Timothy Merrill

Top Ten Most Memorable Phrases of 2007

10. “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”
—Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, speaking at Columbia University in New York.

9. “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us.”
—Lauren Upton, a contestant in the Miss Teen USA contest, when asked why one fifth of Americans can’t find the United States on a map.

8.“(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom.”
—Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) explaining why his foot touched the foot of an undercover police officer. Both were in an airport men’s room.

7. “That’s some nappy-headed hos there.”
—Don Imus, a radio personality, said this about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. Don Imus was fired and his radio show was dropped.

6. “Don’t tase me, bro!”
—Andrew Meyer, a senior at the University of Florida, yelled this when he was pinned down–and being tasered by the University of Florida campus police. He had been protesting a speech by Senator John Kerry.

5. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
—Senator Joe Biden, referring to his rival Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama.

4. “This administration [Bush] has been the worst in history.”
—Former president Jimmy Carter, who is widely acknowledged as being an expert on disastrous administrations.

3. “It’s not right! … Mom!”
—Paris Hilton, socialite and heiress, 26, as she was remanded to the county jail.

2.“You are a rude, thoughtless little pig … You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being.”
—Actor Alec Baldwin on the phone with his 11-year-old daughter.

1. “Why don’t you just shut up?”
—Spanish King Juan Carlos to Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez, at a conference in Chile. The quip became a #1 ring tone download.

Why Do the Nations Rage?

In the fall of 1995, optimism was running high in the West Bank. Israel had turned over several major West Bank cities to the PNA, including Jenin, and Bethlehem was scheduled for a handoff on December 23. We were in Istanbul at the time for a few months and planning to spend the end of the year in Bethlehem at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute.

Then comes November 1995: Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated. A few weeks later, I stood at his grave in a wooded cemetery outside of Tel Aviv and wondered what kind of a world we lived in that would kill—again—its peacemakers and prophets.

The Bhutto assassination shocked me, I must confess.

That someone would be willing to lay down his own life in order to take the life of another whose only sin is that she has political ideas—is shocking.

But not unprecedented.

I need not review the list of the world leaders that have been cut down in the past 60 years or so while trying—in their own way—to make the world a better place. Well, I will anyway, starting with Gandhi, Kennedy, King, Kennedy, Sadat, Rabin—I’m sure there are more.

The psalmist asks: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? (2:1). Why indeed! But they do, they have, and they will. The psalmist continues, “Therefore you kings, be wise; be warned you rulers of the earth.”

The question is: What does political wisdom look like? Bush, as well as many leaders, are calling for elections in January, in less than two weeks. Most of the world is publicly nervous that nukes are in the hands of a nation as perilously unstable as Pakistan.

The psalmist says that wisdom is in “serv[ing] the LORD with fear.” Unfortunately, there are too many people in the world who feel they are serving their God when they mow down the innocent.

Here’s stuff I am thinking about for the pulpit on Sunday:
• How does Bhutto’s assassination make a practical difference in my life as the new year unfolds?
• To what extent is the world less safe right now?
• How do I live in an age of uncertainty?
• What do I teach my children about wisdom and how to have a meaningful life?
• In the aftermath of this assassination, who has blood on their hands? To what extent is Musharraf himself responsible as the one whose inept handling of the political climate arguably led to this instability?
• What lessons are embedded in this story that offer guidance for the new year?

Top Ten Religious Stories of 2007

10. Benedict XVI approves use of Latin rite in Moto Proprio
9. Global warming heats up evangelicals
8. Politicians (especially Democrats) get religion and Romney’s Mormonism becomes a flashpoint for the discussion
7. Atheists publish books like there’s no God in heaven
6. Episcopalians bleeding members and parishes
5. Monk mayhem in MyAnmar
4. South Korean missionaries taken hostage by Taliban
3. Jerry Falwell dies
2. Ted Haggard lies
1. Mother Teresa doubts

Other big stories: Supreme Court uphold partial-birth abortion ban 5-4; Beckwith, former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, converts (back) to the Catholic Church; Dobson, et al., can’t get rid of NAE vice-president Richard Cizik (eco-activist); Catholics still settling abuse cases—the bill’s up to $2.1 billion; Christian confusion over an appropriate response to immigration and undocumented workers.

Is Everything All Right?

Christmas.

It’s a wonderful time of year, but it can also be a royal pain. Perhaps that’s why Garrison Keillor once said that “a lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.”
Madelene L’Engle gives us another perspective. In her children’s book The Summer of the Great Grandmother (New York: Harper & Row, 1986) she tells of being with her grandchildren at bedtime for reading and song. Her grandchild Lena turned to her and asked, “Is everything all right?”

She said, “Yes, of course, everything is all right.”

Lena asked again: “Gram, is everything really all right? I mean really?”

L’Engle says she “looked at that little child in her white nightgown and realized that she was asking the cosmic question, the question that is out beyond the safety of this home full of light and love and warmth.”

Every Christmas we come to the manger Child and ask the same question: “Is everything really all right?”

Every Easter we come to the tomb and ask that same question: “Is everything really all right?”

In both cases, the love of God is so clearly seen, that only one answer is possible: “Yes, of course, everything is all right.”

Lutherans Purchase of Carbon Offset Credits Smells

According to a press release a few days ago The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) through its advocacy offices have purchased carbon offset credits to “mitigate their carbon emissions accumulated through air travel.”

The church is admirably concerned about its carbon footprints, but not being able to do anything about air travel, they’re opting to purchase carbon credits to atone for their sins. These credits will go to “support the use of anaerobic digesters, machines that dramatically reduce the amount of methane that escapes into the atmosphere.”

And from whence does this methane gas escape, you ask?

It escapes from cows. Lots of cows.

This whole deal smells. It smells a little of cheap grace. Luther would not approve.
I’ll tell you what it smells of: It smells of indulgences! When the credit into the coffer rings, a carbon from the planet springs. Again. Luther’s got to be spinning.

Okay, okay. To be fair, I understand the argument of the ELCA Corporate Social Responsibility Office. It’s an inconvenient truth: They can’t very well turn off all the lights, and if they’re going to travel to all these conferences on global warming, they’re going to need to fly or use some form of transportation that relies on fossil fuels, and since cows are going to continue to poop in the pasture — even though the ELCA doesn’t have to, they’re going to purchase these credits to mitigate the damage.

I understand.

But did they need to toot their own horn about it? It just looks bad, like they’re thinking they get a free pass because they’re coughing up some carbon credits.

I’ve heard, but I haven’t verified this, that other denominations, like the Catholics, are considering the same thing. Them I can understand. Catholics. Selling and buying indulgences. I get that. But Lutherans?

Say it ain’t so.

What's Happened to Shock and Awe?

The Omaha mall shootings are a forgotten memory—except in Omaha, and it’s been about 10 days, and we’re not talking about the Colorado church shootings anymore. I suppose that’s natural, and perhaps even a good thing.

But clearly, the shock is gone. We’ve been through Columbine, the school shootings in Kentucky, the Amish shootings in Pennsylvania, massacres in McDonalds, and other horrors which I can’t remember—an amnesia that makes my case.

And now we’re approaching Christmas Sunday. A few years ago, many churches cancelled services because Christmas Day fell on the Sunday. Better to let people stay at home with their families, church leaders said. Huh? The awe is gone.

The late Madeleine L’Engle said once that Einstein was really a theologian, because he had argued that anyone who is not “in awe at the mind behind the universe is as good as a burnt-out candle.” She went on to say that “we’ve lost our sense of awe and reverence in worship.”
So who are we when we lost our shock and awe?

We’re numb, that’s who we are. We’re incapable of feeling the moving of the holy Spirit of God in the depths and darkness of our souls, and not even the light of the Star of Bethlehem can penetrate it. We’re incapable of hearing the voice of God pleading for the children of the world, and not even the angel choir announcing “peace on earth” registers the slightest activity in our spiritual cortex.

Let’s pray that this Sunday, this Christmas, our nerves are re-animated; that the paralysis is lifted, that the shock is searing, and the awe is fearsome.
Let us be the people of God!

Tomorrow God's Going to Do Something Amazing

Ran across this verse the other day, and it gave me pause.

Joshua 3:5—“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you” (NIV)

Not today. God's not going to do amazing things today. Tomorrow.

Today is preparation. It's advent. It's all about getting ready. Purifying. Sanctifying. Rectifying.

You do that today, Joshua says. That alone will be pretty amazing.

Then, tomorrow, God will do the amazing stuff.

The context is as follows: The Israelites are on the outside looking in. They're on the other side of Jordan. They have yet to set foot in the “Promised Land.” But they will. In a Moses redux, the waters of Jordan will roll, the people will cross in safety.

But, right now, that's tomorrow. Tomorrow God does the amazing stuff.

It's hard to live in the “todays” when God isn't doing one blessed thing that we could call amazing.

That's the tough part about being faithful. Today, God don't seem too amazing.

Only faith can see beyond the Jordan into God's amazing tomorrow.

The Death Channel Debuts

Well, it's interesting to me that during the very season we celebrate the coming of life, the birth of the Savior of the world, German morticians—who would have thought—have come up with another idea about death.

The 24-hour television channel, Etos-TV, devoted to death.

There will be feature stories, of course. Like a series on the most beautiful cemeteries in the world. Perhaps something on how a body decays over 1, 10, 100, or a thousand years.

A comparison and cost analysis of cremation vis-à-vis burial.

People will be able to upload or send in obituaries of their loved ones for a fee and have text read by an announcer and a video collage paying homage to the dearly departed.

Maybe they'll install a web camera inside the caskets, and you can log on anytime you want to see how Grandma's doing in there. Mourning, noon and night—you can log on for a chat, or, while you're surfing on the tellie, just check-in during half time. Whatever.

It could be quite exciting, I guess.

Reality programming to die for.

Film at 11.

Give a Goat for Christmas!

Got an e-mail from one of my daughters. In it she said she was tired of all the fuss about shopping for Christmas presents, but that she realized that her family and some friends would INSIST on getting a Christmas gift for her. So she asked that instead of buying a gift, we do something else instead.

Well, here’s what she said: “For those of you that have me on your gift giving list I would like to ask that in lieu of heading out to the stores to find me THE perfect gift card, I would be deeply touched if instead you could visit this web site and donate a gift in my name... www.worldvisiongifts.org .

She then went on to describe some of the “gifts” we could choose from:

$15---Share of an Alpaca (creating warm wool and increased income for families..)
$16 --Two Soccer Balls (providing hours of healthy fun)
$20---Malaria Prevention for one family

$20---Eye Care
$20---Change a child's life through Art and Music
$25---Caregiver Kit to bring Comfort to Those w/ AIDS
$25---Two Chickens
$25---Share of a Bull
$25---Share of a Fish Pond
$30---Five Ducks..and hundreds of eggs
$30---Warm Wool Blanket
$35---Hope For Sexually Exploited Girls
$35---Provides $455 worth of Clothing
$41---Protect a child from deadly diseases (w/ Routine Immunizations)
$50---Share of a Dairy Cow for protein and calcium
$50---Share of a Health Clinic

Her e-mail concludes: “If you are burdened with shopping and gift giving this year please feel free to cross me off your list entirely as I would rather focus on the relationship I have with YOU than what is under that pretty bow and wrapping paper! I know that many of you will refuse to give me NOTHING, so I wanted to provide this idea of donating through World Vision as an alternative.”

Very cool idea. And there are a lot of ideas online about how to observe Christmas in a way that truly honors and celebrates our faith.

Merry Christmas.

Going Out in Style

Don't know if this is the title of Sunday's sermon, or whether it's going to be "Coming In--In Style."

The sad story out of Omaha is of a depressed young man who according to a suicide note found by his mother, wanted "to go out in style."

Going out in style for him, meant killing eight people randomly at a mall, and putting several others in the hospital. That's style, alright. Where did he get that idea?

It's this very notion--doing injury to others--that Jesus came to reverse. Of course his coming was about more than that, but this Omaha story is one that can be referenced when we're talking about the Prince of Peace. The POP "coming in--in style."

You say, "Being born in a manger was not too stylish..."

Oh yes it was.

He comes in a humble style ... he lives among us in a servant sytle ... he voluntarily dies for us. There's nothing greater than all this.

Jesus is all about style. And those who follow him have style.

Our prayers this Second Sunday of Advent go out to the distraught families whose lives are so radically changed by a young man for whom life had become such a burden that he wanted to go out "in style." May their lives be touched by the "stylish" people of God, people who have that unique and powerful humble style, servant style and sacrificial style.