Big Week Summary

Woohoo! Reading week is over and classes are about to resume; but it has been a big week. Tuesday was my silent retreat day at Notre Dame Spirituality Center in Ipswich; Wednesday was the prison visit and sermon; Friday I preached twice; and Saturday our youth group worship team had its long awaited practice.

It has encouraging week. As I look forward to the time when more and more of my weeks may look like this past one, my faith is being expanded to see how God can accomplish more through me than I reasonably try to imagine. Not that sermons and meetings are the goal of ministry-- life change is; but if those are the means by which God works out transformations, then it's encouraging to see that I can at least keep up with the work load.

The second message on Friday night, by the way, found its way home into somebody-- the teens are a good, welcoming group to teach to.

I wish I had pictures to show you, but I wasn't allowed to bring a camera to the prison... imagine an inmate three times my size death-grip-handshaking me while another guy lifts me up via wedgie. (just kidding... they were very very very warm and brotherly)

MCI Shirley Visit

I just returned from a visit to MCI Shirley-- one of the Massachusetts prisons-- where I got to worship and preach at the medium security evening worship service. It was awesome! The men there were hospitable (one of the guys kept bringing me water) and introduced themselves. The chapel was packed-- I'd say we had 80 or more guys there from all over the demographic scale. Blacks, Whites, Hispanic, at least one Asian guy, elderly gentlemen, middle-aged men, and some fiery younger guys, about my age. There were new believers and folks who had been in church forever.

Perhaps where it was different, though, was a the real sense of joy and thankfulness that was there the whole night. It wasn't a fake emotional high, either-- they were themselves for the most part; but they were grateful to be in church, to worship the Lord and have fellowship with one another. It was so different from my experiences at some larger, big-scale churches I've been to. It reminded me a lot of what drew me towards ministry at the Dorchester church where I used to serve-- the warmth and gratitude that didn't lose sight of reality, but praised God in spite of it. I love visiting and being at churches like that. I wish I could get to know those folks better-- I bet some of them have some amazing stories of God's work in their lives.

My sermon went well. The sermon from Jonah 1 was entitled "Mercy That Won't Let Go" and it was about how we hate to ask for mercy, but the God who chases us down with storms is the same God who runs after us with arms wide open, literally dying to show us mercy if we turn around and ask him for it. Their liveliness and encouragement made them the easiest bunch I ever had to preach in front of. I pray that the word would take root and bear fruit in their lives. This was probably the best part of this first semester for me. Thanks for praying =)

Preaching again this Friday... Jonah 2 this time. I'm still working on the hermeneutical idea... it hasn't appeared yet. If you'll lift up a prayer for me, I'd be grateful.

The Weight of Voting

I believe it was eight years ago, my second year in college, that I was huddled in Xenia house in Middlebury, along with a friend nervously awaiting the results of the presidential election. You may remember that it was the year of the Hanging Chad and Florida Recounts. I didn't know much back then... earlier in the day, I had gone down to the town gym to cast my ballot for George W. Bush because he was a conservative who agreed with my stance on abortion and other litmus test issues. Over the next few years, I always felt the responsibility of having elected him. When Mr. Bush soared and inspired the country in 2001, I felt that. When we saw the mistakes that came after-- Iraq, No Child Left Behind, etc., I felt that, too.

I don't know if I know much more now than I did then. I may still be blinded by qualities that I admire or positions that I believe are sacred which may turn out to be non-factors after all. But I do want to be more intentional about weighing my vote. In the end, God will elect the leader that he has in his plan-- whether for our temporal good or for our temporal evil-- but I'd hope to choose the one for our temporal good.

In an election year like this, it is harder than ever to know how to vote. The issues that have defined the evangelical platform are no longer so agreed upon. There is much dissatisfaction with the American church's tie to the conservative agenda and with the Republican party's candidate. The policies of small government are frankly un-biblical as the government is ordained to hold up the downtrodden against poverty.

The Democratic Party, however, continues to be a tough swallow for most evangelicals because of its acceptance of the abortion practice (I won't quote numbers, but astronomically more preborn kids lose their lives every year than total casualties of war in Iraq-- including civilians.) It is this one issue that prevents me from registering as a Democrat. Other unbiblical areas of the liberal social platform are less egregious to me (same sex marriage, school prayer).

Who is a candidate who can set an example of integrity, justice, compassion, responsibility, wisdom, humility, and faith while always choosing the right? There probably is none. But I'll vote for one that looks close enough.

Pray, Christians. Conscience demands it. Pray.


Update on Jonah sermon-- it went well considering it was my first time back. I had fun listening to the distracted comments of 6th grade boys that punctuated my talk. It might have been a little abstract for them-- the idea being that God chases down runaways to show them mercy.

I'll be preaching again next Wednesday, at a state penitentiary-- same Jonah text-- and next Friday to the youth.