Politics as usual

Its political season right now, and as always, the negative adds are running 24/7,  emotions are high, and since it looks like the Democrats are going be on the short end of the stick this election (Nate Silver, at http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ has a proven track record of election forecasting, if you're interested in a current update) people on the left are worried about what will happen to the country.

I found this analysis from Matthew Yglesias pretty succinct.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/10/the-banality-of-tea/

In short, our country goes back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.  We can talk about this as a really big deal-because it is-tax rates on the rich, privatization of social security, global warming, abortion, gay and lesbian issues, immigration, there are significant differences between the parties on a whole host of issues, and our lives are shaped in significant ways depending on who wins elected office. On the other hand, we have a pretty broad consensus in this country. Neither party is going to upset the capitalist system, neither is going to eliminate the social safety net, neither will (successfully) change the constitution without the participation of the other side, and since at most, we're going to have divided government, my prediction for the next two years: not a whole lot that anyone really cares about (except maybe immigration reform, but that's another topic) will get done, and both sides will spend most of the time waiting for the 2012 election, hoping to again take control of both the presidency and both houses of congress, and have a chance to do another bigger kind of thing.

Speaking of elections

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/09/shouldnt_taxpayers_get_a_recei.html

I thought this was a really interesting idea-a receipt for the taxes you pay over the course of the year (this is of course making the assumption that federal government revenues are fungible, so that while a specific percentage of your salary officially goes to social security and medicare, that's not exactly put in a lockbox). You'll need to do some basic multiplication to get your actual figures, but this is good for comparison's sake.

Anyway, is there anything that strikes you as unexpected? Anything that is higher than you would have thought? Lower?

I was rather content to learn how much of my money is going to things that I at least don't think are actively evil.

Also, apparently, this is one of the things that people are often far off on (I certainly was repeatedly surprised) so before voting, education!

race map

 One of the things I wrestle with as a pastor in St. Louis is working with the segregated nature of our city. Its common knowledge that there is a racial divide in the city, but this map, based on 2000 census data was still quite striking.

Saint Louis Map, by race and density

As always, I wonder what it means for us to claim that racial reconciliation is part of what it means to be Mennonite, Christian, and generally good people, and to end up with such striking divides in where we live and who we interact with on a regular basis.

How Facts Get us in Trouble

I found this article in the Boston Globe this week, and I thought it was very interesting.

How facts backfire

It explains how human beings are likely to disbelieve or ignore facts that contradict their currently held beliefs, ignoring things like 'there weapons of mass destruction in Iraq' or 'immigration is on balance economically helpful to native born citizens' which seem to be completely true.  As someone who considers himself open minded and politically aware, its got me thinking about the spiritual discipline of humility-
It is quite likely that I am wrong about many things that I believe to be true, and that I am resistant to correction when I am informed about my error.

Here's as test-see if you can find something this week where you are wrong, and change your mind.  If you tend to lean liberal, here's a Wall Street Journal article with some economic claims it suggests are true that liberals are likely to disagree with (I confess, I'm liberal enough that I disagree with some, but not all of their conclusions, so I may pick one for my own spiritual discipline).
If you lean conservative, the current senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell believes that the Bush tax cuts did not decrease revenue, because of the supply side effects of the program. This chart begs to differ.

But what I'm really interested in is the ways this might influence me as a Mennonite in particular.  My most radical belief is a deep skepticism in the power of violence to solve problems. I think that wars are a poor use of human resources, that diplomacy is grossly neglected in our society, and that saber rattling is dangerous and counter-productive.  I have talked with Mennonite friends who discuss how counter-productive it is to have guns in the home for self-defense (they are more likely to be used on family members than intruders), that the death penalty does not deter violent crime, and that war always inspires more violence.

I think many of these things are true.  But I also think that to some extent, if I rely on these arguments, I'm likely to end up looking silly when the facts, which at the very least suggest that violence can save innocent lives in the long run, and at the very least is necessary for a civilized society such as we enjoy in the western world in the form of police if not military, turn against me.  I wonder if I believe some of  my more prosaic arguments for pacifism exist more because I am looking for things to buttress my beliefs than a clear exploration of reality.

I think its worth asking, would you believe in non-violence, even if you were in a situation where violence would be practically wise, simply because it is the sacrificial path of the prince of peace.

sermon

Here is my sermon for this Sunday. It did not receive the care and attention I usually give sermons, since it was a pretty intense week. I like the second half alright though.


Sermon:
Woman washing Jesus’ feet
Luke 7-8
Good morning. It is good to gather in worship with you outside here at the Sprunger’s land, celebrating in nature. Looking around us, we see the glory of God’s creation, and at least for me, looking at nature reminds me of the patterns of life and death in the world, which are particularly poignant as we remember Mary Elise’s life this morning.
I think it is appropriate, as we mark her passing, to have as our scripture text Luke 7, the story of an unnamed woman washing Jesus’ feet at the home of Simon the Pharisee.

funeral sermon

I thought I'd include my reflections at the funeral of Mary Elise Baer, a church member who died last week.

Psalm 23-Ashley Lynch
2 Timothy 4:1-8-Kathy Lynch
Sermon-Samuel Voth Schrag
After the end of life, it is right and proper to gather together in honor of the one who has gone before, and today we gather to remember Mary Elise Baer. We are a gathered body, drawn together because of Mary’s well lived life, because she touched our hearts as family and friends and brethren in faith. As we gather, we celebrate and honor who she was and what she did in the world. We mourn her death, and grieve together, taking what consolation we may in the love and support of those around us. We gather with the church throughout history, the great cloud of witnesses which Mary Elise has now joined, remembering God’s work through history.

In the Newspaper

Look-SLMF is famous!
Its always a fascinating thing to try and sum up Mennonites in a brief interview. How do you think I did?
here is an article in the suburban journal of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Small Fellowship continues Mennonite Tradition

I'm kind of pleased about the publicity.

June 6th Sermon

Here is this week’s sermon.
To go along with it-consider this video on time perspective.
It points out that people are often past oriented, present oriented, or future oriented, and that we are raising children to be present oriented, while we have a society that rewards future oriented people who plan carefully. Thinking about caring, (the topic of the sermon) one thing I notice is its often easier for me to care in the immediate sense-care for the people in front of me who need help-than to care in the future sense-notice who is being neglected, who might like a pastoral call, planning ahead so that everyone is well served. Do you notice how your time sense changes you?

Elijah and the Widow of Zarapheth
Good morning, God be with you today. I hope that you are feeling God’s spirit with you this morning.
I wanted to start out this morning by thanking you for renewing my call to minister here for another three year term on Friday night. I am pleased to continue serving as your pastor. As part of this process, everyone was invited to fill out a pastoral review, and I have received the collated results from the surveys that were returned from the LCG, and after looking them over, I agree wholeheartedly that my office could use more organization, and I will work on it. More importantly, I want you to know that I take feedback very seriously, and those of you who revealed more personal concerns are in my thoughts and prayers as I envision what it means to be pastor here. I would welcome anyone who expressed these types of criticism to talk with me, or with members of the LCG, in person, because I would like to have a better understanding as to how I might better serve you and this congregation. Now, to something completely different.
You may wonder how the people who construct the lectionary arrived at these texts this week-these scriptures are not the most famous stories from the Bible, by any stretch of the imagination. You might recognize the widow of Zarephath , because whenever we focus on Jesus’ first sermon in Luke, where he explains that there were many widows in Israel, and Elijah came only to the widow of Zarephath (a moral for the story that the Old Testament does not even begin to engage), but I think its worth thinking a little more specifically about these stories of resuscitation (I prefer the term to resurrection in cases like this, where the time of death was short, and there is no sense that there was a fundamental transformation in being after the person came back to life). These are the most extreme example of the healing story genre that are so common throughout the Biblical text.
For me, these stories are always somewhat difficult, particularly in times of grief, or when talking with people who are suffering, since most people don’t receive these types of miraculous healings, and the constant pattern of life and death in the world has gone on uninterrupted despite these stories of temporary deviations from inexorable mortality. Because of this, I wrestle with what exactly I’m supposed to do with this. So I want to acknowledge that at the beginning of this meditation.
However, I think, difficulties aside, there are all sorts of things going on in these stories. You have God’s plans within plans, sending Elijah to a widow that supposedly has been warned of his coming, but clearly has no idea she is going to host him, you have this sense that the presence of God is both something to be celebrated, and something to be feared, because if God is close by there is both the chance to be blessed, but also the chance that your sins will be remembered, and punishment ensue, we can remember that while we usually think of raising people from the dead like this as evidence of Jesus’ divinity, Luke tells us that the people claimed him as a prophet, in the tradition of Elijah.
But what I really want to talk about is that in these stories, we learn something more about what God is doing in the world, which should be of particular concern to those of us who claim ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ in the Lord’s prayer, and who have voluntarily chosen to follow the path that Jesus set before us.
These stories very much are stories of God’s mercy and new life breaking into broken situations. It goes without saying that in almost all cases human beings would rather that death might be delayed, all things being equal, and even in those rare times when we might consider saying ‘it was time’ there remains deep grief in the hearts of those left behind. But in this case, there is something more going on. In ancient Israel, the position of widow without children was one of the most vulnerable in all of society. As a result of entrenched patriarchy, women were largely dependent on men for income and status. Your husband defined both your wealth and power. If you lost your husband, your status dropped dramatically, and someone else would need to take care of you. Usually, this would be your children, who hopefully were old enough to take over the work of the family farm. If you were childless, however, you would lose control of your land, and then other, less close relatives would be expected to keep you alive. This would leave you without a secure home, or firm ties to the community.
In addition to the immediate and severe economic challenges there was a theological struggle for childless widows-so much of the promise of life was tied up in progeny. Children were your heirs, your promise, your connection to God’s promise of the land and descendents for Abraham. If you look at Deuteronomy 25, there is a law concerning Levirate marriage, where if a married man died without a child, his brother was supposed to marry his widow, and Deuteronomy says “And it shall be, that the first-born that she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother that is dead, that his name be not blotted out of Israel.” So to have a son, and see them pass away before bearing children, and to know that you will never have another child was in a deep way to be cut off from the community-to be quite literally blotted out. You can get a sense of this despair, when Naomi, in the book of Ruth, returns home to Bethlehem, and tells the people there "Don't call me Naomi, [b] " she told them. "Call me Mara, [c] because the Almighty [d] has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty.” (Ruth 1:20).
So, these miracles, to have a son who was lost brought back is a story not only of grief undone, these are also stories of people woven back into the fabric of community, whose futures no longer would be defined by desperate poverty, who found themselves once again with hope.
And this I think is where these stories have something to offer us. Because if we are called to be the loving face of God in the world, then I these stories should shape how we offer love and care and support and encouragement, such that people who face suffering, and poverty, and loss of community, and even deep grief feel that they have a place to go, and a people to care for them.
Now, that’s a pretty high calling-there is a lot we cannot do, and there are a lot of people that we are not going to be able to help, but the story of the Widow of Zarephath in particular gets me thinking about how we participate over time in the lives of people we love and create beautiful things with one another.
And the thing I’d like to call out in particular here is the repeated need for miracles. The widow is in need every single day. Every day she uses the last of her oil, and the last of her flour, and every day there is a little more left. This is living on the edge, and it is a daily reality for many people in this world. And like many people on the edge, sometimes it feels like the whole world is against you. She has braced herself for the worst, to starve to death with her son, only to discover a miraculous salvation in the person of Elijah. Then, when the drought breaks, and things finally seem to be getting better, another catastrophe, and she is back, worse off, maybe than when she had started.
Our lives are like that sometimes, and we have the old sayings to prove it-bad things come in threes, when it rains it pours, why is it always, always me, things of that nature. We face a world where it can feel like there is never a horizon or a break in the clouds. So we as a church have to both be ready to help people over time-to be present again and again when people face long term illnesses, or poverty, or other life struggles there are rarely quick fixes, and to help people in the moment, when they face a one-time problem or crisis.
So I want to celebrate the ways in which we claim this roll of loving presence, doing what we can to be the face of God in the world, whether its visiting Mary Elise in the hospital, making sure that people without transportation get to church every week, supporting MCC’s efforts at relief work in Haiti, or longer term educational ministry through school kits, not to mention the very personal, even private ways that we offer communities of love and care to our friends and family who find themselves in need of both sustained support and crisis intervention, because I think it is in these places where brokenness is restored and people find new life that God is at work today.
We can hear these Biblical stories and wonder about the mystery of miracles, or our own inability to transform the world, but what I would invite you to consider instead are the ways in which we participate in resurrection, helping individuals, families, whole communities transform through our love, our advocacy, and our persistent patience offering what we have to those in need.
One of the most beautiful images of this resurrection, of our renewal and transformation is the way that seeds grow into flowers, in the way that living things pass on and still create the next generation. You may have noticed the Coneflowers up at front, which Jane has been so kind as to provide this morning. They are not just for decoration. What I’d invite you to do is after I’m done here, to come up while Sheila plays, and take a small envelope, and fill it with a few coneflower seeds. They should be ready to plant if you’d like. If getting up is difficult, don’t worry we’ve got some envelopes ready to go for you as well. As you take them, think about the ways that God is inviting you to participate in the world, to be resurrected, to celebrate community, to love those around you so that the world might reflect your care, and may you again and again be reminded that you are a people of God, and may the word of God be always in your mouths.
Amen.

May 16th Sermon

One of the other things I thought about putting in this sermon, and didn't because I didn't really have time, is a reflection on a current debate going on in the child welfare community.

The American Pediatric Association came out with new guidelines around female genital cutting in America recently. For those of you who do not know, there is a tradition in many African countries of cutting off part of a woman's genitals, to varying degrees of severity, sometime between infancy and puberty (usually between 4 and 10 years old).  The operation is often immediately painful and dangerous, and usually permanently reduces or even eliminates sexual enjoyment.

In general, the APA's recommendations were uncontroversial-Female Genital Cutting is dangerous and unhealthy, and should not be done by American doctors, and families that want it for their daughters should be educated about its dangers.

However, at the end of these reflections, they mentioned the possibility that maybe a small ritual nick might serve as a replacement for more invasive surgery for families committed to following the cultural ritual, but aware of its dangers. 

This has sparked a great deal of controversy (some thoughts here) http://bigthink.com/ideas/20004, as you might imagine.

This is exactly the kind of question that I think it is most useful for Christians to talk about-are the potential benefits of exchanging a dangerous and painful operation for a purely symbolic action worth the dangers of increased social acceptance of what is a morally problematic action? How do we decide? Is this purely a cost/benefit analysis, that can be determined by testing if cutting increases or decreases with either course of action, or is it a philosophical question, best decided by our unwillingness to be complicit in a broken system?

What does it mean to demonstrate the love of Christ in this situation?

Discipleship discipline

One of the things that I often wrestle with as a pastor and a Christian is the challenges of efficiency as opposed to faithfulness. Not that these are contradictory values-far from it, really. I think its important to be effective in the good work of God, with an emphasis on both effective and good. But I think there is always this wrestling that we do, because we don't necessarily know the real consequences of our actions.

This week, my sermon is on the choices we get to make as Jesus' disciples, and what those choices say about how we interact with the world, and how important ethical purity and concrete progress are for our lives.

This is a living conversation in the congregation-when we studied incarceration this last year, one of the challenges is having some sense of what might be wise public policy (particularly around issues of mental illness and drug addiction, both of which are exacerbated by the current prison system) but feeling fairly powerless to offer superior solutions, and/or shape public policy.

As a way of engaging this conversation, here is a wonderful video about ways that we can in fact use data to shape our discipleship, focusing our Christian energies on programs that actually work.

This talk focuses on how to actually help Sub-Saharan Africa, and it is worth a couple minutes of your time.

The City of God

Here is my sermon for this week-
My favorite response was a gentleman who informed me afterwards that he certainly hoped that the city was just a metaphor, because he has no interest in spending eternity in a city. I see his point.

http://saintlouissports.homestead.com/
John 14:23-31
Revelation 21:10-22:5

Gathering in the city:
Good morning everyone, it is good to be with you this Sunday.

We’ve been working through Easter stories in this time before Pentecost (the celebration of the Holy Spirit that occurs on May 23rd, for those who are curious), as well as some visions of Christ to come, like the one from the book of Revelation that we have today.

Reading through the lectionary texts, I was struck by this image of the city of God. This is a story told with a tremendous amount of care-the image is stunning in its detail. Because of its length, we cut out some of the ornateness of the description, but the new Jerusalem has twelve gates, twelve foundations, its fifteen hundred miles per side, made of gold and jasper and sapphire and emerald and topaz and I could go on-but I won’t.

Top Ten Reasons to Join a Mennonite Disaster Service Crew

Just an excuse for some new pictures:


Number 1) The relaxing schedule-you get a full 30 minutes between 6:30 AM and 7:30 PM that is not devoted to eating or working (I usually take a shower).

Number 2) It’s Diet friendly! While you eat 3500 calories a day, you work most of it off as you go.

Number 3) The luxurious accommodations- between the bunk beds, the cold showers, and the bathrooms in a different building from both the bedroom and the kitchen, when you get home, you’re living in the lap of luxury.

Number 4) the scintillating nightlife-between checking in at 10:00, and the long discussions on the Canadian tax code and the US national debt, we own the night.

Number 5) Meeting Canadians-enough said. Did you know that the Maple Leaf flag dates back to only 1967?

Number 6) Free publicity-we were interviewed by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal today-here is the official Wall Street Journal photographer at work.

Number 7) Learning new skills-from crawling in attics putting in insulation, to crawling on floors, scraping off old varnish, to crawling under floors, in dirt and other things, our boundaries are always stretched.

Number 8) Seeing new sights-the Bayous, the mighty Mississippi , the ‘wrong’ side of the tracks in New Iberia, and wildlife-frogs, lizards, dogs, birds, and the stray snake.

Number 9) New stories-friends who share things you never new before, new friends who have wonderful adventures. People we have known for twenty years can still surprise us.

Number 10) helping people in need, connecting to new children of God, getting to know them, and the satisfaction of service (Mr. Green, owner of the home I'm working on).

Pictures!

As promised, a few photos from our trip so far. More later. 

The first is Prejean's, the Cajun restaurant we ate at the first night.

The accomodations are luxurious, a big trailer with indoor plumbing! You can see Kyle in the background.

 

We even have a stove-which I'm using as a dresser since we are a little bit cramped.

And the most impressive part of MDS-Pick-up Truck Row, prepared to leave as a fleet of do-gooders every morning.

We had a good day today, I'll report back after I've collected some stories.

Mennonite Disaster Service

I'm down in New Iberia, Louisiana, working with seven other people from SLMF for Mennonite Disaster Service.

We're all here safely, and have happily finished up our first day on the job.

Its been a learning experience for all of us.
Rich Howard-Willms learned that the pancake platter at Hardies has pancakes.

Most of us learned what alligator meat tastes like for the first time (its good-firm, not fishy at all, and it does not taste like chicken) when we tried some at a cajun restaurant in Lafayette.

This evening, we played a game of Malarky, where Arnie Sprunger taught us such useful information as 'the Arabic numbering system came from India' and 'the phrase 'stealing your thunder' comes from an obscure British playwright.'

And I've learned how to be a construction group leader, because the MDS people decided to make the least experienced person on the trip from SLMF take charge of a bunch of very patient and very polite Canadians who drove three days down from Ontario because they have a sick sense of humor.

New Iberia is an interesting city, its a small town with some extreme differences between the wealthy and the poor. We're helping at a number of different houses around town with some significant interior and exterior maintenance.  We're all pretty exhausted after the first day, and are looking forward to the snoring symphony that is the men's bunkhouse.

I'll have some pictures up tomorrow, which will be more fun-I was unable to get onto the wireless on my own computer, so I am limited to text today.

Good night, and God bless

Report from Illinois Mennonite Convention:

The Annual Illinois Mennonite Convention took place on April 9th-11th, and I served as representative for the congregation.
The gathering was a time of celebration and connection with people from around Illinois. I bring greetings from Chuck Neufeld, our conference minister, and other conference leaders, including our new Conference Moderator, Cal Zehr, pastor of Willow Springs Mennonite Church.
At the conference, I received financial reports about the conference. We spent about 150,000$ this last year (Chuck Neufeld and his support staff make up the vast majority of conference expenses) and brought in 175,000$, which is a pleasant change from the most recent years when we have gone into a deficit. Next year, Chuck would like to hire a half time associate conference pastor, so next year’s budget will aim for 180,000$.
Chuck is pushing all congregations to ‘Activate’ their membership in Illinois Mennonite Conference. Right now, 50% of congregations in the conference give nothing to conference at all, and 20% of congregations make up 80% of all conference giving. We fall in the middle 30%. Chuck is hoping that all congregations will engage in some conference activities and giving every year.
The Southern Illinois Mission Partnership continues to flourish, with small worshiping groups growing around Southern Illinois.
The denominational reports from Mennonite Church USA included a report from Mennonite Mutual Aid, which is changing its name to Everance, and from Mennonite Education Agency, which is working on a large scale Mennonite distance learning program for all age ranges. When it becomes a little more solidified, I will provide more information.
I encourage you to consider making a trip to the Illinois Mennonite Conference some year, it is a delightful experience, and a good chance to learn about the broader Mennonite Church.

If you are interested in more information, the annual workbook can be downloaded here:
http://illinois.mennonite.net/Docs_for_2010_Assembly_files/Annual%20Report%202010%2010318.pdf
Grace and peace,
Samuel Voth Schrag

Confederate History Month

You may have heard about the governor of Virginia declaring April confederate history month (as well as the governors of many Southern States). See here.

There was a big news story, because after his original proclamation failed to mention slavery, governor McDonnell apologized, and amended the declaration to include slavery as the root cause of the civil war, and a moral horror.

I always grieve when I see these sorts of proclamations, or see the confederate flag on the back of cars, or hear of people proclaiming pride in the Confederacy. These things seem to ignore how morally bankrupt the entire economic system of the South was. Slavery and the racism that surrounded it remain the worst crimes of this nation, and the white privilege that was formed over those centuries remains a real part of our culture today, such that people who have no overt racism still receive tremendous benefits because they are white, and when we forget that history, we can be persuaded of ridiculous things like white men are the objects of discrimination in our society.

So, in this context, I wanted to point anyone who is interested toward a blogger who has taken Confederate History Month to heart. Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic magazine has been remembering the true stories around the civil war and the institution of slavery this month, and I invite you to travel with him.

Here is his blog page.
http://www.theatlantic.com/ta-nehisi-coates/
I'd particularly recommend this reflection on slavery,
One Drop
and this one on
Robert E. Lee (an interesting addition-the power of the myth of Robert Lee is pernicious-one of my pastor friends had a funeral this weekend, the deceased was named David Lee. In the funeral service, he called him Robert Lee. The family handled it very well).

And just to acknowledge where Coates is coming from-a strong liberal position-here is one of his rants.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/04/proud-of-being-ignorant/38569/

Climate Economics

One of the major debates in our political culture today surrounds global warming, and what to do about it. Since I think that the scientific evidence suggests that this far and away the key political and moral question in our world today I try to pay attention to the debate.

Paul Krugman, noble prize winning economist recently wrote this reflection on climate change economics, which I found fascinating, and a really good outline of the debate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/magazine/11Economy-t.html?pagewanted=all

I confess, this is a huge article, and may be a bit intimidating.
In short,

since Carbon Dioxide emissions are causing global warming, society ought to make emitters pay for them. Thus, a carbon tax or cap and trade program.

While this will be expensive, the negative effects on the United States and global economy will be limited, because the tremendous power of American creativity and capitalism will adapt.

The costs of ignoring climate change will certainly be more devastating in terms of human lives, as well as in terms of GDP.

The political realities right now make this pretty difficult.

It is my prayer that this is something this generation enacts, so that our children's children might be more likely to flourish.

Maundy Thursday-Footwashing

f

http://www.reep.org/resources/easter/2003/footwashing2.html



I provided this reflection on footwashing at our Good Friday service this evening. I thought I would share it with you as well.
I began with reading this scripture:
John 13:1-15

It is because of this scripture text that Mennonites have adopted the tradition of footwashing. In the broader Christian community, there has been discussion as to whether footwashing is a one of the sacred rites, even a sacrament of the church, or something done for guests and visitors, or only in monasteries or convents, or some other special occasion like the coronation of a king. From the early church on, there have been some communities that have adopted footwashing, and others that dismiss it as an overly literal reading of a metaphorical or spiritual text.

Happiness research

Happiness is of course not the be all and end all of life-part of the Christian message in Holy Week is that there are some things worth being inconveinced for.

But thinking about the ways in which the church is intended to foster community, I was fascinated by this article by David Brooks about what leads to joy-connections with friends, with family, and a useful career more than simply income. I hope we can serve to increase joy for one another and ourselves.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/opinion/30brooks.html

Lectio and Luke 19

This week, our spiritual discipline is Lectio Divina-Holy Reading.

The purpose of Lectio Divina is to listen closely to the Biblical text, asking what it offers to us today, in this time and place. It can be done individually, or as a group, the text can be read silently or out loud, but the story is at the center.

Read the text once. Pay attention to what jumps out at you. Which words of phrases, images or ideas catch your attention? Why?

Read the text a second time. Pay attention to what emotions the text sparks in you. What do you feel in the text and around the text?

Read the text a third time. What suggestions, guidance, commands, invitations do you hear in this text? What is it inviting you to do?

Monday: Luke 19:28-40
Tuesday: Isaiah 50:4-9
Wednesday: Psalm 31:9-16
Thursday: Philippians 2:5-11
Friday: Luke 22:14-38
Saturday: Luke 23:26-49

Silent worship

When I think of silence, the community that first comes to mind is the Society of Friends, or Quakers.
Since their founding in the mid 1600’s by George Fox, one of the hallmarks of worship among the Friends is silence. In the classic form, a worship service is ‘unprogramed’ where there is no formal order of worship, and consists mostly of silence, where believers wait in prayer for the light of Christ to speak from within. Sometimes people will share something that is sitting on their hearts, but this is spontaneous and undirected. For those of you who have never sat in silence with a group of people for an hour, it is an amazing experience. I’d recommend it.

Human beings are information seeking creatures-we love to have input to our eyes, ears, and mind. Sensory deprivation is actually one of the forms of torture that the US government used against prisoners, because being left without light and sound is deeply disconcerting to the human psyche-but there is something to be said for setting aside this need, and experiencing some discomfort in the deep silence of the world.

image from http://www.mountmellick.net/history/quakers/index.htm

Be still and know that I am God

The spiritual discipline for this week is silence-the prompt goes like this:

Sit in a comfortable place where you will not be interrupted. Turn off potential distractions, like the television and cell phone. This may need to be done after other people (namely children) have gone to bed. Consider lighting a candle.

Take a few deep breaths, and then settle into a regular rhythm of deep breathing, listening to your breath, listening to your body, and listening to God. Try to let your mind wander, not dwelling on the concerns of the day, and the stresses of life, focusing instead on what is going on inside.

Try to sit for at least 2 minutes the first day, looking to increase to 5 or 10 minutes by the end of the week.


Thinking about silence, the thing that always fascinates me most about the process is the task of becoming present in the silence in a healthy way, so that we can wait and listen, rather than fill the silence with the loud thoughts that clamor for our attention. Its called quieting the mind.


I acknowledge that the task of quieting the mind is quite challenging-our brains are not wired to be doing nothing. My mother (the yoga instructor) talks about the ‘monkey mind’ the part of our brains that is always chattering away, jumping from thought to thought, catching a hold of a fleeting thought, and following it down the rabbit hole to a whole host of worries. We can go from hmm…, its so peaceful here, to I’m sorry I have to get up soon, to once I get up, what do I need to do? to what are we going to have for dinner, to planning a grocery list and worrying about nutrition, money, and world hunger within a matter of seconds. This is the challenge of silence-that we want to fill the empty space with noise, to fill the absence with something useful or important or just stuff.  For many people, the time before falling asleep is the time for the monkey mind to run wild, with one concern going to another, the mind whirring with action when we crave rest.

This is part of the experience of silence-the outer noise can provide focus and calm for the inner noise, but I think there is something to be said also for letting that inner dialogue play itself out, and seeking quietness within.
There aren't any magic solutions that I know about-Mom’s suggestion is to let the busy thoughts float away on imaginary clouds, which I find useful, but certainly no panacea. It takes practice, oddly enough, to do nothing.

Decreased prison population

For those of us who worked through some reflections on the US prison system this last semester here is an interesting article on how the state prison population has declined this year. I hope it is a sign of things to come.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/us/17prison.html

Logic

So,
I follow NCAA basketball a little bit, and this time of year everyone who follows NCAA basketball (and many who don't) fill out a bracket for the NCAA tournament, picking who wins each game. (I don't think there is an SLMF bracket yet, but if anyone out there wants to start one, I'll join).

I offer this as context to this story from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/sports/ncaabasketball/15score.html?ref=ncaabasketball . This article explains that people are very bad at picking upsets, and that in aggregate, people would do better just picking the higher seeds to win every game in the NCAA tournament, because in general these higher seeds are most likely to win (somewhere between 75-90%, most of the time).  The easiest example they provided is choosing whether a weighted event will occur-like say, guessing if a random card drawn from a deck will be a heart or not a heart.  Most people will pick not a heart about 75% of the time, and a heart 25% of the time, attempting to get every card right, but they end up picking less than 75% right, when if they just picked 'not a heart' every time, they would get 75%.  Same with upsets in the NCAA tournament.

This is very much true.  But there is a gaping logical hole in their argument: when picking a bracket, no one is trying to beat the average. They are trying to win (most bracket groups have between 1 and 3 winners). And in order to win, you have to take the risk of picking upsets, increasing the variance in your potential outcomes. If you want to maximize your correct number of picks, then picking all top picks is a useful way to do that (or, pick by who the gamblers in Las Vegas think will win, which usually beats picking just by the seeding), but if you want to win a bracket group, you have to lower your odds of doing the very best you can, to increase the odds of beating everyone else.

I mention this in this space for two reasons-one, huge logical fallacies by major national newspapers make me sad.

Second, I think there may be a bit of a parallel to our lives as Christians well.  There are some times when it is best to be conservative-to make the choices that maximize our own success, aiming for somewhere above average.  But in cases where there is a zero sum outcome-where consistently coming in above average will simply mean that you will definitely loose to fewer people, but will never win, then we have to make riskier decisions.  The trick is knowing which kind of situation is which, and probably blending the techniques to get the best of both worlds. 

So that is the question-as individuals or as a congregation. Do we want to chart a comfortable path most likely to lead to acceptable above average success, or do you dare for something tremendous, and increase the risk of failure and ridicule?

Grace and peace,
Samuel

Vegetarianism

Tomorrow's fast is trying to go the whole day without meat.  I'll need to remember to get the Veggie Sub at Pastor Peer.

I still like my reflections on being vegetarian that I posted a few weeks ago, so if you did not read them, check them out again.

http://saintlouismennonite.blogspot.com/2010/02/meatless-mondays.html

Electronic Reality

The fast suggestion for tomorrow is I think in some ways the most interesting:
E-mail fast-try to go the whole day without checking personal E-mail.

If you’re ambitious, you can add facebook to this fast if you’d like.

Our society has become very conditioned for rapid communication and constant contact. Think about how the use of mail, or the phone have changed from even 15 years ago, let alone what it would have been like in times of more uncertain communication only a few hundred years ago, not to mention the Apostle Paul communicating by hand delivered letter.

I think there are some really good things about this transformation in communication. I keep better track of my family, my friends from around the country, and the people at Saint Louis Mennonite Fellowship because of the rapid pace of conversation.

But there is also a sense of obligation that gets created, as we face the need to keep in touch with a wider range of people, rather than just ‘catching up’ when we run in to people on a more sporadic basis, and there is the ever present danger of relationships that are more wide than deep.

It is important to move in our world with intentionality and all deliberate haste. Taking a break from E-mail, Facebook, and other social medium allows us to remember what it is like to be without some of our technology, and to practice with purpose our modern lifestyle (says the man writing the blog).

Pay attention, so that you notice who you are and how you change.

I don't quite know what to do with this

So this is mostly off topic, but I wanted to use my small little voice here in the world to communicate a bit of my frustration. A friend recently reminded me that shouting out into the void at least helps us feel better, and sometimes, when enough people shout, something changes.

Recently, documents have been released outlining the United States torture policy at Guantanamo Bay, and it makes me sad to know that our country committed war crimes.

Here is a good summary of what was official US policy:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/03/09/waterboarding_for_dummies/index.html

a key quote:
The documents also lay out, in chilling detail, exactly what should occur in each two-hour waterboarding "session." Interrogators were instructed to start pouring water right after a detainee exhaled, to ensure he inhaled water, not air, in his next breath. They could use their hands to "dam the runoff" and prevent water from spilling out of a detainee's mouth. They were allowed six separate 40-second "applications" of liquid in each two-hour session – and could dump water over a detainee's nose and mouth for a total of 12 minutes a day. Finally, to keep detainees alive even if they inhaled their own vomit during a session – a not-uncommon side effect of waterboarding – the prisoners were kept on a liquid diet. The agency recommended Ensure Plus.

Food and fasting

 http://www.motherearthnews.com/Relish/Food-Safety-System.aspx

The traditional fast for Lent has to do with food products. In some traditions, this has meant a fast during daylight hours, others going without meat (except on Sundays) or some other derivation on that theme.

Today's suggested fast is to give up a food product you usually eat-coffee, chocolate, Diet Pepsi, etc.

I think there is something to be said for a fast from a particular food product that is part of the daily routine.  For most of human history, food insecurity was a fact of life. The end of winter was often a time of scarcity, and harvest festivals are a tradition in every culture because a good harvest means survival for another year.  Most people in America do not face the threat of starvation, so it is worth, I think remembering how rare this situation really is from a historical perspective. (There continues to be significant food scarcity, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million people sometimes uncertain about their food source, and 17.5 million going hungry for lack of food at some time during 2008 http://www.frac.org/html/hunger_in_the_us/hunger_index.html) We can get whatever we want, regardless of what time of year it is, just by going to the grocery store in our climate controlled automobiles.  The obesity epidemic in America is a testimony that lack of calories is not our nation's challenge.

So see what it feels like to not have immediate access to everything that we want-pass up dessert, or the morning doughnut, the coffee addiction, or whatever your pleasure happens to be, and remember the patterns of seasons, weather, and scarcity that defined food for most people through history, and billions today.

And maybe remember that our current system may not be sustainable, and what it might mean to face new patterns of life.

International Women's Day

Today, March 8th is International Women's Day, and the Mennonite had an interesting article on the ways in which violence against women remains a reality while we celebrate ways in which the patriarchy has been undermined in the last century. 

http://www.themennonite.org/public_press_releases/Pray_for_peace_in_the_Congo_on_International_Womens_Day

Take a moment to celebrate the equality and value of all people today!

Luke 13:1-9

Sorry for the lack of posts last week. I confess I found myself a little uninspired on the topic of journaling.

This week we're talking about fasting, so I think I'll have more to talk about. Its a topic that has always fascinated me.

For example, today's fast prompt is to give up a luxury item-radio in the car, television, I-pod or I-phone apps, etc.

We are surrounded by noise in our lives-from the background hum of the television, NPR as soon as we turn on the car, earbuds walking us through our exercise routine, or just the mental noise made up of the constant information that can stream at us as modern human beings.  I'm not suggesting that things like radios, TVs or Computers are not good things (we can talk, but I think a case can be made for all of them) but they do serve as a distraction from our own minds and thoughts, an excuse not to look closely at our thoughts, our fears, our behaviors in an intentional way, and I think it is worth being intentional about who we are and what we are doing in the world.  There is something to be said for silence, and resting with what is going on in our own heads, and Lent is a time to take the opportunity to claim practices that might be redeeming.

May there be quiet along with the music of our existence.


Finally, here is this week's sermon.

Sly as a mother hen-Luke 13:31-35

A new week, and a new spiritual discipline, this week, journaling. As I laid out the plan for this Lent, the link between this week's scripture and sermon and this week's spiritual discipline was the weakest, but its still a good spiritual discipline. If you find yourself writing anything particularly profound, feel free to post it here.

by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_hen_with_chicks02.jpg

 Good morning! I hope that this finds you well. It is, as always, a joy to worship with you.

We’re thinking this morning and throughout the season of Lent about the ways in which we find both challenge and comfort in our lives, and in our relationship with God-looking for the things we hold on to, and how we practice letting go.

There is a little bit of this energy in our scripture text this morning from the book of Luke, but I think it deserves a bit of unpacking first, because

this is an odd little text-it’s a quick little story, without most of the obvious punchlines that often accompany Jesus’ stories where something gets turned upside-down, or some villain gets their comeuppance.

But I think it also provides a revealing insight into Jesus’ life, as well as a useful lesson for us.

First, this story serves as a reminder for us-something that often slips through the cracks in Christianity- Jesus was not very different, theologically or politically, than his primary antagonists. Christianity has a long and dark history of anti-Semitism, blaming Jewish people for the death of Jesus, accusing them of secretly running the world, but not only is it morally bankrupt to hold people responsible for actions of 2000 years ago, but it doesn’t even fit the biblical narrative-Jesus’ relationship with the Pharisees, his primary antagonists, was one of based on closeness, not distance.

Here in this text, for example, it is the Pharisees act to save Jesus’ life, just as they would often ask him to dinner to debate him, or as him questions. For most of these committed followers of God, Jesus may have been a little extreme, but most of them did not want to see Jesus killed. It is like the way that Christians can battle like cats and dogs over small differences, while being comfortable being in relationship with those from other religions. Sometimes we have kinder words for people from only a small distance away than those who are right next door. When we are in conflict with people-our fellow believers, people on the other side of the political spectrum, or the other side of family conflicts, we would always do well to always come back to the things that we have in common that bring us together, and to remember that we really do not want to win at all costs.

But what I really want to talk about this morning is the relationship Jesus expresses here in terms of power and control, because I think it is fascinating that he outfoxes the political power of Herod-outwitting the king, but acknowledging the city of Jerusalem as outside of his control, as the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

Do you know the Serenity prayer? It’s a core prayer in Alcoholics Anonymous (which I learned from my wise social work wife this week). It goes like this:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

It seems to me, that here Jesus is embodying the serenity prayer in very unexpected ways.

So first, the courage to change the things he can: Jesus escapes from the clutches of Herod, claiming instead the journey to Jerusalem. Having been warned by his antagonists, the Pharisees, Jesus comes up with a clever plan-he has the Pharisees lie to Herod, explaining that Jesus is compelled by the Holy Spirit to stay for three more days. At the same time, he immediately will leave the region on his way to Jerusalem. He outfoxes the fox, so to speak.

When faced with institutional danger, with the unstoppable force of the state, Jesus has the courage to manipulate the system (one might even say, practice a little bit of deceit, so as to help the system function better) to preserve himself.

But he also has the serenity-well, maybe not serenity, since he is sort of whining here-but he does have the grace to accept the things that he cannot change. So he weeps over Jerusalem, because he knows that he cannot force Jerusalem to change, to accept his invitation to relationship, to love and mutual honor. He acknowledges that he cannot fold Jerusalem under his wings like a mother hen, that not all people will listen to a loving invitation. So, the rulers and their capricious wishes are but an obstacle to be avoided, but the city of Jerusalem, dominated by the military might of Rome, fated to be destroyed again and again, that city he cannot bend to his wishes, he cannot protect or control.

Similarly, think about Jesus’ animal metaphors-Herod is a fox, but in relationship to Jerusalem, he is a mother hen-while mother hens do pay attention to their chicks, in terms of protection from predators hens are not a particularly useful ally. So, Jesus here, as he does so often, claims the weaker, the servant image, even as he claims authority-that he is one who has the status to comfort Jerusalem, and his words, ‘you will not see me again until the time comes that you say blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord’ foreshadows the entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, but in that time of celebration, Jerusalem welcomes him in triumph, but is unwilling to welcome his redefinition of what it means to be king-to approach the world with open arms, rather than a closed fist.

This pattern, then is one that I think is worth our examination. We too, I think, are we faced with similar situations. When the world swirls around us, it is important to claim our own authority to change our environment, to work hard and shape our own success, but also to acknowledge both for ourselves and for those whom we interact with that there are limits to our authority and our power, and maybe it is worth remembering that even when he was claiming the courage to change his environment, and even when he was claiming the authority to watch over Israel, Jesus still modeled servant leadership, or leadership in the context of weakness.

So where might we claim the authority to dismiss the rulers of this age? And where is it worth being reminded that we cannot force anyone to love us, and come to us for comfort and support?

One of the places that I am thinking about this dynamic this Lent, where we often face this challenge, to discern between that which can be changed, and that which cannot is in the face pain or grief-its one I’ve faced from both sides. Pastors are often expected to provide care-giving for people in need, and compassion in times of grief is wonderful comfort when I am grieving. But it is also impossible to take away the cause of the suffering, to fix the sadness of the person who has lost a loved one, to make things better-which can be deeply frustrating for those who are trying to surround a grieving person with love, wishing that there might be something more profound that they can do, that they might fix the situation.

But try as we might, we cannot rush the grieving process, we cannot change those we love, we can only claim our response to the situations in which we find ourselves.

In order to practice embodying the prayer this week, I invite you to try a second spiritual discipline-the discipline of journaling. This is one way that all people can take time to think through a second time the events of life-trying to be reflective rather than just reactive, writing about both the profound and the mundane things of life so that we might better able to discern the world around us.

You’ll find seven possible journal prompts in your bulletin, but I certainly do not want to limit your imagination-let your spirit run wild, as far as I’m concerned, but I do encourage you to spend a few minutes every day writing reflections on life this week, as a part of our continued series of Lenten disciplines, as we continue to think about holding on and letting go.

And thus, we pray

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

The meaning of prayer

http://www.watton.org/clipart/prayer/prayer.shtml

Next week we'll have a new spiritual discipline to practice, I hope that the prayer of examen has proven useful to you this week. If you really like it, its a good one to keep long term.

As a closing reflection on this Spiritual discipline, I thought that I would reflect on the meaning of prayer.  In some ways, the prayer of examen is an outlier. The beginning and end are traditionally prayer like, but the self reflection in the middle is somewhat less 'God-focused' than most prayers.

Common categories of prayer include
thanksgiving-giving thanks for blessings
praise-celebrating God as God
petition-asking God for things we need
intercession-praying for other people in need
confession/forgiveness-acknowledge our sinfulness.

The prayer of examen does not fit neatly into these categories. While there is thanksgiving, and there is confession, most of the prayer is self-reflection, which is why it is a little difficult to frame it in usual 'prayer language.' 

I think this is the strength of the discipline: it is useful to remember that everything in our lives is worth holding in prayer, from our most dramatic acts of faithfulness to the most banal parts of our days.  Whatever we do, we engage the divine core of reality. So often we pray, "God your will be done" or "may your spirit guide us here" it is worth asking after we are finished, "God, was your will done?"

Self-knowledge

Kahil Gibran-The Prophet
"And a man said, Speak to us of Self-Knowledge.
And he answered saying:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals."

The prayer of Examen can be thought of in a fairly clinical way-looking back over the day's events, reflecting on our behavior, making intentional the unintentional or unreflective choices that dominate our lives, asking again and again, is this the right choice?

But it is also useful, I think, to reflect on our lives in a more musical kind of way, praying with joy and sadness the complicated interweaving that is our reality, acknowledging that everything we do is filled with multiple mixed motives, that we are logical, emotional, instinctive creatures of grace, and that we can read our days in a host of different ways.

image from http://undertheeyelids.blogspot.com/2009/10/but-above-all-know-thyself.html

http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/people/ignatius_loyola.htm

The prayer of Examen is traditionally ascribed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, (1491-1556). This Spanish nobleman was seriously injured in a battle with France in 1521, and in his recuperation, he read romantic novels about the life of Christ and the saints, and felt compelled to join their ranks, so he devoted himself to prayer and fasting, traveled to the Holy Land, and sought to live a Christ-like life there. The collection of followers who gathered around him became the Jesuit monastic order, and it is in the Book of Spiritual Exercises created for that community that the prayer of examen is first found in print. For the Jesuits, praying the prayer of examen twice daily, once at noon, and once at the end of the day continues to be a core discipline.
(derived from the Catholic Encyclopedia online- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07639c.htm).
If you are curious about how the Ignatians themselves teach the Examen, here is a link to their homepage, with some fascinating teaching tools.

Ignation Spirituality Homepage

http://www.daveblackonline.com/september_2007_blog_archives.htm
One way that many people make the prayer of examen more meaningful is by the use of a focal object or objects, that help to transition between the different parts of the prayer. For example, Andy Brubacher Kaethler, professor at AMBS suggests using colored stones-green for something good that happened, yellow for a person you are praying for, red for something you’re worried about, blue for the Lord’s prayer at the end.
Our faith is both mental and physical, and tying the two together through focal devices-bread and cup in communion, water in baptism, footwashing, and other devices are profound ways to deepen our connection with God.
For the prayer of examen this week, a small candle, an icon or other piece of artwork might serve as focal ideas,
And if you’re interested in a way to make the prayer more active, you could collect items that represent the day’s activities, or do a pictorial prayer of examen, drawing the day’s activities.

Prayer of Examen- Luke 4:1-13

from http://www.radionewjerusalem.com/resources.html

For Lent, I'm going to be highlighting one spiritual discipline each week. This week, it is the prayer of examen.


The prayer is designed for corporate or individual use-it works great just praying back over one's day, or as a way of a family practicing talking about spirituality and God together. I hope that you find it useful. (prayer after the jump)

Ash Wednesday: Matthew 6:1-21

from http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/ashwednesday.htm
Today marks the beginning of Lent, the time of preparation before Easter. This year, SLMF is going to be going through a series of spiritual disciples linked up with each week's scripture focus. I'm going to use this blog to outline these disciplines, posting information on their history, various ways to practice them, and at least one post on child friendly spiritual disciplines.  I hope you enjoy.



Also, I preached this evening as part of a South City Eccumenical Ash Wednesday service this evening, and I thought I might share that sermon here for you.

Greetings, I’m pastor Samuel Voth Schrag, from the Saint Louis Mennonite Fellowship. For those of you who don’t know where we are, the Saint Louis Mennonite Fellowship is down on Chippewa, one block west of Grand. For those of you who don’t know who we are, Mennonites are Christians who believe that the Bible calls committed adult believers to join together in a focus on peace, justice, and witness, that the gospels-the story of Jesus’ life-are the core of the Christian message, and we are a denomination that carries on the Anabaptist tradition of simple living and pacifism dating back to the Protestant reformation.
It is good to gather with you this Ash Wednesday, thank you for welcoming me here.
We mark this evening, the beginning of the season of Lent, the annual time of fasting and self-reflection before the celebration of Easter.

Great minds think alike

Two of my good friends,
Dan Schreiber and Alan Stucky also reflected on Superbowl commercials. I thought I'd pass them along.
http://www.smilepolitely.com/opinion/more_super_bowl_life_lessons/
http://thewanderingroad.wordpress.com/

Budweiser

from http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/07/0726_globalbrands/source/31.htm

Reading texts is a really important part of Biblical study, which is what I spend most of my time doing. It is useful to use the techniques of careful reading on all texts, just to keep in practice, and important to read things that are less emotionally significant than the Bible, which helps us hone our tools in a less charged environment. Here is an example:
So, I was watching the Super bowl on Sunday, and saw this Budweiser commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnMloXnGC7U

It is the Budweiser bridge commercial, for those who don't want to follow the link. The commercial ends with this tagline: “Budweiser its what we do.”

Mennonite Church USA restructuring

http://www.themennonite.org/issues/13-2/articles/MC_USA_consultant_reveals_alignment_report

For all those interested in internal Mennonite Church USA politics and processes, Mennonite Church USA engaged a consultant this past year to reflect on its structure. These are his reports.

In my first reading, a couple of things stand out:
1) moving Mennonite Mission Network under the auspices of the executive board (presumably with this hope of making 'mission' more broadly understood core to the work of the executive leadership).
2) giving area conferences more power, by giving them representation on the board, and asking the board to work more collaboratively with them.  (interesting, but I wonder if the vastly different sizes of area conferences means that if given more power their would be some dramatic differences in services offered).
3) encouraging the streamlined use of support staff (this makes lots of sense to me).

Also, they are suggesting adding Mennonite Health Alliance as a fifth 'agency' along with Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Publishing Network, Mennonite Education Agency, and Mennonite Mutual Aid. I'm curious how Mennonite Health Alliance members from other Mennonite denominations will respond to this.

Just an update, for those who are curious.

Meatless Mondays

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

http://michaelcreedfg.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/grant-aided-meat-processors-failing-to-create-irish-jobs/

The link goes to a website encouraging people to give up meat on Mondays. Pretty self explanatory.  It caught my eye, because being vegetarian is something I've played with over time.

In seminary, one of my good friends wrote her thesis explaining why pacifists ought to be vegetarian-long story short, the science suggests that animals can feel pain, they are biologically relatives, and the structures of factory farms in our country are horrifying (Upton Sinclare's Jungle is still out there).  It was an interesting argument.  I went vegetarian for Lent on her behalf in the spring for 2007.

It didn't quite take, because I quite buy the theological argument-our world is pretty fully structured on the basis of animals eating one another. We are all tomorrow's food, as the saying goes, but I like this idea of meatless Mondays for three reasons-

1) I believe in discipline. Practices, whatever they look like, are worth developing.
2) I believe in awareness. Taking one day off a week from meat is a way of reminding ourselves that our diets are meat heavy from a nutritional and environmental perspective (there are more carbon emissions from cows than cars).
3) I believe in education-imagine how many interesting conversations you could have with friends and family if you took this up!

I haven't run it by the spouse yet, but I'm intrigued.

Who we are in carbon

the graph is from wikepedia















Since I think the evidence shows that global warming will likely be the preeminent human challenge for the next 100 years or so, its useful to think about how the world is now, and what it might look like in the future.
Thus, this graph,

http://junkcharts.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341e992c53ef0120a81ae3fa970b-pi

which I got from The Economist's great economics blog free exchange http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/

It gives a fascinating portrayal of what has happened to China and India in the last 20 years, and suggests just who has the most room to reduce carbon emissions.

I'd be curious if you notice anything worth paying attention to here.

1 Corinthians 12:26-13

Two things:
1) I have my sermon text for this Sunday. I spoke on how we form the body of Christ, and how we love one another. I invite you to consider answering the question: where do I best embody the love of Corinthians 13?

2) Here's a fascinating link that provides a sense of scale from everything from electrons to the Milky Way. I think its worth thinking about how big and how small the world around us really is. http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347

from http://authenticmike.wordpress.com/

Nehemiah 8:1-10

One of the lectionary texts for this Sunday is Nehemiah 8:1-10.This will make a LOT more sense if you read the passage.

While I decided to go a different direction for my sermon, I wanted to share this text, because it is a lesser known story, but still very interesting.


The heart of this story is the reading of the book of the law by Ezra the priest, but to understand the story, its useful to have some background.

The most amazing statistic in the world

For those who have already heard/read my sermon, I thought I'd add an extra link this morning.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/world-progress-report.png

This is a link to the World Progress Report for 2009.
In particular, I think its worth thinking about world population and population growth, changes in poverty in the last 20 years, and life expectancy.

We live in interesting times.

Water into Wine

Hello all, sorry for a week without posts. I have some ideas for this coming week.
This sermon is about the wedding at Cana, but there is an extensive sidetrack into Mennonite reflections on alcohol, so if you're interested, you're welcome to share your stories about alcohol either as a child or your current reflections.
Grace and peace,
Samuel

Ordination

No sermon today,
it was my ordination service, and Janeen Bertsche Johnson provided the sermon. It was a wonderful service, and I wanted to say thanks for the support and blessings I've received.

SVS

Move Your Money

I thought I’d pass along this idea. As many of you know, part of the reason that the financial crisis of 2008 was so severe is that many many banks were really highly leveraged-sometimes as much as 40$ out for every dollar kept on the books, which meant that smaller shocks to housing prices led to bankruptcy. Another problem was that banks were selling mortgages to people that were unaffordable, or whose payments would balloon to an unaffordable level quickly. The government is working on a bill designed to deal with this, but I always prefer to combine my activism with more personal, concrete solutions.

Matthew 2:1-12-we three kings

Happy New Year everyone! 
After talking to the LCG and receiving feedback from Linda, I've decided to keep up with the Blog (though probably with some less frequent and shorter posts).  I hope you continue to check in once in a while.
Here is my sermon for this week-what is your favorite story of the three wise men?

Good morning, and happy New Year! It is good to be back in Saint Louis. Rachel and I had a wonderful trip around the Midwest, and we find ourselves back here refreshed and ready to begin a new year.
This Wednesday, the 6th is the holiday of Epiphany, one of the first holidays in the Christian calendar, and the traditional date for the visitation of the wise men to the baby Jesus. The Bible says only a small amount about these characters-they come from the East, they saw the star, they bring Gold Frankincense, and Myrrh. Magi were probably court officials in Persia, who in Matthew’s Roman context would have been visitors from outside the Roman imperium, thus both exotic and untainted by the powers that be, while still providing some Gentile credit for a largely Jewish Messiah. They may have even dabbled in the interpretation of dreams, and are the source of our modern word Magic.
But there has been a host of other stories about these fascinating characters. Western Church tradition tells us that there are three wise men, named Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchior, who are not just wise, but also kings (this tradition dates back to at least the 6th century). We have been told they come from Babylon, or India, or Ethiopia, or even China.
These men have captured our attention, they have been a key part of the story of Christmas from the very beginning.