Kiva.org

The Ooze is one of the websites I check out on a daily basis. It is usually filled with interesting conversation, although one fellow did say the following: "Hey underdog... i saw your blog. Let me just say that before you write or type one more word in your blog. That you have have become completely utterly irrelevant. Go sprinkle some water on a baby. peace."

Either way, I figure if I'm annoying in such a wonderful way, I'm doing my job. But I came across a wonderful article on Kiva.org, which provides microloans to a wide number of people all throughout the world. But I think the best part of it is that once the people you have donated money to repay the loan, you get your money back to reinvest in someone elses future.

So far I've donated to the following people.

The Mshikamano Group, which is 4 carpenters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. $50

Luisa Luaao who runs a grocery store in Samoa. $25
and Serita Papalii who makes and sells pancakes in her village in Samoa. $25

Its a worthy cause to donate to. Be sure to check it out.

Unity Sermon 2008

Let us pray: God of faith, God of hope, God of Love, we come before you this evening in a way in which we do not normally worship you. Keep our ears, eyes and hearts open to your message for each and every one of us, that we might grow closer to you, and to our neighbor next to us. In Jesus name we pray.

This is a unique service for many Christians to attend. Unity in worship is a concept in which we sometimes pay lip service to, yet we rarely do things as a community of believers which makes a large impact on the rest of those around us. Luckily, today in the little town of Riverside, we have at least 5 major faith communities which have enough sense to come together, put aside our normal style of worship and join in praise and adoration of a loving God.

I need everyone here today to do me a favor. You see, I am still a seminary student and because of that, there is always a little bit of fear in ordained clergy that I might get too heretical in what I preach. So I need you to watch all the clergy up front here to see if they nod in agreement with my theological statement or if they hang their heads in disgust.

God does not change. God is the same forever and ever. From the Alpha to the Omega. God is immovable, steadfast, and without end. Our God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting.
Ok, give me a thumbs up if they seemed to be in agreement, a thumbs down if they were disgusted, or a wavy hand to let me know if they tried to appear as stoic as possible. Ok thank you. I wanted to get the theological test out of the way so we could get to the theme of today’s service.

Pray without ceasing.

There are so many ways to view this passage. We can view this passage as a way in which we attempt to make everything we do a prayer, to try and see through God’s eyes every moment. Some might view this passage and think they need to become a priest or monk or a nun and spend their day worshipping God. Or perhaps you try to pray without ceasing by noticing the holy in everything. Be it seeing Jesus in the homeless person on the street or the dandelion growing up in the cracks of a sidewalk.

There is another way to pray without ceasing. There are many groups who hold 24/7 prayer watches. My own denomination did it for 100 years in Germany, and only stopped because of war. In fact, there is a group in England which heard of the Moravian 100 years of continuous prayer and decided to start one of their own, which was great, except for the fact that when he started advertising it, he would mention that our denomination had died, because he assumed once we stopped praying, we no longer existed.

While both of these are good ways to improve your prayer life, I’m not terribly concerned with them on this day of unity. Remember how I stated earlier that God doesn’t change. That is still true, but our God is all about change, and that vehicle of change is prayer. When we pray, we are asking for a change in the way things are! and we are asking for things to change in a way which we know we cannot do on our own. When we pray, we are saying that we know our own knowledge about the situation is limited and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to change us, to change the situation, to change others thoughts, to interact with the world in such a way that God’s will is made manifest. Paul’s challenge, in my view, to always be joyful, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in all circumstances, as it is Gods will for us in Christ Jesus is a challenge for us to seek change and to be followers of that change, no matter where it takes us in life.

Prayer as agent of change is probably not something most of us think about when we gather at a service for Christian unity. Change tends to create disunity rather than bringing God’s people together. Normally when we think of change, we create groups which separate us. I’m sure that most of us can recall a time in our churches where change has caused one group to be upset with another, or has two groups to form a third group who didn’t like either option. An experience of change creates both unity and disunity.

The question we must ask ourselves, as a diverse group of believers in Jesus Christ, is, if it is our experiences which create both unity and disunity, what then can we seek which only promotes unity? The answer, I believe, comes from one of my favourite theologians.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer says that it is not experience that binds us together, but faith.[1] He continues by saying “God has acted and wants to act upon us all, this we see in faith as God’s greatest gift, this makes us glad and happy, but it also makes us ready to forego all such experiences when God at times does not grant them.”[2]

The gospel lesson we read today reinforces this fact. When Jesus is praying for all believers, it is not that they will all have the same experience, but that all who believe, all who have faith, will be one. If, then, it is faith that is to be the theme of our prayer of change, we must seek Gods will with the knowledge that we will receive an answer which might differ from everything our previous experience has led us to believe.

To me, this is an exciting concept. There is beauty in the uncertainty of how God will respond to our prayer. We must always be in prayer in order that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, with the knowledge that most of the time, that prayer means we must change our own ways in order to be in line with God’s plan. It started with Abraham, whom God asked to change everything he ever knew, to leave his country in order to bless the generations which would follow him. It continued when Jesus called his disciples, some were fishing in their boats, others were collecting taxes, but when Jesus called, they changed what they thought they would be doing for the rest of their life to follow. John 17 is Jesus’ final prayer for his followers, he prays for change in our hearts, that God will be in us as God is in Christ… the only thing left for us to do is continue to ask for that change.

Let us close in prayer: Eternal God, we share a long history and living witness with many who are like us and many more who are not. Help us to recognize our brothers and sisters and the countless ways which you bless us all. Change our hearts to your will. Give us hands and feet which will gladly become callused because of our faith in your wisdom. Sharpen our eyes to see need in our neighbor. Make us delighted listeners of the stories of your majesty. And above all, continue to be steadfast in patience, as so often we fail to do these things which we ask for. In Jesus name, Amen.

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. “Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community.” Translated by John W. Doberstein. Harper & Row Publishers. 1954. Pg 39.
[2] Ibid

What do you want?!?!

The Bible that I read for my own personal devotion is a New International Version. I tell you this because it is the version from which I start reading the scripture, and when I first read it, a question Jesus asks has stuck in my head all week. I tried to block it out and think of something else to preach on, but I haven’t been very successful. I’ve been sick all week with what others have named the “Katrina Cough” and because of that, I’ve tried to weasel out of writing what God wanted me to say. I have twice tried to rewrite a sermon I had given 2 years ago, but just yesterday morning, I went to a small discussion group in a Baptist church and suddenly realized what the Spirit wanted me to say.

The version that we read from the pulpit, the New Revised Standard Version has in verse 38 Jesus asking “What are you looking for?” It is so philosophical. That question makes me sense that Jesus already knew the answer of these two men. It feels as if Jesus can just turn around and look into someone’s soul. That isn’t such a bad view of Jesus, but my translation has Jesus asking a different question with a different edge to it.

Let me set up the story again for you. The day before, Jesus had just been baptized by John. John knew then and there that this was the Lamb of God. He had seen this dove descend upon Jesus after the baptism and heard God’s voice reaffirm this thought. This was certainly an exciting day. The very next day, Jesus was passing by John, apparently all alone, when John the Baptist saw him and told two of his own disciples, “Look, the Lamb of God!” With those five words, the two disciples of John left him and began to follow Jesus. In my version, it doesn’t say how long it was, but eventually Jesus turned around, saw them following and asked “What do you want?!?!?”

When I read this question, it does not penetrate the soul like in the NRSV. It’s rough, it’s got an edge. It’s blunt. Jesus even seems a little annoyed that these two people are following him around. What do you want? He asks… let me answer your questions and leave me alone. It seems pretty clear that John the Baptist knew what Jesus was all about, but Jesus didn’t quite know himself just yet.

They didn’t ask Jesus a religious question. They didn’t ask about salvation, justice, politics, love or hate, right or wrong. They simply wanted to know where he was staying. Jesus still doesn’t give an exact answer… his reply is “come and you will see” There is no, meet me at the corner of Washington and Bridgeboro later in the evening. Just come, and they spent the day with Jesus.
The best part of this story is its blandness. The gospel writer does not record anything really special happening on this day. None of the conversation that happened the rest of the day made it into the gospel. Just the few sentences I just told you about. To me, the remarkable thing happens is the day after the two disciples spent the day with Jesus. Andrew is so excited about this man they call Jesus that the first thing he does is find his brother Peter and tells him that they have found the Messiah, they have found the Christ.

My original intent was to preach the rest of this sermon on evangelism. I hoped that I would get others excited about the workshop that was supposed to start yesterday but nobody signed up for. I wanted to be energetic about what we had just learned; how we were practicing to be like Andrew and tell our friends and family that we too have found the Messiah. Unfortunately I cannot go in that direction this morning, but it does allow me to think a bit more freely about something else. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He is the perfect character to discuss in relation to today’s Gospel story. Many people tend to equate Dr. King to Jesus. He was such a revolutionary leader, he inspired, he lead, he dreamed. But I don’t see this preacher playing the role of Jesus. I see him in the role of Andrew. I imagine that one day, God asked Martin, “What do you want?!?!” and he replied, “where are you staying?” Jesus then answered back, “Come and you will see.”

And so Dr. King followed where Jesus was going. He followed the God of Israel who called to let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream (Amos 5:24). He followed the man from Nazareth to bring healing to the disenfranchised. He followed the Holy Spirit who gave power to the multitude to do mighty works in Jesus name.

When Jesus asks the question, “What do you want?!?!” What will we answer? Will we be put off by his tone? Will we decide to meet up with him sometime in the future, but not follow right away? Or will we seek where Jesus is staying and follow him no matter where he goes? Within each of us lies the potential to be like Andrew, to be like Dr. King. Unfortunately, we tend to say we love God but pick a funny way to show it. Rarely do we share with enthusiasm that we have found the Christ and we have chosen to follow his teachings. Rarely do we stop following the path we wanted to take on our own and take up the new path which God leads us down together. If we do not do the rare thing, if we do not come and see where Jesus is going, we will continue to find it difficult to tell others that we have found the Christ. We will see sharing where Christ is going as a chore instead of a gift.

Dr. King saw Jesus’ question of” What Do You Want?!?!” as a gift. I want to go where you want to go. I want to see what you see. I want what you want. I want to follow, and I want everyone else to know that I’m doing it.

Mississippi ~ Day 1

Today was the first day of actual work here in Mississippi. We are staying in Ocean Springs at Camp Victor, which is a very nice facility for 212 people to sleep and eat while they do work. As far as the work goes, we're in a town thats fun to say, but I can't even begin to spell. Maybe I'll try and take some pictures next time I'm out. We only got to work a half day today due to a bit of the Lutheran team leader not knowing what he's talking about. He said there would be stuff for us to do, but instead, we got to fill in holes with dirt and level out the ground. It was good to do, but not really needed. Then the cement truck arrived and we got to help pour concrete into large columns. Once that was done, we had no more work to do, so we went out to Biloxi in order to see the 3 houses that the Moravians financed and built in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity. We expected the completed houses to have residents, but they did not seem to have any. Apparently the Habitat project manager did not use very good quality materials, as we could notice a lot of mistakes. I hope who ever moves into those houses finds them to be good, because they will not make it through the next big hurricane. Such is life I guess.

More to come in the next few days.