"The Lights of Advent"

As we enter this time of Advent, the Office of the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has released a video about the meaning of the season. The Rev. Sharon Watkins, joined by the current Moderator team, speaks of the light of this season, representing the Light of the world, Jesus Christ.

Advent Devotionals

I've been enjoying the first few days of the Advent Devotionals that are available in the Narthex -- the 2010 edition of Partners in Prayer (from Chalice Press) and the latest from Mountaintop Prayerscape (from the West Virginia region). I hope you've taken the opportunity to pick up copies or to follow Mountaintop Prayerscape online.

Devotionals are a wonderful tool, especially for busy people. For each day, there is a short Bible passage to read, followed by a thoughtful essay, then ending with a brief prayer. It's food for the soul.

These are both excellent devotionals. Many of you have met some of the pastors from West Virginia who contribute devotions. If not, you can treat yourself to the wonderful diversity of gifts and styles of Disciples pastors around West Virginia. This year, in an attempt to enhance the diversity and not ask for multiple devotions of everyone, David Chafin, the Deputry Regional Minister who puts the Mountaintop Prayerscape together, has used other material for some days. On Monday, in place of a reflection, was a modern translation of a beautiful Advent hymn, the Laurentius Laurenti.

Also, I find the Chalice Press devotional especially appealing this year because it is written by a Disciple who is younger than I am -- and people my age and younger are rarely asked to write seasonal devotionals. Bonnie Carenen, who I met while she also was a theological student in Chicago, has a vibrant perspective on the season and on the church. And her devotions, thus far, have been inviting and life-giving.

I hope you take the opportunity to read one or both of these devotionals this Advent season. And I hope you find the practice so helpful that you begin to read devotionals each day to help encourage and guide you along your spiritual journey.

New Media Workshop at Bethany College

The Christian Church in West Virginia and Bethany College have teamed up to sponsor a workshop on "The Church and New Media" at the end of October. Led by several people, including Andy Lang the Minister of Web Community and Communications for the United Church of Christ (whose work is widely respected), the workshop will focus on how the Internet and other new media can aid the church in worship, evangelism, and membership development.

I plan to attend the entire event and am interested in seeing if anyone would be interested in also learning about these things. Registration is due by October 10 -- see me if you have questions!

How Well Do You Know Religion?

The Pew Forum released the results of a study about American knowledge about religion. The results were discouraging, especially those that indicated no real difference in knowledge based on frequency of church attendance -- in fact, atheists and agnostics scored highest as a faith-affiliated group (in their case, unaffiliated group).

Here's a chance to take about half of the quiz and see how well you'll do.

I scored 14 out of 15 (embarrassingly, I seem to be unaware of the general religious affiliation of Pakistanis).

The average score was 50% right overall. More disturbingly, Christians asked questions specifically about Christianity and the Bible scored 50% (though Mormons got almost 75% as the highest subset of Christians).

Perhaps the questions were not a perfect assessment. I'm not sure that a majority of Americans should know that Maimonides was Jewish (only 8% got that one right). He was an important medieval Jewish thinker, but I'm not sure that's basic religious knowledge. The role of religion in school, the names of the four gospels, and others which were known by less than half of the respondents, should be better known, as should the name of the Islamic Holy Book (known by only 54%).

Polls that show people know basic facts (the name of key public officials, historical dates, etc.) rarely make news. Polls that demonstrate a lack of knowledge seem to make a much bigger splash. But it is sad to see how little people know about something that many claim is a central part of their lives.

The report on the full quiz and the results is here.

Coming Up Sunday, September 12

On Sunday, we will have the bonus film in our "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series 2: The Sequel," featuring the classic summer blockbuster Jaws. Directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the bestselling novel by Peter Benchley, the film tells the story of a local sheriff of a New England resort town trying to cope with shark attacks in the shallow waters along the public beach.

Here is the original trailer for the 1975 film:

"None of man's fantasies of evil can compare with the reality of Jaws," says the ominous voiceover on the theatrical trailer. In Jaws, the shark becomes the modern form of the mythological water monster that has been a threatening character in the stories of most human cultures -- including the American culture, most famously in the Herman Melville novel Moby Dick. The water monster is an ancient character, appearing in most ancient mythology and even appearing a few times in the Bible, usually as a character called Leviathan.

Leviathan, the great sea monster, is a terrifying thing that most have heard of, but few have seen or know much about. The fear is heightened by the unknown: how big is it really? what does it eat? where does it live? what are the warning signs that it is near? In the movie Jaws, the shark is virtually unseen until the end, which not only adds to the suspense but allows the viewer's imagination to create the horrible sea monster in the mind.

This explains why Jaws is scary. But why is the shark evil? Perhaps it is rooted in ancient mythology, where the sea monster is not only large and dangerous, but also persists in threatening humans, for little apparent reason. Christianity, in the book of Revelation, makes this more explicit: the sea monster is the devil himself, expelled from heaven. This certainly describes the great white shark in Jaws.

Our question for Sunday is to explore the nature of fear and demonization, as it is apparent in the treatment of the sea monster. What scares us and why? And what makes us identify something -- or even someone -- as evil? Both themes are evident in the movie Jaws and are in the Jewish and Christian scriptures, referring to Leviathan.

Supporting the Kairos Prison MInistry

In about a month, a team of men will join together to reach out and minister to several men incarcerated in Huttonsville Correctional Center. The four-day program seeks to share God's love with several of these men, hoping that they will be willing to join a small group ministry within the prison.

There are several things you can do to support this very worthwhile effort that will change lives by sharing the love of Christ.

First, you can pray. Pray for the men who are in jail. Pray for their families. Pray for the prison staff. Pray for the Fairmont area men who will travel inside the prison walls to serve. And, if you are willing to commit an hour, you can join the official pray vigil which will occur during the 72 hours of the program. You can view the vigil and sign up here.

Second, you can bake or make cookies. The team will take over 2500 dozen cookies inside the prison as a sign of God's overflowing love. There are no strings attached to the cookies -- in fact, there is not even literature that accompanies them. They are given simply as a gesture of doing something nice without expecting anything in return.

Cookies must be homemade. They should be sorted into 1 quart zip-top plastic bags -- one dozen per bag. (Cookies should be cooled before bagging.) There can be no powder, coating, or icing on the cookies, and they cannot contain fruit or nuts (normal chocolate chips are okay). Cookies should be about 2" to 2 1/2" in size. Oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chip, no-bake, and sugar cookies are all popular. If you bake in advance, you may freeze cookies, until you bring them to church to place in the bright pink tubs by September 19.

Third, you may offer financial gifts to offset the costs of offering this ministry. Checks may be made out to "Kairos of West Virginia," and are tax deductible. I will be happy to pass along your contribution.

The men in prison have made mistakes, sometimes terrible mistakes. But they still do not fall outside of God's love or care. Sometimes, though, they may feel like they are outside of everyone's love and care, given that they are separated and isolated from their families and friends. It is important for us (who have also made mistakes, who also have felt isolated and alone) to reach out to them with compassion and love -- to serve them as some of God's earthly hands and feet, offering a reminder of God's love.

Coming Up Sunday, August 29

This Sunday we will enjoy "Family and Friends Sunday," sharing worship with many of those who are close to us. We will have lots of music, courtesty of Brooks, the choir, and others, and we should enjoy (according to the forecast) a bright sunny morning together.

We will also conclude this summer's batch of movies from "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series 2: The Sequel." This week's movie is "Eat Pray Love," starring Julia Roberts in the film version of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir. Here's the trailer:



The movie is about a unique -- maybe fantastic -- response to a mid-life crisis: running away from life for a year to find oneself. And what a year: four months in Italy, enjoying architecture and lots of great food; four months at an ashram in India, learning to meditate; and four months in Bali, evidently to learn the secrets of life. Not everyone is an established writer who can sell a publisher on such an endeavor (with the mandatory book to follow), but the escapism can point to deeper truths in our lives.

You might be surprised to learn that there are mid-life crises in the Bible (Jacob and Moses both immediately come to mind). I think that the book of Ecclesiastes is written by someone familiar with the burning questions of the mid-life crisis: why am I here? what's the point? what should I be doing with my life? and others.

Sunday, we'll briefly explore the questions, and why we have them, before exploring Ecclesiastes' fascinating answer.