Archive for October 2008

Creative God

October 29, 2008 by RevLurch.

Something I wrote a couple years ago and republished in the church newsletter:


A Creative God

Some days, I just look at my computer, hoping God will supernaturally possess the chips and circuits and a newsletter article and four sermons would pop out.  It’s a hope and a prayer born out of panic and frustration more than any real need for God to write an article for the newsletter.  If God really wanted to write the newsletter article, do you think He would need to use my computer? 

 

Now and then writing just becomes hard.  The creative process doesn’t follow any schedule and doesn’t come up on demand.  It has to be nurtured and cultivated.  There is real work that goes into keeping ideas floating around in your head.

 

I know, I know, I just said a bad word:  work.  We Lutherans are suspicious of that word.  We rightly believe that our salvation and our standing with God is by Grace through Faith.  Luther himself in his explanation to the third article of the Apostle’s Creed in the Small Catechism says “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him….” 

 

That’s true.  And it is also true that just like the creative process, we have to be open and ready to hear and receive the gift of Jesus Christ and his new life.  We have to be listening and ready to answer the call of God.  We have to be vigilant in looking for God’s voice.

 

Because you know, God could take over my computer or your computer one day and spit out a crystal clear message for our lives.  Or God could call on the phone in the voice of a neighbor wanting to go out for coffee just to talk.  Or God could be working the fields with you.

 

Dr. Kevin Anderson, a marriage counselor from Toledo, calls this divinity in disguise.  All around us, God is dwelling in the people we meet and the situations we find ourselves.  It can be tiring and frustrating listening and looking for God because God comes up like the creative process, when and where He feels like it. 

 

As we enter into this time of Thanksgiving and Christmas, the sounds and calls will be loud all around us.  Some of them will be God’s call and some will not.  Be ready to listen and look for God in unexpected places over the next couple of months.  The wait and the search can be long but it is never fruitless.  Are you ready?

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Playing nice

October 13, 2008 by RevLurch.

Wrote the following on Desperate Preacher in response to a discussion about political discourse.  See what you think:

SanBPam wrote: let me be clear that “playing nice” applies to all. I understand exactly what you mean about how a policy of niceness can be applied unequally. It is a deep concern of mine. So, ground rules would seem to include such things as avoiding name calling, attempting to express ourselves respectfully, and posting with the purpose of dialogue, not attack.


My response:  IMHO, it is not the equality of playing nice, it’s the belief that playing nice is the higher good. “Can’t we all just get along” seems to be the pinnacle of achievement way too often. Anything that is conflictual (even respectful debate) is to be avoided. Ideas are not so much mulled over and picked apart as much as folks are marginalized (often quite nicely) for questioning the “culture of nice.” Feelings are more important than facts. Being nice is more important than being right.

Before you accuse me of wanting an all out brawl, I’m not asking for that at all. What I am asking for is the realization that the only way ideas get better is when we allow them to be picked apart, argued about, and debated: vigorously. Conflict is not the enemy. Complacency and the live and let live philosophy is. As Glenn Beck would say, “It’s not about Left and Right, it’s about Right and Wrong.” Our society is not so much debating the merit of ideas, but is making certain ideas and notions (that Al Gore is wrong for one) as forbidden so that the favored ideas (right or wrong) can triumph.

Examples of forbidding ideas:
Anyone voting against Sarah Palin is sexist.
Anyone voting against Barack Obama is racist.

Examples of debating ideas:
Sarah Palin’s choice to keep her son instead of aborting him is made possible by her families ability to care for him. I’m not sure her policies would allow more folks to be able to make that choice.
Barack Obama seems to be more concerned about making abortion legal, rather than doing every thing he can to make it rare to nonexistent. He is not so much pro-choice as he is pro-abortion according to his limited voting record.

Do you see the difference? The first two shut down debate and do not allow for there to be any other viewpoint. The second two allow for different ideas and interpretations and open the floor for debate. In the midst of debate, there may not be views changed as much as refined. Saying someone is wrong is not the same as the first two.

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