If you attended the Wednesday session of the 2008 Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference in Harrisburg, surely your heart was warmed with both the presentation and acceptance of the proposal to draw new conference boundaries within the jurisdiction. The Boundaries Committee laid out the proposal clearly and expertly. And the reception and approval of the idea was gratifying.
It’s an example of how important it is for persons to bring to conference floors proposals “with the homework done.” When complex information is presented in an engaging way and clearly explained, it pays dividends on the floor of any conference session.
If you were from the Harrisburg area at NEJ, you had to be very proud of the persons extending extraordinary hospitality to our guests. You’ll find all of those persons listed on page 10 of this issue, and we want to offer our thanks also for a task very well executed.
Now onto the future for United Methodists in the northeastern and central parts of this state.
For a short period there is likely to be a time of uncertainty and bewilderment as the leadership of both the Wyoming and Central Pennsylvania Conferences discerns the course for the ministry to which God newly calls us. You can find plenty of similar feelings during times of change written up in the Scriptures.
However, while we can agree that there is a certain unsettling aspect to the front-end of this new journey, there is also an excitement about being part of something new. Isaiah would certainly be excited with us: “Behold I am doing a new thing ... now it springs forth!”
We hope you’ll post this month’s poster which springs from Isaiah’s words. Talk about it, pray about it, be willing to offer input when asked. Again we extend our hand of fellowship to our brothers and sisters in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Making new friends will be a pleasurable experience.
JW
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Commentary: The Gospel according to Wile E. Coyote
I know it’s not very “high-brow,” but I sure do miss some of the cartoon characters I grew up with. I can do a litany of a host of names, but this might not be the place.
By far, my favorite character in all of cartoondom is Wile E. Coyote.
Unlike most cartoon characters, Wile E. Coyote never speaks. His creators found it unnecessary to give him a voice. He makes plenty of noise to fill up a soundtrack all right, but the gift of gab is not his.
Little talk, plenty of action – that’s Wile E.
You can’t help but love the scrawny flea-bitten critter. By most standards he’s a dismal failure. He’s been outwitted by a roadrunner in every one of hundreds of episodes. Hundreds of schemes (and gizmos, usually manufactured by Acme) have not yielded one forkful of juicy roadrunner filet.
So why be so stupid as to chase a skinny bird all over a cartoon desert? Why, there’s not enough meat on a roadrunner to even stick in a coyote’s teeth. Why not go for a juicy prairie dog or something? For Wile E. that’s never been an issue. The bird remains the prize. And to add insult to injury, the show isn’t even named for Wile E. It’s named for the bird. The bird’s not the star! We all root for Wile E. He’s the star, for goodness sake.
However, Wile E. will “preach,” as we say in my circles.
Think about it for a minute. There’s probably not an adjective describing Wile E. Coyote that is not an admirable component of good character: focused, goal-oriented, resourceful, steadfast, creative, inventive, persistent .... We could go on.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Wile E. Coyote sulk or pout. (Heaven knows he has grounds!) Fur pounded into the dust by a falling rock, he’s never shuffled off into a corner for any woe-is-me stuff. He’s usually puzzled, but never depressed. He pulls his riddled body parts back together, shakes the desert sand out of his fur, climbs up onto the stool beside his drawing board and starts in again, light bulbs flickering above his head.
The Apostle Paul told churches in Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica, “Be steadfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” “Press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Jesus Christ.” “Do not grow weary in doing good.”
If you visit my office you’ll see Wile E. Coyote standing where he’s stood now for ten years in all his stuffed splendor. The sign I hung from his toe disappeared long ago. It said, “Never give up; tomorrow we catch the bird.”
It’s the Gospel according to Wile E. Coyote.
Glad we could get together.
By far, my favorite character in all of cartoondom is Wile E. Coyote.
Unlike most cartoon characters, Wile E. Coyote never speaks. His creators found it unnecessary to give him a voice. He makes plenty of noise to fill up a soundtrack all right, but the gift of gab is not his.
Little talk, plenty of action – that’s Wile E.
You can’t help but love the scrawny flea-bitten critter. By most standards he’s a dismal failure. He’s been outwitted by a roadrunner in every one of hundreds of episodes. Hundreds of schemes (and gizmos, usually manufactured by Acme) have not yielded one forkful of juicy roadrunner filet.
So why be so stupid as to chase a skinny bird all over a cartoon desert? Why, there’s not enough meat on a roadrunner to even stick in a coyote’s teeth. Why not go for a juicy prairie dog or something? For Wile E. that’s never been an issue. The bird remains the prize. And to add insult to injury, the show isn’t even named for Wile E. It’s named for the bird. The bird’s not the star! We all root for Wile E. He’s the star, for goodness sake.
However, Wile E. will “preach,” as we say in my circles.
Think about it for a minute. There’s probably not an adjective describing Wile E. Coyote that is not an admirable component of good character: focused, goal-oriented, resourceful, steadfast, creative, inventive, persistent .... We could go on.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Wile E. Coyote sulk or pout. (Heaven knows he has grounds!) Fur pounded into the dust by a falling rock, he’s never shuffled off into a corner for any woe-is-me stuff. He’s usually puzzled, but never depressed. He pulls his riddled body parts back together, shakes the desert sand out of his fur, climbs up onto the stool beside his drawing board and starts in again, light bulbs flickering above his head.
The Apostle Paul told churches in Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica, “Be steadfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” “Press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Jesus Christ.” “Do not grow weary in doing good.”
If you visit my office you’ll see Wile E. Coyote standing where he’s stood now for ten years in all his stuffed splendor. The sign I hung from his toe disappeared long ago. It said, “Never give up; tomorrow we catch the bird.”
It’s the Gospel according to Wile E. Coyote.
Glad we could get together.
Editorial: Invited to live in the tension
Our title is not original; it comes from a phrase in a sermon at General Conference 2008 by Bishop Hee-Soo Jung who serves the church’s Chicago Episcopal Area.
If you want a vivid view of the scope of being a global church as United Methodists, you need to visit a General Conference session. You need to bask in the exhilaration around you, and you also need to feel the tension of a very large body of believers who want to change the world and who have willfully chosen to “live in the tension” and invite others to do the same.
The highest tension for GC2008 centered, as expected, around the legislation to uphold the church’s traditional stance on homosexuality.
The comments made in the sermon titled “Jesus, Remember Me” by Bishop Hee-Soo Jung the morning after the legislation, were noteworthy: “We find ourselves in a debate between those who would like the church to be more flexible in nonessential matters — more open, and those who would like the church to be clearer about its boundaries — more pure.
“One could argue that those who espouse greater openness are holding fast to biblical principles of hospitality. Those who desire clarity in matters of boundaries, however, are adhering to biblical principles of holiness. Both holiness and hospitality are excellent values. Both are biblical values, and both are right.
“Of course, they can also both be wrong. The problem is this: When we concern ourselves only with holiness, we become rigid and inward looking. We make an idol of our purity. When we concern ourselves only with hospitality, however, we lose our sense of who we are.
“Our identity is blurred and we lose the language of our own faith. Our attitudes and beliefs become ambiguous and, at worst, we no longer know why we are Christians or what holds us together.
“Either holiness or hospitality can become a problem if we pay attention only to one dimension and exclude the other. Instead, we are invited to live in the tension that is created by holding both values — holiness and hospitality — together at the same time.”
Many religious bodies have chosen to disregard the tension between these two deeply held views, to close the doors tightly to any discourse.
To its credit, the United Methodist Church has chosen to live in the tension. It’s not the easy choice, but it’s the right choice, and it’s the choice that Jesus would make as evidenced by his ministry.
If you want a vivid view of the scope of being a global church as United Methodists, you need to visit a General Conference session. You need to bask in the exhilaration around you, and you also need to feel the tension of a very large body of believers who want to change the world and who have willfully chosen to “live in the tension” and invite others to do the same.
The highest tension for GC2008 centered, as expected, around the legislation to uphold the church’s traditional stance on homosexuality.
The comments made in the sermon titled “Jesus, Remember Me” by Bishop Hee-Soo Jung the morning after the legislation, were noteworthy: “We find ourselves in a debate between those who would like the church to be more flexible in nonessential matters — more open, and those who would like the church to be clearer about its boundaries — more pure.
“One could argue that those who espouse greater openness are holding fast to biblical principles of hospitality. Those who desire clarity in matters of boundaries, however, are adhering to biblical principles of holiness. Both holiness and hospitality are excellent values. Both are biblical values, and both are right.
“Of course, they can also both be wrong. The problem is this: When we concern ourselves only with holiness, we become rigid and inward looking. We make an idol of our purity. When we concern ourselves only with hospitality, however, we lose our sense of who we are.
“Our identity is blurred and we lose the language of our own faith. Our attitudes and beliefs become ambiguous and, at worst, we no longer know why we are Christians or what holds us together.
“Either holiness or hospitality can become a problem if we pay attention only to one dimension and exclude the other. Instead, we are invited to live in the tension that is created by holding both values — holiness and hospitality — together at the same time.”
Many religious bodies have chosen to disregard the tension between these two deeply held views, to close the doors tightly to any discourse.
To its credit, the United Methodist Church has chosen to live in the tension. It’s not the easy choice, but it’s the right choice, and it’s the choice that Jesus would make as evidenced by his ministry.
JW
Commentary: Ripples on the water
I remember speaking for worship at a church some time ago. I needed to illustrate the impact of a certain life-altering phone call I had received in my history. So I delivered the line, “And then the phone rang,” followed by a dramatic pause. As soon as I paused, I noticed several people looking at each other in shock and then laughing.
I continued with my presentation, but in the back of my mind there was this frantic search for what I had said so outlandish for which I needed to “cover” with some kind of retraction. I could think of nothing. So I concluded my talk with this “cloud” hanging over my delivery.
As I greeted the worshippers leaving the sanctuary, a woman came to me, rather apologetically, and asked, “Do you know what we were laughing about this morning?” I said I didn’t. So she explained, “A split second after you said, ‘And then the phone rang,’ the phone in the open office beside the sanctuary began to ring!”
We had a good chuckle and I sighed in relief that I hadn’t committed some gargantuan blunder.
For several yeaers I occasionally produced multi-image shows for my church and the ministerial association of my home town. For Easter one year, I produced “A Promise in Fowler Woods” with a resurrection theme. I recorded the narration in the back of the woods on my property to capture the outdoor ambient sound. There was a voice-over, “A bird calls and the day begins in Fowler Woods.” Those were the days of quarter-inch audio tape, so my plan was to get out the splicing block and splicing tape and splice a pre-recorded bird call into the space after those words.
In preparation for the edit I listened to those words in my recorded voice-over. To my disbelief I discovered, perfectly timed at a perfect sound level, the beautiful call of some bird in my woods on Rome South Road. I hadn’t put it there; I didn’t even remember a bird call in my recording session.
Ah, yes!
I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, “I’ve never seen the waters parted like Moses did, but I’ve sure seen plenty of ripples on the water.”
When I was a young guy, full of vinegar, I could talk myself out of a God who really knows me and pays attention to me. I can’t do that anymore. God is an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God who is not above a sense of humor, a God who occasionally just might enjoy planting a phone ring or a bird call.
Glad we could get together.
I continued with my presentation, but in the back of my mind there was this frantic search for what I had said so outlandish for which I needed to “cover” with some kind of retraction. I could think of nothing. So I concluded my talk with this “cloud” hanging over my delivery.
As I greeted the worshippers leaving the sanctuary, a woman came to me, rather apologetically, and asked, “Do you know what we were laughing about this morning?” I said I didn’t. So she explained, “A split second after you said, ‘And then the phone rang,’ the phone in the open office beside the sanctuary began to ring!”
We had a good chuckle and I sighed in relief that I hadn’t committed some gargantuan blunder.
For several yeaers I occasionally produced multi-image shows for my church and the ministerial association of my home town. For Easter one year, I produced “A Promise in Fowler Woods” with a resurrection theme. I recorded the narration in the back of the woods on my property to capture the outdoor ambient sound. There was a voice-over, “A bird calls and the day begins in Fowler Woods.” Those were the days of quarter-inch audio tape, so my plan was to get out the splicing block and splicing tape and splice a pre-recorded bird call into the space after those words.
In preparation for the edit I listened to those words in my recorded voice-over. To my disbelief I discovered, perfectly timed at a perfect sound level, the beautiful call of some bird in my woods on Rome South Road. I hadn’t put it there; I didn’t even remember a bird call in my recording session.
Ah, yes!
I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, “I’ve never seen the waters parted like Moses did, but I’ve sure seen plenty of ripples on the water.”
When I was a young guy, full of vinegar, I could talk myself out of a God who really knows me and pays attention to me. I can’t do that anymore. God is an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God who is not above a sense of humor, a God who occasionally just might enjoy planting a phone ring or a bird call.
Glad we could get together.
Editorial: The Itinerant laity
An average of one out of five meals consumed by Americans, 4.2 meals per week, is prepared in a commercial setting, according to a new National Restaurant Association report.* Undoubtedly, many of those meals are consumed in a wide variety of eateries. And it may be that persons who frequent many different restaurants for their physical nourishment may want their spiritual nourishment served up the same way. A good friend helped us identify those persons as itinerant laity.
Itinerant is a word we have assigned to clergy; but clergy may be asked to share the identity with a new kind of churchgoer.
We have been labeling persons who float in and out of churches as “spiritual consumers.” That may be simplistic and not completely fair to some who are taking control of their personal spiritual diet in much the same way some persons take control of their own health care. The physician becomes a vendor.
Pollsters are pointing to a growing number who are less willing to commit to any organization for an indefinite period of time. And it may make some churches feel compelled to program so as to offer “menu items” to persons who are looking to fill a specific spiritual need, or even a spiritual diversion, for a pre-determined period of time. It brings pressure on the creative ability to structure unique programs for a marketplace of some very mobile church-goers.Decision-making for itinerant laity about church attendance may include such dialogue as these:
“I saw an ad about a Bible study at ABC Church that looks interesting. It lasts six weeks; let’s join it.”
“We haven’t sung in a choir for a long time. There is a good choir at XYZ Church; let’s join it for a year.”
“QRS Church has advertised a six-Sunday sermon series by Pastor Jones. Let’s go hear those.”
“Our teen children need a youth group. There is a very good one at LMN Church. Let’s go there ‘til they graduate.”
“We haven’t gone on a mission trip for a long time. DEF Church is going to Haiti; let’s go along.”
The idea of an itinerant church-goer brings up all sorts of issues relating to loyalty and community in the body of Christ, but every new age has driven the church to examine its mission in context, and itinerancy on the part of some churchgoers is a new context to ponder.
JW
*See http://www.restaurant.org/rusa/magArticle.cfm?ArticleID=138
The gift of Tom
And speaking of itinerancy – the appointment of Tom Salsgiver to the office of Superintendent of the Lewisburg District means that we swallow hard and look to God’s next chapter. If this editor may speak for the staff and the CPC, we prepare for God’s next chapter with a lump in our throats and with gratitude for the gift of Tom. His heart was shared with all of us and we, and the world, are better for it.
Itinerant is a word we have assigned to clergy; but clergy may be asked to share the identity with a new kind of churchgoer.
We have been labeling persons who float in and out of churches as “spiritual consumers.” That may be simplistic and not completely fair to some who are taking control of their personal spiritual diet in much the same way some persons take control of their own health care. The physician becomes a vendor.
Pollsters are pointing to a growing number who are less willing to commit to any organization for an indefinite period of time. And it may make some churches feel compelled to program so as to offer “menu items” to persons who are looking to fill a specific spiritual need, or even a spiritual diversion, for a pre-determined period of time. It brings pressure on the creative ability to structure unique programs for a marketplace of some very mobile church-goers.Decision-making for itinerant laity about church attendance may include such dialogue as these:
“I saw an ad about a Bible study at ABC Church that looks interesting. It lasts six weeks; let’s join it.”
“We haven’t sung in a choir for a long time. There is a good choir at XYZ Church; let’s join it for a year.”
“QRS Church has advertised a six-Sunday sermon series by Pastor Jones. Let’s go hear those.”
“Our teen children need a youth group. There is a very good one at LMN Church. Let’s go there ‘til they graduate.”
“We haven’t gone on a mission trip for a long time. DEF Church is going to Haiti; let’s go along.”
The idea of an itinerant church-goer brings up all sorts of issues relating to loyalty and community in the body of Christ, but every new age has driven the church to examine its mission in context, and itinerancy on the part of some churchgoers is a new context to ponder.
JW
*See http://www.restaurant.org/rusa/magArticle.cfm?ArticleID=138
The gift of Tom
And speaking of itinerancy – the appointment of Tom Salsgiver to the office of Superintendent of the Lewisburg District means that we swallow hard and look to God’s next chapter. If this editor may speak for the staff and the CPC, we prepare for God’s next chapter with a lump in our throats and with gratitude for the gift of Tom. His heart was shared with all of us and we, and the world, are better for it.
Commentary: The eyes of Africa
I remember the day my dad thrust his prized Kodak Retina II into my hands and said, “Here. Why don’t you take a picture.”
I think I might have been eight.
Since that day my heart races most smoothly when there’s a camera in my hands. I’m in control! I’m ready to freeze time! I’m poised to preserve a moment, like jelly in a jar!
So, you can understand that I was in a little heaven-on-earth when, with wife and friends, I “did safari” on the Serengeti in Tanzania, Africa. You must do it some day.
I’ve had God-moments looking through a camera lens. I could tell you about a few. When God-moments happen they can make you gasp.
The eyes are the gateway of the soul. That’s why we spend more time looking at a person’s eyes in a picture than any other feature on a face.
So I’d like to share a God moment with the photo above. Our last stop in Tanzania was a Maasai village near Arusha. This little guy was in the arms of his mother. I won’t forget the eyes – full of awe and wonder, full of innocence, full of questions . . . . . full of God.
Glad we could get together.
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