Marley was Dead and Jesus was Hungry

There is no doubt that Marley was dead.  This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. 

The big themes or the beauty of literature is usually lost on me. That being said though; the above two lines from the first chapter of Dickens' A Christmas Carol are some of my favorite in literature. Dickens spends his first few paragraphs detailing the fact that Jacob Marley (played memorably by this goof) is dead; dead as a door-nail, gone for quite a while. He goes to such lengths because if you doubt that Marley was dead, then the rest of the story loses its wonder; its oomph.

This Lenten season I've been struck by two lines in the gospel of Matthew.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (ESV)

After not eating for 40 days, Jesus was hungry. When you read it in isolation it seems like such an understatement. My stomach is growling now, barely three hours after my last meal. He's not just hungry, he is famished, literally, he is craving food.

We, especially those of us who call ourselves Evangelicals, tend to pass right by this simple statement . We are in such a hurry to show that Jesus is divine, that he is the Son of God who came to die for our sins that we often forget that Jesus was hungry, just as we would be after 40 days with no food. Maybe this is why Lent is often downplayed in Evangelical churches.

We need to stop, we need this to sink in, we need to make sure this idea is stuck into our skulls, that it jumps out at us from the text, because if we don't grasp that Jesus was hungry, then the rest of this story doesn't make any sense. This story, like Dickens' with a living Marley would lose its wonder and its oomph.

If Jesus was hungry, then he could really be tempted by the Devil's offer of fresh loaves of bread; then his desires could be bent into taking up the Devil's dare to leap off a tall building, or into taking the bait of  bowing his knee for wealth and power. We all know that we can do uncharacteristic things when we're hungry. In short, if Jesus was hungry, he was human.

That's the beauty of observing Lent. It reminds us that Jesus was human, and no time is it more obvious then the 40 days he spends fasting in the wilderness. I was speaking to someone recently who is a non-practicing Roman Catholic. He mentioned that he likes the idea of saints (and has a few necklaces with medals of saints that are related to his way of life). I asked him what he likes about 'his' saints, and he said he likes their accessibility, that they are 'real' people. There's a longer discussion about saints that is best left for another time, but you see, this is what we are left with if you breeze by Matthew's statement that Jesus was hungry.

It was also in Jesus' humanity that he overcame the Devil's temptations. He didn't scare off the Devil with some extravagant divine fireworks coming from his fingers. No, he countered the Devil's scripture laced lies with a more wholistic picture of what the scripture teaches. Perhaps that is what we should be about this Lent, imitating Jesus' time in the wilderness, by taking up a thoughtful reading of scripture. Not sure where to start? How about reading an entire book of the bible in one sitting. It can be done. Bounce your understanding of them off of others in the Church. Let the scriptures build up inside of you. 

The Wing and I: Moving Forward

My latest posts on this blog (nearly a year ago) were lighthearted thoughts about the weather, the Super Bowl, and languages (beside English) that are spoken in the UK. I made a one sentence mention of our concern about my ordination situation in the Church of England, but left it at that.

After March 13, things started to fall apart in that regard. My CoE discernment process (whether they wanted to ordain me or not) unravelled pretty quickly. It was discovered that there were going to be some issues in getting us a visa that would allow me to start my training. We initially thought it was going to be something that just need some extra creativity on our part to reach a solution. With the help of some folks at Cranmer Hall in Durham we were able to be extra creative in designing a course of study that would satisfy the UK Border Agency's requirements, and in theory the study requirements of my sponsoring diocese.

We prayed and brain stormed and came up with an even more creative solution. We were schedule to meet and discuss it with our vicar and the diocese on May 9th at 2pm, Erica's due date being May 12th. When Erica woke up early May 9th in labour, it looked like we'd have to cancel the meeting, but Rory came quick and after seeing Erica stitched up and in a recovery room, I went straight off to Canterbury.
There, we were told that they would not agree to our solution, and thus we would be moving back to the US in approximately 8 weeks time.

Rory's birth took a lot of the sting out of the meeting, but it was still an overwhelming day.

Our church family sent us off with a wonderful farewell party (and a new iPad) at the end of June and on the 4th of July we returned to the U.S.

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We visited my family in Ohio in July and had a wonderful visit where Rory got to meet his Ohio grandparents and we just relaxed. We went west in August and have settled down in Erica's hometown of Napa.

Our initial goal was to earn some money, pay some bills, get our feet back under us and have a long term plan by the end of the year. Our long term plan didn't develop in our original time frame, but we achieved the rest of the goal. Rory smoothly transitioned into our daily life, Erica continued doing her design work, Clive got settled into two-morning-a-week pre-school, and I went to work for Erica's dad.

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Erica's parents had started two businesses and co-owned a third. Their primary businesses are PJ's Canvas, where they make custom made awnings and Adventure Cat Sailing Charters, which takes folks out on the San Francisco Bay, and under the Golden Gate Bridge on a 55' and a 65' Catamaran Sail Boats. They've been doing awnings for over 35 years and the Catamarans for nearly 25 years.

I helped out in the businesses' shared office updating some of their procedures and trying to stream line and modernize at lot of their practices. Then Jay recruited me for his newest venture. The Wing.

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Wind+Wing Technologies is the attempt to offer a solution to two big problems, rising fuel costs and the rise in pollution. What we hope to eventually create is a wind-assisted commuter ferry in the San Francisco Bay. Currently large diesel powered ferries criss-cross the bay delivering commuters and tourists to their various destinations all while burning almost 70 gallons of diesel per hour. Our goal is the same reliable product in terms of transportation while cutting fuel consumption in half.

How are we going to do that? By putting a wing on it.

That is a trimaran with a wing on it. It's a demonstration vessel which we hope will show the effectiveness of the wing and lead to grants and investments to build a full size ferry.The wing has it's own brain with which it senses the wind and puts itself in the best position to harness the wing for maximum thrust. The vessel is wind-assisted, so we can use the engine in low wind situations and back off the engine when the wind picks up.

My current role is to monitor and troubleshoot nearly 40 sensors that are on the boat and help the captain get us on and off the dock. We're out on the bay nearly forty hours a week gathering data ranging from fuel consumption, to wind speed/direction and anything else that will be helpful.

I've learned to tie and few knots and know that on a boat you use the head and not the toilet, but I still have a ways to go, but whatever happens, it is certainly interesting.

Eugene Peterson on the Danger of Bible Reading

Eugene (Don't hold the 'Message' against me) Peterson has quietly found his way into a lot of my pre-Bishop's Advisory Panel preparatory reading. He's not known for his quotable quips so for better or worse you have a two paragraph concept to delve into. I think it's for the better, but you have to stick with it. He sums up a concern I've had for a long time that I couldn't quite verbalize; mainly that it isn't enough to tell people to read the Bible, they have to know how to read it. In the rest of Eat This Book (the text where this comes from), he flushes out how we are to read the Bible properly. I've included these paragraphs and some other insights, both from Peterson and others, on my other blog, Quotation Inspiration. Without further ado, Eugene Peterson.

 

Reading the Bible, if we do not do it rightly, can get us into a lot of trouble. The Christian community is as concerned with how we read the Bible as that we read it. It is not sufficient to place a Bible in a person's hands with the command 'Read it.' That is quite as foolish as putting a set of car keys in an adolescent's hands, giving him a Honda, and saying, 'Drive it.' And just as dangerous. The danger is that in having our hands on a piece of technology, we will use it ignorantly, endangering our lives and the lives of those around us; or that, intoxicated with the power that the technology gives us, we will use it ruthlessly and violently.

For print is technology. We pick up a Bible and find that we have God's word in our hands, our hands. We can now handle it. It is easy enough to suppose that we are in control of it, that we can use it, that we are in charge of applying it wherever, whenever, and to whomever we wish without regard to appropriateness or conditions.

There is more to the Honda than the technology of mechanics. And there is more to the Bible than the technology of print. Surrounding the machine technology of the Honda there is a world of gravity and inertia, values and velocity, surfaces and obstructions, Chevrolets and Fords, traffic regulations and the highway patrol, other drivers whether drunk or sober, snow and ice and rain. There is far more to driving a car than turning a key in the ignition and stepping on the accelerator. Those who don't know that are soon dead or maimed.

And those who don't know the conditions implicit in the technology of the Bible are likewise dangerous to themselves and others. And so, as we hand out Bibles and urge people to read them, it is imperative that we also say, caveat lector, let the reader beware.

Wow, I guess I was important

I left my job at the sporting goods store I had been at in early August. Less than two months later they were in administration (ie. Bankruptcy)

My skills as stock unpacker were obviously what was holding the company together.

It was kind of funny actually, I intended to only be at the job for a month or so until I got a 'real job'. That real job was nearly three years in the coming, and I didn't start getting as many hours as I needed until the week that JJB went under.
God certainly seemed to want me there, and I hope that while I was there I fulfilled his purposes.

TGIF! (Thank God It's Freecycle!)

Apparently I was in the right place at the right time.

I was sitting on the computer on Thursday and a batch of Freecycle e-mails popped up. I noticed that someone was giving away a bike and decided to try for it since the one I had been using was stolen a few months back. 

I e-mailed the guy and he said I was the first one to contact him so I could have it. He told me that it had been in his garage (the Brits pronounce garage like this by the way) and that all that was wrong with it was that both tyres were flat. It turns out that nothing was wrong with the back tyre (used the included pump to find that out). I had to replace the inner tube on the front tyre, but luckily had an extra tube from Erica's bike that fit.

It is a seven speed, comes with a pump that fits in between the frame, and he left the saddle bags that he had on the back which will be very useful for items that I can't fit in my messenger bag.

p.s. The picture above isn't actually my bike. I was too lazy to go take a picture and someone had sold one on a classifieds site over here and I found the picture there. Same bike though, even down to the colour.

And did those feet in ancient time...? Nope

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England’s mountains green?

And was the Holy Lamb of God

On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

And did the countenance divine

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here

Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!

Bring me my arrows of desire!

Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!

Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,

Till we have built Jerusalem

In England’s green and pleasant land.

And Did Those Feet in Ancient time is a poem by William Blake that was set to music by Hubert Parry. Jerusalem (as it is commonly called) is a patriotic song that has almost reached the level of God Save the Queen (King) as England's national anthem. In fact many English prefer it to GStQ. It seems to me that one of the reasons for this preference is that Jerusalem excludes those other parts of Great Britian that the English aren't so fond of (see: Scotland, N. Ireland, Wales, etc)

I find the song itself to be a fantastically mesmorising tune, full of gravitas. But then there's the unfortunate inclusion of the words to the song.

Blake's words were inspired by the apocraphyl story that Jesus, accompanied by Joseph of Arimathia (his uncle as the story goes) visited England in the years between the story of Jesus visiting the temple at the age of twelve and then starting his ministry at the age of thirty. This story, like the stories of Jesus visiting the Buddha and Jesus visiting the Native Americans (ala Mormanism) are complete rubbish, but it seems to be one of those things that people like to believe and towns like Glastonbury have taken advantage for tourism and religous purposes.

So in short, 'was Jerusalem builded here'? Nope. But if you have different lyrics to fit this powerful tune I'm all ears.

Quotation Inspiration

I had the chance to preach at our church back at the end of July and as I was preparing, I ran into a familiar problem. I needed to find illustrations, quips and quotes that would help my audience grasp my concepts.

I have these resources, but my problem is accessing them; trying to remember who said that one thing about that one topic, etc.

I came up with a solution that I hope will work. It's a blog and I've called it Quotation Inspiration. I'll let my second post explain it for you here.


If this resource would be valuable to you, I'd invite you to visit often. Or stop by if you like reading the odd quote on various Christian themes. I have some quotes backlogged that still need to go up and I'll be adding new ones as I come across them. I also have a few friends who are contributing and I'd welcome other contributors.

Black Friday

We just got home from having a Thanksgiving meal with our small group from church. It is an afternoon where we can relax, fellowship, and and take part in one of the best holidays that the United States has to offer. It is fun to watch our British friends resist the temptation to make roast potatoes and to instead mash them, to see two of our friends pulling on opposite sides of a wishbone, or watch our priest-in-charge try pumpkin pie for the first time.

Both years I have given an abridged version of the history of thanksgiving and we go around the table and share things that we are thankful for. All around it is a fun day; especially this year having homemade mulled cider.

The question I dread though is this, 'What is Black Friday?'

You see they don't have anything like it over here and the concept is foreign to them. There is not one high holy day of consumerism where people worship under the guise of preparing for one of Christianity's holiest days. It just doesn't happen. So they are shocked when I explain to them that stores/shops open at midnight and that you have to be one of the first people in the store or else you won't get the $2 toaster (that is regularly priced at $29.99). They are gobsmacked to hear that people camp outside stores for days in order to get the latest video game system or the ticklish new toy, and they don't know what to make of people pushing, shoving, and using pepper spray!?!?! to get a good deal.

My opinion of Black Friday has changed since being in England. I used to think of it as a slightly pathetic but harmless way to spend the day after Thanksgiving. I now find it to be one of the most embarrassing parts of the culture that I come from. As one of my English friends today commented, many of the people that go out are acting as strongly religious people, committed to their belief that bargain prices are worth their time and energy.

I know it is not the only 'religion' that runs amok in U.S. culture (God and I are still chatting about my fascination with professional sports) but it is one that saddens me, especially when I have to explain it to outsiders who are celebrating a day that at it's core encourages gratefulness.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I just finished Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If you have never read it, please do so. The final chapters are full of biblical allusions and the story is told very well.

One of the lines that stuck with me though is an allusion to a different ancient document; Horace's Odes. Translated the line reads;

but lame-footed Punishment rarely forgets the wicked man, despite his start.

As a church we are focusing on the prophet Amos and the thing that has really struck me hard is that punishment or judgment is a good thing. God's judgment proves that he cares about us, that he is just, and that he will right wrongs. Not only that, but God's judgment ultimately provides us with salvation, for without judgment we are left in the despair of our own created hell.

If you do decide to pick up this gem by Mr. Stevenson, please try to set aside what you might already know about the story. It makes it all the more enjoyable.

Woah!

The past two months have been a whirlwind roller coaster so we'll just have a few high (and low)lights.

+ On New Year's Eve Erica had her second scan and Clive Neubauer is a healthy growing boy ready to enter the world come mid-May.

+ Dave & Camille Ho moved back to Maidstone; we were acquaintances with Dave while we were at Moody and were astonished to find once we moved here that he was from Maidstone. He and his wife Camille just moved back. Dave and I were in the same major at Moody, and Camille and Erica were both in the communications department and they are expecting their first child in June. They have been a tremendous encouragement and help to us over the past few months.

+We spent Christmas Day with Steve & Helen Price and their daughters. Steve is the Priest-in-charge at our church and we attend the same home group. Our first Christmas over here in the Isles was tough, but a year of experience plus the Price's hospitality helped this one a lot.

+Erica has completed her final project and her thesis and just has an external examiner coming on Monday to grade her.

+We're coming back to the States for a visit on Wednesday. You probably know this already though...

+My admin job is going well. More about that later.

+Got to see Matt & Meredith Riordan (plus 13 of their teen aged friends) in London two weeks ago. Meredith was leading a Literary London J-term trip so we met up with them for an evening and enjoyed

Some not so hot news...

-Our 17 year old Nissan Micra broke down. It had been a bit rough going and we weren't sure if it would pass the next M.O.T. in May. Our transmission decided to put an end to any speculation though two weeks back, and left us on the side of the road. We have the British version of AAA and got home, but found out the car was going to cost more to fix than it was worth...
We struggled through two weeks of no car, but made an offer on a 2000 Toyota Yaris and are picking it up tomorrow. It is bittersweet as we definately were not planning on buying a car with our meager paychecks, but a couple from our church are trustees of a trust fund and that fund is giving us over half of the money we need for it!

We're Cottagers Now

Erica and I have always been soccer/football fans. We both grew up playing the sport and have followed it at various levels since. The summer we got to know each other was 2006 and we both were watching the World Cup. One of our first dates was to a Chicago Fire v. Columbus Crew MLS match in Chicago. So naturally when we decided to move to the UK deciding upon an English side to support was a priority.
Erica was pretty much open to supporting anyone barring Manchester United. I had a few more criteria that I wanted met.

• London Club
• Reasonable chance of attending a match, and affording said match.
• Not Sponsored by gambling company
• Kits manufactured by a company other than Adidas or Nike
• Have some emotional attachment to the club.

As we planned on moving over here I consulted different friends and acquaintances who followed the Premiership and asked them who they rooted for. The overwhelming majority of them vouched for Arsenal a London based club that is consistently in the top ten teams. I considered Arsenal but never felt any emotional connection to the club and quickly realized that attending a match would be nearly impossible financially.

While working at JJB, I discovered the nearest Premier League club, Tottenham Hotspur. I was intrigued. Here was a normally mid-table team that was on the rise (plus they have a cool logo). Yet my emotional attachment to Tottenham was nil.

I had become a bit frustrated. Watching the 2010 World Cup however, I recognized that there were more Usonian athletes playing in the Premier League than I had realized. My appreciation for Landon Donovan increased and I was prepared to jump on the Everton bandwagon even though they are a Liverpool based club. When the MLS declined to renew their loan of Donovan to Everton though I turned my attention to the second most prominent member of team USA Clint Dempsey. Dempsey was sold to the Premier League club Fulham for an MLS record $4 Million and last summer signed an extension with Fulham through 2013.

Here was the emotional attachment that I needed. We had a player to support, a London based team, outfitted by Kappa, Craven Cottage a fantastic old small stadium on the banks of the Thames (Think Fenway except situated in a PNC type local), and a team that while finishing in the top five just a year prior was still affordable to go see in person.

The Cottagers (after their stadium) have proved to be a very enjoyable diversion. With the season having just reached the quarter way point, Fulham sits 10th in the 20 team league and are showing signs of moving up the ladder. At the end of the year the top five teams in the league qualify for various European leagues. Two years ago Fulham finished 5th and did well in Europe. This year 5th looks possible, but unlikely. On the flip side the teams that finish 18th, 19th, and 20th get kicked out of the league and have to work their way back into the premiership. (Imagine your whole baseball team getting sent to AAA). I dare say that Fulham is regulation safe.

Clint Dempsey has turned into the leader of the team. He scored both goals in a victory yesterday and has filled in well as the main striker on a team that lost their leading scorer just a month ago to a broken leg. Erica and I saw Fulham take on and beat Port Vale 6-0 a while back in a driving rain and we'll be going back as often as we can in the future.

Bee Fightin'

"When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees."
--Abraham Lincoln

This quote used to be one of my favorites on the topic of preaching. The alleged context was someone asking President Lincoln (an normal attender of a Presbyterian church) why he often visited the local Methodist church.
I often reflected on this quote before preaching as a sort of self pep-talk to remind myself that I should be enthusiastic because that is what people who come to church want to see passion and enthusiasm.
I do not really think that anymore. When I go to church I don't look for bee fightin'. Bee fightin' can be staged and often can be used for a cover-up for poor study and preparation. I find myself being drawn more and more to a studied and thoughtful preaching of scripture that allows oneself to consider and savor the text being presented. I find the analogy of champagne helpful. Sure it is exciting to shake up a bottle and let it rip, but I would much rather open a bottle slowly and really taste what has been crafted.