"Sin and grace, absence and presence, tragedy and comedy, they divide the world between them and where they meet head on, the Gospel happens."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p. 109)
When I first read this quote, I thought that's a lot of dualism And I personally dislike dualism, either or choices and categories that fall in so neatly. Perhaps I'm too much of a slave to ambiguity. There is a lot of gray area in my gray matter.
As a preacher, I need to not get stuck on just pointing out sin while ignoring grace. And vis versa. I should proclaim the presence of God, while acknowledging those times when it seems more like an absence. To point to what is tragic in the world and what is comedic. That life isn't just a bad joke, or necessarily a barrel of laughs either.
For me all those things do not capture the whole truth about life and about our relationship to God and others. The Gospel for me usually is most clear in the ambiguities and in the gray areas between the false dualism we create.
Blessings,
Ed
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Reflections for 4/29/11
"Prepared for the worst but rarely for the best, prepared for the possible but rarely for the impossible....Maybe the truth of it is that it's too good not to be true."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p. 108)
The motto of the Boy Scouts if memory serves me correctly is "be prepared." The understanding being that as a scout I should have the skills to deal with any challenge that comes my way. Physically and mentally there was certainly much that my Boy Scout experience had prepared me for. I'm not so sure about emotionally.
I think a lot of what I was prepared for was mini-disasters, prepared for the worst. Funny how as adults we continue to be prepared for the worst, give me the bad news first seems to be our mantra. And it becomes so ingrained that we really are not prepared when something goes right. We stand like a deer in the headlights, not knowing how to act or what to do.
We also are ready for what's possible. It is what keeps us plodding forward. However it is the seemingly impossible that fires up the imagination, and gets us thinking outside of the box.
I also know the phrase "something is too good to be true." That's usually what I say, when something positive is said about me or when something amazing is promised with no strings attached. And the cynic in me refuses to embrace it. And yet might I be missing out on something so good, how can it not be true.
Blessings,
Ed
The motto of the Boy Scouts if memory serves me correctly is "be prepared." The understanding being that as a scout I should have the skills to deal with any challenge that comes my way. Physically and mentally there was certainly much that my Boy Scout experience had prepared me for. I'm not so sure about emotionally.
I think a lot of what I was prepared for was mini-disasters, prepared for the worst. Funny how as adults we continue to be prepared for the worst, give me the bad news first seems to be our mantra. And it becomes so ingrained that we really are not prepared when something goes right. We stand like a deer in the headlights, not knowing how to act or what to do.
We also are ready for what's possible. It is what keeps us plodding forward. However it is the seemingly impossible that fires up the imagination, and gets us thinking outside of the box.
I also know the phrase "something is too good to be true." That's usually what I say, when something positive is said about me or when something amazing is promised with no strings attached. And the cynic in me refuses to embrace it. And yet might I be missing out on something so good, how can it not be true.
Blessings,
Ed
Reflections for 4/28/11
"And then he added that though for man it is impossible, for God all things are possible, and he is a master of the impossible because in terms of what man thinks possible he is in the end a wild and impossible god. It seems to me that more often than not the parables can be read as high and holy jokes about God and about man and about the Gospel itself as the highest and holiest joke of them all."(F. Buechener "Listening to Your Life" p.107-108)
I love stand up comics. What I find especially funny about them, is that most of what makes me laugh at loud is how true what they say is. Again because they take real life situations and paint them in a new and funnier way. And as I laugh at the reality of it, especially the stuff that pokes at me, white married male, I get it.
Yes there are some jokes I don't get. Sometimes things are said that are meant to be funny and aren't. And as they say if you have to explain the joke, it loses its oomph. There are also things that aren't funny that get laughed at. I find jokes at other people's expense to be that way.
But when a medium is used that gets me to take a look at myself from a different perspective, then its doing its job.
The gospel is no laughing matter, but it is a joke, not as something to be dismissed, but as something that points to a greater reality and often hits home.
Blessings,
Ed
I love stand up comics. What I find especially funny about them, is that most of what makes me laugh at loud is how true what they say is. Again because they take real life situations and paint them in a new and funnier way. And as I laugh at the reality of it, especially the stuff that pokes at me, white married male, I get it.
Yes there are some jokes I don't get. Sometimes things are said that are meant to be funny and aren't. And as they say if you have to explain the joke, it loses its oomph. There are also things that aren't funny that get laughed at. I find jokes at other people's expense to be that way.
But when a medium is used that gets me to take a look at myself from a different perspective, then its doing its job.
The gospel is no laughing matter, but it is a joke, not as something to be dismissed, but as something that points to a greater reality and often hits home.
Blessings,
Ed
Reflections for 4/27/11
"Jesus sheds his tears at the audible silence of God at those moments especially when a word from him would mean the difference between life and death, or at the deafness of men which prevents their hearing, him, the blindness of men which prevents even Jesus himself as a man from seeing him to the extent that at the moment of all moments when he needs him most he cries out his Eloi Eloi, which is a cry so dark that of the four evangelists, only tow of them have the stomach to record it as the last word he spoke while he still had a human mouth to speak with. Jesus wept, we all weep, because even when man is good, even when he is Jesus, God makes himself scarce for reasons that no theodicy has ever fathomed."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p.106)
"Do you have my back?" That seems to be a question I hear my teenagers saying about and to their friends. When needed the most will that person be there for you. When everything is going wrong. When we struggle with what life brings our way, people of faith seem to turn to God, and sometimes we sense God's presence, but sometimes we, no matter how strong or faith, feel very much alone.
Are we actually alone though, if we believe in God? I don't think so. I certainly have experienced disappointment when things have not turned out as I would have liked. I may even ask God, "what's up with that?" I don't tend to get into the answers of that wasn't God's will. Instead I keep searching for what the response or answer really was. Sometimes with quite a few tears.
I also know that the Bible tells me that it is alright to have those moments. The psalms are full of those laments. And Jesus' "Eloi, Eloi" is just the beginning of psalm 22. Giving me the example that even when things are at there worst, it is okay to scream out to God in frustration with him. The heartbreak would be for me not to cry out at all.
Blessings,
Ed
"Do you have my back?" That seems to be a question I hear my teenagers saying about and to their friends. When needed the most will that person be there for you. When everything is going wrong. When we struggle with what life brings our way, people of faith seem to turn to God, and sometimes we sense God's presence, but sometimes we, no matter how strong or faith, feel very much alone.
Are we actually alone though, if we believe in God? I don't think so. I certainly have experienced disappointment when things have not turned out as I would have liked. I may even ask God, "what's up with that?" I don't tend to get into the answers of that wasn't God's will. Instead I keep searching for what the response or answer really was. Sometimes with quite a few tears.
I also know that the Bible tells me that it is alright to have those moments. The psalms are full of those laments. And Jesus' "Eloi, Eloi" is just the beginning of psalm 22. Giving me the example that even when things are at there worst, it is okay to scream out to God in frustration with him. The heartbreak would be for me not to cry out at all.
Blessings,
Ed
Reflections for 4/26/11
"God is absent from all Job's words about God, and from the words of his comforters, because they are words without knowledge that obscure the issue of God by trying to define him as present in ways and places where he is not present, to define him as moral order, as the best answer man can give to the problem of his life. God is not an answer man can give, God says,. God himself does not give answers."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life." p. 105)
The story of Job is seen by some as a treatise on why bad things happen to good people. The only problem is that in this case bad things happen because God makes a bet. And the Job requesting an answer to the question why, is basically told to shut up and stop whining, because he's so puny in the grand scheme of things. Not the most satisfying answer.
And perhaps the problem has always been that when we attempt to give God all the credit or all the blame. For me it is more about seeing God working with and through me in my successes and my failures that keeps me from giving or taking all the credit or all the blame.
I was struck by the part of the quote which said "God himself does not give answers." That is sure to rub some believers the wrong way. But I would guess that for many a seeker, sojourner and perhaps even the most cynical non-believer there is a ring of truth to it.
Even as a believer in God, I cannot say that I have been given definite answers. I will say that I've noticed how in praying to God, things have gotten clearer and less burdensome. I do see God as a constant companion, not a puppet master, not a harsh parent, but as a friend, a person with Ed's best interests at heart, who guides but allows me to see things for myself.
Blessings,
Ed
The story of Job is seen by some as a treatise on why bad things happen to good people. The only problem is that in this case bad things happen because God makes a bet. And the Job requesting an answer to the question why, is basically told to shut up and stop whining, because he's so puny in the grand scheme of things. Not the most satisfying answer.
And perhaps the problem has always been that when we attempt to give God all the credit or all the blame. For me it is more about seeing God working with and through me in my successes and my failures that keeps me from giving or taking all the credit or all the blame.
I was struck by the part of the quote which said "God himself does not give answers." That is sure to rub some believers the wrong way. But I would guess that for many a seeker, sojourner and perhaps even the most cynical non-believer there is a ring of truth to it.
Even as a believer in God, I cannot say that I have been given definite answers. I will say that I've noticed how in praying to God, things have gotten clearer and less burdensome. I do see God as a constant companion, not a puppet master, not a harsh parent, but as a friend, a person with Ed's best interests at heart, who guides but allows me to see things for myself.
Blessings,
Ed
Reflections for 4/25/11
"But let him take heart; He is called not to be an actor, a magician, in the pulpit. He is called to be himself. he is called to tell the truth as he has experienced it. He is called to be human."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life." p. 104-105)
One of the many things that just about every Profile from a church that is looking for a new priest claims is that they want a priest who can make the Gospel relate to their lives.
That's a pretty tall task if you ask me. What makes a sermon relative or connective to folks? The answer probably is I don't know, but I know it when I hear it. A good question to ask of any sermon is "where is the preacher in it." A good sermon to me comes from the heart engaged with the mind. It recalls how the passages of scripture read in church that morning, caused an ah-ha moment for the preacher. I suppose it is okay to tell anecdotal stories, and define Greek words, or quote big named theologians. But ultimately that stuff is filler or perhaps even camaflauge if the preacher really has not direct experience of God's presence or sometimes even absence in his or her life.
That takes courage to admit where you are in the story, or how you've made connections. It also takes time to figure out how to connect the dots for the hearers. Time that is usually spent in Pastoral Care.
I don't need to be Ed the Entertainer in the pulpit. If I say something that gets a chuckle, bonus points I suppose. But if I say something that gets people reflecting and/or talking, then I've really nailed it.
Blessings,
Ed
One of the many things that just about every Profile from a church that is looking for a new priest claims is that they want a priest who can make the Gospel relate to their lives.
That's a pretty tall task if you ask me. What makes a sermon relative or connective to folks? The answer probably is I don't know, but I know it when I hear it. A good question to ask of any sermon is "where is the preacher in it." A good sermon to me comes from the heart engaged with the mind. It recalls how the passages of scripture read in church that morning, caused an ah-ha moment for the preacher. I suppose it is okay to tell anecdotal stories, and define Greek words, or quote big named theologians. But ultimately that stuff is filler or perhaps even camaflauge if the preacher really has not direct experience of God's presence or sometimes even absence in his or her life.
That takes courage to admit where you are in the story, or how you've made connections. It also takes time to figure out how to connect the dots for the hearers. Time that is usually spent in Pastoral Care.
I don't need to be Ed the Entertainer in the pulpit. If I say something that gets a chuckle, bonus points I suppose. But if I say something that gets people reflecting and/or talking, then I've really nailed it.
Blessings,
Ed
Reflections for 4/24/11
"The impulse is to turn from him as we turn from anybody who weeps because the sight of real tears, painful and disfiguring, forces us to look to their source where we do not choose to look because where his tears come from, our tears also come from."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p. 104)
"Jesus wept." The shortest verse in the Bible. A very human moment. He is caught in the grief of others, and is also mourning the death of a friend. I'll have to admit I've been known to shed a tear or two at funerals. Not all funerals mind you, but certainly those when I've really known the deceased, and if others grief is overwhelming.
I also tend to tear up in some movies, certain songs. I guess I'm just a sentimental kinda guy. Yet it very hard to watch someone else cry, because it may remind us of times we've wanted to cry. There is also the real possibility of losing our composure because so much has been shut down in order to save face.
Those times that we have weeped, and more especially those times that we should have but didn't. The real question remains why not cry? I'm most impressed by people who can display emotions, not in order to draw attention to themselves, but because it is the most healthy way to deal with most situations.
Blessings,
Ed
"Jesus wept." The shortest verse in the Bible. A very human moment. He is caught in the grief of others, and is also mourning the death of a friend. I'll have to admit I've been known to shed a tear or two at funerals. Not all funerals mind you, but certainly those when I've really known the deceased, and if others grief is overwhelming.
I also tend to tear up in some movies, certain songs. I guess I'm just a sentimental kinda guy. Yet it very hard to watch someone else cry, because it may remind us of times we've wanted to cry. There is also the real possibility of losing our composure because so much has been shut down in order to save face.
Those times that we have weeped, and more especially those times that we should have but didn't. The real question remains why not cry? I'm most impressed by people who can display emotions, not in order to draw attention to themselves, but because it is the most healthy way to deal with most situations.
Blessings,
Ed
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