Katie Carter, sports journalist

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Nothing like a good book!

Summer is a season for a good book. If you’re searching the bookstore shelves for an enriching read, here are four that I would suggest:

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible – A.J. Jacobs

This book is a hoot! Jacobs is an agnostic who describes himself as Jewish “in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.” He decides to live for twelve months as the Bible instructs. As his hair grows long, he tithes away ten percent, avoids mixed-fiber clothing, and attempts to love his enemies. Along the day he develops a reverence for life

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography – David Michaelis

Out of sadness can come great creativity and deep insight. That’s the central message that I take away from this wonderful biography of cartoonist Charles Schulz. As many suspected, he expressed a good bit of his personal life in his hundreds of Peanuts strips (his ex-wife, for instance, sounded like Lucy Van Pelt -- or vice-versa). Yet his perspective on the daily foibles of human life transcended his own situation. To read the story of his life is an invitation to understand our own lives more deeply.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Barbara Kingsolver

We are what we eat. The problem, claims novelist Barbara Kingsolver, is that most of us have no clue where our food comes from. Is that tomato from Guatemala or Newton Township? Was the beef raised in Wichita or Patagonia? What did it cost to transport it to our table, and how healthy is it? And how does the disconnection of source and consumer affect us? These are some of the questions that prompt her to pay attention to a year in the life of her table. It’s a fascinating take on an increasingly important global issue.

The Jesus Way: Conversations on the Way That Jesus is The Way – Eugene Peterson

The latest book by Peterson is one of his simplest and best. It is not enough to say Christian words, he claims; you have to live the Christian life in Christ-like ways. The bulk of the book is spelling out what that looks like. Gene describes the clues we gain by watching major Biblical characters like Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah, as well as Jesus himself. He counters most of the predominant “scripts” of our culture (consumerism, individualism, celebrity worship) with a compelling invitation to live as Jesus lives.

A good book can expand our worlds, sharpen our commitments, and deepen our faith. Hope you can find something worthy to read – as I also hope you’ll share some good titles with me!

On the road again

Back in third grade, I received my first Bible as a gift from the church. It was – and is - a strange book, full of stories about long-ago people in faraway places. We heard some of those stories in worship and Sunday School, and their curious details sounded so distant. Then we discovered a few maps in the back of the Bible. They charted places on the other side of the world where God had acted or spoken. It all seemed so far-off and exotic, and heightened the distance between then and now.

A trip to the Holy Land in the year 2000 did blow away some of the ancient dust. My dad and I traveled to Nazareth, Samaria, and Jerusalem. Things haven’t changed that much in that part of the world – new buildings have gone up, the generations have come and gone – but people are still essentially the same. Our hopes and fears are identical to our ancient forebears. On that trip, what impressed me most of all is how local the Bible really is: Jesus walked from town to town on the same road that is now paved. He cast out demons in the synagogue on this spot, and ate tilapia fish from that lake over there. He did eighty percent of his adult work within a four-mile stretch on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, prayed in Gethsemane’s garden, and carried the cross through a narrow city street. We can still visit these places.

Some people take comfort in the vague promise that “God is everywhere.” As for me, I have increasingly found it comforting that the Gospel happens somewhere – in certain locations, among specific people, under particular circumstances. There is no timeless truth for the Christian faith. In Jesus, the Word became flesh – specifically – and we know where it happened. To this day, the grace of God continues to have GPS coordinates. God comes to us, where we are, right here in this lifetime, in the specifics of our need. That is the meaning of the Incarnation.

To put it another way, context matters. It matters to our congregation as we plan our work. Where do our people live? What do they do? What are the challenges and blessings in their lives? How might the good news speak to the concrete realities of our lives? And what do we have to say on behalf of Christ?

As I write this, my suitcase is packed for another holy trip. As part of this year’s study leave, I am retracing one of those maps in the back of my third grade Bible. Biblical storyteller Dennis Dewey is leading a tour that leads us through St. Paul’s itineraries. We will see spots in Greece and Turkey where the Gospel took root, and hear the Bible stories in the places where they happened. My Dad will once again be my roommate, and we’re delighted to share the trip with Donna and Andy Kepler, Pauline Heckman, and my mother-in-law Loraine Laubach. Keep us and all other pilgrims in your prayers, and expect us to return with stories of how the Word of God came alive in our travels.

With every good wish for the Story to come alive in you!

Listen to the Preacher

If nothing else, a recent controversy in the presidential campaign has stirred us to think about the power of words… particularly the power of preaching. As you know, the retired pastor of one candidate has had a few phrases from two old sermons quoted incessantly. His words have been saved for an “opportune” time of maximum political impact, quoted out of context, and repeated until every listener was numbed. All of this has served to smear the candidate who sat in that preacher’s pews for the past twenty years.

Let this be a warning to you, my friends: somebody may hold you accountable for the sermons that you have heard.

Perhaps I am the only person in our town who has heard a complete sermon by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Over the years, he has been a frequent guest at a national conference for Christian preachers that I have attended. His sermons were always rooted in scripture, proclaimed Jesus as Savior and Lord, and were delivered with passion. In that particular crowd, the typical response was, “I wish I could preach with that much honesty and fire.”

But the recent flap reminds us that honest preachers may receive death threats, even from people who otherwise profess to be Christian. Jesus said it would be like this, and he should know. Shorty before his crucifixion, he warned his followers, “The hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God (John 16:2).”

Whatever else people say about Rev. Wright, he is firmly within the prophetic tradition of scripture. In the Bible, the prophets did two things: they spoke passionately on behalf of God and they talked back to the kings. In God’s name, the prophets named the injustices of their day, indicated when the emperor wore no clothes, and called the faithful and the unfaithful to account. As a result, they often paid for their ministry with their lives.

Preaching is risky business for all concerned. God certainly holds each preacher accountable. “On the day of judgment,” says the Lord, “you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter, for by your words you will be justified or condemned (Luke 12:36-37).” But God holds listeners accountable, too, for the spiritual condition of an audience determines their response to a sermon. As Jesus aimed his donkey toward the Holy City, he lamented, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Luke 13:34)”

Now that Rev. Wright has begun to re-emerge from protective seclusion, I decided to listen to him once again for myself. I found the online version of his speech at the April 27 dinner of the Detroit NAACP. It was stirring, challenging, and humorous all at the same time. He spoke to empower people to claim their God-given dignity, and received a standing ovation by those in attendance. At least one critic reacted to that speech as “dangerous.” I suppose if you are threatened by racial equality, full inclusion, and holy justice, that would be a natural response. As for me, I have a lot of Bible verses jangling around in my head and reached a different conclusion.

As the controversy continues (and I’m sure it will), here is what I would suggest: read the Bible. In particular, read the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Micah. Take note that God loves the world so much that he sends the prophets to offer a word of correction. Watch what happens to the prophets who speak out against abuse, for they themselves will be frequently abused. Most of all, decide if God’s concerns are your own.

As for me, I’ll hunker down and wait for whatever response comes from writing these words. It comes with the territory.

A few thoughts on living "off the page"

It was one of those late night bickering sessions on the television. You know the type: four panelists from diverse points of view are sitting on easy chairs in a semi-circle. A host with an attitude attempts to incite them into a conversation, picking whatever fights might be entertaining. This is an unfortunate form of entertainment, mostly because the panelists are treated as caricatures, and somebody wants to bulldoze over their cherished beliefs.

This particular show was a thinly-veiled attack on Christianity. Within the first few minutes, the host had ridiculed one of the guests, labeled him as an extremist, and smugly made it known that he was smarter than everybody else in that studio. At the lowest point of the exchange, he pointed a finger at the Protestant minister on his show and said, “You sound like one of those people who says, ‘unless it’s in the Bible, I don’t believe it.’” I turned off the television, but my mind kept working on that supposed insult.

I love the Bible and work with it regularly. I believe the scriptures narrate our faith, in the languages and thought forms of the times when these documents were written. They were inscribed with passion. As one early witness declares, “We declare to you what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.” (1 John 1). They were also written with great care and excellence. The letter to the Hebrews is written in the highest form of classical Greek, the stories of the Gospel of John are arranged with great care, and the sagas of 1 and 2 Samuel are narrative masterpieces. But it needs to be said that faith is always lived “off the page.”

Christian faith existed pretty well without a Bible for the first sixty or so years of its emergence. The New Testament Gospels were not written down until the church’s cemetery began to fill up, and there was the risk of losing all the stories about Jesus. Yet as important as those stories were and are, the church knew there is always Something more important than the Book - and that is the One that the Book is talking about. Christians know that Jesus is alive. The stories about Jesus teach us what to look for. They train us in how to see the invisible Christ. They prepare us to live in his presence, both today and forever.

It’s important to read the Bible every day. Otherwise we are tempted to forget who we are. At the same time, if we keep our noses in the Book all the time, we will bump into the furniture. The hard work of living as disciples of Jesus is to interpret what we read in the day-to-day realities of our lives. The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15) becomes real when family members compete with one another. When we hear the stories of Jesus on trial during Holy Week, they challenge us to rethink what real justice would look like. And when we hear how the Lord’s tomb was found empty, that news can awaken us to live as if death has been defeated, as if brutality itself is on trial, as if Christ is reigning until his last enemy is put under his feet.

Here's the punchline: read the Book, but live off the page.

In a parallel universe . . .

This blog isn't the sum of my life, of course. There's a lot of life that happens "off the page."

In fact, in a parallel universe, there's another blog that narrates one of the projects that I've been working on in my spare time. It's a recording with my jazz ensemble, the Presbybop Quartet, which will attempt to catch some of the music that I've been writing over the past year or two.

You can find that blog at http://psalmswithoutwords.blogspot.com/ - - and I hope you'll check it out!

A week that I never want to miss

For eighteen years in a row, I've spent a week with a group of fifteen other preachers from around the country. We gather in a place where we can study the Bible and do some advance work on a year's worth of sermons.

We call ourselves "The Homiletical Feast," and nobody goes hungry. Here's a picture from this year's gathering, which took place this past week. We share a lot of ideas, tell a lot of stories, and swap insights on the Bible. In the process, we have become good friends.

We schedule our gathering for the third week of January, which qualifies us for great off-season rates in Florida. A lot of friends think we go down there to play all week. Well, not quite.

The fact is, good preaching takes a lot of preparation, and much of it happens when congregations aren't looking. For the fifteen or twenty minutes each week that each of us stands in a pulpit, there's a lot of spade work just out of sight from the congregation.

So this is how we do it: thinking together, praying together, all the time chewing on scripture. And I wouldn't trade it for the world.