North Shore Confirmation Retreat Recap

This is going to be quick because, well, I have a lot to get together. What am I working on? Oh, just this...

 Packing for a race... putting together a plan of attack... basically just making sure I don't forget things this time... for about the first time ever.
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Anyway, this isn't about me. It's about what we did this past weekend. Fifteen Confirmation students and eight adults piled into vehicles and headed to the north shore of Lake Superior. We had supper at Grandma's Sports Garden in Duluth and then made our way to Tettegouche State Park as it turned dark where we set up camp in a primitive campsite. Just tents and whatnot. In the dark. With Jr High kids. All in all I was pretty impressed that it all came together.

We had a brief worship and talked a little about why we were there. This was a preview to Confirmation; it was also a little snippet of what a mission trip is (even if it's just one night). Then we had s'mores and hit the hay--by which I mean hit the hard rocks we were sleeping on. We were going to be getting up nice and early.

The morning meant an early start: wake up at 6, breakfast and ready to roll by 7. We split into two groups. One was going to stay in Tettegouche and hike Mt. Trudee; the other was heading to Gooseberry Falls State Park. The Gooseberry group was led by Kate and they had a shorter, one mile hike along with various devotional practices. They especially focused on reflection in art, thinking about what God has given them and how that might be reflected in their lives. This was part of a plan to improve our focus on prayer in Confirmation this year. We wanted to give a little taste of what was to come.

The other group joined with myself and Sam and we headed up a mountain... or at least as much of a mountain as Minnesota has to offer. Tettegouche is home to several of the best views in Minnesota that I know of, and one of these is certainly Mt. Trudee, which is a 3.7 mile hike from our campsite. I'm proud to say that our group did that hike (for a round trip of 7.4 miles) and there was absolutely no complaining. They just rocked it. Along the way we practiced some examples of "pilgrim's prayer." Prayers for a journey. We walked in silence for three and five minute intervals. They also listened to scripture and were intentional about noticing the world around them. Then, of course, we got to enjoy the view from the top.

Following our morning activities, we spent some time in Duluth and then hit the road back home. It was quick and we were spent, but all in all a good trip. I look forward to a fun year of Confirmation ahead!

We love because he first loved us

Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21

            Sometimes we need to step back for a moment and admire how stunning some bits of scripture are. “We love because he first loved us,” writes John, which is a nice little Christian Hallmark card waiting to be made, but he goes on: “Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” I am utterly floored by that scripture not because I don’t believe it, but because it’s the kind of thing that I honestly don’t expect to find in the Bible. Usually, the Bible focuses on elements of faith and then treats acts of love as a response to that faith—and so it is in that little diddy in verse 19: “We love because he first loved us.” But to take it one step further and say that our love of God is proven in our love of our brothers and sisters—not in the strength of our faith—is so dang practical; it makes my job easy because I don’t even need to make that small leap. It means that a Christian who does not demonstrate love for her neighbor is an oxymoron.

            And what does that love look like? Well, according to John “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” Love can’t be compelled—this is not a case of God saying “love your neighbor or else.” If you feel that this is a command of the law then you’ve already missed the point, because the kind of love that God loves is love that has no ounce of self in it. You don’t love because you’re going to get something out of it, and you don’t love because it’s the right thing to do; you love because God loves us, and the only way to experience God is to pass it on.

A last training run

Yes, I know I haven't put up Sunday's sermon yet. That will happen tomorrow when I'm in the office. Today I'm off, recovering from the weekend... and getting in one last training run.

The Ngede Challenge 50k is four days away, which is exciting and terrifying. This also means that the training is winding down. Today was supposed to be a swimming day, followed by a bike ride tomorrow, an off day Thursday, and a short mountain bike ride Friday on a portion of the race course. Plans changed, though, as I was completely exhausted when we got back from our Confirmation retreat last night and there was absolutely no way I was getting up early to lap swim this morning.

So I changed things up and added in a short 5k run instead. This allowed me to sleep in (like an extra thirty minutes but with an infant I'll take what I can get) and run instead at my leisure. Fast forward to eight-something this morning and I was walking to the arbitrary crack in the pavement where I start my run, planning, as I told Kate, to do an easy interval: code for one mile easy warmup, then one mile hard, and one last mile of easy recovery. Boom.

Hence, nobody was more surprised than me that when I reached my start I took off like a crazy person. My first mile was going to be hard. In the split second before I started to run I had decided that this was not going to be an easy 5k interval; instead, it was going to be a 5k at a hard, race-like pace. I am nothing if not a masochist.

Behind schedule

Due to a confirmation retreat leaving today immediately after church (and a lack of time to pack for said retreat) Sunday's sermon will not be on the blog until Tuesday. Look for that and a full report on our two day, one night trip to the north shore on the blog this week!

What is the world?

Scripture: 1 John 4:1-6

            When reading from the Gospel of John or the letters attributed to John there is a dumb-sounding question that should really be addressed, and it is this: What is the world?

            It's the kind of question most of us would be ashamed to ask because it sounds so stupid. The world is the earth and all that is in it, duh! That’s true, but that’s not the primary definition that John uses, and it’s not the definition Christians often use when talking about things that are spiritual and things that are secular. John sets up this dichotomy between those who are in Christ and those who are in the world that has infiltrated our language as Christians to this day, and I have to admit that on most days I wish this idea didn’t exist because it is so confusing and so appallingly used by those who see themselves as the morality police that it ruins the original intent. It is one thing for John to say, “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us.” But it is quite another thing for one of us to say the same thing. I don’t know about you, but I’m always concerned whenever somebody claims God’s authority for what they are about to say because what they use that authority to say is usually offensive and poorly thought out.

            The misuse of this phrase, “the world,” has led to the implication that everything out there is bad and everything in here is good. The idea that there are those set apart who are above reproach in the midst of a broken world may sound nice in principle, but the problem is (if I’m honest) that I can never know on which side of that fence I’m standing. Yes, the world is broken—a quick check of the news is enough to know this is true. War in Israel and Gaza; the mess that is Ukraine and Russia; the killing of Christians in Iraq; Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia; plane crashes and tornadoes. The world out there clearly has its problems, but this idea that we are a beacon of righteousness in a sea of godlessness is about as dangerous an idea as a person can have. To say that I am in Christ but he or she is in the world is not only arrogant; it’s an impossible distinction for us to make.

Why this youth trip meant more to me

For all I write I'm usually not very personal. This is mostly by design. I mean, I never much cared for pastors who preached all about their own lives, and I'm not much into self-promotion on the blog. There is a danger in not talking about myself--at a certain point I lose my humanity and become a thinking-head, a writing-automaton. It's posts like this that will hopefully keep me from becoming that. This is going to be more personal than most, and for that I do not apologize in the slightest.

This year marked my third mission trip/service trip/cultural immersion/whatever you want to call what we do with our high school youth each summer (personally I prefer service trip, generally, though this year was more of a cultural immersion). And this year was different than every other year--as it tends to be. Some parts were rough; some parts were great. We persevered and had what I would consider a great trip.

But the reason this trip meant more to me than years' past had little to do with what we actually did. It had far more to do with the relationships built over the course of three years, and (maybe more importantly) it had everything to do with the roller coaster ride I've been on professionally since Natalie was born. Things have been fine at home, but my time and energy has been sapped, and we have had a string of rather serious events in the life of our parish since I returned to the job in April. A change of secretary was tough, especially given the circumstances, then a spate of deaths, including a suicide of a man with a young family and a murder involving family of our congregation were tougher. Finally, in the last month we've lost a couple members who lived good long lives, but, frankly, they always made me happy to visit and, selfishly, I was very sad to see them go.

Almost like falling in love: On service and comfort

Scripture: 1 John 1:1-4

            I’m going to say something radical that you might not believe, but it’s my goal by the end of this sermon that you may not only say “OK, that’s kind of true.” I want more than that. I want this to change you, because it is that important.
            What I want to say is this: “Comfort is the enemy of the meaningful life.”

            OK, that might not be completely radical. You can probably see that there’s at least some truth in that. If you grew up playing sports (or if you play sports still) you know that your success in athletics has a lot to do with how well you the push the boundaries of your comfort in training. If you’ve ever been self-employed or started a business you know how vulnerable, and yet immensely purposeful and gratifying, that can be. If you’ve ever fallen in love you know how scary and uncomfortable that is.

            So, if comfort is our goal, it makes sense to avoid sports, challenging work, and relationships. 

            But for reasons of our own we choose the pain of training, the risk of investment, the possibility of unrequited love, and the messiness of failed relationships. The things that we value the most—the things we talk about around the dinner table—are the very things that are most difficult. Every great story we read—every heartwarming example we have—testifies that life is better when we are impassioned for what is good and true in the world. That is why we serve—it’s a reflection of God’s coming into the world—to serve, not to be served. “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” We spend a good deal of energy telling you about the good news that is the incarnation, but we are often confusing when it comes to what that good news actually looks like today. We are freed not to comfort but to servitude. Nothing shows this better than falling in love, and nothing  shows it better in the church than serving in uncomfortable places. The two actually go hand in hand. When we serve, we love.