Lincoln says...
7 years ago
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Gala
Friday was Gala night.
For those of you who don't know, Gala is our big Christmas banquet here at Bethel.
Enjoy the pictures
For those of you who don't know, Gala is our big Christmas banquet here at Bethel.
Enjoy the picturesMod, minus one member
plus one extra.
Some of my best friends in the whole world.
These young ladies were my dates......ALL of them ;)
So there is a story to the number of dates that I had. One night, about a week before Gala, several of my modmates decided that I needed a Gala date so they sent out an email stating that they were accepting applications to take me to Gala. These ladies applied as a mod, complete with character reference letters and they were the most qualified applicants so I wrote them a formal response and we went to Gala together.
Every year there is a Jazz concert as part of the Gala tradition. Modmates in Jazz Ensemble I are Evan far left sax and Kyle second from left trumpet.
Finally, the Wine and Cheeser, another wonderful Gala tradition and apparently it is tradition to sing 606 each year. So we did.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Walking in a Winter Wonderland!
It is finally really winter and really Christmas time. It snowed!!!!
There was snow in the forecast scheduled to begin yesterday evening at 11 so I expected there to be snow when I left my final wiffleball game, but when I left the Agape House (I'll probably post about this soon) it was beginning to snow. This morning I had to get up early for a meeting so I took my camera along to capture the magic of the snow covered Bethel campus.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Update: School, Life, and General Busyness
I feel as though I should update a bit for those of you who aren't in direct contact with me.
Life has been crazy since my last update well over a month ago. I will start by saying that I hate moving. It is such a difficult process, even when you don't have to move all your possession, and had to do it twice in two weeks.
So I'm back at school now, four and a half weeks in and while I'm finally settling into a routine there are still parts of my life that have no routine, like how much "busy work" I'm going to have in a given week (I'll get to this later), or how many athletic events I have to work during a week, or how many other things I have to do during each week! You see, I have a serious problem with telling people no, so I am involved in entirely too many activities. Not only am I a student taking the maximum of 16.5 credit hours plus observations, I am also partly in charge of our athletic event staff, a student ambassador, a member of Student Alumni Association, an athlete (albeit a spring one), on a couple of important committees, a Chapel planner, a Student Chaplain which includes "office hours," a worship project of sorts, and at least two meetings a week, and probably more things that I can't think of at the moment.
Now I am very busy and I kind of like to complain about it, but I know that other people are just as busy as I am if not busier, which leads to a little venting. I hate it when people act like they are the only ones who have work to do. They are the only one's who's activities matter, so they can't help with commitments they have made at the expense of others involved. I can't really be much more specific than that but it has been the subject of several rants to friends. I hate it when people flake out!
I'm done with that so it's on to classes. While I am taking 16.5 hours I didn't think that this semester would be as work intensive as it is, I mean, ed courses don't have that much work, do they? Ha, I was incredibly wrong about that. This is the first week I haven't been so swamped with observations, reflections, lesson plans, and other random work that I have had time to breathe. I am enjoying all of my classes, even the ones that assign busy work, and especially the ones that enable me to spend extended time observing/helping out in a classroom. It makes all the class work worth it just to help one student spell a word, or read a book. But there is the busy work. I, along with my classmates, have decided that our professors need to communicate better. In two of my classes we are taught that effective teachers don't assign busy work, among other things, but one of my classes has large amounts of busy work. I spent several hours last week working on coloring 8 physical maps to show elevation. Now you are probably saying to yourself, "That can't be so bad. It's only coloring," which under some circumstances would be a correct assumption, but coloring these maps was one of the worst assignments I have ever had to complete. It was pointless!! Why do college students studying to be teachers need to know how to color maps? Am I, in my professional life as a teacher, ever going to color a map? NO!!!!!! Also last week in this same class we had to do presentations on a continent. We were given two guidelines, 1) it had to be 20 minutes long, and 2) we had to cover the four areas assessed in the KS state social science standards Economics, Civics/Government, Geography, and History. After the fact we were informed that our grade would be divided into 60% for information, 10% for presentation, 10% for visual aids, and 20% for something I don't remember. My visual aid was a map of North America that I drew on the chalkboard, very rough. Needless to say this information would have been good to have before the presentation. Oh well, I'm not too worried about it, after all, all I hear these days is how much we need male elementary school teachers ;) at least that's what my classmates think I should think.
So that is a significant part of my life. I'll bring the rest up to speed sometime soon, hopefully before the chaos of Fall Fest begins on Saturday.
Peace,
Daniel
Life has been crazy since my last update well over a month ago. I will start by saying that I hate moving. It is such a difficult process, even when you don't have to move all your possession, and had to do it twice in two weeks.
So I'm back at school now, four and a half weeks in and while I'm finally settling into a routine there are still parts of my life that have no routine, like how much "busy work" I'm going to have in a given week (I'll get to this later), or how many athletic events I have to work during a week, or how many other things I have to do during each week! You see, I have a serious problem with telling people no, so I am involved in entirely too many activities. Not only am I a student taking the maximum of 16.5 credit hours plus observations, I am also partly in charge of our athletic event staff, a student ambassador, a member of Student Alumni Association, an athlete (albeit a spring one), on a couple of important committees, a Chapel planner, a Student Chaplain which includes "office hours," a worship project of sorts, and at least two meetings a week, and probably more things that I can't think of at the moment.
Now I am very busy and I kind of like to complain about it, but I know that other people are just as busy as I am if not busier, which leads to a little venting. I hate it when people act like they are the only ones who have work to do. They are the only one's who's activities matter, so they can't help with commitments they have made at the expense of others involved. I can't really be much more specific than that but it has been the subject of several rants to friends. I hate it when people flake out!
I'm done with that so it's on to classes. While I am taking 16.5 hours I didn't think that this semester would be as work intensive as it is, I mean, ed courses don't have that much work, do they? Ha, I was incredibly wrong about that. This is the first week I haven't been so swamped with observations, reflections, lesson plans, and other random work that I have had time to breathe. I am enjoying all of my classes, even the ones that assign busy work, and especially the ones that enable me to spend extended time observing/helping out in a classroom. It makes all the class work worth it just to help one student spell a word, or read a book. But there is the busy work. I, along with my classmates, have decided that our professors need to communicate better. In two of my classes we are taught that effective teachers don't assign busy work, among other things, but one of my classes has large amounts of busy work. I spent several hours last week working on coloring 8 physical maps to show elevation. Now you are probably saying to yourself, "That can't be so bad. It's only coloring," which under some circumstances would be a correct assumption, but coloring these maps was one of the worst assignments I have ever had to complete. It was pointless!! Why do college students studying to be teachers need to know how to color maps? Am I, in my professional life as a teacher, ever going to color a map? NO!!!!!! Also last week in this same class we had to do presentations on a continent. We were given two guidelines, 1) it had to be 20 minutes long, and 2) we had to cover the four areas assessed in the KS state social science standards Economics, Civics/Government, Geography, and History. After the fact we were informed that our grade would be divided into 60% for information, 10% for presentation, 10% for visual aids, and 20% for something I don't remember. My visual aid was a map of North America that I drew on the chalkboard, very rough. Needless to say this information would have been good to have before the presentation. Oh well, I'm not too worried about it, after all, all I hear these days is how much we need male elementary school teachers ;) at least that's what my classmates think I should think.
So that is a significant part of my life. I'll bring the rest up to speed sometime soon, hopefully before the chaos of Fall Fest begins on Saturday.
Peace,
Daniel
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Sermon Reflection
So this past Sunday was my second sermon. I'm not 100% sure what to say about it. I feel as though it went fine. The written text was in a very good place after working with Sarah and Jamie to make sure that I was saying what I wanted to say, but the oral presentation could have been a bit more polished. I didn't practice quite as many time as I did for my first sermon and I feel as though that showed, even if other people didn't notice. I received lots of positive comments from church members that day and Judy (mom's cousin) who is one of the reasons I want to be an elementary teacher was very protective, telling everyone who would listen that I was going to be a teacher that preaching was reserved for summers and retirement.
For those of you who weren't there here is my sermon text, based on John 9, so if you don't feel like doing a lot of reading you should probably stop now. Also there are probably a few errors/differences from how I presented because I forgot to update this version and I don't really feel like doing it now.
Peace,
Daniel
August 9, 2009
John 9:1-41
Open Your Eyes
I would like to begin this morning by telling the story of my friend Jimmie, but before I do, I need to paint a picture of Jimmie in your minds. Jimmie is probably about 40, he has longer, curly hair, is missing most of his teeth, and is an atheist. But Jimmie is not just any atheist, he is an “active atheist,” to use his words. He has debated Catholic priests and Satanists and everyone in between, an equal opportunity atheist, if you will. In fact, Jimmie is so good at this debating that one time, he made a witch cry. Jimmie is a musician by profession, sometimes working in bars and sometimes playing on street corners, hoping to get enough money to feed his addictions. Due to a variety of factors including his experiences in Vietnam and some poor choices, Jimmie found himself on the streets of Denver, waiting in line for a soup kitchen one day when he saw a group of bright-eyed, young faces coming towards him.
Now you are probably asking yourself, what on earth does this Jimmie fellow have to do with the man who was born blind, who we’ll call Jack? much more than you might think.
You have probably all heard several sermons on this passage, Lois told me that she alone has preached on it three times, so I tried to find a new perspective. Hopefully the comparison that I’m about to make is a new concept for you and, as it has for me, maybe it will help to open your eyes just a little.
Now Jimmie is homeless and he is not alone. Homelessness is a major problem in the United States today with up to 2 million people sleeping on the streets on any given night. Let’s look at some common myths about homelessness from the Department of Health and Human Services. Myth number 1: The homeless population is comprised of mostly single men. In fact, single men make up at most only 50% of the population with 36% being families with children. Myth number 2: Homelessness is a chronic problem. Actually, less than 30% of the homeless population has been homeless for more than two years, it takes 650 days on the street to be considered chronically homeless. Myth number 3: Homeless are lazy and do not work. In reality, the majority of the population do have jobs, albeit inconsistently, and less than ¼ receive federal assistance. It is important to remember that just because they live on the streets doesn’t mean that the homeless are unhappy or want to be moved into houses. I know several people who choose to be homeless. They don’t want houses, the just want respect. Now that I’ve spewed these facts, you are probably still quite confused about what this has to do with our scripture, bear with me; I’m getting there. Our Biblical blind man, who I’ve named Jack, was mistreated by the Pharisees. Today we treat the homeless in the same way. The way Jack was treated represents how we, the Pharisees, treat the homeless.
If we look at the beginning of the passage, Jesus’ disciples believe that Jack, who was begging, was the victim of some sort of sin. He or his parents had done something wrong and he was being punished for that wrong. In a similar way, we view the homeless as having serious problems. They are all mentally ill or have substance abuse problems, which lead them to life on the streets, which they deserve. For example, during our servant project in Columbus I overheard a sponsor from another group telling her youth that, “[The homeless] all have mental illnesses that aren’t treated correctly.” Jesus gives his disciples a rebuke for believing that and just as Jack was not blind because of sin, although he was treated as such, not all homeless are the victims of mental illness or substance abuse, despite how we view them.
Following his healing, Jack is seen in a different light. People wonder about him. Wasn’t he just begging? What is he doing now? What’s going on? While some of them believed his story and knew he had been healed, others did not believe, saying that it was not really Jack. The lack of trust displayed in these verses is also evident in our interactions with the homeless today. They are a marginalized population that are not always taken seriously and rarely trusted. Cities will pass ordinances that prohibit serving food on the street or sleeping outdoors and then they will arrest homeless people for violating those ordinances.
I was touched in Columbus by a homeless woman who sat on a bridge while all the youth walked by, going to and from worship. She didn’t say anything but as groups would walk by her their volume levels would go from happy, cheerful, excited teenagers to graveyard and back again. At first I was very offended by this, but after I thought about it I realized that they didn’t know how to approach homeless, or were scared, or didn’t feel as thought they could trust her. There is a large gap between the homeless and the non-homeless and these teens had most likely never been taught how to bridge that gap. I stopped and talked to her a couple of times and she told me that she felt invisible. I wonder if that might be how Jack felt, even after his healing when people still didn’t believe him, invisible.
The theme of disbelief continues in verses 18 through 34 when the Pharisees question Jack. After interrogating him, they did not believe that he had been blind. They were so sure that he had not been blind that they had to call in his parents to confirm it. How would that make you feel? No one trusts you. No matter what you say or what you do, no one trusts you. You can’t go to the authorities to receive help because they are the source of the problem.
Through my close encounters with the homeless population in Denver, I know that there is a breach in trust between these men and women and the authorities. They are afraid to report crimes because they may have had a bad experience with law-enforcement. They will possibly receive the blame and maybe even be arrested. Without this trust, these men and women are vulnerable to the actions of those around them, just as Jack was.
Finally, after yet another round of questioning, Jack rebuked the Pharisees for their contempt of Jesus and they threw him out. He called them out, made them think about what they were doing, and they shunned him, saying “You were born entirely in sin,” your opinions don’t mean anything. We don’t want you around anymore because you make us look bad. He was expelled from that place because they couldn’t prove that he was wrong
The best illustration I have again comes from my experiences in Denver last summer. As you probably remember, the Democratic National Convention was held in Denver in late August. Throughout the summer there was talk of how to deal with the homeless population during the week when the convention was in town. Now Denver has some of the best social services in the nation for homeless and that is one of the reasons the homeless population in the metro area is estimated to be as high as 10,500. The city believed that this was a major problem and some of the proposed solutions were to send them all to the movies or the zoo for a day or two while the convention was in town, or to buy bus tickets for them to go somewhere outside of the city. As you can imagine this enraged the homeless who felt as though it was a party to which they did not get invited. They were extremely insulted because many of them didn’t want to be in the downtown area during that time because they weren’t wanted. One man said to me, “Why can’t [the authorities] just leave us alone to do our own thing?” I left before the convention so I don’t know how things turned out, but I know that there was a lot of tension in the weeks leading up to it. In this way, homeless are expelled or banned from certain spaces, not for doing anything wrong, but just as the Pharisees with Jack, we don’t want to admit that they aren’t doing anything wrong.
There are some striking similarities between the treatment of Jack and our treatment of the homeless population today. So what do we do about it? I’ll skip ahead to the end of the passage. In verse 39 Jesus says “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day so that those who do not see, may see, and those who do see, may become blind.” This is a rather confusing statement at first, and the leaders do not know what to think, asking Jesus if they are blind. Jesus’ reply surely angers them as he says that their sin remains, despite their high opinions of themselves.
The Pharisees have sight, but are blind, and Jack is blind, but sees, so where does that leave us? Perhaps the blindness that Jesus is referring to here is “Spiritual blindness” or as one commentary puts it, “one’s openness to the revelation of God in Jesus.” Well whew, we’re safe from the blindness, right? Wrong. It is exactly that kind of thinking that gets us in trouble. So I’m saying that we are spiritual blind? Yes and no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. We are not completely on the level of the Pharisees. We are open to Jesus and the message that he brings. We do not claim to be the well-informed spiritual guides that they do either. But we are not on the same level as Jack who was blind, experiencing the fullness of Jesus.
The Pharisees saw nothing in Jesus, nothing good, nothing holy, and definitely nothing worth listening to. We at least try to be the opposite of this, finding something to respond to and reach out to in Jesus message.
I’m going to jump way back to the beginning, where we left Jimmie. As he saw these young, bright-eyed faces coming towards him, Jimmie knew they were Christians. He stopped and said his first prayer right there, “Lord, save me from those Christians.” Now the Christians that Jimmie had experienced in the past were nothing like Mennonites or the group that was approaching him then. They preached fire and brimstone, not love and mercy. The students Jimmie met that day showed him the love that we believe is the central point of Jesus message, and at the end of that summer, he took a good hard look at the Bible and was loved into the kingdom. Jimmie is now around 65 and has been a Christian for the past 15 years, working hard with the homeless to show them the same love that he has found.
Jimmie is very conscious of his own blindness, longing, like Jack, to see more and know more. This is what we must strive to be, conscientious of our own blindness and never being content or comfortable in our faith. We must open our eyes to see just how blind we really are.
Amen
For those of you who weren't there here is my sermon text, based on John 9, so if you don't feel like doing a lot of reading you should probably stop now. Also there are probably a few errors/differences from how I presented because I forgot to update this version and I don't really feel like doing it now.
Peace,
Daniel
August 9, 2009
John 9:1-41
Open Your Eyes
I would like to begin this morning by telling the story of my friend Jimmie, but before I do, I need to paint a picture of Jimmie in your minds. Jimmie is probably about 40, he has longer, curly hair, is missing most of his teeth, and is an atheist. But Jimmie is not just any atheist, he is an “active atheist,” to use his words. He has debated Catholic priests and Satanists and everyone in between, an equal opportunity atheist, if you will. In fact, Jimmie is so good at this debating that one time, he made a witch cry. Jimmie is a musician by profession, sometimes working in bars and sometimes playing on street corners, hoping to get enough money to feed his addictions. Due to a variety of factors including his experiences in Vietnam and some poor choices, Jimmie found himself on the streets of Denver, waiting in line for a soup kitchen one day when he saw a group of bright-eyed, young faces coming towards him.
Now you are probably asking yourself, what on earth does this Jimmie fellow have to do with the man who was born blind, who we’ll call Jack? much more than you might think.
You have probably all heard several sermons on this passage, Lois told me that she alone has preached on it three times, so I tried to find a new perspective. Hopefully the comparison that I’m about to make is a new concept for you and, as it has for me, maybe it will help to open your eyes just a little.
Now Jimmie is homeless and he is not alone. Homelessness is a major problem in the United States today with up to 2 million people sleeping on the streets on any given night. Let’s look at some common myths about homelessness from the Department of Health and Human Services. Myth number 1: The homeless population is comprised of mostly single men. In fact, single men make up at most only 50% of the population with 36% being families with children. Myth number 2: Homelessness is a chronic problem. Actually, less than 30% of the homeless population has been homeless for more than two years, it takes 650 days on the street to be considered chronically homeless. Myth number 3: Homeless are lazy and do not work. In reality, the majority of the population do have jobs, albeit inconsistently, and less than ¼ receive federal assistance. It is important to remember that just because they live on the streets doesn’t mean that the homeless are unhappy or want to be moved into houses. I know several people who choose to be homeless. They don’t want houses, the just want respect. Now that I’ve spewed these facts, you are probably still quite confused about what this has to do with our scripture, bear with me; I’m getting there. Our Biblical blind man, who I’ve named Jack, was mistreated by the Pharisees. Today we treat the homeless in the same way. The way Jack was treated represents how we, the Pharisees, treat the homeless.
If we look at the beginning of the passage, Jesus’ disciples believe that Jack, who was begging, was the victim of some sort of sin. He or his parents had done something wrong and he was being punished for that wrong. In a similar way, we view the homeless as having serious problems. They are all mentally ill or have substance abuse problems, which lead them to life on the streets, which they deserve. For example, during our servant project in Columbus I overheard a sponsor from another group telling her youth that, “[The homeless] all have mental illnesses that aren’t treated correctly.” Jesus gives his disciples a rebuke for believing that and just as Jack was not blind because of sin, although he was treated as such, not all homeless are the victims of mental illness or substance abuse, despite how we view them.
Following his healing, Jack is seen in a different light. People wonder about him. Wasn’t he just begging? What is he doing now? What’s going on? While some of them believed his story and knew he had been healed, others did not believe, saying that it was not really Jack. The lack of trust displayed in these verses is also evident in our interactions with the homeless today. They are a marginalized population that are not always taken seriously and rarely trusted. Cities will pass ordinances that prohibit serving food on the street or sleeping outdoors and then they will arrest homeless people for violating those ordinances.
I was touched in Columbus by a homeless woman who sat on a bridge while all the youth walked by, going to and from worship. She didn’t say anything but as groups would walk by her their volume levels would go from happy, cheerful, excited teenagers to graveyard and back again. At first I was very offended by this, but after I thought about it I realized that they didn’t know how to approach homeless, or were scared, or didn’t feel as thought they could trust her. There is a large gap between the homeless and the non-homeless and these teens had most likely never been taught how to bridge that gap. I stopped and talked to her a couple of times and she told me that she felt invisible. I wonder if that might be how Jack felt, even after his healing when people still didn’t believe him, invisible.
The theme of disbelief continues in verses 18 through 34 when the Pharisees question Jack. After interrogating him, they did not believe that he had been blind. They were so sure that he had not been blind that they had to call in his parents to confirm it. How would that make you feel? No one trusts you. No matter what you say or what you do, no one trusts you. You can’t go to the authorities to receive help because they are the source of the problem.
Through my close encounters with the homeless population in Denver, I know that there is a breach in trust between these men and women and the authorities. They are afraid to report crimes because they may have had a bad experience with law-enforcement. They will possibly receive the blame and maybe even be arrested. Without this trust, these men and women are vulnerable to the actions of those around them, just as Jack was.
Finally, after yet another round of questioning, Jack rebuked the Pharisees for their contempt of Jesus and they threw him out. He called them out, made them think about what they were doing, and they shunned him, saying “You were born entirely in sin,” your opinions don’t mean anything. We don’t want you around anymore because you make us look bad. He was expelled from that place because they couldn’t prove that he was wrong
The best illustration I have again comes from my experiences in Denver last summer. As you probably remember, the Democratic National Convention was held in Denver in late August. Throughout the summer there was talk of how to deal with the homeless population during the week when the convention was in town. Now Denver has some of the best social services in the nation for homeless and that is one of the reasons the homeless population in the metro area is estimated to be as high as 10,500. The city believed that this was a major problem and some of the proposed solutions were to send them all to the movies or the zoo for a day or two while the convention was in town, or to buy bus tickets for them to go somewhere outside of the city. As you can imagine this enraged the homeless who felt as though it was a party to which they did not get invited. They were extremely insulted because many of them didn’t want to be in the downtown area during that time because they weren’t wanted. One man said to me, “Why can’t [the authorities] just leave us alone to do our own thing?” I left before the convention so I don’t know how things turned out, but I know that there was a lot of tension in the weeks leading up to it. In this way, homeless are expelled or banned from certain spaces, not for doing anything wrong, but just as the Pharisees with Jack, we don’t want to admit that they aren’t doing anything wrong.
There are some striking similarities between the treatment of Jack and our treatment of the homeless population today. So what do we do about it? I’ll skip ahead to the end of the passage. In verse 39 Jesus says “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day so that those who do not see, may see, and those who do see, may become blind.” This is a rather confusing statement at first, and the leaders do not know what to think, asking Jesus if they are blind. Jesus’ reply surely angers them as he says that their sin remains, despite their high opinions of themselves.
The Pharisees have sight, but are blind, and Jack is blind, but sees, so where does that leave us? Perhaps the blindness that Jesus is referring to here is “Spiritual blindness” or as one commentary puts it, “one’s openness to the revelation of God in Jesus.” Well whew, we’re safe from the blindness, right? Wrong. It is exactly that kind of thinking that gets us in trouble. So I’m saying that we are spiritual blind? Yes and no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. We are not completely on the level of the Pharisees. We are open to Jesus and the message that he brings. We do not claim to be the well-informed spiritual guides that they do either. But we are not on the same level as Jack who was blind, experiencing the fullness of Jesus.
The Pharisees saw nothing in Jesus, nothing good, nothing holy, and definitely nothing worth listening to. We at least try to be the opposite of this, finding something to respond to and reach out to in Jesus message.
I’m going to jump way back to the beginning, where we left Jimmie. As he saw these young, bright-eyed faces coming towards him, Jimmie knew they were Christians. He stopped and said his first prayer right there, “Lord, save me from those Christians.” Now the Christians that Jimmie had experienced in the past were nothing like Mennonites or the group that was approaching him then. They preached fire and brimstone, not love and mercy. The students Jimmie met that day showed him the love that we believe is the central point of Jesus message, and at the end of that summer, he took a good hard look at the Bible and was loved into the kingdom. Jimmie is now around 65 and has been a Christian for the past 15 years, working hard with the homeless to show them the same love that he has found.
Jimmie is very conscious of his own blindness, longing, like Jack, to see more and know more. This is what we must strive to be, conscientious of our own blindness and never being content or comfortable in our faith. We must open our eyes to see just how blind we really are.
Amen
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sermon Week Wrap Up
This has been the most stressful week by far. I had been thinking about this sermon for about a month now and was drawing a blank. I knew that I didn't want to preach from the lectionary so when Lois offered me the chance to continue the sermon series on John I jumped at the chance. I looked through the passages that they were thinking about for the rest of the series, reading through them all in an effort to find a connection to homelessness. Nothing really jumped out at me so I decided that John 9 would be a good text, don't ask me why.
In the next several weeks it was always in the back of my mind, lurking, waiting for an idea to come along and be pounced on. It didn't happen until I heard Lois preach about the woman who committed adultery two weeks ago. I don't know what it was but I had some really good ideas while listening to Lois, the problem was that I didn't write them down. I read through her sermon a couple of times but they didn't come back to me so I was back at square one.
Now the last sermon I preached Tom helped me to prepare the rest of the service 10+ days in advance so the only thing I actually had to do was write the sermon. This time around, no such luck. I left everything up until this week, and it nearly killed me. Monday I read through commentaries the entire day, Tuesday I wrote my first draft and began to plan the service, Wednesday, I freaked out. You see, the thing about preaching from the lectionary is that there are all these resources with litanies and prayers and all that good stuff. There are other scripture passages that tie in well with whatever you choose as your central text. When you stray from the lectionary, you are on your own, and on my own I was. I found myself flipping through the back of the Hymnal aimlessly, trying to find prayers that I liked and made sense, and don't get me started on hymns. Another big stressor was that our sister church from Dallas will have representatives in the area for the Western District Conference annual meeting and they will be in church on Sunday so I had to try to figure out what would be a good song that they might know to allow them to feel welcomed. Very hard!
Now why didn't I just ask Tom and Lois for help? Because they left me again, this time to go to family camp at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp for 10 days. I somehow managed to make it through to today without having a major breakdown, but I was close.
Now Tom and Lois are back, we talked through the service and worked everything out, I'm working on my sermon with suggestions from Sarah and Jamie, and things are looking a bit up. I'm currently using the following analogy to describe my stress levels, the waters are calmer, not smooth and glassy, but calmer. For those of you who read my first sermon, I didn't take my own advice very well.
Here's hoping that this one goes as well as the first. Prayers are appreciated.
Peace,
Daniel
In the next several weeks it was always in the back of my mind, lurking, waiting for an idea to come along and be pounced on. It didn't happen until I heard Lois preach about the woman who committed adultery two weeks ago. I don't know what it was but I had some really good ideas while listening to Lois, the problem was that I didn't write them down. I read through her sermon a couple of times but they didn't come back to me so I was back at square one.
Now the last sermon I preached Tom helped me to prepare the rest of the service 10+ days in advance so the only thing I actually had to do was write the sermon. This time around, no such luck. I left everything up until this week, and it nearly killed me. Monday I read through commentaries the entire day, Tuesday I wrote my first draft and began to plan the service, Wednesday, I freaked out. You see, the thing about preaching from the lectionary is that there are all these resources with litanies and prayers and all that good stuff. There are other scripture passages that tie in well with whatever you choose as your central text. When you stray from the lectionary, you are on your own, and on my own I was. I found myself flipping through the back of the Hymnal aimlessly, trying to find prayers that I liked and made sense, and don't get me started on hymns. Another big stressor was that our sister church from Dallas will have representatives in the area for the Western District Conference annual meeting and they will be in church on Sunday so I had to try to figure out what would be a good song that they might know to allow them to feel welcomed. Very hard!
Now why didn't I just ask Tom and Lois for help? Because they left me again, this time to go to family camp at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp for 10 days. I somehow managed to make it through to today without having a major breakdown, but I was close.
Now Tom and Lois are back, we talked through the service and worked everything out, I'm working on my sermon with suggestions from Sarah and Jamie, and things are looking a bit up. I'm currently using the following analogy to describe my stress levels, the waters are calmer, not smooth and glassy, but calmer. For those of you who read my first sermon, I didn't take my own advice very well.
Here's hoping that this one goes as well as the first. Prayers are appreciated.
Peace,
Daniel
Monday, July 27, 2009
Summer Daze
So I realize that it has been quite a while since my last update, but really, nothing important has happened. Work has been rather.....I believe dull would be an accurate description. It is beginning to feel as though I've done everything that I can do related to work multiple times and a sense of tedious routine has taken over my life. That being said, I do still enjoy many parts of the job and while I'm ready to not be coming into the office every day, I'm not ready for the summer or this experience to be over. I have found a home here at LAMC, a feeling of comfort that I have not felt at any of the churches I have attended in the past. I'm not sure how much of this is to be attributed to my position and people feeling obligated to get to know me and how much of it is related to the people, but whatever it is, I feel comfortable.
A few highlights from the past few weeks. My cousin Abbey got married just over a week ago so we took a family trip up to Minnesota for the wedding. I flew with my grandparents so they would not have to fly by themselves because they couldn't have made the drive. The weekend was a good, relaxing get away that involved a lot of family time, a trip to the Mall of America (way to big), and a beautiful wedding.
In both the week before, and the week after, there is not much to report, just lots of reading and time in the office doing who knows what. To wrap up the summer I have two weeks to plan a service and write another sermon. The text is John 9; the story of the blind man who Jesus healed. I am planning on tying it in with homelessness, any ideas? It will be interesting to see how fast the next two weeks go because the Harders are gone until the 5th, but this time, I have a bit more of a social life to fall back on.
Peace,
Daniel
A few highlights from the past few weeks. My cousin Abbey got married just over a week ago so we took a family trip up to Minnesota for the wedding. I flew with my grandparents so they would not have to fly by themselves because they couldn't have made the drive. The weekend was a good, relaxing get away that involved a lot of family time, a trip to the Mall of America (way to big), and a beautiful wedding.
In both the week before, and the week after, there is not much to report, just lots of reading and time in the office doing who knows what. To wrap up the summer I have two weeks to plan a service and write another sermon. The text is John 9; the story of the blind man who Jesus healed. I am planning on tying it in with homelessness, any ideas? It will be interesting to see how fast the next two weeks go because the Harders are gone until the 5th, but this time, I have a bit more of a social life to fall back on.
Peace,
Daniel
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