I have Atari-arm. I didn't know what it was at first. In fact, I told Tom how I was concerned that my forearm kept hurting--perhaps I had pulled a muscle at the gym? Although I hadn't done an arm work-out in the last few days.... Perhaps it was from drawing? Although that didn't seem right.... In the middle of my pondering outloud, Tom said he thought it had something to do with this... and then he leaned forward, eyes intently focused, right arm at the ready--fingers clasped around and working an imaginary Atari joystick, left thumb shooting like mad, while making bsrm, bsrm, pbpboooowm Centipede noises. Sure enough, Atari-arm. A few days off and a great Christmas present later, I'd been diagnosed with too many flashback video games.
Without getting too theological about gift-giving and Christmas or pondering the deep meaning of Pitfall!, it's been great fun to brain-drain on a good round of Astroids or RiverRaid (watch out for the sides). Johnny got his pair of skates. Susie got her sled. Nellie got her picture book too. What did jolly old St. Nicholas bring this year for you?
What was your favorite present?
Friday, December 30, 2005
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
"And Mary said,
'I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look and me, and look what happened--
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left ou in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on thie mercies, piled them high.
It's exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.'"
(Luke 1, The Message, Eugene Peterson)
May we be reminded again that God's mercy flows in wave after wave.
'I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look and me, and look what happened--
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left ou in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on thie mercies, piled them high.
It's exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.'"
(Luke 1, The Message, Eugene Peterson)
May we be reminded again that God's mercy flows in wave after wave.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Repentance in Advent?
"Why did Ken preach a sermon on repentance in Advent?"
Welcome to the Scholten dinner table Sunday afternoon.
"Shouldn't we be talking about mangers and babies and stars?"
A dream teachable moment for a minister....
Actually, we've commercialized Christmas so much that we miss out on the meaning of Advent. Advent is a time of reflection and soul preparation, not extended party time. It is a time to reflect on the gift God has given us in sending Jesus to earth; and a time to reflect and wait with expectation for when Jesus will come again to usher in a new creation.
How are we living lives of gratitude for the gift? How are we already working for peace and justice in the waiting?
Seems like most of us have jumped on the cultural party bus, and instead of celebrating on Christmas day and after Christmas, we used up our time to reflect and pray... shopping, decorating, and celebrating early.
By the time Christmas actually arrives, we're so worn out, we're just ready to pack up the tree and be done with it all. We used up our 12 days of Christmas before Christmas instead of beginning the 12 days with Christmas and concluding with Epiphany (as intended).
We would do well to use Advent for Advent and save Christmas for Christmas. Reflection, then celebrating; repentance, then grace.
Amen. Let us pray. (Ministers just can't resist preaching on a teachable moment.)
May you be blessed in your Advent reflections!
Monday, November 28, 2005
ADVENT 101
So here we are in the Advent season. It means better sales at the mall, a long Christmas to-do list, and time for pictures with Santa, right? Actually, Advent means coming... as in the coming of Christ.
Advent began around the 6th century, and as celebrations of Christmas grew, so did the development of Advent--the four Sundays before Christmas as a time of preparing. At one time, this meant preparing through praying and fasting. Now it seems it means preparing by feasting and shopping.
I saw an ad the other day that claimed that by buying the advertised product we could spend more time rediscovering the "true meaning of Christmas"--spending time with loved ones in a happy, cozy setting. Time with family is wonderful as are many of the other Christmas traditions. But we're fooling ourselves if those are what we think of as the true meaning of Christmas.
And as we lose our understanding of Christmas, we lose our understanding of Advent. We lose the anticipation of celebrating the past--that God took on the form of a human in Jesus--and the anticipation of Christ coming again.
May we all re-discover the true meaning of Christmas this Advent season!
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Early Church Memories
Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A: That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
(Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 1)
In a recent conversation with a few parishioners, we were talking about growing up memorizing—or at the very least—learning the catechism, something most people completely miss out on. I remember memorizing this particular answer—I confess it’s about the only one that stayed on the surface of my brain—in the basement of First Reformed Church sometime around age 8. I probably had no idea what it really meant at the time, but it’s an answer that rises out of me now and then because it has been engrained in my memory.
Ken and I were talking a few weeks ago about running out of things you hand out in a children’s sermon. My earliest memory of church is not getting something the minister handed out—in my memory it was some sort of a yarn ball. But what I remember most distinctly was that as I walked back to my pew, an older child gave me her gift. Grace learned very young.
Maybe it’s catechism on Wednesday nights that you remember, or a Scripture passage that you had to memorize, or maybe it’s a favorite Sunday school teacher or a craft that sticks out from way back when. These memories have formed who we are now.
What’s your favorite early church memory?
Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A: That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
(Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 1)
In a recent conversation with a few parishioners, we were talking about growing up memorizing—or at the very least—learning the catechism, something most people completely miss out on. I remember memorizing this particular answer—I confess it’s about the only one that stayed on the surface of my brain—in the basement of First Reformed Church sometime around age 8. I probably had no idea what it really meant at the time, but it’s an answer that rises out of me now and then because it has been engrained in my memory.
Ken and I were talking a few weeks ago about running out of things you hand out in a children’s sermon. My earliest memory of church is not getting something the minister handed out—in my memory it was some sort of a yarn ball. But what I remember most distinctly was that as I walked back to my pew, an older child gave me her gift. Grace learned very young.
Maybe it’s catechism on Wednesday nights that you remember, or a Scripture passage that you had to memorize, or maybe it’s a favorite Sunday school teacher or a craft that sticks out from way back when. These memories have formed who we are now.
What’s your favorite early church memory?
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
From Gilead, a novel by Marilynne Robinson (written in the first person by an elderly dying minister to his young son):
"The light in the room was beautiful this morning, as it often is. It's a plain old church and it could use a coat of paint. But in the dark times I used to walk over before sunrise just to sit there and watch the light come into that room. I don't know how beautiful it might seem to anyone else. I felt much at peace those mornings, praying over very dreadful things sometimes--the Depression, the wars. That was a lot of misery for people around here, decades of it. But prayer brings peace, as I trust you know.
"In those days, as I have said, I might spend most of a night reading. Then, if I woke up still in my armchair, and if the clock said four or five, I'd think how pleasant it was to walk through the streets in the dark and let myself into the church and watch dawn come in the sanctuary. I loved the sound of the latch lifting. The building has settled into itself so that when you walk down the aisle, you can hear it yielding to the burden of your weight. It's a pleasanter sound than an echo would be, an obliging, accommodating sound. You have to be there alone to hear it. Maybe it can't feel the weight of a child. But if it is still standing when you read this, and if you are not half a world away, sometime you might go there alone, just to see what I mean." (Gilead, p. 70)
I guess it's a minister's blessing to be able to know the loveliness of time spent alone in a sanctuary with only the light of the sun through the stained-glass windows by which to see. It is both beautiful and peaceful. Most people are only in the sanctuary or chapel when it is filled with others. A gift you could give yourself would be to stop in at church sometime during the day--or even before an evening activity--and spend your daily devotion time in the sanctuary, in the quiet, in the presence of God.
Grace and peace,
Jess
"The light in the room was beautiful this morning, as it often is. It's a plain old church and it could use a coat of paint. But in the dark times I used to walk over before sunrise just to sit there and watch the light come into that room. I don't know how beautiful it might seem to anyone else. I felt much at peace those mornings, praying over very dreadful things sometimes--the Depression, the wars. That was a lot of misery for people around here, decades of it. But prayer brings peace, as I trust you know.
"In those days, as I have said, I might spend most of a night reading. Then, if I woke up still in my armchair, and if the clock said four or five, I'd think how pleasant it was to walk through the streets in the dark and let myself into the church and watch dawn come in the sanctuary. I loved the sound of the latch lifting. The building has settled into itself so that when you walk down the aisle, you can hear it yielding to the burden of your weight. It's a pleasanter sound than an echo would be, an obliging, accommodating sound. You have to be there alone to hear it. Maybe it can't feel the weight of a child. But if it is still standing when you read this, and if you are not half a world away, sometime you might go there alone, just to see what I mean." (Gilead, p. 70)
I guess it's a minister's blessing to be able to know the loveliness of time spent alone in a sanctuary with only the light of the sun through the stained-glass windows by which to see. It is both beautiful and peaceful. Most people are only in the sanctuary or chapel when it is filled with others. A gift you could give yourself would be to stop in at church sometime during the day--or even before an evening activity--and spend your daily devotion time in the sanctuary, in the quiet, in the presence of God.
Grace and peace,
Jess
Monday, October 10, 2005
To write or not to write--that is the question of the day on prayer. At the risk of sounding like I'm in a confessional, I write my Sunday morning worship prayers out ahead of time. There's a part of me that is slightly uncomfortable letting this be known outloud. But there's the majority of me that is pleased to let you in on the full and utter human-ness of ministers. If I didn't write prayers out ahead of time, I would, like, have, um a few more pauses, and I would like, um, use a lot more of the same phrases, and I would probably like...
panic and completely run out of words.
Even a written prayer, though, is still very meaningful for me--and, while the words are right in front of me, I still feel very deeply that I am in communion with God, and often adjust prayers in the moment of praying them outloud on Sunday mornings. Preparing ahead of time helps me to be fully aware of what I am praying, of how I am addressing God, of thinking broadly of the needs beyond the congregation. In fact, as I am writing/praying a prayer in preparation for Sunday, I usually have a stack of books around me--reading through the hymns of the morning and the Scripture passages, and sifting through a stack of books of prayers for inspiration. Occasionally, I will feel specifically inspired to use a portion of a written prayer--not something that is easily cited. If I use a prayer or parts of a prayer from somewhere else, and someone appreciates a prayer, I explain that I used such and such a resource; but for those that think every prayer is a Jess-original, again, I'm in the confessional.
I have a Baptist friend who thinks it's peculiar that I write my worship prayers out ahead of time--she claims it's got to be a Presbyterian thing. Perhaps you think this as well, now that the secret is out. The whole topic of congregational prayer was a brief discussion in Sunday school yesterday--a comment was made about posting a prayer. I have done so below. I look forward to reading your comments.
panic and completely run out of words.
Even a written prayer, though, is still very meaningful for me--and, while the words are right in front of me, I still feel very deeply that I am in communion with God, and often adjust prayers in the moment of praying them outloud on Sunday mornings. Preparing ahead of time helps me to be fully aware of what I am praying, of how I am addressing God, of thinking broadly of the needs beyond the congregation. In fact, as I am writing/praying a prayer in preparation for Sunday, I usually have a stack of books around me--reading through the hymns of the morning and the Scripture passages, and sifting through a stack of books of prayers for inspiration. Occasionally, I will feel specifically inspired to use a portion of a written prayer--not something that is easily cited. If I use a prayer or parts of a prayer from somewhere else, and someone appreciates a prayer, I explain that I used such and such a resource; but for those that think every prayer is a Jess-original, again, I'm in the confessional.
I have a Baptist friend who thinks it's peculiar that I write my worship prayers out ahead of time--she claims it's got to be a Presbyterian thing. Perhaps you think this as well, now that the secret is out. The whole topic of congregational prayer was a brief discussion in Sunday school yesterday--a comment was made about posting a prayer. I have done so below. I look forward to reading your comments.
God of Glory and Grace, we bow before you in worship, adoration, thanksgiving, and praise. Too often, O God, we come before you as if you are a vending machine—put our prayers in the right slot and out comes what we want. Forgive us. Help us instead to enjoy your presence and be drawn to you in love and thanksgiving.
We praise you that you are our God and have chosen us as your people. By the power of your Holy Spirit, guide us to live lives that reflect not the world with its value of busyness and accumulation, but lives that reflect you—creating, loving, welcoming, forgiving.
We thank you for this place of worship—that we can gather here freely, that we can praise you in word and music, that we can celebrate with and strengthen one another.
We thank you that you are ever-present, ever-involved in our lives. We praise you for those times when you have turned evil into good, hardship into joy, fear into hope. We ask that your presence of love would be felt by those in need.
We love you, O God; help those places where there is no love. We have faith in you, O Lord; fill us with light in those places where faith is lacking. We thank you, O God; turn all our greedy spaces into rooms of gratitude.
We ask these things in the name Jesus Christ, as we pray together the prayer he taught us, saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
We praise you that you are our God and have chosen us as your people. By the power of your Holy Spirit, guide us to live lives that reflect not the world with its value of busyness and accumulation, but lives that reflect you—creating, loving, welcoming, forgiving.
We thank you for this place of worship—that we can gather here freely, that we can praise you in word and music, that we can celebrate with and strengthen one another.
We thank you that you are ever-present, ever-involved in our lives. We praise you for those times when you have turned evil into good, hardship into joy, fear into hope. We ask that your presence of love would be felt by those in need.
We love you, O God; help those places where there is no love. We have faith in you, O Lord; fill us with light in those places where faith is lacking. We thank you, O God; turn all our greedy spaces into rooms of gratitude.
We ask these things in the name Jesus Christ, as we pray together the prayer he taught us, saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Late Sunday night an earthquake hit Peru outside the jungle city of Moyobamba. For some, that's about as much useful information in English as it might be in Spanish. But for those of us who have spent time in Moyobamba and the outlying villages, it's like learning of tragedy striking your family. Most of our friends in Moyobamba are safe--there was not a lot of damage. But the hardest part of all the news in the emails back and forth over the last few days is one short line from Noe--"Those who have worked in yantalo a little girl there died."Yantalo is a small village--about 1600 people--outside Moyobamba where folks from First Pres helped put in a floor of the Presbyterian church--where we played with the school children--where we handed out hats and taught colors in two languages (rojo red, azul blue....)--where we took turns staking claims on precious brown-eyed girls and boys ("Janess is mine." "Then I get Marilena...") who would run up to hold our hands and sneak peaks of their own faces in our digital camera windows (giggles are the same in English and Spanish). "Those who have worked in yantalo a little girl there died."
September 11 slips by again. The hurricanes have arrived. And the earthquakes strike. God's grace and peace to all who grieve lost loved ones.
Friday, September 16, 2005
You've gotten the advertisements in the mail--the oversized postcard promising the answers to all your theological questions in a five-sermon series at the new community church down the way. Christianity 101, How to be a Better Christian, The Real Truth About God.
The real truth is the answers aren't easy, and faith is far more of a journey than a lecture series. However, it would be handy for us to take a good look at a few pieces of basic theology along the way--something shorter than a sermon, something more frequent (I'm aiming for weekly) than a Presbyram lead (my every 4-6 week spot in the bi-monthly newsletter at First Presbyterian Church, High Point, NC), something less scheduled than a Sunday morning Sunday school class, something a bit more theologically astute than some of the junk you can surf through on the web, something more laid-back than an official piece of doctrine. Something sort of, well... bloggy.
So here it is, a blog from your Associate Minister. My goal is to provide a place for folks to be flexibly theologically connected, where perhaps high-minded theology might coincide with common thoughts, where every so often you might learn or better understand a theological term or two, where every now and then we could reflect on the seasons of our faith.
Feel free to comment or even offer your own thoughts for future topics.
Grace and peace,
Jess
The real truth is the answers aren't easy, and faith is far more of a journey than a lecture series. However, it would be handy for us to take a good look at a few pieces of basic theology along the way--something shorter than a sermon, something more frequent (I'm aiming for weekly) than a Presbyram lead (my every 4-6 week spot in the bi-monthly newsletter at First Presbyterian Church, High Point, NC), something less scheduled than a Sunday morning Sunday school class, something a bit more theologically astute than some of the junk you can surf through on the web, something more laid-back than an official piece of doctrine. Something sort of, well... bloggy.
So here it is, a blog from your Associate Minister. My goal is to provide a place for folks to be flexibly theologically connected, where perhaps high-minded theology might coincide with common thoughts, where every so often you might learn or better understand a theological term or two, where every now and then we could reflect on the seasons of our faith.
Feel free to comment or even offer your own thoughts for future topics.
Grace and peace,
Jess
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