Thoughts on Life and Worship

View the Present Through the Promise View the present through the promise, Christ will come again. Trust despite the deepening darkness, Christ will come again. Lift the world above its grieving through your watching and believing in the hope past hope's conceiving: Christ will come again. Probe the present with the promise, Christ will come again. Let your daily actions witness, Christ will come again. Let your loving and your giving and your justice and forgiving be a sign to all the living: Christ will come again. Match the present to the promise, Christ will come again. Make this hope your guiding premise, Christ will come again. Pattern all your calculating and the world you are creating to the advent you are waiting: Christ will come again. By Thomas H. Troeger,   © 1994 Oxford University Press, Inc. This coming Sunday is the first in the Advent season.   In the midst of all the holiday hub-bub there remains a persistent sense...

I confess:   I’m a conservative Republican.   This morning I am disturbed by yesterday’s results that have Barak Obama reelected for a second term.   I am deeply dismayed that the majority of people in our nation have embraced a party and candidate that militantly defend a woman’s right to murder her baby and the abominable idea of homosexual marriage.   Though I do not buy the entire Republican rhetoric and platform, I believe that bigger government will not solve our problems but only make them worse.   I think our current fiscal policies will bankrupt us.   The Obama administration’s foreign policy, I believe, makes our nation less secure.   All of this, except for the pro-life and marriage issues, is debatable among Christians along party lines.   I’m willing to grant that and understand there will be differences of opinion between God’s people.   I don’t see, however, how any Bible-believing Christian can support the so-ca...

The Worship Music of Kenya             Kenyan worship music is nothing if not joyous.   It is always accompanied by movement and sometimes the dancing is quite vigorous.   Generally, the women are better dancers, but some of the men are quite nimble and fluid.             The singing is full-throated and frequently “call and response” where the leader will sing a phrase (sometimes quite lengthy) and the congregation will respond.   This is not unlike many African-American spirituals.   Here is a short video clip of some of the worship I participated in a small country church.   You will notice the “call and response” between the female worship leader and the congregation.   Also notice that the keyboard and sound system are powered by a car battery!   This church was quite poor.   But notice the joy.   I was able to particip...

I’ve been a teacher all of my adult life.   I love to learn; I love to teach.   One of the questions that good teachers always ask themselves is whether or not the student has really learned.   “If no one has learned, have you really taught anything?” There are some really smart people who never spent a day in a college classroom.   And, believe it or not, there are plenty of folks with graduate degrees who can’t do some of the simplest things.   http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/I-know-so-much-that-I-don-t-know-where-to-begin-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8542672_.htm One of my most challenging assignments as a college professor was to teach a class on worship technology.   Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m not a techie.   Don’t let the PowerPoint presentations fool you.   I know just enough to be dangerous.   Ask me to teach piano improvisation from chord sheets and I’m your guy.   Teaching students to conceptualize and ...

Adapted from my sermon on Labor Day weekend, 2012.   Thematic influence from Eugene Peterson in Practice Resurrection . Introduction When I was a kid, there would be a good chance that my family would be in church on Labor Day weekend.   You could probably label me, “a child of the church.”   If the doors were open, we were probably there.   There wasn’t any question whether or not we would be going to church on Sunday.   We always did.   Pretty remarkable for two parents who didn’t come from Christian homes.   I’ve got a hunch that since this is Labor Day weekend and you are here that a good lot of you grew up the same way.   But it’s not that way with everyone.   In fact, more and more so-called Christians are distancing themselves from the institutional church.   In the surprising blockbuster book, The Shack, the Christ character declares that he doesn’t really like religion and he didn’t create an institution.   J...

Those who theologize as they are reading the Scriptures (we all do, as a matter of fact) sometimes stumble as they encounter a seeming contradiction between Paul and James.   Paul: What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter?   If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness (Romans 4:1-5). James: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?   Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.   If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but do...