Presby-Musings

There's a time when we all need explanations and well-thought-out reasons for things.  We need to know exactly why something happened to us, or the detailed pros and cons of a decision we have to make.  In those moments we might go to trusted sources or friends who know will deal with us dispassionately as they deliver the facts.   But sometimes... the well-thought-out reasons aren't good enough, and they don't address the knot in the pit of our stomach, or the ache in our chest from a broken heart.   Sometimes the facts of the matter are simply not what we need to make sense of what we're struggling with.  Sometimes you need a poet to provide the words and images that describe how you really feel.   Poets have the unique ability to capture the color of a moment, to draw connections between the clouds in the sky and the ones in your heart.  Poets throughout the ages have given us images that imprint glory on our souls and brought us ever...

Today we are going to continue the sermon series that we started earlier this month, a series entitled, Signs of the Times: Rediscovering Revelation.  We've been studying the most enigmatic, misunderstood, and misinterpreted book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and the timing couldn't be more perfect.  I was looking at some Revelation memes online and I thought I would share a few just because...  Today we're actually going to be exploring one of the most controversial topics in Christian eschatology (study of end times)---The "Rapture."   The Rapture is a relatively new thing in Christian theology because we went for like 1800 years without it.  Essentially, the concept of the Rapture is boiled down to this:  At some point in the future, Jesus is going to make a triumphant and very noisy return to Earth, and then everyone who is a real Christian will be snatched mysteriously away, sans clothes and stuff, to Heaven where they'll have a front-row ...

There's a song in Disney's The   Little Mermaid  that has been stuck in my head for a bit. It's one of the most iconic songs in the movie, which is saying something because The Little Mermaid  is full of iconic songs.  At this point, you're probably wondering, "Is someone else writing the Devo today?" To which I would reply, "What?  Just because I have tattoos and listen to metal music, doesn't mean that I'm one-dimensional!"  It's  The   Little Mermaid, man.  Come on.   Anyway, back to the iconic song, which just happens to be Part of Your World, the scene where Ariel (the Little Mermaid) sings about her longing to go on land, and walk around on two legs, "where the people are."   If you know the movie, now that song is in your head.  You're welcome.   There's a line at the very beginning of the song where Ariel is actually speaking before she begins singing.   She's just been berated by her fathe...

There are a lot of interesting and mysterious verses in the Bible, but there's one that has always intrigued me more than most, and it's found in Hebrews chapter 11:   Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen . (NKJV) I  underlined all those words to place emphasis on them and to also draw them into contrast with one another.  Because when you do this, you start to see that this verse doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.  I've seen other translations try to parse the words "substance" and "evidence" in an attempt to soften the paradox that the author of Hebrews puts forth here.   You see, there's not really any substance for things that you are hoping for.  Hoped for things are intangible, ephemeral, and otherwise difficult to grasp.  To say that these things have substance borders on the ridiculous.  And then there's the " evidence of things not seen ," which absolutely makes no sens...

This past week I was saddened to learn of the passing of Thich Nhat Hahn, who died at the age of 95.  Hahn, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, spent most of his life exiled from his home country because of his opposition to the Vietnam War.   He was an activist for peace and for the "deep ecology" movement, which taught about the interconnectedness of all things, and he was also an admirer of Jesus, who wrote extensively about the intersections between Buddhism, and Christian wisdom.  In 1967 Hahn was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and the great Christian mystic, Thomas Merton, who once called Hahn "my brother."   I've written here before about how Hahn's writing taught me so much about my own Christian tradition, despite the fact that it was not his own.  I daresay, Hahn knew more about the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus than most people who call themselves followers of Christ.  He also wrote eloquently abou...

I'm a task-oriented person, but I'm not that fond of to-do lists.  I know that sounds kind of odd, but there it is.   It's not that I don't ever make to-do lists.  I'll make them from time to time when I'm getting ready for a trip, or making sure that my kid has all of the supplies he needs for sleepaway camp, but most of the time I just keep the to-do list in my head.  Sure, I get bit once in a while, and I'll push a deadline on a project, or I'll put off getting the oil changed in the car, but since I follow a regular rhythm with my week most of the time, my to-do list hardly ever changes.  Here's the rub, though.  When I am experiencing anxiety or facing a crisis, I usually will find more things to do, and the list in my head can get really long.  I will take on projects and create tasks that "need" doing because I think at the moment that if I just work harder and get more done, I'll be able to handle my challenges like a hero.   Bu...

  Today we are continuing the sermon series that we started a couple of weeks ago, a series entitled Signs of the Times: Rediscovering Revelation.    We have been studying one of the most controversial, misunderstood, and misinterpreted books of the Bible, the book of Revelation.  And the timing of this study couldn't be more perfect, am I right? Some of the things that people will often share with me when they talk about the book of Revelation is that they are scared of it, that they don't understand it, that it uses some pretty messed up imagery, and that they often have friends or family members who like to point to it when they think the world is coming to an end.  In other words, it doesn't give anyone the "warm and fuzzies."  Today we're actually going to be exploring some of the most dramatic visions that are found in the book of Revelation, and we're also going to learn what it means to find meaning in the middle of calamity, which I am sure will b...

Years ago, I  got the opportunity to attend an event where theologian, philosopher, and author Pete Rollins was speaking.   After he delivered a mind-blowing talk based on his newest book The Idolatry of God , I had the chance to speak with him for a moment or two and also asked him to sign an event poster for me.  This is what he wrote above his signature:  I  pray God rid you of  God.  You might think that an odd thing for a theologian to wish upon someone, which is exactly what I thought at the moment. It seemed to go against everything I'd spent my career as a pastor trying to teach.   I've had a few years to ponder that line since then, however.  I learned that it actually comes from Meister Eckhart, a German theologian from the 14th century, who wrote this:  God, rid me of God. Of the smallness of that which I comprehend. Of the arrogance to believe that I see clearly That these answers could be just another notch on the ...

The other day I came across an old aphorism that I've heard or read a thousand times or more over the course of my life, and that many people assume comes from the Bible, which it doesn't.  Here it is:  Confession is good for the soul.  My curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to find out where it came from, but soon discovered that the exact origins are hard to trace.   The best guess is that it came from an old Scottish proverb, and the originator most likely used as inspiration some of the many verses in the  Bible about confessing one's sin and finding peace as a result.  Like this one or example that comes from Peter's sermon in Acts:   Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. - Acts 3:19 Interestingly, the word "confession" in the New Testament has its origins in the Greek word  homologeo, which means to "agree or to speak the same thing" and also "not ...

Today's Daily Devo is going to take a different kind of tone, and it's intended for a very specific audience, and that audience just might include you.  If you're intrigued, I'm glad. If you're confused, try to trust me. If you're not awake, get some coffee.  I've already had a couple of cups myself.  Here's the thing, the hardest part about calling myself a Christian nowadays is that as a descriptor of who I actually am, that word is doing pretty poor work right about now.  In fact, the word "Christian" is a loaded term in our current culture---one that has a plethora of possible connotations and meanings.   Further,  when you tell someone you are a Christian, they will receive that information based on their own understanding of what a Christian is all about, which for most people nowadays comes from the interwebs, social media, and the like.   And we all know how even-handed and informative those sources can be, right? I've had more than...

"Nobody's perfect."  How many times in your life have you heard that phrase?  You may have heard it when you've messed up, made a mistake, or chosen poorly and someone who cares about you is trying to make you feel better.  Or maybe you've even heard it coming out of your own mouth as you sought to do the same for someone else.   It's a phrase that in its very essence is completely and utterly true.  There isn't a single human being who is perfect---everyone has flaws, foibles, characteristics, behaviors, and habits that need improvement.   I choose to believe that we are all created good, but we also fall short of the kind of goodness to which we all aspire---at least to some degree.  I also believe that we are also cherished by God, and loved unconditionally in our brokenness and frailty.  I've often said that God loves us just as we are, and loves us far too much to want us to stay just as we are.   But none of this stops me...

Today is a national holiday that was a long time in the making. Martin Luther King Jr Day was declared a national holiday by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, designed to go into effect by 1986.  The bill was passed in the Senate by 12 votes, only after a filibuster by the notoriously racist Sen. Jesse Helms from North Carolina.   Sadly, it would take all the way to the year 2000 for all 50 states to recognize the holiday, though.  South Carolina was the last state to do so.  Even today, in Alabama and Mississippi Martin Luther King, Jr. Day coincides with state holidays memorializing Confederate Civil War general Robert E. Lee--holidays that were purposefully passed by those state legislatures to do just that.  This past year I traveled to Memphis, TN, and had the privilege of spending most of a day in the National Civil Rights Museum, which is located on the site of MLK's assassination.   After my tour, I sat outside on a bench that overlooked th...

Today we're going to continue our sermon series entitled Signs of the Times: Rediscovering Revelation  as we explore one of the most mysterious and probably the most misunderstood and misinterpreted book of the entire Bible: The book of Revelation.  We are living through perhaps one of the challenging and interesting times in history right now, and if you are trying to look around for signs and symbols of the end of the world, you'll be kept busy.   The vast majority of Christians are divided over just how to figure all of this out.   Some believe that we are just counting time down like a doomsday clock until all of the prophecies that they believe are in Revelation and other apocalyptic books in the Bible are fulfilled,  Jesus returns, the Rapture happens and all hell breaks loose.  There are others of us who see the book of Revelation not as a code to be cracked to figure out the timing of the end of everything, but as a hope-filled vision of h...