Shine On Harvest Moon

For reasons that will become apparent, the following song lyrics have been playing in my head for the last couple of days.

Oh, Shine on, shine on, harvest moon
Up in the sky;
I ain't had no lovin'
Since April, January, June or July.
Snow time ain't no time to stay
Outdoors and spoon;
So shine on, shine on, harvest moon,
For me and my gal.

I would think that many of you know these lyrics, as well. They are the chorus to a “Tin Pan Alley” song that premiered one hundred and two years ago at the Ziegfeld Follies. This song, which was first sung in 1908, has been recorded by dozens of artists over the past century.

The song refers to what is known as “The Harvest Moon”. Generally speaking “The Harvest Moon” is the full moon which is closest to the autumnal equinox, the first day of Fall. This year Fall will begin on September 23, which is also the day of the Harvest Moon.

The song, “Shine On, Harvest Moon”, while kind of catchy in its own way, propagates the myth that the Earth’s moon actually shines by itself. The moon does not give off any light of its own. The moon soil and rock color was reported by the astronauts who landed there, over a generation ago, as grey. The moon only appears to shine because it reflects the light of the sun. Most people know this, I hope, but it bears repeating.

I started humming “Shine On, Harvest Moon” because of something I heard during our family’s morning devotions. We are reading from Christian author, Max Lucado’s book, “It’s Not About Me”. Pastor Lucado recounted the story of Nicolaus Copernicus, the great Polish astronomer. It was Copernicus, a Catholic priest, who first formulated what is known as a “heliocentric cosmology”, which argues that the Sun, and not the Earth is at the center of our solar system. Prior to Copernicus’ time people believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth and not the other way around.

Pastor Lucado went on to say that seen from outer space the Earth, the Moon and the other planets all seem to shine with their own light, when in fact all that these heavenly bodies are doing is reflecting the light of the Sun. He then went on to point out that Christian people are called to reflect in the lives the light of the Son of God in all that they do and say. All this got me to thinking about Copernicus, the Moon and the “Tin Pan Alley” song of 1908.

I will not presume to steal any of Max Lucado’s ideas. I’ll merely expand of them just a tad. Sometimes we Christians, after we have done something that we know we should, like feed the hungry, offer forgiveness to a former enemy, visit the lonely or tell others about our faith in Jesus Christ, we forget that it’s not really us who is doing these things; it is Jesus Christ who dwells in us who is doing these things. Blessed St. Paul the Apostle wrote, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13).

When we do the things that Christ calls us to do, (see Matthew 25:31-46), we are reflecting the love of Jesus Christ in our lives like the Moon reflects the light of the Sun. Maybe it would be good to think of ourselves as moons or planets circling around the Son of God. We do not shine with our own light. Without Christ in our lives we are as dead and barren as the surface of the Moon. But, with Christ in the center of our lives we can reflect the light of Christ, the very love of God, in our dealings with all people.

I heard of a congregation that used to give out something they called the “Layman of the Year” award. This particular group of Christians would vote to select that one person who they thought best showed the love of Christ in his or her witness to the gospel. They gave this award to inspire others. Their motives were not bad. Maybe just a little misguided.

One year they selected a very devout and faithful man to receive the award. The presentation of the award took place at an annual church supper and no one except for the pastor and several other leaders in the congregation ever knew who was going to receive the award at the dinner. When the man’s name was announced and he was called forward to receive the award he shocked everyone present by refusing to accept it. “I was only doing what Jesus wanted me to do. This award isn’t mine. It belongs to him.”

The man in question had a good grasp on what it meant to be a person who reflected the light of Christ in his life. It wasn’t about him. It was about Jesus. As I understand it that congregation never gave out the award again.

Our lives are to reflect the glory of the Son of God. We are to reflect Christ’s light. Maybe when you look at the Harvest Moon on September 23 you might think about that. I know I will.

Thinking About Psalm 24

Recently, my family traveled to Montana for our annual family vacation. We spent about ten days in and around Glacier National Park, which is located in the northwestern corner of the state. Glacier, and the surrounding area, is absolutely stunning. The high, rugged snow capped peaks of the National Park have been referred to as “America’s Alps”.

Glacier is filled with all kinds of marvelous wild life. During our forays into the park we saw mountain goats, big horn sheep and mule deer. I was more than a little disappointed that we never saw either a black bear or a grizzly bear. As a matter of fact, my family told me to stop saying, “Now if I were a bear, I think I’d be standing right over here.” I would utter those words whenever we drove or hiked past a clearing in the woods that looked like it should be populated by a bear. (Truth be told, the only way I wanted to see a grizzly was from the safe confines of my car. Grizzlies have killed and mauled people in Glacier.)

While hiking around and driving around Glacier National Park the words of the 24th Psalm kept echoing in my head; “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it”. I said those words out loud as I was hiking down a snow covered mountainside. Across an alpine valley I saw sheer mountain cliffs, glowing with an impossibly beautiful orange color in the afternoon sun. I had just seen, standing within four of five feet of me a female mountain goat and her kid. (Some of the animals in the park are so used to people they will wander right up to you.) I was so inspired by what I saw that I started to sing “This is My Father’s World”. No one, except for God, was around to hear my praise.

After being in such a beautiful place it is more than a little hard to return to the normal work-a-day world. While waiting in the line to be poked and prodded by the TSA inspectors before boarding our return flight home, I found it hard to believe that a mere two days before I had been in such a marvelous place. Looking at my fellow harried travelers, taking off their shoes before going through the airplane screening devices, the words of the 24th Psalm seemed faraway and distant to me.

It is easy to believe those words, “The earth is the Lord’s” when you are looking at a beautiful landscape, be it lofty mountain peaks or the pounding surf of the ocean. Yet, those words are true when you are standing in line in an airport or in the grocery store. Those words are true when you are driving. Those words are true at all times and in all places.

Everything, absolutely everything in this world of ours does indeed belong to God, who fashioned us and created us. After returning from Glacier I realized that when those words are confined to praise at the goodness of God’s creation they are kept somewhat safe and distant. The words of David in the Psalm are radical and challenging precisely because of what they say, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it.”

That’s pretty heady stuff. As I write these word to you, I see scattered across my desk the following items: the computer screen and keyboard, the case for my reading glasses, my cell phone, a pen, some business cards and a container of paper clips. (There is actually more, my desk, at the moment is very cluttered.) Do the words of the Psalm mean that all that stuff I listed is God’s? Are the words to be taken so literally that they mean that my new Glacier National Park coffee mug is the property of God? After all, I shelled out the cash for the mug. Wasn’t that my money that bought the mug?

The Psalm is pretty clear, it seems to me. Sure, those lovely mountains in northwestern Montana belong to God, but so does the clutter on the desk belong to God. I merely get to use the paper clips, drink my coffee from the mug, (Opps! The coffee in the mug is God’s, too.), and borrow the cell phone. All the things that we think we have and we think we possess belong to God.

This realization, and it can be a hard one, might just lead us to be better stewards of what God gives to us. To realize that everything we have belongs to God, who in his great goodness and love gives us things for a time, should fill us with a profound sense of awe and gratitude. I felt a profound sense of awe and gratitude when I looked at those stunning mountain peaks, why don’t I feel the same sense of awe and gratitude when I’m sipping my coffee?

Psalm 24:1 can help us to recover a proper sense of awe and gratitude for all that God has done for us. As Luther reminds us in the Small Catechism, the daily bread that we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer includes, but is not limit to, “everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” All of these things, and much, much more come from and belong to God, who loves us so very much that we gives us even mundane things like computer keyboards, coffee mugs and cell phones.

I need to live out my life in realization of Psalm 24:1. All of these marvelous and mundane things belong to God. God is so very good to me that He gives me all things. For this I should always honor, praise and glorify His Holy Name. And so should you, as well.

To Tell The Truth

Some of you will, I hope, recognize that the title of this offering recalls the popular TV show of years past. This will not be a review of that TV show. Instead, I'd like to tell you of a fascinating scene that I saw while watching an episode of "Smallville" with my daughters.

For those of you don't know, "Smallville", now in its ninth season, tells the story of Clark Kent before he embraces his identity as Superman. The writing is remarkably cleaver and witty. Superman fans, such as myself, delight in phrases characters speak and situations which relate back to comics and previous Superman shows and movies. For example, Clark Kent on his first day of work at the Daily Planet changed clothes in a phone booth, recalling the old black and white TV show and early comic books.

In the fifth episode of season eight, Clark and Lois Lane investigate a series of murders of newly engaged couples. It seems that a psychotic jeweler, whose wife had left him for another man, has been kidnapping couples. He would then take them to a basement underneath his store. He would then place the man and the woman in a pair of homemade electric chairs facing one another. Not only that, but each person was connected to a lie detector.

Our psycho jeweler would then ask the man if he had ever cheated on his future wife. If the fellow lied, and the lie detector revealed the lie, the wife-to-be would receive a huge electric shock.

The ghoulish jeweler would inform the horrified husband-to-be that it was his lies that would cause the woman who loved and trusted him to suffer.

Clark and Lois get hooked up to the machine. Clark's superpowers are countered because the jeweler is wearing a bracelet studded with kypronite. The mad jeweler asks Lois if she loves Clark. Because Clark is hooked to the electric chair his powers have left him; if Lois doesn't tell the truth he could receive a shock that would kill him.

Clark pleads with Lois to simply tell the truth.

"Well", says the ghoul, "Do you love him?"

Lois whispers out, "Yes".

The machine does not show a lie. Clark receives no shock and is able to escape from the chair and safe Lois and himself from further harm.

Later Lois claims that she was able to slip a sensor off of her finger before she was asked the question, thereby denying that she really loves Clark. No matter, the storyline of "Smallville" has been advanced. What neither Lois and Clark realize, but what all fans of current day Superman comics know, is that they will indeed marry in the future.

I think that this episode of "Smallville" is one of the best of the show's eight year run. This episode could be shown in Bible Study classes, Sunday School Classes and confirmatioin classes because it speaks to a general truth. Our lies really hurt the ones we love more than they hurt us.

Imagine the man who has an affair. In order to sucessfully cheat on his wife he must tell lie after horrible lie. Perhaps, he misses a child's school program to be with his mistress. Undoubtedly he tells his child a lie. He had to work. Traffic kept him from getting to the program. When his lies are found out think of the incredible suffering and pain that will come to his children.

During the Monica Lewinsky affair a good friend of mine said that he couldn't believe the pain that Bill Clinton's adultry and lying had caused to the President's daughter. "How could he do that to her?", my friend wondered.

Our lies most harm the ones we love. The ghoulish jeweler was teaching a frightening lesson in turth telling. I wonder how we would conduct ourselves if our children, spouses and friends were jolted with electricity every time we told a lie and misbehaved ourselves. If we saw suffering in front of us how would we live?

Civil Discourse

The month of August, 2009, will be remembered by me for two things. First, during this month some members of Congress have returned to their home districts to conduct so-called “Town Hall Meetings”. The electorate has been attending these meetings in record numbers. “Town Hall Meetings” used to be reserved for “policy wonks”. However, because of the national debate on health care reform the meetings have been packed to overflowing.

Not only have the meetings been filled with lots and lots of people, but they have been marked with a lot yelling and shouting. By now all of you have seen on TV pictures of some people quite literally screaming at members of the House of Representatives and members of the Senate. Passions have, indeed, been running high.

The national debate on health care reform is an important one. I will not debate or offer my views on the merits or the demerits of the plan(s) that are being considered by members of the Congress. One thing I will say is that I am very thankful that I’m not a Representative or a Senator. Is someone got into my face, screaming at me, at just might be tempted to poke the offending party in the nose. (Just kidding!)

What is sad to me is the absolute lack of civility in the public discourse. I will defend to my dying breath the right of people to protest and state their deeply held views, beliefs and convictions. The great thing about the democracy in which we live, and for which people have given their lives, is that WE THE PEOPLE (quoting from the cannon of the Constitution) have every right in the world to tell our elected officials our views. Dissent is no sin, as long as it is presented in a civil manner, it seems to me.

The fact that some people, not all people, at the Town Hall meetings are yelling and screaming really should come as no surprise to any of us. Turn on the cable news programs on CNN, FOX and MSNBC and you will see, quite often, people yelling at each other. When my wife and I were newly married I used to watch CNN’s “Crossfire”. My wife referred to it as “the yelling man show”.

I was a very odd teenager. One of my favorite TV shows was William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line”. Mr. Buckley used to debate guests on a variety of issues. He never raised his voice. He never belittled their character. He carried on reasoned discussion. No wonder the show was lost in ether of noise with the advent of the cable news networks.

Our elected officials have not helped the tone of debate in this country. Both Democrats and Republicans harangue one another. It’s not quite as bad with members of the Senate where there is more of a tradition of civility, than in the rowdy House of Representatives. Yet, some senators should have their bottoms spank for the mean and spiteful things they say about the character of other people.

You might be interested to know that in Robert’s Rules of Order, that both houses use to guide and conduct their business, there is a provision that a member may not ever question the character of a fellow member. Following that provision would lead to civil discourse. Some of our elected officials might want to bone up on Robert’s Rules.

The second thing that August of 2009 will be remembered by me for is the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis. Regardless of what you may have thought about the outcome of various votes, particularly those on human sexuality, if you watched any of the assembly at all on the Web you must have been impressed with the civility of debate. (I will not give my views on those votes in this particular venue, at this time.)

I did watch some of the debates concerning various resolutions. The resolutions concerning human sexuality, by their very nature, raised some intense feelings in people both in and out of the assembly hall. When speakers went to the microphones to express their views, they may have been passionate about their views, but the vast majority of people speaking, that I saw, at least, seemed to be working to remain civil to even those people with who they disagreed passionately.
I do believe that the delegates at the assembly modeled good, Christian discourse. They are to be commended for that, regardless of one’s views concerning the outcome of votes.

It is hard to state one’s views without anger and rancor at times. Blessed St. Peter in the third chapter of his first letter reminds us:

8Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing. 10For “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit; 11let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it. 12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 13Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16yet do it with gentleness and reverence. (I Peter 3:8-16)

A Christian person can, indeed, have a strong view, even a passionate view. But, the Christian person must always in the heat of debate realize that Christ died and rose again for the sake of the person they are debating. To scream at another person isn’t just bad form, it is to deny Jesus’ profound love for those we debate and disagree with.

I have friends who don’t see eye to eye with me on all manner of issues. Yet, we never become nasty, we never become testy. We work hard at maintaining a bond of peace.

If only people could remember such things as they debate and disagree with each other.

Too Far From Home

I have always been interested in space flight. As a little boy, growing up during the glory days of the US space program I would watch every Gemini launch, sometimes even faking an illness to stay home and watch Walter Cronkite describe a launch. I send letters to NASA asking for pictures of the astronauts and other information. I built plastic models of space ships (rather badly). I turned several large boxes into Gemini space capsules, cutting open portholes and decorating the outside of “the capsule” with the letters USA drawn in crayon.

As an adult I have continued to be enthralled with space flight. I watched Ton Hank’s wonderful HBO series, “From the Earth to the Moon”. I own the movie “Apollo 13”, which stars Hanks. I have built, or better to say rebuilt, plastic models of spacecraft and done a fairly good job, I might add. I have been to the Kennedy Space Center several times to see launches of the Shuttle.

As an avid space fan I’ve read dozens of wonderful books, some by the astronauts themselves, on space flight. I just finished reading a marvelous book by Chris Jones, Too Far From Home. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in modern day space flight.

Mr. Jones book recounts a little known and hardly remembered story in the history of the US space program. Too Far From Home tells the story of three men, two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut, who became stranded in space aboard the International Space Station after the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in early 2003. Immediately following the loss of Columbia the entire US shuttle fleet was grounded for two and a half years. The three men on the ISS were left orbiting 290 miles above the surface of the earth.

The three man crew was eventually returned to earth by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The men stayed aboard the ISS several months longer than had been planned. At first, all three men were content to be in space, even with no way of getting back to earth. They had enough food, water and other supplies to last them in orbit. They enjoyed living in the weightless environment of space.

They were especially enthralled with looking at the beauty of the Earth passing beneath them. Everyday they witnessed fourteen sunrises and sunsets. They could see the glorious colors of the Northern Lights. They witnessed lightening storms far below them. They even saw meteors burning up in our planets atmosphere from above.

Their view of earth was Godlike. Yet, they were totally and completely removed from Earth. They could gaze on the surreal beauty of Earth from space with no way to get to the planet and more importantly the people they loved.

It would not be too much of a stretch to say that a deep gulf or chasm had been fixed between those space travelers and the earth when the Columbia was lost.
Luke, the gospel writer, tells us a story of a gulf or chasm in his reporting of Jesus’ parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). In the parable the rich man finds himself in hell because of his lack of care for the poor man, Lazarus, who used to lay at his gate. In the story the rich man can see Lazarus in paradise with Father Abraham. He can see a place of life and refreshment that he cannot get to because, as Abraham tells him, “between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and one can cross from there to us.”

That was pretty much the situation of the men of Expedition Six, the official designation for those three standard space travelers. They could see Earth. They could speak to Earth. They could e-mail their friends and families. They gaze at the beauty and the goodness of Earth, but they couldn’t get to Earth anymore than the Rich Man could get into paradise.

It’s that sense of being so close, yet so far away that makes Too Far From Home a compelling read. It’s that sense of being so close, yet so far away that makes the reading of the parable frightening. We, some of us, are raised to think of hell as a separate reality cut off from the vision of heaven. But, that’s not what this parable suggests. The Rich Man can see the party that Lazarus is at. He can’t get there. As some wags might say, “and that’s the hell of it”.

The men of Expedition Six did get back to the good Earth. The chasm and gulf was bridged by their capsule when it streaked back to earth.
Jesus tells his parable to us, I think, as something of a warning. The chasm between Abraham, Lazarus and the Rich Man was a result of the chasm that the Rich Man had set between himself and Lazarus during their lifetimes.

What, I wonder, are the gulfs and chasms that even now I am setting between myself and other people?

So Why Does the Bible Begin With the Creation Account?

This morning I was happily reading "The Meaning in the Miracles" by Jeffrey John. Mr. John was commenting on Jesus' healing of the crippled woman in Luke 13:10-17. In this particular healing account Jesus is rebuked by the leader of the synagogue for curing the poor woman on the Sabbath. This is just one such account of Jesus misbehaving himself on Sabbath Day.

Mr. John in his commentary on this healing made an observation that transfixed me for a moment. He writes: "They (meaning the Jewish leaders) have forgotten the original meaning and purpose of the Sabbath- to bring people release and freedom, not further burdens of oppression- and in doing so they have become instruments of oppression themselves."

The Bible begins, in Genesis, with the account of God creating all that is in six days. On the seventh day, God rests from his labors. One interpretation for why the six day creation account with the seventh day rest time even appears in Genesis is that the entire account, Genesis 1:1-2:3, helps to explain not just God's creation of all things, but also, why, precisely Jewish people rest on the Sabbath.

One can imagine a child asking his father or mother in long ago Israel, "Papa, Mama, why do we, unlike our neighbors, rest on the Sabbath?" The good parent might very well have launched into the story told in Genesis. After reporting that the Almighty Lord himself rested the parent may have said, "As God rested, so we too take our Sabbath rest."

All well and good. The account does indeed seem to offer a justification or a rationale for Sabbath rest.

However, when I read Mr. John's fine book I was struck with something else and even had something of a "Eureka moment". Mr. John's contends that the meaning of Sabbath is "release and freedom, not further burdens of oppression." Is it not the case that the story, the whole story that both the Old and New Testaments will tell is God bringing freedom and release to his people? The Bible begins with a story then, in its first pages, of God bringing freedom and release to his people through the gift of the Sabbath. As the story then continues from Genesis through Revelation we will see God continually bringing freedom and release to his people.

The first creation account in the Bible might very well be providing us with a lens to read the rest of scripture through. God as the lover of all people brings freedom and release from all the foul powers that would enslave us. I think this account is setting us up for that.

So, the purpose of the first creation isn't merely an explanation for how all things came to be (any faithful person will know that all things came to be through God) nor is a mere explanation for taking the seventh day off. No, I think as we remember what the purpose of Sabbath originally was, to bring freedom and release, we will see as we keep reading through the Bible's pages precisely how God brings freedom and release to all people.

Lent: An in-between Time

I once heard Garrison Keillor, host of the radio program, “A Prairie Home Companion”, quip that God had made the month of March for people who don’t drink so they would understand what hangovers are all about. March is a pretty drab month. It’s not quite winter and not quite spring. Many days in March are overcast. Yards look like sodden messes with broken sticks, brown grass and leaves that escaped the rake the pervious Fall.
Author Thalassa Cruso wrote of the month of March, "March is a month of considerable frustration - it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country the weather is still so violent and changeable that outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away."
March to me has always seemed like an in-between time; much like the month of November. November isn’t quite Fall and not quite Winter. Likewise, March is not quite Winter and not quite Spring. That’s what makes this month so very maddening for me. There is a hint of new life to come in Spring and yet Winter isn’t quite over. March certainly is an in-between time.
How very fitting that the most of the season of Lent falls in the month of March this year; Lent is something of an in-between time in the life of the church. The church has just completed the celebration of Jesus’ birth during the Christmas season and pondered Jesus’ identity during the days of the Epiphany season. (Epiphany is that season where the identity of Jesus is made manifest to us.) Lent bridges that time of having learned who Jesus is, during the season of Epiphany, with that time of watching Jesus suffer, die and rise during the Great and Holy Week and Easter.
Lent is a bridge from the birth and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry to the work of salvation that he has come to do on our behalf and for the sake of the whole world.
How fitting then that Lent this year mostly falls in a month whose character is the bridging of the seasons. This year we will celebrate Easter towards the middle part of April when nature will have fully awakened from her long winter slumber.
It’s in March that we start to see the first slight stirrings of the return of life. Daffodils will begin to break through the surface of the earth this month. Even now sap is running in trees that have been sleeping through the winter months (as anyone with allergies can tell you). Green buds will appear on trees towards the end of the month. Birds that have been long absent from our feeders will begin to reappear.
One has the sense during March of an old order or an old condition beginning to pass away.
As we move through the days of Lent and reflect on them I think we can become aware of an old order passing away, as well. As we follow our Lord Jesus to the cross during these days, during this in-between time of Lent, we are aware that the old order of sin and death is passing away and being replaced with the glory of Jesus Christ. As the days lengthen, as the buds appear during March, as Lent progresses we become aware of the changes that God is bringing in not just the natural world, but also, in our lives in Jesus Christ.
Lent is our in-between time then. It is a time to move from one reality to another. It is a time to consider all the changes that God through Christ is even now bringing into the world.

Dipping My Toe Into the Water

Welcome to my blog. This will be a place for me to share with others my thoughts and musings concerning the Christian Faith and Theology. In this blog I hope I will be able to share my passion for Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am a man of varied interests. A major interest of mine is the way in which I feel God prepares us to hear His story as we read literature and as we watch movies. I am a firm believer that God inspires people in spite of themselves to tell portions of His story in literature and other media.

I recall C.S. Lewis being of the same mind. Lewis felt that in myths and fables God had indeed placed aspects of the story that He was going to present to the world in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. I conjure in this view also.

I hope that you will enjoy what I write and will feel free to comment!