Which road did you meet Jesus on the one to Damascus or the one to Emmaus?

Nick at Sharpening Iron with Iron has asked a very good question about people's experience of God in their lives.

From what I have witnessed, and even in my own situation, much of today's younger generations (Gen-X and later) go through a time of spiritual rebellion. I know in my situation I loved to argue against Christ. Not that I didn't believe, but because I just didn't really care. I was wrapped up in my own little world thinking only about what I was in control of. Then, it seems like it was just overnight, God got my attention and led me back to Christ....
So what about you, what is your road to Damascus story?.

There's another story in Luke-Acts story that describes an experience of God--that is not as confrontational as the story from Damascus, but that speaks for many of us cradle Christians who have prayed the Jesus prayer not just one time and who haven't been born again once but are being born anew each day: the road to Emmaus. Two of Jesus friends had seen all the events of his death and 3 days later were on the road to a town called Emmaus looking for a safe place to hide out. On the way they met Jesus without realizing it. Only in the breaking of the bread did the recognize him.
I grew up as a Catholic in an inner city church near the University of Minnesota. I never doubted Jesus but I had serious doubts about THE CHURCH. Service and justice in God's name mattered. That's what my parents taught me, that's what my teachers taught me. Then I went to a Catholic College (St. Mary's in Winona, MN). It was the first time that I'd been fully exposed to the rules that made up so many Catholics' religious lives. I'd grown up knowing that the rules weren't the thing that saved us eternally or transformed us in the here and now; but many of my class-mates were focussed on the rules looking for an easy path to heaven rather than the cross. I found myself wrestling at a Catholic college with a balance between the rules and the faith that lead to the cross. The rules are easy ways to tell who is in and who is out; but The Way is a lot harder to live out than just skipping steak on a Friday in Lent. I wanted to lead my own way. It was in the search for my own path that I realized that Jesus was always present. He'd been obscured and even downright hidden by the rules; but the Word and one behind it were very real. Paul was blinded before he believed; but for others it is the Word of God that warms our hearts and the broken bread that helps us see Jesus.

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on a personal note. It's been a week. Two funerals in two days, one more on the way next week. A member found a tenant dead in one of his apartments. Lent is surely just around the corner. The best part of the Emmaus story is that Jesus has been here all along even when we don't see him walking with us just wait until you meet him in the bread and wine.

On the Road home from Alexandria

This was first written in pen on paper in the back seat of Larry's car riding home this afternoon down I94.

3 people, a woman in her 80's, a man in his 50's, and me (in my 30's) headed together to a regional hunger retreat at a church camp up north this week. I was one of the younger, though not the very youngest participants who came along for the weekend. I came because of a hand addressed post-card I received from a retired pastor in Northfield. It wasn't to me personally but to the church and it was enough (that it was hand-written) to really get my attention.

Most of the presenters were professionals who raise funds, organize projects, and encourage people to speak up for the needs of the poor. These professional advocates come from what one of my car mates called an alphabet soup of church and para church groups who seek to serve those in need: Bread for the World, LWR, ELCA World Hunger, LCPCM, CWS, etc. They are all well known at church gatherings coming to visit each year and tell there stories and ask for support searching for ways to link the church, found always in the congregation, with the church found beyond our local congregations.

The bulk of the crowd was older and clearly politically informed and engaged in a variety of places on the left side of the spectrum. Many have been involved in hunger and poverty related issues for years. My 3 years working with a community food shelf is small compared to the years a few 80 something farmers have spent the last 30 years trying to figure out how to give from their abundance to the worlds very poorest. The professionals had pitches to make; but these guys had a common dream, that God could use there abundance to transform the world. The professionals and agencies can and do offer much globally, but the power of farmers learning to care for neighbors half the world away is to great to overlook.

There was (as can be expected at Lutheran gatherings) lots of coffee, bars, food, conversation, along with a multi hour bible study, devotions, communion, and presentations on a few new subjects as diverse as sustainable agriculture and work that LWR (Lutheran World Relief) is doing in areas hit by the tsunami in Indonesia a little over 3 years ago.

All of the presenters offered collectively (though maybe not intentionally) a different perspective on reality than what is presented in the conventional consumption/marketing driven media that shapes so many of our values and perceptions. Much of what was said, if not all, is what I've heard before from people convinced that hunger in our age is a result of human action or inaction not just natural circumstances. Statistics like, 1 in 6 people in the world live on less than $1 a day are real; they just don't make the cover of Time or Newsweek. Our culture is told more about starlets and their personal problems than the real problems of the hungry and poor. These issues are not new, and sadly neither is the audience who came. Most were repeating a journey they'd made before to talk about justice, poverty, hunger, and the best ways that Lutherans can respond in Jesus name to these situations.
On the way back we stopped at St. John's Abbey in Collegville, MN
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Who to vote for Election 2008

I must confess that I'm a political animal who hasn't come out of his cage in quite some time. Maybe its the profession and I don't want to rock the boat by taking a stand for candidates when I really don't believe in any. Maybe its the lack of passion for political debate that seems too overdone while so many bigger things just sit unspoken. Maybe I'm just waiting for a candidate or even better a party that shares my values about the sanctity of life, freedom, personal and corporate responsibility, and above all the need to do the work of governing. I've been turned off by two...
I haven't always felt that way...
My sister and I were raised on political conventions and campaigning for our parent's favorite candidates. We hung out at the Dave Durenberger booth at the state fair every year for quite a stretch. My parents handed out literature for the senator. My dad even ran for state senate while I was in high school.
I've caucused and sub-caucused in a different party than my parents. In the fall of 98 I was at the victory party for the governor from a third party. It was a lot of fun back then, but times have changed.
I was raised in a political family; but my wife wasn't. Funny thing, the prospect of caucusing and naming her candidate out loud next month has her very excited, but I'm not that excited. My bride is leaning strongly one way and I told her that I would stand for the next most popular candidate in her party at the caucus. She won't have to go. I said that way we could just skip because my vote would cancel hers out. But she wants to go to stand up and I don't like her choice so now I'll go too. We plan to take our kids too. I told her I'd go and take one kid and stand up for one candidate while she takes the other and caucuses for another.

So here it is a couple weeks 'til super Tuesday, and now I've got to pick a candidate. I just want one with the will to govern.

Surreality and Pancakes

In case you need a good laugh here's a real funny video about one man's love of pancakes.

Surreality - Part 1 from Carleton Torpin on Vimeo.

Hope you like it. I sure did especially the car battery.

He just wanted someone to talk to...

This is a long story, but I've been thinking about this all afternoon and evening.

A few months ago Eric at Heart of a Pastor wrote some about the challenges of strangers calling on churches and pastors for help.

We got such a call at church today. Our office manager took the call just before noon. A man told her he just wanted somebody to talk to, a pastor or a lay-minister. He was calling from a breakfast and lunch place on mainstreet.

I serve as Pastor in a town of just under 6,000. We're not far from the Mayo Clinic and a substantial number of transients pass through on their way to and from the bigger towns in the middle-west. We don't give out cash to anybody. We help, at the pastors' discretion, with bills for local folks in trouble once a year (occasionally twice but it is my discretion) and we have one member who gives out an apartment to people in need. Its full right now (it has been full for all but 9 days sense he started giving it to people we find in need of a place to live). We help transients once a year paying for a motel room, bus ticket, or car repair. We keep records of who we help, photo copies of their ID's and of bills we pay. We host the local food shelf and many people know they can call us for help once a year.

I asked the man a few questions over the phone: his name, "Charlie" where he was, "a cafe" how he got there, "a ride." If he had any transportation. "No," he said. Knowing that the restaurant would be busy at noon I decided to go and meet this stranger having coffee. I bundled up; it was in the single digits above zero when I got there. I went in carrying 4 things: a Bible, note pad, pen, and release of information form (a social worker in the congregation helped me draft a few years ago so I could work with social workers and agencies in the area whenever people needed help).

A man, who looked about 50, was there with a pack, wide brim hat and white coat sitting beside him at a table looking toward the front door drinking coffee and sugar (there must have been 10 empty packets on the table.) I sat down across from him and the waitress brought me a cup. He pointed to the Bible. He said he carried three bibles in his pack. He was just flipping. He said was looking for something in James. I helped him flip to the right section. He pointed to James 2:14 "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" (NIV) I made reference to the verses after,

"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Charlie wasn't much interested in the other verses. Just the verse about faith without works being dead. I listened. His story's tough. He said people laugh at him and don't have a clue about his pain. "If they just know my pain." He'd come to Minnesota to go to Mayo to get help. He talked about hospitals in Florida, Georgia, and on and on. He complained because other hospitals had given him a morphine shot; but the folks in Rochester gave him nothing besides dye for a scan. He has no money and no insurance. Now he was on his way on the road again. He talked about a wife dying, a girl-friend dying, and now his own cancer and liver "about to explode." He showed me a Florida ID it was a younger him. It said he was born in 1969. He's only 38.

The story went on for an hour. He looked me in the eye and I took notes as we talked. He said nobody wants to help him especially church people. I said most of us have been swindled, hustled, and lied to, he went back to James. I told him we give out no cash. He complained that I ought to give to a brother and not hold his hand. He complained about shelters. He refused to go back to one after a naked man straddled his cot in the middle of the night. He went back to James. I told him we help people once a year. I asked him about a room for the night and a bus ticket for the morning. He wanted only cash. I told him no.

He turned away from me and motioned for me to go. He quoted James 2:14 again. I've met some emotionally manipulative people in 10 years in ministry. He was skilled. I didn't get up. I told him I don't give away any cash. "We only give to help when we get a receipt." He pointed to his coffee cup and asked me what I saw. I told him, "an empty cup." That wasn't his point. He said he wasn't a drunk or a drugy. I offered to pay his tab at the restaurant. He got up to tell the waitress not to let anybody pay his tab. I stayed seated. He asked me to look him in the eye. I told him again, "We don't give without getting a receipt." I have to be accountable to my brothers and sisters in my congregation. "Look at my face. This is your receipt for up above when I freeze." I told him my offer was there. I stayed seated. Charlie got up to go outside for a smoke. I said hi to our council vice president and his wife in the next room. Charlie came back in. I told him my offer was still there. A room for tonight and a ticket for the morning. But he wouldn't look at me. I left.

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A few years ago a neighboring church hosted an African Pastor for a month. He wanted to see my hometown, Minneapolis. His host, myself, and our African brother went to Minneapolis. We went to a place open for the homeless to go during the day. Our guest talked about the demonic presence he felt there. He said that there were demonic spirits at work and that the demons needed to be called out. I felt something there before he said it. I had the same feeling today sitting with Charlie about half an hour into our visit. I went home and prayed the Lord's prayer with my bride wanting God's will to be done. I told this story to a wise member. She reminded me that the Devil uses only one verse of scripture at a time and always forgetting the whole context.

Please pray for Charlie and me too, thanks.

Technorati Claim begins

It's time to get the blog up and running and to spread the word. So to that end I will be linking accordingly to Technorati and carrying some of the blogroll over from unlikelyconversation.blogspot.com.
Technorati Profile

Vimeo HD Video arrives

A wonderful new presence on line is Vimeo. In a day when Youtube.com is overloaded with commercial material Vimeo simply shines with the best of our new technology and creative experimentations in HD Video. The user interface is a little confusing and they want everyone to register before using but the quality is amazing. Finally high definition video has arrived in a wonderful form online at Vimeo.

Unlikely's New Blog

In January 2007 I started a blog called, Unlikely Conversation, with the idea that I'd start to put out thoughts out there about the Lectionary for the coming week on Mondays. I use my seminary nick-name, unlikely, as a starting point and pen name. I like the semi-anonymous part of blogging. In the Summer I started a second blog where I post sermons called Unlikely Sermons. It doesn't get much attention; but I wasn't after that. I just wanted a place to start posting sermons so that they'd be available in later years if anybody cared and so I could have easy access to them later on if I needed from the web and not just a hard-drive. I even started a photo blog with some original images called Unlikely Photos.

I've been blogging for over 11 months now and I'm still planning to keep at it. Over time I included a few postings and thoughts about things beyond the Lectionary on Unlikely Conversation. One blogger, Bobjots, even has my Lectionary thoughts posted weekly as content in his blog right along side daily prayer from Taize and an order for daily prayer. I'm definitely honored, I'm not in that league; but I still want a space to put out occasional thoughts beyond the Revised Common Lectionary. So it just seems logical that I should separate the thoughts about the Lectionary from the banter, babble, and blather that I might want to share on any and every other subject that's interesting.

So here's the first posting on my new blog, Unlikely Banter. Please check out the others blogs if you like There will still be a post at Unlikely Conversation every week (almost every time on Monday) with the Lectionary in mind.
Thanks,
John, a.k.a. Unlikely.