Lent Haiku

Last night, after enjoying their soup supper (and mac & cheese - there's mac & cheese every week for the picky-eaters club), CtK youth wrote some haiku for the season.
I got the idea from a colleague in Oregon, who writes a haiku, instead of taking a photo, but uses a Photo-a-Day challenge for his themes. If you're inclined to do something similar, post in the comments. And please use #ctkbozeman on any social media posts, so we can find you!

I just asked our youth to think about Lent and Ash Wednesday. Here's what they gave me:

Sin infects our souls
Dark ashes upon our heads
Death will not conquer
...

+ + +
I gave something up
Ashes are on our faces
We are all sinners
+ + +
We are forgiven
It's the beginning of Lent
Ashes to ashes

I wanted to say more on Sunday during the sermon...

Friends in Christ,

I wanted to say more last Sunday during the sermon, but I ran out of time.

I have posted here a quote from Father Robert Capon, an Episcopal priest who has written a number of excellent commentaries on the Four Gospels. I have read many of his books and use his commentaries (where appropiate) when I prepare to preach.

I was directed to this quote from Capon by Rev. Brian Stoffregen, who has written many fine commentaries on the Four Gospels as well. You can find Stoffregen's commentaries at www.crossmarks.com.

I love the quote from Capon. He is rock solid as a theologian, and he doesn't mind telling the church to stay on message, that is, preach the Good News of God in Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sins.

In Easter joy, Pastor Grant


Here is a quote from Robert Capon (Hunting the Divine Fox: An Introduction to the Language of Theology, [pp. 132-3] republished in The Romance of the Word: One Man's Love Affair with Theology [p. 345])to help us understand the nature of forgiveness and being the church.
... The church is not in the morals business. The world is in the morals business, quite rightfully; and it has done a fine job of it, all things considered. The history of the world's moral codes is a monument to the labors of many philosophers, and it is a monument of striking unity and beauty. As C.S. Lewis said, anyone who thinks the moral codes of mankind are all different should be locked up in a library and be made to read three days' worth of them. He would be bored silly by the sheer sameness.
What the world cannot get right, however, is the forgiveness business – and that, of course, is the church's real job. She is in the world to deal with the Sin which the world can't turn off or escape from. She is not in the business of telling the world what's right and wrong so that it can do good and avoid evil. She is in the business of offering, to a world which knows all about that tiresome subject, forgiveness for its chronic unwillingness to take its own advice. But the minute she even hints that morals, and not forgiveness, is the name of her game, she instantly corrupts the Gospel and runs headlong into blatant nonsense.
The church becomes, not Ms. Forgiven Sinner, but Ms. Right. Christianity becomes the good guys in here versus the bad guys out there. Which, of course, is pure tripe. The church is nothing but the world under the sign of baptism. ...

We Easter people have been sent to forgive sins.

Thursday Thought

If the Church valued reconciliation over judgement, it would have to surrender its fondness for black-and-white, either-or thinking. Our tendency of reducing the most difficult matters to the simplest and starkest of terms cripples our ability to understand and appreciate the moral complexity inherent in many issues. Worse, it predisposes us toward language of hostility when sympathy and understanding are most needed.
 ~ Philip Gulley

A dark September anniversary

The day began beautifully. It was late summer. The trees had hints of orange and yellow color, waiting to turn vibrant red by end of fall.

I did not suspect what was coming next.

I would fall that day, crippled by the heartbreaking news.

And one day I would stand again, lifted up by the strong arms of our crucified and risen Lord.

September 11th is coming, but that’s not what this blog post is about.

I am talking about the death of my first marriage, which began the third week in September 2001. It is one of two dark September anniversaries in my life.

I wish someone who had attended the wedding on September 1st, 2001 had spoken the truth to me in love.

You see, no one did speak the truth to me in love about my distorted attraction to a person who was not ready to get married. No one spoke to me about the misgivings they had the week prior to the wedding or the night of the wedding rehearsal. No one spoke to me, and my marriage ended three weeks later when Karen told me “she was unsettled.”

It took another thirteen months for the divorce to go through and to be finalized.

I may start asking couples preparing for marriage “May I speak to the members of your wedding party to see if any of them have objections to you two being wed?” Maybe my first wedding would have stopped before it began if Pastor Susan had asked my wedding party the same question. At least three people in the wedding party had their doubts about Karen and me, but kept it to themselves.

St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, the thirteenth chapter: “Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.”

Rejoicing in the truth sometimes means speaking the truth in love to a friend.

Will you speak the truth in love to a friend before they make a big mistake?