Brief Thoughts on Advent, Minerals, & Time

 

Advent is the season of time.

 

Coming first in our church calendar, Advent points to times long past as well as to worlds yet to be.

 

Scientific research now tells us that even minerals "feel" time. A recent Discovery News story states that, "these seemingly static forms have evolved through the ages, just like biological life. From the 12 "primordial" minerals forged inside supernovae to the 4,300 or so mineral species known today, minerals have diversified, grown in complexity, and even been driven into extinction." (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/11/13/minerals-evolution.html)

 

In this Advent season, I pray that you take some time, however briefly, to pause and ponder the unimaginable beauty of the world around you. Find the beauty contained in a long forgotten work of art. Search for the "divine spark" dwelling deep within a favorite piece of music. Discover the "twinkle" in the eye of a beloved family member or friend.

 

As an aid and inspiration, I offer this photo and accompanying poem taken from a favorite book (Within the Stone by Bill Atkinson.)

 

Beyond The Stone   That is the labor of the jasper or the agate. It lays itself down patiently and permanently; it never asks to know its own design.   From where we stand, beyond the stones, we see patterns they cannot. A crystal lattice forms an egg. A clump of iron forms a flame.   If these minerals, in their blindness, were allowed to make such beauty, why not assume that we have been allowed to make our own?   Laura Atkinson

With Advent time Blessings…Mark+

 

PS: In case you are wondering, the photo is a magnified cross-section of the mineral, dendritic agate, from the island of Madagascar. And I highly recommend Atkinson's excellent book (Within the Stone). You can learn more about it here: http://www.billatkinson.com/Homepage.pl

Introducing Artemis Gecko

Our newest family member, Artemis Gecko, safely arrived last week. While it's gender is still a mystery, we nevertheless named it Artemis – Greek goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals. And if it turns out to be a "he," I suppose we can always point to Artemus Gordon (of The Wild, Wild West fame) as our inspiration. Either way, here's introducing Artie Gecko!

Waiting for the Gecko!

It all started with an aquarium. Years ago my wife and kids presented me with the unexpected and welcome gift of a 15 gallon aquarium. While the aquarium found a place of "honor" in our family room back in Phoenix, it never made it out of the garage here in Indianapolis – that is, until this spring!

My first idea was to fill my beloved aquarium with fish and place it in our "kid's room" at church. Wiser counsel, however, persuaded me that 15 gallons of water (not to mention wiggling, dying fish) were items neither wanted nor needed on the kid's room floor! So, in a moment of clarity and conversion, I began considering new ways of seeing the aquarium and its future inhabitant(s). And it was thus that I first discovered one of God's more beautiful creatures - Phelsuma madagascariensis grandis –
the Madagascar Giant Day Gecko.

So I now expectantly await the arrival of the newest "member" of our family. The good folks at the USPS tell me (electronically at least) that the gecko's on its way. Yes, it is still an "it" since sexual identification doesn't occur in geckos until maturity.

So I wait. And the tropical plants in our 15 gallon "terrarium" await their newest resident as well.

Stay tuned for more news and maybe even a photo or two!

Brief Ramblings on Church Music and Jesus’ Music

A Lutheran pastor and friend, John, told me the other week that the definitions for "traditional" and "contemporary" church music are "music that I like" and "music that I don't like!"

I've been thinking a lot about John's joke – partly because I think his joke is both accurate as well as funny and partly because church music is all too often not a "joking" matter to church people. How I wish it were otherwise. How I wish we were able to "joke" a little more about the many humorous aspects of church life, including our own passionate preferences for church music of both the traditional and contemporary varieties.

I've also been thinking lately about a huge "gap" in my own theological and scriptural education - regarding the place and the importance of music in Jesus' life. In all my years of reading and studying scripture and theology, I can't honestly remember anyone speaking much (or even at all) about music in first century Palestine (that is, in Jesus' time.) Was I just asleep the day of that lecture?!

Even though I don't have the facts or scholarship to prove it, I firmly believe that Jesus was a lover of music – just as he was a lover of God and humanity. I believe that Jesus recognized a good song (either traditional or contemporary!) when he heard one, and could sing with the best of them! And given his culture and proclivity for parties, I bet he could hold his own as a dancer too!

 

Brief Thoughts on Fearful Times and The Only Way Through Them.

Please choose all those which apply to you:

• I am afraid that the "end of the world" is coming soon.
  
• I am afraid that Global Warming is real and will have grave effects on our world in the years to come.
  
• I am afraid that Global Warming is false and that misguided human efforts to change the world because of Global Warming will only make matters worse in the years to come.
  
• I am afraid that the United States is in a recession which will have serious financial and societal consequences upon me and my family in the future.
  
• I am afraid that my preferred Presidential candidate will not be elected later this year.
  
• I am afraid that my preferred Presidential candidate will be elected later this year and that nothing will change.
  
• I am afraid I'm so jaded and cynical that I don't even care who wins the upcoming elections.
  
• I am afraid that my neighborhood and community are changing too rapidly.
  
• I am afraid that my neighborhood and community are not changing rapidly enough.
  
• I am afraid that the Worldwide Anglican Communion is headed for such disintegration or change that it will cease reflecting and representing my core beliefs.
  
• I am afraid that the Episcopal Church is headed for such disintegration or change that it will cease reflecting and representing my core beliefs.
  
• I am afraid that St. Matthew's Parish will change so much in the near future that it will no longer reflect my core beliefs or meet my spiritual needs.
  
• I am afraid that St. Matthew's Parish will not change rapidly enough in the near future.
  
• I am afraid I'm so jaded and cynical that I don't even care whether or how St. Matthew's Parish changes in the near future.
  

  
  

How many did you choose? Be honest. No one is looking over your shoulder. I'm guessing that you chose several (most?) of the fears listed above . And my suggested list is hardly complete. In fact, I bet you could easily add many more fears to the list without even breaking a sweat!

We live in times of great fear. While past generations have certainly shared related or similar fears, a great many respected religious and social commentators note that ours' are deeply and increasingly fearful times. And unlike past eras where the causes and sources of fear were easy to identify (the Nazis, the Communists, "those other" people, fill in the blanks…), it seems to me that it's increasingly hard to identify and name the causes and sources of our many contemporary fears.

Before we throw up our hands and beat our breasts in despair, however, I believe there is a way through our fears. The way through our fears must begin in this way – by raising our hands and bowing our heads in humble prayer.

If God truly took human flesh … If Easter means anything … if Pentecost signifies something … then as Christians we must do that which is difficult, but necessary. We must identify and name those many forces and things which frighten us, and then we must turn them over to the Risen One. In so doing, we will never stand alone. And in so doing, our fears will slowly diminish, success will inevitably come, and light will fill even the darkest corners of our once-frightened hearts.

Lest you not believe me (which is one of my many fears!), please know that the noted and highly respected Biblical scholar, Walter Brueggemann, shares similar beliefs. Brueggemann writes:

I think a case can be made that the heart of the gospel is "do not fear" … Fear is the great pathology of our society. It is the task of the church to say "do not fear," but that assurance must be grounded in a God who is trusted to be present in effective ways … Thus the church is entrusted with an antidote to the pathology of our time and place. It is not an easy assurance, but it is one that opens space for different actions and different social relationships, and so for different futures. (Reprinted from IMAGE: A Journal of Art, Faith, Mystery; #55)

So please take heart in these frightening times. Please continue (or else begin) believing the gospel message – "do not fear." And for God's sake (and ours' too), say your prayers!

In this Easter Season, it's time to take new and "different actions." In this Pentecost month, it's time to forge new and "different social relationships." As a Spirit-filled and Spirit-driven people, it's time for us to look new ways and head in different directions. And in so doing, all of us together will arrive at new and brighter futures!

Easter Glory

Brief Thoughts on The Messiah and Church Hopping - or is it Shopping?

Thanks to the extensive CD collections of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Libraries, I spent most of my driving time last week (it being Holy Week and I spending a lot of time attending meetings or visiting parishioners around the city) listening to several different recordings of Handel's legendary oratorio and musical masterpiece, The Messiah. I heard a gigantic, thundering orchestral version and a minimalist, period instrument version. Each offered unique interpretative insights. While not a musical historian, I also concluded that each recording was "faithful" to Handel's original.

Had you been driving and listening with me, I'm confident that you and I would have noticed different nuances in each recording, and that you and I probably would have chosen different recordings as favorites. Of course, neither you nor I would have been right or wrong - just different! "Different strokes for different folks," it's often said!

I also ran across a wonderful (as in wonderfully truthful) cartoon last week:

While reflecting upon the cartoon, I remembered a landmark national survey released just a few weeks earlier. The folks at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reported that nearly half (44%) of all American adults have "either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether." It seems that church hopping (or is it shopping?) is no longer an exceptional or unusual practice – church hopping (or is it shopping?) has become the norm!

As a former Roman-Catholic, I certainly fit the profile. If you look around or ask those seated beside you next Sunday, I think you'll quickly discover that St. Matthew's fits the profile too. As we move forward as a parish, and ask questions about our current as well as our desired future "life together," we need to assume that most, if not all, of those walking in our doors now and in the future will come because they haven't liked the way things were done elsewhere. And we must be honest in admitting that some in the past as well as some in the future will leave us precisely because they don't like the way things are done at St. Matthew's.

While I can't speak for you, I take great comfort in the fact that change (the dreaded "c-word") has been a fundamental fact and a "constant" of Christian life from the beginning. Jew or gentile? Circumcised or uncircumcised? Bishop of Rome or Patriarch of Constantinople? Pope or King of England? Latin or English? "High" church or "low" church? 1928 or 1979 Prayer Book? Men alone or women too? Heterosexuals only or homosexuals too?

Just as we all share Handel's The
Messiah, so do we share a Sacred Text and a living tradition. How we choose to interpret these, as well as the nuances we bring to these interpretations, are at the core of our Christian life –as individuals and as communities of faith. Why should we have it any different than those who have gone before us? Change has been "the constant" in the Church since that first Easter morning. Differing interpretations of what happened, why it happened, and what it means for us have been a "constant" in the Church since that same first Easter morning. I guess church hopping (or is it shopping?) really is nothing new!

With blessings…Mark+