Don’t flay the sheep.

Global Liturgical Calendar

Bono says we’re not so much in an economic downturn as in a world-wide Lent. And, in so many words, if that’s where we are, then Easter will come.This is the most realistically hopeful (i.e. Christian) interpretation of the economic crisis I’ve heard.Depression, economic downturn, impending disaster, total economic collapse (not to mention the disintegration of the environment) are all too much for me as far as terminology goes. Overwhelming. Out of control. Hopeless.But I can handle Lent.  A call to self-examination and recommitment to discipleship with the promise of Easter and the hope of resurrection at the end? Yep. That’s manageable.It’s not easy news, but it is good news.Preach it, Bono. 

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Just visiting

I love this article from the Root about how to go to church on Easter if it’s been awhile.

But, I am REALLY hoping that somewhere, someone is googling for a little information to get ready for tomorrow’s rare foray into church, and gets this article…

…and then walks into their family’s rather restrained, all white congregation, and gets to thinking:

“Hey! How come the choir director isn’t breaking out any funky moves?!?”

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Further proof that I have the strangest job…

Beginning this week, I thought, “hey, piece of cake…Easter services on Sunday, but no youth group meetings to plan. And we’re reusing last week’s Good Friday service. whew…”

Now, honestly, how could I forget that Holy Week involves all kinds of strange little tasks and details. So far this week, I have undertaken or will soon get started on tasks that truly prove I have the strangest job ever:

1. Baking bread for the Maundy Thursday service.
2. Making 3 sets of 6 giant Easter eggs and stuffing them with symbols (baby, heart, crackers, rock, nothing, butterfly) that tell the story of the resurrection for the children’s message on Sunday (big thank you to our fabulous preschool teacher for this idea).
3. Learning a music writing program so that I could isolate the melody line of a new kyrie for the Good Friday bulletin.
4. Duplicating and organizing music for 13 musicians for Good Friday.
5. Mapping out the parts for said musicians.
6. Feeding said musicians.
7. Saying a hearty “Thank You” to God for providing a rehearsal pianist for said musicans because, after 2 hours of rehearsing, I could only just barely plunk my way through the simplest of songs.
8. Lining up childcare for my kiddo on Thursday night and all day Friday.
9. Hours upon hours of haggling with inserted images in the Good Friday worship order.
10. Designing a brochure for the prayer stations on Good Friday.
11. Pulling together the equipment and setting up the prayer stations.
12. Writing a prayer (oh, good, I’m actually trained to do that.)

You know what my favorite day of Holy Week is? Easter Monday.

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Binghamton

It is not a good moment when the town that you grew up in…a town that you normally have to explain the spelling and location of…suddenly becomes one-word news.

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Seven things on Saturday

1. We reserved a community garden plot today, and I spent about an hour mapping it out and ordering seeds. Mostly because I think Zora needs some dirt in her life. Not because I really have any spare time. Then, my brother pointed out that it might be a good way for us to meet people and make friends. (Erik has suggested that part of the garden plot plans should include a submerged cooler so that we can invite our new garden neighbors over for a beer.)
2. I actually organized not one, but TWO closets last week. Leading me to wonder if I was abducted by aliens and replaced with an alternate life-form disguised as me. Oh, wait a minute…I did NOT organize my desk at work, so I guess I’m probably still the same person.
3. Bizarre work task for this week: a multi-media seder for the junior highs. As I was contemplating how to get ahold of seder booklets for every kid there, and at the same time thinking it might be fun and a little campy to use clips from The Ten Commandments when the order calls for telling the story, I thought I might as well combine these two ideas and type the script into the projected program. And so I am learning how to do that. And praying praying praying (in Hebrew as much as I can) that doing this is not completely and totally disrespectful to Judaism.
4. Bizarre task number two: not really thinking about it, I volunteered to work with my friend Ali to tell our area youth pastors’ meeting something about youth and worship since we are doing a little combined worship thing-y with our two youth groups once a month. Mostly, though, I am at the point of screming in frustration over the fact that NO ONE ANYWHERE (or at least no one who is writing books about it) seems to care that (a) youth are often not engaged by how their congregations do worship; (b) most congregations don’t have the resources to totally crank up, revamp, electrify, re-master, re-form, get all incense-y, or whatever in their regular congregational worship;  (c) doing worship separate for the teens just doesn’t solve the problem; and (d) if we don’t figure this one out, I think teenagers won’t go to church anymore when they are adults. Yes, I am rant-y. Better get that under control before that meeting.
5. Erik concurs with a colleague who said I should write a book about this. I’m tempted, I might, but WHEN?!?!
6. Just noticed that I forgot to turn out the hall light for earth hour. But at least I’m going to plant a garden.
7. I’m working with Zora on naming the places where her close relatives work. It’s a pretty interesting line-up, and she’s close to having this down: Daddy and Auntie Alli in Chicago; Bama in Hinsdale (that’s “bama” as in Grandma, not the leader of the free world); Auntie Sherstin, Tacoma; Bafouf, Marquette; Mama, at church; Auntie Emmy, England; Uncle Mark, Evanston; Auntie Anna, Africa; and then there’s Bumpa (grandpa), and here she’s a little confused since she sees him head off to work not at his actual palce of employment in Michigan, but when he’s in Chicago for a long weekend. Bumpa works at Starbucks.

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sed credo ut intelligam

 My confirmands and their mentors are working on faith statements right now. I’m making the mentors write a faith statement alongside their confirmands to give the poor kiddos a sense of camerarderie, but also to model the idea of the continually moving target that is the Christian life.

So, I’m having lots of fascinating discussions with adults around the church about their writing. That they’ve never done this, that they can’t believe how much they learned, that it took them  long time or didn’t take too much time at all. Honestly, I’m almost more entranced with the process for the sake of the adults than for the sake of the confirmands.

But over and over, I think I’m hearing echoes of modern-day Anselm of Canterbury. I’ve loved this quote for a long time, and I believe sincerely that most of us Christians really aren’t smart enough to get all the intricacies of theology. But that doesn’t make it a lost cause for us, nor does it make theology useless. It’s just all part of this fantastic, beauiful tangle, and becuase we believe we want to spend mre time trying to figure it out:

Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam. Nam et hoc credo, quia, nisi credidero, non intelligam.

Nor do I seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For this, too, I believe, that, unless I first believe, I shall not understand.

Anselm of Canterbury

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Recent Reading

I took an afternoon to polish off a few books I was just about finished with and to start a few more…even read one from cover to cover. I’ve been on a bit of a ministry book buying binge lately.

So, here are a few concise reviews, some of the things to read next, and a few queries after books that I wish I could find.

Sensual Orthodoxy, Debbie Blue: Wow. I’ve raved about this one already, but am just as impressed now that I finished it. She preaches with a voice that is so different than what I’m used to hearing, and it turns the whole preaching thing on it’s head for me. But what really gets me is how willing she is to lovingly rip apart a Scripture passage, get right down to bones, and then reassemble it. It’s relevant not because it gives good advice or perfect application, but because it does this taking apart and putting back together from an honest, authentic, current viewpoint. The sermons are about (gasp) the BIBLE! But they don’t assume too much about the Bible. OK, I have to move on or I’ll write about this one all morning.

Mission Trips that Matter: Embodied Faith for the Sake of the World, Don Ricther: Straight thinking about mission trips (for youth and adults) that is also practically applicable. It’s not a guide to the nuts and bolts of mission trip planning, or what to do when you get there. It’s a reasonable excursion into thinking theologically about mission trips, and ways to extend that theological reflection to the whole group. But, it’s practical reflection: like what does it mean that we smell bad on mission trips? How do we resolve the tension between the cost of a trip and the good that money could do if we simply sent it somewhere? What importance, beyond a nice ppowerpoint presentation, is there to recording the trip? I’m hoping to have my youth leaders read this book together next year in preparation for our 2010 mission trip.

Blessing New Voices: Prayers of Young People and Worship Resources for Youth Ministry, Maren Tirabassi: A collection of prayers, poetry, and worship and activity ideas for and by youth. There’s some great stuff in here. The introduction has a wonderful, briefly stated “why” and “how” explanation about worship with youth. Maybe, just maybe, there are some things we could use in congregational worship. But mostly, it’s stuff that written and designed for youth worship as in age-segregated worship. I’d like some of my youth to read some of these prayers, though, as examples for worship planning of their own. A few things get a little too loosey-goosey not-so-distinctively-Christian for me. But hey…

So, that’s what I finished yesterday. I’m half way through this one: Book, Bath, Table, and Time: Christian Worship as Source and Resource for Youth Ministry, Fred Edie. I was itching to read this one and had high hopes for it after looking at the table of contents and reading some of the introduction. What’s not to love about chapter titles like: “Finding themselves at the table: Youth Practice God’s presence, identity, and their own vocations through Eucharistic worship” or “Ordo-nary practice: Youth living liturgically in the world”. The promise of this had me drooling. But halfway through, I am so frustrated. Edie’s theology is excellent. Love it love it love it. I’m all but shouting “Amen!” out loud while I read it. He thinks well about youth and youth culture and how it hinders Christian worship. He is harshly, but I think appropraitely critical of the industry and marketing of youth minstry (for instance, this incredibly bizarre product). But things fall apart when we get to practical application. I was hoping against hope that this was about bringing youth into worship, into the big stream of Christian worship, in other words, into the worship service at their local congregation. And, so far, not so much. It’s about a fabulous summer program at Duke. Oh, I wish I could go to this program. Oh, I wish my youth could go to this program. But they CAN’T all go to this program, and so I am trying to figure out how to get them connected and engaged to worship at this, their local congregation, so that they can grow up to be people who are connected to tehir local congregations. Not to youth worship, or youth retreats, or mission trips, or fabulou programs at Duke (all of which are good and lovely things), but so that they can swim in the big pool of Christian worship and feel like it’s their choice to do so, not that they have been forcibly thrown in.

Things that are next on the list (or, at least, that are sitting on my desk un-read…)

• The Book of Uncommon Prayer 2: Prayers and Worship Services for Youth Ministry, Steven Case
• Practicing Discernment with Youth: A Transformative Youth Ministry Approach, David White
• From Stone to Living Word: Letting the Bible Live Again, Debbie Blue
• A Royal “Waste” of Time: The Splendor of Worshipping God and Being Church for the World, Marva Dawn
• Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practicing the Presence of Jesus, Mark Yaconelli
• Let the Children Come: Reimagining Childhood from a Christian Perspective, Bonnie Miller-McLemore

And here’s what I wish was on this list: a book about worship and youth that takes a serious, theologically grounded, practical approach to rooting their worship life into corporate (in other words, all-ages-whole-body-of-Christ) worship. Because this issue is starting to drive me absoutely crazy. If you have ANY books to point me toward, please let me know!

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Facebooking through time

This is a really fascinating article about the implications of facebook for young people as they do the work of making themselves into adults.

A few thoughts I have to add:

1. For the especially mobile population (i.e. military kids, pastor’s kids, IMB kids, pick your frequent-move-employer of choice) it helps retain connection…which can help.  Even for adults who were frequent movers, it’s fascinating to see how this works. But MAN is it going to make class reunions less interesting!
2. The idea that one must move to a new place to remake oneself is fascinating. Is this uniquely American? Because through most of human history, people didn’t move that much and you had to put together an adult persona with the constant presence of people who knew you as a kid. Were people more forgiving back then about youthful errors? More open to looking for change? Then again, maybe this is an old idea…think of Abraham moving to take on the new identity God called him to. Maybe it’s an ideal that we often haven’t been able to fulfill.
3. Maybe the moving away to grow up thing isn’t so much about time in history, but affluence. It is affluent kids who can afford to grow up and go to college, move to new places, and become new people. And, this has probably been somewhat true throughout history.
4. I’m sure when I went off to college and people were starting to use e-mail, there were those who lamented that we wouldn’t be able to form our own new identities so well with the constant contact with people far away. I feel the same way sometimes when I notice how every college kid has a cellphone can b in constant contact with home (imagine, that just 10 years ago, the cell was not a prerequisite for the college-bound!)
5. What will it be like when facebook becomes some sort of on-line museum?

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Keeping Mama Modest

Yesterday we had an unusually warm afternoon, and I went to the gym, put Zora in the childcare area, and when I left just wore my shorts out to the car. Erik called to let us know he was coming home on the train, and I handed the phone to Zora. Then I hear this form the back seat:

“Mama has on no pants.”

“Just socks.”

“And shoes.”

“And a shirt.”

I can’t get away with anything!

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Confirmation that God is Dutch

I saw news about this on the BBC website this evening, but Colbert’s take is even better. Especially since he picks up on the idea that God may very well be Dutch. (I find this a particularly interesting insight since I grew up in a denomination that actually had a debate in the early 20th century about whether or not Dutch was the only language that could do justice to Reformed doctrine.)

You have to skip to about 3:05 in the video to skip over some stuff about the Republicans…

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