And our Bishop IS the Coolest

And here's the proof - he and is wife were invited to a State Dinner at the White House - on his blog, Erik share's his dad's description of the evening.

Koinonia: Rubbing Elbows

Rita Nakashima Brock on "The Importance of Mary's Virginity"

There is an interesting piece in the Huffington Post on how Mary's virginity is more about resistence to the Roman Empire than Mary's "purity:"

Rita Nakashima Brock writes:

We might describe the story of Mary as a powerful rejection of patriarchal family systems and imperial powers that oppress everyone subject to them. By blessing her and trusting her with the Spirit in human flesh, God challenges the rich, proud, and haughty, which means those who love her story and follow Jesus ought to be doing the same. 

The Importance of Mary's Virginity

I wish she had fleshed this out more and spent less time on a history lesson.  However, this is a blog post in the Huffington Post, not a religious journal.  

But the idea intrigues me as it goes along with my theory that at the heart of many of the stories and legends the virginity and chastity of the early women saints and martyrs are a protest against a culture that gives women no say over who has control over their bodies.  I said more about this when I wrote about Santa Lucia last year.

In another life I'd write a doctoral thesis on this subject.  Someday someone will or write a book and I will bemoan the fact that I thought of it first but then remind myself I did nothing about it and be glad someone else fleshed it out.  Hopefully.  Or maybe I will write that dissertation.  I'm not dead yet, as my late husband used to say when I nagged him about things he hadn't done.

Kelly Fryer's Note to the Church "STOP HOGGING CHRISTMAS!"

STOP HOGGING CHRISTMAS!

Okay that's not her exact words, that's my take on it. Kelly Fryer is always trying to get the church to stop hogging the Gospel to itself. Now she's taking on the Advent Conspiracy in A Renewable Holiday Season And I agree with everything she says.

I've been thinking along these lines for awhile now.  I even had a throw away line in my sermon about how we need to stop being so judgmental about the shopping malls at Christmas as those shopping malls give people jobs so that they can fix a nice Christmas dinner for their families.  A lady in the congregation who owns a store thanked me.  

Just think how she feels with all the scolding about shopping that goes on for Christmas?   

To quote Fryer:

Here's a message that would make more sense this year: SPEND MORE...wisely.

If you've got it, by all means friends, use it to do what matters. Give it away to help the poor. But, also, go spend it at your local florist, bookstore, or clothing shop. Invest it somewhere that will give life and make a difference.

The truth is I've given lip service to this "advent conspiracy" - don't spend money, make your own gifts, be simple gospel, but I never lived it or believed it. 

I LOVE Christmas decorations and lights and SHOPPING for presents.

I've had light up reindeer in my yard. 

Our first Christmas, we were pregnant and poor and my husband and I saw this SILLY USELESS "Santa's band" - where Santa and his elves played 50 Christmas songs on bells.  

It was $50.  $50 was a LOT of money in 1987.  No self-respecting advent conspirator would buy that.  It had nothing to do with Jesus.  But it made my husband and I smile.  And that was our Christmas present to each other.   

Today Santa's band is hopelessly tangled up, it takes up way too much space, the bells are broken so the carols sound pretty weird but the kids insist I get it out every year.


Fryer also challenges us to stop with the "them vs. us" thinking and this "take Christmas back" mentality.   

She's got the nerve to suggest that we stop insisting people can only have Christmas if they come to church.  

She suggests we get out there and celebrate THEIR Christmas with them.... 

And, in whatever way you can think of, be more Ho-Ho-Ho and a lot less Holier-Than-Thou.

Amen sister!  Now I need to go out and BUY MORE LIGHTS!

Barking at Torah readers?

What I don't know about contemporary Jewish practices could fill a few books. Like who knew that it was customary for people in the synagogue to "bark" corrections to lay readers reading the Torah during worship? In this article, The Competitive Sport of Barking at Torah Readers – The Sisterhood – Forward.com , Elana Maryles Sztokmans discusses how the difference of the effect of this odd practice on boys and girls.  Boys (as in every other endeaver) are taught to ignore this harassment and continue reading as though they never heard it.  Girls haven't had this training and they end up crying in the bathroom after the experience.

Now I agree with Sztokmans' point that the whole practice of publicly humiliating  your Torah readers should be done away with.  But you know, learning to take public criticism in stride, learning to continue in public without acknowledging rude behavior, not taking everything so damn personally,  NOT dissolving in tears at every single perceived slight is something we need to be teaching little girls (and boys too).   And I don't know that there is a kind and gentle way to teach that.  But probably standing in front of everyone in the synagogue or the church is not the place for it.

She's Gone

Susan Hogan's ELCA news blog is done.  I could not say how I feel about it any better than Father Anonymous over at Magdalene's Egg.  Great quote   

A demand for total agreement is the telltale sign of sectarian thinking, and neither her blog nor ours -- nor the ELCA -- makes such a demand.

Minnisota Public Radio's Look at the ELCA

Some really interesting articles here.

A Church Divided, Together

I was struck by this quote:

Every community contains within it fault lines that can, under the right conditions, open up into a chasm. We agree, sometimes silently, to disagree—or at least not to address our split for fear of upsetting the status quo. What the episode with the ELCA church demonstrates—as did the furor over the decision by the Episcopal church in 2009 to allow gays and lesbians to serve in all roles of church ministry—is that sometimes it’s not possible to agree to disagree any longer; that if enough people speak up, previously hidden fissures are exposed.

Now some people think this is a bad thing and that perhaps we should have kept silent and not brought this all out in the open.  I disagree, even though I personally am suffering from the repercussions of cracking open this fault line.  The more difficult it becomes for me personally, the more I believe this is a good thing, that the ELCA will come out of this stronger and more vibrant, despite the struggles and difficulties.

I Guess I have to Go See "Eat Pray Love" Now

Even though there's a serial killer from General Hospital in it.  This is the problem being stuck in the small town Lutheran midwest.  I didn't know until I read on Pretty Good Lutherans that this book and now movie is what the unchurched is turning to for spiritual food nowadays.  Or maybe it's a blessing that I didn't know that.   So there is this review from Faith Forward which sees Eat Pray Love as an invitation for Christians.  

But I really like this review - How Eat, Pray, Love Turned me into a Selfish Bitch.  

I guess I'll go see it and tell you which perspective  I prefer.  I wonder if I can write off my ticket as a business expense...

The First Amendment Guarantees your Right to Let Everyone Know You are an Idiot

It also, as Diane points out over at Faith in Community, gives others the right to point out that you are an idiot.  And to advocate boycotting those who sponsor your brand of idiocy.

NPR , Good News, Dr. Laura: Your First Amendment Rights Are Still Yours points out that "Freedom from government interference is not freedom from consequences" of what you say:

Leaving her show doesn't restore to Schlessinger any lost constitutional rights. (She likely knows this perfectly well, but unfortunately, it's a distinction that tends to get lost in the rhetoric surrounding these conflicts.) What it does is free her from the sponsorship model of distributing content and its vulnerability to economic pressure.

It's an interesting article about the use of boycotts to protest speech.

What I find ironic about her decrying her loss of rights because people are advocating boycotting her sponsors is that she herself has advocated boycotting sponsors of those who said things SHE didn't like.  How annoying that the First Amendment is for EVERYBODY.

Much as I hate devoting so much of my blog and writing time to this crazy egomaniac, you do have to give her credit for sparking a lot of national discussion~~ from the N word (I don't use it, don't like to hear it, even from African American comedians but I personally believe that's not my call or my debate --here's a take on Keli Goff "She did teach us one thing" it by that I like) to opportunities to remind us what the First Amendment *really is*

Pastoral Authority (or lack thereof) and Clergy Burn Out.

Father Anonymous and I seem often to blog off each other's posts.  He comments on Jeffrey MacDonald's NY times op ed  Congregations Gone Wild about how clergy burn out isn't so much about over work as the trend toward consumer driven religion and the pressure to feed their congregations what they want, not what they need.

MacDonald  and others pick up on the desire of congregations to be entertained and made to feel good about themselves.  Believe it or not where I am the complaint is that they are hearing too much about grace and they want to hear more about judgment.  But ultimately that too, is just about wanting the sermon to make you feel good.  It's just that some people feel good hearing about how others are going to be judged.  (because this wish to hear about "judgment" is a wish to hear about how OTHERS are going to be judged)

I think a large part of clergy burn out is the lack of recognition of pastoral authority.  I am alternately perplexed, offended and disheartened to find how people think they can and should tell me how and what to preach.  What wears me out and saps my energy and makes me want to go home and play Farmville on Facebook is the reality that people don't trust or believe what I say about the Bible or church teaching.  They have their own opinions, thank you very much.  And if I challenge those opinions, they can always find someone else on the internet who agrees with them.

I went to an ordination yesterday.  It was wonderful.  We old clergy need to go to more ordinations.    The newly ordained is presented to the congregation with these words

"He/she has Christ's authority to preach the word of God and administer the sacraments, serving God's people as together we bear God's creative and redeeming love to all the world"

Authority. CHRIST's authority.  Yes Lutherans are all about the priesthood of all believers but we also believe and teach that God has established the office of ordained ministry to ensure that the gospel is proclaimed and the sacraments are administered. 

Now I know that a lot of pastors have abused that trust and that has contributed to this lack of trust in authority.  But sin among the laity is also part of the problem.  We all want to be our own authorities.  Well sorry I know more about the bible than you and I have more right than you to be listened to about the bible.  Not because I'm so smart (which I am) or so well read and educated (which I am) or so morally superior (which I am not) but because of the OFFICE of the public ministry of Word and Sacrament.  

That's why we educate pastors --that's why we pay them enough (or should) so that they can live among us and do nothing but continue to study the Word and proclaim the gospel and see to it that people are baptized and fed at the Table.  People want us to do a whole lot of other stuff and that other stuff can wear you out but you know I could do all that other stuff you want gladly if you would just TRUST that I am telling you the truth about God. 

"Drink Deeply with Delight"

"Madonna and Child" Gerard David  1490

"Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom"

Father Anonymous over at Magdalene's Egg has some interesting reflections on tomorrow's lesson from Isaiah.  I'm going to the zoo today so I'm not doing any thing challenging tomorrow.

We aren't hearing from the Ladies...

The new (and excellent) ELCA News blog "Pretty Good Lutherans" has a new post with dismaying news as to how little we are hearing from lay people in general but in particular women about church stuff.

I'm very wary of talking to the press myself. Many years ago I found myself in the odd and unusual position of having a growing congregation in a small town. I was hot stuff in the synod in those days. Truth be told it probably had more to do with the Missouri Lutheran pastor in town who was offending people in his congregation right and left and then one day just didn't show up in church and turned out he left his wife and moved in with another man in another town. But at the time we thought it was because I was so clever.

So a well known since passed on to the church triumphant religion writer from Minneapolis, Clark Morphew, interviewed me for a story about a pastor of a growing church. This is what I told him "Well first I wanted to build them up, so they could feel good about what we were doing already so we could feel like we like we had something of value to new people to the church"

And some how or other the quote got changed to how I lectured them in the pulpit about how they needed to shape up so they could have something of value to offer to new people. It was insulting the the congregation and it made me sound like somebody who preached from the pulpit that they had nothing of value to offer. I was so ashamed I didn't even show the article to anybody. It was easy to hide since we were in a small town in Wisconsin and this was published in St. Paul.

Since then the only thing I say to the press is "Yes, our chicken dinner is on Sunday night at 4 pm" I had an interesting Twitter debate with Pretty Good Lutheran blog writer Susan Hogan about that stance. She thinks I should just get more savy about the media. She's probably right.

Oh yea and before you think I'm a hotshot with regard to growing a small town church. Yea the older members got alarmed at the influx of all the new people and their newfangled ideas and things got kind of ugly, and pretty much drove the new and creative folks with their new newfangled ideas out. And I was no longer a hot shot in the synod. And I learned an important lesson. Growing or dying... it's not about me. Which is probably another reason I'm not all that interested in putting myself in front of a reporter's mike.

Self-Righteous Judging - It's Everywhere

No I'm not talking about the folks who pick on gays. I'm thinking a little closer to home. I was reading Keene's Kwikies (a great blog btw) recent post Humility. He's laid up in the hospital with a heart problem and he's one of those folks that even the most non-judgmental, loving, compassionate, gospel preaching liberals feel free to judge and berate to their face - he's a SMOKER. He's not a young guy. Probably been smoking for a long time. He's not stupid. He knows he's a sinner. And everybody's scolding and lecturing him in his hospital bed. Really. If this episode (and no doubt others) hasn't made him quit, do people really think self-righteous pontificating will? Is there no grace for the smoker?

See I don't think it's about helping him at all. I think we all want to feel superior to SOMEBODY. Liberals are not allowed to be racist or prejudiced, but SMOKERS.... that's different. They deserve it. I'm better and smarter and healthier than a smoker. Smokers deserve our public derision and judgment.

My sister experiences something similar as a skin cancer patient. She lives in Southern California, often has to take a bus, and it's very difficult for her to stay out of the sun. She can't always (nor can she always afford to, as she lives on Social Security) constantly be slathering on sunscreen. So everytime she ends up back at the clinic with another spot, she gets scolded and reprimanded and lectured about sunscreen. Really? She has SKIN CANCER! Do these people think she never heard of sunscreen? They don't care about her. They just want to feel superior.

So who is the sinner to whom you feel superior?

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. Romans 2:1

Blogs Around Town Reflecting on CWA09

Some good discussion going on around blogs on the Churchwide Assembly - these are just a few that struck me. I'm sure there are lots more.

From Bradley Campbell in Civil Society

The most surprising moments came in casual observation. Those who spoke against change were at times outraged, hurt, and lost. They seemed to realize they were the minority and it pained them to think their church could move in a different, uncomfortable direction without their blessing. Many threatened to leave the church during their pleas to the assembly. Many warned the church about leaving the teachings of Martin Luther behind. But their pleas were in vain, as the body voted again and again for change. It's like they were on the other side looking in for the first time, experiencing what it's like to feel excluded.

Erik over at Koinonia is sharing a cigar with friends:

The cigar has disappeared into the night sky. Our conversation is done, for now. The conversations with the aforementioned friends will begin anew in the days ahead. I only hope that I will be able to speak to everyone with the kind of grace, patience, and respect that Lutherans have been able to show one another in these last few days.

Good thoughts from Pub Ponderings What Will Be My Witness - He quotes Bonhoeffer from Life Together

Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

And if THAT Didn't Make you Throw Up...

Check out the Creepiest Worship ever...

Dr. Duane Priebe reflects on "controversial" notes from Lutheran Study Bible

So I didn't think it was such a big deal but some people have been upset/confused by some of the notes in the new Lutheran Study Bible. One particular note says the following re the "Great Commission"

Jesus now sends the disciples to make disciples of all nations. That does not mean make everyone disciples. Most people who are helped by Jesus and believe in him never become disciples. Jesus includes in salvation people who do not believe in him or even know about him. Disciples are students, called for the sake of the world to learn from Jesus and to bear witness to the kingdom.

Makes sense to me but apparently this is some sort of evidence the ELCA is going to hell in a handbasket. Erik Ullestad over at Koinonia went to the source and got an explanation from Dr. Priebe himself. It's worth a read!

Spiritual Eroticism

Ha! Got your attention - didn't I? Very thought provoking article here by Scott McKnight - where he compares the medivial court obsession with "being in love with love" to emotional manipulation in worship

He says:

My contention is rather simple: the shaping of a Sunday service or a worship event or a concert in order to generate a profound experience might emerge from a courtly-love sense of worship. The expectation of such an experience on the part of the worshiper might also emerge from a courtly sense of worship. The opening of the Bible to read in search of an experience, or the entrance into a prayer time in order to rediscover some powerful emotion might also emerge from the intrusion of courtly love into how many today understand spirituality.

You should check it out.

About kitchen signs

Do your church ladies like to put up a bunch of signs in the kitchen making sure nobody makes a misstep?

This guy made a video about kitchen signs;

Lutherans Love Kitchens and signs

A Father's Tribute

You all should go read my friend John's tribute to his daughter on her 17th Birthday. It's very moving.

Church Stuff - More or Less

Good Question

Lutheranchik asks "So What?"

What She Said...

I just have not had anything to add to the hue and cry about the excommunication of the mother and doctors who made arrangements for an abortion for the nine year old rape victim (by her stepfather). I mean really, what is there to say?

This is the best commentary I've read over at LiturgyGeeek:

The Sacrifice of Women's Bodies