A Design for Needlepointing

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.

 (William Wordsworth)

The nation is still reeling from the senseless killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  The massacre will continue to disturb us and trouble us collectively and individually.  Universally, in a ten-minute span of time innocence was destroyed, personal security has been threatened, and esteemed institutions were violated. We have been changed forever.

Since that tragic morning arguments from various sides of the Second Amendments have arisen.  I’m not really sure how I feel about it and this will not be the forum to influence me.  Meanwhile, there are also numerous discussions about mental illness.  There are horrible generalities linking the autism spectrum with sociopathic behavior.  That is just uncivil. Sociopathic behavior is witnessed in all sectors of the population.  Primary teachers see such behavior in early grades and know where it will lead but are they are helpless in redirecting that behavior.

Pastorally speaking, the core concern at hand is that evil exists in the world.  Despite how rosy some folks will try to make it look, this is a broken humanity.  Thinking we are isolated individuals is denial.  We are part of a creation that was broken by Sin.  (Note that “Sin” is a power and “sins” are the stinkin' behaviors that are the result of the power of Sin.)

So, we coexist with evil in this world. What are we going to do about it?  Here’s the point:  we overcome evil with good.  Sure, that sounds simplistic but evil is a fundamental problem that is dealt with fundamental responses.   The light must shine in the darkness.  People of faith may have to take leadership in this.  We fill those broken moments of history with actions of peace and reconciliation.  We replace  words of negativity with words that are positive and encouraging.  We model a lifestyle of redemption and grace.

The Prophet Micah recalls the questions of the people of what the Lord requires:  burnt offerings, animal offerings, oil offerings, even human offerings?   Nope. Micah replies, “God told you, o mortal, what the Lord requires of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”  (Micah 6:8)

The Interim Geezer now tells you to needlepoint that and hang it above your bathroom mirror.

Happy Solstice!

Some conservative Christians might call me pagan but I can’t wait for the Winter Solstice.  The older I get the harder it is for me to handle living midway between the equator and the North Pole.  I make December 21 a goal to reach knowing that from that date the days will lengthen.

I don’t believe I suffer from Seasonal Affect Disorder but I certainly can sympathize with those who do.  Experts in the field tell us we should especially spend time outdoors during December’s daylight hours as if we are some sort of human solar panel absorbing the sun.  Those experts seem to forget, however, that we also have some pretty gloomy days during the month.  Our human panels do not absorb too much solar energy.

A hundred years ago when I was in college, I spent a semester in Germany.  At the end of the semester we spent a long weekend in Berlin at 52^o latitude where the days are even shorter.  Back in the days of the Cold War and where there is little difference between dawn and dusk, the gray days only contributed to the eeriness of a divided city.

It was no accident that the church fathers settled on December 25^th to celebrate the birth of Jesus. (I had one church member once who was adamant that the true birthday of Jesus was 12/25/0000, even if a lunar calendar was followed in Bethlehem at the time.)  The church fathers introduced Christian celebrations to coincide with pagan observances.  The Nativity was then scheduled to occur about the same time as Saturnalia, a celebration of the solstice.  Aha!  It would be something special and positive to celebrate in an otherwise depressing time of year.

Christmas becomes such a fantastic, living metaphor for the season’s darkness. St. John wrote:  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.  (John 1:5).  But then, I realize our Christmas language is all focused on the northern hemisphere.  I wonder how my kinfolk in Australia speak of the holiday during the peak of the summer season.  I would be happy to do the research if I have enough sponsors.

Here’s the point:  If we don’t have the light, then we will have to be the light.  We are just going to have to pull off that bushel basket that has been hiding our light and let our light so shine.  Maybe it’s a light of beauty and creativity for a drab and lackluster world.  Maybe it’s a light of compassion and generosity for a world that has grown cold and selfish.  Maybe it’s a light of healing and peace for a world that knows brokenness and hurt.

In one shape or form, let there be light!

Audacious Advent, To All

Back in the 1980’s we hosted an exchange student from Germany.  We vividly remember how offended he was by the American pre-Christmas antics.  As secular as he was, he protested, “This isn’t Christmas, it is Advent!”  I must concur with Oliver and say, “Ja, wohl!”  It is Advent.

I could expound on the commercialization of the season but who doesn’t do that already?  Advent might be difficult to get our head around.  In a season that is just four weeks, or really, just four Sundays long, there are a number of themes that assail our wassail through this journey.  It begins with the theme of hope when Christ shall come again and the kingdom will be fulfilled.  Then, we have a theme of John the Baptist’s call for repentance and straightening our pathways.  The third Sunday tells of the Coming One who is our cause of rejoicing.  Finally, the fourth week is a dialectic between the cradle and the cross; we can’t have one without the other.  Holy Evergreen Boughs, Batman, that’s a lot!

In the face of all the cultural hoopla, how can we make this wondrous faith journey of Advent practical and personal?  Other than candles being lit catch-as-catch-can as the family snarfs down food, what other rituals might there be?  Wearing sackcloth and ashes during the Second Week of Advent may not be too practical and could get chilly in Wisconsin.

Here’s the point:  Maybe Advent is on the agenda of December’s darkness but really it should become integrated into our faith and life.  As Christians we embody the values and principles of Advent.  We don’t tick off the particular tenets on some sort of To-Do list, but rather we learn how to wait, we learn how to repent, we learn how to rejoice and we learn how to stand in the presence of holiness.  Here’s the really Good News—you don’t have to get it all done this week.

Have an Audacious Advent

The Interim Geezer

Postscript:  Personally, Interim Pastors hold John the Baptist as our unofficial Patron Saint who first fielded the question asked of every Interim, “Are you the One or shall we look for another?”

Blessed be the Goofy and the Whacky!

A verse from Isaiah especially sustains me as a preacher, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.  (Is 55:11a)

The best example I have from my years of ministry was when I was just a baby pastor and teaching confirmation class in my first years.  Jason was a cute kid with red hair and freckles with a short attention span and a tendency for trouble-making.  We were studying a unit on Holy Baptism and I was telling them about making the sign of the cross on the head of the baptized.

I went on to tell the class that there is nothing “un-Lutheran” about making the sign of the cross nor is it the property of any church.  Rather, tracing the cross upon ourselves is done in remembrance of our baptism.  I told the kids that one way to start the practice is when they are standing all alone in the shower while they let the water rain upon them to say, “I am baptized” and make the sign of the cross.  I wondered if the suggestion was a little more pious than what 12 and 13 year olds were ready for.  Jason, of course, was squirreling around during the moment of instruction.

The following week, in good teaching style, we started with a quick review of the previous week.  Jason blurted out, “You know that thing you said about doing the cross in the shower?  Well, I tried it.”  There was a pause and then, “It was kind of neat.”

Hallelujah!  So much for the short attention span and pestering others in class, something made its way into this kid’s noggin.  I do not know if Jason grew up to be a participating adult of the congregation and unashamedly makes the signs of the cross within worship or not, but the word took some kind of root.

Here’s the point—or two points:  First, to all the Geezer’s Lutheran readers, there is nothing “too catholic” about making the sign of the cross.  Don’t forget that it says in Luther’s Small Catechism at the beginning of instruction for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, “make the sign of the cross in remembrance of your baptism.”  It adds a tactile dimension to both our worship and prayer.

 The second point tells us never to think our words of grace and hope are just going to fall on empty ears so why bother.  The Holy Spirit has a real goofy way and a whacky timetable of how and when those words connect.  Blessed be the goofy and the whacky!

Over the River and Through the Woods

Thanksgiving for my 60 years has been associated with traveling.  As a youngster we would usually travel the 70 miles in our ’52 Studebaker to my grandmother’s house in Manawa.  After she passed away we had a few years of a small Thanksgiving at home.  One year when we had mild weather like this fall, I remember baling third-crop hay Thanksgiving afternoon.

Some years later, my father’s side of the family started the tradition gathering on the Saturday after Thanksgiving at his sister’s house.  My aunt will never be confused with Martha Stewart.  The family would gather in the “lower level” of the house.  (My dad called it “the cellar.”)  There we would dine around the pool table covered with plywood.  A table cloth would cover the table.  We still laugh about the year she bought a “Battlestar Galactica” tablecloth presumably by mistake.

Since being married, Thanksgiving has been spent at my in-law’s home in Strum.  Because the guys in the family are deer hunting that has been a perennial arrangement.  As the number of grandchildren increased it was usually mayhem.  For several years, we would travel the “Wisconsin Triangle.” With small kids in the car it was not unlike the Bermuda Triangle.  From western Wisconsin we would travel to my home near Green Bay.  We would then be poised to take part in the Saturday gathering of the Schaub clan and guess what movie theme would bedeck the pool table.  From there we would hustle home to south-central Wisconsin to meet my Sunday morning duties.  The very memory of those days exhausts me.

Here’s the point:  family is a precious commodity.  There are jokes about dysfunctional families and the holidays and tragically there are some.  However, solid family units overlook the frailties and failings and rejoice in the blessings we bring to the family.  There will be the sacrifices of fatiguing travel; uncomfortable sleeper sofas; and nonexistent solitude.  But, such are the things memories are made of and how we establish the value of family for our children and grandchildren.

Happy Thanksgiving and Safe Travels!

Change? Over My Dead Body

How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?

Change?  Who says we need to change?

Change is one of the greatest threats to our sense of preservation.  Ironically, the political ads we endured this fall were filled with demands for change.  But when we talk about change within other institutions (i.e., the Church) it is met with resistance and defensiveness.

I’m not exactly sure why the human condition is so threatened by change within the church.  Maybe it is because we hold some things to be of the Truth and so revered that anything that might challenge a practice or procedure is a challenge to the Truth.

We have to stop and excavate the situation.  What lies beneath a defensive response?  

Pastor Kathy was at a two-point congregation in South Dakota.  One congregation still had a “back altar,” an altar up against the wall of the chancel so that the pastor would have his or her back facing the congregation.  Pastor Kathy naively asked if a free-standing altar could be constructed so that she would be facing the congregation.  Emmitt became enraged at such a suggestion.  “It’s been good enough for the last hundred years, it will be good enough for another hundred.”

Wisely, Pastor Kathy visited Emmitt at his ranch and calmly spoke to him, “The discussion about the altar brought out a lot of feelings.  Tell me the story about the altar.”

Emmitt told her how his mother used to tell him about how his grandfather worked side by side the craftsman who designed, carved and turned the intricacies of the altar.  Sometime later, his grandfather was killed in a farming accident when his mother was a little girl.

Aha, the altar had a significant emotional connection and thus, the protective feeling about it.  Pastor Kathy then came up with a simple plan and patiently educated Emmitt and the leadership how the back altar would be preserved and a simple free-standing altar would be in front.  After doing a simple thing like educating the people Pastor Kathy was able to introduce change for a positive modification.

In a healthy congregation change will be constant.  It is part of the growing pains we experience.  But without the pains of change growth will never occur.  So, the change agents who are wise will massage the pains of change with education and conversation.

I wish I could say that this is a sure-fire formula to institute change.  I can’t guarantee that.  But, it is amazing what a little excavation can uncover and deal with.

Why All The Meanness?

November 5, 2012

It is now an official term:  “Campaign Fatigue.”  It is a malady suffered by the American population, it is suffered by the media, and it has been suffered by the candidates themselves.  We are just darn tired of all the haranguing and the rhetoric.  Our privacy has been invaded.  Campaign ads have violated our television sets. Our ears are tired from hearing about poll numbers and the analyses of political pundits. We just want to put the pillow over our head and cry out, “Make it go away!”

Campaign Fatigue has sucked energy out of me.  I have known how I will vote for several months.  I have been offended by the amount of negativity that has taken place.  It seems like every election candidates seem to be asking, “How much more can I get by with?”  The ugly pictures of the other guy, the strident voices, the bombardment of propaganda only contribute to the agony and tragic erosion of the human spirit.

An executive from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) issued a statement entitled, “Why All the Meanness?”  In his letter he grieves the way national elections just boil down to being mean.  He urges his people to simply not tolerate the mean-spirited theme that clouds America.

I have to agree.  As the people of God, we are better than that.  We should not have to stoop to such off-putting unconstructiveness that has permeated our culture.  I am not going to attempt to point to the sources but even after campaigns are over we witness and experience a growing incivility within our culture.  It may be the murmuring that goes on behind our back.  It may be the inappropriate language that we hear on the streets.  There are just some people who would kick the crutch out from under a cripple. We are a culture that has become malevolent and unrepentant.

To turn this incivility around starts with people ready to say, “NO!”  Cry “foul,” when we witness these violations of humanity.  We implement the nonviolent philosophies of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.  The way we turn the other cheek is to create an alternate pattern of behavior that does not tolerate rudeness and the disrespect of our brothers and sisters.

As far as campaigns, who knows how to turn around the animosity and bitterness we have now endured?  The people who can do it best are trapped in the system they have created.  If I ever run for office I am just going to have pictures of me surrounded by puppies and kitties waving my hand saying, “I’m the Interim Geezer.”

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