Why not stay home on Sunday?

I've been encouraged to think through and write out my "story" of why I go to church. Do I go to church for any reason that I could tell somebody else? Suppose I want to invite my next door neighbor to join us in church. Why would anyone want to come with me? Maybe my understanding why I go would help me understand. This was a One Prayer assignment that was given on Wednesday and now it's rotated off the page. (A reason that that website is very aggravating) But it's taken me all this time to think about it.

I go to church because it's refreshing. When I go to work I feel as if I am subject to judgment. I also feel that way at parties. At church I feel smart enough, good enough, and doggone it, people like me! And I find I like the people I'm with in the same way.

At church I'm with people who are deeply concerned about the state of the world, and not afraid, or shy, or too self-conscious to say so. We either share our sorrows there, or we let go of our petty grievances as we concentrate on the problems of others'. We also share our victories and pleasures. I don't hear any "top this" stories either, although I suppose they have to happen from time to time.

I go to church because it puts my world in order. I need the regular reminder of who is in charge (God) and who is not (me). The attitude of worship does this better than anything. You could tell me God is important, but I don't feel it unless I'M telling God that God is important.

I go to church because I like God, I'm sure He likes me, and it's a great place to affirm that with others who feel the same way. I go to church because I want to please God, and I'm sure He wants me to grow, and it's a great place to grow with others who feel the same way.

My worlds converge!

My son and grandson are big Colbert fans and I've been reading and listening to NT Wright. NTW doesn't seem too comfortable in Colbert's comedy format - maybe nobody told him it was a fake news show. But I'm pleased he was there.

Friend in an old fashioned setting

That's me in the middle ... at least it should be.

I played music with Connie today. Hopefully the first in a series of musical events. Tonight we were on my front porch with fireflies. Weather permitting, it's a great place to meet. And we can attract others as we did tonight. I sure hope we get another musician to sort of "thicken" our sound.

Connie and I prayed for each other to have success in our job searches. Connie's been interviewing. I really would like a job at a particular nearby middle school.

Today I found it easy to be grateful and enjoy God gifts, even in the midst of discomfort.

vegetables

One of my favorite things about living on the eastern shore is the summer vegetables. I picked up my CSA share yesterday and am fortunate (unemployed) enough to have time to sort and clean them for an hour this morning. I've got a few meals worth of wax and green beans, a head of lettuce, 3 medium zucchini, more than a few meals of tiny red potatoes, a bunch of beets and a bunch of young carrots. I plan to juice the beets and carrots (and save the pulp for soup?). All organic. So far, I've found these vegetables to be several times as tasty as those from the store OR from a roadside stand. I'm looking forward to Tomato Time!

Today with one prayer is pray for pastor day, Mr. and Mrs. both.

Tuesday one prayer

Daily Devotion June 17: Fasting Focus: Miracles

Today, Tuesday, I am in prayer and fasting (no meat, no sugar) for my local church's diversity. I pray that our attendance will double and that our racial, economic, and cultural diversity will increase. I pray that we will challenge and excite each other with new insights and understandings. And let this excitement be a testimony to the God who makes this miracle possible.

Today's devotional emphasizes these elements of prayer: Audacity, Accuracy, Action.
The Accuracy reminds me of the teacher thing of making objectives measurable.

One prayer Monday

June 16: What Did God Do in Your Church?

We had communion in spirit. So much so in spirit that I almost forgot the bread and juice which we also shared. We used a video sermon which connected us with the Christian world at large, and members of the congregation pointed out our connection with area churches.

One prayer message

We watched this in this morning's worship service. I thought it was worth posting.

kidneys

I responded to a blog post about the heart being the place where we experience feelings. I commented that I recalled it mentioned as being the kidneys. I was challenged to look it up and I find that I was partly right.

kidneys at seat of emotions

And here's a little commentary by a Christian man who seems to be really into the Klingon language!
mu''a'vo' mu' - A Klingon Word from the Word: Down in my.... Kidney?

And here's a medically oriented article on
The Metaphorical use of "Kidney"

Abstract

While the Syrians and the Arabs viewed the liver as the center of life, the kidneys, in contrast, held a primary place of importance in Israel. In Hebrew tradition, they were considered to be the most important internal organs along with the heart. In the Old Testament most frequently the kidneys are associated with the most inner stirrings of emotional life. But they are also viewed as the seat of the secret thoughts of the human; they are used as an omen metaphor, as a metaphor for moral discernment, for reflection and inspiration. This field of tension in metaphoric usage is resolved under the conception of the kidneys as life center. In the Old Testament the kidneys thus are primarily used as metaphor for the core of the person, for the area of greatest vulnerability. For us today, this metaphorical use of the kidneys has lost its meaning. One reason for its disappearance is certainly the monopoly of causal-analytic rationality in science of today. The kidney has developed from myth to organ, and with this transition a variety of perspectives and ways of looking at knowledge inherent in imaginative thought have been lost. But the metaphor uncovers a deeper level of truth, it represents another form of reconstruction of reality which needs not necessarily be subordinate to the scientific rationality. Today as well, these imaginative ideas can provide an approach to an essential level of reality which may otherwise remain hidden.

My poor friend in the pool

I look forward to seeing my friend in the pool these days. He's gotten less shy and more willing to talk about things that really matter to him. But today I think I blew him away. He made a small comment about developmentally disabled adults having "a free ticket to heaven" and I let him have it with both barrels. Now I didn't want to blow him away ... I just have a raw nerve when one is talking about the salvation of people with cognitive or mental disabilities.

I am a Christian today partly because I was brought to church by people with developmental disabilities. I was even baptized in a pool WITH a disabled woman because I had to stay in the water to hold her helmet. And I've known d.d. adults long enough and well enough to know they are sinners in need of salvation just like the rest of us. Someone saying that someone is "child-like" is simply wrong ... and doesn't know the mind of children very well either.

So I've challenged my fellow swimmer to come up with the Biblical reference. He currently insists that there's a verse about God protecting the feeble minded. Using BibleGateway, I haven't found it.

I guess this mindset angers me so much because it allows folks to forget the cognitively challenged. It also perpetuates the primary importance of being intellectually and theologically correct in one's religious point of view. I take great comfort in knowing that I am saved by Christ even though I'm theologically muddle headed.

BTW we got on the topic because I was saying that I judged a person's character on whether or not the developmentally disabled or the mentally ill in the congregation felt comfortable speaking with them. If I saw B... or T... avoid someone, no matter how sweet the person seemed to be, I figured B or T knew who was genuinely approachable.

One prayer on Thursday

Thursday: How can we pray for each other? Share requests with each other, and lift each other up in prayer.

I think I'll use a church directory - two, from my old church and new.

Request: I would ask everyone who reads this to pray that I can find a job that pays my living expenses.

Wednesday one prayer

Wednesday: What is your One Prayer? If you could pray one prayer for the Church, what would it be?

Before I accepted Christ as my savior, teacher, Lord, and friend, I was sort of a fuzzy new-age pantheist. And before that I was a Baha'i. As I Baha'i, I felt I had the key to world unity and peace. All we needed was for everyone to become Baha'i! I have come to believe that not everyone will agree on a religion. God draws each believer in the way that is right and timely for her. And some will never be believers at all.
Still, my prayer for the Church is unity. Not that we all think the same way. I can see by the one prayer responses so far that we have very different slants. But let's accept the diversity in the Christian body and remember that Christ is the head.

Tuesday's one prayer activity

Tuesday: We will fast together and pray for salvations. Go to the website to write the first name of someone you are praying will come to know Christ.If you can't fast, you might devote an hour to praying for salvations by sacrificing your time from the TV or another activity.

According to Baptist theology, Gareth is saved already, but I'll pray for him anyway.
I also want to pray for Anne, a dear internet friend, and Lena, a neighbor.
I'll fast from sweets, meat, movies and drama.

One prayer activity

Monday: What did God do in your Church? Share what God is doing in your church and celebrate with other believers.

I'm new to my church. I've blogged a lot about good things in my former church, particularly in the diversity of its membership. Today's exercise gives me opportunity to say what I've noticed about my new church. Like with my old church, the good qualities are so natural they are almost taken for granted.

1. Gender equality - Men and women seem to take on equally important roles in the way things are run. There doesn's seem to be any sense of one gender being in charge of the "important" decisions. It helps that we have two pastors of two genders.

2. Naturalness - We have clapping and swaying during musical worship ... not because we are supposed to, but because it seems natural. Some people stand, some people sit, and some people do both when their arthritis acts up. Children act naturally too. We are truly encouraged to dress the way we want to dress. I had balked about an emphasis on "casual" that had been mentioned in the website, but in practice, all modes of dress, up or down, are acceptable.

3. We are blessed with some true servants who make our new worship center a very beautiful, welcoming and comfortable place. These people are hard to identify because they are humble too.

Projects for the week

First I'll be part of the week of One Prayer in which our church is participating. Every day has a special focus. I'll be posting here about it.

I'm also participating in a study on Shelfari of J I Packer's Knowing God.

I'll be getting the technical bugs out of my coming Go class I hope to be teaching. (If enough sign up.)
I'll be studying cellular biology for the remedial class I'll be teaching.
I hope to have more time for swimming too.

Wish I'd have said that

I wish I could repeat good ideas I've heard, but my summarizing skills seem to be lacking. Today while treading water in the physical therapy pool a fellow treader started up a conversation. Rather out of the blue, it seemed, about the state of American education. I'm inclined to disagree with anything that includes the phrase "what's going wrong in American ..." even when I agree with it! I did my level best to be agreeable, especially since the fellow hasn't jumped into any kind of conversation in the past and I suspect that conversation doesn't come easy for him. Well, in the course of what was becoming a stimulating conversation, I wanted to tell him what NT Wright had been saying about heaven ... or more accurately, what NT had been saying was NOT heaven. So my friend said "Like what?" and I was stumped. Couldn't remember a thing. Still it was a great starter conversation and I hope we have many more.


I'm missing praise music practice again tonight. I spent some time last night finding the chords and lyrics and listening to the tunes. Bought some new guitar strings this evening. Got to the church early to wait, and then, bam, my energy level crashed and I drove home and went to bed. Boy I hate it when I just poop out.

What's the alternative to doing laundry?

Before church this morning, I loaded my car for laundry, but the prospect of laundry was unbearable after church and I headed home. So I think that today's more cerebral. I started out the day early with discussion questions on Shelfari for chapter I of J I Packer's Knowing God. A few of my responses were lost into cyber space because I pushed the wrong button.

When I came home I watched the ending of the movie Time Out - which was very French and very moody and I gave it five stars (out of five). The actor Aurelien Recoing resembles Kevin Spacey in that he has a receding hairline, expressive eyes and dimples.

Then I tried yet another time to read N.T. Wright's article on Heaven that appeared in Christianity Today a while ago. I found it too difficult for me to follow, so I spent a few hours on the web reading related interviews, blogs, Wiki articles, and a few detours. What I've got so far is that I was right to distrust "Left Behind" popular theology and the LifeWay Sunday School drivel I've heard. But what Wright describes as a replacement is still confusing to me. I have images of myself picking arguments during funerals.

Now I'm watching a video from the National Cathedral. Wright is speaking about his book Simply Christianity. It is a lot easier for me to understand Wright's speaking than his writing. He uses a lot of commas in his speech and his writing, and they are a lot easier to follow with body language. (I add this later: It is an hour long, but it is a very worthwhile lecture!)

Well, now I still have to face molecular biology and my laundry.