Opus 2011-192, Green Pieces: Waste Paper

We don’t use 5,000 year old redwoods for making paper.  Most paper is made from trees that were grown for that purpose.  Good paper has a lot of clothe in it, not wood.  Get real.  What sane businessman would grind up wood that would sell for a fortune to turn into paper that sells for a pittance.  I recently bought a piece of clear cedar for a shelf.  Good quality was costing me about ten dollars a foot and it wasn’t even the expensive aromatic cedar..  Relax.  Do the math. 

Keep in mind that it is in the interests of the people who cut down trees to make sure that there are trees to cut down in the future.  That means that they plant more than they cut.  Think of it as a harvest with a long growing season.  Wood is a renewable resource.  The people who own the lumber companies have children and grandchildren.  They want to pass something on to their heirs.  They can’t do that if they destroy the trees and the areas they grow.  It just is not good business.  Even if you believe that all businessmen are greedy even you can see that they would not have much future if they did not nurture their source of money.

So relax.  If there is no recycling bin near by, ball that paper up and put it in the trash.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-191, Church Hoppers

Last week we had a “Stump the Pastor” service.  We were invited to bring any questions we might have and fire away.  This works well at this church because not only is the pastor a devout believer, but he is a real scholar.  He has a garage full of books.  He has read them all.  He remembers what he reads and processes it.  It is awesome.  And, yes, I have told him to his face.

One of the concerns that came up was the number of visitors that we have each year and how few of them stay.  They seem to enjoy the service, promise to return, walk out the door, and are never seen again.  We did not come to a simple answer that night.  He has his theories.  I have mine.  I thought I would share with you a theory of C.S. Lewis that I read this morning.

 “Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for that church which ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches. 
    “...the search for a ‘suitable’ church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be pupil.”  (Lewis, C.S.  The Screwtape Letters.  Norwalk, Connecticut:  The Easton Press, 2002, p. 81.)

The idea is that one of the techniques of the devil is to keep people looking for the perfect church.  You are aware of all the litanies.  Music too fast, music too slow, use the wrong translation, no teen program.  I am sure you have your own.  I don’t know who said it first but we have been warned that if we find the perfect church don’t join because then it wouldn’t be perfect any more.  I believe Groucho Marx once said something like, “Any club that would have me as a member I wouldn’t want to be a part of.”

Are you looking for a good church?  Why not find one that has the basics and settle in to become a part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-190, Green Pieces: Trees Grow Back

One of the great lines I hear at school is about saving the trees.  The students are worried that all the work we do on paper is decimating the rain forests.  Not really.  They use the line about the trees but all they are concerned about is avoiding work.  Some people, though, are concerned.  You can relax for a couple of reasons.

Trees grow back.  Most people today live in big cities so they don’t realize this.  When you go through a forest and cut down the trees more light reaches the ground and new trees sprout up.  We have a place up in the mountains.  It is on an old homestead that was divided up into half acre plots and is still pretty primitive.  The back of our parcel butts up against the national forest.  The first time I visited the sight about 30 years ago it had recently been logged off.  Most of the big trees were gone although there were a few scattered here an there.  Even at that point there were hundreds of smaller trees already on their way up.  Today it is a forest again. 

Most of the horrible pictures you see of clear cuts that “destroy” the environment are taken right after the cutting, not ten years later.  If you ever get out of the metropolitan area and drive across the country you see trees coming up everywhere.  They will come up through cracks in the pavement.  They will grow between lanes of traffic.  They will turn over fences.  I have even seen trees growing up through the middle of abandoned houses.  So relax.  Get out of the mall and take a drive.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-189, Basic Beliefs: The Second Coming

I have heard several times that one difference between Jews and Christians is in our expectation of the Messiah.  Both believe in a Messiah but with a different understanding.  The Jews are still waiting for his arrival.  Christians believe Jesus is the Messiah and are waiting for Him to return.

There are a lot of terms used:  Second coming, eschatology, end times, and rapture among a few.  There is so much disagreement that over time it will require many different posts.  For instance the rapture.  You have pre-trib, post-trib and mid-trib.  Does Jesus reclaim His church before, during or after the great tribulation.  The answer can split a church.  I am what I heard called a pan-trib person.  I believe it will all pan out in the end and it isn’t worth getting worried about.

Most Christian teaching about the end of the world is found in the Apocalyptic literature.  These include Revelation, Daniel and Ezekiel.  It is a genre that has its own rules which seem to be subject to change depending on what you want to prove.  It is full of visions and strange events that would fit well in modern horror and fantasy novels.

Some teaching is found in the gospels but the most important passage is often ignored.

(Mark 13:32 KJV)  But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

If people paid attention to this verse they would spend less time writing books, studying Revelation and looking like fools in the secular media.

Christians all believe that Jesus is coming back.  Beyond that we have as many variations as there are types of pizza.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-188, Styles of Worship

I am slowly working through Wesley’s Journals.  I usually only read a page or two at a time.  Much is just notes on where he preached and such but there are all kinds of windows into his thinking and his times.

One of the themes that seemed to be on his mind on July 7, 1784 was the conduct of people in worship.  Today I came across this:

“I recommended to the congregation here...the example of the people in Holland,... who never talk in a place of public worship, either before or after the service.” 

I have seen this brought up several times.  It would seem like the tendency to make worship a time of fellowship is not something new.  Wesley has a growing distaste for it.

I think he would remind us that worship is God directed not people directed.  We do not gather together to meet and fellowship but to lift up or voices in praise and listen to what the Holy Spirit might have to say to us.  It is hard to hear the “still small voice” when we are listening to the latest gossip or commiserating about the latest ache or pain.

I think I side with Wesley on this one.  I think the time when the congregation is told to greet each other sucks the life out of a service.  If we want to talk, lets go to coffee.  Even more radical, maybe you could invite me home for dinner.

I regularly thank God for the shoulders of giants on which we stand.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-187, Spiritual Gifts: Giving

(Romans 12:8 KJV)  Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

Giving is a spiritual gift.  This is a gift that officials in the church love to mention.  It comes up when special offerings are being taken.  One reason for this confusion is that the gift of giving is confused with the Christian responsibility of stewardship.  Leaders love it because it lets them lean on the rich people and excuse the poor.  People in the pews like this misunderstanding because they can use it as an excuse to ignore the offering plate.

The gift of giving includes the giving of money but it is not used in terms of the weekly collection of the offering.  It is used of sharing the gospel, of sharing your clothes and of sharing your resources with those in need.  A person with this gift is not moved by the building fund or the Thanksgiving offering for missions.  They are moved by the single mother who is looking at the beginning of school and has no money for clothes or school supplies.  I have a feeling this gift is more common that pastors think.

All Christians are expected to be stewards.  This involves the tithe, offerings, cleaning the church, listening to little old ladies (or men) ramble on and anything else that involves using our resources as God would expect.  Not all Christians have a special gift of giving.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-186, On the Street: Advertizing for the Ignorant

I had a bus turn in front of me a few days ago and read the ad on the side.  I had to catch the bus and read it again because I could not believe what it said.  It was an advertizement for Metro trying to get people to ride the bus.  That wasn’t what got my attention.  What hit me what the idiotic statement they were using.  They were saying we should “Take control, pay as you go.” 

This about riding on mass transit.  I don’t know if you have ever had to take mass transit but one of the concepts that is totally alien to the experience is “take control.”  First you are forced to get on the bus at locations designated by a committee.  When you find the bus stop you must wait until it gets there before you can start your trip.  If you are thirty seconds late you must wait for the next bus.  You need exact change.  During rush hour, which is when most people want to travel, you must often stand the entire trip.  You are forced to listen to other people's music and smell whatever they had for dinner.  You must wait patiently while the bus takes a route you would never follow and if you are really “in control” you get to change buses.  When you want to get off it is a miracle if it is close to where you are going.  This is what they call “taking control.”

What a twist of reality.

But we need to remember that the people reading these signs were probably not taught to think.  Since they want to be in control they take a bus.  I guess I would rather be manipulated by my own personal automobile.

Will a  bus fit in the drive through?

homo unius libri