In Hallock, this is home

I was a little stressed this week. OK, actually a lot. And I couldn't put my finger on it. I assumed it was something to do with returning from a mission trip and trying to catch up on sleep--I'm sure that was part of it. I assumed it also had something to do with catching up on work and the return of general monotony to the routine--that was surely part of it, too. Then, I assumed it was that I had reached my limit of extroversion in the past week--yep, that too. But I think none of those were actually the main reason for my stress.

Yesterday, Kate and I finished painting our living room--finally! As we put things back into place I could absolutely feel the stress lifting from my life. It was weird. There's no reason why the location of furniture should be such a big deal, except IT WAS. I could not focus, could not rest, could not let go of things, until things were as they should be--until, in short, I had a place to call home.

Coming back from Idaho is always a maudlin experience for me. Home is Golden Valley, Minnesota, and home is now Hallock, Minnesota, but home is also the ponderosa pines of northern Idaho, the banks of Lake Coeur d'Alene, and the shores of Shoshone Creek. Of course, it was wildly appropriate and completely random that I was reading Bill Bryson's At Home over the course of the week I was there. Home is weird; it's the intersection of a place and feelings and people and all sorts of things that are harder to put our fingers on. Going off to Idaho reminded me of home out there, but it also strengthened my ties to Hallock back here. It's weird. And beautiful. And I don't get it.

Mission trips and mission at home

Scripture: Revelation 12

            When we think about the Devil and the nature of evil—if we ever do think about these things—we tend to think about terrible temptations, murder and violence, utter depravity and the like. It’s easy for us to see evil at work in big forces outside of our control—things like terrorism and addiction. The nightly news is draped with images of sin and the power of the Devil, but we should certainly remember that these are not the only images of evil in our lives.

            On the bus ride home from our youth’s mission trip in Idaho a couple nights ago I asked a couple of our young people what I should preach on—because, honestly, I didn’t have much clue. What ensued was twenty minutes of deciding how to re-create a heavenly battle scene for all of you complete with fiery swords and flying angels and evil dragons. They had picked out characters and everything. It was a lot of fun, but I decided—perhaps wisely, perhaps foolheartedly—to not act out a heavenly battle on the altar. The youth were understandably disappointed. But that is what this is about, isn’t it? This is the only scene in the traditions of Christianity or Judaism where there is actually a battle in heaven. It is the ultimate, epic, Spielberg-esque prequel to our lives on this planet. Satan, that great deceiver, is defeated dramatically and cast to this earth where he meets first Jesus, against whom his power is useless, and so he is forced to focus on Adam and Eve, forever changing the history of humankind.

            This dragon story is virtually identical to a myth in the Greek tradition about the god, Apollo. Ancient readers would have picked up that John was adapting the Apollo story and using it to point to Jesus. In so doing, the real effect of the dragon and the angels is that it gives an explanation to one of the most troubling effects of life on this earth: it tells us to origins of evil.

            I suppose that upon descending to earth the Devil could have begun to wage a violent war on human beings, but it’s telling that he doesn’t. Instead, the Devil does something far more effective: he whispers in the ears the most tempting of ideas and, slowly, things begin to unravel. The Devil is more interested in silence than a bang. See, there was no headway to be had with Jesus. Satan seemed like an unstoppable force when he landed upon the earth but in Jesus he met something fundamentally good that he could not touch. So he had to settle for the rest of us, causing the earth to quake, famine and war, visible signs of brokenness, and far more.

The Tour and the Church

The following is an article for the Kittson County Enterprise, July 10 edition.

I love the Tour de France. I realize it’s a completely niche sport that not everybody can get into—and that’s fine—but I find it absolutely fascinating. I also remember the first time I watched a cycling race. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on. There were riders out front called the breakaway, something called a peloton (a large group of riders) and the commentators were talking about stages and the general classification and all sorts of things that didn’t make a lot of sense. Then they mentioned the teams. How, I wondered, can a team possibly help one of their riders? It’s not like they could push one another. Was it just moral support? I was lost.

I suspect this is something like what it is to walk into a church for the first time. Most people who grow up attending a particular denomination have an idea of the traditions, customs and signs of worship within that church, but this makes it hard to remember that there are many people outside that church that have no idea why you do things the way you do. Just because they are not part of the in-crowd does not make them inferior or any less valuable in God’s eyes. It’s a dangerous practice for a church to assert their superiority over those on the outside—in fact, I can imagine few ways to be less Christian!

This is worship. This is worship.

Scripture: Revelation 7:9-17

In heaven there are no committees.

Now, I know for some of you that is a pretty blasphemous way to start a sermon, and I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. I love what committees do for the sake of the church and for my sanity as well. We have many dedicated, hardworking and genuinely necessary committees in this church. They mostly function very well together and I could not do my job without them. However, in spite of these things I am sorry to say that heaven still has no need of committees.

This is why.

If a committee were charged with organizing this giant worship service with the Lamb on the throne in Revelation 7 it would have been bogged down in all sorts of disagreements, and it never would have happened. The idea of opening up worship to great, uncountable multitudes from every corner of the world, every tribe and tongue, would have paralyzed the heavenly worship committee. How could we possibly all worship together? And, most importantly, how could we make enough coffee and bars to serve them all?

Lake of the Woods trip 2013

So, mostly this blog has become for sermons and whatnot. That's nice but it's also somewhat a bad sign that I have had little time for other things. OK, so life is life and sometimes you do what you do to get by, but when an opportunity comes for something else it should not be ignored. Hence, Lake of the Woods trip 2013. If you're not interested in what I do on vacation that's just fine, but if you are here it is. Enjoy. Oh, and here's a warning: It's not exactly relaxing.

So, I have been up on the NW Angle three years straight for muskie fishing with my buddy, Carl. I'd been to the Angle before these trips but never for anything quite so crazy. This is not your grandpa's walleye trip. It's 12-14 hour days of sun and wind and sometimes waves and always fishing--lots of fishing.

Day 1: Steak

We arrived in the Angle late Sunday afternoon with the idea of getting on the water ASAP. Basically the philosophy of this entire trip is: Fish whenever fishing is possible. Sunday night fishing was possible; hence we fished. We didn't catch much (by that I mean we caught nothing) and it was only a mini little four hour tour. So, the order of the day was rainbows and steak--in that order, but not necessarily by preference.

To become bound to the things that matter

Text: Ruth 1:16-17

I don't normally publish wedding (or funeral) sermons but I had multiple requests in this case so here it is. Names and places have been removed for the sake of the couple but otherwise the sermon is unaltered.

One little verse from Ruth sums up your responsibilities and commitments in the married life. “Where you go, I will go; where you stay, I will stay; where you die, I will die.” That’s not something you hear much these days. I mean, people get married because they really like each other and it’s the thing to do when two people really like each other; and people get married because they have children together or want to have children together; or people even get married for taxes or completely practical reasons, and because of this “Where you go, I will go” has lost its simplicity. You two know about going places together. It’s taken you on a bit of an adventure so far and it has brought you back here today. Nobody knows where it goes from here. The simple promise you are making now is that this journey will not be a solo effort; instead, you will be in it together—for better and, sometimes, for worse.

Maybe you’ve had people jokingly rib you over this whole marriage thing. There’s this widespread attitude that in marriage you will lose your freedom—that tomorrow you will be less free than you were today. And, honestly, it’s kind of true. This is a commitment that will eliminate possibilities from your life. In fact, from here on out in every big event that you share together possibilities for the future will disappear because you will make choices that take you down one path and close other paths entirely. This journey might include big moves, additions to the family, new jobs, and other things that will take you by surprise, but all of these things will mean eliminating possible futures from your life, always making you less and less free.

What is the church? People + Worship + ... Evangelism??

            I’m going to ask a question. It’s such a completely obvious question that it seems almost like a silly thing to bring up, but then again the most obvious questions tend to be the ones that never get asked. So, here we go: What is the church?

            OK, so there are a few levels to that question. Most often when pastor-folk ask ‘What is church?’ they are trying to get you to say this: “The church is not the building but the people.” Gold star. 100% on your confirmation test. Congrats. That’s a great answer. In fact, it’s an answer we need to give more often. We tend to revere our church buildings too much. Like Peter following the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain, our first thought in the midst of something holy is to build a dwelling place for God (Luke 9:33). But (of course there’s always a “but”) the church is also more than just people. What are those people doing? Why are they gathering? What is their purpose? So many questions...