Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

As I have been dealing with the current sermon series on prayer, I have had to learn some things that I hadn't known before. I have had to evaluate some things that I have held close over time. And I have found some comfortable assurance regarding what I believe about prayer. I felt that putting some of those thoughts down (the ones that I have made the effort to make note of) would help me move into the deeper understanding I have of prayer. So, in no particular order, here are some of my thoughts on prayer. Speak from the heart When I enter prayer, it is with a very clear assumption that God knows everything about me. The seeds of my thoughts, long before they become the fruit of my action, are known to God. God has already watched me hatch thoughts and conceive plans and execute deeds. So when I come to prayer, there is no reason to hide behind anything. Justification is hollow. Reason is noise. Speaking from the honest places in my life is the only authentic prayer to bring....

What makes you happy? I have a lot of things that make me happy. My children doing something that is funny or self-less or being good at what they do. My wife laughing or singing or living into her greater self. Figuring out a complex issue. Playing through a session of Dungeons and Dragons. Comic books, an new action figure, or finding a movie on television or Netflix that takes me back to a younger point in my life. Do you know what makes me unhappy? Those same things. I don't mean the things that are in that list. I mean that my children, wife, a complex issue, a session of Dungeons and Dragons, comic books, figures, and television are just as capable of making me unhappy. They are just as likely to flip the happiness switch either way. Happiness is fickle. Happiness depends upon circumstances that change. Some times rapidly. Yesterday I was cruising about the internet and found a number of articles that focused on being happy and the pursuit of it. I feel that p...

We survived another weekend! I don't mean politically. I mean Super Bowl Sunday. I watch the game, but mostly I hang around for 5 hours watching the commercials. This year, I had 1 all around favorite, 3 favorite funnies, and 1 that I want to speak more deeply about. My favorite all around commercial was the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 trailer. I'm a geek and GotG was one of my favorite teams and comics from my early days. The movies have not been faithful to the original storyline (or even the second volume of stories). But the first movie was a lot of fun. I am hoping the trailer is proof that the second movie will be just as fun. My 3 favorite funnies were - the Melissa McCarthy Hero commercials. She attempts to become an environmental activist, trying to be an "eco-warrior" saving whales and trees and polar ice caps, and such. It is full of physical comedy. And being raised with the Three Stooges in the background of my youth, well this was a sure hit for ...

What qualifies someone to speak publicly about their opinion or beliefs or criticism? I have been wondering this in the face of cries for "celebrities" being told to stay out of the political debate. Numerous stars in various entertainment industries are using social media to express frustration, anger, anxieties, and opinion about politics. That seems to be a platform of expression for all people. Even the President chooses to "vent" on Twitter, a limited but widely embraced channel of expression. The pushback against the opinions of celebrities tends to fall into the attitude that they are unqualified to speak into politics. The tone that I have seen used is usually marked by offensive language or examples of behavior that would be unacceptable in civil discourse. Honestly, can you say that you have watched anyone in normal conversation say to the other in that conversation, "Shut up and go back to your own area of experience"? I really don't kno...

The thing that has honestly bound me to a disagreeable disposition is the blind follower-ship of conservative Christians to President Trump. And I mean that in the most critical way. As a pastor who is charged to enter into a community and see to its spiritual and moral development, I am struggling to find a way to justify the complete acceptance of the man who was elected President by a people defined by their self-identification of Christian. I established in a previous post that I could not allow myself to be considered evangelical any longer because of the overwhelming number of self-identified evangelical Christians who accepted Donald Trump's candidacy. I have continued to struggle with the overwhelming fan-boy like acceptance of his speeches and comments, especially when he utters the word "God". I have fumed and raged at the reaction to people who are standing up for justice and rights of the forgotten, forsaken, and downtrodden. I am struggling to maintain comp...

My current sermon series is focused on offering realistic guides to improving the prayer life of people who feel that it is important. The last sermon was on models of prayer. It was grounded in the model of prayer Jesus taught the crowds on the side of mountain and taught the disciples when they asked. We have come to call this The Lord's Prayer. And it is repeated throughout churches and homes on a regular basis. I drew the implication out of what Jesus says in those passages relevant to the prayer (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4) that this was not THE prayer that followers were to pray, but a model to prayer. That is my take on that passage. It can be read in the sense that this was the prayer that they were supposed to pray. The disciples seemed to take it that way and commend early Christians to pray that same prayer (plus the line "for yours is the power and glory forever) three times a day. The point I wanted to make is that models of prayer are useful guides in enteri...

I have been dumbfounded over the turn of events in the last few days. This weekend saw the unfolding of a dramatic political catastrophe as President Trump issued an executive order halting refugees and immigrants from certain nations. There are various stipulations and exceptions included, as is the case with most actions of government officials. But the issuance of the executive order has led to the most chaotic of weekends. The primary means of entrance to the United States for refugees and immigrants is by air. The international ports of entry have been doing the job of following the order the President has executed. That has turned the major entry port airports of the nation into hubs of chaos, protest, and confusion. Those persons and families that were leaving their country of origin when the ban went into effect were not allowed to fly to the U.S. Those who were on planes and landed were denied entrance and detained or were forced to return to their country of origin. Some wh...

I am sitting here working through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. It is the foundation for my sermon Sunday. I am cruising along doing some work in Greek (yes, I still have a little functionality in the language). I am working down through some alternate translations to squeak out subtle meaning that is lost in the rote recitation we sometimes fall into. There is some interesting things for study and preaching. The one thing that is stopping me to write this is one little word: epiousios. The familiar phrase is "give us this day our daily bread". Every word in that phrase is common and easily understood except for epiousios - daily. All my life I have visualized and understood this phrase to mean that God is providential to the level of taking care of our daily needs. And it is a refreshing thought to know that our creating God is also compassionate toward our insignificant needs of daily providing. That is the kind of God we have. The word, though, is strange. It app...

I have spoken of my respect for E . Stanley Jones . I return to his sermons and writings often times when I am in need of wisdom or learning. He is my favorite theologian of the 20th Century. In 1943, ESJ published a little booklet or large pamphlet, How To Pray . It is not long. It only takes about 15 or 20 minutes to read through attentively. It is very practical and down to earth, as was Jones' style. It is worth reading if you would like to transform your understanding of prayer. Because I am preaching a series of sermons on Improving Our Praying Lives. I wanted to offer some practical guidance on how to pray more often or longer. Essentially, I wanted to offer something to people so they could get more out of their time of prayer. ESJ's booklet has been one of my resources of study for this series. I didn't want to take his guidance and turn it around in my sermons. Instead, I have really distilled the information into my own offer of guidance. What he offers to...

I didn't write yesterday. And I forgive myself. I sat here and started to write something about the beginning of Trump's presidency and where I am with that. But I wasn't feeling it. I couldn't inject (or eject) the emotional energy to make something appear. But I forgive myself for not getting that done. It wasn't really a horrible failure. I accomplished other things that were appropriate to the bigger picture. I am going to attempt to process my view of the Trump presidency. This is not an opinion piece. It is the attempt to form an opinion. I am not sure of anything at this stage of forming an opinion. This is the content of an email I wrote to a trusted friend. I was asking his help in working through these thoughts. I share them here, with some expanded thoughts, as part of my processing. I am trying to process the transfer of power. One thing that I notice about the method of how we move from one leader to another is relatively easy compared to some...

Writing fiction is something I have thought about for nearly 20 years. It began in seminary. I don't know what started it. I can't point a finger at the impetus for it. I only know that sometime during seminary, I began to write down story ideas. And I still have those notes. They are going to be the seeds for Friday Fictions. I don't plan on being an author. There are plenty of other fiction writers that do a much better job than I ever will. I may eventually try my hand at publishing them through Amazon's service, but who knows. I just know that I have stories that bounce around in my brain. And they want to come out. I also want to get them out. I would like to free up some hard drive space in the mental attic. A lot of the ideas I came up with during that time were allegories. They grew out of the intense period of study and introspection that seminary requires. The allegories are the ramblings of a young theologue. I had so many new concepts and models paraded ...

For 2017, I have set a goal for myself. I am trying to write more. I have a few reasons I want or need to do this. I need a place to process thoughts and emotions. It is safe to post things here because very few people frequent this little corner of the internet. And the few who have made this a stopping place are people I feel comfortable blathering on about internal stuff. I need to sharpen my focus. I feel I may be losing some of my thinking focus. Perhaps age is the foe I am trying to defeat. Perhaps it is mental laziness. Either way, I want to exercise my thought process and writing seems to be a way to do that. I have projects that I want to finish. I have a book idea on applying best practices of Walt Disney in hospitality and creativity within the life of the church. I have 3 different ideas for fiction that I want to play out. I have plot lines and stories for Dungeons and Dragons that may be interesting to collect in a written form. All of these projects require writing t...