Timothy Merrill

Sox Beat Rox

I'm from Colorado. House in Lakewood. Not really a Colorado Rockies fan--until they won like 10 in a row, and went on to improbably win the National League Pennant by winning every game they absolutely had to win.

And then they beat the Padres in a one game playoff, then they SWEEP the Arizona Diamondbacks, winners of the division. They win 21 of 22 games. They win the pennant and get to the World Series as a wild card. It's an incredible baseball story.

And then they wait, they wait, and they wait. The Red Sox get hotter, and hotter and hotter. The Rox get colder and colder and colder. Literally. It's starting to snow.

They, LSO, the Sox SWEEP, and the Rox weep.

Hopes realized, expectations that fall short! Life lessons. Agony, ectasy, agony again.

Next year: Go Cubs!

Happy Monday!

Seventy-eight years ago today was not a Monday, but a Tuesday. What I mean is, October 29, 78 years ago was on a Tuesday that became known as Black Tuesday.

On October 29, 1929, the Great Stock Market Crash began and by the time it was over in late November, investors had lost $100 billion in assets. The country was on the brink of the Great Depression that was for my grandparents, and parents, the formative events of their lives.

It was an awful day in our history as a country, and thinking about it led me to wonder about my own personal “crashes.” I wondered, “Hey, Timothy, what was the worst day of your life?”

Would you like me to tell you?

Are you kidding? I’m not talking about that stuff.

But I’ve crashed and burned a few times; hit the wall.

Our country survived that crash, the depression, and other calamities, including Black Monday in October 1987, and the difficult post-9/11 years. I will leave it to others to discuss whether we too often squander the opportunities our recovery has given us.

But today, on October 29, we have a chance to be grateful to God and to all those who have helped us recover from the “worst day” of our lives, whatever it was, or was about.

We’ve all had our “Black” days.

But today doesn’t need to be one of them.

Happy Monday!

Santo Subito

"When Pope John Paul II died two years ago, over a million people filed past his plain cedar coffin to pay their respects. About four million flooded into Rome to attend his funeral or to watch the service on giant video screens placed across the city. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people — maybe even billions of people — watched the funeral on television.

"In Rome, a cry began to spread through the crowd, “Santo subito … santo subito.” The phrase also appeared on hand-painted signs held up by worshipers at the funeral.

"Santo subito.

"Translation: 'Sainthood immediately.'

"The fans of John Paul II want the Vatican to cut through its normal red tape and pronounce the pope a saint right away. No delays! Chop-chop! Stat! In a New York minute!

"He’s clearly a saint, they say. So let’s make it official.

"According to Time magazine (April 3, 2007), the new pope, Benedict XVI, has moved as quickly as possible to get his predecessor into the ranks of the holy ones. He started by waiving the normal five-year waiting period to begin the process, an exemption that had previously been granted to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Although there are still a number of steps to take, it looks like John Paul II is on the fast track to sainthood — the fastest in history.

"The current record is held by Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei. He was canonized in 2002, just 27 years after he died. But Vatican-watchers predict that John Paul II will blow this record away. Some are anticipating that the pope will be made a saint by the year 2010."

The above is how the November 4 piece in Homiletics opens for All Saints' Sunday. The material goes on to develop an emphasis on learning how to be saints on earth, rather than worrying about who are saints in heaven. Homiletics suggests a number of "SaintSigns" that characterize saints on earth.

I love the "Santo subito" idea. It's another way of saying "instant gratification." Lord, make me a saint NOW! Make me holy now! Help me to be righteous, kind and good NOW. Why? Because I don't want to learn the lessons of holiness, I don't want to study in the school of experience, humility and relationships. I don't want to be brought low before being raised high. Make me a saint NOW!"

Hilarious! Isn't that how we feel so often? We'd love to avoid the life lessons and go straight to maturity, wisdom and holiness.

The journey is the destination. The journey's what it's all about.

SANTO LENTITUDO BABY!

Can You Make a Sermon Out of This?

My wife is an elementary school teacher.

One of the programs emphasized at the school is conflict resolution training. How do you help children resolve differences without feeling bullied, pressured or threatened?

There's more to if, of course, but that's the general idea.

So the program at her school--and I am probably the last person in the U.S. to have heard of this before--emphasizes three steps.

TALK.

WALK.

SQUAWK.

Seems to me there's a sermon in there.

You got your three points.

And they're easy to remember.

I think I get the first two, i.e. how Christians should talk (share their faith, encourage each other and so on) and how they should walk, i.e. they should walk the talk, they should model what they're blabbing about.

But squawk?

I generally feel there's too many Christians squawking right now as it is. At school, they want kids, after they've exhausted talking, and walking (away from the problem), to squawk their teacher or counselor.

Could we think of squawking as a form of prayer?

Putting the Protest Back in Protestant

We got an e-mail here at Homiletics from a Lutheran subscriber last fall saying, "Why don't you ever have something on Reformation Sunday. And there's nothing from Romans 3:19-28 in Homiletics. How can you NOT have anything?"

Our reply was full of mea culpas, but Homiletics uses the RCL and the pericope he inquired about does not appear in the RCL as I recall. So a treatment of this text so dear to him and our Lutheran colleagues on Reformation Sunday is not likely to happen.

Unless.

Hey, I am the editor. I can do anything I want.

So this week, check out our piece "Putting the Protest Back in Protestant" based on the Romans 3:19-28 text. It's heavier stuff than we normally publish in Homiletics, but you can get through it in one cup of coffee, and with a pencil at the ready, you'll have some great ideas for Sunday's sermon.

I hope our Lutheran friend sits up and takes notice. Because we can't just be bopping all over the lectionary map--Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, RCL--at the behest of our subscribers, can we?

Well, maybe. But we're going to stick with the RCL. I can do no else. Here I stand!

Warrior for Peace

From the Department of Hmmmmmmm:

On Wednesday of this week, President Bush bestowed our nation's highest honor on the Dalai Lama, the Congressional Gold Medal, and he called the exiled Tibetan religious leader a "warrior for peace."

Hmmmm. How does that work for you? War. Warrior. Peace. A warrior for peace.

Isn't there another way to say that the Lama is a peace-loving guy?

Just wondering.

Poll-arization Results

The poll truth ... and nothing but the poll truth ...

Here are the results from the polling we've been doing in the past couple of months, moving from the oldest to the most recent.

TORTURE: Back in early August we asked you whether the use of torture was at anytime permissible. You said "No, it's morally wrong. Period." (79%). The rest of you said it was might be permissible if other lives were saved (21%).

BARRY BONDS: When Bonds was still chasing Hank Aaron's home run record we wondered why so many didn't care. You thought that we didn't care because he cheated (80%), because Bonds is such an unpleasant fellow (15%) and because we don't like our heroes (Aaron) dethroned (5%).

TIME MANAGEMENT: As the fall approached we asked you to tell us what--if you had to choose--goes to the top of your list of things to do during a typical week. Sermon prep comes first for 63%, admin duties are at the top of the list for 26%, and visitation is the top priority for 11%

FALL READING PROGRAM: What are pastors reading this fall? We're reading theology books (36%), novels (24%), religious books but not academic (20%), magazines and journals (8%), non-fiction (8%), and 4% said they were reading anything at all right now.

HALLOWEEN PARTIES: Should Christian churches support or condone Halloween parties: Most of you said "Yes" (68%) although 32% said it was only okay if there was some Christian content or if the party supported a good cause, like UNICEF. However, 32% said, "No, Halloween doesn't belong in the church."

Thanks for participating in the polling. It's easy. Just one mouse click is all it takes to register your vote.
EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE! VOTE TODAY!

The Massage Is the Message

The Japanese know robots. Now they’ve come up with a robot that gives massages.

This robot has steel arms, and cables and wires and it looks like it could do a whole lot of damage, but it actually gives a great therapeutic facial massage. Not that I would know, but that’s what I’ve read.

The WAO-1, which stands for Waseda Asahi Oral Rehabilitation Robot 1, has arms that are fitted with ceramic spheres the size of golf balls, and these balls glide over the skin controlled by an intricate matrix of algorithms designed to imitate massages. The researchers involved in this project say the technology potentially has wide applications, and that someday “this robot will give beauty facials at spas.''

The whole idea of robots giving massages is intriguing to me, but here’s what immediately came to my mind when I read this. Always looking for metaphors for the preaching task, I wondered if a sermon isn’t something like a massage.

Now wait a minute. Don’t scoff. A massage isn’t just a massage. There are many different types of massages. Finger-tip massages/sermons just sort of tickle you and make you feel good. Some massages are tied to specific areas of the body. A foot massage, or face, or back for example. Some sermons need to be foot sermons, i.e. sermons that empower people to walk, to action, to mobility. Others might be back sermons, i.e. sermons that empower us to lift the load, shoulder the weight, and so on.

Some massages are deep muscle treatments. These are sermons that probe areas where the muscles have become tight and painful and useless, i.e. sermons that help healing to take place, that unleash hitherto unrealized potential.

I’ve heard about massage where the masseuse walks on your back, or pounds on you with karate chops and stuff.

I don’t know what kind of a sermon that is.

Thing is, I don’t think you can get a robot to do what we preachers do. I know millions of people watch preachers on TV every week. And I suppose there is some therapeutic power in that.

But the personal, human contact is really important. And that’s why a pastor’s role is so crucial. The pastor provides that dimension as a sort of spiritual chiropractor that’s vital to our spiritual health.

Well, enough rambling. But maybe it’s helpful when we lead worship this Sunday to understand our role in terms of this metaphor. People have come, we could say, for a massage. So what kind of a massage do they need right now? You’re their pastor. You should know.

Don’t let them down.

They knead you.

The Art of Pulpiteering

Back in the day, some preachers were known as good “pulpiteers.” I guess what was meant by that is that they knew how to keep the attention of the audience. Spell-binders, they were. Pulpit-pounders.

That kind of language isn’t used too much any more, at least not in the circles I frequent. So that’s why I was mildly surprised to hear Richard Ward, who teaches Homiletics at Iliff School of Theology, speak so strongly about “preaching as performance.”

I asked him about it in a conversation last summer. He said that if he had used the word “delivery” no one would make a fuss. Preachers talk about their “delivery” all the time. Ward believes that “performance” is a nuanced word (he provided some exegesis of the word itself) and is more descriptive of aspects of the preaching event itself.

He argues that “the nature of a sermon is transformed through the act of speaking and enacting and embodying it. It becomes something inscribed on paper — perhaps — or maybe a thought that is fully formed in the mind then becomes changed in the act of speaking it in the context of worship.”

So preaching, in that sense becomes an “embodied witness” which is why it’s easier to listen to a sermon than it is to read a sermon. There’s something fundamentally different about the oral proclamation of the Word.

Ward went on to note how the body is used differently in worship traditions. Think of the Pentecostal tradition vis-à-vis the Episcopal church, for example.

So if the sermon is going to be delivered orally, the body is involved whether we like it or not, which implies an element of “performance.” The question then is not if, but how is the body going to be involved. Ward says that “according to what the preacher hopes for or aims for in the sermon and in the preaching moment, the preacher can then consider what she or he wants to do differently with that insight, with the idea that your body can be involved differently, [or how] your body can be more expressive of what you’re accomplishing, of what you want to do … Perhaps the word would be ‘aware.’ Your body becomes aware of what you’re doing, rather than simply wondering whether you’ve raised your hands in a certain way or established eye contact. It’s a matter of what you want to do in the preaching moment that will make the body alert to what’s happening in the sermon.”

The full text of my conversation with Ward in online and in print in the November-December 2007 issue of Homiletics.

Can Preaching Be Divisive?

Senator and presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, has been going to Jeremiah Wright’s church for about 20 years now. Wright is no longer pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago, but Obama still considers him his spiritual mentor and advisor.

Now some of Wright’s sermons are being scrutinized by critics who argue that his take on racism and poverty seems to suggest that if you’re not black or poor you can’t really know God fully. That sort of exclusivity, they say, is divisive and does little to unify a country already polarized and fractured.

Not going to go there, because my question is: Can preaching be divisive?

Well, yeah. Of course.

The better question is: Should preaching be divisive?

The answer to that is probably yes and no. You can’t say that just because your preaching is divisive that it’s ipso facto prophetic and not a valid target for scrutiny. On the other hand, you can’t fault a preacher for her or his sermons because the OFFENSE-O’METER is registering off the charts.

The next question: Okay, is MY preaching divisive? Probably not a good thing—if you want to NURTURE (hello!) your congregation--to be preaching prophetically all the time. BUT, if our preaching never has the effect of a good whack upside the head, then the pulpit has probably become not much more than pop-psychological sentimentalism guised as religious claptrap.

Back in the day, people referred to a preacher whose preaching was divisive as “meddlin’.

How long has it been since we started “meddlin’” in people’s business?