The Amazing Race

Sundays begin around 3:45 AM for me. My alarm is set for 4:00 AM but I rarely get to hear it go off. Usually my sermon has roused me by then. By 4:30 AM on Sundays I am showered and dressed. Going through my mind is an energizing hybrid of prayer and preaching. (Let it be known that by this time I have not typed a word of my sermon. But don’t be confused by this. A sermon is never done until it’s been preached. Any preacher worth their salt, even if they have had a manuscript of their sermon done since Tuesday, will know that a sermon is in some ways a living thing. And until it has had a chance to live those brief moments of its proclamation then it has been something less than a sermon.)

My sermons incubate in the pages of relatively expensive, Italian, leather-bound journals. Those pages receive the observations of my study, the wrestling prayers of my discernment, random thoughts and ideas for flow, illustration, and how it all fits into a much bigger picture. However, in my thinking, the sermon is still a thing that all of this is only hinting at. It’s like I’m trying to listen in on a conversation from across the room filled with the noise of my own invited distractions. And no matter what gets scribbled into my journal or trapped by Microsoft Word early on Sunday morning, those things are still not my sermon.

Whatever it is I wind up typing and printing out feels more like a leash for myself anything else. “Lord, do more than I have done,” is the only right prayer to pray for one who would hope to preach. That is not to diminish the hard work of good study and the wrestling over creative inspiration. However, if God were bound to the limits of my study and creativity then I would sooner choose to be mute than aspire to channel His Word through my own grit and whim. Study and creativity are my service to God. It is the least I can do. But Lord help the church if God’s work through the proclaimed Word is tethered to the least I could do.

Then I preach with ice-cold hands. Every Sunday. Sometimes I remember how to preach and sometimes I forget. But I am always glad it’s over even though I am humbled to have done it. Even when I am driving home after worship, regardless of how I well or poorly I think I have executed the task, I ask God to continue to speak to his people. It feels nice to be out of the way.

Eighteen hours after getting up I'm usually sitting on the couch with my wife watching The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race is a reality TV show in which teams of people race around the globe day after day trying to make it to the end. We watch them exhaust themselves on a race where no one knows what is coming next. They fight, they fail, they succeed. Some are not good enough to stay in the race. Some continue on. They do their best with what they are given. Each week it’s a new adventure- every team hoping they have what it takes to run one more leg- to move on. Each team that makes it seems road-weary and relieved. Every week it’s the same. Every week it’s different.

And that’s the way my Sunday ends.

~SBC

Confessions of a Sports Fan (and Pastor)

I root for Tiger Woods. I root against Tim Tebow. And I’m on the Lin bandwagon.

Sunday afternoon I paced back and forth in front of my
television as I watched Tiger Woods finish his final round at the Honda Classic. Other than the fact that he didn’t win, it was vintage Tiger. And I loved it. My daughter Tyler has always been my golf watching buddy. Sunday it
was fun for us to watch Tiger play like the old Tiger. It felt like the good ol’ days that I thought were gone. I wasn’t thinking about his infidelities and hubris. And to be honest, I never gave any thought to whether he was a good husband or dad “before the accident”. Truth be told, I don’t really care now. I never cared if he was
a role model. I didn’t need him to be. My kids don’t need him to be. Sure, a couple of years ago when my daughter asked me what people were saying about Tiger Woods, I cringed a bit when telling her that Tiger started acting like he was married other women besides his wife (serial adultury and dirtbaggery are tough to explain to an eight year old). That’s why I don’t root for Tiger Wood’s personal life. Just his golf life.

I root for Tim Tebow’s personal life. Not his football career. I am a Seminole. He killed us when he was at Florida- roostering up and down the sideline with garnet field paint on his face pumping his team up. I shudder to even mention it. I root for him to lose. At football. But I would be deeply saddened if he took ABC’s bid for him to be the next Bachelor. It would break my heart if he started making out with a few desperate gold-diggers in front of millions of people. It’ll never happen. And that’s why I root for his personal life. I hope he tanks in the NFL. And I’m pretty sure he will. I also hope he goes to prisons and shares Jesus with folks. I hope he spends years in the Philippines with orphans and widows. I hope he dethrones Mother Theresa in the “Least of These” Hall of Fame.

I’ve got a bad case of Linsanity. I love him. I love the story of a really good basketball player who was overlooked in high school, college, and the NBA because he is Asian. I love the fact the he didn’t quit, that he worked his butt off, and that he finally got his. I loved the pride that I saw in so many of my Asian American friends when ESPN was Linsane in the membrane for two weeks. I jumped on the bandwagon for what he was doing for the game of basketball. And when I found out later that he was a devout Christian who was considering career ministry, it didn’t faze me. I didn’t like him more. I didn’t like him less. I just worried about him more. Overnight fame, the promise of millions, and New York City are a terrible combination- every time. I would hate for Jeremy Lin’s sports success to infringe on his faith success- which is usually in a much healthier environment when it is incubated in struggle.

I want God’s Kingdom to grow through the work of His church. I enjoy sports. Those things do not mean I root for Christians to succeed in sports because they’re Christian. That also doesn’t mean I root against worldly pagans in sports because they’re worldly pagans. God will glorify Himself as God sees fit. If he does it through humbling a vain golfer, elevating a mediocre quarterback, or having the world notice an unnoticed point guard then that’s God’s business. However, God can also glorify Himself in the empty success of vanity, in the humiliation of one of His children, and in the train wreck that comes from overnight fame. I want God’s glory to shine. I don’t care so much how He chooses to do it. So in the meanwhile, Go Tiger! Fail Timmy! And hold on tight Super Lintendo!

-SBC

Pencil Problems

Change is tough. Ever since we rolled over into
2012 I have without fail written "2011" every time I have had an opportunity to write the date. This morning, for
instance, I wrote “2011” four times in the span of an hour or so. I didn’t handle it too well.

I keep a master hymnal on my desk in which I mark the dates of every hymn we sing in worship. But this morning my hand naturally reacted and before I knew it I had written 1/8/11. I corrected it. Then within minutes I wrote 1/8/11 on another hymn. I erased it, breaking the thin white eraser on my .05 millimeter stainless steel mechanical pencil. I don’t have any more erasers. (Well, I do, but they are aftermarket erasers and don’t do much more than spread the lead markings around creating more of a grey smear than revealing a clean spot of paper to correct a mistake on. Breaking my eraser off reminds me of this non-factory replacement easer problem and by now a simple “1” has me clenchingmy jaw tighter than a leotard.)

So, I am forced to draw a “2” over the second “1” lining up the longer vertical portion of the “2” so as to overlay the mistaken “1” as best as possible. Annoyed.

After a bit of tweaking on the order of worship I decide to date a third hymn (whose fourth
verse I am using as the song of response to our assurance of pardon, which is a change from the routine in its own right.) And before I even realize it’s happening I have written 1/8/11. Again.
I take my hymnal and throw it through one of the antique lead glass windows in my office, go to the storage shed and get a hose, siphon gas from my associate pastor’s car, dump it on the hymnal and set it on fire with the cigarette I had been smoking since I broke my eraser.

Change is tough. It’s tough because there is no such thing as “normal”. Yet part of the human condition is a desire for things to freeze the moment they are exactly right for us. But like King Solomon, in the wisdom hardened into him from a life of observing the world, said, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
A time to be born, And a time to die;
A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill, And a time to heal;
A time to break down, And a time to build up;
A time to weep, And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain, And a time to lose;
A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
A time to tear, And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
A time to love, And a time to hate;
A time of war, And a time of peace.

In this series of juxtaposed couplets none of these things are designated as either good or evil. They’re just different. It’s pretty simple. Things change. Frustration and disappointment stem from getting really good at gathering stones together only to discover that it’s time to start scattering them. People who reject change in an effort to keep certain things exactly the way they want them are destined for discontentment.

Contentment comes not from trying to create still-points in a moving world but in discovering the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Christian faith is the beautiful story of this True God undergoing change- becoming visible, incarnate, and even common, so that we could experience the stillness of His never-failing love for us.

It’s funny to think that God “changed” to show us that He is the one thing that doesn’t.

So, in 2011, don’t lament the change; embrace the God that doesn’t. Wait, did I just write 2011 again?

-SBC

My Half of Two Cents: Random Thoughts From a Real Life Dummy

Change: Change is hard because it’s made of metal. Oh, the other kind of change is hard too.

Fundamentalism: Condemning people with scripture is probably not a good idea unless your name is Isaiah, Paul, or Jesus. And if your name is Isaiah, Paul, or Jesus I was talking about someone else.

Football: Thank you for existing and being the only good American sport left. And by “good American sport” I meant “sport”.

Liberal Theology: If your spiritual truth finds its value primarily in metaphor that is ravenously devoid of absolutes then thanks for saving the planet and feeding poor people.

Fantasy

Football: Fantasy Football is my new algebra. I try it again each year and never quite get it. Fail.

Tiger Woods: Congratulations on proving right everything the book of Proverbs says.

Preaching: That burdensome joy! You demand my all, get less than I have to give and yet out produce even more than you demanded.

Marriage: Isn’t it fitting that something so good and worth it would be so damn hard? And yet we are surprised by this.

Church: If it’s a drag then I apologize for the people like me who have not tended her well.

Fatherhood: If I get all else wrong, Lord, let it not be this.

Horror Movies: Since when did you start to be PG 13? Shame on you, jerk.

Excellence: Pursue it. But by all means, don’t achieve it on your own behalf. That’s just arrogance.

Mediocrity: If you are mediocre at something you enjoy- then enjoy it. Just don’t do it publically. Your

passion does not upgrade your mediocrity.

That's all folks!

SC

Fear and Trembling

I sit in a coffee shop at the food court-esque lobby of Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City, Kansas. I can see the live twitter feed from the National Worship Leaders Conference between two well-groomed faux hawks scrolling on a large flat screen TV on the wall. Brushed aluminum Mac Books as far as the eye can see. I blend in quite well save for my collared shirt and boring right to left hair-part.

A thought has been growing like seed in the bad soil of my mind since being here. And it is this: The aim of true worship finds it beginning and end in God and is concerned solely with His Glory. To that end worship is a response, not an initiation. It’s a reply to God’s perfect “Let there be… It is very good.” For worship to be an attempt at an appropriately weighty response to this GOD, it must find its birth in a true sense of our own diminishment. It is as though the King of Kings has called us into his court by name. We know we are not worthy to be there and yet there is nowhere else we can be. In front of that throne all at once we kneel blushed with shame and yet aglow with the irony that this King’s desire is to be with us. Fear and delight comingle giving way before the truth of holiness and the grace of love found equally in abundance before this triune King.

This week concern has turned to legitimate panic as I hear people speak of worship as initiative. Worship is planned for the people who are being invited to participate. The dominant concern seems to be “How can we reach the worshipper?” It seems that God’s glory has become an afterthought. We have made worship about us. People work hard at making worship palatable for the masses in the name of Jesus. Instead of humbly entering the throne room hoping to honor the king we have sauntered in with our heads high and have asked the King to play jester. Reach out to us. Bless us. Entertain us. Meet our needs.

In pawning this off as worship we sell costume jewelry to the masses and advertise it as priceless. We nibble on the scraps beneath the table calling it the banquet.

Liturgical churches do this by appeasing their masses with the comforting form of ancient liturgy seemingly unaware that we have grown illiterate to its language. Contemporary churches do this by calling "worship" something that is not much more than a marketing strategy to the masses in order to offer well intentioned help in the name of Jesus who, ironically, is the King they have just asked to play jester.

Lord have mercy on us.

~SBC

Re:told... A Summer Sermon Series

We’ve (the newly ordained associate pastor and me) begun a new summer preaching series. The series “Re:told” will be study of popular children’s Bible stories. Noah and the ark, Sampson, David and Goliath, Daniel and his 3 buddies… just to name a few. But we will put on our big boy pants as we look at these stories. They are memorable for kids because they are fantastic. But often, our understanding of these stories, their meaning, and their place in God’s word doesn’t grow as we do.

Did you know that of men involved in church there is virtually no discernable spiritual growth from the age of 20 to 60? This statistic is based on research (not mine) which sought to discover patterns of involvement within a Christian community or church, being proactive in spiritual disciplines like prayer and scripture study, the role of faith in life decisions, and growth in biblical and theological knowledge. That being the case, I can assume that most of the men in my church know as much about the story of Noah and what it means as the kids in our church do. And frankly, it is on me to make sure they don’t die thinking that the story of Noah is about a bunch of animals on a boat with a rainbow ending.


Basically, this sermon series is going to move our understanding from exhibit A to exhibit B. At least it will attempt to. Rev. Jon Tony kicked us off last week by teaching us that Jonah isn’t really a story about a man who got swallowed by a fish so much as it is about a God who desperately desires his creation to know him through a grace that is hard for us to live with.

SC

Congregational Letter

To the Saints and Church Family of First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs,
Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Exciting things abound in the life of our church for which those in leadership are very grateful. Many are coming to a fuller understanding of God and discovering more and more what it means to know Christ and to make Christ known. God is at work in our church!

Many of you may know too that the denomination of which our congregation is a part, the Presbyterian Church (USA), continues to struggle within itself. What some call a new move of the Spirit others deem as heretical. What some hold as essential, others see as having little or no value. There is always value in the struggle over what God’s Word says and means.

The most noticeable and vehemently debated denominational issue centers on human sexuality. A proposed change to our Book of Order appears headed for approval, which would replace our current ordination standards, requiring Deacons, Elders, and Ministers of the Word and Sacrament to live faithfully in the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness. The new statement simply says that ordained persons must lead while “joyfully submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life.” The concern is not in what the new language says, but in what it leaves unsaid.

These changes may garner national attention in the press because they omit a clear articulation of biblical standards concerning marriage and sexual ethics. However, these changes do not represent the conviction of the leadership of First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs or the Presbytery of Mississippi. Our submission to Scripture as God’s Word as our authority and its clear expositions found in the historic confessions of the church will continue to guide us in our leadership and define for us what it means to be the people of God in grace and truth in all aspects of our lives.

While the issue of human sexuality is in the forefront of our denominational discussion, it is by no means the root of our disunity. Weightier theological tenets like the authority and inspiration of Scripture, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone have long been the points of great pressure at the seam of the PC(USA).

You can be confident that the leadership of this church remains undeterred in its goal “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13). We do this with an unrelenting pursuit of our mission to know Christ and to make Christ known to all people.

Many great things are happening at local and national levels with hundreds if not thousands of churches just like First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs even as we deal with this potential tear in our denominational fabric. A great thing will come of this eventually.

There are many who share our convictions and hope for the future of Christ’s bride, the church, and her part in the PC(USA). The Presbytery of Mississippi is discerning how to respond to this new denominational landscape, and many like-minded churches will be gathering in Minneapolis this August to discuss a way forward and discover together what it means to be faithful in the midst of the confusion many have about what Scripture teaches. The session decided to send Pastor Scott, Pastor Jon, and Elder Mike West to this meeting to be a part of this discussion.
In spite of this conflict within the PC(USA), we must remember that God is sovereign and works all things for his glory and the good of those who love him. God is still King, working in our denomination and calling us to faithful actions. These actions requires patience, prayer, and courage to discern God’s leading and direction for us as a church and as a denomination, as fractured as it may seem.

We are asking you to do two things as our denomination finds its way. First, we need you to pray.
- We ask that you pray daily for our congregation. Pray that through the Holy Spirit we might enjoy the unity of the body of Christ even though our denominational unity is tested.
- We ask you to pray daily for your church leadership. Pray that we might strive to listen and have ears to hear God’s direction for us in this time.
- We ask you to pray for an awakening. As we join with people and churches of similar conviction within our Presbytery and around our nation to look for a faithful way forward, pray that God would bring a fresh wind and fresh fire as the Holy Spirit moves to revive us.

Secondly, we ask you to remain committed fully to the life of our church. In staying committed to our church life as a family of faith, you are not staying committed to a denomination, but rather to a community of which each of you is a vital part.
- Stay committed to fellowship. Continue to meet and encourage one another regularly as a church family.
- Stay committed in giving of your self. Your time, your voice, and the gifts God has given you are vital to the good thing God continues to do here.
- Stay committed in your generosity and giving. We assure you that the money we receive will not go to support the denominational offices or affairs of the General Assembly of the PC(USA).

We are encouraged by your faith. We are humbled that through you the Lord has called us in to leadership for such a time as this. And it is our hope to glorify our Lord in the way that we lead this church through humble service.

Grace and truth,