“Friendship is important” …

Last week we held the memorial service for LaVern. Her best friend, Hazel, lie in the hospital hoping to learn what caused the labored breathing she was experiencing. Today Patty and I went by to visit Hazel. She received a call from another friend, Faye. These three ladies spent a great deal of time at Lake Eufala. Many a day was spent fishing. LaVern was likely the fisherman of the group. Faye recently lost her husband, Jim. From her hospital bed Hazel helped Faye wrestle through what it was like in
those days and weeks following the loss of a spouse. Hazel looked up at Patty and I and said, “Friendship is special. That’s what friends are for.”

Too often we forget our need for each other. This was a reminder of the ways in which God graces our lives - with friends. These friends expressed what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth letting them know they have the privilege of comforting with the kind of comfort they have received.

Andrew is a new friend of mine. He lost his father last January. Circumstances kept him from seeing his father before he died. Tuesday evening another friend’s father died. Scott could not get to Oklahoma from Florida in time. He too missed the opportunity to speak and hear from his father before Dave died. Andrew and I were talking and he offered to help someone he did not know work through the emotions that accompany the experience of losing a father without getting to speak or listen before death came. There
may be some ways these two young men get to help one another and they don’t even know each other.

God’s grace and mercy eclipse our understanding. The Lectionary text from Ephesians 3 calls our attention to the wonder of the love of God. May these find God’s love immeasurable as they live on while their loved ones have gone to be with Jesus.

Meditations from the Hill #1 …

I received some interesting comments about the “New Venture in Podcasting“. Today I release the first “Mediation from The Hill.” I selected the “Epistle” text for the reflection. Paul packs a great deal into a doxalogical prayer, too much to think a five and a half minute podcastt could capture it all. My hope is that those in our community of faith and those who follow the Lectionary Readings may find these thoughts provoking in our journey to follow Jesus.

Click here.

New venture … Podcasting “Meditations from The Hill” …

One of our young men once asked if I had ever thought about offering a “podcast.” The thought crossed my mind but I figured it to be a big deal. I found an online tutorial and free software so I am going to give it a go. I am using Audacity. While it may take some time to develop my skills, I hope this will be a way to offer mediations on the Lectionary Texts for the coming week. I admit to uncertainty as to how to include the podcast link in this blog, but here
it goes.

 Click here.

Membership must mean something … but what? …

I shared a brief conversation with Micah this morning. He said something like the following (sorry Micah for not recalling it exactly), “If I am going to be a member, I want it to mean something. I think the way it is practiced in Baptist churches makes membership meaningless. If there is no real meaning, then count me out.” I could not agree more.

Much has been written about church membership by Oklahoma Baptist bloggers since the Daily Oklahoman reported on a decision Henderson Hills Baptist Church may consider. Perspectives range widely on the matter - Paul, Rick, Wade, Paul
B, more than one post by Wes, and Robin are a few I have read. The Baptist Messenger online is carrying a number of articles on the subject.

One of the most difficult things to do is clarify issues when it comes to a “distinctive.” Something may make us distinctly Baptist. Growing up in Oklahoma City it was not uncommon in high school to face the common perception that to be Baptist meant you did not dance, play cards or go to movies. Not to mention the shock produced from the participation in tobacco and alcohol in any form by adults. Some seem to take pride in a sort of “martyr” complex when criticism comes that Baptists are known more for what
they are against than what they are for; a sentiment with which I find it hard to disagree.

The documents available at the Henderson Hills website seem to be calling for a more substantive understanding to church membership. They may well not have said it this way, but it seems to me they want to say what membership is for rather than what it ensures against. They are for obedience. They are for the working out of holiness in the life of Christ followers. They are for baptism by immersion. They are for elevating baptism to something more than an initiatory right into a local church. They are for celebrating
the Lord’s Supper/Communion by those who have been brought to the table by the grace work of God. To read any number of “concerned” bloggers is to read that Henderson Hills is against baptism and against Baptist “distinctives.”

Our denomination passed through the fires of a takeover/resurgence (or whatever designation fits your position) based upon the sufficiency of Scripture. We now find ourselves supporting our practice with Tradition and conclusions drawn from what seems more implied than explicit. We want to make strict parallels between membership in, say, the church at Corinth in the first century with membership in the First Baptist Church of any town USA today. The problem comes when you visit our town (Tuttle) and find not
one church much less one Southern Baptist church. We fear considering our cultural situatedness for fear we would tend toward some kind of perceived relativism. Could we really say the Apostle Paul had in mind the “church on every corner” and churches of different “stripes” on those corners? The Spirit may help us understand how to understand the authority of God in these new situations, but to think this was going on in the first century is a stretch. To tie what we do today with what was understood then would
be to ignore the passing of time and the current situation in Christendom.

What’s more, we have so many “Baptist Distinctives” what are we to do when they clash. For example, where does local church autonomy end? We prize the purview of the local church to be self-governing. Yet, we have a local pastor in our state who indicated he will present a motion to encourage our cooperative bodies to sever those same cooperative ties because Henderson Hills may exercise their local church autonomy.

The issue clearly relates to ecclesiology, eschatology and The Kingdom of God. When we are more concerned with our Baptist Distinctives than the push by a local church to work out what it looks like to follow Jesus and participate in a local church so that membership really means something, we have moved from a “people of the Book” to a people of “Baptist Tradition.” I do not mind considering Tradition so long as we agree to call it what it is. When we pass off our Tradition as somehow the explicit outworking
of Scripture, we face not only issues of logic and history but a larger issue - integrity.

I support any church wrestling through the issue of church membership. Anyone recall Tom Ascol’s motion at the SBC in Greensboro. The question was really about the meaning of church membership. When we lay claim to more than we can find membership in practice has become something less than what any of us hope. Membership must mean something.

Davis points out the need for more “Men for All Seasons” …

Rick offers a great post. Here is a clip I found pertinent to any nuumber of current affairs.

“Thomas,” he said, unfurling a huge parchment with scores of names on it, “look at the signatures of all your friends who have signed in favor of the annulment. Can you not go with us now, for fellowship?”

“And when,” More replied, “on the Day of Judgement you enter into Heaven for doing your conscience and I depart into Hell for violating mine, will you go with me then, for fellowship?”

Busy … Where have you been? …

Best laid plans get lain aside when you practice the “General’s wisdom” given me by a former church member.

The urgent is seldom important, and the important is seldom urgent.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Reunions … You graduated when? …

This past Saturday evening Patty and I joined a number of graduates of Northwest Classen High School to celebrate our 25th Anniversary Reunion. Yes, that would be the “Silver One.” Saturday
morning a few of us set out for a round of golf at Lincoln Park Golf Course. We played the East Course. Some would remind us this used to be referred to as the “Ladie’s Course.” The temperature rose as did the scores. Randy, Moose, Mike, Chas and “Willis” (a friend of Chas’s) played a six-some game of “Wolf.” It was fun to see some guys I had not seen in at least 15 years (although Chas and me enjoyed some Thai food in OKC some months ago).

Later in the evening we met at the Belle Isle Brewery to get re-acquainted. There is little doubt I have changed - a few inches taller and a few pounds heavier. Mix in less hair on my head and more on my face and some of my old classmates wondered who was with Patty. About ten o-clock a band began to play and we found ourselves screaming to be heard and moving to the back of the room in which  we were gathered. On the way out Kendall asked if Patty and I were still married. I told him, “Yes for 23 years.
I don’t know what she saw in me but I am glad she did.” He laughed. We left.

We had a fun time.

From my friar friend … abiding in the intermingling of mystery and faith …

Quite a few moths ago I met Terry while in Tulsa. What a privilege! We have since traded an e-mail or two. I was especially graced some time back when Terry sent me an e-mail noting that his order emphasized prayer and for that day he was praying for me. The blessing was mine.

In a recent post I mused about causality. I prefer not to go into the “story” behind the post. Essentially the issue was one of bearing life’s experiences with others considering the “meaning of it all” when it comes to “lesser” events. I primarily had young people, students, in mind. After all many grow up in traditions where they often attach a divine meaning to an event rather capriciously (as do many adults). How is it we help them determine some
sense of apparently random events so as to derive meaning from them? I have enjoyed reading the comments from that post. I feared the last comment might go unread. So, I asked Terry permission to post the comment in this context. He graciously obliged. I found his faith in the midst of personal tragedy compelling. I resonate with the willingness to live between mystery, faith and certainty. Here is his comment.

Thanks Terry.

I suppose it all comes down to the question, is God just? Does God send down rewards and punishments or is God whimsical & not trust worthy? I had to face this personally when my beloved wife and mother of our three small children died of cancer 12 years ago.

Some people wanted to blame her for her disease, or me, saying I wasn’t good enough as a Christian, I suppose Job* went through the same sort of “friendly” responses.

In the end, I came to the understanding that I just don’t know. In the Garden, we insisted on eating of the tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil. Our kind wanted to decide for ourselves what is good, and what is evil. Apparently we are not allowed that knowlege and for me, that helped. I can tolerate mystery and faith intermingled.

I know God, I know His love, and I know He is beyond me, in so many ways as to be indescribable. I also accept that I can’t know everything, but that doesn‚Äôt mean I am powerless, and empty handed, I have been given faith. I do have that faith, that God abides, that God stands with us, and when can trust in

God’s presence even though the worst.

As my brother recently died in a great deal of pain, I was comforted knowing that the Love of Christ took Him to that place of agonising death, and was with my brother in that moment, in a way none of us could be.

*My Priest recently mentioned that: “Job‚Äôs appeal to have a mediator, an umpire is a prophetic testimony for the necessity of a Christ, a being both human and divine who could bring about reconciliation between God and us.

ECTO … Great Support!

I noted previously my HP TC1100 Tablet PC hard drive crashed. Charlie did a great job of getting the essentials loaded so I could get back on track. One of the programs I was left to install is a third-party blog tool that works with Movable Type called ECTO. I downloaded the latest version. I
could not get the program to work right and so I began an e-mail exchange with Alex Hung. He stayed after the problem until it was resolved. His support was outstanding. If you use Movable Type and look for a third party WYSWYG editor at a relative steal, give ECTO a try. I first heard about ECTO from Andrew Jones.

What was the reason for that?

Making sense of causaltiy. Attempts to understand the unexplainable in the context of Jesus following often takes the shape of an appeal to divine sovereignty. Joseph told his brothers in Genesis 50 what they, his brothers, meant for harm, God meant for good, the saving of the lvies of many people. Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 8 God works out all things according to his purpose.

Our own attempts to put the difficult together often leads us to ask, “For what purpose did that happen?” On a number of occasions in my current ministry context this question has come as we faced the death of young children, youth and young men. I can honestly say I am still baffled by those who troop out the trite to explain the intensely painful and emotional. The idea God “needed” them more than we did just does not fly. I don’t find such explanations part of the Scripture.

What happens when lesser events come our way? Who determines the purpose of this or that event? Helping young people wrestle through the meanging of life’s events must be just that, a community event. Left to ourselves we may string events together and draw wrong conclusions. We may even discover more than “one” purpose. This in not way diminishes the need to recognize the activity of God. Instead it points up the fallibility of my “certainty” when it comes to putting it all together. We need each other trusting the Spirit of God to get our minds around the difficult - and then it is still tough.