Timothy Merrill

Selig Sind

Last week, holy week, was the week from hell, if I may use the expression. But it was pretty awful.

I was feeling pressure with some publication deadlines in advance of some post-Easter vacation time, Jeanie and I had three hour chorus rehearsals for Brahm's Requiem every night except Tuesday. My bike was stolen. I accidentally failed to retrieve a debit card from an ATM machine and so the machine, thinking I had walked off, which I had, ate it. I had to sit in a dentist's chair for another installment on my root canal crisis. And then on Saturday afternoon, I had a major, major computer event. Pretty sickening. It was an awful, painful death, after which Jeanie and I left for the concert hall to sing the Requiem. Fitting.

After the performance the chorus and orchestra were happily mingling in the back stage hallways. Someone asked me, "How's your wife?"

I said, "What do you mean?"

She said, "She fainted during the sixth movement." I was on the far end of the stage left, and JEanie was on the far end stage left, so I could not even see her during the performance.

So I rushed around trying to find the dressing room and found my little petunia, wilted and droopy, sitting on a chair. I got her outside for some fresh air.

What a week.

I woke up on Easter Sunday morning however with hope. He is risen! It was a new day, a new life, a new beginning.

And then I recalled that Brahm's Requiem begins with "Selig sind..." and ends with "Selig sind..."

"Blessed are ..."

I can live with that.

This Isn't So Easy

It's Monday morning, the day after Easter.

Two-thousand years ago, a small band of disciples are just beginning to get excited. The word has spread: He is risen!

The hard part's over, right? Jesus is alive! Great things are going to happen now! Hey--they look at each other--"That was easy!"

That was easy. It's a marketing tool for the office supply chain, Staples. The big red button. You get good service or a problem is solved. You hit the button. That was easy!

The reading for this coming Sunday suggests something else. Jesus' words to his disciples before the cross and in the post-Easter season is not, "This is easy" but: "This might hurt."

Jesus called on his disciples to also take up their cross.

The disciples are going to be jolted once again. It's not going to be easy.

In fact it might hurt--a lot. Sometimes, that's the nature of discipleship.

There is more in Homiletics for this Sunday. Take a look.

The Pressured Christian

I had a conversation a couple of days ago with Dr. Michael Thompson, author, educator and child psychologist. He's the New York Times best-selling author of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, as well as Best Friends, Worst Enemies, a book about powerful childhood issues such as popularity and social cruelty.

He's also the author (with Teresa Barker) of The Pressured Child: Helping Your Child Find Success in School and Life.

Thompson told the story of the parents of a Grade 9 boy whose parents thought he was unorganized. They sought Dr. Thompson’s help.

He asked the dad if he himself was “organized.”

The dad replied, “Yes, I am.”

Thompson then asked him: “Well, when did you get organized?”

The father replied: “Well, when I was a junior in college.” Ah!

Thompson acknowledged that some anxiety can be helpful in the learning process but constant pressure is not helpful. Moreover, the pressure that parents place on children is now equalled by the pressure parents exert on teachers to ensure that teachers are providing the education the parents want and need their child to have.

In fact, children are looking for experiences that make them feel that they’re achieving developmentally and that they’re as competent as they can be. In short, they’re looking for:

Connection
Recognition
A sense of mastery

Generally, these feelings do not come from report cards. They know that the report card is not who they are.

THE PRESSURED CHRISTIAN

The idea that kids deal with a lot of pressure to succeed--from peer, parents and teacher--leads us to ask how the "pressured Christian" responds when faced with day-to-day issues such as unethical business practices in his or her place of employment; expectations for service and ministry in church; family obligations; fidelity, love and trust in relationships; career paths; spiritual and devotional life. What are the stressors? How do Christians deal with them? How should we cope? Is this the nature of the Christian life: facing pressure and responding in a way that's consistent with our core Christian beliefs?

I suspect that Christians, like children, are looking for: Connection, Recognition and a Sense of Mastery. That is, Christians need connection and community to thrive and grow spiritually and emotionally toward a wholeness that enables them to deflect pressure or channel it wisely. They also need Recognition, that is, their particular skill-set must be affirmed and authenticated by the ChristBody in order for them to function and serve effectively. When you are affirmed in what you're doing, handling pressure is a piece of cherry pie. Finally, they need a sense of mastery. Christians can handle the pressures of life when he or she has gained control of themselves. This is the right kind of control, the kind of control or self-discipline about which the apostle Paul offer spoke. We're not talking about control over others, but the ability to discipline oneself. When a Christian is able to exercise restraint, discipline, control, then that Christian may find not only that pressure is easier to handle, but that some stressors don't even show up for work. Self-discipline and mastery can do that.

This could be a sermon series.

May-June Issue of HOMILETICS is Online

FYI, if you're a Homiletics subscriber, you'll find the next issue now online.

The cover story focuses on the Hagar-Ishmael allegory and is called COLD NEST MOTHERS. But there's a huge chunk of more great material. This issue looks at two books, too; one that's been out a while, The Art of Woo by G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussal, and one that's more recent and attracted a lot of attention in the secular press, The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs. Both of these treatments take us to th biblical text for the day in a way that will grab the attention, if not the hearts, of your congregation.

There's a look at a movie, too: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The text is the Great Commission in Matthew 28. We call it: "The Kingdom of the Crystal Commission." In this same installment you'll find a great commissioning litany written by 16-year old from Hinsdale, Illinois. The whole installment and this litany will work well for those of you commissioning youth people on upcoming mission trips, but could work with other contexts as well.

Favorites? I hate to say, but I love "Catching the Wind" for Pentecost Sunday which looks at harnassing wind where the wind is blowing, like 50,000 feet in the air. Sometimes, if the wind isn't blowing where you are, you've got to go to where the wind is blowing.

Another favorite is "Ballast in Your Bottom," a look at the research the robotic engineers are doing using turtles as a research subject. The problem with robots is that once they fall, they have a devil of a time getting back up. So, how do turtles do it? How do we get back up once we've fallen.

Anyway, take a look. It will get your homilietical juices going!

Three-Star Christians

Guy Martin (seen here), the chef at Paris restaurant, Le Grand VeFour, can’t be happy.

His restaurant, in business for 200 years with patrons including Napoleon and Victor Hugo, was denied Michelin’s third star, and demoted to two-star status.

The Michelin Guide accepts no advertising so that there is no possibility of a conflict of interest. It’s the most prestigious restaurant rating guide in France at least. Eateries are judged on the basis of the products and cooking as well as the style of the food, dependability and consistency. Anonymous inspectors dined at Le Grand VeFour, located at 17 rue de Beaujolais (which I found amusing), 10-12 times over a two year period and decided that the consistency just wasn’t there, not enough to warrant Three-Star status.

Hmmm.

I’m a preacher. So I’m wondering what kind of a Christian is a Three-Star Christian, and what would one need to do, or not do to, to lose a star … in one’s crown, as it were, to mix metaphors.

According to one report, chef "Martin's classic dishes include foie gras raviolis with truffle cream sauce, as well as hazelnut and milk chocolate pastry with caramel ice cream and a touch of sea salt."

That sounds good, and it probably looks good. And it'd probably cost me a year's pay to buy dinner for four with entrees like that.

But all that stuff didn't cut the mustard with Michelin's venerable inspectors. Mere presentation isn't everything.

Michelin’s rubrics include: products, cooking, style, dependability and consistency. That’s a five point sermon right there.

Speaking of Sweaters: D1NT

Speaking of sweaters, Debbie Tenzer, the founder of Do One Nice Thing , or D1NT, is asking us to send sweaters to Baghdad.

If her name sounds familiar to Homiletics readers, you shouldn't be surprised. We profiled her in the September-October 2007 issue ("D1NT" 16-20). D1NT released the following press release:

February 27, 2008 – Debbie Tenzer, founder of DoOneNiceThing.com, a website that encourages people to do one nice thing every Monday, announced today: "We are launching 'Sweaters for Baghdad' – a project to send sweaters to U.S. Chaplains for needy Iraqis."

Iraq is experiencing one of the coldest winters ever, and U.S. soldiers want to help families there. Volunteer service members, led by their Chaplains, are requesting warm clothing from home so they can give it to Iraqi families who are freezing.

Tenzer said, "Most of us have an extra sweater or sweatshirt that we can spare. By sending it to the Chaplains, we can help Iraqi families and support our soldiers too. Handing out our sweaters will help soldiers strengthen bonds of trust with the local people. Plus, Iraqis will know that people all over America care about them."

A sweater does not have to be new. Any size or style is fine as long as it is clean and in good condition.

"This is a great project to teach charity and empathy to children. They outgrow their clothing so quickly anyway. How about encouraging them to choose one of their own sweaters to give? They can make a colorful thank-you note for our soldiers too and include it with their sweater," Tenzer added.

Packages should be sent directly to the Chaplains in Iraq at:

MNC-I Chaplain, Attn: Hearts for Baghdad, Unit 42014, APO AE 09342

Photos and more information are available on www.DoOneNiceThing.com.

Mr. Rogers: The Sweater Saint

In case this got by you ...

Homiletics has a great piece for Maundy Thursday called "Thursday Theology." You will want to check it out as you prepare for Holy Week coming up three weeks from today.

But, if you're looking for another angle, here you go:

Mr. Fred "Welcome-to-my-Neighborhood" Rogers, who died of cancer five years ago, would have been 80 years old on March 20--Maundy Thursday.

This event is being marked in many circles by inviting people everywhere to wear sweaters--sort of a trademark of his. I guess you could put on a pair of those nifty tennies he wore, too.

I could easily meet with my congregation on this very special evening during Holy Week by sitting on an ottoman, slipping on a sweater and my shoes and launch into a very casual conversation of just what keeping the commandments of Jesus is all about.

"Do you know what a 'commandment' is, boys and girls?"

Perhaps the thrust of the conversation would be how to be a "Sweater Saint." What are the core values that Mr. Rogers, himself an ordained Presbyterian minister--if memory serves--embraced? How do they match up with those of JEsus himself?

Might also talk about the nature of a sweater itself as a symbol of community: it's a garment of warmth and comfort, and it's made by "knitting." See apostle Paul to examine the "knitting" metaphor a little more. (Yes, I know he was talking about joints, ligaments and bones.)

Might also talk about sweaters coming in all sizes and styles, and colors ...

Do you have a Women's Circle in your congregation? Knitters? If they get those needles flying, they could have 50 sweaters knitted up in no time!

Or you could invite everyone to wear a sweater to the service--but not tell them why. Then provide a patch that says "Sweater Saint" to give to everyone as a discipleship reminder.

No?

Just some thoughts.

Trying to help.

Your Power Point

We know what pointpoints are. They're like slide presentations capable of showing graphics and animations. We use them in many ways. Homiletics even offers ppts for all of the sermon prep materials from Sunday to Sunday.

But that's not what I want to talk about in this quick little note.

I was passing through San Francisco a couple of days ago, and peered out the airplane window as we taxied out to takeoff.

When the Boeing 737 was just about to make the final turn at the end of the runway before takeoff, I noticed a rectangular sign in the grass off to the side. It read: TAKE OFF POWER POINT.

A yellow line extended from there across the runway. I had noticed the jet before ours toe up to the line before gunning it for blue sky.

The sign got me to thinking about takeoffs and power points. There are a lot of things that need to happen before a plane takes off. Lots of stuff that needs to be checked, and doubled checked. Lots of preparation work. Lots of mechanical checks.

Like in life.

You finally get to the yellow line. Everything else is history. It's now time to power up. I wondered where the yellow line was. I wondered about what my "power" point was.

I only know that to "take off" I need to have a power point, and then I need the power.

I chatted once with Calvin Miller who was then teaching Homiletics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. I can't remember what the conversational context was, but he said that you can get anything off the ground and into the air if you can generate enough thrust. "You can fly the Empire State Building if you have enough thrust," he said.

That made an impression. Now, as I watched the plane ahead of ours, I saw a multi-ton object lift off the ground far down the runway and sail off to an unknown destination. Soon we were in the air.

And I knew that if and when I find my power point, and with enough thrust, there's nothing that can stop me.

The Devil Made Me Do it Redux

If you're wanting to preach on the nature of humankind, the sinful nature, "fallen man," our "heart of darkness," read on.

If you're over 40, you'll remember Geraldine, Flip Wilson in drag, who--when caught in some random act of shopping madness--would shriek: "The devil made me do it."

Today, Standford professor emeritus, Philip Zimbardo, is saying something of the same thing, only he's calling it "The Lucifer Effect." It's his way of trying to explain why good people go bad. His research dates back to the early 70s when he was part of the classic experiment when college students became "guards" and some became "prisoners," and then switched roles. The "guards" became so ruthless after six days they had to shut the experiment down.

Zimbardo now has a web site to promote his book: www.LuciferEffect.com. Here are the opening paragraphs from that web site:

Welcome to LuciferEffect.org, official web site of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (Random House, 2007). In this book, I summarize more than 30 years of research on factors that can create a "perfect storm" which leads good people to engage in evil actions. This transformation of human character is what I call the "Lucifer Effect," named after God's favorite angel, Lucifer, who fell from grace and ultimately became Satan.

Rather than providing a religious analysis, however, I offer a psychological account of how ordinary people sometimes turn evil and commit unspeakable acts. As part of this account, The Lucifer Effect tells, for the first time, the full story behind the Stanford Prison Experiment, a now-classic study I conducted in 1971. In that study, normal college students were randomly assigned to play the role of guard or inmate for two weeks in a simulated prison, yet the guards quickly became so brutal that the experiment had to be shut down after only six days.

How and why did this transformation take place, and what does it tell us about recent events such as the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses in Iraq? Equally important, what does it say about the "nature of human nature," and what does it suggest about effective ways to prevent such abuses in the future?

Please join me in a journey that the poet Milton might describe as making “darkness visible.” Although it is often hard to read about evil up close and personal, we must understand its causes in order to contain and transform it through wise decisions and innovative communal actions. Indeed, in my view, there is no more urgent task that faces us today.

I think we'll do a Homiletics installment on this some time in the near future. I think we can find a biblical text that deals with the subject ...

Beware the Boomerang Bounce

I came across a story on one of the wire services about a boomerang that once thrown didn’t return to its owner for 25 years.

Actually there’s more to the story than that.

An American tourist saw this boomerang in the Mount Isa museum in Australia and liked it so much that he lifted it, and got it out of the country.

But he was racked with guilt for over 25 years, so much so, that he sent it back to Australia along with a full confession of the crime. He hadn’t known how his mischief would boomerang. The report did say what sort of penalty he was going to face. I suspect the thief wouldn’t care. Not now. He would probably be relieved.

Thought this might be a useful story for you as you prepare for Lent. Sin has a way of doing this—returning to us in ways we didn’t expect.

In guess during Lent, we’re invited to toss those boomerangs as far as the east is from the west, and Someone’s gonna catch it and not let it come back.

I haven’t worked out this metaphor too well, but there’s one there somewhere.