The View from the West Mesa

While waiting for his glasses to be crafted, my son and I decided to visit the local bookseller and redeem gift cards we had received for Christmas. After finding a few books, there was enough time left to visit the in-store café. As we sat in the café, we noticed the mural above the café counter. Stretching for about forty or so feet, and being about four to six feet tall, the mural displays likenesses of fifteen famous authors – Faulkner, Hemingway, Parker, and the like. They are sitting in a café themselves, most at tables, but with one or two standing. As we studied the mural, a few things became obvious that we had previously not noticed. The first is the most obvious – of the fifteen authors, only two are women. Not overly exciting this, but curious nonetheless given the recent and somewhat extended push for gender equality and recognition of women's contributions in previously male-dominated fields. The next detail that became apparent is that the few "extra" peopl

Our great God, our Creator, the giver and sustainer of Life. We praise you for this miracle we have received today. As Violet Grace takes her first breaths, we ask you to breathe on her; give her your Spirit. Infuse her with a desire for you, give her wisdom to discern you in herself, in others, and in the Creation. Give her the strength to follow You, and patience and compassion with those who do not know you, or who have not discerned you as she has. Give her patience with herself and teach her to wait on You. Give her a desire for a simple life, lived quietly in trust with You. Father, as we remember the coming of Your Son, we ask that You incarnate Yourself in Violet; that You nurture and grow her to be a living witness of Your grace in this life. Keep her safe, bless her and her parents beyond their imaginations, and give them long lives and great wisdom. We trust You, and rely on Your steadfast love. Thank you for Your Son, and in His name we offer Violet to You. Amen

Psalm 138 I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased. All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD, for great is the glory of the LORD. For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. This psalm describes a God that is not far off, but a God that sees and loves those who would follow Him. Th

The question was posed on another site, "why do people seem to be seeking spirituality; why are they searching for fulfillment and satisfaction?" Asked by someone who had a non-believing friend, who had asked the original question. The answer to this question is rather simple it seems to me. Here's what I posted in response: "We are made in the image, the character of God. Somewhere inside us is some God-stuff that tells us the world, the way it is, isn't the way it's supposed to be; that we, chasing after stuff that ultimately doesn't satisfy, aren't the way we're supposed to be. As a result, we look to match that God-stuff with meaning and life. And so we seek, without knowing sometimes that it is the God-stuff that needs to be met. Humans are all made in the image of God; and we all seek to live in that image (even if we don't know what that image is)." If this is a correct answer to the question, it could help form the focus of our te

Most Christians know of Paul’s admonition to be perfect, even as God is perfect, and most Christians have at one time or another, vacillated between security in faith and wondering if they’ve been perfect enough. It dawned on me this past Wednesday that all our attention on being perfect may by miss-placed. What if we were meant to be imperfect? Really. It has been demonstrated that most of us find it hard to be really compassionate, really caring, really empathetic unless and until we have undergone some sort of disappointment, loss, or failure. In the psychology world, and in a few Christian books, the idea of the wounded healer posits that only those who have suffered and worked through it can most adequately “be with” those who are now receiving the blows of life’s realities. If we are called by God to live in His image, to live in His and with His worldview, His other-centered drives, His compassionate care for the world, how can we really mature into that image if we have never l

A comment has been received concerning our last post. Essentially, the question is "do you have Scripture for that post, or are you just making it up?" This is a common question since I don't pay a lot of attention to peppering my writing with citations. I much prefer to assume that my audience has a grasp of Scripture and can recognize it when they read it. However, that is not always the case and there is nothing wrong with asking questions. And so the answer is, "yes there is plenty of Scripture to support the ideas in our last post." To make the point concisely, I would offer Paul's admonition to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus as well as Jesus' urging that we live in Him as He lives in the Father. He further tells us that He and the Father are one. It would seem then that yes, God does call us to live as He would live on this planet. When asked to show the disciples the Father, Jesus' response was something like "what, haven't

When I was young, I came to know God as creator and eventually as savior, and those things drew me to Him. Those are good things for children to know about God. In fact they are good things for seekers, for new Christians to know, but they exist in the elementary things of which Paul speaks. Elementary I suspect for two reasons. The first, that they can sometimes be based in fear – if you don’t believe, God is going to send you to Hell. The second, that they are things about God; they are objective statements. Objective I suspect as faith concepts can be. But I do not want to stay there. I no longer want to know God as creator and savior only. I want to know God ; I want to know Him in His essence, His character, His love. But here again I do not want to stop at objective statements. “God is love” is nice, but it cannot satisfy. These again are a set of objective statements about God. Much more do I want to know God as my God, on a personal and communing basis. I want to know Him

In the last couple weeks our youngest son graduated from Basic Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Pretty routine really...music, soldiers, families, heat, humidity, irritability from time to time. The first day was Family Day. We were to get there at 10:00 and so my wife wanted to get there early. As it turned out, we were to be let into the post theater at 11:00. Picture this....200 family members standing in the sun and humidity, pushed up against the front of the theater, waiting. Wonderful really. The Family Day family theater period lasted about twenty minutes and included primarily a hard-to-hear bubba try to tell us the rules for Family Day. Essentially, we could have our soldier until 8:00 that evening with some limits on distance and admonitions that he could not have alcohol, drive the car, or change out of his uniform. Well that went OK and we had him back on time, dressed and with no alcohol on board. The next day was Graduation Day. Oddly enough, it started the same way....o

A reader (I am always amazed that people actually read this blog) submitted a rather long comment on the original post on Elders. It is apparent that the reader did some good homework as the comment has several, well, more than several, reference citations. It is clear that they both read the original post and did some Bible study before posting their comment. Because the comment was so long, I thought it appropriate to post another entry rather than bury the response in the comment log. In the following discussion, I have included the text of the comment without the Scripture references. If you want to read the comment in its entirety, scroll to the Elders post and click on the comment. --------------------------------------------------------- [Comment~~~~The church is expected to be a people in exactly this sense. We are the people of God who are charged with continuing and preserving the values, culture, hopes, and the identity of God’s people in our time.~~~~ Does this include th

This September, my wife and I will lead our congregation's fall camp session. The theme as I have received it is "The Church," which does not seem overly exciting upon first hearing. But we will not discuss church as a flat subject; as something about which we already know all there is to know. Oh no; there will be plenty of twists and turns. We will have four sessions, the last of which will be the camp's Sunday sermon. The topics will be these: What is the Church? In this session we are going to gently pull back our standard answer and look beneath it to see that the church is simply the latest incarnation of the People of God. While God's plan was a mystery to Man, and the church is a central aspect of that mystery, the church itself remains as a link in the chain that God has used to bless creation from the beginning. We are not unique in the sense that our mission, our calling is the same as has been that of the People of God from the beginning. Who is the Ch

OK. This may well get me in big trouble, but let me throw it out there anyway. The question before those of us assembled on the mesa is, what is the point of the Christian faith? This question comes to us because it seems that if we can grasp the big picture, if we can understand that what God wants is people that live the way He made them to live, how does that inform the purpose of Jesus’ coming? A simple viewing of the Eternal Word Television Network, or a visit to an Episcopal church, or visiting a low-church protestant service reveals the centrality of Jesus in the assembly. Now this essay is not going to suggest we do away with or ignore Jesus, but it will question whether, in our attempt to worship Him well, we have forgotten what the big picture really is. It seems to me that Jesus did not change the big picture. Rather, He came to illustrate it and be its example to those who can recognize God when they see Him. In other words, while Jesus’ coming was known and pl

As the self-declared spokesman for all of Christendom (at least for the next few minutes), I find the text of Pastor Hagee’s apology to Roman Catholics one of the most equivocal, off-point, and self-preserving that I have read recently. On the other hand, unfortunately, it is also pretty much standard. According to the AP, a portion of the two-page apology reads like this: "Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful." Now I know that there may be considerably more self-deprecating narrative in the remaining text. Be that as it may, at least in this place it is apparent that Pastor Hagee isn’t sorry that he said anything, only that someone may have taken offense at what he has said. That my friends, simply doesn’t wash. It is not Christian to make millions of dollars calling a group of people "The Great Whore” or “The Apostate

“”Words can hurt…but only if you let them. They called you bad names. Were you changed into the things they called you?” “No,” I replied. “You cannot forget what they said any more than you cannot feel the wind when it blows. But if you learn to let the wind blow through you, you will take away its power to blow you down. If you let the words pass through you, without letting them catch on your anger or pride, you will not feel them.”” --Joseph M. Marshall III , 2001, The Lakota Way “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” --A common schoolyard retort The truth is though, that words can hurt very deeply – and more than one child has experienced just how painful angry and barbed comments can be. Not only do they hurt in the moment when they pierce our hearts and seemingly sear into our psyches, but their pain can live for hours or weeks in the lives of school kids. If we hear enough of them, or hear them from the right people, they can

In class this morning we were studying Matthew 18. There are at least four pericopes in this chapter which seem to form a coherent whole. These four cast in practical terms the answer to an age-long problem: how to get people to let go of themselves? From arguments over who is the greatest, to parables about searching for lost sheep, to indebted servants beating on their debtors, we are led along a revelation of the sort of measure God uses when dealing with us – what sorts of expectations he might have of us. Do we want to be first? Why? What's the point? Do we not know that the shepherd himself leaves the flock and searches in desert places for one sheep who is missing.? Rather than simply writing that one off, the shepherd seeks earnestly for it. That sheep – and everyone like it – means a lot to that shepherd. Does he remain around those that are where they are supposed to be; those that have followed his voice recently? No, he leaves them there and searches for the one that is

H e has achieved something most private citizens never achieve. In fact, he has elevated himself, almost single-handedly to heights rarely achieved even by heads of state or military officers. While he has prepared for this day for more than twenty years, he has rocketed to recognition in less than a week. This is normally the pattern, most world-take-notice achievements do not actually occur overnight. No, most world newsworthy events only happen after intentional and decades-long preparation. It is not a medal he has won, he has not achieved great political success, he has not almost single-handedly brought medical and emotional healing to millions. No, he is no hero, no beloved leader, he is certainly no Mother Theresa. The notoriety he has achieved ranks not with saints, but with devils. He has made himself equal to Pol Pot, Heinrich Himmler, or Stalin. This is the reason his name does not appear in this entry. If you have read or heard the news over the past week or so, you know

I n "The War of Art," Steven Pressfield offers the "Principle of Priority" through the lens of which he encourages us to keep our eyes on what really needs our attention. The principle reads "a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and b) you must do what's important first." At first, this sounds either counterintuitive or too simple. Counterintuitive in the sense that most of us spend much of our lives reacting to the urgent needs of our surroundings. Too simple in that the principle seems to ignore, or at least reduce the importance of the urgent things that assail us almost minute by minute. The phone rings and we immediately answer it despite the violence that does to the conversation we may be having with someone else. We forget that it is important to honor our correspondents than to respond immediately to a ringing interruption? Most parents have experienced the knee-jerk impulse to control a child in publ

Currently there seems to be some increase in the interest of elders. The discussion is often limited to "how are we going to make sure we don't get stuck with a reactionary," or "how best to protect the congregation by forcing elders to be reviewed every so often," the discussion reveals a considerable loss of understanding it seems, of the church and her elders. This discussion simply reinforces my conviction that we really do not know what elders are all about. While shepherding is a nice, soft, and somewhat marginal term that is currently in vogue, it remains only one aspect of an elder’s “job.” The discussion also reinforces my conviction that we have lost sight of what the church is actually called to be. While operating as an organization with rules for common assemblies may be the most visible aspect of church, it also remains but one aspect – and a very small one – of what church is. The church is not primarily a Sunday morning operation. Rather, i