Had to note this.

My crystal ball predicts that things in Africa will be getting worse for the grand majority of residents over the next several decades as the industrialized economies calculate the exact limits of our zero-sum resource game.

Not all are in for bad times, though; I imagine arms dealers will do quite well…

I’ve got a new post up at the Cafe–but regualrs here have already seen the meat of it. It’s a lightly edited version of the piece below on imminence, transcendence, and the place of guitars in worship.

Unfortunately, after reading over the copy again, I now have “Gather Us In” stuck in my head…

is the title of this post over at the Lead pointing to an article in Christianity Today.

Honestly, we’ve been hearing so much about the renewed interest in traditional liturgy from the younger demographic and seekers alike in recent years that I have to wonder why people still think this is news. How long until people stop being surprised by this and realize that it’s what’s out there on the ground?

A lot of Christians want traditional liturgy.

It ties in with a desire for traditional spirituality as well.

We want to base our lives in something that has spoken to the human condition over centuries. I want current events and ephemera in my Prayers of the People—not in my eucharistic liturgies.

We want something that is not easily exhaustible; that has multiple layers and depths of meanings—not a single, obvious, didactic point.

I want to be able to pour over and live into my liturgies for years and die knowing that there are a host of meanings that I missed because I never got around to pondering them.

What will our next prayer book offer?

The reported words of the Bishop of Durham found in the Lead today gives me pause. If letters are going out, I wonder whether they go to the “Southern” Cone or to New York & Friends. I’ll not waste my time nor yours speculating—I imagine if the words are true, we’ll know soon enough.

The girls and I went to M’s church yesterday where there were two preachers. The first preached at the early service which was a set of baptisms of great significance for the life of the local church. The preacher was a visitor from the area who now holds a role at 815. The preacher at the second service was M. I was struck by the contrast between the two.

I don’t like judging a person on the basis of a single sermon or liturgical encounter, so I’ll try not to do that. Let me just say that the first preacher completely met my stereotypes of someone who works at 815: much emphasis on social justice. The church was mentioned several times but I came away uncertain what the difference was between the church and a social services agency.

M’s sermon focused on Jesus as the gate through baptism and the sacramental life in the presence of God as the meaning of “having life and having it abundantly.”

No matter to whom the ABC’s letters go, now is the take for the Episcopal Church as a whole to think careful about who and what it is. My own focus and my own gifts are not those best suited for social justice, but I see that as an important component of what we do deriving entirely from God’s call to us. But we are not a social services agency or an advocacy organization. We are a church. The deep mysteries of life, the beauty of holiness, the life hid in God—these are our core mission and the other things we do proceed from there.

Exchanges like the one yesterday always put me in a pondering mood. Also yesterday I noted on my stats page that someone had visited this old post and I got to re-reading the comment thread. The discussion there kept my thinking going along these lines:

• How do we go about communicating the essential truths and varied riches of the Christian tradition both to those new to the church and to those who have been in it for decades?
• How do we do it in such a way that communicates the doctrinal and propositional truths but foregrounds the contemplative and the mystical?
• How do we invite others into the life hid in God–especially when we are still fumbling on the way there ourselves?

I’ve got some initial ideas but nothing terribly firm yet… What are your thoughts?

Especially the little shocker buttons…

Now–since I teach preaching do I get the special pew in front that has a puplit-shocker for when preachers start rambling/tell one story too many/forget that they’re speaking in relation to a biblical text?

H/t AKMA

I’ve got another piece up at the Episcopal Cafe. It’s here.

As some of the Anglican readers know, Jim Naughton, formerly of the Daily Episcopalian now edits a site called the Episcopal Cafe. He has graciously invited a number of people to participate in this project including me. My first piece is up at the spirituality section there.