dan

I had lunch with a young artist--a philosopher/scholar. He is no scientist. He is no mathematician. he is no businessman. he likes Bach and death metal. he is opinionated and open to other opinions. He is smart and needs to learn a lot more. he is 20. i like remembering 20. I met my wife when I was 20. i spent days reading and discussing religion or history. I spent my nights at Perkins or courting my future wife. A productive day consisted of study, writing, eating, praying, and enjoying friends. Work? Money? Bills? Not on the radar screen. That our western culture tolerates this behavior from young adults is quite bizarre. Maybe that is why colleg eis becoming elite again. a pendulum swing is occuring. It is unhealthy for a society to create a caste of young adults---or mature adolescents. Why? because the one's who might drive culture forward are marginalized by the adult world. a youth culture that is perpetuated a decade beyond what has been normatively accepted as child/adult transition creates a dangerous pattern of irresponsible and overly responsible people. 22 year olds are adults. They ought to be granted adult status. They ought to be taken seriously. dan is serious. and passionate. and ready to take on the world. who am i to prevent that? who are you? baby boomers have inherited responsibility from the last generation of adults who realized adult responsibility at 18. wwII and depression assured that. baby boomers are trying to keep hold of this place of control and power. how? By developing a cultural model that rejects the power of the elder and the passion of youth. why have nursing homes and retirement facilities become such a major industry? why hav child cares and colleges become accepted norms for families? is it not every genrations duty to learn from their elders with humility and respect and to graciously channel the passionate energies of youth in order to build a better world?

vacation and Jesus

There is no such thing as a vacation. At the Jersey Shore, Ocean City, rent one of those surreys with the fringe on top to ride around on the boardwalk. We rented a six seater. Four pedaling adults and two basket-riding children makes for a hilarious photo.
Beach rule # 487: A one-year-old will find ways to retain sand on his small body which cannot be removed, even after several baths. Its easier to picj fleas off a poodle. Trust me.
Beach rule #97: Americans will shamelessly don swimwear made for much smaller bodies. Obesity is an epidemic and so is indecency.
Beach rule #5511: Teenagers are spacially challenged. My wife was beaned with a small, hard plastic ball during a game of paddle ball she was not playing. try reading calmly on the beach while small projectiles are flying toward you. Did it even occur to them that the large, uninhabited area of sand 25 yards to our imemdiate south would have made for much safer paddle ball? Apparently, standing behind my wife and aiming for the area generally recognized as the back of her head seemed like a fine location.

I found it difficult to relax. There was no rest. I do not easily downshift. I think my brain craves stimulation.Or maybe I'm thinking that because I didn't have coffee today. I've been drinking too much coffee, especially in chicago. more about Chicago later...
I did, however, read a great book. Vacation Rule #7: Read a good book, even if yuo have to stay up late. "Rabbi Jesus" by Bruce chilton was the most readable 'historical Jesus' book I've ever read. I appreciated the way he described first century rabbinic life; halakah and khabbalah. The idea that Jesus was a Jewish Kabbalist, a spiritual mystic of sorts, was compelling. Although a stretch biblically. I accept the connection between John the Baptist and Jesus. I think Jesus was a student of John, somehow. I also believe that Jesus' Galilean roots and the nature of his conception/birth/illegitimacy would have contributed to his theology and radical inclusionary practice. Sort of like Moses---send a Hebrew who was raised by Egyptian royalty to talk of political liberation. Jesus would have had a place in both worlds---that of the outcast and that of the accepted community/family system.
Here's the thing: Vacation is a false reality created by workaholic americans to jusify unhealthy work habits.Its a way to avoid Sabbath by lumping it together in an annual contracted amount of leavetime. besides everyone knows that taking vacation means making more work. Better that we actually get sensible about work and productivity. A weekly Sabbath makes for a better balance. And does not force you to try to check out for two weeks in August.
Don't get me wrong. I think vacation is necessary. But is work more important?

singing bee

there is a new reality show on tv this sumemr called "singing bee", in which ocntestants are asked to karaoke with a variety of pop music over the past fifty years. Part of the song will be left blank and the inger must fill-in-the-blanks to move on to the next round. I hate this show.

there is another reality show on another network that is basically the same thing, but the contesatant is playing against herself, gets to choose music categories each round, and only has to fill in four missing words with each song. I could win this game. it is funny.

both of these shows reveal my love for pop tunes and my ability to remember lyrics, artists, albums and all manner of pop music trivia spanning four decades. thing is...the talent I have for this is fruitless and pointless. It serves no purpose. If I cuold rememebr othre things as well as I remember pop song lyrics...

why is the human brain wired this way? Why cuoldn't I have been given the brains to accomplish something? I think I'm a fairly intellingent guy, but my most natural thought process involves remembering all the lyrics to the 10cc hit "The Things we do for love". Why is that? Not a mathematic, scientific, economic, psychiatric, philosophic brain for me. Nope. Just pop songs.

Vatican diplomacy

The Vatican released a statement summarizing misunderstood eccelesiology that has developed as a result of both Vtican II and the ecumenical movement. That the church is defined by its sacramental character and apostolic succession. So, protestant churches cannot purely be defined as churches in that sense since they are not in succession, nor retain a true sense of the sacrament. Any church not under papal authority is not precisely a church.

I like this. Clarity. Since the Lutheran church is not really a church, we don't really have to act like one. Good. Because we don't most of the time anyway. So the only hypocrites left are the Romans, who claim to be the church and yet are not. In their very claim, they separate, divide, and exclude others who share faith in the God who raised jesus from the dead. By so doing, they build intellectual walls instead of relational bridges. When I read the Gospels, I see Jesus crossing cultural barriers and dismantling the religious walls of temple Judaism in order to broaden the scope of His mission. The Kingdom of God is bigger than Jerusalem or Vatican city or Geneva or Sweden or New York, NY.

So if the Roman Catholics and the Protestants are not the church, where is the church? The Orthodox? In their inability to contextualize beyond the early middle ages, they do not incarnate the gospel. So its not the orthodox. The evangelicals? In their basic rejection of the cruciform life, coupled with a personal salvation plan and a fundamentalist worldview that divides sacred and secular, they limit the power of God. So its not the evangelicals.
So where is the church? is it visible? Is it here? If there is no church on earth, where is Jesus incarnated today? If there is no church, what are Christians doing?
is church a human corruption?

Jesus never spoke about the church. He was never part of the church. His followers were church. When did church stop being church? When did it start being what it has become? Pentecost? Constantine? Council of Nicea? Great Schism? Reformation? When?
is it possible to receive the good news and articulate the Kingdom message of Jesus afresh? is it possible for the church to be reborn? Is it possible that the church will emerge or is emerging in this post-modern world?

I hope.

daily bible readings

Monday: Isaiah 66:10-14
Tuesday: Psalm 66:1-8
Wednesday: Galatians 6:1-16
Thursday: Luke 10:1-11,16-20
Friday: Pray for an opportunity to learn more about the way of Jesus

apostolic community

“After this the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.”
After what? After Jesus healed and taught and called followers. After the twelve were with him and women supported him. After Pharisees confronted him and teachers of the law questioned his authority. After he traveled from town to town and house to house sharing the good news that God was in their midst overcoming evil with good, through the compassionate love of this man from Nazareth. After he set his face toward Jerusalem.
Before the church can be the church, Jesus teaches. Jesus’ life, his words and actions, are they not the raw materials for what it means to be the church? Nobody practiced apostolic ministry until Jesus showed them what it meant to enflesh the love of God in human relationship. 70 people. Sent ahead with a mission and a practice. Notice that the church’s mission is carried out by an entire community! What if every Sunday morning worshipper at Zion had a real sense that what they were about to become and do on Monday was apostolic ministry---the ministry of Jesus? Bring peace and healing to a house, a town, a village. Reside there. Live among “the wolves”, aka the spiritually hungry. Whenever you serve generously, say “the kingdom of God has come near to you.” Essentially, be the church where you are everyday! Because your actions on behalf of others point to God’s incarnate love for all people. People will experience God, as we live like Jesus. We live like Jesus when we embrace the missio dei, the mission of God as a kind of corporate sent-ness. We are apostles, sent out by Jesus, to teach what He taught. Followers of Jesus are not pew sitters. They are disciples and apostles and workers.

To whom are we sent?
How do we begin to embody Jesus’ message and mission?
Who needs healed? Who needs peace? Who needs our compassion? Who needs our presence? Who needs our help?
If you are not already part of a learning experience that will prepare you to be sent, then get into one. 7 am on Wednesdays and 9 am on Sundays are two such learning times. A church that is not apostolic, sending out workers to make Christ known, is not a disciple-making church. A church that is not making disciples is not following Jesus. A church that is not following Jesus is not the church.

ramble on

i'm exploring again. i just picked up 'emerging churches' by eddie gibbs and ryan bolger. i haven't yet finished 'shaping of things to come" by Alan Hirsch and michael frost. i am well aware that postmodernity is a massive cultural shift ans that modern churches are not responding to the shift in ways that actually cross cultures with the hope message of the gospel. i am well aware that the last generation to be satisfied with modern institutional church are the baby boomers. i am sensitive to the spiritual needs of people udner the age of forty who seek a connection to an authentic, Jesus-centered, kingdom-building, missional community of friends. i am one of them. maybe part of the struggle is that i am not exactly a part of a friendship circle that embraces the cross cultural missional stance of church in postmodernity. i have found some guys in lancaster. and we talk monthly. it seems to be yielding some fruit.

i'm wondering how to get connected with the non-church community. is there some project or place i should be connecting with here? i spent an hour at barnes and noble sort of watching people and browsing books. where is community-making happening here? what i need to offer is some kind of a book club or something. or find my own. what might the library have to offer?
why am i wondering these things? why can;t i be satisfied doing what i'm doing. what am i doing? i guess that's just it. i'm not sure what to do with myself. i should be meeting with people and asking them questions about thier spiritual lives, their journeys, their hopes and needs. i guess i could do that.
what if i identified a few people with whom i could do that...and just did it. in whatever venue they saw fit. i think i'll do that now.

Pastor as Physician

Say you go to a doctor, a specialist, for diagnosis and treatment for something you can't understand that won't go away on its own.The doctor offers a diagnosis that is hard for you to hear, because it means you will have a lifestyle change. The doctor prescribes a course of meds and lifestyle changes that will increase your health. What do you do? Do you embrace the diagnosis and the treatment in order to get healthy or do you forget what the doctor said?

I sometimes feel like that. Like the diagnosis and treatment I prescribe is being rejected. Am I not convincing enough? Or are people unwilling to get healthy? Sometimes getting healthy means giving up something you love, like alcohol or cigarettes or basketball. Sometimes it means taking up some new habit like walking or drinking water or yoga. One thing it never means is stay where you are...unless terminal, most doctors I suspect will treat an illness by attempting to affect some change in the unhealthy system. By introducing a drug, a new body part, or a lifestyle change, the unhealthy system can sometimes be treated. The same is true of church life---the body of Christ---change in the system is sometimes needed for health and vitality. Maintenance is not an option when you are sick. A treatment that guarantees you will remain unhealthy is not treatment.

Now I am aware that when it comes to spirituality and faith people do not like to be judged or criticized. They like to be left alone, especially church people. They like to believe, "It is well with my soul." They don't like to realize the brokenness within and its fruit. Without a healthy connection to the root, the branch will bear no fruit. Unceasing Prayer, inspiring worship, active serving---these are the things that promote health.

creation music fest

I'm going to experience a few hours at the Creation Music Fest in Mt. UNion, PA tomorrow. Its an annual event drawing thousands of contemporary gospel music fans. CCM is really gospel music within a postmodern music context. So the gospel is packaged in rap, rock, fringe sounds, metal, whatever. Maybe even reggae! I would dig that. I'm going with three teens who have never been either. We will join the group from Holy Trinity when we arrive. But we will also leave earlier in the afternoon too. I pray for no rain, thunderstorms.
I know a lot of people attend this gathering as a regular part of their annual Christian life, like a pilgrimage to a sacred worship site. I'm interested to see what it is like there. Woodstock for Christians...hmmmmm.

confirmation camp

When i was a kid, my parents and pastor made me go. It was torture. And yet, part of it was fun. I still rememember the dance on the last night. Hormones were thicker than the late June humidity. It was itself a rite of passage, having gone to confirmation camp. When I told my school friends what I did in June, they said "What's that?" I had the same question and I still do.
I love outdoor ministry. I love camping. My three-year old son loves it now too. He's been sold on it because of the bugs and the little cabin we get to sleep in.
But the content of the experience is not what it ought to be. We have a week with middle schoolers in the woods without cell phones, tvs, or parents to interfere.
Why teach them in a classroom? They need to experiment, to practice the best possible Christian practices...
I will get the 7th graders to make Lutheran rosaries. I had the 8th graders involved in a silent, experiential walk through the Passion of Jesus. Group Publishing puts out these dvds with slides and mood music that walk a group through a prayerful meditation. Tomorrow, we will reenact parables of Jesus and make rosaries. And we will pray.
When i was 14 the last thing I wanted to do at summer camp was take notes in a classroom about the gospels or Lutheranism. I wanted to have fun. And I wanted a girlfriend...Jesus had nothing on Tammy!

out on a LIMB

I don't want to be that church; the one I described in my last post. I don't want to be irrelevant, hypocritical, or dispassionate. I want to go out on a LIMB and invite us to be a living hope inspired to serve in a trying time. I want us to embrace the missional way of Jesus and be the church that responds to our changing and challenging context with passion and grace. (Maybe I should go to work for LDR or LWR or GM; three wonderfully responsive, yet publically unrecognized parts of the Lutheran church.)

Are you feeling any of this too? Like God expects more from us? I want us to go out on a LIMB together. LIMB is an acronym for Lutherans as Intentional Missional Bodies. LIMB. It's a gospel image from John 15, the vine and the branches. The church as Jesus' limbs--His hands, His feet. Bearing the marks of the cross and yet going out, reaching out, walking together with people. Going out on a LIMB means taking risks, being bold, bearing fruit!

Here's what I propose. if you are interested in discovering ways to go out on a LIMB as Jesus' called disciple, email me. We will get started. I envision a learning community, mission driven and committed to practicing a spiritual way of life for the sake of the world and the coming kingdom of God. We will gather for a meal and an initial discussion this summer.
This is open to lay people and clergy. Its ecumenical too. So invite a mission-focused friend.

synod assembly

The Lutheran Church is a corporate body of believers with multiple expressions of one faith. There is the congregational expression, the conference expression, the synodical expression, the regional and churchwide expressions. What I mean is that as a church with a mission and a message (Jesus' way, truth, and life) we visibly express ourselves in communities. My congregation is one way. Another way is when synod's assemble annually---usually in the spring. We gather the 260 plus congregation's together by sending clergy and lay voting members to Gettysbuirg,PA to be the church for a few days. About 800 people gather. Our tasks: Worship, edification, and business. Here's what actually happens.

Pick a topic of global import today, something you'd like to think maybe God is attending to or dealing with in a hopeful and good way, through the work of the spirit in the church. What did you choose? Hunger? Poverty? Homelessness? War and peace? Care for creation/global warming? Deforestation? AIDS? Malaria? Sexual exploitation of women and children? Education in developing nations? Technology/media/business ethics? (Think isolation, privatization, outsourcing/slavery). Medical/health insurance ethics? (Think major profits vs. uninsured and underinsured Americans). Not too difficult to think of a few major issues facing our world today. Wonder if God cares? Wonder if God is doing something about the mess we're in?

Now for the major disconnect! In assembly we addressed none of these things. Not one. We did take a couple of offerings to continue supporting a school in Tanzania. But we said nothing about global warming and our culpability as carbon emmitters, wasters, and contributors to greenhouse gases. We said nothing in protest to the war we are fighting; not to mention anything remotely interesting about interreligious relations/dialogue. We did not take a stand on health insurance, technology, or sexual exploitation of anyone.

Now, I am guilty too. I did nothing, said nothing, enacted nothing. I regret that very much and intend to respond. I intend to call the synod to account. And I intend to take action to say something about these things which matter to most people.

What did we do? We argued about homosexual clergy and whether or not they should be allowed to serve, be ordained, and be in a mutul and faithful relationship. We argued about gay marriage. We argued about whether the church should discipline gay people who are practicing ordained ministry and are not celibate.
The closest we came to dealing with God's justice rolling down was when we decided to make "Fair Trade" a missional priority. (Mennonites have been hip to it for years.) basically you pay a fair price for goods sold through a non-profit coop in oder to assure that farmers receive a fair wage. It increases local economies and unfetters farmers from corporate fat cats who squeeze them to death. But other than fair trade, a non brainer issue, we said and did nothing.

So why didn't we take action? Our vision is too narrow. Pharisaism is rampant among leaders. Our grace is not grace. It is conditioned by a puritanical legalism that is not Lutheran. I am no antinomian. I believe the law is good.But not when it injures the neighbor. Mostly, we don't really care about what most people care about---thus reinforcing the dual claims of irrelevancy and hypocrisy.

Yes, our opinions would be diverse about many issues. How might we come to consensus? Discernment--a spiritual practice that requires prayerful listening to God's Word and the word on the streets wuold have to be practiced. We would have to view ourselves as a missional body with a message pertaining to the world's concerns. We would have to want to engage the world, actual people. We would not be allowed to create straw men to distract us from the real issues.
We would have to listen to Jesus. Perish the thought!

monday monday

So I go to visit the sick mother of a community member today at the county home. I can;t find her. I run into, however, a young woman from my previous pastorate. She's working there in admissions. She's living in the city with her cat. We chat for a few minutes. Mostly small talk about life. I think she's an occasional attendant at the church I used to serve. Maybe more than occasional. We didn't talk about that. I wonder why I ran into her. Was she merely a distraction from some other tasks? There were more distractions today than actual work. What does it mean when I have time to spend chatting in a nursing home lobby for twenty minutes on a Monday afternoon? And I had already spent over an hour at the mall with my wife, kids, and mother-in-law. I went to get lunch with them and the women thought I might get some new slacks and shorts. After that,I stopped at Cokesbury for some more books. Four more books. All good reading, I'm sure. Somedays I don't know what I should be doing.
I have taken to handwriting simple, personal notes to people. I'm sending cards and messages to folks as a means of contact. I wonder if it might be effective? In this culture of email and cell phones, it is insteresting to write and send a badly handwritten little note to someone. My handwriting sucks. I wonder if people will care? I send little words of encouragement, prayers, God's Word. Years ago, correspondence like this might become a treasured possession. Will all of these notes and cards end up in the trash seconds after opening/reading?

emergent emergency

So I've read the books. Hell, I breathe missional ecclesiology. I recognize the need and the opportunity within our small mainline Lutheran congregation to be transformed by the Spirit of Jesus to love and serve the world. I'm into the whole global justice/ local missions thing. I seek to offer worship that is inspired and inspiring, collecting the deep spiritual gifts of the great evangelical, catholic, apostolic, and sacramental tradition into a kairos experience of liturgy. I desire koinonia, the mutual sharing of all the gifts of Christian faith and life, among a diverse body of believers, practicing the faith in the midst of a cracked (broken and fragmented) world. I long for peers relationships with fellow disciples.
So why isn;t it happening? This is a God question, I suppose. What am I not doing as a spiritual leader?
I would like to be part of a vibrant spiritual community. I would like to be a leader in such a community. I feel called into that. So what must I do? The books can paint a vision of such a community and the transformation needed to get from here to there. How do I move the system?

June

Luke's first birthday (May 30) came and went faster than the virus we're passing around the house. High fevers, body aches, and fatigue are the symptoms. Luke had a rash, too. How nice for him. Happy 1st Birthday. And I gift you with...an infection! Think of the accompanying rash as "icing on the cake". Welcome to the human body, susceptible to attack without warning.
Jonah watched "Wizard of Oz" for the first time this week. His response was not what I expected. No fear of witch or fying monkey. I still shudder when Elvira Gulch transforms into the wicked witch as she flies outside the Gale house during their journey inside the cyclone. Not Jonah.
And I still shed a tear when Dorothy says farewell to the Scarecrow, just before the ruby slippers carry her home to Kansas. JOnah could have cared less. Maybe he's not old enough to appreciate it. Maybe the context has changed too much. He's already seen "The Lion King" and "Finding nemo", two great Disney films about coming-of-age and finding one's way, one's identity, one's gifts in family and community. Maybe Oz pales in comparison to "Pride Rock" or "the great barrier reef". Or maybe they are OZ for Jonah. Every generation needs an OZ, a kind wizard, a colorful world where good triumphs over evil. Most obviously, Harry Potter and the wizarding world of Hogwarts symbolizes the multivalent story of good v. evil, coming-of-age, and the "magic" that accompanies such an experience.
Nevertheless, an annual trip down the yellow brick road is good for the mind, the heart, and the "inner Lion" seeking courage to serve bravely in a world where wicked ones roam.

School Shooting

Described as the worst school shooting in US history, on Monday April 16th a lone gunman killed 33 people at Virginia Tech. A population of 25,000 was rocked by this senseless violence, perpetrated by a VA tech student, a senior. Students and teachers were among the victims. Two dozen people were injured, a dozen remain hospitalized. The gunman ended his own life.
What motive, what evil, what struggle explains such an act?
People will seek answers. People will seek justice. People will seek comfort.
All I know is that Jesus was executed unjustly too. God is hidden in suffering. Tragedy, though part of the divine drama we call existence or life, is not the last word. It is a penultimate word. What greater good comes from senseless violence and tragic murders? God only knows. Maybe a community can identify ways in which they can embrace people who are struggling, depressed, lost, angry, fragile, desperate etc...Maybe we can build spiritual communities where no secrets are hid and people are encouraged to live in peace and hope. Maybe we can teach young people how to cope with the demons that surround us, who promise us false comforts, false justices, false power. My guess is that this person had lost some power somehow or some postive self-identity. After all, he killed himself too.
Maybe we learn that violence plagues humanity. It is only by believing in a God familiar with violence, as victim and perpetrator, that violence makes any sense. The God of the Hebrew bible does his share of wrathful smiting. But the God of the Gospels finds Himself weeping from a cross. This God suffers a violent death. Why? This God seeks to end violence, to root it out by replacing it with a way of life so non-violent that only grave,criminal injustice moves practicioners to abandon it in defense of self or neighbor. That way of life is called 'LOVE'. "Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you." --Jesus.
God be with the families of those who died and comfort all who mourn. be with the students and faculty of Virginia Tech as they cope with the events that are shaping them. Show us all how to make sense of such violence, how to embrace your radical ethic of love, and how to be merciful to one another. God of new life, hear our prayers. Amen.

prodigal/beloved son

Lost. Forsaken. Damned. Separated. Segregated. Walled. Left out. Left behind. Missing. Missed. Stranger. Foreigner. Alien. Refugee. Homeless. Rejected. Dejected. Downtrodden. Torn apart. Isolated. Denied. Broken. Excised. x-ed out. Excommunicated. Ex-con. Aimless. Rootless. Wasteful. Wasted. Refuse. Trash. Undone. untied. Unyoked. Unemployed. Uninsured. Insecure. Unsafe. Unknown. Unhealthy. Misunderstood. Miscreant. Misguided. Disregarded. Disrespected. Disenfranchised. Dismantled. Disintegrated. Dehumanized. Degraded. Demeaned. devalued. Derided. Lonely. Suffering. Cursed. Cross. Dead. Jesus.

Jesus. Risen. Alive. New. Whole. Healthy. With. For. By. beside. Insider. Within. near. Intimate. Dear. Beloved. Embraced. Kissed. Accepted. Included. Invited. Personal. Known. Safe. Received. Welcomed. Precious. Treasured. Honored. Blessed. Revered. Worshipped. Adored. Family. Friend. Neighbor. Brother. Citizen. Community. Home. Beloved. Child. Daugther. Son.

fruitless trees, good gardener

As I prep to preach the Gospel for this Sunday, I am struck by Jesus' serious tone. "If you do not repent you will all perish as they did." To turn from the sinful life to the life of Jesus is not easy. We can't do it alone. We need others to help us, to tell us the truth about ourselves, and to help us seek Jesus' way in all things. I think the following article from "Pulpit Resource", a journal I read for sermon help, says something about us:
"We were watching a TV program on "New Paradigm Churches", those burgeoning churches, many of whom are found in Southern California. A young man was being interviewed, a pastor of one of those fast growing churches. His church gathers each week, led in music by a rock band, a church with a median age under thirty.
The reporter asked the pastor to what did he attribute the phenomenal growth of his congregation. The pastor replied,"I think you've got a generation of young adults that never had anybody look them into the eyes, and say directly to them, in love, 'You really, really suck.'"

Jesus knows that God desires to spiritually nourish us for an abundant life. But we choose the "food" that doesn't nourish. We make idols, we lust, we test Christ, we complain. What our the American idols? Money, cars, sports, home ownership, entertainers. how do we test Christ? We keep on sinning, knowing full well what we do. But trusting that God will forgive us forever. But what if judgment is real? What if God won't put up with our crap forever? "He will come again to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end." We profess it as truth.
Jesus tells a parable about an unfruitful fig tree. The vineyard owner wants it cut down, but the gardener pleads to give it another year. He promises to dig around it and fertilize it. If, after a year, it still does not produce, cut it down. How are we like the unfruitful fig? How has Jesus interceded for us, tended and nourished us? Bad news: We suck, we are fruitless. Good news: God doesn't suck. God loves sucky people. God won't tolerate people who know they suck and reuse to stop sucking. We are meant to bear fruit. We are meant to offer ourselves to the creative justice/mercy/love mission of God.

Coffee House Conversations begin in April

Postmodern Culture/Christian Spirituality
Coffee and Conversation every Wednesday at 6:00 pm
Javáteas Coffee Café; N. Reading Rd. Ephrata, PA
Topics: (likely to evolve, because stuff happens)
April 18---can I be spiritual and not religious?
April 25---Who is my neighbor?
May 2---Why is prayer hard?
May 9---How can I experience God??
May 16---why do we keep breathing?
May 23---what is peace?
Come for the conversation, the community, and the coffee…Open to everyone

Postmodern Experiential Worship

Postmodern Worship Gathering
Sunday Night, March 25, 6:04 pm
Javáteas Coffee Café; N. Reading Rd. Ephrata, PA
Encounter the mystery of GOD in
Candlelight, acoustic music, silence, incense, prayer, water, listening for GOD,
The Lord’s Supper, peace, art, truth, beauty, faith, hope, love.
For the Spiritually hungry person.