Sunday Morning

Click play...see below for explanation

Communion of the Saints

The above video (click "play"--sorry about the heads, I was trying to be discrete) is a brief clip from the worship service we attended this morning. As you can tell, the flavor was a little different then what we may be used to at First. The team liked it, however, and thought that maybe we could take a few ideas back to Denver with us. Here's a list of possibilities:

• In order to spur all of us on to good stewardship/giving, have the entire congregation bring their offerings up front (instead of having the deacons bring the plates to the congregation), where the plates sit under the watchful eye of the Pastor and church leadership.
• Encourage your preacher. This would probably be the roll of the elders who could stand up front with me (it gets so lonely up there!). Phrases like: "Preach on, son!" "Communicate!'' "Work it out Preacher." Or just a good, ol' fashion "Amen!" would serve as a good start. Where words fail, a good pat on the back, clapping, or a whoop will do just fine. I'll talk to John B. about this when we get home and pass on any further tips.
• Have your pastor sing the conclusion of his sermon (what you see above).
• Have the organist punctuate important points in the sermon/communal prayer with a few blues/jazz riffs. Looks like I'll have to talk to Barb, too.
• A Sunday School pageant. Can any of our kids name Jobs friends?

In all seriousness, it was a good service, we were warmly welcomed, and it was good to be reminded of the diversity that is the Body of Christ.

Just Like TV ...sort of

Driving from New Orleans to Gulfport today, I couldn't help but think that when I watch news reports on TV about tragedies in far away places, its easy to blur the line between fact and fiction. In other words: somehow, when I saw the reports about Katrina on TV, I tucked what I saw I saw in my brain's sitcom/drama/fiction file, rather than my reality/non-fiction file. The devastation I saw on TV and heard about in the news and read about on the Internet seemed too immense and awful and mind-boggling to be real. But today, I (and the rest of the team) received a powerful reminder that for thousands, even millions, of people, the reports reflected reality all too well. Because what we saw outside the windows of our vans was just like TV.

Only it was real.

We saw: Houses tagged with spray paint--the secret code of rescue teams that came in after the storm looking for survivors. "Neighborhoods" with nothing left but a few front steps. FEMA trailers. Trees bent, stripped, and shattered. More FEMA trailers. A semi trailer that apparently landed on top of a car during the storm. Empty parking lots (but no buildings to accompany them). Piles of trash in the streets. Crumpled houses.

Here are a few pictures to get a taste (sorry I didn't take more--I guess I was too overwhelmed!)

A FEMA trailer park...

We stopped for a quick bite of ice cream. The shop owner told us that after the storm, the water was above the ceiling at this place.

Other random bits of information I picked up today about Hurricane Katrina that I think are true (but can't be certain):

• There are 92,000 FEMA trailers in Mississippi alone. These are residential trailers and are occupied primarily by families. That's a lot of people living in trailers!
• In order to clean up New Orleans, an average of one 40 ft. dumpster's worth of garbage needs to be removed for each resident.
• The population of New Orleans has decreased by 250,000 since Katrina.
• Garbage trucks in Gulfport still run every day in order to remove Katrina junk.

Ideas Please!

Earlier this week, several of us spent a day (or two) at a conference up in Longmont. The basic point of the conference was that it's not enough for a church to preach the good news to others. We must also show others the good news (I sure hope that sounds familiar!) Speakers challenged us all to make sure that we are loving our neighbors and making our presence felt in the community. The basic goal was to do/be church in such a way that people in our communities would actually notice if we shut down (that's been stated as a goal of First, by the way).

Well, the conference was both affirming and challenging. Affirming, because we could pat ourselves on the back and say: "Yeah, this First Church gets this. We've been loving our neighbors for a long time. We know that word and deed can't be separated." I think this is particularly true of the way we act as individuals in our community: the commitment of people in our church to ministries like Joshua Station, VIA, Kids Hope USA at McKinley-Thatcher, Partners Worldwide, CRWRC Disaster Response, and various other ministries really is quite phenomenal. So yeah, way to go First Church members. You done good.

At the same time, however, we wondered how we as an institution could improve our presence and ministry in the community. I realize that there is overlap between things we do as individuals (what we might call the "Church as Organism") and as an organization, but I'm curious about what folks at First think it means for us "Love our Neighbors" in Platte Park. What are the "needs" of this community that we can meet? How can we show the love of Jesus here? If you have any ideas, feel free to post a comment or talk/email me or Shirley. We'd love to hear from you...(and don't worry about proof reading. I don't proof read and don't expect you to either!)

The Ol' Ball Game

Some of the Young Adults (well most of us were young...but I won't say who was pushing the limits) went out to a Rockies game Friday night. We had a good time, but as anticipated, the home team lost. On the bright side, however, the defeat wasn't quite as spectacular as that which occurred on Sunday (15-2!!!). Here are a few pics for those who are interested. I also have some great footage of a few members dancing to the "Car Wash" song ("wax on, wax off") and engaging in some other ridiculous behaviors. Maybe if someone asks nicely, I'll post those too...

Mmmmm. Stadium food.

Before and After.

Jason hopes for a rally...

The Group (don't ask me what Bob and Joy are looking at)

The Humility of God

For the past few weeks, I've been plodding my way through one of C.S. Lewis' classic works: The Problem of Pain. Though I wouldn't try to toss out Lewis' "solutions" to those who are going through some great pain in their lives (not an approach Lewis advocates himself, by the way), the book is interesting (as most of Lewis' writing tends to be). Of particular intrigue to me was Lewis' discussion of what he calls "the humility of God."

A little background: Lewis' discussion on this point is a part of a broader argument in which he is attempting to demonstrate that pain can be (though is not necessarily) purposeful. In other words, he's arguing that God can use pain for good--even our good. One of the ways that God can use pain for our good is by grabbing our attention with it. Pain, says Lewis, is God's "megaphone."*

One of the things God says through the megaphone of pain is that our sense of contentment and satisfaction, our help and our hope, can only come from him. Of course, most of us know this already. At least in theory. But we also know that when life is going well--when the bank account is swelling and our relationships are flourishing and we are (relatively) worry free--it is difficult to turn our thoughts to Him.** Instead of finding satisfaction in the knowledge that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful savior Jesus Christ, we begin to find satisfaction in the new car, or in the our healthy bodies, or in our perfect children. Somehow, our souls find rest (or at least relative rest) even though they are not resting in Him. And that's when God decides to take out his megaphone.*** He allows his children to suffer, so that through their suffering, they might receive a reminder of their need for Him.

Taken the wrong way, I suppose this line of argument could make God sound like a cruel parent--Or at least a narcissistic one who has unhealthy needs for attention. But understand that one of Lewis' fundamental presuppositions is that human beings were created to be in a relationship with God and therefore they can only be happy within a relationship with God. In other words, this isn't only about the Father being happy to have his children back (assuming they call to him in their pain). This is also about his children finding happiness because they have their Father back. Put yet another way, in his grace, God uses pain to awaken in his children a desire for the one thing that can truly make them happy--Him.

So, where does the "humility of God" come in? Well, think about this: It is not particularly flattering for God to have us come to Him only when we need something from Him, or as a last resort, or because He seems less unpleasant than the other alternatives. As Lewis states, "it is a poor thing to strike our colours to God when the ship is going down under us; a poor thing to come to Him as a last resort, to offer up 'our own' when it is no longer worth keeping. If God were proud He would hardly have us on such terms."

But here's the thing: God is not proud. God is humble. He is willing to take us to himself even when our motives are less-than pure, even when we come to Him as something of a last resort. God so wants us to be happy (read: "God so wants us to be in fellowship with him"), God is so humble, and God loves us so much, that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get us into a relationship with Him. He's even willing to let us go through a little pain. And I, for one, think that is quite remarkable.****

*"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." (p. 83)
**I hope a few of you will make the connection to the sermon I preached a few weeks ago on Deut. 8.
***Please, please, please don't hear this as an explanation for all the pain and suffering we may do. This is one possible purpose, and may not even be a primary purpose.
****I hope you do too. But if this just seems like a bunch of mad rambling, you may want to check out chapter 6 of Lewis' book. He makes the argument much more convincingly than I.

Kudos!

On Friday night, Jill and I had the privilage of attending a wonderful production of "Beauty and the Beast." We had a bunch of First kids involved (10?!) and they did a great job. Way to go!

For those of you who couldn't afford the price of admission or who missed it for some other reason, I attempted to bootleg the classic number, "Be Our Guest." You can try to get a bit of the experience by clicking on the video above. It's my first attempt at bootlegging, so it didn't turn out very well. But just so you know, some of those white blobs ARE First kids!