Buechner on Preaching

I will be preaching tomorrow at the church where we are now members. I came across this on Facebook from Fredrick Buechner, preacher, writer, storyteller extraordinaire. I will let it speak for itself about preaching. (I have edited the presentation of it, but not the content, to show my emphasis.)

I HAD NEVER understood so clearly before what preaching is to me. Basically, it is

• to proclaim a Mystery before which, before whom, even our most exalted ideas turn to straw. It is also
• to proclaim this Mystery with a passion that ideas alone have little to do with.
• It is to try to put the Gospel into words not the way you would compose an essay but the way you would write a poem or a love letter—putting your heart into it, your own excitement, most of all your own life.
• It is to speak words that you hope may, by grace, be bearers not simply of new understanding but of new life both for the ones you are speaking to and also for you.
• Out of that life, who knows what new ideas about peace and honesty and social responsibility may come, but they are the fruits of the preaching, not the roots of it.

-Originally published in Telling Secrets

First Sunday in Advent: The Mystery Continues

I was sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops the other day thinking about today- the First Sunday of Advent. Here's part of the assigned lesson today from Mark 13:35:

Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn,

This is part of Mark's little apocalypse where tradition says Jesus is talking about the "Second Coming." It is used on this First Sunday in Advent to make sure that in these weeks of Advent we don't lose sight that this isn't just about something that happened a long time ago in a world far away. It has a future as well.

But if course as anyone who knows anything about the church is aware, the study of the "Second Coming" is fraught with multiple interpretations, misunderstandings and textual abuse. As I was thinking, I overheard a conversation at another table. Some of the people there were in some sort of "seminary" program. One person said his first class in the morning was "The Mystery of Salvation." What a great phrase! It says in four words my whole theology of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. Every Sunday as part of the Episcopal Eucharist we see, hear and say:

Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith:

Celebrant and People

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.

Don't ask me to explain it. It is

• beyond rational, 
• deeper than logic, 
• older than any theology trying to make sense of it.
• It is an experience of God! 

It isn't, I believe, expected to make sense. Yet we Christians spend so much time trying to explain it so we- or others- can understand.

We have come to dislike mystery. Even the greatest hero of our mystery stories, Sherlock Holmes, solves all his cases by sheer logic, an "uber-rationality" that can always be explained, even if those explanations are so deep that normal people would miss them. Someone, somewhere can describe the events and understand what they mean, even if I can't.

I find that kind of life quite dull. I like mystery. It humbles me. It keeps me on my toes- "What else is there I don't know and can't explain?" That is exciting.

So I Googled "mystery of salvation" and found a good quote from the website "Today's Christian Woman." Since it is from a more conservative web site, I was pleased to read of their acceptance of the great and unexplainable mystery of salvation. It is something to ponder today as we start our annual journey to one of the three great mysteries of our faith, the Incarnation (life) of Jesus.

God has decided to leave us with mystery that we're expected to embrace—even when we don't fully understand. But mysteries are difficult to control and grasp, and so we try to make sense of them all.

While a rationalized approach to reading Scripture makes us feel better because we have everything "figured out," this approach reduces the meaning of Scripture to the human limitation of "sense." In the end, it doesn't make God more knowable and it risks his nature, character, and will. So although it may make "sense," it negates Scripture's authority because it's superseded by our limited reason.
--Link

My Reading List

Just kind of sitting around looking at nothing in particular as I was updating the old blog here. I looked over at the book list through this week. So far this year I am at 56 books, a little more than in the past, perhaps even in record territory. I am sure that part of that is because of my semi-retirement, a full month away in Alabama, and just generally working on the books. It is amazing how many excellent books are published each year.

One thing that struck me, though, was the split in the year between fiction and non-fiction. I have generally read more non-fiction than fiction over the years. There is so much of so great an interest in the world that I can hardly keep up. (Understatement!) But I also love fiction, the top-notch books that expand one's world through the imagination and writing of excellent writers. I also enjoy a good mystery, crime procedural and science fiction. If they are just plain entertainment- that's okay, although there is often a great deal of insight into the human condition in any good novel.

In any case I noticed that this year has an overwhelming difference between the two halves of the year so far. From January through June I read 12 novels of the 33 books read.

Since July 1, though, there are only 4 of the 23 that are novels- and I read those in the past month or six weeks. One thing I did notice overall is that I have been trying to pick up on some older and even classic novels like the Sound and the Fury, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hitchhiker's Guide, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. I had promised myself that I would try to get to read some of these that I never read before. I have found that an excellent idea.

The list does not include any of the books I have been mining for the series on my Dad's time in World War II. I am not reading those cover-to-cover, but as I said, mining them for information. Some of them are truly deep mines!

I guess, then, that at least one of my goals for my move into retirement is working- I am reading more than ever. And there are so many more out there to go. It is a wondrous, never-ending stream of excitement, insight, life, and challenge!

Have You Watched This Series?

Longmire is a 10-week series on A&E this summer.

I have been a fan of Walt Longmire as the lead character in Craig Johnson's series of mystery books about him and his work as Absaroka Co., Wyoming, Sheriff.

I have been thoroughly enjoying the well-written, directed, and acted series which comes to episode 7 tonight at 10:00 Eastern time.  Robert Taylor (right)
plays Walt Longmire and has certainly caught the spirit of the book's star. The shot at the right is what I would have expected from Walt. The look captures who and what he is.

But in order to also get you thinking about the really excellent series of BOOKS that spawned this, let me say a few other words about what you will find there that, so far, has not been on TV.

Native American spirituality and a Western US Magic Realism. In almost every one of the 8 books in the series Walt comes face to face with forces and visions beyond the every day realm. Whether it is ghost warriors or talking crows, his visions give a side to the spirit of the Western states that is missing on TV. Maybe they were afraid that such things would work against the TV series, and they may be right. But it is a truly refreshing and unusual viewpoint presented without explanation. It is simply part of the landscape- and Walt accepts it that way.

The other piece missing from the TV series that is outstanding in the book is the deep and lengthy relationship between Walt and his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, a local Cheyenne that Walt regularly refers to as "The Cheyenne Nation." At one point in book 8 (just out last month), Henry is described as what the things of the night are afraid of. Sadly that has not been shown on TV yet. Lou Diamond Phillips as Henry looks just too young for the wise and rambunctious Henry. Phillips does well, but the racial tension between Henry and Walt on the TV is NOT the same as in the books. Johnson in the books makes them a yin/yang friendship, each providing what the other isn't.

With all that, Longmire, the TV series is worth the weekly hour. The scenery is as much a part of the story as the characters. And I get the sense that as the series goes on it may just begin to find the same Magic Realism of spirituality that Johnson has mined so richly. They are building a great story line and I fear a real cliffhanger that will drive me crazy until next year.

I am looking forward to it.

(BTW, here is a good article on Criminal Element interviewing Longmire Staff Writer Sarah Nicole Jones)

What is It About Tampa?

It was almost three years ago, mid-August 2005 when I turned on my laptop at the Tampa airport and it was dead. Mother board gone, as it turned out. The result was a new laptop, but we did salvage the data.

Today, I turned on my Nikon D40 at the Tampa airport and it was acting funky. I managed to get the picture I wanted- and then nothing. I called Nikon last night when we got back home and the guy was completely puzzled. He had no idea why it was doing what it was doing- and more to the point why it wasn't doing what a camera is supposed to do.

Fortunately the camera worked great for all the wedding and other shots I took while in Florida. Many will show up over at the pmPhoto Blog I am sure.

Now the mystery may have something to do with whatever the machines are that they use to scan things at the Tampa airport. It would be strange to think that they are using the same machines three years later. But it is even more strange- more than a coincidence(?) that both these electronic events took place in the same place.

I surfed the net a while and found over and over the assurance that there is nothing that can harm the camera or laptops. I guess I have to believe it otherwise there would be a lot- and I mean a lot- of people filing complaints. So, my camera is off to the shop.

Oh well. At least I still have the old stand-by Casio digital in case mine is not available for the 60 mile ride in 5 weeks.