Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

It never fails that when January rolls around, there is a complex of emotions that settle within me. As I have taken stock of my life and what I experience, and explored the information available to me, I believe that I experience Seasonal Affective Disorder. It has been called winter blues. It is recognized as a legitimate type of depression. It is tied to the seasons, in particular the late Fall and Winter seasons. For me, I begin to experience it in January and it lasts through March. At times it has been worrisome for me. The expression that I experience the most is a feeling of worthlessness. My mind is attracted to the idea that I am useless to people (family, church, colleagues). I dwell in the playground of convincing myself that I am not needed by anyone. Over the time frame of weeks that I experience this, it progresses and worsens. It is not a good feeling. It is not something that I can just "shake it off". It is not just a matter of thinking about something e...

This sermon is part of the ongoing effort to clear my mind of the funk/existential crisis/emotional upheaval I experienced in the earlier part of this year. It is not, as my oldest son presumed, a sermon on what ticks me off (his assumption was that he would feature in a large portion of a sermon with that topic). What Makes Me Tick JUST A WORD OF WARNING!!!! There will be a little bit of undressing (nothing distasteful).

I was asked to preach at the Bishop's Retreat last week. Here is the text of that sermon. Gideon, Minecraft, and One Bad Summer Judges 6:11-14 We have all been where Gideon was: confronted with God's messenger with the word we were called to do a great thing. We are here today because we have all shared in this experience. There is comfort in knowing that we have this miraculous moment in common. Then why did the idea of standing up here this morning weigh so heavily on me? I had a bad summer. I had a couple of events  in Spring that made me wonder if I was any good at what I do. I was in a funk when Annual Conference rolled around. At Annual Conference, we were confronted with the need to change direction if we wanted to be strong in the near future. I hear the burden of doing something to change direction in order to continue our rich heritage and tradition. But in the emotional place I was, I heard, "you aren't doing enough and what you are doing i...