Tuesday, June 21, 2011

A Midsummer Night




Steep thyself in a bowl of summertime. ~ Virgil, 70 - 19 BC


I love that quote from Virgil. Steep means to extract the essence of by soaking; and anyone who has experienced the liquid humidity of a Georgian summer knows that is right on the mark. Nothing else captures summer quite the way a pool of bright green pond scum does.

Midsummer actually falls on the solstice. The "mid-" part comes from old calendar systems where summer begins with May Day. Although astronomically, we are just beginning summer at solstice, it is the mid-point of the maximum daylight, so it all works.

For much of the English-speaking world, due in large part to Playwright Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, the faeries of Celtic mythology are still remembered and associated with this festival day. To create a setting for his comedy, Shakespeare drew upon the ancient belief that summer solstice created a "thin place" in the cosmos where one could travel between the mystical and the physical realms.

When the first Christian missionaries visited the Celts, they found a people who believed that the divine pervaded each facet of life—that the spiritual and physical coexisted. It was a culture that fit the descriptions in Acts where scripture says that God did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. and that the divine Creator of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Despite some dissension between factions and conflict with the papal hierarchy, the more effective early missionaries did not fuss over changing the culture and converting the Celts into "good Roman Catholics." What came of it was a style of Christianity that emphasized the handiwork of the Creator more than the approach that came out of Rome.

Virgil, Shakespeare, or whomever, whether or not you celebrate Midsummer's Eve with faerie dances and bonfires, it is a good time or year to remember your Creator and thank Him for a universe that runs with such precision that we have a summer solstice to celebrate.

Scripture from Acts 14:17 and 17: 14

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Fathers' Day at the Geezer Service

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Protestant churches have caught on to what the Catholics were pioneering when I was a kid—the hootenanny mass. They wanted to make God more attractive to the youth. ( pause for reflection...   It would behoove us to realize they ended up with the Flying Nun.) So we have two services. Same sermon, different flavor.

If there was ever a concept that mixes cluelessness with an equal amount of absurdity, it would be that of mankind attempting to make God attractive.

Anyway, I'm not sure what goes on at the youth service, but the geezer who led the prayer this morning used a phrase worth repeating: entrusted with manhood.

That is a provocative (in an intriguing sort of way) take on fatherhood.

It resonates with a segment of 1 Thessalonians 2:4 — we have been approved by God to be entrusted
(The King James uses "allowed" rather than "approved," but all four literal translations I checked used "approved" and another lexicon used "deemed fit.")

This is probably one of the most under-preached secrets to fatherhood and parenting in general: being able to trust the trustworthy. Raising a child to be trustworthy is only a portion of the job. The child then has to be entrusted. That is how a father-God develops a son's self esteem, no, make that his value. God the Father entrusted his Son with Saving the World!

But, on a smaller scale, it is fundamental to raising (not razing) really good kids.

"Entrusted" is a concept that is lacking in the secular-psychology paradigm for creating self-esteem. Parents are told that they need to "affirm their child's value." But that misses the mark, and it is not how God treats His kids, at least, not the primary way.

God did not say, "Abram, I'm choosing you because you have value!" Rather, He said, "I'm choosing you because you can be entrusted to teach your children to keep the way of the LORD." (loosely paraphrasing Ge 18:19) In other words, he was chosen because of his values. The choosing of David and Daniel and most of the prophets follows a similar course. God did not affirm the individual's value. He affirmed the values the individual held.

It is just one little 's' that makes a world of difference. Compare:

Affirm a child's value. vs. Affirm a child's values.

It is the noble values of a child's heart that ought to be affirmed and established.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

The 50th Day


In one of the ironies of life, the fairly fundamental and liturgical church where I grew up always celebrated Pentecost Sunday. The altar cloths were changed to a fiery red and the organ played hymns heard only once a year from the special Pentecost section of the hymnal. It was our one dalliance into anything remotely mystical. The early verses of Acts Two were, of course, explained away as a one-time event.


1 While the Day of Pentecost was running its course they were all together in one place, 2 when suddenly there came from the sky a noise like that of a strong driving wind, which filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues like flames of fire, dispersed among them and resting on each one. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them power of utterance.


But verses 16 -18 made the minister a little nervous.

16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
17 "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.



For one day out of the year, it was permissible to contemplate portents in the sky above and signs on the earth below: blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before that great and terrible Day of the Lord.


As I began to say, in one of the ironies of my life, the miracles-died-out-with-the-apostles church where I grew up always celebrated Pentecost Sunday. But throughout my adult life, spent mainly in churches with an end-times outlook and Pentecostal flavor, very seldom has Pentecost been mentioned as a festal day. Today's geezer service, to the pastor's credit, did sport a hymn about the Holy Spirit, a very singable melody in ¾ time. I am not sure what happened in the contemporary service, but seeing as how waltz music is hard to clap to, no doubt they opted for something else.


Now I am going to have to point out my point because I am pretty sure I have not made it yet. My point is, one has to be responsible for his or her own spiritual life because every church is going to leave stuff out. There is a Day of the Lord coming, and whether you find it 'great and terrible' or 'great and resplendent' depends upon how you plan for it. Don't trust your church to have it covered.