minnesota Vikings. The horns look great. Extra points for incorporating the yellow of their color scheme in a shadow effect around the base of the horn.
5. Philadelphia Eagles. Great job on the wings. They've been wearing some variation of the wings since 1955. It doesn't get much better than the white wings on the green helmet.
4. Indianapolis Colts. I originally saw nothing exciting about these helmets, but Dan persuaded me they are indeed exceptional. Aside from changing from white to blue facemasks in 1995, the helmet has been exactly the same since 1957. Kudos to the B'more/Indy Colts for picking the horseshoe as the logo and sticking with it and these great white helmets for so long without even tweaking it.
3. New Orleans Saints. No one could ever pull off the gold helmet like the Saints. The black fleur de lis on the gold helmet SCREAMS New Orleans. Truly a royal helmet.
2. San Diego Chargers. The lightning bolt is not incredibly unique for a team called the Chargers, but you have to admit it looks pretty cool, especially since they switched back to the white helmet in 2007. Did I mention I like white helmets?
1. St. Louis Rams. Well, the Rams at least have one thing going for them, right? The classic ram horns are nothing short of amazing, classy, and fearsome. Say what you want about their play, but these helmets are the best in the NFL. We had a hard time choosing the best between the top 5 or 6 on this list, but the Rams get the edge because they wore horns starting in 1950. Longevity and only minor tweaking of the idea gives them a slight edge over the rest.
There you have it. Feel free to disagree -- everyone's entitled to their own wrong opinion.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Unfortunate Slip of the Tongue
Last week I found myself in discussion with an associate minister in our annual conference. She is having problems in her current appointment, as the senior minister treats her as an assistant minister rather than an associate minister. This happens all too often -- when my mother served as an associate, she sometimes encountered this. I get the feeling it happens to both male and female associates, but that it's more common with female associates. Nothing like a power trip and sexism, eh?
Well, as I empathized with her, I said something about how awfully "senior ministers often treat those working under them." Using the phrase "under them" was entirely an accident - this is the attitude that associates fight against. They are associates, thus they do not work under, but in association with colleagues in ministry that have the unfortunate title of senior minister.
Well, immediately I regretted my slip of the tongue and corrected myself. It was a reminder that even when trying to fight against the attitude of associates being assistants, I am still a product of a system that promotes this attitude. Sometimes we are faced with such realities: that we all possess attitudes that are wrong, even attitudes we disagree with, and sometimes a fight against a wrong attitude includes a struggle within our own souls.
Well, as I empathized with her, I said something about how awfully "senior ministers often treat those working under them." Using the phrase "under them" was entirely an accident - this is the attitude that associates fight against. They are associates, thus they do not work under, but in association with colleagues in ministry that have the unfortunate title of senior minister.
Well, immediately I regretted my slip of the tongue and corrected myself. It was a reminder that even when trying to fight against the attitude of associates being assistants, I am still a product of a system that promotes this attitude. Sometimes we are faced with such realities: that we all possess attitudes that are wrong, even attitudes we disagree with, and sometimes a fight against a wrong attitude includes a struggle within our own souls.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Risky Business
As I’ve noted in previous sermons, a talent is worth about 15 years worth of wages. So one servant was given 75 years of wages, another was given 30 years of wages, and a third was given 15 years of wages. The first two engaged in risky trading, trying to parlay it into even more money. The third played it safe, burying it in a field like any intelligent money manager would do in Jesus’ day. The audience of Jesus’ parable would have expected the first two servants to be in trouble when the master came back. “You risked all I had to try to double it? What if you had lost it? You should’ve taken better care of what I gave you, burying it in the field like everyone else does with valuable things!”
Instead, expectations of the audience are flipped upside down, as Jesus is known to do. The ones who invested in risky trading were commended. And the one who buried the treasure in the field was not commended but chastised. Last week we talked about how what appears foolish often turns out to be wise. And this parable is another testament to that. The audience would have thought that the risky traders were foolish, and the burier of money was wise. But as it turns out, the servants who risked everything were the wise ones, according to the master.
You see, the servant who buried his one talent was very concerned with job security. If he lost or spent any of the master’s money, the master would surely be upset. “If I lose any, he’ll never trust me with anything again!” He was determined not to fail – determined not to lose his job.
However, the servants who risked it all were motivated by love of the master. They wanted to increase his funds. They risked everything, with the clear possibility of failure on the line. Had they lost some or all of the money the master gave them, they would have been done. They’d be fired as servants, perhaps even killed – who knows what would happen if they lost the money? They’d be jobless, and with a reputation of being poor money managers to boot. Who would ever trust them again?
We can’t overlook the possibility of failure in this story. Two servants did not concern themselves with failure, and one guarded himself firmly against failure. Two engaged in risky business, and one made sure nothing went wrong. And the ones who risked it all were the ones who the master commended. The one who took the safe, predictable, culturally expected way out got in big, big trouble. Simply put, it is a parable underscoring the phrase, “No risk, no reward.”
Fred Craddock tells a story about a nine-pound sparrow that he met walking down the street one day. “Why are you walking?” he asked the sparrow. “Why don’t you fly?” “Fly?” said the sparrow. “I’ve never flown! I could get hurt?” And Craddock asked the sparrow what her name was. The sparrow’s name was “Church.”
I knew a church like this sparrow. It was a small, suburban church, not much bigger than this one. It was decreasing in worship attendance and in membership. They thought hiring a part-time youth minister would help. But when that youth minister came, he tried to take the youth on a mission trip with Appalachian Service Project. Appalachian Service Project, or ASP, is a Christian organization that leads one week work camps for youth groups, helping repair homes in rural Appalachia – areas where people have no money to repair their dilapidated homes.
Well, perhaps the youth minister was thinking too big, because all the church saw was the risk involved. Our kids will go where? That’s far away – what if you get into a car accident on the drive? What if they get hurt while working and end up in a hospital 400 miles away from home? What if this is some crazy cult organization that will brainwash our kids? What if it’s a place that will just take our money and not let the youth actually do anything? What if the youth don’t like it? What if they want to come home? What if, what if, what if…
All they could think about was the potential for failure. No one was able to think about this mission trip as an opportunity. They thought of it only in terms of how it could go wrong. They were like the servant who buried the treasure in the field for fear of failure. And they never did let their youth minister take their youth to ASP. And a couple of years later they found themselves wondering why nothing had changed around their church. To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
A number of years ago, I was on a youth retreat as a counselor for my father’s church. My primary purpose for the weekend was to lead the youth group in indoor rock climbing. Has anyone done any rock climbing before? When the time came for climbing, we instructed everyone in all the safety procedures. Belaying is what it’s called – where one person holds the rope as the other person climbs. Well, on this retreat, we had several counselors. We had one counselor determined to try climbing, and another who would not get on the wall if we gave her a million dollars. The one who tried was the un-athletic, 69-year-old organist of the church. The one who didn’t try was an athletic woman in her 30’s. She was afraid of falling. So she didn’t try.
Well, when the organist got up there, she climbed, slowly but surely, about 2/3 of the way up the 30 foot wall. And then she started struggling. At one point, she lost her grip and fell. But you know what? The person belaying her, the person on the ground holding the rope, did what he was supposed to, tightening up the rope and catching her. She seemed quite surprised as she hung suspended in the air. For the first time, she felt what is was like to be caught by an invisible entity when she fell. For the first time, she knew that she could succeed without fear of failure. And she swung herself back onto the wall, just below where she fell off, and climbed all the way to the top. She did so because she was not afraid to try something she might not succeed at. She wasn’t afraid to be clinging to a wall 25 feet above the ground. She was empowered to engage in risky business. To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
A lot of times, we worry about climbing the wall because we might fall. We might fail. But then if we do take that risk, and we do fall, we realize that nothing happens. Nothing happens because even though we’re climbing on our own, those times when we lose grip and fall, God catches us. God is our belayer, letting us take the risks, but catching us when things don’t always work out. Last week we talked about how sometimes wise actions appear foolish to the untrained eye. The wise bridesmaids looked foolish by taking extra oil when they probably wouldn’t need it, but really they were wise in acknowledging their own limitations. This week’s parable also shows that to be truly wise, and to truly obey our master, sometimes we have to do things that look a little foolish, like over-preparing our oil reserves or engaging in risky trading with our master’s fortunes. Sometimes we are called to do that which is absurd in our world, but makes perfect sense in God’s world.
What risky business is God our master and belayer calling you to? What risky business are you afraid to engage in because something might go wrong? What risky business are you ignoring because of fear of failure?
Are you faced with having to stand up for what is right, even in the face of ridicule?
Are you afraid to invite a friend to church, because he or she might say no?
Are you afraid to help the poor face-to-face, because you don’t know what will happen?
Are you afraid to go on a mission trip, because you don’t want to leave your safe, familiar surroundings?
Are you thinking of joining a Bible study, but don’t want to because you’re insecure about how much you don’t know?
Are you feeling called to pursue a new job, or being asked to move because of your job? Are you ignoring that call because your current job is a secure source of income?
Are you afraid to go for a promotion because of how you’ll be viewed if you don’t get it? Are you afraid to go for a promotion because of how you’ll be viewed if you do get it?
Are you worried about being friends with people who are “uncool” or “nerdy”, because people might start making fun of you?
Are you finding yourself holding onto money a little tighter now in this economic crisis? Are you burying more and more money in the ground? Or are you willing to engage in the risky business of giving generously to God, to the church, to anything that might benefit others?
Are you feeling led to share your faith with a friend, with a stranger, but are afraid they might not care?
Every day, our lives are full of opportunities. And too often, we pass up those opportunities because we worry about the risk. But you know, when it comes down to it, we’re playing with house money, so to speak. These opportunities we have are given by God. God wants us to accept the opportunities he gives and use them to spread the love of Christ throughout the world. And we are not to worry about the risk, says Jesus. Let the master worry about the risk. We must continue to be motivated by pleasing the master rather than protecting our own job security. We must not allow fear of failure to keep us from doing God’s work in the world. We must engage in risky business. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Instead, expectations of the audience are flipped upside down, as Jesus is known to do. The ones who invested in risky trading were commended. And the one who buried the treasure in the field was not commended but chastised. Last week we talked about how what appears foolish often turns out to be wise. And this parable is another testament to that. The audience would have thought that the risky traders were foolish, and the burier of money was wise. But as it turns out, the servants who risked everything were the wise ones, according to the master.
You see, the servant who buried his one talent was very concerned with job security. If he lost or spent any of the master’s money, the master would surely be upset. “If I lose any, he’ll never trust me with anything again!” He was determined not to fail – determined not to lose his job.
However, the servants who risked it all were motivated by love of the master. They wanted to increase his funds. They risked everything, with the clear possibility of failure on the line. Had they lost some or all of the money the master gave them, they would have been done. They’d be fired as servants, perhaps even killed – who knows what would happen if they lost the money? They’d be jobless, and with a reputation of being poor money managers to boot. Who would ever trust them again?
We can’t overlook the possibility of failure in this story. Two servants did not concern themselves with failure, and one guarded himself firmly against failure. Two engaged in risky business, and one made sure nothing went wrong. And the ones who risked it all were the ones who the master commended. The one who took the safe, predictable, culturally expected way out got in big, big trouble. Simply put, it is a parable underscoring the phrase, “No risk, no reward.”
Fred Craddock tells a story about a nine-pound sparrow that he met walking down the street one day. “Why are you walking?” he asked the sparrow. “Why don’t you fly?” “Fly?” said the sparrow. “I’ve never flown! I could get hurt?” And Craddock asked the sparrow what her name was. The sparrow’s name was “Church.”
I knew a church like this sparrow. It was a small, suburban church, not much bigger than this one. It was decreasing in worship attendance and in membership. They thought hiring a part-time youth minister would help. But when that youth minister came, he tried to take the youth on a mission trip with Appalachian Service Project. Appalachian Service Project, or ASP, is a Christian organization that leads one week work camps for youth groups, helping repair homes in rural Appalachia – areas where people have no money to repair their dilapidated homes.
Well, perhaps the youth minister was thinking too big, because all the church saw was the risk involved. Our kids will go where? That’s far away – what if you get into a car accident on the drive? What if they get hurt while working and end up in a hospital 400 miles away from home? What if this is some crazy cult organization that will brainwash our kids? What if it’s a place that will just take our money and not let the youth actually do anything? What if the youth don’t like it? What if they want to come home? What if, what if, what if…
All they could think about was the potential for failure. No one was able to think about this mission trip as an opportunity. They thought of it only in terms of how it could go wrong. They were like the servant who buried the treasure in the field for fear of failure. And they never did let their youth minister take their youth to ASP. And a couple of years later they found themselves wondering why nothing had changed around their church. To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
A number of years ago, I was on a youth retreat as a counselor for my father’s church. My primary purpose for the weekend was to lead the youth group in indoor rock climbing. Has anyone done any rock climbing before? When the time came for climbing, we instructed everyone in all the safety procedures. Belaying is what it’s called – where one person holds the rope as the other person climbs. Well, on this retreat, we had several counselors. We had one counselor determined to try climbing, and another who would not get on the wall if we gave her a million dollars. The one who tried was the un-athletic, 69-year-old organist of the church. The one who didn’t try was an athletic woman in her 30’s. She was afraid of falling. So she didn’t try.
Well, when the organist got up there, she climbed, slowly but surely, about 2/3 of the way up the 30 foot wall. And then she started struggling. At one point, she lost her grip and fell. But you know what? The person belaying her, the person on the ground holding the rope, did what he was supposed to, tightening up the rope and catching her. She seemed quite surprised as she hung suspended in the air. For the first time, she felt what is was like to be caught by an invisible entity when she fell. For the first time, she knew that she could succeed without fear of failure. And she swung herself back onto the wall, just below where she fell off, and climbed all the way to the top. She did so because she was not afraid to try something she might not succeed at. She wasn’t afraid to be clinging to a wall 25 feet above the ground. She was empowered to engage in risky business. To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
A lot of times, we worry about climbing the wall because we might fall. We might fail. But then if we do take that risk, and we do fall, we realize that nothing happens. Nothing happens because even though we’re climbing on our own, those times when we lose grip and fall, God catches us. God is our belayer, letting us take the risks, but catching us when things don’t always work out. Last week we talked about how sometimes wise actions appear foolish to the untrained eye. The wise bridesmaids looked foolish by taking extra oil when they probably wouldn’t need it, but really they were wise in acknowledging their own limitations. This week’s parable also shows that to be truly wise, and to truly obey our master, sometimes we have to do things that look a little foolish, like over-preparing our oil reserves or engaging in risky trading with our master’s fortunes. Sometimes we are called to do that which is absurd in our world, but makes perfect sense in God’s world.
What risky business is God our master and belayer calling you to? What risky business are you afraid to engage in because something might go wrong? What risky business are you ignoring because of fear of failure?
Are you faced with having to stand up for what is right, even in the face of ridicule?
Are you afraid to invite a friend to church, because he or she might say no?
Are you afraid to help the poor face-to-face, because you don’t know what will happen?
Are you afraid to go on a mission trip, because you don’t want to leave your safe, familiar surroundings?
Are you thinking of joining a Bible study, but don’t want to because you’re insecure about how much you don’t know?
Are you feeling called to pursue a new job, or being asked to move because of your job? Are you ignoring that call because your current job is a secure source of income?
Are you afraid to go for a promotion because of how you’ll be viewed if you don’t get it? Are you afraid to go for a promotion because of how you’ll be viewed if you do get it?
Are you worried about being friends with people who are “uncool” or “nerdy”, because people might start making fun of you?
Are you finding yourself holding onto money a little tighter now in this economic crisis? Are you burying more and more money in the ground? Or are you willing to engage in the risky business of giving generously to God, to the church, to anything that might benefit others?
Are you feeling led to share your faith with a friend, with a stranger, but are afraid they might not care?
Every day, our lives are full of opportunities. And too often, we pass up those opportunities because we worry about the risk. But you know, when it comes down to it, we’re playing with house money, so to speak. These opportunities we have are given by God. God wants us to accept the opportunities he gives and use them to spread the love of Christ throughout the world. And we are not to worry about the risk, says Jesus. Let the master worry about the risk. We must continue to be motivated by pleasing the master rather than protecting our own job security. We must not allow fear of failure to keep us from doing God’s work in the world. We must engage in risky business. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Minutes from the Mall!
They're adding a Chipotle on Rte. 51 by Century III Mall. I love Chipotle. You have no idea how happy Lisa and I were when we saw the "Coming Soon: Chipotle" sign today. It absolutely made our day. Merry Christmas to us.
Yes, it's 20 minutes away, but where we live, that's as close as a Chipotle's going to get. Plus, it's on our way to Pittsburgh, so that can be our pre-sporting event meal stop. Mmm...Chipotle.
Yes, it's 20 minutes away, but where we live, that's as close as a Chipotle's going to get. Plus, it's on our way to Pittsburgh, so that can be our pre-sporting event meal stop. Mmm...Chipotle.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Timing is Everything
I was outside, on the lawn of the church with this small congregation. I was a first-time visitor, having just completed a week of volunteering at Wesley Woods with a high school camp. This church was on the way home, so a few of us stopped at the small United Methodist Church for Sunday worship. And they were staging a heritage day service.
For those of you that don’t know, a heritage day service usually includes the pastor dressing up like a circuit rider. Circuit riders were Methodist preachers in 18th century America who rode on horseback from town to town, visiting the churches in his “circuit” on Sundays throughout the year. Well, on this heritage Sunday I was at, the church’s pastor dressed up like a circuit rider and rode in on a horse. And they staged it just like old times. The congregation was gathered on the lawn, singing hymns a cappella until the preacher came. “So when will the preacher be here?” I asked the woman next to me. “I don’t know. Sometime after 10:00, they say. He’ll get here when he gets here.”
This was really the full experience. We were all kinda in the dark about when the preacher would be here. We had a general idea, but I guess horses are harder to predict time-wise than our fancy cars. So here we were, pretending like we’re in 18th century America, waiting for the preacher to get there so we could have this dang worship service. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. We didn’t know when he’d come. We knew he’d get there…we just didn’t know when. And people used to do this every week. It drove me crazy after 10 minutes of waiting.
I was inside, in a classroom above the chapel. It was already 10 minutes into our contextual education class in seminary, and neither of our professors had shown up. One had already told us he wouldn’t be there this week, but the other one was supposed to lead the class. His name was Raphael Warnock, the pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Dr. Warnock usually was late, but not this late. So the minutes kept ticking away into our class period, and we started the talk that all students have when these things happen. “Where’s the professor? We’ll have to invoke the 15 minute rule soon.” For those of you that don’t know, the 15 minute rule is an unwritten but widely known rule that if your professor doesn’t show up in the first 15 minutes of class, then the students are allowed to leave without getting in trouble. I was there once when we used it in college. It’s a risky thing. Well here we are, seminary students – the most ethical and honest people you can find, right? No, we’re invoking the 15 minute rule on Dr. Warnock. Who cares that he preaches from the same pulpit Martin Luther King Sr. and Jr. both preached from? Who cares if he’s an internationally known preacher? He’s 15 minutes late, we don’t know when he’ll be here – if he comes at all. We knew he’d come, we just didn’t know when.
I was sitting in my living room, waiting. I had things to do, but I couldn’t leave because the Comcast guy was supposed to come and hook up our new service between 9 and 1. Oh, the cable guys. Everyone else makes appointments, but they give you a 4 hour range that you have to wait for them to show. You’re a prisoner in your own house, waiting for the cable guy, not knowing when he’ll show up. I knew the Comcast guy was coming to my house, I just didn’t know when.
In this parable of the ten bridesmaids, they knew the groom was coming, they just didn’t know when. They knew he’d come and invite them into the wedding, they just didn’t know when. So they waited with their lamps until he came. And when he came, some were gone because they had run out of oil.
How did this happen? As I read this parable, this first century oil crisis, I try to imagine the argument that broke out before they left with their lamps. Half the women are taking backup oil, just to be safe. We don’t know how long we’ll be waiting, they say as they grab their reserves. The other half of the women aren’t. It’s usually not that long, We’ll have enough. A backup flask of oil is heavy and bulky and we don’t want to carry it with us. We don’t want to look like over-prepared fools, weighed down with more than we need.
Any experienced hiker will tell you to be prepared, but that it’s foolish to be over-prepared. You don’t have the room in your pack to be over-prepared. You have to be lean and mean, or you’ll be the fool who brought a jacket and a sweatshirt, the fool who brought 3 kinds of sunscreen, the fool who brought backup hiking boots just in case they need them. And you’ll be the tired, slow fool that now has to carry all of it.
So who’s foolish and who’s wise? Is it foolish to be over-prepared, or foolish to be under-prepared? You see, the distinction between foolish and wise comes down to bringing extra oil or not. And at first, you can see both sides of the argument. On the one hand, bringing extra oil “just in case” may turn out to look wise. But if the bridegroom comes quickly, you might look foolish. And to forego the backup oil can look wise if the bridegroom comes quickly, but if he doesn’t you’ll end up appearing foolish. It’s all about the timing of the bridegroom’s arrival. Basically, no matter when the groom comes, someone’s going to look foolish. So who actually is foolish?
You see, the mistake of the foolish bridesmaids was not falling asleep. Even the wise, over-prepared bridesmaids slept. The foolish bridesmaids were the ones who ran out of oil. Why did they end up foolish? It’s because they didn’t have enough oil of their own, and they had to run around town trying to buy oil at midnight, when obviously no merchants would be open. See what happens when you depend on foreign oil? You end up missing the wedding feast – you end up looking foolish.
So these bridesmaids looked foolish running around in search of more oil, but it wasn’t just their lack of oil that made them foolish. It was the motivation behind their lack of oil. It was foolish of them to think they knew when the bridegroom was coming. It was foolish to try to predict something so unpredictable and out of their control. The wise bridesmaids were the ones smart enough to know what they didn’t know. They were the ones that admitted, “We know he’s coming, we just don’t know when.” Meanwhile the foolish ones acted in their preparation as if they could predict that he wouldn’t be delayed that long. In an act of arrogance, they acted as if they knew what would happen, as if they knew when that bridegroom would show up. But they didn’t know. They couldn’t be certain. It wasn’t a guarantee that he’d show up quickly.
In telling the parable, Jesus says that the bridegroom was delayed. Whether it was a flat tire, or having to change shirts because he got a stain on it, or what, he arrived later than expected. And the foolish women were revealed – the ones who weren’t ready for the unexpected. The ones who were too arrogant to admit that they didn’t know for sure what would happen. The ones who pretended like they knew when he was coming, when in reality they didn’t. When they set out without extra oil, it was an act of arrogance – an act of presuming to know what they did not actually know. And this is what made them foolish.
Just as I was on that church lawn, in that classroom, and in my living room, all the bridesmaids knew the groom was coming, they just didn’t know when. Half of them admitted that, but the other half were too foolish to admit they didn’t know everything.
You see, the foolish women were the ones who just didn’t take the event seriously enough. Here is a wedding feast, one of the grandest occasions there is, and they’re not treating it like it’s any big deal. So while you can make an argument for either group of bridesmaids being the foolish ones, we see that the truly foolish are those who do not take the event of the bridegroom’s coming seriously.
And what of the wise bridesmaids? As I said, they probably looked pretty foolish at the outset lugging around all this extra oil. What are you doing? Why are you wasting your time and money on spare oil? It’s similar to those who ask, why are you wasting your time at church when you can sleep in, or watch football preview shows? Why are you wasting your money by giving 10% of it away to the church, when you could use that 10% to buy more of the things you want? There is often criticism of being over-prepared, but some things are worth taking with the utmost seriousness. The bridegroom’s arrival is to be taken very seriously, and the wise bridesmaids know that. They know that he’s coming, they just don’t know when. And they are not going to miss this banquet for anything. They are going to make sure they are ready when the invitation comes. The foolish cannot say the same.
Jesus uses the example of preparing extra oil for the lamps as a symbol for preparation, but it was the attitude of those bridesmaids that made them foolish. You see, it’s not a story about what we prepare or store up, or what we bring to the event. This isn’t a call to “be prepared,” to make sure you’re covering yourself with good, holy thoughts and deeds. It’s not a warning to make sure that you’re not caught with your hand in the cookie jar when Christ comes again. It’s not just about the preparation itself, the works we do or the things we say.
This parable is about an attitude of expectancy. It’s a parable about admitting our own limitations. It’s a parable about humility, about not being so arrogant as to think we have the bridegroom’s schedule figured out. It’s a parable about taking Christ’s second coming seriously. What requires more preparation than feasting at Christ’s heavenly banquet?
Christ is our bridegroom, and we cannot predict when Christ will come again. We have no way of knowing. We are not in control of the bridegroom’s schedule, so we can’t pretend like we’ve solved a mystery that is not meant to be solved. And we can’t act like it’s no big deal. All we know is that Christ “will come again to judge the living and the dead,” as our Apostles’ Creed says. We do not know when that time will come. We don’t know when Christ will come, we just know he’ll be here sometime. We can’t predict it, we can’t know for sure, and we mustn’t pretend like we have it figured out. We must be willing to admit that we don’t know everything – that God only knows when the church’s bridegroom, Christ, will come again.
We must await with eager anticipation, our lamps trimmed and burning. We must have enough oil of faith stored up that we can wait as long as it takes. We must be prepared for the long haul, even if Christ comes before this service is over. We must be prepared for everything, because when it comes down to it, we don’t really know anything. May Christ come again when the time is right, and may we be prepared when that day comes, without being so arrogant as to think we know when that day will come, or that Christ will have mercy on those who do not take it seriously. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
For those of you that don’t know, a heritage day service usually includes the pastor dressing up like a circuit rider. Circuit riders were Methodist preachers in 18th century America who rode on horseback from town to town, visiting the churches in his “circuit” on Sundays throughout the year. Well, on this heritage Sunday I was at, the church’s pastor dressed up like a circuit rider and rode in on a horse. And they staged it just like old times. The congregation was gathered on the lawn, singing hymns a cappella until the preacher came. “So when will the preacher be here?” I asked the woman next to me. “I don’t know. Sometime after 10:00, they say. He’ll get here when he gets here.”
This was really the full experience. We were all kinda in the dark about when the preacher would be here. We had a general idea, but I guess horses are harder to predict time-wise than our fancy cars. So here we were, pretending like we’re in 18th century America, waiting for the preacher to get there so we could have this dang worship service. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. We didn’t know when he’d come. We knew he’d get there…we just didn’t know when. And people used to do this every week. It drove me crazy after 10 minutes of waiting.
I was inside, in a classroom above the chapel. It was already 10 minutes into our contextual education class in seminary, and neither of our professors had shown up. One had already told us he wouldn’t be there this week, but the other one was supposed to lead the class. His name was Raphael Warnock, the pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Dr. Warnock usually was late, but not this late. So the minutes kept ticking away into our class period, and we started the talk that all students have when these things happen. “Where’s the professor? We’ll have to invoke the 15 minute rule soon.” For those of you that don’t know, the 15 minute rule is an unwritten but widely known rule that if your professor doesn’t show up in the first 15 minutes of class, then the students are allowed to leave without getting in trouble. I was there once when we used it in college. It’s a risky thing. Well here we are, seminary students – the most ethical and honest people you can find, right? No, we’re invoking the 15 minute rule on Dr. Warnock. Who cares that he preaches from the same pulpit Martin Luther King Sr. and Jr. both preached from? Who cares if he’s an internationally known preacher? He’s 15 minutes late, we don’t know when he’ll be here – if he comes at all. We knew he’d come, we just didn’t know when.
I was sitting in my living room, waiting. I had things to do, but I couldn’t leave because the Comcast guy was supposed to come and hook up our new service between 9 and 1. Oh, the cable guys. Everyone else makes appointments, but they give you a 4 hour range that you have to wait for them to show. You’re a prisoner in your own house, waiting for the cable guy, not knowing when he’ll show up. I knew the Comcast guy was coming to my house, I just didn’t know when.
In this parable of the ten bridesmaids, they knew the groom was coming, they just didn’t know when. They knew he’d come and invite them into the wedding, they just didn’t know when. So they waited with their lamps until he came. And when he came, some were gone because they had run out of oil.
How did this happen? As I read this parable, this first century oil crisis, I try to imagine the argument that broke out before they left with their lamps. Half the women are taking backup oil, just to be safe. We don’t know how long we’ll be waiting, they say as they grab their reserves. The other half of the women aren’t. It’s usually not that long, We’ll have enough. A backup flask of oil is heavy and bulky and we don’t want to carry it with us. We don’t want to look like over-prepared fools, weighed down with more than we need.
Any experienced hiker will tell you to be prepared, but that it’s foolish to be over-prepared. You don’t have the room in your pack to be over-prepared. You have to be lean and mean, or you’ll be the fool who brought a jacket and a sweatshirt, the fool who brought 3 kinds of sunscreen, the fool who brought backup hiking boots just in case they need them. And you’ll be the tired, slow fool that now has to carry all of it.
So who’s foolish and who’s wise? Is it foolish to be over-prepared, or foolish to be under-prepared? You see, the distinction between foolish and wise comes down to bringing extra oil or not. And at first, you can see both sides of the argument. On the one hand, bringing extra oil “just in case” may turn out to look wise. But if the bridegroom comes quickly, you might look foolish. And to forego the backup oil can look wise if the bridegroom comes quickly, but if he doesn’t you’ll end up appearing foolish. It’s all about the timing of the bridegroom’s arrival. Basically, no matter when the groom comes, someone’s going to look foolish. So who actually is foolish?
You see, the mistake of the foolish bridesmaids was not falling asleep. Even the wise, over-prepared bridesmaids slept. The foolish bridesmaids were the ones who ran out of oil. Why did they end up foolish? It’s because they didn’t have enough oil of their own, and they had to run around town trying to buy oil at midnight, when obviously no merchants would be open. See what happens when you depend on foreign oil? You end up missing the wedding feast – you end up looking foolish.
So these bridesmaids looked foolish running around in search of more oil, but it wasn’t just their lack of oil that made them foolish. It was the motivation behind their lack of oil. It was foolish of them to think they knew when the bridegroom was coming. It was foolish to try to predict something so unpredictable and out of their control. The wise bridesmaids were the ones smart enough to know what they didn’t know. They were the ones that admitted, “We know he’s coming, we just don’t know when.” Meanwhile the foolish ones acted in their preparation as if they could predict that he wouldn’t be delayed that long. In an act of arrogance, they acted as if they knew what would happen, as if they knew when that bridegroom would show up. But they didn’t know. They couldn’t be certain. It wasn’t a guarantee that he’d show up quickly.
In telling the parable, Jesus says that the bridegroom was delayed. Whether it was a flat tire, or having to change shirts because he got a stain on it, or what, he arrived later than expected. And the foolish women were revealed – the ones who weren’t ready for the unexpected. The ones who were too arrogant to admit that they didn’t know for sure what would happen. The ones who pretended like they knew when he was coming, when in reality they didn’t. When they set out without extra oil, it was an act of arrogance – an act of presuming to know what they did not actually know. And this is what made them foolish.
Just as I was on that church lawn, in that classroom, and in my living room, all the bridesmaids knew the groom was coming, they just didn’t know when. Half of them admitted that, but the other half were too foolish to admit they didn’t know everything.
You see, the foolish women were the ones who just didn’t take the event seriously enough. Here is a wedding feast, one of the grandest occasions there is, and they’re not treating it like it’s any big deal. So while you can make an argument for either group of bridesmaids being the foolish ones, we see that the truly foolish are those who do not take the event of the bridegroom’s coming seriously.
And what of the wise bridesmaids? As I said, they probably looked pretty foolish at the outset lugging around all this extra oil. What are you doing? Why are you wasting your time and money on spare oil? It’s similar to those who ask, why are you wasting your time at church when you can sleep in, or watch football preview shows? Why are you wasting your money by giving 10% of it away to the church, when you could use that 10% to buy more of the things you want? There is often criticism of being over-prepared, but some things are worth taking with the utmost seriousness. The bridegroom’s arrival is to be taken very seriously, and the wise bridesmaids know that. They know that he’s coming, they just don’t know when. And they are not going to miss this banquet for anything. They are going to make sure they are ready when the invitation comes. The foolish cannot say the same.
Jesus uses the example of preparing extra oil for the lamps as a symbol for preparation, but it was the attitude of those bridesmaids that made them foolish. You see, it’s not a story about what we prepare or store up, or what we bring to the event. This isn’t a call to “be prepared,” to make sure you’re covering yourself with good, holy thoughts and deeds. It’s not a warning to make sure that you’re not caught with your hand in the cookie jar when Christ comes again. It’s not just about the preparation itself, the works we do or the things we say.
This parable is about an attitude of expectancy. It’s a parable about admitting our own limitations. It’s a parable about humility, about not being so arrogant as to think we have the bridegroom’s schedule figured out. It’s a parable about taking Christ’s second coming seriously. What requires more preparation than feasting at Christ’s heavenly banquet?
Christ is our bridegroom, and we cannot predict when Christ will come again. We have no way of knowing. We are not in control of the bridegroom’s schedule, so we can’t pretend like we’ve solved a mystery that is not meant to be solved. And we can’t act like it’s no big deal. All we know is that Christ “will come again to judge the living and the dead,” as our Apostles’ Creed says. We do not know when that time will come. We don’t know when Christ will come, we just know he’ll be here sometime. We can’t predict it, we can’t know for sure, and we mustn’t pretend like we have it figured out. We must be willing to admit that we don’t know everything – that God only knows when the church’s bridegroom, Christ, will come again.
We must await with eager anticipation, our lamps trimmed and burning. We must have enough oil of faith stored up that we can wait as long as it takes. We must be prepared for the long haul, even if Christ comes before this service is over. We must be prepared for everything, because when it comes down to it, we don’t really know anything. May Christ come again when the time is right, and may we be prepared when that day comes, without being so arrogant as to think we know when that day will come, or that Christ will have mercy on those who do not take it seriously. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Steal Away To Jesus
Over the weekend, this happened. Not knowing many details, such as whether the man was acting in threatening or dangerous ways, it is difficult to fully comment on it. However, it made me wonder how, as a pastor, I would react in such a situation.
If it was obvious this man was a danger to those around him, then the congregation's efforts to contain him seemed like the correct response. However, my hope is that getting the police involved was for safety reasons rather than because this man stole some body of Christ wafers. There's nothing inherently "un-Christian" or sacreligous about wanting to be fed by the sacrament of Holy Communion, even if it is misunderstood as a "snack time" rather than an outward and visible sign of the grace of God freely given to us.
If the man was in fact just hungry, and not endangering those around him with threatening behavior, then I would not have held him down or let others do so. I would have made sure there was still enough of the elements for everyone else, tried to calm him down enough to finish the service, then taken him into my office for counsel and to help him find food. I'd make it clear to him that whatever communion is, it is not "free snack time." Then I'd make sure his immediate needs were met.
Now, this is not meant as a condemnation of what this congregation did. The fact that this was a Catholic church cannot be overlooked. Their theology of the sacrament of Holy Communion differs from my own Wesleyan theology. They consider the elements to be the body and blood of Christ in a way different than I, so to them this man was acting irreverently towards Jesus Christ our Lord. In their mind, he was committing a monumental transgression, and they responded according to their theology, whether they realized it or not.
Still, the image of this man stealing the wafers, desperately hungering for that which is the body of Christ, is a powerful one. What if we approached the table with such passion and desire to partake of Holy Communion, even if we misunderstood and tried to "take" communion rather than receive it? What if we desired Christ so fervently that we were willing to risk being held down, risk being arrested?
If it was obvious this man was a danger to those around him, then the congregation's efforts to contain him seemed like the correct response. However, my hope is that getting the police involved was for safety reasons rather than because this man stole some body of Christ wafers. There's nothing inherently "un-Christian" or sacreligous about wanting to be fed by the sacrament of Holy Communion, even if it is misunderstood as a "snack time" rather than an outward and visible sign of the grace of God freely given to us.
If the man was in fact just hungry, and not endangering those around him with threatening behavior, then I would not have held him down or let others do so. I would have made sure there was still enough of the elements for everyone else, tried to calm him down enough to finish the service, then taken him into my office for counsel and to help him find food. I'd make it clear to him that whatever communion is, it is not "free snack time." Then I'd make sure his immediate needs were met.
Now, this is not meant as a condemnation of what this congregation did. The fact that this was a Catholic church cannot be overlooked. Their theology of the sacrament of Holy Communion differs from my own Wesleyan theology. They consider the elements to be the body and blood of Christ in a way different than I, so to them this man was acting irreverently towards Jesus Christ our Lord. In their mind, he was committing a monumental transgression, and they responded according to their theology, whether they realized it or not.
Still, the image of this man stealing the wafers, desperately hungering for that which is the body of Christ, is a powerful one. What if we approached the table with such passion and desire to partake of Holy Communion, even if we misunderstood and tried to "take" communion rather than receive it? What if we desired Christ so fervently that we were willing to risk being held down, risk being arrested?
Friday, November 7, 2008
Whispers from the Sunset
Yesterday was one of those days. My week had been cruising along, I had very little on my plate and a lot of time to do it, getting ahead on some things. Then, as often happens in this vocation, in the blink of an eye my week went out and got all Carrie Underwood crazy on me.
So there I was, after a morning of post-charge conference organization, preparing for worship, and writing a sermon; after an afternoon of home visitation and hospital visitation. I was driving back to town from the hospital, hoping to squeeze in a couple hours of funeral prep for Saturday before visiting with the grieving family at the viewing and then meeting with a member of our church wanting to get married but have the previous pastor come back to do the ceremony. It was quite a day, and this half hour drive was the calmest point of the day -- even with being held up on the back roads which were getting paved in the middle of "rush hour."
The drive from Greensburg to West Newton is a beautiful drive. The rolling hills offer magnificent views of the countryside in every direction. As I was driving home, I saw several different stages of the sunset. Every few minutes I'd get to a new vantage point, and it was starkly different than the last -- the colors, the angle of the rays, and the illuminated scenery kept surprising me around every bend. It was spectacular.
In this gorgeous sunset, I felt God speaking to me. It was as if the sunset was placed there, just for me, to remind me of the awesome glory and power of our Creator. God was showing me how wonderful life could be, even on a day when inside, I was throwing a pity party for myself because of having to "be there" for all these people. Why can't these needs for pastoral care be spaced out?
"Here's a gift for you, my son," God was saying. "It's to remind you that your work today is my work. It is to remind you that I am so wonderful and awesome and powerful that even when you're feeling sorry for yourself, even when you're tired and would rather relax than provide care for my children, I will lift you up and empower you.
"But most of all," God seemed to say, "this sunset is a reminder that it's not about you or your needs. It's about people who are having a far more hectic day than you, and need their own sunset to calm them just as this one is calming you. Go, be that sunset for others tonight, and remember that my awesome power is at work in you in these moments."
Sometimes, we just need a beautiful sunset to stop us in our tracks and remind us that it's alright, that God's got our back. Sometimes we need sunsets to whisper that God loves us and will never leave us. To God be all glory, now and forever. Amen.
So there I was, after a morning of post-charge conference organization, preparing for worship, and writing a sermon; after an afternoon of home visitation and hospital visitation. I was driving back to town from the hospital, hoping to squeeze in a couple hours of funeral prep for Saturday before visiting with the grieving family at the viewing and then meeting with a member of our church wanting to get married but have the previous pastor come back to do the ceremony. It was quite a day, and this half hour drive was the calmest point of the day -- even with being held up on the back roads which were getting paved in the middle of "rush hour."
The drive from Greensburg to West Newton is a beautiful drive. The rolling hills offer magnificent views of the countryside in every direction. As I was driving home, I saw several different stages of the sunset. Every few minutes I'd get to a new vantage point, and it was starkly different than the last -- the colors, the angle of the rays, and the illuminated scenery kept surprising me around every bend. It was spectacular.
In this gorgeous sunset, I felt God speaking to me. It was as if the sunset was placed there, just for me, to remind me of the awesome glory and power of our Creator. God was showing me how wonderful life could be, even on a day when inside, I was throwing a pity party for myself because of having to "be there" for all these people. Why can't these needs for pastoral care be spaced out?
"Here's a gift for you, my son," God was saying. "It's to remind you that your work today is my work. It is to remind you that I am so wonderful and awesome and powerful that even when you're feeling sorry for yourself, even when you're tired and would rather relax than provide care for my children, I will lift you up and empower you.
"But most of all," God seemed to say, "this sunset is a reminder that it's not about you or your needs. It's about people who are having a far more hectic day than you, and need their own sunset to calm them just as this one is calming you. Go, be that sunset for others tonight, and remember that my awesome power is at work in you in these moments."
Sometimes, we just need a beautiful sunset to stop us in our tracks and remind us that it's alright, that God's got our back. Sometimes we need sunsets to whisper that God loves us and will never leave us. To God be all glory, now and forever. Amen.
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