VeggieTales Movie Event

A VeggieTales movie event is planned for 4:00 pm on Sunday, November 16, 2008. We'll be watching The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Big Idea provides the following description:

It's high seas adventure with The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything—A VeggieTales Movie. Buccaneers and landlubbers alike will discover what it means to be a real hero!

True heroes are those who do what they know is right, no matter how difficult it is. They don't need strength, beauty or extraordinary achievements... they trust God to supply all they need for the adventure ahead!

As always you're encouraged to bring camp chairs, sleeping bags, etc. to make yourselves comfortable. You're also more than welcome to bring friends and invite others to join us. We look forward to seeing you November 16.

We're Home

We're back from NYC. We had a great vacation, but we're glad to be home. I'm at home this morning preparing a sermon for Tex Davis' funeral.

Newsletter Up

The November Parish Visitor is now up on our website.

We're Going to NYC Today

We're going to NYC today and won't be back until next Wednesday. In the meantime, one of our colleagues, Pastor Susan Brown will be on call for us. Linda has all the pertinent information.

Overheard

Bishop Will Willimon in a lecture:

"You feel close to Jesus when you go where Jesus is."

Voice of the Day: Poverty

Via Sojourners:

"We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it."

–Dorothy Day

This is why I try to talk about poverty on such a regular basis. Not only for others who are insulated but for my own insulated self also.

Our Complicity in the Current Economic Crisis

I know that many will disagree with his analysis of the war in Iraq, but I hope that people will keep reading this article anyway, for in this article Tony Campolo performs the necessary task of reminding us of our own complicity in the current economic crisis. He summarizes as follows:

Seduced by brilliant advertising, we are a people who have bought into affluent lifestyles that have us living beyond our means. We spend almost all that we earn and save very little.

I know that there are people who avoided direct complicity by steering clear of the activities which Campolo names, but I think we must still answer for what has happened if we did not actively oppose the direction in which our country and our values were moving. Jesus calls us not only to name that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but to do something about it.

Link: www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=2905

Altar Flowers in Memory of Don Mielke

Flowers on the altar yesterday were in memory of Don Mielke.

Congratulations to the Choir

I want to congratulate the choir on a great performance during the Cantata today. They performed "O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing: A Celebration of the Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley." It was a blessing to me.

Quote of the Week: The Judgement of History

Via Sojourners:

"History will not judge us kindly."

–then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, quoted during a 2004 White House briefing during which CIA interrogation methods were graphically described. According to The Washington Post, the Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al Qaeda suspects.
(Source: The Washington Post)

I would only add that our nation is ultimately answerable not to history, but to Jesus Christ, the crucified (tortured) Messiah.

Link: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/14/AR2008101403331_pf.html

Coffee Fellowship Time Sign-Up Sheet

I can't find the Coffee Fellowship Time Sign-Up Sheet in the church kitchen. Anybody seen it?

Voice of the Day: Holiness and Anger

Via Sojourners:

If we had been holier people, we would have been angrier oftener.

–John Templeton

True.

American First, Christian Second?

From an entry in the God's Politics Blog, by Lisa Sharon Harper:

Vernon Cecil, an evangelical Greeley resident, said something that chilled me to the bone in this report. Cecil said, “I’m an American first, then I’m a Christian.”

I can only reply with the First Commandment:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

–Exodus 20.2, NRSV

I wouldn't want to be Vernon trying to explain myself when Jesus returns.

Link: www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=2851

Trunk-or-Treat

Trunk-or-Treat will be from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, Friday, October 31, 2008. You're encouraged to come down and hand out "treats." If you can't make it in person but want to make a contribution (in cash, or in kind) that would be very much appreciated, as we always seem to run out. We're looking for volunteers to cook hot dogs, make popcorn, hand out juice boxes, etc. Let the church office know if you are willing to help. If you know some little ones who would enjoy this event please let them know.

The Giant Pool of Money

One of the best explanations of origins of the current financial crisis I've heard so far was from the radio show This American Life. It undergirds some of what I'll be saying tomorrow. You can listen to it or read a transcript here.

Link: http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355

Sermon Change

Jenny and I have decided that I should change the subject of this Sunday's sermon from Joseph of Arimathea to instead address the financial crisis from a Christian perspective. Thought you might be interested.

Trunk-or-Treat Magnets

Above is a design for magnets to be handed out at Trunk-or-Treat.

Vote Out Poverty

You can sign the pledge here. At the time of this post, they had 20,858 pledges.

Evangelicals and Torture

A poll commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Mercer University shows that 57% of southern, white evangelicals believe "that torture can be often (20%) or sometimes (37%) justified in order to gain important information." This is of particular interest when compared to the general public of whom only 48% believe that torture can be justified. Apparently, when reminded of the golden rule–do unto others as you would have others do unto you–a significant portion of those polled changed their minds. To me it's shocking that so many self-professed Christians would even countenance torture, and that Christians would have to be reminded of the golden rule. If you think torture is justifiable, consider this a reminder.

Altar Flowers

Received from Nancy Wright:

"We are in need of vases for altar flowers in the coming weeks. If members have vases they are willing to donate/share, please leave them at the church. Please do not take them to the flower shop. Thank you."

Voice for the Day: Hate

Via Sojourners:

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."

–Martin Luther King Jr.

Brian Walker Elected Chair of DCOYM

DCOYM stand for the District Council on Youth Ministry. Brian was elected chair at this afternoon's meeting.

The Prosperity Gospel and the Mortgage Mess

From Time Magazine:

Has the so-called Prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? That's what a scholar of the fast-growing brand of Pentecostal Christianity believes. While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, he realized that Prosperity's central promise — that God will "make a way" for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe "God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house." The results, he says, "were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers."

The whole article is worth a read.

Link: www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1847053,00.html

Soccer Match

Jenny, Elizabeth and I went to the FKHS soccer match today. We got to see Brandon Helkenberg, Jon Eck, and James Helkenberg play. Elizabeth remarked that (at age 6) this was the first soccer match she had gone to. I realized that it was my first match also (at age 36).

I'm Still a Young Adult

And apparently I will be until the age of 45. But that's not the only reason I think Bishop Will Willimon's blog entry on Young Adults is important.

Link: http://willimon.blogspot.com/2008/09/emerging-generation-for-church.html

Taizé Worship Service Tonight

We'll be having a Taizé worship service tonight at 7:15 pm. The service takes it's name from the Christian Community in Taizé, France. Their website is: www.taize.fr.