Theolog

Ghost’d up

By Jason Byassee

When Jeremiah Wright of Trinity UCC in Chicago lectures about preaching, he gets down to the specifics: like how inadequate every preacher, even he, can feel sometimes. One day he was to preach after one his homiletical heroes, Charles Adams, pastor of the great Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit. Wright and his preacher-father had a habit of calling each other the night before they were to preach to ask each other this question: “You Ghost’ed up?” That is, are you full of the Holy Ghost, ready to preach tomorrow? The night before Wright was to preach after Adams, the quick and easy answer to his dad was, “No.”

Charity tourism

By Amy Frykholm

When one of our volunteers left for the day’s run to Safeway he saw a man outside taking photographs of our 125 year-old church. “Don’t just stand there,” the volunteer told him, “Do something. We’re working on a meal in there for our soup kitchen.” “Oh, you have a soup kitchen!” the man said. “I make soup for our soup kitchen in Georgia.” We fixed him up with a cutting board, a knife and a pot. We found a package of deer meat in the freezer and gave him the pick of the vegetables. Then he was “off and running,” carefully chopping, stirring and tasting vegetable deer soup, Georgia-style.

As we volunteers worked next to each other, we asked the questions that soup kitchen people ask: How many do you serve? Where does your food come from? Who are your volunteers? Who are the people who come to eat? Do you allow preaching at the tables?

Blogging toward Sunday

By Jo Bailey Wells
Jeremiah 2:4-13; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14
Sunday, September 2

Along my office hallway a sign has been mysteriously posted: HOSPITALITY NOT HOSTILITY. Apart from the fact that I find capital letters extremely inhospitable, the sentiment seems apt, and leads me into thinking about Hebrews 13.

How often have I mistaken angels for strangers? At what point did Mary identify her intruder as Gabriel during the annunciation? (Gabriel is not recorded as introducing himself to Mary). And, if an angel is an emissary from God—in both Hebrew and Greek the term simply translates as messenger—do we need to identify the stranger as an angel, or is the message rather about recognizing and receiving a word of grace from God through the encounter?

Defending the prosperity gospel

By Jason Byassee

Good Sense Ministries out of Willow Creek, Crown Financial Ministries, and radio host Dave Ramsey all insist they are not preaching the prosperity gospel: they are using biblical principles to help people struggling with consumer debt. They’ve had terrific success, yet media coverage of them has raised few critical questions. I try both to praise and criticize them here. Letters to the editor and web conversation about the article have leapt to the defense of these ministries, and then overshot to defend the prosperity gospel itself: see the conversation at Titus Online.

Surely it’s a good thing to help parishioners to get out of crushing credit card debt. But surely it’s too simple to say, “Save 10 percent, tithe 10 percent, and everything will be fine.” If those in trouble could do those things, they would. Further, Jesus didn’t need to rise from the dead to make it work. Right?

How to study Luke?

By Debra Bendis

Our congregation is on the verge of an all-church study of Luke. Usually it’s been potluck in our congregation, with one class reading the lectionary texts, a woman’s group reading inspirational books, the Sunday school studying a book of the Bible and another group watching a DVD on the Old Testament. This fall, our goal is to engage as many members as possible in one central biblical text. We are rejecting for now using a formal curriculum (which would demand more training, money and scheduling), although we’re hoping that the Lukan study might lead to an increased demand for such studies.

The dreaming life

By Richard A. Kauffman

I had a dream last night about the word “blandishment.” Only an editor, I suppose, could dream about a word. I had to look it up this morning. It means “speech given to flattery or cajoling.” Since I always pay attention to my dreams, I asked myself: Why this word? What flattery have I been dishing out or receiving that has some significance? So far, I’ve not come up with an interpretation of this dream.

Several weeks ago I had another dream about an old high school friend who I hear from once in awhile via email. In the dream we were studying together, helping each other to prepare for a test. Several days later, out of the blue, he wrote to tell me he had just taken an exam for certification in his profession. Mere coincidence?

Blogging toward Sunday

By Jo Bailey Wells
Jeremiah 1:4-10; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17
Sunday, August 26

When friends gave birth last fall to Lydia, she was normal and healthy. But three months later the seizures began, and she was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, Aicardi Syndrome. Now she clings to life precariously. In preparing for her death, her parents asked me for funeral resources, and I suggested Jeremiah 1:4-10. As with Jeremiah, so (I believe) with Lydia: the word of God assures us she is known, formed, consecrated, appointed.

Is it easier to acknowledge God’s remarkable work of creativity and purpose with a “normal” child than with a Lydia? This text suggests that God acts intentionally with a fetus: that the work of “knitting” begins even before choosing the yarn, the stitch and the needles. In the case of Lydia, God did not carelessly skip a gene or lose a stitch.

As it turns out, Lydia has proved something of a prophet.

Hunger for Wisdom

By David Heim

After a number of his parishioners admitted to him that they sometimes attended the megachurch in the suburbs, a tall-steeple pastor decided to check out the competition. He found the music insipid, as he expected. He was surprised to find that the sermon was, well, boring. Instead of engaging the rich texts of scripture, the preacher offered a Power Point outline of seven Christian principles for living.

A few weeks later, the pastor had a chance to ask one of his parishioners what he liked about the sermons at the megachurch. The parishioner responded: “They offer Christian principles for living.”

The virtues of going creedless

By Bob Cornwall

In an earlier Theolog post, Jonathan Marlowe lamented the seeming abandonment of the creeds by fellow Methodists who sang that God is bigger than the creeds. Marlowe found their sentiment cavalier and lacking in substance.

My denominational family prides itself on going “creedless.” We once proudly chanted to the world: “No Creed but Christ; No book but the Bible.” Casting off all the encrustations of tradition, founder Thomas Campbell declared his independence of divisive creeds and joined John Locke, hoping to unite a divided church by embracing a simple Christianity. He chose Peter’s confession of faith: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Since it was good enough for Jesus, we believe, surely it’s good enough for us today.

Blogging toward Sunday

By Jo Bailey Wells
Isaiah 5:1-7; Hebrews 11:29-12:2, Luke 12:49-56
Sunday, August 19

I was teaching a class on Isaiah and we had reached chapter 40,”Every valley shall be exalted.” A student piped up, “So Isaiah borrowed these words from Handel?” He was reading the Old Testament in the light of “new” history. In Isaiah I find it hard not to read the Old Testament in the light of the new—the New Testament, that is. Such a re-reading is fitting as long as we first allow the Old Testament to speak for itself.

Football chaplain

By John Colatch

For as long as I can remember, I’ve resisted mixing religion and sports. Whether it’s football teams reciting the Lord’s Prayer after a game or chaplains in clerical collars sitting on the bench during basketball games, I watch with a skeptical eye. Do folks really think God has the time or interest to devote to a sports competition? At the small college where I once served as chaplain, I refused to follow tradition and offer a prayer over the public address system before every home football game. Instead, I offer a challenge to the teams and fans to exemplify good sportsmanship.

So those who know me cannot help but smile whenever they hear me referred to as the “football chaplain.”

Where in the world is David Heimann?

By Amy Frykholm

Today David Heimann is in Uganda. Tomorrow he will be in Nigeria, or Ghana, Senegal and Brazil on a trek to visit 365 Catholic parishes around the globe. As the the director of Ad Sodalitatem, he is traveling throughout 2007 to promote solidarity among Catholics and to highlight the realities of poor people everywhere.

His writings are occasionally raw and often colorful and insightful. When I drop in on his blog to find out where he is and what he is seeing and hearing, I’m rarely disappointed. In June, for example, he traveled to an Israeli border town.

Blogging toward Sunday

The Father’s pleasure
By Stan Wilson
Luke 12.32-40
Sunday, August 12

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms.”

To hear this strangely beautiful instruction addressed to us and not to somebody else requires some imaginative work. To begin, we will need to learn how to hear the scriptures as a church rather than as a collection of individuals. Jesus is talking to a gathered community of followers. He isn’t telling me to sell my possessions; he’s talking us. This will require hard work. We do not yet know how to hear collectively, as one body.

Blogging toward Sunday

By William H. Willimon
Luke 12:32-40
Sunday, August 12

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus begins with the comforting word: “Do not be afraid!” Elsewhere, he has told us not to be afraid in the middle of a raging storm, or in the dark of night, or when he confronts us like a ghost after resurrection. Here, however, our fear is connected to our “possessions,” our “purses” and “treasure.” Then he adds a command: “Sell your possessions and give alms.”

Radical pastoral care

By Jason Byassee

“You did what?” a pastor said to the couple in his office. “You expect me to believe that? Are you kidding me?”

The two had just come in to announce they were leaving their spouses to be with one another. Suddenly decades of fidelity and a pair of families were wrecked. Yet the pastor managed to remain a nonanxious presence   . . .until one of them said, “I finally feel free to be me.”

Then the pastor let loose. “Are you kidding me? What a bunch of crap!”

This pastor is a gregarious, front porch-sitting, tall tale-telling Texas preacher who loves pastoral care. But once in a while he can’t help himself: he tells somebody what he’s really thinking.