The Super Bowl ...

... where old rock stars go to die.

Sermon for Pentecost 20, Series C, Epistle

Sermon for Pentecost 20, Series C, Epistle

It's getting to feel really strange down here ...

Headlines of economic catastrophe on Wall Street, crashing home values and all the rest, a wacky election and now we are out of gas. Not we, my family, we, the southeastern United States. On a 40 mile round trip to the hospital I saw no gas stations with fuel. Strange days, indeed, quite peculiar.

A couple of news stories on this :

Out Of Gas? So Are Many Stations


Gas relief may be coming

Why What We Pore Over At 12 May Be The Most Important Reading We Ever Do

I think this article is very accurate.

Though I must say the books I most remember reading at age twelve are awful, thin, Scholastic paperbacks I bought at school about NFL stars like Nick Buoniconti. That and The Phantom Tollbooth. That was a great book.

Here is just a bit of the article:

It's not that children's books are pure entertainment, innocent of any didactic goal--what grownups enviously call "Reading for Fun." On the contrary, the reading we do as children may be more serious than any reading we'll ever do again. Books for children and young people are unashamedly prescriptive: They're written, at least in part, to teach us what the world is like, how people are, and how we should behave--as my colleague Megan Kelso (The Squirrel Mother) puts it, "How to be a human being."

269 to 269?

I read an analysis of the electoral vote that had McCain winning New Hampshire and Obama winning Mich, Minn, PA, and Wisc. In addition they had Obama winning Iowa, NM, and Colorado. With all the rest at the usual Kerry/Bush 2004 results that puts the electoral vote at :

269 to 269.

Whoa.

That would make Bush v. Gore 2000 look like a tea party.

But it is all speculation now, of course.

Pompeii : The Life of a Roman Town

A city where dogs howl, late-night drunks carouse, there are not enough lavatories, and everyone has bad breath ...

Here is a book I'd like to read: Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town, by Mary Beard.

You can email me if you wish to buy said volume for me and I'll give you my shipping address.

We who have tasted the solvent of our nature

For as they who owing to some act of treachery have taken poison, allay its deadly influence by means of some other drug (for it is necessary that the antidote should enter the human vitals in the same way as the deadly poison, in order to secure, through them, that the effect of the remedy may be distributed through the entire system), in like manner we, who have tasted the solvent of our nature necessarily need something that may combine what has been so dissolved, so that such an antidote entering within us may, by its own counter-influence, undo the mischief introduced into the body by the poison. What, then, is this remedy to be? Nothing else than that very Body which has been shown to be superior to death, and has been the First-fruits of our life. For, in the manner that, as the Apostle says a little leaven assimilates to itself the whole lump, so in like manner that body to which immortality has been given it by God, when it is in ours, translates and transmutes the whole into itself.

For as by the admixture of a poisonous liquid with a wholesome one the whole drought is deprived of its deadly effect, so too the immortal Body, by being within that which receives it, changes the whole to its own nature. Yet in no other way can anything enter within the body but by being transfused through the vitals by eating and drinking. It is, therefore, incumbent on the body to admit this life-producing power in the one way that its constitution makes possible. And since that Body only which was the receptacle of the Deity received this grace of immortality, and since it has been shown that in no other way was it possible for our body to become immortal, but by participating in incorruption through its fellowship with that immortal Body ...

Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism, Chapter 37

Permanent vacations?

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.
- George Bernard Shaw

and

Cartoon for the Day

Look Who's Irrational Now

This is an article worth reading.

A couple of bits ( but read the whole thing):

From Hollywood to the academy, nonbelievers are convinced that a decline in traditional religious belief would lead to a smarter, more scientifically literate and even more civilized populace.

The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith -- it's what the empirical data tell us.

"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians.


And



This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in pseudoscience, cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.

Surprisingly, while increased church attendance and membership in a conservative denomination has a powerful negative effect on paranormal beliefs, higher education doesn't. Two years ago two professors published another study in Skeptical Inquirer showing that, while less than one-quarter of college freshmen surveyed expressed a general belief in such superstitions as ghosts, psychic healing, haunted houses, demonic possession, clairvoyance and witches, the figure jumped to 31% of college seniors and 34% of graduate students.

Goal or Process?

The Lutheran Logomaniac has a nice post about goal and process oriented pastors.

Here is a bit:


In order for the Lutheran pastor to find joy and fulfillment in ministry, have have to be focused on the process, not the goal. The process is Word and Sacrament. The process is the daily work of preaching, teaching, administering the Sacraments, exhortation in doctrine, showing care and compassion for the flock, and the like. It is in the actual doing of these things that the pastor finds fulfillment, not in measurable goals.

For me, this has been liberating. I, like most pastors, often have doubts about whether anyone is listening. Does this matter? Is anybody out there? The more I look at the goals, the more depressed and discouraged I become. There may be glimpses of light and joy, but generally they do not come in the goals. Conversely, when I focus on what God has given me to do each day, there I can find joy. God is the one who provides the growth, not me, however that growth may be defined.

It is not this day

I have just finished reading the the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. This is the fourth time I have read it, the first time in about 7 or 8 years.

I have also just finished watching the three volume extended edition DVD of the Peter Jackson films of LOTR.

I will leave the heavy lifting of academic and spiritual analysis to others. I will only say that as a story as a narrative LOTR is a very, very good. It displays the virtues of Christian life exceptionally well.

I hope to post some excerpts from the books soon. But here is a scene in the movie which always gets to me. Very impressive. The call to courage, the call to heroics and self sacrifice is seldom heard these days.




"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.

A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.

An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crushing down! But it is not this day!

This day we fight.

By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

Larry Norman

Ever since I was 14 years old I have had a soft spot for Larry Norman. He was a Christian rock and roll performer. On many occasions, his music carried me emotionally during my high school days. He was no Lutheran (in fact, a strong millenialist). Yet, he could still write powerful and meaningful songs that expressed his faith very well. I saw him play once while I was in college in Villa Park Illinois. He played a good show. I may have blogged about him previously but what the heck.

As with most things, he is better in my memory than than he sounds now but he is an historically important figure in the Jesus movement of the late 1960's and the rise of contemporary Christian movement. In fact he was the father of popular, contemporary Christian music. He took alot of flak for singing Christian rock. Seems amazing considering all of the praise bands crowding our chancels. He is the pioneer of much of that, for better or worse.

He died earlier this year.

Here is a short NPR piece on him.

You can hear a haunting little song called "666" here . Yes, its about the anti-Christ.

Here are some videos:

Why Should the Devil have all the Good Music?


The Great American Novel --- This is pretty decent protest song (70's style!).


I Wish We'd All Been Ready


Why Dont You Look Into Jesus

Really bad poetry by a really famous guy

Really bad poetry by a really famous guy

Hey, its my favorite number

The Pit, The Dump, The Hole, The Heap .... ?

I have subscribed to a number of political blogs and news sites as this election draws near.

Something strange. A great number of them have these quirky little one word names:

The Spot.
The Hill.
The Plank.
The Stump.
The Plank.
The Trail.

As they say, what's up with that?

Rick Warren is the new Billy Graham

He is fast becoming the next high priest of American civil religion.

Let us draw near to God

Chrysostom on the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Matthew 18.

Let us learn front this how careless we are in our own prayer, and also how great is the power of fervent imploring prayer. Even fasting has not shown us this, nor poverty nor anything of this nature; but here was a man, helpless, void of all virtue, yet when he cried out in fervent supplication to His Maker, by this act alone, he was able to obtain mercy.

Let us therefore never fail in prayer. For who was more sin hardened than this man, who more laden with crimes, against whom were such accusations made than against this man, who through the works of virtue had gained neither little nor much? Yet notwithstanding all this he did not say to himself. `I am afraid to open my mouth; I am filled with shame; how can I draw near to God? How can I pray?' as many sinners will, weakened in purpose by the fear the devil creates in them.

You do not presume to speak? Then for this very reason draw near to Him so that you may gain confidence. For it is not with a man you wish to be reconciled, that you should falter and be ashamed. It is God Himself, Who more even than
you desires that you be delivered from your sins. You do not wish for your own deliverance more than He desires your salvation. And He teaches us this by His works.

Are you without confidence? Then for this very reason, have confidence; because you are in this state of mind. For this is the greatest confidence: to believe that you have no confidence: just as it is most shameful to think of yourself as justified before the Lord. Such a one remains unjustified, whoever he is; even were he the holiest of men. So also he becomes just before the Lord who believes himself the lowest of men. And both the Pharisee and the Publican bear witness to the truth of these words.

Therefore let us not be despondent because of our sins, nor despairing; but let us draw near to God, and falling down before Him, let us call upon Him, as this man did, until His mind is favourable to us.

Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, vol. 4, 285.

New Orleans in the 1850's

Here is fascinating and humorous description of New Orleans in 1852 by an Englishman who visited the city. He wrote a book called Rambles and Scrambles in North and South America. Read if nothing else, the last couple of paragraphs.

This book was pointed out to me in the more current volume The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story Of Sally Miller And Her Fight For Freedom in Old New Orleans This is a wonderful book which tells a most interesting story. The story touches on Germany and German immigration, the antebellum South, slavery, New Orleans, indentured servants and their peculiar status in America, the state of mixed race descendants of slaves and freemen. It reads very well while also being well done history.


These balls take place in a large
saloon : at the entrance, where you pay half a dollar,
you are requested to leave your implements, by which
is meant your bowie-knifes and revolvers ; and you
leave them as you would your overcoat on going into
the opera, and get a ticket with their number, and
on your way out they are returned to you. You
hear the pistol and bowie-knife keeper in the arms-
room call out, ". No. 46 — a six-barrelled repeater." "
No. 100 — one eight-barrelled revolver, and bowie
knife with a death's-head and cross-bones cut on the
handle." " No. 95— a brace of double-barrels."

All this is done as naturally as possible, and you see fellows
fasten on their knives and pistols as coolly as if
they were tying on a comforter or putting on a coat.
As I was going up stairs, after getting my ticket,
and replying to the quiet request, " whether I would
leave my arms/' that I had none to leave, I was
stopped and searched from head to foot by a policeman,
who, I suppose, fancied it impossible that I
should be altogether without arms.

Notwithstanding all this care murders and duels are of weekly occurrence
at these balls, and during my stay at New
Orleans there were three. There are more murders
here than in any other city in the Union. In the
first place, everybody drinks hard, and every man is
armed ; and a man who does not avenge an insult
on the spot is despised. It is a word and a blow, and
not unfrequently the blow without the word.

A "difficulty," as it is called, took place in the barroom
of the hotel where I was staying between two
young men, and one of them was killed. There
were about a hundred men present, but not one of
them interfered to stop it; nobody arrested the
homicide, .and after quietly .wiping his knife he
walked away.

I did not in any way admire New Orleans or its
inhabitants, though I met some most agreeable exceptions.
If liberty consists in a man being allowed
to shoot and stab his neighbour on the smallest provocation,
and to swagger drunk about the streets,
then certainly the Crescent city is the place in which
to seek for it, for they have enough and to spare.

But if liberty consists in safety to life and property, and
the sacrificing the liberty of the individual to the
benefit of the community, then they know nothing
of it in New Orleans but the name. In Boston you
may not by law smoke in the streets, or drink any
spirits whatever, under pain of a heavy fine. In
New Orleans you may be drunk in the streets the
whole day with impunity, if you choose. Hurrah for
consistency !

Jerome on storytelling

Syrians and especially Palestinians, are wont to add a parable to everything they say; so that what their hearers might not retain from a simple statement may stay in the mind by reason of the parable.

--Saint Jerome, Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, vol. 4, p. 266.


Not only Palestinians but southerners too!

By the way I think story telling and narratives (which are natural ways of communication) are perfectly fine in sermons. It is the over use of overly personal and dramatic stories which obscure the point of the sermon which can be harmful.

I have come to this opinion not through others sermons but my own. I still employ stories and personal ones but try to use them so as not to overpower the sermon itself.

Fox News doesn't know how to spell

Fair and balanced and misspelled.

Surely a major media company can proof read articles before publishing them on the Web, can't they?



When asked about the latest Washington Post/ABC poll that 20% of white women swung to McCain after his veep announcement, Obama said the notion just “isn’t borne out.”

“These are the same polls that had me 20 down last summer that have sung wildly thought this process,” he said, explaining the swing by the media attention on Palin this week. “I think that what we’re going to have to do is see how things settle out over the next few weeks when people start examining who is actually going got deliver on the issues that people care about.”

The LHC is supa dupa fly

I'm not much of a scientist. I do not like rap.

But this is great. I can't stop watching it!

Sermon for August 31

Sermon for August 31, Pentecost 16, Series A (LSB).