3 Advent Conversations

A writing project waits on this pastors to do list.
It's a fun project: write 3 conversation sheets for young people and mentors. These are more than sheets of questions. The goal: start 3 significant conversations about God's coming to earth in the person we call Jesus. One mentor asked to have all this available with time to think things through in advance. So over the next 7 days my goal is to create a starting point for 3 Advent Conversations.

1. God the Father's plan for us at Christmas
2. Why God's plan meant a turned over life for Joseph
3. Mary's whole self participation in God's plan

Please check back in and let me know what you think.
thanks, John

Feedback requested: Come to your Senses or How do sense God?

Have you ever been told to, "Come to your senses"  For some deep thinkers it's a common accusation, "you are being to cerebral" or "you are not in tune with what's actually going on in the world right around you";
In the next month we'll be working in churches in Fairmont, Minnesota USA toward a shared Lenten Series entitled Come to Your Senses: A Lenten Journey with God.
A possible theme verse is, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NIV
I'm wondering how other people experience God through all five senses. I am most curious about the way you sense God in tangible ways through touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell.
What has been your experience: How do you sense God?
What stories are you aware of that explore an experience of God's presence?
I am also very curious what scripture you point to as you explain experiences of God's tangible--incarnate--activity in the world.
thanks for your input. Pax, John.

Life has Value

There are some people who like to provoke conversation. Peter Singer; who I rarely agree with in either his logic or his conclusions, has a knack for provoking conversation challenging his readers to bring out their best arguments to refute his writing. It's interesting to note that Singer doesn't always agree with the most extreme conclusions of his logic; but he does raise troubling questions for us as a culture.
Singer's most recent commentary in the New York Times called, "Should This Be the Last Generation" is a challenge to believers and humanists alike to see and name value in life. Singer's basic question, "Is life worth living?" invites two distinct response

1. Theological responses like comments on a discussion site frequented by Lutheran Pastors look to God as both the source and purpose of life.
2. Atheistic responses like those found in responses to Singer's article on n the Times website speaks of the chilling emptiness known in a life without God.

Singer's question is a worthy opening for us to bring both love and logic to our conversations about value, life, the environment, ethics, medicine and every other human endeavor. Meeting someone like Singer with logical arguments is good; but it's inadequate to the real task at hand for the church in our age. We have something better than logic; God's love made known to us in the person of Jesus crucified and risen.

Saying Goodbye to Albion

I went back to Kenyon today.
I've been part of Kenyon twice.
Once as a Pastor for two and a half years and again as a stay at home dad for about 8 months after our older two girls were born.
It's a tight knit town, who today said good-bye to Al Rodde. He was known in town as a man who laughed, told a lot of stories, was ready to debate, had a deep faith, and befriended lots of people including me and my family.
Albion could be found 5 days a week, except major holidays, at the grill in town having coffee at 10:15. I joined him and a group of about a dozen others to debate the issues of the day, tell old jokes, and laugh together. Today it was a blessing to watch that same group of guys serve as pallbearers for Albion.
I found out today that I'm not the only pastor who has a framed copy of the Beatitudes with a single spaced note of thanks and encouragement hanging in his office from Al.

Summer Time

There's warm air in the house tonight. I was cool all day until about 6pm.
The windows are open to let the night wind come in for a minute or two.
The kids are in bed with no alarm clock required for them until September.
It's summertime.

Counting down: the last days of school

Our older two are sure exited that school's going to end tomorrow.
Their excitement to learn seems to be waning, just a little, as the last day of class arrives. Our gilrs eager to be the smartest student in their class have started imagining the sort of things that await in the summer. They are talking about all the fun

• sleeping late
• time at the pool
• no homework to be turned in
• vacation Bible school
• summer soccer
• fishing

As excited as they are for the last day of school they were sure easy to get to bed. Wonder what tomorrow will be like.

Fighting Bed time

Our beloved one year old is fighting going to bed tonight. A few minutes ago she was almost asleep on my shoulder. She drank some milk from a bottle and settled in and seemed to be on her way to sleep. A few steps up the stairs and she was wide again. I gave her a quick kiss and set her into bed. She didn't lay down. She popped up on her feet to scream. I'll give her a few minutes to see if she can calm down; I hope she does.
Sure enough she did. It took a good 5 minutes of protesting but now she's sound asleep.
Time for cleaning and then bed for me too.

What happened to Blogging

I have been a blogger for just over 3 years. It's been quite fun keeping 4 different blogs going; Unlikely Conversation: a lectionary blog; Unlikely Banter: a blog about whatever; Unlikely Sermons: old sermons; and Unlikely Banter on Newsvine: a blog about news and views.
While some folks are still blogging I've begun to think that blogging is loosing popularity. Many blogs have been abandoned. Updating the links on my blog meant removing some expired links that once lead to very good blogs that have simply disappeared.
One of the best parts of blogging 3 years ago were the variety of blogs and blog-rings. A post could lead to comments from anyone in the world with a shared interest. In short there was at least the appearance that a person in one place could possibly have conversations with someone on the other side of the world, with someone they don't agree with, or with someone who isn't in your circle of friends on Facebook. I'm sure there are new bloggers; but I am not sure how many.
As Facebook reaches 400 million users it's clear that people are still sharing some on line. The difference is that many one time bloggers have chosen to leave the semi-anonymous world of Blogger and WordPress for the world of Facebook, "friends." In a time when it's becoming increasingly clear that Facebook is viewing their users more as a product to sell to advertisers than as their customers blogging looks more intriguing again.
Maybe its time to return to the vague anonymity of blogging rather than the vague privacy of Facebook. Maybe its time to see once again that blogs offers writers and readers very different opportunities to look at the world in a variety of different ways.
Just a thought.

Almost Summer Adventures: a Writing Goal Renewed

The last few days our computer has been covered with drop-cloths. I know it's a laptop connected to a wireless router; but still I didn't want to disturb the work going on around the roll-top desk in our dining room / computer room.
My beloved decided that if she was on call this Memorial Day Weekend that she was going to get some work done on the house to make it look more like she lives in it. This weekend's project was painting the dining room green-briar.
This painting project is an example of the power of one woman. My only offerings to this project were bringing a ladder in from the garage, explaining where some supplies could be found, and taking the girls out for 3 days of adventures so that they'd be out of the way.
Saturday's adventures included a trip to a nearby town with an open pool. It was near 90 and we just wanted to get a chance to cool off. The pool in town won't open for the season until after the school year ends.
Sunday's adventure featured another trip in the minivan. We headed out after church and lunch. We added a neighbor and her booster seat to the van and head off. We stopped along the way, maybe 15 minutes from home to play. It was a welcome break for everyone.
We were back in the van fast headed to the Minnesota River Valley. The heat broke and it looked like rain all afternoon. The drive got a little long on the way there but a few choruses of 99 bottles of milk on the way seemed to improve everybody's mood.
We were on an adventure heading back in time and that was enough reason to keep everybody focused. We were going to Harkin's Store. Going through the door is a trip back in time to a store and post office located on rise above the Minnesota River. The store / post office lost there place as railroads and rural mail carriers replaced river-landings and country post offices. In short the store was forgotten in a River Valley with much of it's inventory let intact.
For our girls Harkin's Store is a welcome destination. They can ask questions of the staff, look at the inventory, play checkers next to the potbelly stove and if they are well behaved they can visit the gift shop.
On Monday we watched the Memorial Day Parade and headed to a town picnic complete with a petting zoo, kiddie train rides, pinata's, and face painting. It's little to stand in respect for those who've gone before us. I thought we'd go on another out of town adventure, maybe to the Petroglyphs; but the chance to play with the neighbors was too good to pass up. As the sun set on the end of the day we had our garden planted and our girls were tired after a good weekend much of it spent on the go.

Spring

One prayer request. For my wife's Grandma Gerry. She's hospitalized and would sure be grateful for all prayers for her and her family.
There two springs to celebrate today.
The first spring to celebrate today is the beautiful early summer weather that's arrived after a few days of high dew-points and high temperatures. The air-conditioner was on for a couple days but hasn't been on at all today. My beloved said it so well tonight. "It's wonderful weather." It's just wonderful here tonight and the forecast over the next week looks great.
The second spring is the spring in the step of our almost 7 year old first graders. We all walked to school today and at a certain point they pulled away from their old parents and there little sister in the stroller too. We watched as they raced up hill on the last block of there walk up a maple lined street to school. We stopped to say hi to the crossing guard. He said one of them said she was a little winded. It's good to see that spring in their steps after 2 years at school.

Baby loves phones

Our little girl loves our cool new Palm Pre's.
She likes the music and videos and she's already figured out how to unlock them. Not bad for 15 months.
But that could end up being dangerous.
Today my wife gave her one to keep her at peace. Now one function isn't quite right and the screen has two small cracks at the bottom.
The good news is the Pre has some built in redundancies that will help keep this one running, maybe not perfectly but still very functionally. Maybe we should have gotten the way extended warranty. Oh well; only 22.75 months left under contract. Maybe we'll upgrade earlier. Sprint says we can upgrade at 12 months on the main phone, the one that was dropped

sleepless and sleepy writing goal day 8

The phone rang at home about 2 this afternoon.
One of our girls was sound asleep in class. Her teacher called the office. She just wouldn't wake up. I hustled over and was sent to the classroom. This same girl slept poorly last night. Up before 4 am playing in the toy kitchen, reading, drawing and cutting out picture and making story boards.
I walked in the class room and found her just as the school secretary described, sound asleep at her desk. The pencil was still upright in her left hand. Her head was resting on her right arm. After lots of prompting she just wouldn't get up. Her skin was cold. I tapped her arm. She barely stirred. I picked her up. She fell into my shoulders. I didn't pay much attention to her backpack or anything else. I carried her out of the classroom and stopped at the office. She barely said hi to the principal.
One the way home she perked up a little. Once we got home she walked inside. We got some some orange juice and a nutty bar in her tummy she rejuvenated. After some time with a good baby sister and a good baby sitter she rejuvenated enough to go on a play date. She's sound asleep now. Hopefully 10 hours tonight will help her catch up.

Air Conditioning--Cabin Fever in Reverse Writing Goal day 7

There's some surprises that come with the year's first heatwave.

• Air Conditioning works like Cabin Fever in Reverse. People huddled up together all winter rush to get outside as the temperature hits 70, then they all rush back in as the humidity rises and the temperature reaches 90.
• Sunburns happen fast. I met a lady at the grocery store tonight who had bright red shoulders. She said it doesn't hurt. The clerk and I both said, "Yet" simultaneously in reply.
• Our old house is way more comfortable with our big window unit cutting the heat on our main level. There's a little window unit at work upstairs.
• The lake looks a whole lot more inviting at the end of the night. Our minute older girl said we should have wandered out in the canoe.
• It was really more enjoyable than usual to wander around the dairy case tonight looking for milk and juice.
  

It's hot writing goal day 6

It's hot.
There's no way to hide it. The weather forecasters were right. A heat wave has arrived full force.
The old house we bought a year ago in March hasn't got central air. Two window units help a little; but there's no way to get around the fact that it's just hot here in the summer and our three bedroom rambler was cooler than our 4 bedroom 96 year old two story.
Funny thing, I don't really want to install AC, and it's not just because I'm cheap. The one thing that I'd like to add to our house is a big shade tree in the front yard. For some reason a prior owner said it was okay to cut down a beautiful maple tree in the boulevard while the street and sewer were being rebuilt a few years ago. If I could go back in time I would ask him not to take away shade from the west side of the house. Oh well. Maybe it's time to research what the fastest growing shade tree is in the upper mid-west.

Friday with our youngest. Writing Goal Day 5

There's something wonderful about each of our children. Sure our oldest two are identical twins but they are still wonderfully unique people. Today's Friday, my day off, so I got to spend most of it with our youngest.
She's 15 months old and has moxie and what our neighbor who ate next to her at the picnic table in the back yard on Monday called an infectious smile.
She has started to express strong opinions about her direction and even about food and clothes. She starts everyday with two brown and serve sausage minced into bite size morsels.
One more thing about her is that she has a very close relationship with our American Water Spaniel. I didn't grow up with dogs and until I had my own was always a little afraid. Memories of an encounter with my Godparent's dog stuck with me for a long time. I am not sure if I was afraid of dogs before I met Elfie or if it just came on because she was such a high energy lab and so independent ready to chase me away and scaring me by snapping. My uncle thought I had bothered her when she was eating.
Now I have my own dog and my own little girl tugs at his tail. We've been working to gentle him playing with his ears and mouth from 6 weeks on. He's wonderfully gentle and ever our youngest seems to know how to live with his 3 year old energy. Anytime he rushes past as he comes in looking for water after being outside she's on her feet too keeping her balance by being in motion.
Our little girls uses the dog, Teddy, as a couch, she'll make sure he's right behind her and then slide right against his dark brown fur cozy and comfortable. It's amazing to think she's 15 months old. It's even more amazing that our older two turn 7 next month.

A Kid's perspective Writing Goal Day 4

The kids and the grown ups have different views on the news of the day in our house. The kids didn't like the idea that we, the grown ups in town, got to vote today to choose to either build or not build a new school for kindergarten through second grade. Their beloved school will be replaced with a brand new expansion of the other elementary school in town.

As parents we like the idea. All kids from early childhood through sixth grade will be in one place. All the current technology will be built in from the start. But our older two girls aren't in favor. As I went to register for the referendum our older two girls asked to vote too. The election judge said they needed to be 18 and have a drivers license. The girls protested politely saying, "I object." I might object to seeing a neat school closed too. The hard part for our girls is saying good by to their school. They like the people they've met and the time they've had there. The don't want to lose their school even with the leaky windows and the cramped lunch room. It's gotten to be like home.

On another note: I lost a tooth tonight. It came home in an envelope from school with one of our girls and I can't find it. She thought I should email the tooth fairy a picture to prove that it's out.

A Semi full of food writing goal day 3

About 2 months ago a large food bank called to offer a semi-load of food to be distributed to those in need in our neighborhood. A group of willing churches and agencies agreed to help. The congregational church signed on and key people from their church stepped forward.

Today was the day. The first volunteers showed up and met the truck load at the Armory; they were good hosts for us. The unloading went fast. Pallet followed pallet. Unlabeled (but indentified cans) were labeled and soon more volunteers than I could count showed up.

People started showing up more than an hour before we started to share the food we had to offer. More than 300 came through; most in the first hour.

In the end we had too many of a few things; but we were blessed to share what we had.

What's the church for? Writing goal day 2

What's the church for: Here are a few possibilities
-+-+ Maybe the church is where people are gathered to be told about God: I'm processing the story a man by to share with me last week. Because I was out he came back to the building where our church meets on Monday. He wants to tell people about God. Listening took effort and scripture to challenge his assertions and direct him Christ's cross and rising as the center of Christian hope. He's convinced scripture's true; but he's equally convinced that he had an experience of God that's unique. After 90 minutes I asked him if he'd ever heard of Christian mystics.

-+-+ Maybe the church is where we experience community. There's a one of a kind competition taking place on Tuesdays from 5-7 in church basements in Southern Minnesota. "The Holy Hotdish" Cook-off is a friendly, but still competitive, challenge between churches. Hotdishes are known as casseroles in other places; but in Minnesota and the Dakota's a dish that includes protein, vegetables, a starch, and commonly a canned soup is called, "Hotdish." I still think we had the best one; but I am a little prejudice after cutting 400 pieces of cake last week.

-+-+ Maybe with Pentecost coming this Sunday it's good to know that the church is whatever God wants it to be through the calling of the Holy Spirit. The people of Babel wanted to approach heaven so they built a huge tower to reach into heave as they chose. A friend says that the people of Babel built a Ziggurat to entice God to come down them. God doesn't dwell in a building, Paul says we are temples for the Spirit (1st Corinthians 6:19). Funny thing is that we miss God's presence because we confuse buildings where churches meet with the mystical body of Christ. Paul has a dual challenge when he invites us to discern Christ's body and blood. It's present both in the in the Word and the Sacraments and in the people who gather with us to meet him there. (1st Corinthians 11:29)

A writing goal

After 10 years in ministry I've become a lazy writer. Lots of preachers fall into this slump; unconcerned with grammar and preoccupied with concepts.
I started thinking maybe a goal to write everyday would help. Just to write a little, even a paragraph (yes one sentence could count as a full paragraph) to improve my writing.
For some reason preachers seem unconcerned with the details of the written language; but something tells me I'll be a better speaker if I focus in again on the that I write not just the words that as I communicate the Word that gives hope, light, and life.