Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Bring It All

While I did not create this blog to be a platform for promoting my preaching, I thought that I would share this Christmas Eve message as a gift to my readers. If you weren't in a place to hear a sermon this Christmas, I hope that you find this encouraging and inspiring. It clocks in at just 11 minutes, including the reading from Luke 2:1-20. We celebrated Holy Communion right after the sermon, so the message concludes with the Invitation to the Table.

Note to fact-checkers: If I got the info wrong about the King's College Cambridge soloist, post any corrections to the comments here.

Merry Christmas!


Saturday, December 20, 2014

What Child Is This

During this Advent season I have been preaching from four traditional hymns that anticipate and celebrate the incarnation. This is the fourth of four blog entries about these songs.

The tune to this hymn, GREENSLEEVES, is very old -- probably composed when the first Queen Elizabeth reigned in England. Shakespeare mentions it in Merry Wives of Windsor, and the song has appeared in books of carols since 1642.


People had already been setting Christmas-related words to this tune for hundreds of years before William Dix penned What Child Is This in 1865. The tune has undergone a few modifications to make it easier for modern singers -- such as changing the mode from Dorian to minor. 

The focus of the three stanzas is the adoration of the shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth (from Luke 2:6-20). But the reference to "incense, gold, and myrrh" also draws in the visit of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12). These two scenes are told in separate gospels, and they probably happened at two different times. Even so, most nativity scenes show the shepherds and the wise men together. Even if this isn't accurate historically, there is a good theological reason for putting these two groups of guests together: they both represent King David -- the shepherd who became a king.

Indeed, David looms large over the nativity. The gospel reading for week 4 of Advent this year is the annunciation to Mary in Luke 1:26-38. David's name is mentioned twice in that short section of scripture: Joseph is a descendant of the ancient king, and Jesus will take up his ancestor's throne. So bringing these two parts of David's legacy together -- his humble roots, and his royalty -- is a very appropriate move. What Child Is This reminds us that God will magnify this poor child, born in a stable. Who is he? The son of David, and of Mary. Our Messiah is the descendant of an impulsive king who founded an empire, and he is the child of a humble peasant woman who yielded to God's difficult assignment for her life.




Saturday, December 13, 2014

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing

During this Advent season I will be preaching from four traditional hymns that anticipate and celebrate the incarnation. This is the third of four blog entries about these songs.

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing is my favorite Advent/Christmas hymn. In fact, thanks to Charles Wesley's insightful and meaningful words, this may be simply one of our best English-language worship songs, period. Wesley wrote his original version in 1739, but he had some help along the way. For example, "Hark the herald angels sing" was originally "Hark, how all the welkin rings." (Thanks to George Whitefield for that significant alteration in 1753.)


Charles Wesley
Like many hymns of that vintage, the pairing of the tune and text is a more recent development. In the beginning these words were sung to the hymn tune that we now sing as Christ the Lord is Risen Today. In wasn't until 1878 that the current tune, known as MENDELSSOHN, appeared in a hymnal in its present form. The renown composer Felix Mendelssohn had composed this tune for a cantata in 1840 which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's moveable-type printing press. Mendelssohn's tune, like Wesley's words, underwent some modifications from its original setting. Mendelssohn composed this piece for male voices and brass, so it took the work of others to get us the current hymn setting for all four voice parts.

The tune by Mendelssohn is wonderful, but it is Wesley's profound theology of the incarnation that makes this hymn so rich and enduring. The reference to angels makes us think of the scene in the shepherds' fields from Luke 2:8-14. But Wesley's description of the incarnation--that is, how God became a human being--seems to borrow more from John 1:1-14. Stanza three contains my favorite phrase, which is straight from John 1:4: "Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings." The idea that God became one of us is by itself too wonderful to comprehend. But the truth that this was done for our benefit, so that death itself could be defeated, is almost more than I can handle. A baby born so that we could be re-born: "born that we may no more may die." I can't do anything but sing when confronted with this profound realization. This hymn provides the best way I know of to do just that.


Here's one of the best performances ever:




Saturday, December 6, 2014

Angels from the Realms of Glory

During this Advent season I will be preaching from four traditional hymns that anticipate and celebrate the incarnation. This is the second of four blog entries about these Advent songs.

The words to the hymn Angels from the Realms of Glory first appeared in 1816, published in a newspaper that was edited by the author, James Montgomery. The tune Regent Square was composed in 1867 by Henry T. Smart, and this melody is matched with Montgomery's words in the United Methodist Hymnal (#220).

Angels, from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o'er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation's story,
Now proclaim Messiah's birth:
Refrain: Come and worship, come and worship
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

Shepherds, in the fields abiding,
Watching o'er your flocks by night,
God with man is now residing,
Yonder shines the infant light:
Refrain

Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations,
Ye have seen his natal star:
Refrain

Saints, before the altar bending,
watching long in hope and fear;
suddenly the Lord, descending,
in his temple shall appear:
Refrain

This hymn appears to be about angels. Indeed, that's the first word of the first stanza. But each of the four stanzas addresses a different group, moving from angels to two other witnesses of the Nativity: shepherds and sages (wise men). Then the fourth stanza is about all of us: the saints. This progression makes a pretty important theological statement. Yes, the angels were there to proclaim the birth of Jesus, but they were created for one main purpose: to deliver messages from God. After the angels deliver God's messages (whether to the shepherds, or to Mary, or Joseph, or Zechariah), they exit the scene. The work of carrying out God's directions remains with the people who received the message. Angels appear throughout the scriptures, but only briefly. Once the angels do their job, then you and I are expected to get on with the work of obeying God's Word.

The hymn's meter (grouping of syllables) of 87.87.87 makes it easy to switch with other tunes, and in the UK it is most commonly sung to a traditional French carol named Iris. In that setting the original refrain of "Come and worship" is often replaced with "Gloria in excelsis deo." Here is a performance from King's College Cambridge (sorry about the ad):


Here is a church worship service in the US that uses Smart's tune as the choir processes into the sanctuary:


Saturday, November 22, 2014

Christ the King Sunday

The season of ordinary time after Pentecost ends this week with the feast of Christ the King. This is not an ancient celebration of the church -- it was only established in 1925, less than a decade after World War I.

Nowadays we look back at the results of WWI and see that people of the early 20th century had placed too much faith in scientific progress and in national governments. In the wake of that war it was evident that governments and science had not saved us; instead they provided more efficient ways of killing each other.
Graves of WWI soldiers killed at Flanders Field
But not everyone emerged from that chapter of history with a clear-eyed recognition of the limitations of human institutions. In fact, some people in power thought that since the war represented a failure in leadership, the way forward was to make government stronger. In countries such as Mexico, officials tried to replace their subjects' loyalties, especially when it came to faith and the institution of the church. In response to this rising tide of secularism and oppression around the world, Pope Pius XI declared an annual feast day for Roman Catholics to remember that only Christ can be the supreme leader of the faithful. Many Protestant denominations adopted the day in the decades that followed. In 1970 these churches agreed to celebrate Christ the King Sunday during the last Sunday of the church calendar, which is just before Advent.

In the Philippines I used to see posters come out during the end of November that looked something like this:

People would hang these images on their front gates or doors. Although I never had anyone there tell me as much, I wonder if the motivation was a subversive one. Were these Christians silently stating their opposition to a government that was often corrupt and inefficient? Was this an annual opportunity to claim ultimate loyalty to a heavenly ruler -- above President or Parliament?

Here in the USA, Christ the King Sunday presents a different kind of challenge -- it usually falls near Thanksgiving Day. Giving thanks is a part of every Christian worship service, most clearly celebrated during the Great Thanksgiving in Communion liturgies. Since showing gratitude for God's grace is part of the rhythm of a Christian's life, recognizing this national holiday during your Sunday service can seem sort of bland. National holidays have a way of doing that. A secular government cannot promote any particular faith, so our leaders make very generic pronouncements about experiencing or having good stuff. But at a Christian worship service we are called to be very specific and particular. What does a Christian have to give thanks for? Jesus Christ, and the grace he showed by coming in human form, by dying and rising again so we can be saved, and by reigning from heaven until he returns to redeem all creation. Those are very specific activities that happened (and will happen) in a particular place and at a recorded time in history. That's why we give thanks to our one and only ruler and king. This Sunday I would rather have a specific celebration of Christ's lordship over and above all human institutions. Leave Thanksgiving for Thursday.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

What is Exegesis?

ex.e.ge.sis noun \ek-sə-ˈjē-səs\ - an explanation or critical interpretation of a text
When I was in college I learned that exegesis is the process of understanding the meaning of a passage of scripture. The first and most basic step in exegesis is to read the passage in a translation you can understand. The next step is to read something that a Bible scholar has written about that passage. Many study Bibles come with great notes with this kind of information. There are also books called commentaries that explain many details about the Biblical languages, the setting of the original writing, and how a certain passage fits with other parts of scripture. I also learned that "exegesis" (getting stuff out of) is the opposite of "eisegesis" (reading stuff into). In other words, exegesis is about letting the Bible explain itself. That's the opposite of using the Bible to prove stuff you already believe. (You may have heard people call that "proof-texting" -- that is, picking and choosing only verses that support your ideas.)

A shelf full of commentaries
When I worked for a Bible translation organization, I heard people talk frequently about "doing exegesis." Of course someone translating the Bible should understand what the passage means. But it was difficult to get the translators to tell me exactly how they "did exegesis." Did they just read the passage and some study notes? Did they have commentaries? Did they write up a report of what they learned? Few people liked to divulge their secrets. It was like asking a chef to share her prized recipes.

Since I have been at Duke Divinity School, I have learned a specific process for "doing exegesis." My Bible professors actually have a form to fill out. We are required to read several commentaries, another book or two on that part of scripture, and some academic articles. We then write up details that we discover: definitions of key words in the passage, discussions about different translation techniques, how it could be applied in a sermon. Most importantly, we have to come up with questions that we would explore further. If you are interested you can click here to read an exegesis paper on Philippians 2:1-18 that I wrote earlier this year. I probably spent about 15 hours of reading and writing for this assignment.

Even though it is time-consuming, writing an exegesis paper is some of the most fun I have had in seminary. All verses in the Bible are rich with meaning, and it is a joy to dig into the various ways of understanding them. But it also makes me a little bit sad. When I sit in the Divinity School library in Durham, North Carolina I have access to anything ever written about the Bible. I have yet to come across a book, dissertation, or article that I cannot find on the shelf here or download from the library's website. This is an embarrassment of riches. It makes me think about all the people translating the Bible into their own languages. Many of those mother-tongue translators work in out-of-the-way places, far away from academic libraries. Even if (big if) their internet connections were solid enough to access academic articles online, they don't have the financial resources to get the passwords to unlock the websites. Even then, many of the best commentaries are written in such an academic style that they go above the heads of folks who don't speak English fluently.

Of course many others have recognized this problem. Some people spend their lives writing and sharing down-to-earth exegetical summaries that mother-tongue translators can read. But it is not just about how expensive it is to buy the necessary books.Understanding the Bible is hard work. It requires a lot of time to research and study just one chapter.  Maybe some of my translator friends didn't like to talk about their process because it exposes inadequacies. All translation projects run on deadlines, so there is only so much time to "do exegesis." God bless those who work with limited time and resources to bring God's Word to people who don't have it.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Praying Through the Night

I have always marvelled at people who can pray all night long. Several years ago when I was studying linguistics in Dallas, I attended a Korean church for a class assignment. On their calendar of upcoming events was an all-night prayer service, starting at midnight on Friday. Seeing that made me feel like the worst Christian ever. I've never gone without sleep so that I could pray, and I often fall asleep in the middle of praying. So instructions like this one from Hippolytus in the 3rd century have always been guilt-inducing:
Pray before your body rests on the bed. Rise about midnight, wash your hands with water, and pray. If your wife is present also, pray both together. Do not be lazy about praying.                                                      
Sleepy Apostles
I'm not a night person. If I had gone into the garden with Jesus on his final night, I would have definitely fallen asleep too. Trying to keep Hippolytus' practice of midnight prayers would just make me feel miserable from sleep-deprivation and guilty for having a bad attitude about it. (We won't even discuss what would happen if I woke up my wife at midnight.)

But recently I was reminded of a magazine article that I read a while ago. It claimed that sleeping straight through the night for 7 to 8 hours is a modern phenomenon. Our ancestors didn't sleep like that. Before the invention of electric lighting it was very common to spend your nights like this: go to bed at sundown, sleep for a few hours, wake up and do stuff, and then go back to sleep until morning. Historians have found that people used to talk about "first sleep" and "second sleep" -- two distinct shifts of nightly slumber. It was normal for people to get up around midnight and do all sorts of things: talk to family and neighbors, snack, plan out tomorrow's activities, and ...  you got it -- pray. Some writers suggest that humans are more creative when they have these middle-of-the-night periods of wakefulness.

Many folks in the Bible dealt with God in the middle of the night. Bruce Malina and John Pilch are Bible scholars who have studied the book of Revelation. They claim that John's heavenly visions were inspired by constellations in the night sky. For example, the characters such as the living creatures, the elders, and the Beast and the Woman were specific groupings of stars that ancient Mediterranean folks would recognize. It makes sense that John would have experienced his revelation in the middle of the night, between his first and second sleeps. God might have used the constellations that John could actually see that night to speak those prophecies.

So, do you want to be more creative, enhance your prayer life, and hear from God? Go to bed earlier! In North America this time of year it gets dark around 5:30pm. That should give you plenty of time to get in two sleeps and some creative midnight moments before dawn.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

The Story Behind Amazing Grace

Around 10 years ago Steve Turner wrote a great book about the hymn Amazing Grace, probably the most popular Christian song in America. Most people don't realize that the hymn's current form took over 100 years to come together, and it has endured several periods of obscurity when it was rarely sung at all.

Like many of our most beloved hymns, the words and music for Amazing Grace were composed by different people at different times. John Newton penned the words to go with a sermon he preached in England on New Years Day in 1773. The tune we sing to those words came from somewhere in America during the late 19th century, and we still don't know who composed that haunting melody.

Newton was born in London in 1725. His father was a ship captain and therefore absent for most of his son's life. John's mother died when he was only seven years old. By all accounts Newton was a troubled young man. When the teen-aged boy went to sea himself, he was so disliked that his captains frequently traded him to other ships. At one point he was even enslaved on an island off of western Africa.

Newton was also a mess spiritually. Having rejected the Christian faith, Newton found himself grasping at any system of belief that could give him answers. According to Turner's book, he young sailor dabbled in African traditional religions that he found nearby during his sojourns on that continent.

Then one night at the age of 22 his ship encountered a terrible storm. At that point he experienced a "foxhole conversion" -- crying out to God to save his life. The change was genuine, and he began to live in a way that assumed the Christian message was true. When the ship docked in Ireland for repairs he took Communion for the first time, and he began to attend church twice a day.

Newton's conversion to Christianity did not immediately stop his involvement in the slave trade. In fact, he began his career captaining slave ships after he became a believer. That's not to question whether Newton was truly converted. Christian growth can happen quickly, and it can also take a period of time. It also shows how the culture in England changed over the course of Newton's life. Newton would eventually have a tremendous influence in the anti-slavery movement in England, especially through his relationship with William Wilberforce. But in the 1750s the average believer was not ready to campaign against a system that was so imbedded in the society's structures of power and wealth.

Newton did not serve as a captain for very long. He suffered a stroke in his late twenties and was advised not to go back to sea. It was then that he began a vocation as an Anglican priest. He was a popular leader, even if his lack of formal education made his ordination process more difficult. It was actually this "common touch" that drew the laity to him. According to Turner's account, Newton was well-suited to life as a parish priest.

In late December of 1772 Newton prepared a New Years Day sermon on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17:
Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said: ‘Who  am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O God, you have spoken about the future of your house of your servant. You have looked on me as thought I were the most exalted of men, O Lord God.
At the end of his life King David was reflecting on the "many dangers, toils, and snares" that he had gone through. Newton preached about David's sense of overwhelming grace, showing that none of us deserves the favor God has given us, especially the offer of salvation that comes through God's Son, Jesus Christ. Newton knew this from his own experience.

Newton also wove in several other scriptural allusions:
  • Luke 15:24. The parable of the prodigal son : “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” 
  • Romans 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” 
  • John 9:25. The blind man healed by Jesus. “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” 
  • Eph 6:16. Shield of faith is mentioned in stanza 3.
It was not uncommon for pastors to compose a new hymn for each Sunday's sermon. John and Charles Wesley, who ministered at the same time as John Newton, did the same thing. It's important to understand that they were not composing new tunes each week. Rather, they would write words that fit a specific pattern, known as a meter -- the arrangement of the syllables in each stanza. (Not exactly the same thing as the meter or "time signature" written at the beginning of a piece of music.) If they wrote their words according to a familiar pattern of syllables, then this new hymn could be sung to a tune that the congregation already knew. That's how it was for Amazing Grace. Newton wrote the words in the "Common Meter" so that they could be sung with any hymn tune with that pattern. One of those tunes was called  ARLINGTON and is sung today to the hymn Am I a Soldier of the Cross(You can read more about that process of mixing and matching hymn tunes at one of my previous posts here.)

The churches of Newton's day were strongly influenced by the theology and teaching of John Calvin, who was very suspicious of using "worldly" music. Calvin disliked using any songs that were not psalms, and he castigated the use of organs as instruments "of the devil." So hymns like Amazing Grace were not sung in the Sunday morning worship services. Instead, Newton would invite parishioners to his home on Sunday afternoons so they could sing their beloved hymns. These sessions were so popular that he had to sell tickets to keep the numbers down!

Amazing Grace virtually disappeared from England in the 1800s, with very little evidence that it was sung in churches there. But somehow it made it to America. Ira Sankey, the song leader for Dwight L. Moody's evangelistic campaigns, spread it around the American countryside. But it wasn't until 1900 that the current tune was paired with Newton's famous words for the first time in a hymnal. Some have speculated that the song was sung by slaves in the southern states. Others have guessed that the tune made its way from Britain to Appalachia as a folk song. Sometime before the US Civil War, the hymn had acquired the sixth stanza that is the favorite of many: "When we've been there ten thousand years..." No one knows who wrote this later add-on.

Newton's hymn has gone through several periods of obscurity throughout its long life. Even after it resurfaced in America in the late 19th-century, the song didn't enjoy sustained popularity in the churches or the wider society. But in 1970 folk singer Judy Collins released an acapella recording that got wide airplay on the radio. From that time on the song has remained a part of the American consciousness, and it is still often sung and/or played at funerals and memorial services.



Saturday, October 18, 2014

Blessed be the God and Father

This semester I'm taking a class on the book of 1 Peter. One of our assignments is to respond to the book in a creative way. I chose to write a review of Samuel Sebastian Wesley's choral anthem "Blessed be the God and Father." It is a setting of several key verses in chapter 1. Wesley wrote this piece for Easter Sunday at Hereford Cathedral in 1834. Here is summary of some of the most interesting aspects of the song. (You can read the entire paper here.)

Here is a Youtube video of the entire piece:


The anthem's five sections create a "sandwich"
The overall structure of the piece works something like this:
  1. Full Choir
  2. Chorus of men's voices
  3. Women's solo & duet
  4. Men's voices again
  5. Full choir returns, this time with the organ

One of the striking effects of this arrangement is the clearing out that happens in the third section. (You can hear this transition beginning at 2:20 in the clip.) Moving from the chorus of men in the previous section to the spare setting really brings out the words “holy” and “pure” with the delicate soprano voices. It is easy to feel love as “pure” with the clear tones and harmony.

Working with what you have
Many of the choir members at Hereford Cathedral were members of holy orders. So on Easter Sunday most of the singers were called away to duties in other parishes. Wesley was left with just a small ensemble to compose for, which only included one bass voice.

I wonder if Wesley realized the similarities between his little choir and the small bands of Christians to whom 1 Peter was originally written. The epistle is primarily about being a witness in the world. This anthem was performed for a congregation that was emptied of many important lay and clergy who were out on mission during the church’s holiest day. At least Wesley's singers were out where they should be.

The words came before the music
Some church music composers come up with a melody first and then later try to fit the words into it. Not so in this anthem. Wesley’s melody follows the natural rhythms of the text, proving that he wrote the music parts to support the scripture verses. One of the clearest examples is his consistent setting of  the word “fervently” in the woman's solo voice. The emphasis of the melody and rhythm follows the natural cadence and stress of the word as spoken in natural English. (Watch the clip beginning at 3:45.)

The conclusion comes at the beginning
Wesley’s anthem does not follow the typical flow of music in the Romantic period. This piece does not build up to a big revelatory climax at the end. Instead, the most important material comes at the beginning.  In many ways, the climax happens right away, when the melody reaches a G-natural (at 1:10 in the clip). The (nearly) acapella voices provide the most stirring musical moment in the piece, which happens at the words "resurrection of Jesus Christ." This is also how the letter of 1 Peter is structured. It does not work up to a big point at the end. Rather, the “end” (in the sense of purpose) comes first, and the practical parts -- holy living, persevering without fear, loving one another -- are all based on that. Knowing the end doesn’t mean that life is finished. There is still much to develop -- sojourns in the wilderness and detours through the minor key -- but this life and its hardships are supported by the pillars of Jesus’ resurrection and the enduring word of God.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Let Your Life Speak

Many important things happened to me at Asbury University. That's where I got my Bachelor's degree in Christian Mission (way back in 1996). It was also there that I met my wife. Asbury provided what turned out to be pretty much the quintessential Christian college experience: I learned how to think, write, pray, and play well with others. And it was there that I worked out a calling to be a missionary. Phil Thornton's classes in Mission, a summer internship in the Solomon Islands, numerous practice hours in the Fine Arts building, excellent Bible instructors, and good friends who prayed with me -- all these experiences equipped me for a career as a missionary.

Within five years of graduation I was in the Philippines with my wife and children serving as a missionary ethnomusicologist. I had joined the near-countless number of overseas missionaries produced by Asbury University.

But that wasn't the end of working out my calling at that small Christian school in Wilmore, Kentucky. During a furlough about 6 years into my career, I ended up back on campus. Clair Budd, one of my Christian Ministries professors, had invited me to sit in on one of his classes. The students were working through a book by Parker Palmer called Let Your Life Speak. Clair gave me a copy to keep. Maybe it was the pink cover, but something led me to devour the book right away. And once again, Asbury re-entered into the story of my calling.

Something shook me in this little book. It had to do with listening to God's voice around the contours of the personality and gifts that God had built into me. It is easy to get the sense that everything about faith has to be difficult. Find it a struggle to pray, read the Bible, or get to church on time? Just try harder. Deciding between a career in investment banking or running a homeless shelter? God must certainly be calling you to the option that requires the most sacrifice. Don't get me wrong, Christ does ask us to do hard things. Anyone who reads Philippians chapter 2 has to take seriously the call to sacrifice and laying down one's own desires.

But the call to sacrifice is not the only voice that God speaks with. Our own lives -- that is, our desires and skills and talents -- can say a lot about what we are called to do. Eugene Peterson writes about a butcher who follows the contours of the animal's tissues; it is a chore to carve up steaks and cuts, but a good butcher works with rather than against the grain. (See his book The Contemplative Pastor.) So too are we called to "go with the grain" of how God created us. There are things we were made to do. And there are things we have no business doing. Palmer writes about an invitation he received to be a university President. He seriously considered taking the job, until he realized that the only part of it that he really wanted was to see his name on the university letterhead. When he honestly assessed his own skills, Palmer admitted that he had no business being the president of anything.

Clair Budd handed me this book at a point in my life when I sensed that something needed to change. Living out my calling was becoming more difficult that it should have been. I was away from my family too often. It was clear that a change was needed. In the words of an obscure Bruce Hornsby song: "Sometimes it's the right thing to cut the cord, you've been holding on hard but your hands get sore." (See the clip of Swan Song at the bottom. That lyric comes up around 2:30.)

So this great little book got me thinking about what things God had created me for. What parts of my life did I enjoy? Well, I very much liked to preach when I had the chance. I loved to teach about the scriptures. Leading Bible study discussions gave me a special thrill. Planning meaningful worship services was more fun than most other things I was doing. So over the next months and years I came to realize that God was calling me to be a pastor. Not that the previous decade had been a waste of time. But the next chapter of life would involve doing some things that I wasn't ready for in the 1990s -- things like studying Biblical Greek, going to seminary, and standing before a denominational board to explain my calling.

The last 16 months have confirmed that calling in every way. I love being a pastor. I believe that the UMC has more things going for it than against it. I am also thoroughly enjoying going back to school at Duke Divinity School. I'm looking forward to listening to how my life will speak in the years to come.


Saturday, October 4, 2014

Praying for the Nation


This is from a newspaper article that I wrote for the Henderson Daily Dispatch on November 8, 2014.

Like many people my age, I have vivid memories of the events from the morning of September 11, 2001. Just ten days after those horrific attacks I got on a plane with my wife and children and moved to the Philippines. For the next 12 years we served there as missionaries, only returning to the US for short visits over the years. We kept up with the news and knew about things happening back here in our home country, but it wasn't the same as living here.

Last year we moved to North Carolina so that I could serve as the pastor at Harris Chapel and Salem United Methodist Churches. Soon after we arrived I began realize how much has changed in the USA during the past twelve years. I especially noticed how many people today feel that our country is going in the wrong direction. There seems to be a sense that America's best days are in the past. 

Are you also anxious about the state of the nation? Does the economic news concern you? Maybe you feel like the US is too mixed up with events in the Middle East? If so, let that worry and concern remind you to pray and place things in God's hands. Allow me to suggest some strategies for praying for this country:

1. Ask that all of this nation's citizens might see the truth. Even if you have excellent vision, there are many parts of life that you cannot see. There are powers and authorities at work in this world that most humans rarely notice. The problems that we see are just the tip of the iceberg, built on deeper issues that hide below the surface of what we can see. 

2. Pray that we will have the courage to turn away from sin. It is easy to blame our problems on poor economic policy or a lack of (or too much) regulation. Yes, good policy and laws are important. But as people of faith we recognize that sin is the root of our problems. Only by consciously repenting and turning away from our sins can we hope to turn a nation from wrong to right.

3. Pray that people of faith will pledge allegiance to Christ. God calls us to give our highest loyalty to Jesus. If we get too upset about the state of our country, maybe we are expecting too much from our government leaders. No national government can replace God's rule over our lives. Only Christ can save us from the sin and evil.

Sometimes it is hard to find the right words to pray. I find that it helps to use the prayers that others have written in the past. Here is a prayer for the nation from the United Methodist Hymnal. You may find it helpful to use in your own prayer times.
O God, keep our whole country under your protection. Wipe out sin from this land; lift it up from the depth of sorrow, O Lord, our shining light. Save us from deep grief and misfortune, Lord of all nations. Bless us with your wisdom, so that the poor may not be oppressed and the rich may not be oppressors. Make this a nation having no ruler except God, a nation having no authority but that of Christ. Amen.





Saturday, September 20, 2014

Slow Pray the News

"We should pray with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other." I have heard this quote many times but was never sure who originally said it. Billy Graham said something like this regarding his preaching. Some have attributed the quote to theologian Karl Barth. If it truly came from Barth, it was only a part of a bigger message he was trying to get across. Barth would not advocate that we alternate between the Bible and the newspaper, weighing them both to decide which is most important. Instead, he would have us read the Bible first, trying to understand today's events in light of God's bigger plan in history.

photo from catholicdialogue.com
Praying through the newspaper can be a great spiritual exercise. But with all the bad news, we often run out of words to lift up as intercessions. "Lord, make this better" gets old after a while. This is another way that the Church of England has helped us all by creating the Book of Common Prayer. Its forms of prayer are all written through the perspective of scripture, and they give us words to pray when we have run out of our own.

For instance, the rite for Evening Prayer lists these prayers (known as suffrages) on pages 121-122:


V.    Show us your mercy, O Lord; 
R.    And grant us your salvation. 
V.    Clothe your ministers with righteousness; 
R.    Let your people sing with joy. 
V.    Give peace, O Lord, in all the world; 
R.    For only in you can we live in safety.

V.    Lord, keep this nation under your care; 
R.    And guide us in the way of justice and truth. 
V.    Let your way be known upon earth; 
R.    Your saving health among all nations. 
V.    Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; 
R.    Nor the hope of the poor be taken away. 
V.    Create in us clean hearts, O God; 
R.    And sustain us by your Holy Spirit.


The prayers in the BCP are meant to be read together as a congregation, but they work great in your personal prayer life too. Pray for "saving health among the nations" for Liberia and Sierra Leone. Pray that the "hope of the poor" not be taken away in the midst of changes to MedicAid. "Give peace, O Lord, in all the world" is especially appropriate for Syria and Iraq these days.

Connecting the words of these tried-and-true prayers to real-life events takes some time, causing us to slow down and think about what's really going on around us. Rather than offering up a quick prayer without much thought, laying the newspaper beside the BCP helps us see the world's events in a scriptural way.

Just in case you wondered where the title for this blog post came from, and you have not seen this clip yet...



Saturday, September 13, 2014

The Ten Commandments

image from textweek.com
Many people don't know that the 10 Commandments are numbered differently by various faith communities. Growing up as a Protestant, I learned that the first commandment is, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). The second is in the next verse: "You shall not make for yourself an idol..." Then the numbering goes on for commandments 3 through 10, ending with "You shall not covet..." (Exodus 20:17). However, Roman Catholics and Lutherans use a different numbering scheme. Their first commandment is longer, wrapping up both of the Protestant commandments 1 and 2. Then the Catholic/Lutheran numbering continues on, one number different from the Protestant system, until Exodus 20:17. At that point they split that final verse into two -- making up a ninth and a tenth commandment that are both about coveting. And these are not the only two numbering schemes; there are others for Jewish traditions. Confused? This link will take you to a chart that shows how the verses break down according to 7 different faith traditions.

The 10 Commandments can play a meaningful role in your congregation's worship. My prayer for the worldwide church is that responsive readings will make a comeback. They are a great way for the laity to participate in the service. It strikes me as strange that many congregations aren't using responses in an age when it is super-easy to project words on a screen. In any case, here is a responsive reading/prayer using the Ten Commandments ( from The Book of Common Prayer page 350). Give it a try in your church some Sunday.


Hear the commandments of God to his people:
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage.
You shall have no other gods but me.
Amen. Lord have mercy.

You shall not make for yourself any idol.
Amen. Lord have mercy.

You shall not invoke with malice the Name of the Lord your God. 
Amen. Lord have mercy.

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Amen. Lord have mercy.

Honor your father and your mother.
Amen. Lord have mercy.

You shall not commit murder.
Amen. Lord have mercy.

You shall not commit adultery.
Amen. Lord have mercy.

You shall not steal.
Amen. Lord have mercy.

You shall not be a false witness.
Amen. Lord have mercy.

You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. 
Amen. Lord have mercy.



Saturday, September 6, 2014

What is Ethnomusicology?

My wife recently asked me to teach a short lesson about ethnomusicology to her high school Music Appreciation class. Here is what I presented.

Playing the gong while dancing in Kalinga, Philippines
Definition
The word "ethnomusicology" is harder to say that it is to understand. You probably already know what the three main parts mean when you break down the word:
  • ethno means "nation" or "peoples" or "cultures". You know it from the word ethnic. 
  • music is, well, music. See more about that below.
  • -ology means the "study of"


Taking those three ideas, the shortest (and best) definition of ethnomusicology is:

 "The study of people making music."

What do we study? : Music
Everyone knows what music is, until they try to write a definition. In general music is "humanly organized sound." But one person's music may be another person's noise. How people think about music, and the roles that it plays in their lives is what ethnomusicologists study. We cannot do that by watching clips online. Ethnomusicology is about going to places where we can learn about music from the people who make it.

Where do we go to study? : Everywhere
You don't have to go across the globe to study music. People right where you live are making, composing, and dancing to music. You can be an ethnomusicologist anywhere, even in your own hometown. You don't have to go to "exotic" places (although that can be fun). An ethnomusicologist is not defined by where they go. Instead it is all about how they approach the study of music.


How do we study? : Methodology
Most often an ethnomusicologist will use the study method known as ethnography. That's a process of studying about a culture for an insider's perspective. It means that an ethnomusicologist participates in the musical life of the people being studied.

Sometimes this approach is called Participant Observation. It means being with people and learning about their music-making in context. (See the picture above of me learning to play the gong while dancing with the group.) It involves watching performances. Like an anthropologist, the ethnomusicologist may conduct interviews with people to learn how they approach their music. He or she might even sign up for music lessons from an expert who knows the music and culture. Ethnomusicology studies almost always include some kind of recording. (That's me on the left, doing one of my first field recordings. I still had a lot to learn back then. For one thing, I should have been much closer to the singers. See the clip below for an example of a video recording.)

Sometimes an ethnomusicologist will want to study how people made music in the past. In that case, when there is no one left to teach them about that style of music, they have to rely instead on historical records. Rather than going to the "field", some of these ethnomusicologists work out of libraries and museums.

A dancing competition in Kalinga, Philippines during a village celebration


Who pays us to study? : Careers
Most ethnomusicologists make their living as academics. They earn a doctorate in ethnomusicology (or a related field) and spend their lives doing research and teaching at a university.

An ethnomusicologist can also work as an archivist. That's someone who preserves and shares recordings of music and dance from around the world. This is a valuable service, sometimes funded by the government or a philanthropic organization.

Community Development is another area where ethnomusicologists can use their training. Many organizations around the world are interested in helping people live in more sustainable and healthy ways. Music is an important part of life that needs to be considered when making changes to a culture. Since music is important in the worship of most religions, some churches and other religious organizations will seek the help of ethnomusicologists to study a society's music and culture.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Reworking the Traditional

This story about reviving Filipino tribal tattooing practices caught my eye recently:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27539510. That's partly because we used to work in Kalinga, where some of the older men and women still have these tattoos. (See the photo below of the tats on our departed friend, Gayumma. She is holding Maddie here way back in 2003.)
The tedious and painful tattooing process has been (understandably) fading out. But some young Filipino people featured in the BBC article are trying to revive the artform. Their new artwork has been adapted to make the images less regional and more pan-Filipino, and the process has been modified to make it a bit more bearable for the recipient.

In my years as an ethnodoxologist in the Philippines, I saw churches in tribal areas making similar modifications to their traditional music. Young people did not want to lose the songs and dances that their ancestors knew. But those forms were not necessarily easy to learn or sing in a congregation. Here is a sample of a traditional Kalinga song. Try teaching this to your congregation for next Sunday:



Revitalizing traditional music was an issue in many song-writing workshops that we facilitated for tribal groups. In every workshop the participants were able to compose new songs to use in church, but they often sounded a lot like standard praise-and-worship songs. Nothing wrong with that, but they didn't sound especially unique. Songs of those songs could have come from anywhere. However, on certain occasions there would be certain person in the group who had a special skill for weaving traditional sound into new songs. These songs could be sung and learned by a group, but their sounds were still rooted in the local traditions. Several years back I wrote a short article in the book All the World is Singing about a young Manobo man who had this gift. He called his newly-composed songs "semi-tribal" because they combined some melodic fragments from traditional chants and melded them into a standard verse-chorus structure.

Here is a short sample of the song that he came up with, which is mentioned in the article:

A few years later, I worked with another Manobo group that came up with this song. Again, it has elements of a traditional chant-like melody, backed up by a standard guitar-chord structure:




Today I pastor in an area of North Carolina where roots music is still performed. There are a couple of places within driving distance that have Saturday night performances that are rich with the stringed instruments like the banjo, fiddle, bass, and guitar. I would really like to work with some musicians who could work those traditional sounds into some new songs to use for Sunday morning. Wouldn't it be great to sing the responses to The Great Thanksgiving, backed up by a traditional string band?






Saturday, August 16, 2014

Gestures for Leading Worship: Orans

Praying the Great Thanksgiving with orans posture
Photo from revneal.org
A worship leader can add meaning to a service in many ways. We often focus on the meaning of the words that we speak, especially how relevant and/or truthful they are. But the gestures and postures of a leader can be just as meaningful.

The orans posture is an ancient stance for praying. Some have suggested that perhaps Jesus prayed this way in the temple and synagogue. ('Orans' is based on the Latin word for prayer.) It is depicted in ancient art and sculpture much the same way it is practiced now: Hands extended upwards with head upraised.

Many church traditions make use of the orans gesture. The Roman Catholic Church has specific rules for when it should be used in the liturgy of the mass, and by whom. In the United Methodist Church the pastor will use it when pronouncing the Great Thanksgiving over the Communion elements. (See photo on the right.) Even in free/charismatic/Pentecostal churches the orans can signify one's openness to God's blessings and grace. (See photo below.) A modified version of orans can be helpful to ask the congregation to sit or stand, especially when the worship leader doesn't want to speak and interrupt a meaningful moment of silence. (I use it after the offertory so the congregation knows when to stand and sing the Doxology.)

I continually look for ways to guide the flow of a worship service that cut down on the number of words spoken from the front. Maybe I could modify that often-used phrase: "Lead worship, and if necessary, use words."

A worship leader from Hillsong using the orans

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Revised and Updated Song-Writing Workshop Manual

Several years ago I compiled resources about leading worships into a manual: "Facilitating Community Song-Writing Workshops." It contained advice from some of my mentors about running music workshops, to which I added some of my own on-the-ground experiences from doing so in the Philippines. A friend of mine suggested that I update the manual for a broader readership (that is, not just about Philippine music) and re-do the section on technology. So I took his advice and have updated the manual, revising it for the first time in about 7 years.

The revised manual can be downloaded here. I hope you find it helpful. Feel free to write me with corrections and suggestions.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

40 Thoughts upon Turning 40 (part 2)

Here are the final 20 thoughts about life on the occasion of my 40th Birthday. See Part 1 with the first 20 here. (Note: I couldn't figure out how to get Blogger to start the numbering at 21.)
  1. Cable TV is a rip-off. I don't need or want all those channels all the time. There is no technical reason why I shouldn't be able to buy programs one-at-a-time. I don't want to pay for ESPN every day. But I would pay $10 (or more) to watch Syracuse and Duke play basketball in February. Until you let me do that, I will get by with my antenna and Netflix (and the Slingbox at my dad's house).
  2. Mowing your lawn is the single best thing you can do for it. I have gone through periods of my life when I treated my lawn with all kinds of things: organic stuff, chemicals, you name it. But the yard never looks as good as the day after you mow it. So just mow it, and forget the treatments.
  3. It took airlines way too long to let us use devices on planes. Like my mp3 player was ever going to bring down a 747. 
  4. Get a library card. Your town or county gives these away for free (if you live in the US). You can provide yourself the equivalent of a university education. And you can check out audio books to listen to as you drive. 
  5. When in doubt about what to do next, start by showing up. Woody Allen (I think) said that 80% of success is just showing up. Hiding from a problem won't make it go away. 
  6. When presented with a new idea, refrain from immediately sharing why it won't work. This is just good manners. Of course there are 8 reasons why your sister shouldn't lease a BMW. But she doesn't want to hear those from you. Even if she is looking for a reason to be talked out of it, start with at least one positive point.
  7. You get out of a marriage what you put into it. This statement also applies to any relationship, your job, church, etc....
  8. Say you are sorry. Apologies go a long way toward fixing most problems. (Note: This isn't always a good idea if you've just been in a car accident.)
  9. Telling lies is too much work. Just don't lie. It makes life so much easier to tell the truth. Then you don't have to keep track of who you told what to. See yesterday's point about baggage.
  10. Change your engine oil regularly, but not as often as the dealership tells you to. From the Car Talk guys: Changing your oil every 5000 miles is just fine for modern engines. 
  11. Don't stay anywhere longer than is necessary. This is a vow that John Wesley required of Methodist preachers. It's just great advice for everyone.
  12. Break up big jobs into several achievable tasks. You won't write the great American novel today. But you probably can write three good sentences before lunchtime. This applies to learning an instrument or a foreign language: a little bit every day does wonders.
  13. Take control of jet lag before it takes control of you. I used to travel across time zones fairly frequently. My experience has been than jet lag is 90% mental. If you expect to arrive at your destination tired and beat up then that's how it will play out. But if you have a plan to stay awake until bedtime at your destination, then you can get in sync with your new time quickly. I found it best to have meetings and events happening right away, keeping me busy and awake until nightfall. Then before you fall asleep at bedtime, set an alarm for midnight. That's when you wake up and take two Benadryl to help you sleep for another 6 hours. Get up at 6:00am and start the day with the rest of the world. Better yet, go for a walk as the sun comes up.
  14. Have a travel kit ready to go at all times. Packing for a trip is a major drag. Looking for a bottle of shampoo or a razor or a tube of hair gel will make you crazy and waste half your day. Keep all that stuff in its own travel kit that you only use for trips. It will cut your packing time down by 60%. It will also come in very handy in emergencies like unexpected hospital stays.
  15. Know how much money you are spending and where it is going. It took me way too long to figure out a way to track my family's spending. For years I lived with anxiety, not knowing if we would be able to afford our lifestyle. A simple spreadsheet fixed that for us. 
  16. Church is where you take Communion. I have belonged to organizations that made me question if I really needed to attend church on Sundays. At Asbury College we were required to attend chapel three times a week. The mission organization I belonged to also provided time for frequent prayer and Bible study. So why go to the hassle of joining a church if one can worship with colleagues or classmates? One word: sacraments. Your college or office chapel services (probably) don't baptize people or celebrate Communion. That's enough reason to make sure you are in a real congregation. 
  17. Nation-states should not be the basis for picking teams for sporting events. Every World Cup and Olympics reminds me how much I dislike rooting for a team (or individual athlete) based on what passport they carry. It just feels wrong. It also creeps me out that FIFA and the International Olympic Committee are two of the world's worst-run organizations.
  18. Professional men tennis players don't go to the net enough. I miss serve and volley play. Why does everyone these days stay at the baseline?
  19. Jimmy Fallon needs to bring back guest hosts on the Tonight Show. I love Jimmy Fallon, but he still has a way to go before surpassing the master, Johnny Carson. One thing that Johnny did, which Jimmy needs to re-introduce: guest hosts. It builds up another generation of comedians, and it gives the current host a break. I would rather watch Will Ferrell or Owen Wilson be a guest host than a re-run of Jimmy.
  20. Confession: I hated Moby Dick. I just didn't get it. The narrative is broken up at multiple points for no particular reason. Is the whale a metaphor for something? If so, what exactly? Other "great" books I dislike, but for other reasons: Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

40 Thoughts for Turning 40 (part 1)

To mark my 40th birthday, I have compiled this mostly random list of 40 thoughts about life. Part 1, with the first 20 ideas, comes today. Stay tuned for the final 20 tomorrow.
  1. Walking is the single best thing you can do for your health. It's just a fact. No need for fancy sports equipment or private sessions at the gym. Just get outside and take a walk. That's it. No excuses.
  2. Children are a blessing (part 1). When Sarah and I were new parents we were scared to death about messing up our kids. When should we feed them? What should we feed them? When should they go to bed and awake up? Our own sleep deprivation of those early months made the paranoia even worse. Then we heard someone say that the main goal in parenting should be to raise children who are a blessing to others. Not geniuses. Not Olympic champions. Blessings. For some reason that advice put us at ease and brought back a level of sanity to our lives. 
  3. Children are a blessing (part 2). There are too few opportunities in life for generations to mix. It's proven that elderly folks do better when kids are around. Ideally, day care centers and preschools should visit nursing homes (or locate themselves on the same property). The church is one last place in society where the generations can meet. Make sure your church is kid-friendly, and by all means encourage parents to bring their kids into the services. 
  4. Exercise in the morning. If you think that you will hit the gym or the pavement after work, think again. 90% of the time you won't. Get it done first thing in the day, or it won't happen.
  5. Accomplish something first thing in the day. This is related to the last point. Knocking out a small-ish task first thing in the morning can give you such a rush. Get something crossed off the list before answering email or reading your Twitter feed. It puts you in charge of the day, not the other way around.
  6. Keep your inbox at zero. There are only a few things that you should do with an email message: delete it without reading it, read it (quickly) and delete it, forward it to someone else, file it for future reference, or respond. If the response will take a while or requires you to gather more info first, then hit reply and save it in Drafts. Or pick up the phone and call the person instead. Emails are not for pondering over for days and weeks.
  7. Password managers are awesome. "Internet security" is an oxymoron. The fact that every website requires you to create a username and password makes it worse, not better. But I found that LastPass really works. I think I'm in love with it. I'm (almost) ready to delete the very conspicuous list of usernames and passwords that I keep on my hard drive.
  8. Facebook has jumped the shark. Sorry, Mr. Zuckerburg. Each day I find it less rewarding to go to your site. Maybe it's because I've now re-connected with all the long-lost friends that I care to. But mostly what I see in my newsfeed are links to videos and recycled materials from elsewhere on the internet. I don't want to know what 18th-century poet or NHL team I am like. Boring.
  9. Most things worth doing aren't things you want to do (at first). If we only did the things we felt like doing, then we would never get off the couch. I realize you don't want to go to that meeting, or get up and attend church. (And of course you don't want to go to work every morning.) But you will be glad you did. 
  10. Any empty stomach makes me think of God. Sadly, I can go for a long time without thinking about God. I've found that fasting from food prevents this from happening. When I skip a meal for spiritual purposes, the hunger pangs always remind me to pray. Want more God in your life? Fast from a meal now and then.
  11. It's better to pray often than long. I used to try to be like the spiritual superstars of old and pray for hours on end. In fact, I wouldn't even pray unless I had at least 30 minutes to do so. Then I realized that I wasn't praying very much. So I gave myself a break and started praying shorter prayers. Now I pray more than I used to, all during the day.
  12. It is hard to beat an S&P 500 index fund. If you have your money in any other investment, you aren't getting the return you deserve. That's because you are probably paying someone else too much to manage it. (If you are invested in gold, then you are betting on society as we know it to collapse. In which case your gold won't do you any good anyway. Someone with weapons will come and take it from you.)
  13. Singing with others in church brings me closer to God. I hate (hate!) worshipping in an environment where it makes no difference whether I sing or not. The accompaniment shouldn't drown out the congregation's voice. When I can hear other people singing, it reminds me what the church is--a choir of imperfect but (usually) sincere people trying to offer their best to God. 
  14. For every person that really likes me, there is another who really doesn't. When I was in the 10th Grade, I attended a leadership seminar for young people. One speaker taught that we need to get over the desire to have people like us. He said that 25% of the people we meet don't like us. Another 25% really do. The other 50% are still making up their minds. He said that's true of every person, and there is not much any of us can do about it.
  15. Myers-Briggs has never made sense to me. Not much to say here, just that I don't get it. I've never been able to explain what all those letters mean. Nor can I ever remember what letters have been assigned to me. Definitely haven't figured out what difference it makes to how I'm supposed to treat people.
  16. Spend time with people who are better than you. Your social environment is so much more important that you think it is. If you want to be thin, hang out with skinny people. If you want to be sharp, intentionally look for people who are smarter than you. It works the other way, too: Want to spend more money than you can afford to? Make friends with someone who maxes out their credit cards. 
  17. Baggage stays with you. As a pastor, I firmly believe in forgiveness and new starts. However, there are things we do in our younger years that stay with us. Some relationships will never recover from certain kinds of neglect. Some brain cells will not grow back. The older you get, the more baggage you accumulate. Better to have less baggage, especially when your health starts to fail. (By the way, this is my paraphrase of the entire book of Proverbs.)
  18. I'm still unconvinced that a smart phone is a worthwhile investment. I just can't justify paying the phone carrier over $100 a month. Instead I use a dumb phone on a prepaid account, and I have a Kindle to use when I have wifi coverage. 
  19. Playing doubles (in tennis) is less challenging than singles, but it's better than sitting at home. There are few things in life that I enjoy more than squaring off against someone on the tennis court, one-on-one. (Especially against someone who is better than me. See point #16.) Lately I've been playing a lot of doubles, because that's what we do here in my town. It may not be as awesome as singles, but it's still pretty great. My tennis skills are improving, and I'm making new friends. If I restricted my tennis-playing to only singles, I would get to play a whole lot less. 
  20. You have to be terrible at some things for a while before you can be good at them. Listen to Ira Glass say it in his own words: http://vimeo.com/24715531.

A Manual for Personal Piety: The Book of Hours

Book of Hours manuscript kept at Harvard University People have always encountered God outside outside of the times and spaces designat...