Presby-Musings

A few years ago, I had the privilege of attending a conference with Fr. Richard Rohr, who had just published his seminal book The Universal Christ.  It   was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, to be honest.  Fr. Richard employs the most beautiful ways of thinking and speaking about God.  It's clear that he is a mystic, in touch with a God-reality that most of us just never seem to grasp.  If you haven't read any of Fr. Richard's work, I highly recommend that you do so.  Perhaps in your reading, you will discover as I did how Fr. Richard loves to imagine the Spirit of God in the world as a river flowing in us and through us, carrying us, lifting us up, drawing us ever closer to our best and truest purposes.   I've often imagined the river of the Spirit in terms of energy that flows in us and between us and others.  This same flow ultimately connects us to God and when we are open to the flow, we experience more of God in the world than we ever thought pos

Today I am having what I call a "grey day."   It's hard to put into words what it feels like for me, so assigning it a color is the best I can do by way of description.  The fact that it's actually grey and cloudy outside today seems fitting.  There's probably a lot of good explanations for why I'm feeling down today, but none of them really matter, in the end.  I'm trying to practice just feeling my feelings, and not passing judgment on them, or myself for feeling them.   The way I see it, you can explain your feelings away, figure out all the intellectual reasons why you're feeling them... or you can just feel them, and let that be enough for the moment.  There will be time for analysis later, for sure.   Here's the thing:  feelings come and go---they aren't forever.  You are not defined by a feeling.   You might be feeling grey today, but that doesn't mean that you have to feel that way tomorrow.  It also doesn't mean that what light

  Today we are concluding our sermon series for the month of October, and we're using select readings from the oldest book in the Hebrew Scriptures as our guide.  This series is entitled Grace Under Pressure, and as I mentioned, we're going to be studying the oldest book in the Bible from the Hebrew Scriptures (OT), the story of Job, which is one of the most mysterious and misunderstood books in all of the Bible.  Job seeks to answer a question that we have all asked at least once in our life:  Why do bad things happen to good people?" When we are facing trials and tribulations, challenges, and problems, it’s easy to wonder where God is in the middle of everything.  We may even start to wonder why God would allow the things that have happened to us, to happen.   But what if we were able to see the challenges we face in life as chances to grow stronger in our faith, to learn to trust God more, to surrender our need for control?   Maybe then we would discover the kind of gra

Last night I finished up a class I've been teaching on Paul's letter to the Galatians, and we spent a good bit of time discussing this passage:  7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.  For far too long, far too many Christian communities have taken this particular passage, weaponized it, and used it to browbeat people into living a "morally upright" life.  The benighted theology that undergirds all of these exhortations is based on the notion of a transactional kind of God, whose grace and favor are contingent upon a set of quid pro quo instructions.  In other words, if you live the "right" kind of life, you will be rewarded, if you don't you will be punished--if not in this life, most definitely in the next.    Not only that, the way that "flesh" is often interpret

  Today we are continuing our sermon series for the month of October, and we're using select readings from the oldest book in the Hebrew Scriptures as our guide.  This series is entitled Grace Under Pressure, and as I mentioned, we're going to be studying the oldest book in the Bible from the Hebrew Scriptures (OT), the story of Job, which is one of the most mysterious and misunderstood books in all of the Bible.  Job seeks to answer a question that we have all asked at least once in our life:  Why do bad things happen to good people?" When we are facing trials and tribulations, challenges, and problems, it’s easy to wonder where God is in the middle of everything.  We may even start to wonder why God would allow the things that have happened to us, to happen.   But what if we were able to see the challenges we face in life as chances to grow stronger in our faith, to learn to trust God more, to surrender our need for control?   What do we do when we keep all the rules and

The day I am writing this happens to be the four-year anniversary of my mom's passing.  A few days ago, I realized I was thinking about her more than usual.  I also couldn't figure out why I felt so blue.  I finally looked at the calendar at some point that day and began to think about the days leading up to her passing... where I was, what I said and did.   I thought about the last look that she gave me before she slipped into a coma the day before she died.  She smiled at me with her eyes, just like she had done thousands of times throughout my life.   And then she was gone.  Her body would follow the next day, but she was already gone--slipping away to another world right in front of me.   As I pondered all of these things once again, it occurred to me in a wave of guilt that I had actually forgotten what day it was.  I was thinking about work, sermons, football practice, cooking dinner, preparing for a class I was going to teach...     "How could I forget?" I aske

  In his new book, former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl relates a story about how he met two different rock-n-roll legends at an event he attended.  At first, Grohl was starstruck to get to meet two of his heroes, but then he took a closer look at both of them and had an epiphany.   One of the stars had undergone a lot of plastic surgery, dental implants, and a host of other anti-aging measures.  He gleamed and glistened with a startling white smile, looking to Grohl like a meticulously restored vintage car.   Grohl was not impressed.  Instead, he gravitated to the other of his heroes, whose weathered face and wizened appearance, topped by a mop of grey hair showed the story of his journey.  Grohl realized at that moment which person he would rather become.  He made a promise to himself:  That I  would aspire to become the rusted-out hot rod, no matter how many jump-starts I might require along the way.  Not everything needs a shine, after all... To me, that is b

After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world. - Philip Pullman Jesus taught in parables more than any other method of teaching---telling stories to his followers and the crowds that gathered to hear him and employing the kinds of images, metaphors, and analogies that his hearers would easily grasp.  Once his followers asked him why he told stories so often when he was addressing the crowds who would often flock to him, and Jesus gave a cryptic answer:   “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them, it has not been granted...  This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’" Matthew 13:11-14 In other words, he told his disciples, "Listen, you get to hang out with me all of the time and get the benefit of deeper teaching, but most people need a way into what I'm trying to show them, and stories are just

Have you ever been reading something, and you came across a phrase, a quote, or an idea that just floored you?  Maybe you wrote it down or underlined it in the book, or perhaps you just filed it away in your head where it troubled you or made you think.  It could be that I'm just a bit odd, but I find these kinds of things all the time, and more often than not I end up writing and reflecting on them with you all in my daily devos.   Here's a perfect example of a quote that I read and wrote down a few days ago, and I haven't stopped thinking about since.   It's a quote from the 3rd Chinese Patriarch of Zen, which is probably the coolest title I have seen for a person in a very long time. Here it is:  Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish opinions.  I had to sit and think about that for a while.  You might have also been put off by the first part of it, as I was when I first read it.  "Do not seek the truth," doesn't seem like good advice, even if it

It's been one of those mornings when all of the plans I had, and the visions of what I would be able to accomplish until my next obligation got derailed and then plummeted from their lofty tracks into the churning abyss below.  Yeah, I realize that was pretty dramatic.   Still, it was a bummer.  I felt all of my incredible optimism for how my day was going to go slip away from me, and along with it the excellent mood I'd been in beforehand.  I'm sure there are some of you out there who are feeling me on this.  You have days when Plan A goes by the wayside pretty quick, and then you're on to Plan B, Plan C, and continue working your way through the alphabet until you fall into bed exhausted.  For some of us, that process culminates at the end of the day, but for others of us it's pretty much over by noon.   I was reading one of Melody Beattie's excellent daily readers today and came across this amazingness:  We will not get all we need for the entire journey toda

I've been dealing with some lower back pain for the past week that has kept me from sleeping well and has made sitting in my chair in front of my desk a trial.  Considering most of my day is spent sitting in my chair in front of my desk, it's been pretty rough these past few days.   I went to the Chiropractor yesterday and got an adjustment on all of the areas that seem to be out of alignment.  They told me that my hips were the biggest culprit to my lower back issues and that it would take a while to fix them.    So even though I'm on a path to recovery, I'm still dealing with the pain, and this morning it's really having a go at me.   I got to thinking yesterday about the presence of pain, and how it can change the way you feel about virtually everything in your life.   Chronic pain issues can keep you preoccupied, distracted, and unable to fully be present and enjoy even the good moments.  It can also make bad moments seem worse.  In a similar way, the pain that

When I was a kid, I remember being taught in Sunday school and in the Christian schools that I attended that if I "had enough faith," I could do anything because God rewarded people who had "enough faith."   The verse that was most often cited for this remarkable assumption was Matthew 21:21 which reads:  Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. The context for this verse is a miracle that occurs when Jesus curses a fig tree as a way of teaching his disciples about the radical nature of the kingdom of God.  The fig tree withers and dies, which makes the disciples freak out a bit.   I understand that completely.  I would have freaked out, too.   And I completely get that some people have a hard time believing the miraculous stories that we see throughout the Gospel accounts of Jesus

Last night I watched the excellent documentary 15 Minutes of Shame, which took on the concept of public shaming as a sociological phenomenon, and how it's evolved (through the advent of social media) into what is commonly known as "cancel culture."   To be fair, I think that a better way to describe what happens when bad actors get called out on their bad behavior is "consequence culture," and here's why: Sometimes people need to face the consequences of their actions, particularly when those actions are detrimental to the common good, hurtful to others, cruel in their intent, etc.   But it's pretty sobering how horrible people can be to one another on social media, and it doesn't take much for a mob mentality to prevail over common sense.   Interestingly, many of us experience a strange psychological impulse when we see someone else fail, fall flat on their face or otherwise implode---especially if they are someone with whom we disagree, or with who

I was talking to a pastor friend of mine the other day, and we were reflecting on what has been the most extraordinary, and trying past year and a half that either of us has experienced as a pastor.  He told me that he is finding it harder and harder to summon the energy to stay positive, keep moving, try to inspire his congregation, do all of the things that need doing, and then some, and take on more and more responsibilities as his small staff, and church members grow wearier, too.  I've had more than a few conversations like that with colleagues over the past several months, including some with pastors, who have decided to re-think their life in ministry.  They have come to the conclusion that "doing church" has changed so much, they no longer want to do it.  What I have also come to learn is that most of our church members are dealing with similar kinds of issues in their own lives, and work.  Some days it feels like everything is just harder to do , am I right?   An