MUSINGS

Is blogging just another example of our horridly narcissistic culture?

Do you think Michael Jackson is guilty?

I watched Napolean Dynamite -- I laughed, I laughed and I laughed.

The church is not, never was and never will be perfect -- this side of the kingdom of God.

Killians is good cheap beer -- not good beer, good CHEAP beer.

I like being bourgeous, middle class, white bread, normal.

My ancestors would probably disown me for being an Anglican Priest (I am welsh and scots-irish -- the only good englishman is a dead englishman!!)

Having four kids makes you tired all the time.

My wife is going to Washington DC today -- she will be on the hill. Now when people ask me where Trudi is I can so, "Oh, yes, well - she is on the hill."

Cheers.

LENT AS A SEASON OF GRACE III

"You're teaching me ...aaahhh
Your love is teaching me ...aaaah
How to kneel
Kneel"

"Vertigo"
from How To Dismantle and Atomic Bomb
by Bono and The Edge


This little snippet from U2's new song "Vertigo" captures the notion I've been pondering lately. The goal of lent is that we would be more faithful disciples of Jesus -- i.e., that we would kneel. The thing that teaches to do that is God's prodigous love. We love because he first loved us.

I don't know what experiences provide the backdrop to this song. Like most good art, U2's music is not meant to be a literal recount a story or idea, but to evoke feelings and sensibilities. Intended or not though, this phrase, "your love is teaching me how to kneel" is a great theme for lent. We live more deeply as true worshippers because we have a greater vision of the extravaant love of God.

Cheers.

SOUP SUPPER CLUB

Trudi and I have decided to start a Soup Supper Club. It will be a once a month event. Anyone and everyone we know -- from church, work, neighborhood, school, etc. -- will have an open invitation. Just bring something to share. The goal? Eat soup, make friends and have fun. We love being hospitable, we love meeting people and we would love for people from all the different orbits we are part of to meet each other. I think it will be fun.

First Soup Supper will be the 2nd Friday of March -- everyone is invited.

Cheers!

LENT AS A SEASON OF GRACE II

I read a blogpost recently on how Thomas Cranmer -- the Archbishop of Canterbury who was at the center of the English Reformation -- appropriated the doctrine of jusification by faith for the English church. Where Luther found the doctrine to a balm of relief for his conscience stricken soul, Cranmer found the doctrine to be an engine for holiness. In justification, one learns that God loves and accepts sinners (that would be people like you and me). This love and acceptance from God is the basis for the trust that enables one to give one's self fully to God.

Ashley Null, an Episcopal priest from Kansas writes the following:

Cranmer’s thinking went something like this. A sense of duty, the fear of punishment, even guilt for failure - none of these have the power to enable us to make lasting changes in our behavior. The only way to say “no” to sin permanently is to love God more. Consequently, only true love for God in a Christian’s heart will produce a life marked by good works. But how does one kindle a love for God that is stronger than one’s own self-centeredness? That, of course, is the heart of the matter.

According to the Bible, we love God because he first loved us. As a result, Cranmer realized that the key to a godly life is appreciating how much God loves us. And that’s where Luther’s teaching on Paul comes in. Cranmer decided that only knowing God loves us, as we are, a mixed bag of good and bad impulses and intentions, only being assured of salvation despite our ongoing shortcomings because of his incomprehensible love shown on the cross, only that kind of divine gracious love can ever inspire in fallen humanity the deep abiding love for God which leads to real lasting repentance. In Luther’s teaching of free and certain salvation in Christ, Cranmer at last found a clear and compelling description of the wonderfully unconditional love of God for unworthy humanity.

Therefore, at the heart of Anglicanism is a protestant confidence in the power of God’s prodigal love to fulfill the catholic vision of making all things new, including the wayward human heart.


Cheers.