May God grant you and all those you love his great mercy and blessings in the coming year!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Text message ripoff...
My nieces and nephew text like there is no tomorrow, they of the flying thumbs and the ability to communicate through abbreviations. I, being the dinosaur in these matters, have probably sent a total of five text messages in my life. I've slways figured that phones were for people to talk to each other (I know, I'm old school and basically fossilized on these things).
Well it appears that text messages, those little quasi-sentences like "r u ok?" cost the various service providers next to nothing but that doesn't keep them from charging you a tidy sum to thumb them along. Basically the whole thing is a fad created by the phone companies to make bundles of money. My generation had the "pet rock" and these crazy kids nowadays have text messaging. Some things never change.
Well it appears that text messages, those little quasi-sentences like "r u ok?" cost the various service providers next to nothing but that doesn't keep them from charging you a tidy sum to thumb them along. Basically the whole thing is a fad created by the phone companies to make bundles of money. My generation had the "pet rock" and these crazy kids nowadays have text messaging. Some things never change.
New Year's Eve...
I'll be staying home for New Year's Eve, thank you, and that's alright with me.
I've never been much of a New Year's person. As a child we would go to church on New Year's Eve for a program and a prayer meeting so I never had the whole wild party thing as part of my experience. I often don't even stay up until midnight. After all the year will change whether I'm awake to see it or not.
When I served as chaplain at a care center for men with addictions and mental illness I learned the Residents, long practiced in the art of inebriation, called New Year's Eve "amateur night" the time when accountants and other assorted varieties of "straights" tried to make it as drunks. In the weird world of street drinkers there's a perverse kind of pride in knowing how to keep the buzz going, what things to avoid, and how to live through it all including the next morning, knowledge the average guy with a goofy hat and a tipsy girlfriend just doesn't possess.
Wisconsin, too, is a drinking state. Crossing the river from the scolding moral Lutheran universe one discovers a different world just east of Minnesota, a world where there are often four bars on four corners and all of them open long after decent folk should be in bed. If Minnesotans do bad things and then enjoy feeling chastised for it people in Wisconsin have no such issues. Folks are more honest about it on the LaCrosse side of the river but that doesn't make it more safe. I'd rather not have to drive south in the wee small hours of the New Year to take care of a parishioner who has, shall we say, suffered the affects or worse yet was seriously injured by an amateur with too much booze and too little sense.
So it'll be my wife and I, my mother, and the cats, watching movies eating pizza and doing our best to keep off the streets. Time will do its work and while the party animals sleep and dream feverish spinning dreams we'll be up and free of headache.
I've never been much of a New Year's person. As a child we would go to church on New Year's Eve for a program and a prayer meeting so I never had the whole wild party thing as part of my experience. I often don't even stay up until midnight. After all the year will change whether I'm awake to see it or not.
When I served as chaplain at a care center for men with addictions and mental illness I learned the Residents, long practiced in the art of inebriation, called New Year's Eve "amateur night" the time when accountants and other assorted varieties of "straights" tried to make it as drunks. In the weird world of street drinkers there's a perverse kind of pride in knowing how to keep the buzz going, what things to avoid, and how to live through it all including the next morning, knowledge the average guy with a goofy hat and a tipsy girlfriend just doesn't possess.
Wisconsin, too, is a drinking state. Crossing the river from the scolding moral Lutheran universe one discovers a different world just east of Minnesota, a world where there are often four bars on four corners and all of them open long after decent folk should be in bed. If Minnesotans do bad things and then enjoy feeling chastised for it people in Wisconsin have no such issues. Folks are more honest about it on the LaCrosse side of the river but that doesn't make it more safe. I'd rather not have to drive south in the wee small hours of the New Year to take care of a parishioner who has, shall we say, suffered the affects or worse yet was seriously injured by an amateur with too much booze and too little sense.
So it'll be my wife and I, my mother, and the cats, watching movies eating pizza and doing our best to keep off the streets. Time will do its work and while the party animals sleep and dream feverish spinning dreams we'll be up and free of headache.
Snow...
Up to half a foot of snow expected today. Okay.
Up here in flyover country we just get kind of stoic about it all. Nature is in charge and there's a few things we can do (like furnaces and indoor plumbing) and a whole lot we can't. There's nothing like six inches of snow followed by below zero temperatures to get a person into the proper perspective about things.
Anyway, up here in Minnesota we always say, "Well we could use the moisture..." and beyond the fact that we'd be stuck with the snow even if we were as wet as a tea bag, the truth is we really do need the moisture. Rivers, lakes, and fields will all get a needed dose when this melts off in spring and this matters because if the folks out in the country have a dry year the rest of us don't eat so well.
So the shovel is out, the snowblower is ready, and we're getting psyched for the long commute this morning. Just no ice please and we'll bear up as best we can.
Up here in flyover country we just get kind of stoic about it all. Nature is in charge and there's a few things we can do (like furnaces and indoor plumbing) and a whole lot we can't. There's nothing like six inches of snow followed by below zero temperatures to get a person into the proper perspective about things.
Anyway, up here in Minnesota we always say, "Well we could use the moisture..." and beyond the fact that we'd be stuck with the snow even if we were as wet as a tea bag, the truth is we really do need the moisture. Rivers, lakes, and fields will all get a needed dose when this melts off in spring and this matters because if the folks out in the country have a dry year the rest of us don't eat so well.
So the shovel is out, the snowblower is ready, and we're getting psyched for the long commute this morning. Just no ice please and we'll bear up as best we can.
Bass amp hell...
I've got no one to blame for it except myself.
For the past week and change I've been looking for the perfect amplifier for my electric bass. I had saved some money and wanted to "step up" but invited myself, as well, to a nightmare of my own making. Time on the internet, purchasing and returning, starting out with one moving to two others and then returning to the first. What I thought was going to be like a kid going to a candy store was more about obsession, disappointment, and the hangover that always seems to come the morning after the great consumer party is finished. I actually like my bass and the whole idea of it less.
The whole thing has reminded me, again, how there is not "perfect" thing, ever, and that everything one can buy is about shades of better or worse. I'm reminded, as well, that if I had pursued holiness, virtue, faith, or any number of good things with the effort squandered in the pursuit of a few notes of sound I would be happier then I am now, and certainly not feeling like I'd been ridden hard and put away wet.
And hopefully they won't ban me for life from Guitar Center for being so neurotic.
For the past week and change I've been looking for the perfect amplifier for my electric bass. I had saved some money and wanted to "step up" but invited myself, as well, to a nightmare of my own making. Time on the internet, purchasing and returning, starting out with one moving to two others and then returning to the first. What I thought was going to be like a kid going to a candy store was more about obsession, disappointment, and the hangover that always seems to come the morning after the great consumer party is finished. I actually like my bass and the whole idea of it less.
The whole thing has reminded me, again, how there is not "perfect" thing, ever, and that everything one can buy is about shades of better or worse. I'm reminded, as well, that if I had pursued holiness, virtue, faith, or any number of good things with the effort squandered in the pursuit of a few notes of sound I would be happier then I am now, and certainly not feeling like I'd been ridden hard and put away wet.
And hopefully they won't ban me for life from Guitar Center for being so neurotic.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
This Sunday's sermon in advance...
Sunday After Nativity
There are times when the pairings of the readings for any given Sunday seem peculiar and a reasonable person looking at them from the outside may wonder “Why are this Epistle and Gospel together?” “What’s the point?” And those questions themselves speak to something important about our Orthodox Faith. In Orthodox Christianity questions are not a sign of a lack of faith but rather an invitation to look deeper, into ourselves, our world, and that which we believe.
Our Faith has existed for over 2000 years and during that time its been scrutinized, analyzed, probed, challenged, and examined by its adherents and opponents, the curious and controversialists. We’ve done okay. We’re still here. And in all that time its probable the questions you may be struggling with have already been addressed.
Its important to know, as well, that the existence of questions shows you’re engaged with your Faith, that what you believe is valuable enough to you to ponder. Questions indicate a lively faith. You should be reading the texts, learning about your religion, examining the evidence, and seeking to work through questions to new insights. Every Orthodox should have a healthy curiosity about their Faith, their Church, and how what they believe impacts their lives. Someone once said “If you don’t ask you’ll never know” and this is especially true when it comes to your Faith.
Even the hard questions, those birthed within us in a time of tragedy and suffering, demonstrate faith. If one reads the stories of the Saints we see people who are often engaged in profound struggle with themselves, with God, and the world around them. In fact these struggles were often the arena where their holiness was formed, the precursor to the glory they experienced. Questions are part of theosis.
In that light what do these texts have in common? What theme may unite them and why did the Church link these over the centuries?
If you notice you’ll see a theme of exile in both. St. Paul receives the revelation of God and then finds himself in exile in Arabia safely awaiting the moment when the main act of his ministry is to begin. In the Gospel St. Joseph receives a call from God to take the child Jesus to exile in Egypt, a time of waiting and safety in anticipation of what this child would bring in the future.
This is a common theme of the Scriptures, the idea that before we engage in the work we are called to do God takes us to a place of exile, rest, and safety where we can learn, grow, and prepare. Moses, before he stood in the presence of Pharaoh, had his time in the wilderness as a shepherd. Elizabeth waited in years of barrenness before the birth of her son, John the Forerunner. The disciples of Christ walked with Him for three years before they were released to the world.
God has a call on each of our lives, a call on our church, things we must do, a purpose to fulfill. But often before the full flowering of that time there is a time of exile, a time when the purpose becomes clear, vision becomes focused, and everything extraneous is sloughed away. The time of exile, far from being a time of passivity and weakness, is actually a time when God is transforming us in preparation for what will be.
Now ponder this in the context of your own life and the life of this parish and you’ll begin to understand.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thoughts from Richard John Neuhaus...
While the pro-life cause welcomes, and has been greatly bolstered by, the support of many distinguished intellectuals, the same is not true of the pro-choice movement. On the contrary, intellectuals who share their policy preferences are always raising inconvenient questions about the intellectual coherence of arguments advanced in favor of the unlimited abortion license...
Read it all here.
Read it all here.
Needed information...
It has been said that information is power and in that light I would like to recommend the www site of Dr. Robert Gagnon, a Professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. The site itself is not particularly well designed, (lots of ads and kind of hard to look at), but the information presented on the Bible and sexuality is worth the visit and the site should be bookmarked by Christians seeking to understand these issues.
In recent years there have been many attempts, sadly, by Christian clerics and even hierarchs to distort the teachings of Scripture regarding sexuality and argue for an ethic of permissiveness by dramatically misinterpreting the texts to support their arguments. Unfortunately people of traditional and historic faith are often overwhelmed by these arguments because the person conveys the authority of their office and appears to be intelligent. Dr. Gagnon is a scholar, familiar with the original languages and cultures, whose special area of focus has been the Scriptures and sexuality. His material is generally easy to read and thoroughly supports the historic understandings of Christian texts in the area of sexuality.
A special feature is the availability of many of his works in PDF format which you may save and copy for your own use and to help you not be overwhelmed when the nice man in the collar and a business card full of initials wants to convince you that it doesn't say what it really says. Although Dr. Gagnon is not Orthodox he is certainly "orthodox" in his understanding of Scripture and sexuality and I recommend his work as a valuable aid not only to help Orthodox Christians get into the Scriptures, which they should always be doing, but also to provide valuable information on these hot topic issues from a historic/traditional perspective.
In recent years there have been many attempts, sadly, by Christian clerics and even hierarchs to distort the teachings of Scripture regarding sexuality and argue for an ethic of permissiveness by dramatically misinterpreting the texts to support their arguments. Unfortunately people of traditional and historic faith are often overwhelmed by these arguments because the person conveys the authority of their office and appears to be intelligent. Dr. Gagnon is a scholar, familiar with the original languages and cultures, whose special area of focus has been the Scriptures and sexuality. His material is generally easy to read and thoroughly supports the historic understandings of Christian texts in the area of sexuality.
A special feature is the availability of many of his works in PDF format which you may save and copy for your own use and to help you not be overwhelmed when the nice man in the collar and a business card full of initials wants to convince you that it doesn't say what it really says. Although Dr. Gagnon is not Orthodox he is certainly "orthodox" in his understanding of Scripture and sexuality and I recommend his work as a valuable aid not only to help Orthodox Christians get into the Scriptures, which they should always be doing, but also to provide valuable information on these hot topic issues from a historic/traditional perspective.
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