the ear of a teacher...

The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens - wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

Isaiah 50:4

this is especially for you teachers out there. i know that not everyone has been blessed with the gift to teach; however, i think this will be applicable for everyone.

it is interesting that this passage in isaiah not only says that this "servant" has been given a tongue to teacher, but, also, and perhaps more importantly, he has been given an ear to listen. there is a cliche - do not speak before you think. i think that God wants even more than that, though. God instructs us, especially teachers, not to speak before we listen.

why? because before we can teach, we must give the subject matter we are teaching an opportunity to "speak" the truth of itself to us. there must be a time for our notions about an object to be corrected by the object itself. this cannot be done through study and observation alone. spending time listening first is the only way to teach honestly, for how can we teach what we do not truthfully know.

this is especially true for God. we can read all about God... in the bible, in theology books, in forwarded emails. we can build up all kinds of knowledge about God, and we can think we have this God-stuff pretty much down based on this learned knowledge. but this knowledge does not mean that we "know" the subject matter - God. it would be inappropriate for me to sit somewhere public, observing someone without them knowing it, and then think that i can make a judgement about who this person is without ever having talked with them. i could probably tell you a little about this person, but i think, for the most part, i would be very wrong about him/her. you see, relationships are dynamic and mutual. we have to constantly hold our ideas about someone up to this person and allow them to be corrected. this is the only way to truly get to know someone.

God gives us the opportunity to do this with Him.  He gives us the opportunity to move towards the truth of who He is. One of the psalms in the lectionary today states, "...you have given me an open ear" (psalm 40:6). the more literal translation is, "...ears you have dug for me." this might be a gross imagine, but it is describing the fact that God has dug out holes in our head in order to hear Him correctly. God has to give us the ability to hear Him, as we cannot hear Him otherwise because He is wholly other (this is the meaning of "holy"). you see, we cannot inherently understand God. He is beyond our common experience in His transcendence. there is nothing for us to compare Him to or no previous experience that allows us to assimilate Him into our knowledge. but God has blessed us with this ability to hear and know Him. however, we must be very careful. this relationship we have with Him demands our constant correction and repentance in understanding as we come to know Him more.

can you imagine if i thought that i could teach about God simply because i had taken some seminary classes? this alone is not what prepares me to teach. it is certainly helps in my understanding of God, but in the end, all the seminary classes in the world cannot provide what i need to teach about God. instead, i must be attentive to who God is revealing Himself to be through listening to Him.

as we are all students, i challenge you all to listen for God, allowing Him to reveal Himself and correct your notions of who He is. i pray that you would not think that simply going to church or reading the bible would be enough. a relationship, as i am sure all of you know, takes more than this. i also pray that you will discover what i have discovered - that He is a lot more majestic and amazing than i could have ever imagined on my own. i also challenge all you teachers out there: be careful how you teach. be sure you are not only reading books about your subject matter, but make sure you are spending time in silence, allowing your subject matter to "speak" to you the truth of itself.

cheers,

jw <><

SNOW!!!!

i am excited to say that we have had  18 inches of snow this month, and it is still snowing! today it is snowing while the sun is shining!  it is SOOOO beautiful!  

wednesday was a snow day for pittsburgh!  it was snowing up, down and sideways!  so...  jon and i went out for a walk in our snow globe town!  this was high quality snow!!!

e l i z a b e t h

the environment...

i will admit that i am an environmentalist. i believe that God, the Creator of this magnificent universe, has entrusted us with the care of the earth He created. we do much to pollute and destroy it, thinking that we can strip it of all that it is worth. this is irresponsible. instead, i think that we are called to tread lightly and do what we can to protect this gift that God has given to us. we need to work towards more sustainable living, not taking more than the earth can give and replanting what has been taken. this is not only an issue of environmental morality, but it is an issue of human morality, as we have created situations where people in certain areas have nothing to live on due to the stripping of resources. let us remember that we have been called to participate with God in what He is doing in this world through Jesus Christ, the Word through whom the creation came into being, and I think part of this work is the redeeming of creation.

with that being said, however, i wanted to share an article with all of you. it was written by the founder of the weather channel, john coleman. this article brings into question a recent belief that has been wildly popular and is driving political agenda; further, it is one that i believed to be correct. i will let all of you make up your minds about this article, though. regardless of its truth or fiction, i do not think it relieves us of our responsibility to take care of our corner of the world.

http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html

cheers,

jw <><

the putting to death of the fallen self...

...I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me...

Galatians 2:19-20

everyday i wrestle with my humanity. i live selfishly. i think and say mean things about people. i am apathetic. i am not compassionate. i fail to trust God. i pray half-heartedly. it sort of makes one wonder why, if i have been crucified with Christ and He is living in me, i do these things.

the fact is that my fallen humanity is dead. it has been all along. you see, if i can do nothing but sin without the help of God (and sin is death), then my fallen humanity is dead. the problem is that, despite being made alive in Christ, it still has influence in my life. when Christ engrafts us into Himself, who is the Life, He so brings us to life and allows us to share the benefits of His Sonship. however, we are not simply dissolved into God. our humanity does not simply disappear, but we are brought to a place where we can, with God's help, live as we were created to live.

God did not create me to be selfish, or mean, or apathetic, or in any other way that is not of Him. what a stupid thing we say when we say, "that's just the way i am." no, actually you weren't created to be that way. but this corrupted part of me is trying its hardest to pull away from this fire that is burning it away. this part of me wants to be autonomous. it wants to draw itself back into non-being, away from God, where it is comfortable in its misery.

so everyday i struggle with these things. on good days, i remember that Jesus Christ took these things onto Himself on the cross and defeated them for my sake. they have been crucified.

yet, it should be our daily prayer that the parts of us that are dragging us into non-being, would be crucified, for these things do not know that they are dead... and that they are dead-weight. thankfully, we worship a God who, as Nichole Nordeman says, gently moves over us like a river moving over a stone, smoothing out our rough edges, and reshaping us into what He had in mind all along.

cheers,

jw <><

a few thoughts...

i have tried to refrain from making any comments that are political in nature since the election; however, i have a few things i would like to comment on...

1. why is there $4.19 billion in the new economic stimulus plan for acorn? how exactly is this going to create jobs? seems like a pay-off for their work during the election to me, but, then again, who am i?

2. why is obama asking republicans to put aside politics to get the stimulus plan passed when this plan is a wish list of democratic spending items? so the republicans should put aside politics, but the democrats don't have to? all this talk of being bi-partisan is making me nauseous. friends, bi-partisan does not mean that one group gets what they want while the other doesn't.

3. why is there talk of reinstating the fairness doctrine? is it just me, or do we take freedom too far and end up destroying it? for those of you who don't know what this is - the fairness doctrine requires that for every talk radio show (or other things that are broadcasted) there has to be equal air time for opposing views. while it sounds good, it actually kills freedom of speech. the last radio station to suffer the consequences of this doctrine from the early 80's was a christian station, which didn't have an opposing view to the christian beliefs it expressed. the radio station lost its license to broadcast. talk radio died during this time because of the costs and challenges of ensuring the regulations were followed.

4. in a time of economic crisis, why did obama immediately reinstate legislation that sends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars (i think it was between $700 and $800) to foreign countries for abortion? this will surely create the approval and respect of the muslim nations that we have become so desperate to receive.

5. speaking of muslims, why does obama believe that telling the muslim extremists that we "respect" them will all of a sudden make them not hate us anymore? is it just me or does trying to use rational means with irrational people seem extremely naive? friends, i hate to be pessimistic, but the muslim extremists are always going to hate us. they hate us for who we are, not because we don't respect them. what exactly had we done to them pre-9/11 that caused them to murder us? nothing. we were just being us. 

they aren't going to like us just because we send some hippy love vibes their way. this is the nature of being irrational. you can't talk someone out of being irrational with rationality. have you ever lied awake at night worrying and tried to convince yourself everything was going to be okay in order to go to sleep?  it doesn't work, does it? that is because fear is irrational. it cannot be driven out by rational thinking.

this is my opinion (which isn't worth a whole lot): obama talked about putting our childish ways behind us in his inauguration speech. part of childhood is naivete. it is time we all wake up and smell the roses. america isn't going to change because of inspiring speeches. the economy isn't going to prosper by turning to a welfare system (winston churchill once said that trying to create prosperity through a welfare system is like someone trying to lift themselves off the ground by standing in a bucket and pulling up on the handle). despite its appeal, big government has never helped prosper a nation. religious extremists aren't going to respond to rational conversation. america has to stop trying to please everyone, we have to give up our obnoxious insistence that the world owes us something, we have to stop confusing rights and privileges, we have to stop putting off personal responsibility and relying on government to save us, and we have to get off our butts and work. this is what made this country great, and this is the only thing that will allow it to return to prosperity.

sorry to be so negative, but someone has to be realistic.

cheers,

jw <><

out of options...

She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.

Mark 5:26

it is pretty amazing how slow we are sometimes. why is it that we stick to our plans no matter their lack of results? yesterday's lectionary reading was about a disabled man who had been sitting next to the healing pool for 38 years, waiting for his opportunity to get in when the waters were stirred. 38 years!!!! that is close to the average life span of someone in this time. he had never gotten in; yet, he continued to sit there.

in today's reading, the woman had been bleeding for 12 years - only about a quarter of the time the disabled man had been ill. still, she had tried everything. the result - she was out of money, out of options, and was growing worse. it was 12 years that had been wasted - 12 years in a life that is all too short to begin with.

it seems that sometimes we have to hit rock bottom (and then some!) before we hand our plans over to Jesus. what is Jesus' response to our plans, which we have religiously clung to despite the fact that they have repeatedly failed us? his response is, "do you want to be healed?" translation - "are you ready to give up your plans and allow me to show you the way?"

friends, may we not create plans and stick to them despite their ineffectiveness. instead, may we search out God's plans for us. may we continually hold up what we think His plans are for us for Him to shine His light on and correct. may we not bleed for 12 years or sit crippled for 38. may we not waste our lives chasing after our own plans. may we be healed, pick up our mat, and run after Jesus.

cheers,

jw <><

HACKENSAW BOYS and PIZZA

REMEMBER ME???? i used to blog here 1 million years ago! haha

sooo... our internet has been down at the seminary for a few days now, and i have found myself itching to blog. how funny is that! i have been totally inspired by the hackensaw boys! i am going to post a video if i can remember how to do this. the video does not do them justice, but i want to spread the word. it was the craziest concert i have ever seen!!!!!!  yes, one guy is playing tin cans... with spoons... that he wears strapped to his chest.  also, at any moment it looks like their eyes are going to pop right out of their heads! it does not get anymore bluegrassy than that my friends!  I LOVED IT!

hope you enjoy! the sound quality is not heard as well when listening online...




another important update from the land of pittsburgh...  our new favorite pizza place is bites and brews! we went friday night before the concert with a bunch of friends and got a huge pizza with 8 slices for $6.00! it was awesome, and we are going back very soon. happy hour is a lot happier than i ever thought it could be... haha!

we had a surprise snow storm this afternoon.  jon and i were enjoying a sunday afternoon snooze and woke up to 1 1/2 inches of snow!  what a beautiful sight to see!!

until next time...
e l i z a b e t h

unplugged...

just wanted to do a little update on the lack of blogs the past two days. our internet connection went out right after i sent that blog friday morning and has been out ever since. i am at panera right now.

hopefully our connection will be back up tomorrow when our network administrator comes back from the weekend. as soon as it is back up, i will be posting again.

go steelers!

cheers,
jw <><

poem...

Willing to die,
you give up
your will, keep still
until, moved
by what moves
all else, you move.

Wendell Berry

waiting...

Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him...

Psalm 37:7

recently, i have been doing hospital visits for members in the congregation i am serving. i don't know if my presence has done anything for these folks, but i have learned a lot about life in the few visits i have made.

you see, hospitals aren't just a place that people go to get well... or maybe to die... but hospitals seem to be places where people go to wait. everyone in the hospital is waiting. people are waiting to see loved ones who are not well. patients are waiting to be seen by doctors. some are waiting for test results or to go into surgery. others are waiting to be released to go home. a few are waiting to pass on from this world. everyone that i have gone to see has been waiting for something.

i will admit that i have felt rather helpless in the hospital. i don't have the results that people are waiting for, or the drugs that will relieve the pain they are in or make them well, or the answers about what decisions to make concerning their health. so, i have found that my job is to wait with them. this waiting is not without purpose, though.

it seems most of my life has been about waiting. wait to get to drive, or to graduate high school, or to get married, or to go back to school. now, it seems i am waiting to be done with school, to get a job, to have children... but so often in life we run ourselves ragged in these times of waiting. we don't create opportunities to stop and think. we don't live in the moment. we just go, go, go, go, go to get to what we are waiting for. and as one of my youth pastors used to say, our lives end up like whirlpools. everything looks great until the jets stop, and all the junk that was unseen in the raging waters floats to the surface. it is all the junk that we don't want to deal with, so we keep ourselves busy in order to avoid dealing with it.

hospitals force us to stop... and wait. it is unfortunate that it is only in times that we are unwell that we stop and wait, for there is great value in this waiting. it is patient waiting (no pun intended, serious!)- albeit somewhat forced because there is nowhere to go and nothing to do.

it is in this time that Jesus becomes so apparent. it is in this time that He can deal with the junk in our lives. not that He wasn't always there, but it is just that He is less apparent when we try to fit Him into our schedule. scripture shows us that Jesus doesn't work on our schedule. in fact, there are instances where people are upset with Jesus when He doesn't show up "in time," and someone has died. as if God's timing isn't always perfect.

the thing is, we have to learn to stop and patiently wait for God. He will reveal what He is up to. He does this on His time, though... not ours. in the meantime, maybe we should stop waiting for things to come and enjoy the things we have.

so this is what i do in hospitals. i patiently wait with others. and Jesus always shows up.

cheers,
jw <><

creating good soil...

And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.

Mark 4:20

in preparing sermons, i have come to understand that i must speak in ways that makes the message accessible to the congregation. this is hard work. not only does the preacher have to exegete the scripture, but the preacher must exegete the congregation, in order to speak God's Word to them in their needs.

but the work that a preacher does in preparing the sermon does not do much good if the congregation doesn't understand that they too have a task, which is perhaps even more difficult than the preacher's task. this task is not to critique the sermon - how "good" the sermon was in terms of entertainment or in terms of the preacher's ability to deliver it. instead, their task is to receive the Word of God.

the problem is that we have been trained to listen in a specific way. it is much like the way we are taught to read. we read for information purposes. we read to analyze... to pick out specific details that we find relevant.

further, information is cheap. we are exposed to all kinds of information daily, which we simply put in our information database and move on. this information doesn't affect us.

when we read the Word of God, it must be done devotionally, though. it isn't simply for information... it is to find the living God through the words, which scripture tells us are dead (the letter kills!). if what we are reading doesn't affect us, we aren't reading it correctly.

the same thing happens when we listen to a sermon. if we can listen to a sermon that doesn't affect the way we live, the Word has fallen on bad soil. i realized the other day that most of the time i come out of a worship service wanting to analyze the sermon because i didn't prepare the soil of my heart to receive the Word. i leave the church no different than i went in.

friends, we have not been attentive to God if we are unaffected by His Word. because we are sinful, we cannot receive His holy, perfect Word and remain unchanged. we, by nature, cannot receive it without being affected by it, just as a piece of gold cannot be put into a fire without its impurities being burned away.

may we all figure out how to listen devotionally that the soil may be prepared to receive the seed that will produce fruit in our lives. may we create room for God to dwell within us, burning away all that is not of Him.

cheers,
jw <><

hope in God alone...

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God...

Psalm 146:3-5

on this inauguration day of our 44th president, let us remember that we do not put our trust in men and women. our trust is in the Triune God, our Creator and Redeemer. there is one Messiah, and His name is Jesus.

rulers come and go, policies change, nations rise and fall... but there remains one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

cheers,
jw <><

unity in God...

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.

Ephesians 4:14-16

on this day that we celebrate the life of martin luther king, jr., and all that he did to unify our country, it seems appropriate to speak of our unity in Christ. this is, indeed, a day that we recognize how far this country has come in terms of race relations. we have made progress and, hopefully, will continue to make progress in this area.

dr. king revealed the importance of unity - that no group of people should be treated as sub-human. he helped america see that we were all created in the image of God and that life should be valued in light of this truth.

but i fear that our country is more divided than ever over different issues. we say that we value unity but not at the sake of what we have deemed as necessary "progression" in society. we think that only when we achieve this progression will we be unified.

to this, i fear that we have pushed progress for the sake of progress and seek unity for the sake of unity. may i say that we are confused about what is truly progressive and unifying?

let me explain. someone once asked me if i would support peace and unity over purity in the church. this question is ridiculous to me, however, because peace and unity without purity are only distortions of peace and unity.

peace and unity only occur in Christ. if this is the case, these things cannot occur in a way that is inappropriate to Christ. you see, the only way to be progressive is to come together in ways that seek to support life, not destroy it (do you ever remember Jesus doing anything other than healing people?), in ways that seek to recognize that people are created in the image of God, not to support them to live in ways that are a distortion of this image (does Jesus not heal peoples' afflictions and then instruct them to "go and sin no more"?). as athanasius said, sin is a movement into non-being because it is a movement away from the way God created us to be. any movement for the sake of unity into non-being is no unity at all. do we really wish to be unified in our non-being? if so, that should be a piece of cake. this is not possible, however, because unity does not come at our terms. it comes by the terms of God in Jesus Christ.

we have been deceived by these discussions, however, because they have been masked with language of freedom and rights. friends, freedom to sin is no freedom at all in the end. as paul warns, let us use our freedom, not for selfish gain, but for Christ. in Him, we have been set free. using our freedom for sin only creates for ourselves a prison. in light of this, perhaps we should evaluate things we have deemed progressive. are they, in fact, really regressive... a moving away from God instead of a moving towards God? do we really want to support a freedom that only imprisons people?

further, let us not be confused about the difference between right and privilege. may we stop making demands about things we think we are entitled to. the world owes us nothing.

unity is extremely important. may we grow up together in Christ and discover that it can be used to give people true freedom to live by truth in love.

cheers,
jw <><

bumping into Jesus...

Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.

John 4:28

Jesus interrupts our lives. He has a knack for doing this. Right when we are in the middle of living our lives, doing things that we have deemed important - maybe even essential - Jesus shows up. we had no expectation to find Him here. we were just trying to get by. nonetheless, He shows up. we had come looking for the ordinary, and we find the extraordinary. we find what really sustains... what really gives life.

and if we are smart, we leave behind what we were doing. we drop our plans, our expectations, and we allow the one who controls the universe to have control over our lives. we allow our lives to be rearranged... re-prioritized. then, we run to the masses to share the Good News.

cheers,
jw <><

desires...

May he grant you your heart's desire,
and fulfill all your plans.

Psalm 20:4

what is it that i desire? it seems that we have translated passages like this to mean that God will bless us with all the material blessings that we want. we have turned the gospel into something to do with worldly prosperity. and what happens when He doesn't give us material possessions? does it mean that He is punishing us?

perhaps God gives us more than material possessions. perhaps our heart's desire is something that is God-given... not human created.

st. john of the cross went through what he called the dark night of the soul. it was during this time that everything was stripped away from him. in this time, he was challenged to love God, even when this came with no extra blessings. could i love God if i went through a job-like experience... a dark night of the soul?

it was during this time that st. john discovered the most amazing thing, though. he realized that God was the blessing. he realized that God is in fact giving all that He can give, which is much, much more than material blessings. God gives us Himself. this is our heart's desire. God has created us with a God-shaped hole in our souls that only He can fill. and He fills it with Himself. we see this in psalm 20:7. it states, "some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the LORD our God."

perhaps we will discover that when we recognize that God is what we desire, our plans are shaped by what He plans for us. for when we desire God alone, we are able to truly participate in His life and work in the world.

cheers,
jw <><

the path...

"You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of
joy;
in your right hand are pleasures
forevermore."

Psalm 16:11

there are a lot of choices that we make in life. when we come upon a fork in the road, we struggle to decide which road to go down. which way is the right way to go? which way will lead me to God? many times, it seems to me, that it doesn't really matter, though, as long as we are walking with God in the first place.

john calvin says that the right hand of God is omnipresent. this means that no matter what decisions we make, God is there. we spend way too much time deciding which way to go and very little time looking for God along the way. friedrich nietzsche said of tourists: "they climb mountains like animals, stupid and sweating; one has forgotten to tell them that there are beautiful views on the way up." i think that this is me most of the time... just struggling to get up to the mountain, forgetting to enjoy the view that is a product of the effort.

what if we knew that God was always with us? it seems that recognizing that we are in the presence of God is the only way to discover that "there is fullness of joy." fullness... as in lacking in nothing. what a place to be in life...

cheers,
jw <><

the silence...

Though the air is full of singing
my head is loud
with the labor of words.

Though the season is rich
with fruit, my tongue
hungers for the sweet of speech.

Though the beech is golden
I cannot stand beside it
mute, but must say

"It is golden," while the leaves
stir and fall with a sound
that is not a name.

It is in the silence
that my hope is, and my aim.
A song whose lines

I cannot make or sing
sounds men's silence
like a root. Let me say

and not mourn: the world
lives in the death of speech
and sings there.

Wendell Berry