Until a New Season of 'Monk' Begins in January...

you can play Monk Shui.

Or take the Monk-o-Phile trivia quiz.

Or read Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse, which I really enjoyed reading earlier this year.

Or, in the spirit of the Obsessive-Compulsive behavior Monk exemplifies, you could arrange your identical sportcoats and shirts by date of purchase.

Okay, so I'm obsessed with Monk. But it's only one of my 812 obsessions.

The Big Ten Season Begins

Following its impressive win over Washington, Ohio State takes on Northwestern for its Big Ten opener tomorrow. Northwestern did lose to usually lowly Duke last week. But the Wildcats feature a spread offense, the very brand of offense that gave Michigan fits in its opening losses to Appalachian State and Oregon.

Nonetheless, I believe that Ohio State's defense is sterling and will be prepared for the spread. OSU's offense, under the leadership of QB Todd Boeckman also appeared to take a quantum leap forward in last week's win in Seattle. The Buckeyes, still I will remind you in what can only be described as a rebuilding year, should win.

[Photo credit: OSU Quarterback Todd Boeckman from Yahoo]

Of course, there's a lot of interest in how the Penn State-Michigan game will turn out tomorrow. The match will be a major test for both schools, for different reasons. For Michigan, it'll be a chance to prove that their win over Notre Dame, so far one of the worst teams in the country this 2007 season, wasn't a fluke. But they'll have to beat a Penn State team that many expect to win the Big Ten and to play in one of the BCS bowls at season's end. It's no gimme for Penn State either, because they'll have to play in Ann Arbor. But I expect Penn State to win by about ten points.

In other games...
LSU should handle an improving South Carolina team.
Michigan State should beat Notre Dame.

That's as bold as I'll get. After all, I'm just a preacher, not a football expert.

[See Tim May's always interesting comments here.]

Go Buckeyes!

[UPDATE: As a friend of mine said today, "Ohio State's win over Northwestern yesterday is like the games the two teams played back when we were students at OSU." Todd Boeckman seemed to become a big time college QB during the third quarter of last week's game against Washington. His work yesterday seemed to confirm that.

[I was shocked by Michigan's win over Penn State. But Michigan does have a lot of returning talent and Lloyd Carr is no slacker as a coach. Also, Penn State doesn't really play a spread offense. Nonetheless, yesterday's game seems to indicate that Michigan, along with Penn State and Wisconsin, have legitimate shots at a share of the Big Ten title this year. While my beloved Buckeyes made huge strides forward yesterday, they beat an obviously weak Northwestern team, and there are still big question marks about how really good they are.]

A Brief Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 14:15-24

[Although I've broken with this custom during what's been an extremely busy summer and early fall, here on the blog I usually present notes--I generally call them passes--on the Biblical texts on which my weekend messages will be built.

[This weekend, I'm beginning a four-part series on Overcoming Worry. (There will be a break from this text next week, when I'll be preaching at another church.)

[Below, you'll find the text. My comments are numbered after the verses.]

The Bible Lesson: Luke 14:15-24

15One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
(1) The "on hearing this" refers to comments Jesus makes in the preceding verses of chapter 14. The setting for them and for what Jesus says here is "the house of a leader of the Pharisees" (v.1). The entire dinner party is something of a trap, designed to cause Jesus to say things that can be used against Him, either with the Jewish religious authorities or with the Roman governor.

(2) In Jesus' preceding comments (vv. 12-14), He's demonstrated that the command to love our neighbors as ourselves is a call to what homiletician George Buttrick calls, "fundamental neighborliness." He tells the host that when he holds a banquet, he shouldn't invite friends, relatives, or wealthy neighbors. If he does so, all of them will feel duty-bound to return the favor. Instead, he should invite, "the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind," people incapable of paying him back. But, Jesus says, such righteous living will be noticed at the "resurrection of the righteous.” (This passage, by the way, sets prominently in the background of next week's Gospel lesson, Luke 16:19-31.)

(3) The comment made by "one of the dinner guests," to eating "bread in the kingdom of God," refers to the great feast which, since at least the time of the prophet Isaiah in the 7th.-century BC, it was believed that all made right with God (the righteous) through their faith in God would enjoy. (Christians still believe this.)

Isaiah 25:6-9 anticipated such a feast with the Messiah:

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

16Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many.
(1) Jesus responds, as He so often does, with a story, a parable. Stories were good ways for Jesus to place the things He wanted to convey in His hearers' minds. They're still powerful!

17At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
(1) According to the editors of the Archeological Study Bible:

It was the Jewish custom to send two invitations to a banquet: an advance invitation and a follow-up announcement when the feast was ready.

18But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ 19Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ 20Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’
(1) Each of the original invitees were so consumed with the cares of life that they couldn't say, "Yes" to the invitation to the feast.

Of course, Jesus has in mind how we allow our own agendas get in the way of heeding God's invitations to worship, prayer, service in His Name, love of our neighbor, and ultimately, life in His Kingdom.

(2) In Luke's Gospel, Jesus often shows us that "heaven is a party." Jesus most famously draws this analogy in the parable of the Prodigal Son. There, the father, clearly representing God, throws a party when his once-rebellious and now-repentant son returns home. In that story, the father also begs the older, self-righteous son to join in, but he refuses to do so. Through Jesus Christ, God invites all of us to His eternal party. Whether we will or not is up to us.

21So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
(1) There may be a hint of Jesus' frustration with His fellow Jews here. And of God's frustration with them as His people.

Familiar with "the Law and the Prophets," the Scriptures we Christians refer to as the Old Testament, the ancient Jews nonetheless regarded wealth and health as signs of God's favor. But the witness of the Law and the Prophets, as well as of Jesus, is that God doesn't look at people the way we often do. (See here and here.).

Those writings, as the resurrected Jesus would show the two disciples He met on the way to Emmaus, pointed to Him as the "host" who could take all with faith in Him into the heavenly banquet hall.

Those same writings also pointed to God's advocacy for the poor, the lame, and the marginalized. Yet, God's people, as is true of many Christians and others in the world today, ignored Jesus and ignored too, His call to compassion and "neighborliness," a call to hospitality and concern for those who can't pay us back. (I blame myself for this as much as I do anybody else, by the way!)

(2) Jesus' story also underscores the fact that often, wealth and the cares created by possessions can make us deaf to God's invitations. So can success and relational happiness. Even the best of blessings, if we allow them to, can lure us into a false sense of self-sufficiency. We can delude ourselves with the idea that we don't need God. It becomes easy to put God on the back burner. (See Matthew 13:22, but read all of Matthew 13 to understand the context. Also see here.)

Keep in mind, Jesus isn't condemning wealth, per se. Abraham was wealthy. Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy. Lydia was wealthy. All were followers of God.

Jesus is condemning those who regard their wealth as an entitlement. He's also condemning those who refuse to use their wealth, along with the rest of their lives, to glorify God by loving their neighbor.

22And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” 23Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
(1) In the topsy turvy Kingdom of God, the last will be first and the first will be last.

Mark D. Roberts Reminisces

Mark D. Roberts is taking on a new challenge after sixteen years serving as senior pastor at Irvine Presbyterian Church. An extaordinary writer and blogger, as well as an inspiring Christian, Mark is reminiscing on his blog about his years at Irvine. Here's a link to the series of posts he's writing. It makes for good reading, as usual.

Please Join Me in Telling the Thief Blogger to Knock It Off!

Somebody is running a thief blog, a site that leeches off of this site for its title, its look, and its copy.

The thief does attribute my posts to me. But usually only after duplicating 90-100% of the original post, so that it would be pointless for a reader to actually come to this site to read it. More than half of the posts on the thief blog come from this site. The balance are ripped off from other blogs.

Clearly, the person engaging in this thievery is hoping to use the rip-off blog to make money. Advertising is seen at the tops and prominently, on the sidebars of each page.

Several days ago, I wrote in a comment to one of my posts appearing on this person's pseudo-blog:

Look, if you want to make money from blogging, that's up to you. But do it with your own posts.

The thoughts I express on my blog are my thoughts. If, occasionally, other bloggers link to something I've written or cite a sentence or two, that's part of the dialoging that makes blogging so interesting. But what you do is effectively swipe other people's copy, most notoriously, my copy, and preface it all with advertising.

At best, what you do is mooching. More accurately, it's stealing. So, knock it off!

Mark Daniels

What the thief blogger does goes way beyong linking, citing, or quoting this blog. He's using it for himself.

I learned this morning that, even since I wrote the comments above, the thief blogger has once more posted a piece from Better Living.

So, I'm asking readers of this blog to send comments to the thief to say exactly what you think of his/her thievery.

[UPDATE: Both Hugh Hewitt and Joe Gandelman, uber-bloggers, have called attention to the tawdriness, if not outright illegality, of thief-blogging, a far more widespread phenomenon than you might think it is. Thanks to both of them!]

Those Funny Church Words: LOVE

[This message was shared during the Sunday worship celebration of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, earlier today.]

1 John 4:7-21
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at funny church words, terms that only Christians use or which we use so uniquely that the world may need a translator to understand us. We may be tempted to think that everybody understands today’s word, love.

But I’m not so sure about that. Years ago, a young man spoke with me after a third consecutive romance had gone sour. “Pastor,” he told me. “I wouldn’t know love if it bit me in the backside.” That may be true for all of us, at least some of the time, whether we’re Christians or not.

So, what is love? My favorite writer, C.S. Lewis, once described four major types of love, using Greek terms to describe each.

The first of these is storge, the kind of love a loyal pet feels for its owner. The pet appreciates the care and the comfort the owner provides. It’s a bit like a warm blanket on a cold night. But ultimately, storge isn’t a terribly satisfying form of love.

A second kind of love is eros, which is romantic or sexual love. Eros may be the most exciting kind of love, at least in the short run. But men and women who try to build long-term relationships on only erotic love end up bitterly disappointed. Often, when erotic love is the only glue holding a relationship together, someone feels used. Besides, when the money runs low, or tragedy hits, or when depression happens, the person whose love for you is based only on eros will leave, looking for someone else who turns them on.

A third kind of love is philos, the sort of love that may exist between two loyal friends. Twenty-four years ago, when I had graduated from seminary and was still without a call, my wife was expecting our second child, the only work I had was that of a part-time janitor, and we were without a place to live, my old high school friend, Tom, invited us to live with him. Tom didn't need to do that. But that's the kind of thing that philos does.

A fourth kind of love, what’s known as agape, is well-described in a passage from the New Testament often read at weddings. Oddly enough, Paul, its author, wasn't writing about marriage when he dictated the words we find in First Corinthians in the New Testament. They were addressed to a congregation in which a supposed spiritual elite looked down their noses on those who, unlike them, didn't possess the spiritual gift of tongues; where wealthy Christians weren't sharing with poorer Christians; and where unrepentant sin was rampant. Listen to some of what Paul wrote in the thirteenth chapter and see if you recognize his words:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Often, if, during weddings, couples pay attention to anything other than their own nerves, they’ll listen to those words and the smug smiles on their faces seem to say, “That’s us to a T.”

It’s then that I feel duty-bound to remind them that, “Nobody I know is always patient and kind. No one I know is always free of jealousy or conceit. Nobody I’ve met or heard of is guiltless when it comes to keeping records of the wrongs done to them.”

And yet this selfless, self-giving, agape love is exactly what Jesus had in mind when He told us, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s the great commandment and agape love is what it’s about. Agape love is what we need to make all of our relationships become what we want them to be. And, Jesus says, loving like this is required of us. To live with agape love is the only way you and I are acceptable to God. Yet agape love is the only kind of love of which not a single person here is capable. What are we supposed to do with that? Fortunately, God doesn’t leave us to our own devices!

Instead, through Jesus Christ, God does three big things to help you and me to have a relationship with Him.

First, Jesus covers us with His agape love. Last week, I mentioned a passage from Romans in the New Testament, where we’re told, “while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Another translation renders it, “while we were still helpless Christ died for us.”

In a dream of mine, I’m back in college and given an assignment. The professor says something like, “Write a ten-page history of ancient Babylonia and write it in Russian. Turn it in tomorrow.” I’m terrified. I know nothing about Babylonia. I can’t speak, read, or write Russian. And even if I did, twenty-four hours isn’t enough time! I’m completely incapable of doing anything for myself, yet it never seems to dawn on me to approach my professor to explain my problem or to ask for help. To do so, would entail admitting my helplessness. Apparently, the professor can’t see or doesn’t care about the panic that must be written on my face. I usually wake up from this dream in a sweat, frightened out of my mind.

Fortunately, Jesus, the One Who gives us the required life assignment to love God completely and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves understands how incapable we are of doing this. In this, He reflects the compassionate understanding God has always had of our human nature. And so, Jesus does the assignment for us on the cross. He covers all who believe in Him with His agape love.

Why? Jesus explained it once to the Jewish teacher, Nicodemus, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (He also explains that God will never condemn us, but that we can condemn ourselves by refusing to follow Jesus. But God wants to cover us with His life-giving love!)

In another part of the New Testament, we’re told to “put on" Christ. This is more than a fashion statement. Putting on Jesus Christ is the only way you and I can have an eternal relationship with God!

Second: Jesus fills us with agape love. Once, I was visiting a hospitalized member of the church I served in northwest Ohio. A nurse came in with a stack of get well cards. “You must be from that church in Okolona,” the nurse said. “I am,” the patient confirmed, “but how did you know?” “Because,” the nurse answered, “the people of that church always send more get well cards than any congregation around.” Now, get well cards may not seem like such a big deal. As an act of self-giving love, it's certainly not akin to throwing oneself between a firing squad and its intended victim. But I took those cards as one strong measure of how deeply Christ’s love had penetrated the life of that parish. Because of Christ's agape love, many members of the church took the time to pick out and send get well greetings to others.

Back in the second century, an unbelieving Greek named Lucian remarked on the Christians he’d observed, “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help [others]...They spare nothing...[This Jesus seems to have] put it in their heads [that others are their brothers and sisters]...”

It’s precisely Jesus Who puts this idea in our heads. Christians voluntarily undergo a kind of brain transplant. I call it a holy lobotomy. It’s what Paul was talking about when he urged Jesus-followers to “let this mind be in you, that was in Christ Jesus.” We let Jesus into our minds and lives and He fills us with His love.

After covering us with His agape love, Jesus then fills us with His agape love. Writing in today’s Bible lesson, the apostle John says, “...everyone who loves is born of God and knows God [and]...In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” John also writes that, “God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.” When we surrender and believe in Christ, our behavior begins to reflect His presence in our minds, wills, and lives.

Finally: Jesus’ agape love never gives up on us! Years ago, I spoke with a couple, who were happy in what was a second marriage for both of them after both experiencing bitter divorces. The woman told me of how at her former church, her pastor had told her she was unfit to be a Sunday School teacher because of what she’d been through. But on the day I spoke with her and her husband, they both were involved in a church where they sensed the love and acceptance of Jesus for them. They knew that however others may have regarded them, the God we meet in Jesus Christ hadn’t given up on them.

Among the many things I love about Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran movement of which Friendship is a part, is how he saw the positives in the Bible that had been covered over or ignored by the Church of his day. For example, he noticed that the Ten Commandments don’t begin with the commandments themselves, but with a word of promise. “I am the Lord your God,” God says. “No matter what,” God is telling us, “through thick and thin, I am your God.”

And maybe more than anything else we can say, that’s what makes the love we find in Jesus Christ so unique. When God covers you with His love, fills you with His love, and then, never withholds His love, it gives you the hopefulness, the confidence, and the God-power you need to dare to love God and to love others with something of the passion and tenacity we see in Jesus on the cross. That may be what John is getting at in our Bible lesson for today when he says, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God...”

There are different kinds of love. But only one kind of love can change us from enemies to friends of God, bring us everlasting life with God, give us the power and the patience to forgive and live with others, and fill us with the power to fulfill Jesus’ great commandment to love. That’s the love that comes to us from Jesus Christ when we admit our helpless need of Him and then, take up the adventure of following Him.

Next week, we begin a new series of messages on Overcoming Worry.

"I think (the game) was a statement that they want to be good."

So says Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel after his rebuilding Buckeyes won at Washington.

"Now I hope none of us thinks it's a statement that we are good, but that's where we want to get, and we did what we had to do today."

Read more here.

Also, Michigan beat Notre Dame on Saturday, in a game that pitted teams that had gone 0-2 in their first contests. The win demonstrates that Michigan, which had lost to Appalachian State and Oregon, two teams that feature the spread offense, isn't as horrible as some were claiming. But it's not clear yet how good the Wolverines are, given that they beat a Notre Dame team that, by all appearances, is awful. What's worse, the Irish face an absolute meat grinder of a schedule. People now are speculating about whether Notre Dame will win a single game this year. Who would have thought it?

Wow!

I'm a big fan of Monk. But the September 14 episode was the very best one ever. Watch for a rerun of Mr. Monk Is Up All Night when it's shown. New episodes are coming in January. Yeah, baby!

Buckeyes Face First Big Test of 2007 Campaign Tomorrow

After opening the season with two wins over smaller in-state schools (Youngstown State and Akron), my Ohio State Buckeyes, in a rebuilding year, head west to play the University of Washington tomorrow. The Huskies, also 2-0, are fresh off of their first win over a ranked team in four years. So, this will be the Buckeyes' first real test of the season.

There are reasons for concern. I know that the Buckeyes are presently ranked 10th. in the country. But early season polling means little. (Just think of Michigan, now 0-2, ranked 5th. as the season began.) And, the Buckeyes haven't faced major opponents or been away from Ohio Stadium.

While OSU's defense has been fantastic so far, the offense, decimated by the graduations or early departures of great players, has been sketchy. If the Buckeyes can pass this early away-game test, we OSU grads might even hope for a share of this year's Big Ten title.

Molly Yanity, who works the Huskie beat for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer though, sees things a bit differently from that. In her P-I blog today, Yanity unflinchingly picks Ohio State, after a defensive faceoff, to win. Here's the text of her entire post:

With Washington's run-stopping ability shining of late and the Buckeyes' dangerous linebackers, this should be a defensive struggle.

I believe, though, that the Buckeyes have an edge when it comes to big games – every time they play, it's before a huge, loud crowd. Even beyond that, their rivalry games are intense, they go to bowl games, everyone they play puts a target on them.

That experience will pay off as the Huskies haven't played in a game with a ton of meaning. Let's face it -- this games MEANS something in Seattle. A top-10 team is coming to the Huskies' house and the air will be electric.

Buckeyes win, 17-7.

This pick has nothing to do with the fact that I was born and raised in Athens, Ohio, which is about 90 miles from Columbus. Honestly! In Athens, you root for the Ohio U. Bobcats and roll your eyes at the bully cousin in the middle of the state. Trust me, an upset in Seattle would send my family into cartwheels.

For a more cautionary perspective, check out what Tim May and Ken Gordon, The Columbus Dispatch reporters who cover Ohio State football have to say about tomorrow's game.

Go, Buckeyes!

[Above picture: Yahoo.com]

UPDATE: Yanity looks pretty smart. The Bucks won 33-14. (By the way, check out the great Columbus Dispatch headline here. Perfect for a game won by Ohio State in Seattle.)

"I'm ok with knowing that you're not going to like me for the next 20 minutes -- or 20 years..."

I've long held that parental love consists, in part, of two dimensions:

• Unconditional affection
• Firm discipline

(There's a third, most important element, by the way.) Both of these elements spring from the same desire for what's best for children.

With affection, parents convey to their children just how worthy their young ones are and they give children confidence to deal with life. Home and family become safe havens.

With discipline, parents acquaint their kids with the fundamental fact of the universe: "God is God and you and I aren't." Kids learn that there are limits to what they can and should have and that their desires aren't always more important than those of others. We all have to share this planet; discipline teaches kids how to share, not to mention preventing them from becoming insufferable bullies, first, with their parents and families and later, with others.

You might enjoy the way Jill Hudson Neal puts all of this in perspective in an article in today's Washington Post:

Life is sometimes unbearable for a two-year-old, you understand, and my sweet thing has taken to falling out (literally) whenever he confronts the many injustices in his world: having his Binky taken away, not being brought a snack whenever he wants one, having to watch the 6 o'clock news rather than "The Backyardigans," and his older brother's existence. He also regularly glares, pouts and screams like a dolphin trapped in a tuna net, which makes me both furious and nearly suicidal.

Something has to give. So I've pulled my Mean Mommy cap out of cold storage.

It's not as scary as it sounds. It doesn't have to be worn with a scowl or sneer, and it's not meant to frighten the kids into a lifetime of Freudian analysis. I don't want my children to be terrified of me, but having them know that I'm a tough mom can't be a bad thing. I hope they know I'm a firm, loving caretaker who always has their back. But a little fear might go a long way.

And it also sends an important message: "I'm ok with knowing that you're not going to like me for the next 20 minutes -- or 20 years..."

I know a man in his early thirties who, several years back, went through the breakup of his marriage. Although, it takes two to make or break any relationship, this fellow was the biggest contributor to the demise of their union. Both before and since, he's seen the beginnings and ends of a procession of romantic relationships.

That's primarily because he's an overgrown brat, always catered to by his still-doting parents, perpetually stuck in the Terrible Twos. (By the way, my wife and I found with our kids that the Threes were more challenging than the Twos.) Extended family members tell the same story: Ned initially charms people. But eventually, the real person emerges. "If he doesn't get his way," one relative tells me, "he flails his arms and breaks things." Break enough things and eventually, relationships are broken too.

Of course, Ned is old enough to know better. You can't blame his parents. He's responsible for himself. But his gutless parents, unwilling to be unpopular for even twenty minutes, unfortunately set a pattern in Ned's life from which he may never break free. He simply can't imagine not getting his way. Ever. That's a prescription for a lonely, bitter life.

In an important scene in Remember the Titans, black head coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington, confronts his white assistant, Bill Yoast, played by Will Patton, for coddling the black players. By doing so, Boone claimed, Yoast wasn't helping the players, he was "crippling them, crippling them for life."

Parents who never say, "No" to their children, who are unwilling to pay the price of being unpopular for a season, and who rarely impose expectations on their kids, cripple them for life. Life doesn't always tell us, "Yes." Nor should it. Parents who fail to let their kids know that aren't loving.

They may be irresponsible.

Or lazy.

Or uncaring.

But they're not loving.

This isn't to say that childhood should be like an extended stay on Parris Island.

Nor should parents impose unfair demands on their kids.

I know a man who was a star basketball player in his high school days. (Or at least through his constant retelling of the myth, he thinks he was.) His son is playing basketball, although his favorite sport is hockey. But, to hear the father tell it, the son never plays well enough. More than a few people have witnessed vicious public scoldings, including threatened punishments, if the son doesn't perform up to snuff.

I'm not even sure that what this father does falls under the heading of "discipline," though from his warped perspective, he may think so. If discipline is aimed at helping our children function responsibly in the world, bullying them into becoming what we always dreamed of being ourselves is of no value.

But discipline--parents letting kids know what is expected of them and enforcing those expectations--is an essential element of responsible, loving parenting.

By the way, what is the most important obligation of parents? I believe it's to let them know, through our words and our lives, about the God Who reveals Himself ultimately in Jesus Christ.

(See here and here.)

"Christians Aren't Part of the Perpetually Offended"

That's the title of a terrific post by David Wayne, the Jollyblogger.

Refusing to be offended is part of our call as Christians, a call which, I for one, too often fail to heed. I'm often so busy being religious that I fail to be Christian. We need to take our cue (and our orders) from our Lord:

[Jesus said:] “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:43-45)

See David Wayne's fantastic post and the pieces to which he links.

Thoughts on 9/11

[I originally wrote this post two years ago and have simply updated it here.]

It's one measure of the degree to which the events of six years ago today are seared on our memories that when speaking of them, all we have to say is, "9/11."

No one wonders whether we're referring to a date or an emergency number.

And nobody asks the year.

But I worry about what we're doing with this day. It's being called Patriot's Day by some, celebrated with national songs, speeches, and red, white, and blue bunting.

Don't get me wrong: I believe in patriotism. I love this country and its history and the privilege of being an American citizen.

Somehow though, Patriot's Day doesn't fit with 9/11 for me.

The event most like 9/11 in previous US history was the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. On every December 7, when I was growing up, then as now, the media had small remembrances of the attack and if you prompted them, people who'd been alive then would tell you what they were doing when they got the news. A man of my acquaintance had been stationed at Pearl in December, 1941, and because of my questions and interest in history, told me about his experience of the attack.

But the notion of turning December 7 into a kind of Patriot's Day seems never to have occurred to members of "the greatest generation."

Why has it occurred to us to give such treatment to 9/11?

I suspect it has to do with what we're like in the America of the early-twenty-first-century. We are the generation lurching through life in the throes of attenuated Freudianism, a therapeutic culture of popularized, mischaracterized, and ill-informed psychobabble. We spend lots of time on self-indulgent navel-gazing, asking ourselves whether we're happy and when we discover that we're not, looking for people to blame.

There's nothing wrong with good psychological or psychiatric care. Countless numbers of people have been helped by these disciplines.

But there's something very wrong with the popularization of them that has resulted in a culture that glories in victimization.

This is seen in today's litigiousness in which millions of people, feeling slighted, hurt, or damaged, are suing others in unprecedented numbers.

We see it in juries in civil cases awarding enormous judgments, seemingly out of all proportion to the violations of the victimizers.

We see it too, in the constantly shifting standards of political correctness that have the media trolling for new ogres, people who in the eyes of today's white hat-black hat journalism, deserve to be villified.

If ever there was a person clearly suited to the role of villain, it's Osama bin Laden. He is a genuinely evil man, living a life given over to the devil's work. The movement which he encourages, has financed, and has inspired is one of the most notoriously demonic in world history.

It's true that on 9/11 six years ago, al-Qaeda victimized America and Americans and it will always live in our memories.

But I for one, don't fancy being a victim for the rest of my life. That's why on the evening of September 11, 2001, while most were canceling foreign trips, my daughter and I were among the few that a Delta reservation clerk talked to that day who made reservations for an overseas trek.

You go to the analyst so that one day, you'll no longer need to be under her or his treatment and you can live as a healthy grown-up person.

The alcoholic doesn't celebrate the day he took his first drink, but the day when he took his last.

No person who has been victimized by violence or prejudice commemorates the days of their violation, but the days of their psychological and physical liberation, the moments when hope entered their lives.

This day should be an occasion neither for whining or warmongering.

Leave the raucous flag-waving to other days. Bag the "world is against us" rhetoric altogether. I think that we ought to take our cue from the greatest generation: 9/11 should simply be a day of quiet remembrance.

[THANKS TO: Pastor Jeff for linking to this post. Pastor Jeff's Conblogeration is one of the best blogs around!]

[THANKS ALSO TO: Reader_iam at Done With Mirrors for linking to this post.]

Music So Beautiful, It Nearly Brings Tears

In her post on living an artful life, Yellow Springs, Ohio-artist and blogger Jafabrit asks:

Have you ever listened to music and thought it so beautiful you could cry?

Yes, I remember the first time I listened to the entire Born to Run LP by Bruce Springsteen, I cried. I couldn't believe that someone could channel that much passion, that much stirring musicianship, and lyrics so vivid and so beautiful into one album. I not only could have cried, I actually did.

There was also jealousy in those tears. I've always tinkered with composing. But when I heard Born to Run, I thought, "What's the use?" My reaction was a bit like that of folkie Phil Ochs, thought in their Greenwich Village days to be Bob Dylan's chief rival, when he heard Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. Ochs laughed and cried at once, realizing that Dylan had surpassed him and everybody else.

After hearing Born to Run, I wrote a song, the lyrics to which began:

Aimless shuffle, Bruce Springsteen's got me down again

Speaking of Bob Dylan, by the way, my all-time favorite Dylan LP (and my son's) is Blood on the Tracks. The 1975 release is a painful break-up album, chronicling the end of Dylan's marriage. The poignance is palpable as we hear Dylan "singing through these tears." I'm moved to the brink of tears of empathy when I hear Dylan sing, for example:

If you see her, say hello, she might be in Tangier
She left here last early spring, is livin' there, I hear
Say for me that I'm all right though things get kind of slow
She might think that I've forgotten her, don't tell her it isn't so.

We had a falling-out, like lovers often will
And to think of how she left that night, it still brings me a chill
And though our separation, it pierced me to the heart
She still lives inside of me, we've never been apart.

If you get close to her, kiss her once for me
I always have respected her for busting out and gettin' free
Oh, whatever makes her happy, I won't stand in the way
Though the bitter taste still lingers on from the night I tried to make her stay.

I see a lot of people as I make the rounds
And I hear her name here and there as I go from town to town
And I've never gotten used to it, I've just learned to turn it off
Either I'm too sensitive or else I'm gettin' soft.

Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past
I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast
If she's passin' back this way, I'm not that hard to find
Tell her she can look me up if she's got the time.

Or, how about, You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, the words of a man seeing the end of a love at its beginning?:

I've seen love go by my door
It's never been this close before
Never been so easy or so slow.
Been shooting in the dark too long
When somethin's not right it's wrong
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Dragon clouds so high above
I've only known careless love,
It's always hit me from below.
This time around it's more correct
Right on target, so direct,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Purple clover, Queen Anne lace,
Crimson hair across your face,
You could make me cry if you don't know.
Can't remember what I was thinkin' of
You might be spoilin' me too much, love,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Flowers on the hillside, bloomin' crazy,
Crickets talkin' back and forth in rhyme,
Blue river runnin' slow and lazy,
I could stay with you forever
And never realize the time.

Situations have ended sad,
Relationships have all been bad.
Mine've been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud.
But there's no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Yer gonna make me wonder what I'm doin',
Stayin' far behind without you.
Yer gonna make me wonder what I'm sayin',
Yer gonna make me give myself a good talkin' to.

I'll look for you in old Honolulu,
San Francisco, Ashtabula,
Yer gonna have to leave me now, I know.
But I'll see you in the sky above,
In the tall grass, in the ones I love,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

(I also love it that Dylan rhymes Honolulu and Ashtabula!)

Of course, Jafa seems to have had in mind songs that derive their power to move us from their melody. In that case, I mention Paul McCartney's melodies. Often described as haunting, they too can also bring me close to tears from their beauty. The final movement of his Standing Stone moves me every time I hear it. I pray that Paul McCartney will be in heaven; not only because I pray that for all people, but also because, selfishly, I would love to hear the music he would compose for God's glory there! (All can be in heaven. See here.)

Then, there are a whole bunch of hymns and praise songs that do that to me. Among them, Amazing Grace, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, Above All, My Glorious, Lead Me to the Cross, and Were You There?. We sing this last one at the conclusion of our Good Friday Tenebrae worship services and it always speaks powerfully about the wonder of God enfleshed giving Himself on the cross!

How about you, any music so beautiful, you think that you could cry?

Jafabrit talks...

about living "an artful life." (If, like me, you're in the habit of keeping the sound on your computer muted, turn it up ever so slightly for this one.)

Thanks to...

John Schroeder for linking to my recent messages on Christians and Work.

Pastor Jeff for linking to my ruminations on Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State football so far this season.

Joe Gandelman for mentioning my post regarding the terms lying in state and lying in repose.

About Paul Gillmor

Michael Meckler has a wonderful remembrance of Congressman Paul Gillmor, who died last week.

Day In, Day Out...

this post is the single-most visited on this blog. Any theories as to why?

This Saturday's Game Between Michigan and Notre Dame

The stakes for this coming Saturday's Michigan-Notre Dame game are much different from what many thought they'd be before the season began. Instead of being a stop on the way to a national championship, the game appears to be one of those "avoid embarrassment" contests. Whichever team loses will be a laughingstock.

That's because both the Wolverines and the Fighting Irish are off to 0-2 starts on their seasons.

Although I'm an Ohio State grad, I almost feel sorry for Michigan. In two weeks, Michigan plays Penn State, clearly the team to beat this year in the Big Ten.

About this week, a little secret: There's only one team I more consistently root against than I do Michigan. That would be Notre Dame. I'm not saying that I'm pulling for the Wolverines this week. I just won't be terribly disappointed if they do win.

A Michigan victory would have the added effect of blunting some of the perennial criticisms leveled against the Big Ten.

But it would be ridiculous to bank on Michigan this week. Their defense has been atrocious so far.

Meanwhile, Ohio State's defense played brilliantly this past Saturday, though the offense was lackluster. The Buckeyes beat the University of Akron 20-2. Clearly, the Buckeye defense is strong. But with the departure of people like Ted Ginn, Jr., Anthony Gonzalez, and Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith, the offense is in a rebuilding year.

If you have to choose between rebuilding on offense or defense, I'd choose offense. The wisdom in baseball is that homeruns fill the bleachers, but pitching wins the World Series. Similarly, in football, running up points creates excitement (and takes some pressure off the defense), but defense wins championships. In 2002, the Buckeyes won a national championship with a very good offense and an absolutely first class defense.

Will Ohio State win in the Big Ten this year? I doubt it. There's simply too much rebuilding to be done this year.

But I would never bet against Jim Tressel, Buckeye head coach, a guy who has four Division II national championships and one in Division I to his credit. He seems to have a way of grafting his quiet, unassuming confidence and constant commitment to improvement onto his players.

[See here, here, here, here, and here.]

Those Funny Church Words: DISCIPLESHIP

[This message was shared with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, during the worship celebrations on September 8 and 9, 2007.]

Joshua 24:14-18
James 2:14-19
Matthew 5:13-16
German Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who opposed Adolf Hitler in the Name of Jesus Christ and lost his life for it, wrote in his classic book, The Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him, ‘Come and die.’”

We began this series on funny church words two weeks ago with a discussion of what I consider to be the most remarkable character trait of God: His grace. Unconditionally--”while we were still sinners,” as Paul puts it in the New Testament--God sent His Son Jesus into the world so that sinners who turn away from their sin and believe in Him can live with God forever. We cannot earn God’s grace! It is truly a free gift.

And it is true that the crucified and risen Jesus calls us to new life. All who follow Jesus Christ look forward to an eternity with God!

But following Jesus also entails a willingness to crucify our sins, even to the point of parting with old ways of thinking and living. Jesus says, “If you save your life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake and the gospel’s, you will keep it.”

When drug addicts, alcoholics, or people suffering from addictions like pornography, gambling, food, purging, or whatever, decide that they must get rid of the addictions around which they’ve built their lives, a kind of daily dying begins. In just the same way, each day, in order to be truly alive, we who believe in Jesus Christ and are addicted to sin, must, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, submit again to Jesus Christ.

We must allow the old self to die so that the new self, the God self, the person God made in His own image, can begin to emerge from the dust and muck of sin and death. This daily dying to self and re-submission to Christ so that His grace can do its work is what the Bible calls discipleship.

There are several major ingredients to discipleship. I want to talk about just five of them today.

To understand the first and most obvious, picture a young couple about to be married. Neither the bride or the groom can know what the years will bring. All they know for sure is that they love one another and want to always be together. And so they make promises to one another. As time passes, they may not always keep those promises. They may hurt one another. Sometimes the broken promises and the hurts will be so large that they can only be healed by repentance and forgiveness. But they can make it as long as they both realize that the marriage only begins with the words, “I do.”

Discipleship involves a similar commitment and understanding. It starts with surrender to Christ and with a commitment to daily surrender every day of our lives.

Once, as we read in one of our Bible lessons for today, the Old Testament leader Joshua gathered the people of Israel together and told them to choose whether they were going to surrender to God or not. Then he told them, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Just as every married couple begins their relationship with one another with the words, “I do,” every Christian begins the journey of discipleship when they make the commitment entailed in saying, “I believe!”

To understand a second element of discipleship, picture a doctor freshly graduated from medical school. She gets an office, fills it with equipment, and hires an assistant and a receptionist. But then, she won’t see any patients, make any appointments, or attach herself to any hospital. She’s a doctor; the certificate on the wall says so. But can she really be thought of as a doctor if she doesn’t practice medicine? Probably not.

In our second lesson, James, the earthly brother of Jesus and a leader of the first century church, said that, “Faith without works is dead.” Discipleship is all about practicing our faith.

It means living in daily communication with God by reading His Word and praying.

It means seeking God’s guidance for our decisions and actions.

It means repenting for our sin and seeking God’s renewal for living differently.

Being a disciple isn’t about holding membership in a church, although every disciple needs to be part of a church. It’s about a commitment to living our faith, however imperfectly we all do that.

Third: Discipleship involves following the God we meet in Jesus Christ exclusively. What would happen to a football player who went out onto the field with chains and two-hundred pound weights slapped around his wrists and ankles? It’s doubtful he’d have a very good game. You can bet that fairly soon, he'd either lose the weights and chains or head for the locker room.

God wants to give us His love and power for today and forever. But often, we can’t receive those things because we’re weighed down. Our weights may be worry, sin, work, obligations, illness, ambitions, or whatever. We can so rely on these things, that we don’t rely on God. But Jesus tells us, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Disciples seek to empty their hands of all the things that vie for first place in their lives so that they can cling to Christ alone!

A fourth ingredient of discipleship, one I’ve already touched on, is simply, spending time with Christ. Charles Darwin, famous for his book The Origin of Species, began his life as a Christian. Later, he became an agnostic, uncertain of God’s existence. As an older man, Darwin wrote to a friend that his mind was a “withered leaf to everything except science.” He told this friend that he no longer could even enjoy hearing Handel’s Messiah, the stirring piece about Christ, despite the fact that in his younger years, he had loved it. Darwin had allowed Jesus Christ to be crowded out of his life.

Our lives can be crowded too. Family, work, errands, friends, taking care of our houses and yards, vacations, kids sports, concerts: All these things and more can fill our days. None of them are bad, of course. But to have the energy for them, we need more than just a good night’s sleep. We need to take the time to read God’s Word, to pray, and to let Christ recharge our batteries.

During the Tuesday night Bible study this past week, we agreed that one thing that points to the power of God’s Word is that we often can find the time to veg out in front of the television, work the crossword puzzle, leaf through a magazine, or play video games. But we can’t find the time to include a few minutes of Bible reading or prayer in our busy days. It’s as though the devil, the world, or our sinful selves make it easier to spend time in trivial pursuits and tough to find the time to do the thing we most need and crave: being with God.

Martin Luther, at a time when he was chief administrator of more than ten monasteries, taught at a university, served as parish pastor, and a prolific, if unpaid, best-selling author, told a friend, “I have too much to do each day to pray less than three hours every morning.”

When you pray and read God’s Word and how long you pray and read God’s Word is less important than that, like Luther, you do pray and read the Word each day.

Over the course of this summer, as we’ve been joined by thousands of other Christians praying with and for us, we at Friendship have seen just how much God does through the prayers of His people. As Jim and I were remarking last Saturday, “Whoever heard of a church gaining attendance, members, and giving in the summer months?” But it happened this summer at Friendship! That’s the sort of thing that can happen when disciples spend time with God!

Finally, disciples share their faith with others. Remember the four challenges that Mike gave to us on June 3?

Updating them a bit for this autumn season, I believe that they should continue to challenge Friendship:

(1) Pray for our church, seeking God’s guidance;
(2) Maintain strong participation in the church. (Something that needs to continue in the fall.)
(3) Maintain strong giving, giving prayerful consideration to the Biblical model for giving, the tithe, designating the first 10% of our income to God’s purposes; AND
(4) Invite others to worship.

Disciples want others to know Christ, too. As Rick Warren says, "The church that doesn't want to grow is telling the world to go to hell." My prayer is--and will continue to be--that Friendship will always be a congregation intent on sharing Christ with others, that the people of Friendship will always let the light of Christ shine brightly in their lives!

A soapmaker, back in the days when there were soapmakers, convinced that there was nothing to Christianity, approached a pastor, who was teaching a group of children one day. “Pastor,” he said, “how can you say that this church stuff is worth anything when there’s so much suffering, evil, and hypocrisy in the world? What good are all the sermons and books you people produce?” The pastor motioned to a small child, “This is Eric. He’s three years old. I ask you, what good is soap when Eric and hundreds of children like him are dirty? How can you pretend that soap is effective?” “That’s stupid,” the soapmaker responded. “If soap is to be effective, it has to be used.” “Exactly,” said the pastor. “If Christianity is to be effective, it must be used.”

Discipleship is “using” our faith in Jesus Christ in the best sense of that verb. It entails:

• surrendering to Christ;
• practicing our faith in Christ;
• flushing our lives of all that distracts us from following Christ;
• spending time with Christ; and
• sharing our faith in Christ with others.
  

Speaking as one forgiven sinner to others this morning, I tell you forthrightly that there are many times when I fail as a Christian. But the title to which I most aspire in all the world and the one to which I hope you most aspire is simple: disciple--follower, student--of Jesus Christ.

So, Does It Matter Whether We Say That Bodies 'Lie in State' or 'Lie in Repose'?

That's the question that hit me after I wrote this post.

In the end, I suppose, it doesn't much matter. The deceased is just as dead, whatever term we use.

The Old Testment prophet Isaiah, who lived seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, said:

All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. (see Isaiah 40:6-8)

He goes on to say:

The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

God's Word to the human race has ultimately and definitively been spoken in Jesus Christ. That Word is an affirmation of God's love for us, in spite of our sin, and a promise that all who renounce their sin and believe in Jesus Christ will live with God forever. When that happens, the powerful, affirming Word of God works life in us--a life that lasts forever:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Years before his presidency, Abraham Lincoln wrote:

The death of a president may not be without its use in reminding us that we too must die. Death is the same with the high as with the low. But we are not so much roused by the fall of the many and distinguished as we are by that of well known name. By the latter, we are forced to muse and ponder.

Lincoln is right, I think. To this day, the casket of a President, whether its remains are referred to as lying in state or in repose, can remind us of our own mortality and of our need for the God we meet in Jesus Christ, the One Who imbues this life with meaning and promises the free gift of infinite tomorrows with Him, that's a good thing.

Death without Christ is futile. Death for those who believe in Christ erases futility in this life and in the one to come.