Christmas 2020: "And They All Missed It"

Think back over the last 365 days, since last Christmas.  Think of all the things that have happened: a global pandemic, civic unrest, a presidential election, etc.

How do you know you were paying attention to what really mattered?

It’s easy to be distracted by what the world considers important: politics and war and wealth and the like.

But, what if God is up to something else entirely?  What if God is at work in other ways? What if you and I on our own are completely unable to tell what’s truly important from what is just distraction?

 What if you’ve been distracted this entire year and missed what’s really been happening?

 After all, when the first Christmas came it happened in a surprising and unexpected way.

 And they all missed it.

Sermon References:

•  Painting: “The Census at Bethlehem,” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

•  Good 48 minutes BBC documentary on the painting: “Private Life of a Masterpiece: Census at Bethlehem”

•  The Little Ice Age

•  Gallup survey: “Americans' Mental Health Ratings Sink to New Low” 

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Think back over the last 365 days, since last Christmas. Think of all the things that have happened: a global pandemic, civic unrest, a presidential election, etc. How do you know you were paying attention to what really mattered? It’s easy to be distracted by what the world considers important: politics and war and wealth and the like. But, what if God is up to something else entirely? What if God is at work in other ways? What if you and I on our own are completely unable to tell what’s truly important from what is just distraction? What if you’ve been distracted this entire year and missed what’s really been happening? After all, when the first Christmas came it happened in a surprising and unexpected way. And they all missed it. Preacher: Andrew Forrest Scripture: Luke 2:1-20 References: Painting: “The Census at Bethlehem,” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Census_at_Bethlehem Good 48 minutes BBC documentary on the painting: “Private Life of a Masterpiece: Census at Bethlehem” < http://www.infocobuild.com/books-and-films/art/PrivateLifeMasterpiece/episode-24.html> The Little Ice Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age Gallup survey: “Americans' Mental Health Ratings Sink to New Low” https://news.gallup.com/poll/327311/americans-mental-health-ratings-sink-new-low.aspx

Making Peace with the Pandemic

What have you had to let go of this year because of the pandemic?

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I can’t put into words what the picture above means to me.

It is from Munger’s Christmas Commitment Sunday 2019.

On Christmas Commitment Sunday every year, we ask households to come forward, kneel, pray, and say:

“Lord, thank you for how you have provided for us in the year that’s past”

and

“Lord, please bless the work of our hands in the year to come.”

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IF THERE IS A MORE MOVING SIGHT IN MINISTRY THAN SEEING WHOLE FAMILIES ON THEIR KNEES IN GRATITUDE BEFORE GOD, I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS.

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Looking at that photo again—all those families crowded into our church—makes me want to cry:

Because it can’t happen like that this year.

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Here are some more pics that make me realize how much we’re missing out on this year. Do you see the mariachis by the red tent? Mariachis make me happy. Also, can you see the one with me praying with my family? Man how I love being able to do that every year—it’s such a powerful moment for us: “Lord, thank you thank you thank you.”

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None of the above will happen like that this year, which I think is a major spiritual setback for our community, gripped as it is so tightly by consumerism and entitlement.

But there’s nothing we can do, is there?

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Making Peace with the Pandemic

It seems almost obscene to modern wealthy Americans to state the obvious:

Sooner or later in life, you come up against something you cannot ultimately change or control.

In every individual life this is true, but this pandemic is the first such experience in generations that is true for all of us at the same time.

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So, things are different this year and there’s nothing I can do about it.

And so I’m going to make peace with the pandemic.

Things are different this Christmas than I want them to be, but that doesn’t mean that we should stop doing what we believe matters. It just has to look different.

And I’m okay with that. Really.

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Munger Christmas Season 2020

So, here is how things will look at Munger this Christmas.

Church is outdoors every Sunday, 9 and 11, rain or shine. (In inclement weather, services will be 30 minutes.) Worried about the weather? As it says in 2 Hezekiah, “just suck it up.”

Christmas Eve is outdoors, rain or shine!

• 3:30 (kids);

• 4:30, 5:30, & 11:30 PM—all 30 minute candlelight services.

• We will be offering indoor Christmas Travelers services at 6 PM on 12/21 and 12/22 so we can record a full service to put online. Reservations required—info to come.

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Christmas Commitment Sunday 2020 (12/13)

The spiritual reality behind Christmas Commitment Sunday—namely that gratitude is the only appropriate response to all our blessings—is too important to forgo this year, though things have to look different.

So, as in years past, I want to challenge our church to thank God for his provision in 2020 and ask for his blessing in 2021—to Finish Strong and Start Well.

But this year, things will look different. There will not be regular services on Sunday, 12/13.

Instead, I will lead several brief communion services in the parking lot and the sanctuary will be open from 7:30 AM-12:30 PM for folks to pray inside and drop off their gifts.

Here’s our new plan for Sunday, December 13:
• Sanctuary open 7:30 AM-12:30 PM.

• Only one household permitted in the building at a time.

• 15 minute communion services in parking lot at 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 noon.

We want to give folks the opportunity to pray in the sanctuary as they make their Christmas Commitment. That time kneeling at the rail is important for many of us. If you choose to do so, you will enter through the main front doors and have the whole building to yourself for a few minutes, before leaving through the coffee bar doors. There will be no one else in the entire building while your household is inside.

Of course, if you want to drop off a gift outside, you can certainly do that as well.

(As always, you can make your Christmas gift and set up your giving at www.mungerplace.org/give.)

And, I’m pre-recording a full sermon that will be online that morning as well, so be sure to catch it with your family.

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So, I’ve made my peace with the pandemic. I’m okay with things being different.

This year, a lot about the Christmas season will be different, but Christmas itself isn’t cancelled.

The light still shines in darkness.

And I’m more than okay with that.

What about you?

Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving 2020 sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?

It seems crazy to be grateful and joyful when so many things aren’t the way we want them to be.

And yet:

It is because things aren’t perfect—not in spite of imperfection—that thanksgiving is so important.

Some thoughts (and pics!) from Thanksgiving 2020.

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When we stopped reading through Psalms in September, I started to read one psalm a day right over again. I set a little widget in my phone to remind me of what psalm I’m on—and last week on Thanksgiving Day I read Psalm 79, which is a bitter, desperate psalm. It begins like this:

Psalm 79

A Psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the heavens for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
mocked and derided by those around us.

The psalmist is writing from the time of exile, after Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BC and the Israelites were carried off into Babylonian captivity.

After lamenting all the horror all around him and crying out for help, the last verse of the psalm pivots, and it caught my attention:

13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

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In exile, after seeing his nation destroyed and his loved ones killed, the psalmist still stubbornly refuses to give up giving thanks.

I think there’s a lesson there for us, as 2020 comes to a close.

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One of our problems is that we are so comfortable that we have forgotten that most people, most of the time, haven’t been.

Most people throughout history—and most people in the world today—deal with constant discomforts. Unfortunately, we have become deluded into thinking that life should be free from discomfort, and so when things become difficult—as they inevitably do—we are unable to have proper perspective. Because there are things in our lives and in this world that are far from perfect, we have a hard time with the idea that we should nevertheless give thanks. We focus on what’s wrong rather than what’s right—we look at what we lack rather than what we have.

This tendency to focus on what’s wrong is why so many of us are so miserable—despite being wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of most people who have ever lived, despite never having to worry about food, shelter, clothing, or water, so many of us are unhappy for so much of the time.

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One of the reasons we resist thanksgiving is that we (incorrectly) believe that giving thanks will make us complacent in the face of obvious wrongs in the world. On the contrary, however, thanksgiving doesn’t make us numb—it makes us grateful. And it is my experience that grateful people have greater strength to persevere when things get difficult. You want to make a difference in this world? You’ll need perseverance.

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Bluebird Ranch

So, we were committed to give thanks this year, and we had a great Thanksgiving 2020, in spite of some major things in our lives not being how we want them to be.

Or, better: we had a great Thanksgiving 2020 because some major things in our lives are not how we want them to be.

We always head down to Bluebird Ranch for Thanksgiving—the ranch Elaine’s uncle and aunt have outside of Utopia, TX, about 2 hours west of San Antonio.

Normally, we have a huge Friendsgiving when neighbors from all along the valley join us in the barn for a great Thanksgiving dinner. This year things were different for obvious reasons and Friendsgiving was cancelled. Even though it was just our family around the Thanksgiving table, it was a blessing nonetheless.

• I love seeing my kids run around outside from dawn to dusk;

• I love being somewhere my phone doesn’t work and there’s no television;

• I love seeing the night sky and hearing nothing.

Then, the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving we got our family Christmas tree back here in Dallas.

There’s just something about a Christmas tree that makes me feel hopeful. Despite all the ugliness in the world, there are still so many beautiful things that remain

So, this week I’ve been sitting in the dark by our lit Christmas tree every morning, praying and sitting still and thanking the Lord. I am so blessed.

May these next few weeks be a blessing to you and yours, too.

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One good thing about drought conditions—the big fish are easier to catch, especially if you have an angling assistant.

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I’ve become a fish-kisser, I guess.

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And yes, we threw this big papi right back in the water. Maybe next year we’ll catch him again.

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Texas immigrant + the Sam Houston of pastors.

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Local golf-cart chauffeur + your humble correspondent.

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Sunset.

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Moonrise.

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Back home. My early morning prayer chair on the right.

My 2020 Advent Reading Plan

This year we need Christmas more than ever. Here’s how to prepare to get the most out of the season.

2020 Advent Reading Plan

Advent is the 4 week season of preparation that precedes Christmas.  Christmas is an event of joy and feasting, but if we don’t learn why we’re celebrating, our celebrations can become superficial and materialistic.

To help us get the most out of the season, I’ve put together a simple scripture reading plan for Advent 2020.

Reading Plan Details

Readings are Monday-Friday, beginning Monday, 11/30 and ending Thursday, 12/24.

The Bible tells a unified story that leads to Jesus, and so many of the readings come from the Old Testament to help us understand the story of which Jesus is the fulfillment.

Each weekday’s reading is very brief. Of course, feel free to do your readings at any time, but I strongly encourage you to develop the habit of the First 15: spending the first 15 minutes of each day in silence, prayer, and scripture.

How to Sign Up for My Reading Plan

The reading plan is digital—I will send you each day’s reading and a brief thought on it every weekday morning at 4:00 AM.

(If you are already receiving my Bible posts—like the ones I wrote on Revelation, e.g., you don’t need to do anything—you’re already signed up.)

Sign up here to receive the Advent reading plan sent to you every morning.

If Today Were the Last Day of Your Life

If today were the last day of your life

you wouldn’t spend it fretting in anxiety about an election outcome over which you have no control;

you wouldn’t foment a sense of outrage at people who have the wrong facts, opinions, and ideas;

you wouldn’t frantically refresh your newsfeeds to see what’s changed in the last 4 minutes.

If today were the last day of your life

you’d savor every sip of your coffee;

you’d smile at the sight of every human face, considering it a great privilege just to be in that person’s presence;

and

you’d be grateful to God for every breath you had left.

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“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

— Jesus of Nazareth

Election Day 2020: 3 Truths

If you are a Christian, here are three truths to keep in mind this Election Day 2020.

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Being Right Is Less Important Than Loving the People Who Are Wrong

Politics matters. It’s because of politics that we have hot water at the tap, paved airport runways, and a court system. Politics is how we live together in peace. Civilization is not inevitable, and it is politics that makes it possible.

Politics is important, which means argument and persuasion and ideas are also important.

Good ideas will lead to human flourishing; bad ideas will lead to human misery. Ideas matter! It’s important that we have the right ideas.

BUT

As a Christian, I know that being right is less important than loving people who are wrong. Don’t give up your ideas, but also don’t let them tempt you into hatred, contempt, or condescension.

So, this election don’t be so consumed with having the right political ideas that you forget to love—i.e., to actively will the good—of the people who are wrong. Even the ones who are voting the wrong way!

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Sometimes Losing Is Winning

There is a tremendous temptation to give way to despair if your side or issue or candidate doesn’t win. Resist that temptation!

Life is inherently unpredictable; each of us knows countless examples of things that seemed like setbacks at the time only to later turn out for the best.

On Good Friday, it looked like Jesus had been defeated, but on Easter Sunday it was clear he had actually won—through losing!

If your candidate or issue or side loses this Election Day, why not ask the Lord to use the apparent defeat to set up a future victory?

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It’s Possible to be Happy Even In Difficult Circumstances

Don’t believe the lie that it’s not possible to be happy if your circumstances (political or otherwise) are imperfect.

Happiness comes from finding the goodness of God in your everyday circumstances right now.

Let’s try it.

Review: The Good Shepherd/Greyhound

In July, I read an article about the Tom Hanks movie Greyhound that mentioned that the movie is based on a 1955 novel by C.S. Forester called The Good Shepherd. In high school, I used to read C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels about the British navy during the Napoleonic wars, and when I saw the Kindle version of The Good Shepherd on sale for $0.99 [currently $2.99], I decided to give it a chance. I ended up reading the whole thing in less than 48 hours—the perfect summer reading novel. Below are my brief thoughts on both the novel and the movie.

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Book Review: The Good Shepherd

From the publisher’s description:

The mission of Commander George Krause of the United States Navy is to protect a convoy of thirty-seven merchant ships making their way across the icy North Atlantic from America to England. There, they will deliver desperately needed supplies, but only if they can make it through the wolfpack of German submarines that awaits and outnumbers them in the perilous seas. For forty eight hours, Krause will play a desperate cat and mouse game against the submarines, combating exhaustion, hunger, and thirst to protect fifty million dollars' worth of cargo and the lives of three thousand men. Acclaimed as one of the best novels of the year upon publication in 1955, The Good Shepherd is a riveting classic of WWII and naval warfare from one of the 20th century's masters of sea stories.

The novel is essentially a long interior monologue of the thoughts of Captain Krause—the author gets you to feel what it must have been like to command a warship in the frozen North Atlantic: the crushing responsibility, the loneliness of command, the physical exertions of fighting a (largely) unseen enemy.

Captain Krause was raised as the only child of a strictly devout but loving pastor father and a mother who died when he was very young, and The Good Shepherd is one of those few popular books that accurately captures what it’s like to truly believe that the Lord is your shepherd and constantly at your right hand. The captain’s interior monologue is peppered with (unspecified) scriptural quotations, and his piety is presented as straightforward and honest.

I thought the ending was too abrupt and unsatisfying, but otherwise I really enjoyed the book.

The Good Shepherd. Recommended. ★★★1/2

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Note on my Rating System for Books

I use a 5 star system in my ratings to signify the following:

★★★★★  life-changing and unforgettable
★★★★  excellent
★★★  worth reading
★★  read other things first
★   not recommended

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Movie Review: Greyhound

If I hadn’t read the book first, I would have liked the movie Greyhound more. Even though the title was changed away from its double-meaning and scriptural allusion, the movie actually preserves the novel’s positive portrayal of the captain’s faith—something very unusual in modern movies, as I don’t need to tell you.

Tom Hanks is characteristically great, and the action scenes are believable, but the movie isn’t able to give us his interior thoughts in the same way as the book, nor get us to feel the psychological terror of being hunted by a Nazi wolfpack, a thousand miles from land and a thousand miles above the frozen Atlantic seafloor.

Be that as it may, I still recommend the movie, particularly if it causes you to turn off cable news!

Movie: Greyhound. Recommended.

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Munger Is Opening! (ish)

Great news—we’re going to re-open church! (ish)

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Outdoor Services at Munger: 9 AM & 11 AM

Starting Sunday, 10/4, we’re moving to a new Sunday schedule at Munger: outdoor services in our parking lot at 9:00 and 11:00 AM.

This schedule will continue through October and perhaps through November as well.

(The Sunday 7:30 AM outdoor communion service that we started in July is superseded by these later services and is discontinued. I will miss it, though—I really enjoyed being there in the early mornings with the faithful few.)

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Service Details

• We’ll be in the main Munger parking lot under the blue sky.

• Bring your own camp chair or blanket.

• Services will be 60 minutes long. I’ll be preaching every week.

• Bathrooms will be open if you need them, but otherwise everything will take place outside.

• Dress casually.

• By now, you know the Covid rules, and they apply at church, too: keep at least 6 ft apart from others at all times and wear a mask when you cannot maintain that amount of distance. We’ll have masks available for anyone who needs one.

• The nice thing about being outside is that you can position yourself as far away from others as you need—take advantage of the space. 6ft apart is the minimum, right?

• Please respect the space of others and don’t be that guy or gal who puts a chair down right next to another family!

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What About Kids?

We are offering an Outdoor Children’s Area for ages 1-pre K at the 9 AM service only. You must register to reserve a spot; spots are limited. For more info and to REGISTER, click here.

Infants as well as elementary kids get to be in the service with the rest of us!

We’re starting small this week and will add more kids/childcare options in the weeks to come.

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What About Online?

We will post an entire service online at 9:30 AM Sunday as usual; the sermon is also available from 6 AM Sunday on via the Munger website and via podcast.

Please do NOT feel pressure to attend an outdoor service if it not wise for your household to do so for whatever reason; take advantage of the online service instead.

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When Will We Move Indoors?

We will continue outdoor services through October, and very likely through November. So, one possibility is to move indoors the first Sunday of Advent (11/29). But, as with everything else in 2020, who knows?

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What About Coffee?

At this point, it’s BYOC and BYOD (doughnuts).

Actually, it’s pretty much BYOeverything.

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Should I Attend If I’m Sick or Think I Could Be Sick?

If you don’t know the answer to that one by now, I have some magic beans to sell you for a great price.

Munger Old Testament Parking Lot Campout

This is going to be fun: we are going to do a campout in the Munger parking lot inspired by an Old Testament holiday. Seriously.

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Sukkot

The Festival of Tabernacles (also called the Festival of Booths) was “one of ancient Israel’s three giant annual feasts, celebrated in autumn” (from The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary). Every fall, the Israelites would build temporary shelters (or “booths” or “tabernacles”) and live in them for a week to remind them that when they came out of Egypt, they lived in tents on their way to the Promised Land. (See Leviticus 23:33-43.) In Hebrew, the word for a single shelter is a sukkah—plural sukkot—so the holiday was called Sukkot in Hebrew. (Pronounced “sue-COTE”.)

It’s such a cool holiday: every year you get to stay outdoors with your family in a shelter you build and be reminded that all of life is temporary, but that you are heading toward the Promised Land.

(Did you know that Jesus celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles? Read about it in John 7.)

Sukkot observance in modern-day Jerusalem.

Sukkot in Nehemiah

The Festival of Tabernacles is one of the holidays that Nehemiah and Ezra got the returned exiles to observe in 445 BC—you can read about it in Nehemiah 8:13-18.

The Munger Old Testament Campout

Since we’re reading through Nehemiah, and since 2020 has been such a downer, we though it would be fun to do a campout at Munger as a way to make the connection to what we’re reading. That’s the whole point: something fun.

When: 6 PM Friday, October 2 to 9 AM Saturday, October 3.

Where: The Munger main parking lot. Campsites are every other parking space around the perimeter of the lot. We’ll keep the center of the lot free so folks have lots of room to spread out and leave plenty of space for hanging out, fire pits, etc. Church bathrooms will be open, but the entire event will take place outside. Pray for good weather!

Cost: Free! And we’ll provide dinner Friday and breakfast Saturday.

What to Bring: Tent/sleeping bags/chairs, etc—basically whatever you want to bring to make yourself comfortable. Bring your own fire pit and wood, s’mores, games, etc. Because Sukkot was also about hospitality, bring stuff to share with another family. Who knows?

Who’s Invited: Anyone who wants to come! If you’re not a camper, so what? You’ll never have an easier camping experience. All ages.

What About Security? We’ll have a police officer on site all-night.

What’s the Program? I’ll teach a brief family-friendly Bible study lesson on Friday evening and lead a brief morning prayer time on Saturday morning. Otherwise, we hope folks just hangout and play games and have fun. Think of it as a giant tailgating experience. We’ll set up our Gaga pit, 9-Square-in-the-Air, and other outdoor games, but bring whatever you have that seems like fun.

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Register Here:

So we know how much food to order, please register here.

This is going to be fun, and we all need some more fun these days.

Are you in?

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P.S. Watch this movie beforehand

Jake Porter on our staff lent me the DVD of this movie several years ago. It’s an Israeli movie called Ushpizin (“the Guests”) that’s about what happens to one family celebrating Sukkot in modern Jerusalem.

Ushpizin (roughly translated to "holy guests"), is a revelatory and humorous look at the daily lives of ultra-Orthcdox Jews in modern-day Israel. Disarmingly...

The movie is available to rent for $2.99 on Amazon Prime. It’s probably a bit over the heads of little kids, but I’d recommend it for middle-school aged kids and up. I just watched it again and really like it.

Let Us Rise Up and Build

Friends, it’s time to rebuild.

If ever there were a time for rebuilding, it is now:

• It’s time to rebuild our lives;

• It’s time to rebuild our families;

• It’s time rebuild our communities;

• It’s time to rebuild our country.

This pandemic has been apocalyptic in the sense that it has been revealing, and what what’s been revealed about us has been ugly. There is a lot of work to do.

And yet, I can tell you that I personally have more energy for the season ahead than I can remember having before.

Let me tell you how I got here.

(And share some pictures from our summer.)

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43 Weeks Straight

Every spring, it’s the same: by the end of May I find myself getting weary and worn out from preaching.

The pattern I generally follow is to take summers off and then basically preach every Sunday during the school year. For example, I preached a sermon every week from August 18, 2019 through June 7, 2020—43 weeks straight!

The hardest thing about preaching—by far—is doing it every week. No matter how good last week’s sermon was, you start at zero at 6 PM every Sunday evening. After a while of preaching every week, you find that you have nothing to say worth hearing.

After 43 weeks straight, I needed a break.

This year, of course, we had the added stress of a worldwide pandemic this spring, so I really needed a break.

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Summer Break 2020

One of the many great things about Munger is how kind our folks are to me and my family. When we leave town for the summer, no one complains (at least to my face!); folks understand that if I am going to be in the pastoral ministry for the long haul, I need to pace myself. The most important thing I have to offer as a leader is my energy, and if I don’t steward my energy well, I have nothing to offer.

And so we pulled out of town on July 2 and returned back into town on August 13, exactly 6 weeks later. 5,500 miles! Now that’s a road trip, Clark.

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But Wherever You Go, There You Are

We were in beautiful places this summer—from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and we spent time with family.

And yet, wherever you go, there you are.

Just because I was in beautiful places with people who love me didn’t mean that I was immediately renewed and on fire for the task ahead—I was still carrying my worries and frustrations with me. About halfway through our summer break, I was feeling pretty discouraged and not looking forward to coming back to Dallas. In prior years, we’ve been excited to get back to church, but this year, there was no church to get back to, at least not in the normal sense, and so I was dreading coming back—like so many other people, I was sick and tired of the changes the pandemic has placed in my life.

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Lifeguard Stand Prayer

One of the places we went this summer was to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It was clear that I needed God to give me a sense of hope and direction for the future, and so I got up early every morning and walked down to the beach and sat in the lifeguard stand, read my daily psalm, and prayed.

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Let Us Rise Up and Build

After a couple of days of lifeguard stand prayer—”Lord, give me something!”—I felt really drawn toward the story of rebuilding in Ezra-Nehemiah. “That’s what we need to be about!” My wife had the idea of pulling a small group of folks together in the Munger sanctuary so I could have some friendly faces to preach to, to make things are normal as possible. It all seemed good.

I know it sounds like a Sunday school story, but it’s true: after a few weeks of committed prayer, I felt like I had a new fire for the future and a clear direction in which to walk.

“Let us rise up and build.”

(That’s from Nehemiah.)

I decided that in the immediate future, my task is to (re)build, and inspire others to do the same.

I couldn’t wait to get back home and get to work.

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“This Was Filmed In Front of a Live Studio Audience”

So, for the past 4 Thursdays, I’ve filmed my sermon in front of a small “studio audience” in our church sanctuary, and it has been so life-giving to me!

The story of Ezra-Nehemiah is fascinating and filled with wisdom, and I think we can learn a lot from the stories of those great men about what it will take to rebuild in our own time.

#1 “When You Can’t Figure Out What God is Up To” [August 23]

#2 “Even the Swiss Family Robinson Got This Right” [August 30]

#3 “What If You Don’t Want What You Think You Want?” [September 6]

“When God Needs To Change You Before He Changes Your Circumstances” [Coming 9/13]

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Will You Join Me?

Starting this Monday, September 14, at Munger we’ll be reading through the book of Nehemiah (more info to come—this past Wednesday we finished up reading through all 150 psalms! ); I’m continuing to preach through the book (last night’s sermon really got me fired up).

I hope you’ll join me in reading and I hope you’ll watch any sermons you’ve missed—we are releasing each week’s sermon every Sunday morning.

I don’t know when we’ll all be back in church together again, but I know this:

we’re one week closer.

Friends, It’s time to rebuild.

Who’s in?

P.S.

I took this picture at church 2 weeks ago as I was getting ready to lead evening prayer. Something about it just gives me hope.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Sunrise comes early to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in July, so I got up at 4:50 this morning to come to the highest point on the island—the Wright Brothers memorial—so I could see it. [Photo gallery below.]

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The thing about the sunrise is how quickly it passes. Which is exactly what Robert Frost was getting at in his little poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” I memorized it when I was in high school, and I still know it by heart.

Sunrise on the Outer Banks. ————— Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

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Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

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When the sun finally came over the horizon, I was struck at just how appropriate is the psalmist’s description of the sun as “the strong man”:

Psalm 19

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5  which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6  Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

I watched for about 45 minutes for the sun to show himself over the Atlantic Ocean, and when he did, there was definitely a strength to his appearance. Majestic.

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"In the Day of Trouble"

For Our Country

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

—from The Book of Common Prayer (1928). [credit: Alan Jacobs]

Morning Soundtrack

When’s the last time you really heard what’s happening all around us?

Kristi & Jason's Private Pandemic Parade!

Because of the quarantine, Kristi & Jason had a very different wedding day than they’d planned. They cancelled all their invitations and their reservations; they asked me if I’d be willing to officiate a private wedding ceremony for them at Munger. Of course I said yes. The total congregation today at the wedding consisted of me, the bride, the groom, the photographer, and a floppy-haired urchin I enlisted as my altarboy/assistant, who ended up filming with an iPhone from the balcony.

After the ceremony, the newlyweds walked out the front steps of the church only to be surprised by a parade put on by their loved ones!  The stream of vehicles kept circling and honking and generally making a ruckus. None of us expected it, and it was such a delight!

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Jason and Kristi, may all your days be filled with such unexpected joy, and may God confirm your covenant and fill you both with grace. Amen.

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P.S. Here’s a picture of the humble officiant with his floppy-haired urchin/altarboy/assistant.

Of Owls and Men

Early this morning, while it was still dark, I came across both an owl and a man. I was much more impressed with the one than the other.

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At about 5:30 this morning as I was out on a run I saw a big fluffy animal move from one branch to another in the tree above my head. My first thought—it was early and I wasn’t totally with it—was, “I didn’t know raccoons could fly!” Then, of course, I realized what it was—a beautiful owl, about the size of a housecat.

I stood still and looked up at it; it stayed still and looked down at me. It was about 10 feet above my head and I could hear it trilling quietly in the dark.

After a minute or so, an older gent came shuffling down the street. I’ve seen him before at that hour in the morning—usually on Sundays—and he is always the picture of misanthropy. He shuffles along with his head down and gives off the impression that he hates the world and everything in it. Which, it turns out, he does.

I was really excited about the owl, so I called out to him, “An owl! There’s an owl up there!”

To which he replied, without slowing his shuffle:

“Bunch of assholes—I hate ‘em. Fly down and attack you.”

I was surprised and responded, “Attack people?”

He said, “Yes. That’s why they’re called ‘Screech Owls.’” And he kept going.

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I guess it’s theoretically possible that one, over the course of a lifetime, could see so many owls in the dark before dawn on a beautiful spring day that one would become bored with the wonder of it, but I doubt it.

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It really is true: wherever you go, there you are.

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P.S.

I’m pretty sure it was an Eastern Screech Owl, and this was the sound of its quiet trill:

Eastern Screech Owl calling in Eastern Colorado at Prewitt Reservoir

A Message from "President Trump" to Me!

So, there I am, minding my own business, when my friend Andrew Snow sends me this message from “President Trump”! The grey skies in Dallas today had given me a grey mood, but this message brightened everything right up. I’m passing it along to you, because we could all use some Friday Fun today.

The whole thing is just so silly, with the mentions of Luby’s and Hawaiian shirts and even my love of cake. I guess I’m too predictable! I should say that though I’m on board with the “Luby’s” and the “cake” references, I’m not totally sure my shirts fall into the “Hawaiian shirts” category, do they? If so, I may need to re-think my wardrobe. I had thought my shirts fell into the “only-a-really-cool-guy-could-pull-this-off” category, but now I’m not so sure….

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I didn't even know he knew my name! [Cameo by J-L Cauvin at cameo.com. Check out his site at https://jlcauvin.com.]

I didn’t even know he knew my name! Made my day.

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[Cameo by J-L Cauvin at cameo.com. Check out his site at jlcauvin.com. I didn’t even know you could pay someone to do this kind of thing!]

Read the Psalms With Me, One Psalm a Day

Starting Easter Monday, April 13, I will be reading and teaching through the book of Psalms, one psalm each day, ending in September. You should join me!

In this post:

• Why we should read the Psalms—now more than ever;

• How to read along with me;

• How to get a copy of the beautiful book I’ll be using.

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The Psalms Make Us Strong

For 3,000 years, the people of God have read, sung, prayed, studied, and learned the Psalms, and these ancient Hebrew poems have made God’s people strong in times of trouble and joyful in times of praise.

The Psalms help us remain rooted so we won’t be swept away in the storm. Psalm 1, e.g., explicitly promises that people who spend time with God’s words become like trees, deeply rooted and always fruitful even in times of drought!

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The Plan

There are 150 Psalms; a few are long, and a few are very short, but most are a couple of paragraphs—in other words, perfect for reading one a day. We begin on Easter Monday, April 13, and will conclude on September 9, 150 days later.

Every day, I’ll post a very brief reflection/explanation on the Bible section of this blog; I will also email out that reflection daily at 4:00 AM for everyone on my Bible mailing list. Sign up here if you are not already subscribed. (If you had been receiving my Genesis emails, you are good to go for Psalms.)

I will be preaching and teaching through Psalms as well. The kickoff Bible study will be on Wednesday, April 15 at 8 PM.

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The Beautiful Psalms Books We’re Using

We’ll be using the Psalms ESV Scripture Journal books available from Crossway.

You can buy your own from Amazon here.

You can of course read through the Psalms in any Bible or Bible app, but that is the book we’ll be using at Munger. They are beautiful books, with the text on one page and an empty notes page facing. The photo below (from the Crossway website) is of Matthew’s Gospel, but you get the idea.

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How to Pick Up Your FREE Copy

We had ordered 4,000 books and were planning on distributing them on Easter Sunday. But, plans change and we set up a strict pick up system at church (sign-up online, drive-up, roll down passenger window, receive books into empty passenger seat, etc.) and in the last four days we gave out 2,038 books!

Let me repeat that: in the last four days we gave out 2,038 books!

The books have been in our storage unit since the end of January, and the only person who will touch them will be wearing gloves and a mask.

If you’d like to pick up a copy for you or a loved one, we have 2 more scheduled pick-up windows:

Wednesday, 4/8 and Monday, 4/13

10:00 AM- 12noon.

Be sure to sign up online at this link.

(And be sure to read and follow all instructions completely.)

***Remember, if you can’t pick up a copy at Munger, you can click here and order one from Amazon.***

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Ready to Go?

For 3,000 years, the people of God have read, sung, prayed, studied, and learned the Psalms, and these ancient Hebrew poems have made God’s people strong in times of trouble and joyful in times of praise.

Now it’s our turn.

Ready to go?

Saturday Song: "When the Ship Comes In"

Every Saturday for the next few weeks, I’ll be posting a favorite song. Video below.

This week’s is about the Day of Judgment:

“When the Ship Comes In,” by Bob Dylan.

(Be sure to watch to the end, when an unexpected visitor lets herself into my fancy recording studio. Apparently, she needed to tell me “sumpin.”)

I’m sure I’d heard this song before, but it was actually Tom Wright—of all people—who recently turned me onto it when he played a version of it on his podcast. (I’ve included the link to his version below as well.)

I particularly love the ending:

And they'll raise their hands sayin'
"We'll meet all your demands"
But we'll shout from the bow "Your days are numbered!"
And like Pharaoh's tribe they'll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath they'll be conquered!

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Every Saturday for the next few weeks I’m going to be playing a song that’s important to me. This week: “When the Ship Comes In,” by Bob Dylan. (If you watch to the end, you'll see I have a special visitor let herself into my fancy recording studio. Apparently, she needed to tell me "sumpin.")

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When the Ship Comes In

—Bob Dylan

Oh the time will come up when the wind will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin'
Like the stillness in the wind 'fore the hurricane begins
The hour that the ship comes in

Oh the seas will split and the ship will hit
And the sand on the shoreline will be shakin'
And the tide will sound and the waves will pound
And the mornin' will be breakin'!

Oh the fishes will laugh as they swim out of the path
And the seagulls, they'll be smilin'
And the rocks on the sand will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in

And the words that are used for to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken'
For the chains of the sea will have busted in the night
And be buried on the bottom of the ocean

Oh a song will lift as the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts onto the shoreline
And the sun will respect every face on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in

And the sands will roll out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a touchin'
And the ship's wise men will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin'!

Of the foes will rise with the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And they'll know that it's for real
The hour that the ship comes in

And they'll raise their hands sayin'
"We'll meet all your demands"
But we'll shout from the bow "Your days are numbered!"
And like Pharaoh's tribe they'll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath they'll be conquered!

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New Testament scholar Tom Wright pulls out his guitar to sing Bob Dylan's 'When the ship comes in'. Hear the story behind the song on the podcast where Tom a...

Fear Stops Here

We all know that the Covid-19 virus spreads from person to person. We also all know that each of us therefore has the ability to slow and stop its spread.

What if we could do the same thing with fear? What if we could also stop fear from spreading through our communities?

I believe that the Church in America has a priceless opportunity to step up and say

FEAR STOPS HERE.

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How Firebreaks Work

In wildland firefighting, a firebreak is a deforested band of dirt plowed through the forest that keeps a wildfire from spreading further.

The concept is simple: remove the fuel, stop the fire.

The same principle applies with fear.

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How Fear Spreads

Fear spreads from person to person, but unlike a viral infection, you don’t even have to be physically proximate with someone else to catch or spread fear—it can happen through our communication networks.

Ever felt fear after reading a headline or receiving an email?

Exactly.

Fear is contagious.

But peace is also contagious.

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Becoming a “Fearbreak”

After the Resurrection, Jesus proclaimed “peace” over his disciples.

Followers of Jesus have nothing to fear—has he not told us?

“In this world you will have trouble, but have no fear: I have overcome the world.”

— Jesus of Nazareth

Therefore each of us has the opportunity to stop the wildfire of fear from spreading beyond us.

Each of us has the opportunity to become a “fearbreak.”

Each of us can say, in the name of Jesus:

FEAR STOPS HERE.

The most important gift we can share with an anxious world is the peace that the Lord has given us.

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You Can Make a Difference

Like a virus, fear needs a host.

Like a fire, fear needs a source of fuel.

When we declare FEAR STOPS HERE, we bring God’s peace to our circumstances and communities and fear’s spread is stopped.

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We Can Flatten the Curve of Fear in Our Communities

The Covid-19 virus is here among us, and there is nothing we can do about that fact: we can’t change our current circumstances.

What we can change, however, is the future.

How we react to fear today will affect what our communities are like in the future.

During the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918, different cities had different responses to the influenza virus’s spread. By late September of that year, e.g., the virus was already making its way through the citizens of Philadelphia. Nevertheless, the city’s public health director refused to cancel a big Liberty parade that had been scheduled for September 28 in support of the American war effort for World War I. Over 200,000 people attended the parade.

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Three days later, every hospital bed in the city was filled, and 2,600 people died before the week was out.

In St. Louis, the city health director—a man named Dr. Max Starkloff—forced social distancing and quarantine measures as soon as the first cases of influenza appeared in the city. As a result St. Louis was able to “flatten the curve,” and compared with Philadelphia, had thousands of fewer deaths during the fall of 1918.

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What if we made the decision to flatten the curve of fear in our communities?

What if the rate of fear in Dallas became noticeably lower than in other cities because of our commitment to spread peace instead of fear?

“FEAR STOPS HERE.”

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How do we do this? How can we become people of peace? How can we beat back fear?

The foundation of peace is a decision to trust God with tomorrow and to focus on what each of us can control today.

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The FEAR STOPS HERE Daily* Checklist

When fear begins to rise within you, ask yourself the following three questions:

• Can I make it through today?

• Have I taken the OBVIOUS next step that’s right in front of me today?

• Is there an opportunity that’s opened up through my circumstances that will allow me to love God or my neighbor today?

If the answer to any of those questions is YES, then it’s time to kick fear to the curb until tomorrow.

Fear comes from worrying about a tomorrow that is inherently outside of our control.

Courage is the confidence that comes when we choose to focus only on today and trust God with tomorrow.

(Matthew 6:34.)

*Use every morning, and any other time you feel fear or dread.

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Join the FEAR STOPS HERE Campaign

• Make the decision that fear stops with you.

• Be the non-anxious presence in all of your networks.

• Create a handmade sign and post it in your window, or draw on your sidewalk, or write in big letters on your fence: FEAR STOPS HERE.

• Drop the #fearstopshere hashtag in your social media posts.

• Use Fear Stops Here as your new email signature.

• Stop FEAR and Spread PEACE.

Let me know how it goes!

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Found in East Dallas, Sunday, March 29, 2020.

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My quarantine sermon for 3/29/2020 was entitled “Fear Stops Here.”

Sermon begins at the 22:00 min mark.

Our Corporate Commitment to You During the Covid-19 Crisis

Dear [FIRST NAME],

At Future Innovations Associates (formerly Forward Metrics Corporation, an Allyn-Crane Acquisition, and part of the Squimm Group), your safety is our top priority.  This is because, if you die, we won’t get any more money from you.

I know you are surprised to hear from us, because you last used our services in 2011.  But, we have kept all your personal information on file since that time, and because our IT department wasn’t able to filter out prior customers from current customers, we just went ahead and emailed everyone in our database.  Rest assured, however, your data and privacy are important to us, in that order, with “making money from your data” in between the categories of “data” and “privacy”.  Plus, when’s the last time you heard that a company in Corporate America was hacked and that the personal info of millions of its customers was leaked onto the dark web?

This email is to update you on how we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis.  Just like you, we don’t actually know anything useful, but nevertheless we will repeat below what literally everyone in the world knows anyway:

•Our [associates/teammates/partners/ninjas or some other made-up name for employees] are being told to wash their hands;

•We are monitoring the situation closely, which you probably assumed, but we wanted to specifically tell you that anyway.

Please stay safe.

Also, please follow our social media channels, because if there is one thing that will help you persevere through these long weeks of quarantine, it’s the Instagram account of a large corporation.

Sincerely,

Blaise Unconvincingname

Senior Executive Vice President for Hospitality, Marketing, and Emails

Future Innovations Associates

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UPDATE: I kid you not: I wrote the bogus letter above and then right afterwards actually received the following email, which I’m including as an update below. Note particularly the use of the well-worn African proverb in the last paragraph. Again: THIS IS AN ACTUAL EMAIL. Some things just can’t be satirized. —Andrew

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UPDATE #2: From the files of You-Can’t-Make-This-Up, I just received the following email from Marriott, posted below. At least I know I am a "Valued Guest”.