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Being always and in every way on top of things, I today was reading and essay by Dorothy Sayers entitled ‘The Triumph of Easter.’ I was supposed to be reading her essay called ‘Why Work?,’ but I’ve inherited a bit of ADD from my son, and so got distracted. I have noticed in my preaching through Romans that Paul responds to those who misunderstand his teaching. To preach is to be misunderstood. Sayers adds this comment.

“If spiritual pastors are to refrain from saying anything that might ever, by any possibility, be misunderstood by anybody, they will end—as in fact many of them do—by never saying anything worth hearing.”

[from essays collected in a volume entitled Letters to a Diminished Church, now published by W Publishing Group, page 117]

First, some definition and explanation:

1) The place where I work, where I keep my books, where my desk resides, is not an office. It is my study. A pastor should not occupy an office, a place of administrative duty. He should occupy a study. In his study, a place of study and prayer, he will when necessary carry on administrative duty. But the place should be named for its primary use.

2) I study for my sermons in my study, but I do not always WRITE them there. Over the years I have found it helpful to write my sermons in a public place forcing myself thereby to look at real people and imagine how I might say what I want to say to them. I like to think that his helps my communication.

3) Occasionally, I write my sermons, or at least bring them to final outline form, in a Starbucks or a Panera. The Starbucks is preferred for comfort (and manifestly interesting people!); the Panera for its free Wi-Fi.

I have therefore been waiting expectantly for the new Panera to open in Bradenton, located, ironically, directly across the street from the former location of HPC, a place that I began writing my sermons 20+ years ago. It was to open yesterday, April 11, but did not. Why? The county inspectors failed to give it a c/o. The dumpster enclosure, the manager tells me, had not been properly constructed, and was lacking doors and a hose fixture, violating the old public safety adage: “No dumpster doors, no restaurant.” I feel much better being here today, writing my sermon, knowing that the dumpster is safely contained behind doors.

If there was a book with this title, Barb and I would qualify for the cover photo. Here is a sample shot if any publisher is interested. Aren’t we cute?

But we are not always cute. On Saturday, our greatly different personalities led to a train wreck. Under pressure for a number of reasons, our different ways of attacking problems created a tension that I set off by saying some things I should not have said.

When such things happen, they lead either to raised voices (surprisingly rare for us) or silence and isolation (our preferred response). It struck me in reflection upon this that such responses do not arise out of an inherent meanness. Barb and I love each other desperately and have no desire to hurt each other in the least. Such responses arise from a lack of alternatives. They arise from frustration and a simple ignorance of any other way of dealing with the problem.

IF I had the way of saying what I wanted to say without hurting Barb, that would be the path I would follow. IF she had the way of expressing her frustration with me with clarity and not irritation, she would do so. I saw in that moment Saturday the awful potential for the destruction of marriage. I glimpsed in our responses to one another the kinds of behaviors that if tolerated and left unaddressed harden emotions and drive a couple apart.

After nearly 29 years (are we really THAT old?) we have not mastered the communication tools which diffuse conflict. We still blow it. But it seems to me whether a couple are young together or old, such flare ups should be seen as something akin to pain. Pain in the body alerts us to a problem needing to be addressed. Conflict in a relationship alerts the couple to a point to which they should address their attention. It can reveal a communication weakness or even some suppressed anger which must not be ignored.

We encourage you in the deepest way possible, when there is conflict, find a way to talk it through and seek out alternatives to dealing with that conflict. Learn how to ‘fight’, to disagree without resort to the strategies of desperation.

One thing which Satan would want to make us forget, but which we cannot allow to be forgotten is the Scripture’s admonition to not let the sun go down on one’s anger. Or, as another has put it, to never go to bed angry. To confess our faults and seek the forgiveness of the other is essential for unity and peace.

At the end of an old movie, What’s Up Doc?, Barbra Streisand looks at Ryan O’Neal and says, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” O’Neal (of Love Story fame) replies, “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.” Yup.

Easter has come and passed. Quickly. I am suddenly appreciative of the ancient church observance of Lent which has never been a part of my experience or practice. Seven weeks of preparation and anticipation focused upon the celebration of the resurrection might certainly highlight the day and set the day in a proper relief and context.

But is not the weekly Lord’s day worship supposed to do that?

I walked outside thie Easter Sunday morning, “while it was still dark,” for reasons no more spiritual than to retrieve the Sunday paper. I looked around at all the quiet houses wondering how many of them really knew and believed that the Son of God had been raised from the dead. I wondered as well how zealous I would be to tell them if I really understood the profound significance of this reality. (I quickly ruled out banging on doors and shouting “He is risen” as being uneighborly at 5:45 AM.)

When the early church moved the weekly Sabbath from it’s seventh day position, it did not move it to the sixth day to commemorate the death of Christ, as critical as that is. Rather, the weekly sabbath was moved to the first day to commemorate His resurrection. The first day of the week stands as a perpetual reminder that He is risen.

My longing is that NO Sunday would pass by this year without my reflecting upon the knowledge that we worship and serve a living God who has raised our savior and Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

The art show at the church Saturday night was a wonderful event. From content to presentation it was top notch and professional all the way around. Those who put it together did so in such a way that brought glory to God and a moment of beauty and wonder to His church. We are grateful. Hopefully we will soon get some pictures posted on the web site.

The show was very well attended, but who were these people? Where did they come from?

We need to be clear on this: unless they are looking for a church to attend, people in our culture do not look to the church as a place of engagement. The church has no role to play in their lives. We can offer the best spaghetti, pancakes, parenting seminars, concerts, or art shows, and we ought. But people are not looking to the church to meeet any of the needs that those things might address.

For the art show, we had two articles in the newspaper, I was interviewed on the radio, we placed over two dozen posters around town, erected two banners by the road, and distributed 300 flyers door to door. From all of that, I can point to only one who attended, and she brought a friend.

Don’t get me wrong. The show was well attended. It was an exciting time. But those who came came because of a relationship with one of the artists or with someone in the church, and they came because this person or that invited them. Had we done none of the advertising, I believe the show would have been just as fruitful.

There is simply no substitute for our coming to know men and women outside the church and allowing them to come to know Christ and his church through US. The success of this church will be measured by the degree to which each of us involves ourselves in personal ministry with others outside the church.

The art show has merit in and of itself. It also has merit as a place to which we can invite those with whom we have relationship, but who have no interest yet in Sunday mornings. Everything begins with our ministry outside the walls of this church.

Since I am not altogether adept at this blogging thing, I can’t say for certain how visible reader’s comments are to other readers. Because of that, I want to make sure that any who read my post last week about movies takes some time to read as well the comments my friend Chris made to that post. [‘Friend’ seems inadequate. I’ve known Chris since she was about 15 or so. Back then she was four years younger than I. Now she is probably about 20 years younger and still married to my best friend Dave.] Her comments are thoughtful as she struggles with what we all struggle with living in a fallen world. They are worthy of reading and reflection. Thanks, ‘friend.’

There are those who are computer savvy and those who are not. I’m fairly savvy, but until six months ago, I only had a vague notion of what a ‘podcast’ was, and five months ago I did not really know what RSS was or meant. Now I’ve come to realize that the sermons that are preached here at HPC are available through both means, and I appreciate that.

Each week, the sermons at HPC are recorded and turned into .mp3 files of about 10 to 12 MB each. (Geoff’s files are smaller for some reason. Go figure.) These sermons are then posted on the church’s web site here. Anytime for the next three months that sermon can be listened to or downloaded by any interested person. There are two ways for you to receive immediate notification that a sermon has been posted and is ready for download.

For those of you using iTunes you can subscribe to HPC sermons as a podcast. Open iTunes, select the advanced menu, and select the item ‘Subscribe to Podcast.” In the requester that opens, paste this link:

http://www.gohope.net/Resources.Sermon_Downloads?rss=1

Click ‘ok’ and you are done. iTunes will automatically download messages according to the parameters you set within iTunes. Then every week, when a new sermon is posted, iTunes will automatically add it to your computer. If that podcast is synced with your iPod, then every week a new sermon ‘magically’ will appear on your iPod ready to be listened to.

I suspect this process is possible as well with Windows Media Player and other .mp3 players, If so, you would use this same link.

If you do not use iTunes but still want the same ease of notification and download, this same link can be pasted into an RSS reader, if you use one. The one I use on the Mac (Shrook, which is free) automatically notifies me of each new sermon as it is posted. I am sure there are similar programs for Windows. Firefox has an extension called ‘Sage’ which is very nice for doing this sort of thing.

Alternatively, if you use Google as a home page, you can set it up to read and display any RSS feed. From your home page, select the ‘Add Stuff…’ button, and then select ‘Add by URL.’ This will bring up a requester in which you paste the link above and, voila, on your Google page will appear each new HPC sermon as it is posted.

By the way, these are good ways to keep up with “Somber and Dull.” The following link sets up this blog as an RSS feed as well:

https://randygreenwald.com/

Automating this could be a real help to you who have any difficulty with figuring things like this out. Set these feeds up once, and they come automatically as long as one might want.

As some of you know, Hope Church is sponsoring an art exhibition this coming Saturday night. This is the second year we have done this, and last year’s was truly spectacular. Andrea Rowe and her compatriots did a remarkable job of turning the auditorium into a beautiful art gallery with some phenomenal pieces of art, most from our own congregation.

This year we have solicited art from the community with a desire to build bridges into that community, and to honor artists, allowing them to see that their work brings glory to God whether they think so or not. The response has been good, given the native suspicion that artists can have of the church.

This morning the JoyFM, a local Christian radio station aired a short interview with me and promoted the exhibition. I sounded distinctively unexcited… but as John Thomas pointed out, I share more affinity for Puddleglum than Mr. Beaver.

The interview has not yet been posted, but when it is it will be accessible at the JoyFM web site. (Click here to go there.)

If you are wondering whether an art show should be held in a church ‘sanctuary, ‘ I addressed that in the Bradenton Herald recently, and you can access that here as long as they keep it on their site.

I hope that both of you (!) reading this will make a point to come Saturday night, 7PM to 9PM.

In a previous post, I commented on the hopelessness revealed in the final lines of a movie I had recently seen. My good friend Chris Finnegan commented

Well, looking at the list of screenplays from the author, he has written two of the movies I most hated in recent years, and do NOT recommend to anyone…”Being John Malcovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”.

Am I missing something in my movie viewing? Hmm…

I have not spoken with anyone who ‘hated’ Eternal Sunshine. Chris, you are first. Perhaps I should go back and watch it again to see what you might have hated. Perhaps I am missing something.

To me, in a light hearted way, the film treated the desire we may have from time to time to erase our past, to eliminate bad memories, to get rid of haunting reminders of mistakes made. But can we really erase our past? Is it something we should really want to try to do? I find these to be intriguing questions.

The answers movies give may not be our own, but they are answers which we should consider. I am reminded that I do not always watch movies to have my own world view verified. I watch to enjoy a story, yes. But as well I watch to understand what and how others think. And I watch to glorify God in the gifts he has given, even to those who rail against him. And at times what I see are those opposed to God in spite of themselves stating truth in such a way that it cannot be forgotten.

Thanks, Chris, for the stimulus.

Those of you with teenagers may enjoy the chuckle I had this afternoon while driving. I was stopped at a traffic light behind a van with a sign which read exactly as follows:

Mr. Fix-It of Bradenton
Minor, Mobile and Home Repairs

I’ve had a minor or two in my house who have seemed to be in need of repairing, but I’m not sure Mr. Fix-It is the one to call.