Luke 1: 5-25...an angel!

I confess it. My angelology is kind of thin. I revel in the mysteriousness of God who is both invisible and makes himself known in fires, clouds, and still small voices. I'm ok with the numinous and ethereal. I get the word: dabar....logos. I love the power and elasticity of words, especially spoken, read and written. Words are portable and transferable from one person, one generation to another. I love Jesus of Nazareth, of God taking on flesh and becoming one of us. That's why trips to Israel get richer and richer for me. I imagine him walking the roads and standing by the shore line. I understand one person's touch, voice, suffering and pain. But angels!
I just don't always get angels. They seem to be distracting presences. Where were they before they showed up? What were they doing? Where do they go after their appearance? What are they doing right now? Where do they come from? Where do they go? And what's with their names? Gabriel, Michael?
So much of my reaction to angels comes from the extra-biblical, cultural sentimentality we have associated with them. Cherubs, wings, guardian angels, Christmas tree ornaments and sparkling dusted cards. I recoil against the Baroque frills and filagrees of angels floating around everywhere like wallpaper. Maybe my masculine identity does not related to the over-feminization of angel imagery. So if it were my preference, I wouldn't deal much with angels, much less preach about them.
Yet...they are there in Scripture. And they are especially present in and around the birth of Jesus. So, for the next five weeks each Sunday will be devoted to an angelic appearance and experience.
This week we will explore what really happened to old Zechariah in the Temple when Gabriel showed up.

Anointed One

The text for this Sunday's sermon is Isaiah 61:1-4. The prophet speaks of being "anointed" by the Spirit, as Jesus himself takes this text on to describe his calling in Luke 4. How does this apply to the individual believer and the corporate church? Because of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, is this out mutual heritage, calling, responsibility?

Half Moon Bay

I had the best time with Isaac and Anna Thursday through Saturday. I saw their new apartment, hung out with Anna, saw 2012 with them both Friday night after a Turkish dinner. Then today they introduced me to Half-Moon Bay. It was cold and overcast with some drizzle; not bad weather for Minnesota boys in November. So we did what we planned to do...we went swimming. I chickened out and used a wet suit while Isaac just dove in! Yikes it was cold and the current was impressive.

Two boys who had too much fun.

Opening Night of 2012 with a full theater of teenagers!

Ever Need to Move Fast?

In Isaac's cube

Oracle Americas Cup boat!

Thank You from Zambia!

Remember the M-4 projects that the four churches of Montecito did a couple of years ago twice? We raised funds for, packed and sent first 1,000 and then the next year 2,000 AIDS/HIV care kits to World Vision care providers in Uganda. These kits take care of 7 HIV/AIDS patients with palliative care for about 3 months.
At the M-4 monthly lunch meeting this past Tuesday, Jeff Witten from World Vision gave each one of the churches a delicately wrapped package. Inside were sculptures like the one above, made by Charles Mwanjeleka, a Zambian artist as a way of saying thanks to the M-4 churches from African christians! Pretty cool thank-you!

Eugene Cho: a different kind of battle

Check out this compelling video interview with Eugene Cho, Covenant pastor and founder of "One Day's Wages" and Dave from "Not For Sale" on what they are doing to combat human slavery!

Thank You Veterans!

In our guest bedroom (the one we call the boys' room) is an old oval photo of my dad's dad, E.R. Johnson. It was his discharge photo after WW I. He was a Swedish immigrant who landed with his parents in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Gladstone). His family was so poor he left school after the 8th grade to work in a barrel stave factory. He enlisted in WW I not having a clue about the nature of the war and the geography of Europe. He was deployed to the trenches of France where he carried bandoliers of machine gun bullets to the gunners through the trenches and mud. He survived numerous gas attacks and shellings. But he loved France and would regale us (his grandchildren) with stories of life after the war in France and the words he picked up.
But when we would ask him to tell us battle stories, he would shudder and tell us in no uncertain terms how awful war was. Which made it all the harder when my dad went off to WW II in the Army. He too was pretty naive about the geopolitics of WW II and the layout of Europe. He was stationed in Berlin when the orders came to go immediately south to a town called Dachau. There he saw first hand the hell of concentration camps and the horrors of Nazism. He told us all later that at that instant, seeing the corpses piled high and the scarecrow like prisoners clinging to the wires, that this was a morally right war against a hideous evil.
But Dad, too, would later shudder about the terrors of fighting and tanks, of foxholes and bombardments.
These are my two heroes I think about today, not unlike those men and women who serve all over the world today, under arms to make peace.

Great thoughts from Brad Boydston

Below is a copied post from Brad Boydston's blog on the whole nature of "frugality" and, by contrast "generosity." As we face the holidays and church budget-making, what do you think?
Frugality
I've been collecting a few of my thoughts on frugality recently:

1. If you talk a lot about how frugal you are people will assume that you're cheap.

2. If you talk a lot about how frugal you are you are not.

3. Frugality at the expense of others is cheapness.

4. The wise and affluent person who can afford an extravagant lifestyle still practices frugality to free up additional resources for what matters in life.

5. The truly fugal are also outrageously generous.

Monday Question: How was Sunday?

I sat with a friend this morning over coffee. "How did you think Sunday went?" he asked. It took me a long time to answer. I ran through the laundry-list of items that the staff reviews on Tuesday; logistics, light, sound, music, announcements, classes, messes, soloists, typo's, on-time/over-time, A/C, etc. Seldom does the staff comment on the sermon nor do I. I don't think it's off limits, but they give me distance to critique it myself. Finally, after this long pause, I said "OK".
Monday's are the best and worst times to evaluate Sundays. The weekend totally wipes me out (a wedding and reception on Saturday) and a Greece trip reunion feast Sunday night till late. It's all good stuff, but I'm pretty much toast on Mondays. I tried working a Monday a couple weeks ago and I was useless.
As we talked about stuff, he said that when his heart is right with God and he's hungry, it really doesn't matter who preaches or what the music is; it all blesses him. And when he's in a funk, he is critical of Billy Graham himself. So we revised my evaluation to this: it was really good, and it could always get better.