I am already tired of the Super Bowl hype. How many times can reporters spin the New Orlean’s story as a tie in to Hurricane Katrina? “As a city rebounds, so does New Orleans’ Saints QB Drew Brees…” Please. And with the Colts – how many “Peyton Manning walks on water” stories can any human being take?
Wake me at kick off.
{ 0 comments }
I spoke to a number of people this afternoon and early this evening who were a little surprised at my “no TV in Lent” denial. Just a few minutes ago, someone said that I had to be kidding.
No. I wasn’t making a bad joke this morning when I wrote that I will be giving up TV for the season of Lent.
{ 0 comments }
Every year during Lent, I attempt to deny myself some personal desire, whereby I end up whining about my not partaking in whatever I am denying myself and eventually fall into temptation, thus making my Lenten denial a failure. This annual struggle shows me the incredible power of sin over my everyday existence.
I do encourage others to enter into a period of “Lenten denial” as a way of challenging one’s self in understanding the true sacrifice — Jesus Christ. By no means is this a linkage to the sacrifice of Christ and our short-term sacrifice of chocolate (as an example); instead, it is to provide a spiritual reminder of the power of sin over our lives and the blessings of the cross of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for each one of us.
Usually, Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) is my deadline day where I struggle to make a denial decision. This way, I can pick something that “isn’t too hard.”
There is no logical reason for why I thought about Lenten denial this Sunday morning, but as I was getting ready to come over to church, that is what was on my mind. Maybe the Holy Spirit helped guide me this morning, I don’t know.
I have decided to give up television for Lent.
I will call DirecTV and suspend my account for the length of that penitential season commencing on Wednesday, February 17th and ending Easter Sunday, April 4th. My TV suspension also includes my Netflix account (that I will actually suspend tomorrow since my February renewal comes this week), any internet-based networks that stream their television shows (for example, Hulu.com or one of the major networks), and any video from iTunes.
As someone who loves sports (I have the NHL Center Ice package and watch it “religiously”), this will be challenging. Suspending my DirecTV account for that period will help, of course, but with the vast amount of highlights and streaming on the internet, I have to change my internet habits very fast. But this is going to be hard — I will miss a good chunk of the Olympics (and their terrific hockey tournament); college basketball’s conference championships and the NCAA tournament is mostly in March; the NHL season winds down, teams will be playing to gain playoff berths (including my rather hideous Rangers); and, of course, baseball spring training begins in earnest.
In place of television and sports watching, I will replace it with a concerted effort to study the Word of God deeper; I will begin to read that backlog of books on my shelf and my Kindle; and begin that writing project I’ve put off for years. Maybe I will reflect on my life, not just as a pastor, but also as a friend, colleague, and person, and try to be better in all those roles. There is also that grand possibility that I will volunteer at one of our local hospitals or for a community-based organization.
Lenten denials have become almost humorous. I know someone who told me a year or so ago that he gave up coffee for Lent. The only problem with that denial was that he didn’t drink coffee. Young people tend to give up stuff they like, for a short time. At one time, it was candy. Many still deny themselves, but that is usually just for a short period. Today, get a teen to deny themselves use of cell phone texting — they’d last all of ten minutes.
However, these denials can play a good spiritual role in the growth of a Christian as it is a reminder of the impact of tempting sin.
Time for me to forget a bit about Lent and my denial plan — it’s Sunday, and that means Divine Service at 10.
{ 1 comment }
“The papists quote Augustine and some of the Church Fathers who are said to have written about purgatory. They think we do not understand why they spoke as they did. St. Augustine does not write that there is a purgatory. Nor does he have evidence from Scripture as a basis. Rather, he leaves it in doubt whether purgatory exists…Our papists, though, cite such human opinions so people will believe in their horrible, blasphemous, and cursed traffic in Masses for souls in purgatory.”
The Smalcald Articles, Article II: The Mass (Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, page 291, 13-14)
Lutherans laugh at the very notion of a purgatory primarily because it is found nowhere in Holy Scripture. Yet, a deeper reason exists for one to giggle when the word is uttered. For if there is a purgatory, then Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t enough to pay for our sins. And if Christ’s sacrifice isn’t enough, then we’re all in trouble.
{ 1 comment }
Yesterday afternoon, I joined with the chairwoman of Saint Matthew’s Samaritans, Evelyn Comer, at the new Bergen County homeless facility on East Broadway in Hackensack to gauge how the new facility serves dinner. Through the Interreligous Fellowship for the Homeless, Saint Matthew’s will serve dinner at the facility on February 19th. Our collective intentions were simple – to see the kitchen, how dinner and dessert are served, and maybe meet some of the directors, though I didn’t think this was possible.
We arrived at 4:30pm, about a half-hour before the start of dinner service. The newly constructed facility (it only opened last July) houses 90 individuals as they transition themselves to living in permanent housing. Additionally, there is a first-class medical area, offices and rooms for outside organizations to provide services and help to the homeless of the county, and, of course, the walk-in dining area.
Evelyn and I entered the facility through the main door, which opens up into a spacious area where a manned front desk and security guard were on call. After “checking in,” the security guard showed us to the dining area. Nancy Woods, one of the directors with the IRF, showed us around the beautiful kitchen area. As Evelyn and I were on our little tour, we found out that a group from Bergen Catholic High School in Paramus was unable to serve the dinner that night. They delivered their meal — baked ziti, meatballs, salad with Creamy Italian dressing, and apple turnovers — but they couldn’t serve. The bus that was to take the students to the facility was not able to take them back to the school, which, of course, causes a little bit of a problem.
In tight jams like this, IRF volunteers come in to staff the dinner service. As Evelyn and I heard about their little plight, we offered to help them with serving dinner. I was on salad patrol — dishing up the pre-mixed, pre-dressed salad into bowls — and making them available for the diners. Having the opportunity to greet the nearly 125 people who came for dinner was blessing. A smile, a “good evening,” and a “God bless you” go a long way in the hearts of God’s children, especially those who, if circumstances were different, would not be at the facility for dinner.
As the rush died down a bit, the director of the facility, Julia Orlando, came in to see how things were going. After talking a bit, she said she was taking a colleague and friend of hers on a tour of the building and offered me the chance to join them. Evelyn, who was on butter, dish, and utensil patrol, as well as a fellow server, Chris, came on the tour with us. The two-storied facility is really first-class. It houses nearly all of the homeless services and programs offered by the county and outside organizations, which is a real blessing for those who need the help. There is no need to travel across Hackensack or even the county to get help; it is all right there in one building.
After the tour, and learning that they have a donation area for books (if anyone at Saint Matthew’s has a few books at home that they are not using and they are in good condition, bring them to church and I will deliver them), Evelyn and I returned to our assigned tasks, but by then, dinner service was complete. The volunteer staff had just about finished the clean up of the kitchen area, so Evelyn and I took our experiences and returned to our respective homes.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This week, I went to the hospital to visit someone from another church (the pastor asked me to look on them while he was not around). As I checked in, I was asked if I could go to the emergency room to talk with a nun who was brought into the hospital. Of course, I said I would take the assignment. In the ER, I walked over to the cubicle and found it empty.
As I turned around to go and find out where the sister was, she was standing behind me. We spoke briefly, she laughing that the pastoral care office would send her a Lutheran and I laughing that the pastoral care office would send me, a Lutheran pastor, to a Roman Catholic nun. Her illness wasn’t too severe, but others thought she needed to get checked out, hence her appearance in the ER. She said she felt fine and was out doing her job visiting the sick, which made me smile.
During our short visit (at times I didn’t know if I was supposed to be the one doing the pastoral care work or was she), the sister asked me to go visit a homeless man she just finished visiting.
When I entered the man’s cubicle, he was laying on the bed, an oxygen mask on his face and an IV in his arm. According to the nurse, he was very sick. I pulled a stool up next to the bed and began to talk to him, reminding him what the nurses instructed — “Keep the mask on.” Yet, he continued to lift off the mask to talk with me.
He was homeless, living on the streets and in shelters for a number of years. He said he didn’t have enough education to hold down a good job in order to afford some place to live, so he lived in shelters when it was cold and in alleyways when it was warm. But with this economic downturn, he lost the job which he considered “not so good,” making his economic troubles worse. He stayed away from his family because he said he didn’t want to be a burden. Later, he told me that his family actually disowned him when he was a teenager because he got into drugs, something he wasn’t into any more.
I was surprised at his age – 38 – because he looked so much older. I guess living on the streets will do that to you.
His feet were cold. He had a couple of blankets on his bed, but it didn’t matter how many, his feet were still cold. He said that earlier in the week, somewhere he lost a bag of his clothes, a bag that contained his socks. That why, he said, his feet were cold. After several coughing bouts, the nurse came with an orderly to take him for some tests. I said a fast prayer with him and watched as they wheeled him out.
I left the hospital, completely forgetting to visit with the person from the other church. My mind was racing, thinking not only about a sick nun who ignored her own well being in order to pray with one of God’s children, but also about the very sick homeless man with cold feet. For the past couple of weeks, we have been collecting donations for Haiti earthquake relief. We’ve been bombarded by the sadness coming out of Haiti, and as a collective people we’ve responded. Our nation has donated millions upon millions of dollars to charities who are trying to relieve the incredible suffering in Haiti. We’ve prayed for Haiti and the relief workers. Nearly all of us know of someone who has travelled to Haiti to serve as a relief worker.
Yet, here in Bergen County, one of the wealthiest counties in all of the United States, there are homeless living on the streets and in shelters; there are people living in substandard housing. This is not a cry for more government funding to help with the homelessness.
I think that maybe we, as God children, need to recognize and stand up more to help God’s children in our own midst.
This weekend’s readings center on the theme of love, how God shows an incredible love to each of us sinners by sending His own Son to die for us, and in turn, we are to show that same kind of love for those around us. The Samaritans here at Saint Matthew’s are preparing to serve a meal at the Walk-In Shelter in Hackensack in a couple of weeks. Our church has always stepped up and helped – donating money during the annual “Souper Bowl for Caring” drive that will take place next Sunday, by baking and donating desserts, and cooking an incredible pot roast meal.
But the man with the cold feet got me thinking.
Can we do more?
{ 0 comments }
One could say that I am an Apple Fanboy – someone who salivates over every new tech product that comes from that most magnificent Cupertino, California company. Yesterday, salivation levels reached really bad proportions as Apple head honcho, Steve Jobs, took to the stage to announce a new product, the iPad.
According to Jobs, Apple has become the largest mobile communications company in the world. They offer mobile products that have been scooped by the millions. Of course, the iPhone leads the way — an incredible hand-held computer/communications device that just so happens to also make telephone calls. I love my iPhone 3G. It just works beautifully. The iPhone is a major part of my pastoral life – it provides me with incredible arrays of communication and business-related application options that no other phone on the market offers. Apple also sells the best laptop computers in the business — the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, and the MacBook Air.
The iPad is designed to fall right in the middle of both of those offerings. Essentially, it is a larger iPod Touch. A simple description of the Touch — it is an iPhone minus the phone and the AT&T 3G wireless plans (only works in wi-fi networks). As with those devices, with an iPad, one can surf the internet, listen to music, watch TV shows, movies, and other internet video. It also runs nearly all of the applications and games sold by Apple for the iPhone. However, with a much larger screen size than the iPhone or iPod Touch, it makes all of these tasks easier since there is more real estate to watch, read, play, and surf. Additionally, the iPad is also the coolest looking electronic book reader on the market (I have a first generation Amazon Kindle of which I have become very disenchanted). Further, with that larger screen size, they’ve also added an iPad-designed iWork productivity suite (Pages word processor; Keynote presentation program; and Numbers spreadsheets). With the ability to link the iPad to a projector, the addition of this suite makes this device more business-friendly.
For example, pastors can create bible studies on the iPad and easily link up with projector and share it easily. Even further, for churches who print out weekly bulletins, one can be crafted in Pages and offered for download for the iPad; people can flip through the service folder and easily follow along, all without printing out a single sheet of paper. As you can tell, this pastor is always thinking of ways of saving money and keeping paper out of the dump.
The cost is almost stunning and, just to say it, very un-Apple-like. They offer six variations of iPads, all of which come with wi-fi capabilities. Three of them will come with just wi-fi in three hard drive sizes of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, with price points of $499, $599, and $699 respectively. The other three will come with an AT&T 3G data option in the same hard drive sizes. The cost of these starts at $629, $729, and $829 depending on the size you purchase.
The data plan option is intriguing, to say the least. They have contracted with AT&T on special monthly pricing — $30.00 for unlimited data usage or $14.99 for 250MB of data. While those cost numbers aren’t all that spectacular, it is the very fact that this is pre-paid pricing, meaning NO CONTRACTS. You’re not tied in with a two-year data plan like you are with an iPhone or other data plans.
Last night after church, I went home and turned on the Rangers’ game (I should have just left the TV off). After talking on the phone for about an hour, I started to read up on Apple’s new product. To be honest, the Apple Fanboy in me longed to have one these devices. It would provide an added dimension to my pastoral life, my Fanboy conscience kept nagging at me. Thankfully, these products will not be available until March and April, because if they were available last night, the Fanboy in me would have pulled out my credit card and bought one.
{ 2 comments }
Ugh.
The light snow that has blanketed the region has caused a lot of stress for morning rush hour drivers. The roads, in many places in Bergen County, are extremely slick. I can only imagine the hillier areas of the county — this morning is really not hot for driving. I do hope that the local governments will eventually drop some road salt to ease the travel problems. Whether they salt and sand or not, I still have to leave for a local visit at 11am, no matter the road conditions.
Sometime this afternoon, the cold front from out west is going to push through the region, pushing temperatures into a range I loving call “this isn’t right.” An easy translation is that wind chills are going to make it feel zero or below. One positive weather story is that we’re not going to get that snowstorm that the central Middle Atlantic states are gearing up for – from an area just north of DC and southward, heavy snow accumulations are expected.
For us New Jerseyans, while it will be cold this weekend, there is no threat of snow. Therefore I look forward to seeing you in church on Saturday night or Sunday morning.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }