Two Guns and a Baby

These are rough days on a national and on a local level. The massacre on the campus of Virginia Tech has rocked the United States. The death of a one-year-old baby has shaken a family and many members and friends of the North Street community. Death is in the air, and it's hard to know how to respond. In the first case, the media tells us who to blame. But he's dead, and even if he were alive, would it help? In the other case, well...it's pretty hard to know how or who to "blame" in the death of a baby. It just sucks (and even that word isn't strong enough).

It's hard to think about mass murder and the death of a baby. Our human reactions include confusion, fear, anger, disillusionment, and a variety of other emotions. We need to deal with them and not ignore them.

But when it comes to answers, they're hard, even impossible to come to. I can't explain the motives of Cho Seung-Hui, regardless of what the media says or what an investigation will eventually decide. And I can't explain the death of a baby. I do know that these things do not resonate with the imago Dei - the mission of God. These events and events like them are not what God planned for humanity...and just a little over a week after we celebrated resurrection, it's still not what God has planned for humanity.

So how do we respond?

The Word of Sunday's worship gathering lingered with me throughout the day yesterday as I watched all together too much news on television. And this morning, Jesus' words in John 20:19-31 are still pressing on my mind. Below is a manuscript form of the preached Word yesterday (for those reading outside of the North Street community, that means the "sermon"). I edited it for readability, but please still remember that what you're reading was meant to be delivered orally (I would have given an audio link like usual, but it didn't get recorded this week). But if you want to read it, please be sure to read the biblical text first (that's the link above to John 20:19-31).

Here it is:

Let’s remind ourselves of where we’re at here in the gospel text.

We’re in the gospel of John and it’s been barely 48 hours or so since Jesus had died when the disciples were gathered in that room. But let’s look back for a second.

He died on Friday, the first day. Though not all were present at his death, everyone knew it had happened. All the disciples of Jesus knew that he was dead. So Jesus had suffered and died brutally. The man in whom all these disciples had put their lives and hopes was stripped from them, arrested, put on trial, beaten, mocked, dragged through the city of Jerusalem carrying a cross up to a hill called “death” where he was nailed to the wooden beams of the cross and hung up for all to watch his cruel death. No one doubted it – he was dead. From the perspective of the disciples, it was the end of their hope, all that they knew and believed to be true was gone. The situation of “all things right and proper” and “as it should be” was gone. Jesus Christ, their messiah, their hope, their savior…was…dead. This was the first day.

Then there was the second day, the Sabbath – what we know as Saturday, a day of rest for Judaism, and a day of rest for the dead Christ. We have nothing of this day in John. But we can imagine. Have you ever woken up the morning after a bad day? You wake up and you know in the back of your mind that something bad has happened. Perhaps you were up much later worrying about it and got a bad night’s rest because of it. Regardless, you wake up with a bad feeling. Sometimes, I’ve woken up after a day like this and there’s this slight glimmer of hope that what had happened actually didn’t happen. Have you had this? You know, just for a moment, when you wake up, you think, “Wait, was that a dream?” Well, it wasn’t for the disciples of Christ, it wasn’t a dream at all. Jesus was dead. And they had to go through that whole day of Sabbath, with the knowledge that Jesus was dead. The son of God was dead. God…was…dead. This was the second day.

Then there was the third day, the first day of a new week. And what we know in the text so far is that Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene and that Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved had seen an empty tomb. So for a second, let’s look at this from the perspective of these disciples who are gathered in this room, with the door shut and locked for fear of the Jews. Let’s place ourselves in their position – what are we thinking? It’s barely been 48 hours since all of this has taken place – since Jesus has died. I’m no great psychologist, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t enough time for our period of grief to subside. And that’s for anyone’s death. It takes time to get over death. And here, 48 hours or so later, the drastic nature of Christ’s death – the death of our Savior – is probably finally beginning to really set it. We’ve gathered together, in fear of what’s going to happen, and our situation is one of confusion, distress, perhaps even chaos – what are we going to do? We’ve dropped our careers, we’ve given up family, and we’ve sold the farm so to speak for this guy Jesus, who’s now dead. Death lingers in the air around us. We can still smell it and taste it and feel it. The anguish of Jesus’ death is still on our minds. We’re disparate, and we’re angry. The last thing on our minds is a peaceful life. Nothing’s right or as it should be.

We need to talk for a second about this word ‘peace.’ ‘Peace’ in scripture is often a bit different than we speak of peace today. Today we hear the word ‘peace’ and our understanding shifts to one of tranquility. We might think of the word ‘peace’ and see a quiet bubbling stream or a slight wind blowing over a grassy knoll. Or we hear the word and think of the opposite of fighting and war, when all sides are in compromise and not killing each other. These two ways of thinking of peace are not wrong, they’re quite appropriate, but the peace of scripture – shalom – goes beyond this. Shalom is a state of being where all is the way it should be. A closely related word shalem means “complete”. Another closely related word l’shalem means “to pay”. Shalom – to pay complete. To give completeness. And Shalom is one of the many Hebrew names for God. God is shalom. Shalom is God. God gives completeness. Satisfaction. Shalom makes things the way they should be. God makes things the way they should be.

So if we’re back again with the disciples during the evening of the third day in the fearful, chaotic, and tense locked room, we’re in a place that lacks any sense of peace, any sense of shalom, any sense of completeness. Our situation is ruin.

…and John says that Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

And after showing them his hands and his side, he says it again, “Peace by with you.”

And the he does something strange. The text says that he breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

All right, sorry, but here’s some more Hebrew – a related Hebrew word for ‘breath’ and ‘breathe’ is ruach. And it’s this word ruach that’s in play when God breathes into Adam in Genesis that gives him life. Remember, Adam has a whole body with every part and muscle and bone completed, but in Genesis, only when God breaths ruach does Adam know life. And later on in the Old Testament, in a story that we read last week in Ezekiel, we see ruach again. But here it plays a couple of meanings. God’s spirit is ruach. And God’s spirit leads Ezekiel to the valley of the dry bones, and God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones for the ruach of life. Remember, they too have complete bodies at this point in the story, bones, and flesh, and sinew had grown upon them, but they’re lifeless until God’s ruach – his spirit, his breath is put within them. All is only well, when with the presence of God’s ruach his spirit, his breath, and our breath. Without ruach, there is no life. Without ruach, there is only death.

An equivalent word in Greek is pneuma. It’s from this word pneuma that we get all sorts of words today – pneumatics, pneumonia, pneumatology, and so on. All these things have to do with air, or our breath – pneuma.

So here, back in the room with the disciples, Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the holy spirit.”

And he adds this:

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them;
If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

What the…?

What…does…that…mean?

I’m fine with the holy-spirit-giving and the peace and maybe even the whole breathing thing. It makes sense that people over the years have made this John’s version of the commissioning of the Church and even Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit (in John, ‘advocate’ or ‘counselor’ is perhaps more appropriate). That’s all well and good, but what’s with Jesus’ words on sin, here in this place at this time?

Let’s again remember some things that have happened.

It’s notable that:
- Jesus said, “Put your sword away, Peter…” when Peter begins his great defense of Jesus at his arrest.
- Jesus did not fight back amidst his arrest, his trial, his mocking, his beating, his path to the cross, and on the cross itself. He could have, right?
- Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” even as they ‘did.’

Jesus’ whole life is notable in this way: a lack of aggression, a calmness and serenity when he is challenged by those who seem to despise him. Jesus lived a peaceful life. Jesus lived life the way it’s supposed to be lived.

And after the victory over death, and sin, and the grave, Jesus appears to the disciples who’ve gathered in fear and anger and says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; and if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

How do you handle the sins of others?

Again, let’s pretend we’re the disciples. We’re fearful and angry that our savior has been killed. And he shows up, alive, breathing, right in front of us. He has risen from the dead, conquered death. This guy’s alive and now I definitely know that nothing can take him down! What’s my response?!?

…Let’s go find Pilate.
…Let’s go find the chief priests.
…Let’s go find the guys that held the hammer and spear.
We’ve got something to settle. Let’s go get ‘em.

…and Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

How do you respond to the sins of others?

Brooklyn & Brenna

When I got on my laptop yesterday here at the hospital, I saw that there were 15 or so wireless networks, none of which I was able to get on to. But somehow this morning I'm on one, so I'll try to get in a quick post on the twins who arrived yesterday.

Meghan had regular contractions while we watched American Idol on Wednesday evening. But we went to bed anyway, knowing that they could get worse and closer together sometime in the night. At about 2:00-2:05 AM, she hit me to tell me that her water had broken. So we quickly got Brayden into the car, dropped him off at Jeff & Joy's house, and were at the hospital by 2:45. Grandma Scott was at the hospital a bit later with us, and Meghan and I went into the OR a bit later (we've known all along that with twins, it's an automatic delivery in the operating room, regardless of plans of mode of delivery). Just a few minutes later (and only on the third push), Brenna Munro Scott was born at 7:32 AM, 6 pounds and 0.3 ounces. About 5-6 minutes later, Brooklyn Gwen arrived with much maneuvering and repositioning by the doctors since she was breach (feet down and head up). The doctors did a great job helping her arrive. Meghan was able to deliver without having to have a C-section. We're thankful that the doctors on call were willing to try with us.

Brooklyn went to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) while Brenna could go with us to the mother-infant unit. Brooklyn had difficulty breathing regularly by her own power at first. Long story short, just before 10:00 AM as I'm writing this, she's breathing fine, on her own, and will likely join us before lunchtime. I've gone down several times to see her in the last 24 hours and Meghan's been able to go twice. With one of the complications of the delivery (preeclampsia), Meghan had to be on magnesium-sulfate (she just got off it a couple of hours ago). The mag made her less stable on her feet, so she couldn't get down to the NICU but twice.

I just wanted to update those who didn't know what's going on yet. Long story short - every thing's fine. I'll post pictures later.

Computer Sabbath

Two things happened when I was in the eighth grade that greatly affected the rest of my life to this point:
1. My last sibling (my brother) left home for college.
2. My parents got me a personal computer for Christmas.

Another tidbit that would be pertinent to the point of this post would be that I was always the guy in school who had a lot of acquaintance friendships, but few, if any, good and lasting "let's go out this weekend" friendships.

So finding myself an only child, with few friends from school, and a nice computer in my room, I began to spend decent amounts of time on the computer...

...and I haven't stopped since. Twelve years (almost half of my life) later, I spend several hours a day most days on the computer. Lots of the time, I am quite productive. Lots of the time, I am very unproductive.

The computer has led me to some glorious things - I am quite adept with a number of computer programs that greatly add to my life and my ministry and with a wealth of information, history, pictures, music, and even surface friendships at the push of my fingertips, I have been a better person because of the computer.

But the computer has also led me to some vices - from a hard-gripping addiction to pornography, to a lesser-hurtful but worthy-of-notice addiction to games, to some fruitless and needless web browsing, I have been a worse person because of the computer.

So I am beginning some personal sabbaths from the computer. I will try it out beginning tomorrow evening, sundown on Christmas Eve, through sundown on New Year's Eve. Although a few of these days will be "vacation" days and it will be easy to stay away from the computer, being with family, I will return to a regularly-scheduled program later in the week, so it will be difficult to fill the four-eight hours I usually spend in front of a computer screen. It will also be difficult (though not really) to complete normal tasks that I now rely on the computer for (sermon preparation, worship folder making, and other tasks that I regularly complete in the church week).

I don't expect everyone to understand what I'm doing. But as I replace this time in my life - just for a week - with even more of what I want to do (reading, prayer, family, visiting people in my NSCC community), I hope that I am a better person.

I'll catch ya on the flip side.

Merry Christmas and may you and I both find Christ even more in the New Year.

F&TC,
- J

Eat, Drink, & Be Merry...

...for tomorrow we live.

I have a distaste for Blockbuster. I'm not a big fan of over-paying for something I don't get to reap the benefits of for more than an hour or two (hence my usual avoidance of movie theaters as well). Although, come to think of it, I'm hypocritical here, because I apparently have no problem eating out at restaurants...Anyway, I'd always walked right past the Red Box DVD rental machine at Stop 'n Shop. But last week I stopped just to see what it was all about and discovered that you can rent DVDs there for $1 a day. I figured this was a fee we could put up with.

So to try it out, Meghan and I rented Click, with Adam Sandler, on advice from Mike Lyle (thanks, Mike). Mike said he had cried when watching it. The combination of Adam Sandler and Mike Lyle in tears was enough to intrigue us.

It's not a great movie. I'd love to use it as an illustration some time, but there's needless sexual humor that many might not be able to stomach. There's also some pretty funny stuff you'd expect from Adam Sandler. You'll not see many awards for this one. But it did indeed make me emotional at the end, and it left me pondering things I've been considering recently.

The movie picks apart what I believe is a major deteriorating factor of our American society. The premise of the movie ends up being "family first, work second." But I want to carry it a bit further.

Once upon a time, I was a rather intense Dave Matthews Band fan. I went to my first concert a few weeks after I got my driver's license when I was 16. I was bobbing to "Too Much" and "Ants Marching" well before DMB took off in popularity like they did in my high school and college years. I actually abandoned listening to them on a spiritual conviction binge my freshman year of college (an action that was helpful at the time, but has since been rescinded).

Anyway, yesterday as Meghan and I were driving to our latest ultrasound appointment (by the way, the fluid levels are better), DMB's song "Tripping Billies" came on the radio. I remember when my friend Spen and I first starting listening to DMB, the week after Crash (probably still in my top three "most listened albums" and top ten "best albums") came out, he asked me what I thought about the song. I didn't really know. I mean, I knew what it meant, but I didn't really care. I just liked the way the song sounded.

The premise of the song is: "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die". The general American societal response to this is: "work hard then be merry," with the usual result that life is full of work and little merry-making. The general evangelical Christian response to this premise is: work hard for time is of the devil and Jesus might be coming back soon.

(As yet another side note, sometimes those perceivably anti-Xian bumper stickers like this one are well worth seeing because they challenge me to consider my faith in light of whatever they're mocking. Unfortunately or better yet, perhaps fortunately, the creator of the bumper stickers often has a good point. Another one that I've seen around Hingham is "Born okay the first time".)

Anyway, as we listened to the song yesterday, I was reminded of a statement I heard Jon Middendorf make several weeks ago - "[The Church needs] to count less and party more." He was speaking in terms of measuring church "success". I've looked a bit at scripture since then, and though Paul appears to think we should be working hard, Jesus takes a more relaxed role in the Kingdom. He often took the time to slow down. His first sign in John was to create a better celebratory atmosphere at the opportunity of a wedding. The last thing he did with his followers was sit down to a meal. And he has us re-member His Body in the act of a meal. I mean, he could of had us re-member remember the cross with the use of hammer and nails or the carrying of a cross. But he didn't. He chose the intaking of bread and wine.

Meghan, Brayden, and I spend a lot of time together. I admit that often I feel guilty that I'm not doing enough for the church or that I am missing out on something I should be doing at the office. But truly, I love the fact that we spend a lot of time together. We love to eat. Meghan loves to cook and I love to eat her cooking. Brayden loves to lay on my stomach facing the ceiling and throwing a ball up and down over and over again. After Brayden goes to bed, I love sitting in the same room as Meghan while she reads and I browse the Internet.

This past Sunday evening the a bunch of us from North Street went out Christmas caroling around the immediate neighborhood. After we sang together for almost two hours, we gathered back at our house for food and warm drinks. It was a lot of fun and I think the Kingdom is better for it.

I don't know, I guess I just wonder how much of the administrative tasks of life truly add to the Kingdom instead of taking away from the essence of the Kingdom. Life in the Kingdom is an incredible thing - we know that we get to live because of Christ. I think that's reason for celebration.

The concept of "eat, drink, & be merry" is indeed in scripture (see Luke 12:13-48, but take care to read the whole passage). Jesus tells a story about a rich guy who has a ton of crops, and not sure what to do with them, decides to store them up and milk their benefits for the rest of his life. So he tears down his barns and builds bigger ones to store more for a longer period of time. But God tells him that his life is over as of that day, so what good was his storage? Christ's conclusion: so it is with those who store up treasures on earth rather than being "rich toward God." And then there's a "therefore." Jesus tells the disciples that they shouldn't worry so much about what to wear or what to eat, "For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing." So don't strive for the things of the earth, but strive for the Kingdom...and even then, the things of the earth will be there for you.

Cash Cab

One modern trait still embedded in my confused head is a love for game shows. I can't help it, I love 'em. When we moved to Hingham and got cable for the first time, I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get the Game Show Network. Since then, Comcast has added it. Woo-hoo.

But right now, the only one I really get to watch with any regularity is Cash Cab. It's actually on the Discovery Channel. (Speaking of the DC...if I ever had to stay home for a whole day and was forced to watch just one channel the whole time, I don't think I'd pick ESPN because it can quickly get boring and repetitious. I'd definitely choose Discovery. Or maybe the History Channel.)

Anyway, Cash Cab is one of those things that when I first saw it, I asked myself, "Why didn't I think of that?" It's got to be one of the most low-budget shows on television. It consists of a New York City cab and a driver-host (who's really stand-up comedian Ben Bailey). Unknowing customers enter his cab, tell him their destination, and then find out they're on a trivia game show. Ben drives them to their destination, asking general knowledge trivia questions all along the way for increasing amounts of money. If they get three wrong, he kicks them out of the cab on the spot.

I just found a clip of it on YouTube. This one's a bit unusual because the contestant is pretty funny. (There are a lot of other clips on YouTube.) But you'll get the idea.

Brayden likes it too and when he sees it he says, "cass cab."

Don't really know why I blogged on this...