Sunday Morning Meditation: Think On These Things

In Chaplain Mike’s absence, I’m going to share some words from others to give us something to think on as we prepare for our worship services on Sunday mornings. Today we’ll hear from Frederich Buechner.

If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business. The world says, Follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified. The world says, Drive carefully—the life you save may be your own—and Jesus says, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and loses his life for my sake will find it. The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love. The world says, Get and Jesus says, Give. In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion. (Frederich Buechner, The Faces Of Jesus)

Your thoughts?

 

Saturday Ramblings 11.3.12

Well, iMonks, it’s that time once again. Time to head to the polls and cast your vote for our next pastor, er, president. If you are still having trouble making up your mind who you will vote for, we have a friendly squirrel who may help lead the way. But before we get to that, there are plenty of other table scraps that need to be cleared away. So, if you are ready, step into the ballot box, pull the lever, and let’s ramble.

Before going to bed tonight, don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour. Unless you live in Arizona or Hawaii or Puerto Rico or American Samoa or Guam. Or various counties in Indiana. I gave up trying to tell time in Indiana long ago. The rules there change at every stop sign. Oh, and no matter what state you live in, it’s a good time of year to check your smoke detector batteries, too.

We’re starting our iMonk Book Club tomorrow afternoon. You have been reading Tullian Tchividjian’s Glorious Ruin, haven’t you? Are you ready to join in the discussion?

Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy did incredible damage to lives and property up and down the east coast. We are certainly mindful of our readers who have been affected by Sandy. I wish we had a better way to help. If there are any with very specific needs, please email me and I will see what we can do. (iMonk does not have money to give, unfortunately. As a matter of fact, we are in need of donations ourselves. But that is a matter for another time.) Certainly all to prayer (as Arthur Pierson said, “We need to pray praying”), and we can all do that. One very good thing in the aftermath of this storm is the absence of big-name preachers declaring that this was God’s wrath for something our nation is doing wrong. Stephen Prothero, Fr. James Martin, and Mark Galli all have very good words to say about where God is in our storms. Well worth reading.

And then there is the great prophet Lindsay Lohan who wondered why everyone was so uptight about “Hurricane Sally.” How often was this girl dropped on her head?

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 11.3.12”

iMonk Holiday Gift Guide

I will be taking the rest of November off from writing, well, at least for Internet Monk. (I have a project to write for school, but that’s another matter.) At any rate, because I won’t have a chance to do this for another thirty days or so, and because some of the things on the following list have to be ordered ahead of time, I thought I would share some suggestions for gifts for the upcoming holidays.

I don’t know about you, but I love planning, buying, and giving gifts when I am able to do so, especially at Christmas time. But sometimes it’s hard to find just the right gift. Maybe this will start to prime the pump for some of you.

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iMONK 2012 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

First, here are five quality gifts you might want to consider for friends and loved ones this year. They are not expensive, just special and interesting.

1. A rosary from Alan Creech.
Long time friend of Internet Monk Alan Creech makes attractive handcrafted rosaries and prayer beads that will be treasured by anyone who receives them. Those of you who haven’t yet tried prayer beads as an aid to prayer may want to read Michael Spencer’s “Post-Evangelicals and the Path of Catholic Spirituality,” or “My Gear” (part one and part two), as well as Chaplain Mike’s “How I Pray for My Family and Friends,” Martha of Ireland’s “The Mysteries of the Rosary,” and a piece that Alan Creech himself wrote for us, “A Rosary by any Other Name.”

2. A Li Bien Christmas ornament.
Several years ago, I discovered the art of Li Bien (“inside”) when friends of ours returned from China and gave us a beautiful painted glass globe. The globe had a small opening on the bottom, where, we were told, an artist inserted fine brushes and used them to paint the glass on the inside. The art was so intricate and detailed that we were astounded at the artist’s skill. Then we found that Pier One Imports sold Li Bien ornaments for Christmas, and a Mercer gift-giving tradition was born. These lovely ornaments can be bought at Pier One, come in a lovely gift box, and are sure to provide a smile of delight from anyone who receives one as a thoughtful gift.

3. Strat-O-Matic Baseball Game
In my childhood, I spent many hours enjoying games I could play by myself. One of my favorites was Strat-O-Matic Baseball, a tabletop game that uses statistics from the previous year of Major League Baseball to provide a realistic “fantasy baseball” experience. You can even get teams from years gone by and All Star teams to create your own competitions between eras. I bought a set for my grandson last year, and this winter we will be enjoying baseball even when we can’t play catch or feel the green grass of the diamond beneath our feet. Strat-O-Matic also has editions for other sports.

4. Kentucky Bourbon Fudge from Gethsemani
Don’t even ask Jeff Dunn — this handmade fudge from the Trappist monks at Gethsemani Abbey is so sinfully good that I couldn’t bear to take any home after my retreat last year. I was afraid of undoing an entire week of devotion with one bite. It comes in eight delicious flavors: Chocolate Bourbon, Butter Walnut Bourbon, Chocolate Walnut, Mint Julep Bourbon, Peanut Butter, Red Raspberry, Natural Dark Chocolate, Lemon Drop. Oh my.

5. A unique gift from Ten Thousand Villages
In my opinion the best gift shop in Indianapolis is Global Gifts, a store that features the products of Ten Thousand Villages. The mission of Ten Thousand Villages is to create opportunities for artisans in developing countries to earn income by bringing their products and stories to our markets through long-term fair trading relationships. Product sales help pay for food, education, healthcare and housing for artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed. And the gifts are amazing. We have started our own collection of nativity sets from around the world, and you will find everything from clothing to food products to household items — all handcrafted — and unlike anything mass-produced. If you don’t have a Ten Thousand Villages store near you, check out their website.

Second, here are some ways of giving gifts that contribute to helping others and good causes.

1. World Vision Gift Catalog.
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves close to 100 million people in nearly 100 countries around the world. They serve all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. Their gift catalog enables givers to choose from unique gifts such as sheep and other animals, clean water, education, medical care, and hunger relief. One can also sponsor a child or give regularly in other ways.

2. Advent Conspiracy.
The mantra of Advent Conspiracy is (1) Worship fully, (2) Spend less, (3) Give more, (4) Love all. If you go to the AC website, you will find more than opportunities to give. You will also discover a whole new way of thinking about and practicing Christmas. Two of the projects you can learn about at the AC website, which deserve wide support, are Living Water International, which works to help provide clean water for the more than a billion people around the world who do not have access to it, and International Justice Mission, which works to end human trafficking and to provide care for its victims.

3. American Red Cross.
Super storm Sandy, that wreaked such devastation on the east coast of the U.S., reminds us again of the crucial role the Red Cross plays in times of disaster to give care, shelter, and hope to those in need. They also support America’s military families, provide health/safety training and education, make it possible for people to give lifesaving blood, and prepare communities to be ready for disasters. A donation to the Red Cross helps keep a necessary infrastructure of care in place and available for times of need.

4. Angel Tree.
Angel Tree is a ministry of Prison Fellowship that connects incarcerated parents with their children through the delivery of Christmas gifts. The support of those who give to Angel Tree makes it possible for local churches to deliver gifts and the Gospel to children in the name of their incarcerated parent. If you are not part of a church that participates in Angel Tree, you can give donations through their website.

 

5. Scott Rolen’s Enis Furley Foundation.
A few years ago, while involved in providing support to a friend whose son was terminally ill, I met Scott Rolen, who also came to be an encouragement to the family. At that time he was playing for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team; in recent years he has played for the Cincinnati Reds. In 1999 Scott had a vision to brighten the lives of children and their families who are dealing with illness, hardship and other special needs. He started Camp Emma Lou and a program that also provides once in a lifetime sports experiences for children and families in distress. I just learned that my friend and his wife will be moving to a location near the camp and volunteering there as a way to give back for all the support they received in their time of need, and I want to encourage others to support this fine program also. Giving to help needy children is always a good way to remember the one who became a helpless Baby that we might be saved and healed forever.

 

Romans 8 and the Parable of the Prodigal

For the last several weeks I’ve been following the Apostle Paul through his letter to the Romans. I’ve done it before and I’m sure I will do it again. So far, I can’t get to the bottom of it. The veil Paul speaks of in his second letter to the Corinthians (3:14-18) keeps obscuring things. True, in Christ it is taken away, but maybe it is flapping in the breeze a bit. Just as with those who read the old covenant (and I frequently spend time there), my spiritual mind gets dull. Really, sometimes I think I’m just not smart enough for all this. My one certain conclusion is that I can never be good enough, though my default has been to keep trying.

I tend toward hyper introspection instead of looking at Christ. Every hard truth, chastisement and command competes for proper application and gets me turning in circles. I was born guilty. Yes, we’re all guilty, but I’m pretty sure I was born feeling that way. Trips through Romans have me stressing over whether my flesh or the Spirit of Christ is walking around in my body. All this is to say I’ve never come to this book looking for loopholes. (Don’t loopholes give one license and make one lazy?) It’s not what I was looking for, but for once I tried to clear away all preconceptions and just listen. What I found is a loophole … and it turns out to be the very thing I most desperately need. But first I had to deal with the “O” word.

“Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation – but it is not to the sinful nature to live according to it.” (Romans 8:12) Obligation! Oh, for guilty people that word sends shudders up and down the spine. It’s something more we must do, or not do. I have always taken this to mean that now, being in Christ, I must never violate the law again and always demonstrate perfect behavior. Yet, Paul has shown that if we insist on living under the law we must obey it completely and perfectly. So far, I haven’t met anyone, no matter how mature a believer, who doesn’t still sin at times. My son-in-law, growing up in a long line of pastors of a certain denomination, said that he met several members who claimed they had achieved perfect sanctification. He said their lives may have appeared void on the surface of the denomination’s top sins, but the fact that they advertised it so freely made their “perfect sanctification” at least obnoxious and irritating and ultimately a lie. In any case, all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. They deceived themselves that their behavior was now perfect and that God would love them more because of it.

Continue reading “Romans 8 and the Parable of the Prodigal”

Five Thoughts from “Church Music Month”

As a way of concluding our “Church Music Month,” I offer the following five simple statements.

I will not take time to develop these today — I have had occasion to discuss most of them during the month. I draw these conclusions from what we have heard and thought about and talked about together. I simply set them forth as my way of summarizing what I’ve learned, as well as reiterating convictions I have developed about the role of music in the worship of the congregation.

I will leave it to you to discuss further implications of these principles today and in days to come.

Five Thoughts from “Church Music Month”

1. It is essential that churches and church leaders have a well-considered and carefully applied theology of worship and music.

2. Music should serve the larger purpose of the liturgy and worship and not be treated as an end in itself.

3. Leadership of music ministry in the church should be pastoral and not just musicological.

4. There is a place for musical excellence and “performance” as special gifted ministry within the church, but ultimately music belongs to the entire congregation as a means of worship and mutual edification.

5. Churches may have a genuine missional opportunity to provide serious music and arts education in their communities now and in the future.

iMonk Classic: The Great Pumpkin Proposes a Toast

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
Undated

The following toast was taped at the 4,231st Halloween Dance and Potluck, held this year in the basement of the Salem, Masachusetts City Hall. The guest toastmaster was The Great Pumpkin, well known advocate of Halloween among children. Those in attendance included a variety of witches, ghosts, fairies, gremlins, mummies, headless horsemen, bats, vampires, werewolves, monsters, members of the Adam’s family, the Munsters and, of course, thousands of things that go bump in the night.

“Ladies and gentlemen, ghouls and goblins, monsters and monstrosities both real and imaginary: It’s truly an honor for me to be with you this evening on what is always a wonderful time of rekindling old friendships and wishing one another well before our big night. Many of us never see our fellow members of the realm of imagination except at this gathering, and it’s really wonderful to see all of you again. I especially want to thank this year’s President of the Halloween Society, Harry Potter, for all the work he’s done this year. What a year, Harry! (Applause.)

“It would be remiss of me to say much this evening without paying grateful respects to my creator, Charles Schulz, who gave me the opportunity to live as long as people read his work, which I will believe will be many years to come. Sparky — you did good. (Applause)

“I know that each of you takes your part in Halloween very seriously, and I want you to, but I hope you won’t forget to take a moment and smile at yourselves. You know, we bring a lot of joy into the world, and I want all of you to take a moment and feel good about that. Just turn to the ghoul or monster next to you and say “you’re a special person who makes people happy.” (Noise) I want you to remember that, and I want you to see one another as important in this world, because it’s easy to forget just what we are all about.

“The world of the imagination has always been essential to human beings, but they’ve never known just what to do with it. Sometimes they want to live there entirely, and others times they avoid it completely. They reward those who create it in books and music, and yet they fear these artists of the imagination as well, even doing them great harm. Throughout history, the imagination has been denounced as well as celebrated. Each one of us knows about those times when we were welcome to bring happiness, and also about those times when we were blamed for all kinds of evil that we did not create, in fact, could not create because of what we are.

“This ambiguity is part of human nature, and we ourselves embody part of the struggle. Is the world a place that truly is as it appears, or is there more to the universe than what eyes see and ears hear on any particular day? Do good and evil really exist, or are they simply words that mean nothing? Do human being really understand themselves, or are there mysteries within them that defy explanation?

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: The Great Pumpkin Proposes a Toast”

Reclaiming the Reclamation

Once again, we are fast approaching that time of the year that both earnest Christians and earnest neo-Pagans agree is a pagan festival.  I mean, of course, Easter.

Oops – too early (or late, depending how you count).  No, it’s Christmas, obviously.  At least, you might well think so from the deluge of pre-Christmas advertising on the radio and in the supermarkets, but that’s the wrong date – I’m too late to complain about that, since the pre-Christmas advertising started around July and the shops have a confusing mixture of Hallowe’en and Christmas goodies sitting on the shelves, with the ghouls and the robins uncomfortably side-by-side.

Aha!  Now we’re getting there!  The feast day that seems to give people the creeps (and not in a good way), the scariest night of the year – Reformation Day!  Yes, once again, we dread the approach of that season when Lutherans dress up as Martin Luther (either pre- or post-Augustinian monk version) and go from door to door, marrying ex-nuns, throwing inkpots at the Devil (or anyone they perceive to be the same), insulting the Pope and playing “beer or table!” (the game where they demand beer which they guzzle down while exclaiming “Sin boldly!” or else, should the householders refuse to give over their beer, they read copious extracts from his “Table Talk” in the original German of the 1566 volume.  Nothing gets you to pony up the booze faster than the threat of having to listen to pages of German theology in German).

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Interview: More from Miguel

Read Part One of our interview with Miguel Ruiz.

In this second part, Miguel shares some insightful words about his own understanding of worship, and how he tries to meet the challenge of both drawing on tradition and ministering to younger generations.

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You have been involved with both the contemporary evangelical church and the church from a historic tradition. How do they differ with regard to their understanding of the place of music in worship and the Christian life? How has exposure to both affected your perspectives as a church musician?

While serving in Evangelical churches we rarely started planning worship with the text.  We chose complete song sets often based on the subjective criteria of the “flow,” or emotional segue between service items.  We wanted to start uppity, wind down to meditative before the sermon, and go out on a high note, kind of like an hourglass.  I got the idea from a popular Evangelical book which encouraged the design of worship services based on the way it would make participants feel. (This was “planning for depth”.)

The Evangelical tradition seems to have a hard time articulating the distinction between worship and music.  Aside from the cliche that “worship” has become a genre of music, when you push for a more substantive explanation, you’ll often hear things like “Worship is our whole life offered to God in obedience.”  Feeding the poor and being a good husband are also acts of worship.  This is all true, but it doesn’t help at all, because if everything is worship, than nothing is worship.  It’s like saying “you’re completely unique and special, just like everybody else.”

The “Glorifying God” explanation route takes you the same place:  God is glorified when we love him with our whole hearts and our neighbor as ourselves.  This being the summary of the law, the problem is that evangelicals tend to approach worship entirely as law, or an act of obedience, something that we offer up to God.  But just as we will never stop sinning, such an offering could never be good enough.

Instead, Jesus offers himself in our place, and gives the perfect worship to the Father that we never could.  Because of His work on our behalf, we gather to receive the benefits of the salvation He accomplished on the cross for us.  Receiving the gifts of God is the focus of Gospel-centered worship, which is what the traditions of the historic churches were designed to protect and convey.

Another reason music and worship get so inseparably linked is that Evangelicals tend to define worship in terms of experience.  This may be due to the overwhelming influence of existential philosophy on post-modern culture (which, ironically, was pioneered by a Lutheran!).  They come to church expecting to encounter God, and the means of verifying this encounter tend to be highly subjective, ranging from the shiver in your spine to the emotional rush brought on the the production, whether the message brought you to your knees with conviction or simply if the snake did not bite.  (Even John Piper defines worship in terms of experience, and his theology is as far from touchy-feely as it gets!)

The main difference when worshiping in churches from a historic tradition is that they tend to be sacramental.  Differing nuances aside, they believe that Christ comes to us in bread and wine whether we have any special experience or not.  It’s a simple, objective  way of finding God in the whisper rather than the earthquake or hurricane, the regular, not the extraordinary, hence the term “ordinary means of grace.”  Any music in this ceremony is simply an adornment, meant to give voice to the gratitude God stirs up in our hearts or as a vehicle for proclaiming His word.

The two main things I have gained from my experience in the Evangelical church are; first, a thorough knowledge of the implementation of modern music styles in a worship service.  As much as I now prefer more traditional music, in my current position those skills are being put to regular use.

The second thing I have walked away with is a keen awareness of the interaction between music and emotions.  I get pretty irritated when I sense that music is being used to manipulate emotions, but at the same time I do not hold that the music of worship should be non-emotional.  Going back to my thoughts on the theology of worship, emotion expressed in worship should be a response to revealed truth rather than something manufactured.  I use this awareness in my current context as I attempt to create environments of exuberant participation in the new song of the redeemed soul.

Continue reading “Interview: More from Miguel”

Meet My Choir Director

Note from CM: When Gail and I started attending Risen Lord Lutheran Church, we were blessed and encouraged by the music. The liturgy was simple and beautiful, and the quality of musicianship high. We were impressed with the choir and soon joined. This was a personal joy for us, for Gail and I met while singing in a choir and hadn’t had a chance to do so together for many, many years. Another reason we found joy was that our choir is led by a gifted, devoted, outgoing and fun director named Dan Anderson.

Dan has been teaching for nearly three decades. He is a graduate of Indiana-Purdue University in Fort Wayne where he studied voice with Dr. Joe Meyers and conducting with Mr. John Loessi. Mr. Andersen taught high school choir for 18 years and now teaches middle school choir at Center Grove Middle School Central. At the high school level his choirs were well known throughout the Midwest, consistently receiving first division ratings at Concert, Jazz and Show Choir contests. His Middle School choirs have also received first division ratings at ISSMA competitions as well as being featured at the IMEA State Convention. He has many former students who are actively involved in careers in music, many in education. He is also active as a clinician, festival conductor, judge, and as the music director at Risen Lord Lutheran Church in Greenwood.

I wouldn’t think of doing a series on Church Music without including him. I think you all will enjoy his unique perspective on making music in schools and churches, and I hope his enthusiasm will be as encouraging to you as it has been to us.

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1. Dan, I wanted to include you in our Church Music Month on Internet Monk because you have some special perspectives I think our readers would enjoy hearing about. First of all, give us a brief sketch of your life, training, and work, and how you came to understand that music was God’s choice of vocation for you.

I was raised Catholic. I grew up listening to my dad sing in the church choir, which he did for 70-some years! I also grew up listening to all kinds of music on my home. My dad would play jazz or classical music, and my oldest brother was listening to Cream, Blind Faith, Led Zeppelin, the original Eagles and many others while my sister listened to the Beatles and Sonny and Cher. As a seventh-grader I got my first drum-set and decided I was going to be the next Buddy Rich (I did see him live three times, and I even have his autograph). While in high school I sang in the concert choir, swing choir, the singing group that lead mass in school and also the church choir when I could. Music was as much a part of me as anything could be. I listened to music as much as I could, and LOVED live music.

At the end of my junior year of high school I was discussing college with my high school choir director, Fr. Fred, and told him I wanted to do something with music. He told me I should teach, because I would never be a soloist. This is interesting for two reasons. One, he wasn’t trying to motivate me to work harder, he was stating fact — I did not have a solo voice at all…yet! Two, I started getting paid to sing while in college, and continued for over twenty years to make money singing.

I don’t think I really realized what God’s purpose for my life was until I was teaching school. I have spent the last 30 years ministering to young people, and trying daily to change lives.

Continue reading “Meet My Choir Director”

Prayers for Those Affected by Storms

I thought these prayers, sent out from the ELCA, might be helpful to those who want to voice their concerns to God regarding our neighbors being affected by Hurricane Sandy:

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Prayer for those in the midst of the storm:

Merciful God,

when the storms rage and threaten to overtake us,
awaken our faith to know the power of your peace.
Deliver us from our fear and ease our anxiety.
Help us to endure the time of uncertainty
and give us strength to face the challenges ahead.
Give us the assurance of your presence even in this time
so that we can cling to your promise of hope and life shown to us through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Prayer for those suffering from storms:

Loving God,
in the communion of Christ, we are joined with the trials and sufferings of all.
Be with those who endure the wind and rain of hurricane Sandy.
Protect those in the path of danger.
Open the pathway of evacuations.
Help loved ones find one another in the chaos.
Provide assistance to those who need help.
Ease the fears of all and make your presence known in the stillness of your peace;
Through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.