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The Prettiest Vehicle is One that is Paid-For

Fred the minivan hit 300,000 on her odometer tonight!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah! That is one sexy minivan.

I made it home from working with only two and a half miles to go before hitting the big 300. So Noah jumped in the van with me and we went for a short ride.  It was a good father/son moment.

I posted in December when Fred received her last oil change before reaching this milestone. Here’s hoping that I get the chance to post in the future of her last oil change before 350,000 miles and maybe even 400,000 miles. Mhmmm 400,000 miles.

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

I’ve been busy most of the day, but was able to come home earlier than planned because of a curling schedule mix up. So while sitting with Pam and Noah on our coach watching the Warriors and Cavaliers play I thought it would be a good moment to read something from Dr. King. I decide on his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech which I haven’t read in years.

You can read the transcript of it here or watch the video on it above. I’ll quote one section of his speech:

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.” I still believe that We Shall overcome!

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Whoever Has Ears to Hear

At lunch today Adam and Noah were talking with Pam and me about the music of Kendrick Lamar. I know who Kendrick Lamar is but I don’t really know any of his music. I do know that both my boys really enjoy his music. So we listened to a few of his songs while we ate some wonderful pesto chicken sandwiches that Pam made for lunch and talked about what they liked at his music.

One of the things that brought up several times was how often one of songs would sound like it was about one thing when it was actually about the exact opposite. For example, here’s an article talking about his song “Swimming Pools (Drank)” being treated as a drinking  song even though it is actually an anti-drinking song. Apparently he does this with whole albums. I say apparently because I’m not cool enough to know. It reminded me of The Police song “Every Breath You Take” being used as a love song when it is actually about a stalker. Instead of a love song, it is a VERY dark song.

I was really enjoying the whole discussion until Adam said “It kind of fits in with all the times Jesus said ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear‘ and how quite often we think we hear one thing but it is because we aren’t actually listening to what is really being communicated.” I love my kids but I do feel inadequate when they come up with better illustrations of Jesus’s words than I do. ARGH!

Obviously I will be using this in sermons in the future and will not be giving credit to Adam. 😉

SIDE NOTE – The Saints/Vikings games ending was absurd.

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EOG Hat or Holden Caulfield Hat?

So apparently instead of my Stormy Kromer hat being my EOG (Early Onset Grumpiness) hat it is my Holden Caulfield hat. This is according to one of the concessions workers at Cedar Creek Cinema. Pam, Adam, and I went to see “The Post” tonight, which all of you should go see because it was very good. Well while we were buying popcorn, because even though the price of movie popcorn is a scam this is one scam that the Terrell family goes in for, the concessions worker look at my hat and said “You know, I like you hat because it reminds me of Holden Caulfield. Do you know who he is?” The second part of his question must have been what brought out the EOG in my again because I respond with “Yes, ‘The Catcher in the Rye‘ is a great book but Holden Caulfield is kind of a jerk. He hates phonies but he is the most fake person in the book. Still thanks.”

Yeah the EOG is strong in me. 🙂

SIDE NOTE – Here’s the Portlandia skit that the term EOG comes from.

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The Imago Dei Calls for the Rejection of Racism

Every now and then at Tapestry I talk about my friend and former “thread” Joel. Joel studied soil science at UWSP. Some people may use the saying “as dull as dirt” but Joel finds dirt fascinating and when he speaks about soil I realize that I suddenly find soil fascinating too. He believes (rightly so) that soil is amazing and therefore he expects to find interesting stuff in soil and looks for that which is interesting.

I post fairly often on this blog concerning the Imago Dei. Genesis describes humanity as being created in the image of God, the Imago Dei (Genesis 1:26). If you are human then you bear the image of God. That image might be bent or smudged or scarred but underneath those scars, dirt, and deformities is the image of our Creator.

Jesus tells a story of people doing and not doing things for Him in the 25th chapter of Matthew. In the parable that Jesus is telling the King, representing the Son of Man (i.e. Jesus), says the following to those who have helped Him.

Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. (34b-36)

Why were they helping Jesus by helping “the least of these brothers and sisters” of Jesus? Well because they were brothers and sisters of Him because they were image bearers. To see the image of God in them and to react to that image was to see and serve God. This is also why He curses those who do not help Him.

Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. (v. 41b-43)

The image of God was right in front of them, they didn’t see it, and they didn’t respond  to the Imago Dei. Therefore, they have turned their backs on God Himself.

This is why racism has to be called what it is – evil. It is looking at someone who bears the Imago Dei and ignoring that image by considering that person as less than. When we look at others we should see our Father and our Brother Jesus because they bear image of the triune God. Regardless of skin color, culture, citizenship, or language, we are all image bearers.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that all of us live a life that reflects the image we bear.

So let me get back to my friend Joel. Since, he is looking for amazing stuff when he looks at soil he sees it for the amazing, life-encouraging substance that it is. He then helps other people to see soil as amazing. I’m not trying to put words in Joel’s mouth but I believe that if he saw some one seriously damaging soil he might say them them, “Hey, don’t treat soil like that because it is amazing and we depend upon it.”  When you see soil as an amazing, life encouraging substance how could you not respond?

As a follower of Christ I should be recognizing the image of my God in those around me and responding to the Imago Dei. When I see or hear someone treat another image bearer as less than I have to stand up for that person because he is an image bearer. “Don’t you see the image of our Creator right in front of you? That person right there bears the Imago Dei! To treat her as less than is to insult and hurt the One Whose image she bears! That’s evil! Your actions are evil!” When we see someone hurting the image of the God you love how could we not respond?

Discussing immigration is not a racist thing, but immigration discussions can be turned into a excuse to deny the image of God in people who are different than us. Such discussions can be used to declare others as less than us. My friend Scott, who is an immigration attorney, often posts on his Facebook page concerning how messed up the current immigration system can be. Improving the immigration system is a good thing. Treating those made in the image of our Creator as less than is evil. Those of us who claim to be followers of Christ should constantly be focusing our eyes to see the image of our Lord in those around us and we should  fight for the sanctity of life for ALL who were created in His image.

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A Great, Big, Stupid World

How messed up is it that I have been trying to write about a current issue in our world and I am forced to struggle with whether the President of United State’s words are appropriate to quote on my blog? A blog that as a pastor and chaplain I run as a clean site. Seriously, I am dumbfounded that this is our world now.

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Returns Christmas Tree to Costco

I saw articles concerning this incident a few days ago and thought it was a joke, but apparently it isn’t. A woman in Santa Clara, California was spotted returning a Christmas tree to the Costco at which she bought it because it was now “dead”. Scott Bentley took the above photo of the woman returning the tree.

Seriously I am all for being cheap, I try not to spend money that I don’t have to and I am all for working the system, but there is working the system and then there is basically taking advantage of a lenient return policy to be a crook. You can find articles concerning this all over the web now. Here’s the Fortune article I read concerning the incident. This Reddit thread of odd returns that Costco employees have dealt with is also pretty fun.

 

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Word Time Traveler & Living Faith

If you want an interesting link for wasting some time you might enjoy Time Traveler by Meriam-Webster. I first heard about this link via the podcast 99% Invisible. If you haven’t listened to 99% Invisible before I would recommend you checking into the podcast. Anyhow Time Traveler is a feature of the online version of the Meriam-Webster dictionary that lists the year of the first occurrence of various popular, and at one time popular, words. Language is a living thing and thus constantly changing. Words die, are born, and change meaning throughout time as we and our culture do also.

Time Traveler shows just a sample of words first used within certain years, but looking through the years you can see modern trends and values take shape. You can also see older trends and values that we have moved away from, both for the good and bad. We call languages that don’t change “dead languages” and in reality at least our understanding of them continue to change as we discover more concerning word meanings and how they were used. Koine Greek (the Greek with which the New Testament is written) has been a living language since around 300 AD (It was used as an official language in Byzantine for much longer but let’s not go there) but our understanding of Koine continues to grow and improve.

“Dead languages”  come from dead cultures while living languages come from living cultures. Living languages and cultures change because the circumstances and environments they are located within change. This doesn’t mean rejecting our core values, rather it means letting our core values expand into areas that we hadn’t considered at before. Our country’s Founding Fathers wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” at a time when they had a very wrong understanding of who a man was and wasn’t, and didn’t understand that it should be “that all people are created equal”. The value was already there but our understanding of it changed in a very good manner.

The same should be true with our faith. Our understanding of the core of our faith should expand and grow. That doesn’t mean the actual core of our faith changes but our understanding of that core changes. It should widen into areas that we had never considered before. This isn’t change for change’s sake. It is allowing our faith to grow. If my faith had a “time traveler” feature and I could go back and look at some of the things that I believed when I first became a follower of Jesus I know that I would laugh and possibly cry about those beliefs. I believed Jesus is Lord back then but I didn’t have as broad of an understanding of what that meant. There are changes that can lead us away from the core of our faith, but that doesn’t mean we should avoid change. Instead it means that we have to constantly be making sure that our understanding of and, more importantly, our love of Jesus enlarges into more of our lives.

Living things change. Living faith does too.