Waxing Theological

As I spend time on vacation in Pennsylvania visiting with family and just generally letting life catch up with me for a bit, it dawned on me that I have seriously  neglected this blog.  To those who have/had been following sermons and other musings that I had been posting on here, I offer my apologies - it turns out that there was a sermon I had been in the process of posting and it never made it past a draft stage. Life has a tendency of happening, and things sometimes slip through the cracks - I wouldn't trade much of it for a few extra blog posts having shown up on here, but I aim to get back into the practice. Thanks for still being around, folks.

You know, there's a lot they don't teach you in seminary.  A lot of it is minor - the kind of stuff you could waste an entire year of seminary covering and still either not be prepared for or think that it was splitting hairs while you are still a student.  Stuff like "how to compile an annual report," or "why the church directory should be handled by a full committee," and "how to respond to the person at the grocery store who saw your picture in the paper and so knows who you are and acts like they've known you since high school, but you don't have the foggiest idea who they  are and you're too embarrassed to admit it" would be topics eagerly covered, but readily dismissed by many seminarians. But one thing that perhaps it would have benefitted us to spend some more (or any) time on is "how to be true to yourself and still be the pastor of a church you care about."  This is the one that's getting me more than any other...

As a pastor, and particularly in my official role as a pastor, I've made a very concerted attempt to moderate myself and be conscientious about the things I say about politics and this year's election cycle.  Folks in my church can tell you (and I hope you can see in many of the sermons that have been posted on my blog) that, while I'll definitely address issues that are political in nature, I have never endorsed any candidate from the pulpit, nor would I ever  do that.  I have even done as much as possible to avoid even speaking  about any candidate, either positively or  negatively , in my preaching. Take note: I'm stepping out of the pulpit for this post.  This is not  a sermon post.  It is not  a pulpit post.  I do  speak as a pastor and out of my own time spent studying scripture and engaging in prayer. That said... There's been a lot  of people throwing around the Bible in this election - candidates and supporters a...

To the Church - the big C, body of Christ, Church Universal church: I'm a pastor - those of you reading this post probably know that already.  I put my sermons up here and sometimes write about theology and other things that I decide to write about when the muse hits me upside the head.  And those of you who know me and who've read enough of this blog know that I'm also a dad. I am the dad of two amazing children - as I type this right now, one of them is 4 and the other is 16 months.  And every day is a new experience, a new adventure, a new opportunity to see my children learn, grow, and develop.  Each day comes with new surprises, new delights, and yes, new challenges for my wife and I as we learn about our children, who they are, what they're growing to be, and how we can love them, care for them, and help them succeed and grow in this world. It's great to see these two kids growing up from my viewpoint as a pastor, too - I love to see how they're gro...

Over the last few months, I've gotten some feedback from some of the members of my congregation on a strange growth that they've noticed coming out on the back of my head. Normally, when I hear concerns like that, I might schedule an appointment with a doctor and see whether I should be concerned, as well.  Fortunately, the only appointment I'd really need to schedule is with a barber.  You see... my hair is starting to get long - it's been almost a year since I've had a haircut. Let me pause for a second and say this: I understand why people have mentioned this to me.  In rural Missouri, it's not exactly the "norm" for a Presbyterian pastor to look like a Nazirite.  And I did get my hair cut pretty short before I started interviewing with the churches in the Small Church Residency Program - mainly because I knew it would look better and give a better first impression.  To be honest, I've put a lot of thought into getting my hair cut anyway as...

One of the things we do at the church is to put together a monthly newsletter in addition to the weekly email updates we send out.  I write a little note "From the Pastor's Desk" thinking about the month, the season, or what have you that gets included in that newsletter.  As I wrote this particular month's note, I realized that it was turning into something a bit more reflective, so I wanted to continue that thought here on the blog.  To those for whom those two worlds intersect, you'll see a lot repeating itself from the newsletter - I promise, I'm not being (entirely) lazy and just copy-pasting from one to another, but I think I could have written an entire newsletter myself if I hadn't cut it short.     When we moved into the manse in August, as we realized that this little corner of South Lindell street was where we’d be calling home, one of the first things we noticed was a number of small metal signs stuck into the beds of mulch that surrounded t...

I have a question for parents out there:  How do you recapture imagination to play with your children? It's the weirdest thing for me - especially for me.  But I'm realizing that I've lost a lot of my imagination.  And I find that ninety kinds of weird, because I still consider myself to have a vivid imagination.  I play Dungeons and Dragons via Skype with some of my friends back in Pittsburgh at least once a month.  I read books like Game of Thrones and get lost in the mental images that they paint for me.  I'm a hopeless geek/nerd who can tell you way  too much about obscure Star Wars characters or things from Doctor Who.  My friends in college used to call me a walking IMDB because I make a lot  of connections between actors in movies and things. But when my son brings me a wooden block and puts it up to my ear because he wants me to pretend it's a phone, I turn into the block of wood.  I say "Hello?"  I listen to the bloc...

I'm going to let you in on perhaps a little known secret of fatherhood, or at least a discovery I've made about myself now that I've been a father for almost two and a half years.  We often put on a brave face, try to live up to the idea of being the "strong dad" who is there to clean up bloody, skinned knees, who chases away the monsters under the bed or in the closet, who gives the occasional stern look or raised voice to set a wayward child back on the straight and narrow. But there's something else that happens when you become a parent - you learn the truth: being a dad makes you so much more aware  of things.  It brings out emotions you didn't realize you were capable of.  It gives you a different outlook on life.  And suddenly you find yourself powerfully affected by so many things you never would have given a second thought to before you suddenly had this small person in your life who looks remarkably like you. For example: I used to make j...

I'm sitting on my front porch for really the first time since we moved into this beautiful manse in this little town of Vandalia.  I'm in a folding camp chair, but I'm wishing it was a porch swing like the one my grandparents had in Liberty, Indiana.  I've been sitting out here on this porch off and on throughout the night, actually, my clay Presbyterian mug full of the Punjana tea that reminds me so strongly of Corrymeela and of Ireland.  And the only reason I'm sitting out here is because the rain is comming down in torrents and the thunder is rolling in steady waves, like a celestial ocean wave crashing against the clouds time and time again.  The rain is gently misting against my face as a cool breeze blows in from the rapid descent of the barometer; it leaves iridescent pinpricks of magnified light on my screen as I sit and type.  Lightning flashes and I see the clouds light up on the horizon, the trees coming alive in bluish-green hues from its eerie stati...

As a new Presbyterian pastor, I have the great pleasure of getting to attend Presbytery meetings.  Now, for folks out there who are playing the "home version," Presbytery is a big meeting of pastors and elders from the various Presbyterian churches in a particular area where they get together and someone says "all in favor, say aye" a bunch of times and occasionally people get very particular about some fellow named Robert and all the rules he made up for when people have meetings.  People spend the better part of a day saying "aye" and making motions and resolutions, then decide that they've said "aye" enough times for the day, and then get back in their cars and go home for a month so they can get ready to come back next month. Ok... so there's obviously more to a Presbytery meeting than that.  They work very hard to be both a resource and a guide to church sessions and pastors, and make some tough decisions.  For example, our Presb...