Friday Five, 5/15/2010

It's Friday Five on a Saturday! After a two week and a day hiatus, we're back with the Friday Five, the top 5 sports stories of the week... well, as I see it, anyway.

5) Philadelphia Flyers just try to make things difficult.

In the second round of the NHL playoffs, the Philadelphia Flyers found themselves down 3-0 in a best of 7 series. Then, they won the fourth game, and the fifth, and the sixth. You guessed it, they came roaring back to make it a series again. It looked like all the magic had finally worn out though, as the Bruins jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Of course, when you've already come back from a 3-0 series deficit, what's 3 goals in one game? Obviously nothing, because the Flyers came back and beat the Bruins 4-3, setting up an even more boring conference finals as the #7 and #8 seeds are meeting for an opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup.

4) The Cleve goes on suicide watch

The Cleveland Lebrons lost in the conference semi-finals to the Boston Celtics. Lebron can opt out of his contract and become a free agent this offseason. Most of the talk has Lebron going to the Knicks... because apparently, the Knicks can win a championship? Yeah, right, and I have some ocean front property in Kansas to sell you, Lebron. If he does jump ship (and who could blame him), Cleveland will be in the familiar territory of becoming irrelevant in the world of sports once again.

3) NBA Playoffs are really bad

Apart from the aforementioned Cavs-Celts series, the other 3 conference semifinals were sweeps, with Phoenix, the Lakers, and the Magic (who still haven't lost in this postseason) sitting at home for the last week wondering what in the world they are supposed to do with a week off. Oh, in similar news, we are still TWO ROUNDS away from crowning the next NBA champ... and people complain about the MLB playoffs taking too long.

2) Tiger Woods withdraws from Players Championships

I have avoided the Tiger Woods talk so far on the Friday Five because none of it has been relevant to what has been going on. Plus, everyone else has been talking about it. However, this is fertile soil for a few good jokes. Tiger pulled out of the Players Championships because: a) he has already established the fact that he is quite a "playa," b) he had a "bulging disk," and c) as one doctor on Mike & Mike in the Morning said, "It could be a case of cervical ridiculitis." I'm just going to leave the jokes for you.

1) Dallas Braden throws perfect game.

Oakland A's pitcher Dallas Braden, mostly known for yelling at A-Rod earlier this season, went out and threw the 19th perfect game in major league history on Mother's Day. It is a compelling story because Braden's mother passed away several years ago, and he was raised by his grandmother, who (allegedly) told A-Rod to "stick it." Dallas Braden is now know as the guy who yelled at A-Rod AND threw a perfect game. Also, apparently Oakland doesn't give a crap about the A's because there were only 12,000 in attendance for the historic occasion.

Top Movies of 1981

Out of curiosity, I decided to look up the top movies of the year I was born.... and, yes, it really was 1981. I'm a young buck, or an old man, I guess that depends on your point of view.

Top 5 Grossing Films of 1981

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

2. On Golden Pond

3. Superman 2

4. Arthur

5. Stripes

Of the movies on the list that I've actually seen: Raiders of the Lost Ark, On Golden Pond (don't judge me!), Superman 2. And a little further down: Stripes, For Your Eyes Only, Clash of the Titans.

What probably strikes me the most here is that the biggest budget on any of these films was Superman 2 at a whopping $54 million. Minuscule by today's standards.

Vacation 2010 - Gatlinburg

Our vacation didn't end in New Orleans. We were back for a day to rush around and try to get some work done, then we took off for Gatlinburg because our nephew Damon had a choir competition. It was our 4th trip to Gatlinburg in the last 5 years because of this competition, and it will probably be our last one for quite some time. It was the first time in those 4 trips that it didn't absolutely pour the whole time we were there. The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

We got into town on Thursday evening, after making some stops at the Lodge outlet store, a Christian bookstore and a couple more outlets. We stayed at a different place than we have before. This one was right across the street from the Convention Center where the competition was being held, so it was a lot more convenient than the places that we stayed before. We shared a two-room suite with my sister, her husband and their youngest daughter. It was a lot of fun to just relax and spend some time with them.

On Friday, we went into the park and saw Cataract Falls. It's the first time that Katie and I have been into the park because of the weather. We had a nice, easy hike to the falls, took some pictures and made our way up the mountain to the Newfound Gap. It was an absolutely beautiful view up there. After lingering for a while, we headed back down and took showers to get ready for the competition.

Katie and I had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, which was pretty good - not nearly as good as the food we had in New Orleans, but it wasn't all that bad either. It's interesting to me how "cajun" means "really spicy" everywhere but in New Orleans. It's something to ponder.

Damon and his choir did a fantastic job at the competition, winning first place in their division... of course, they were the only one's in their division, but the kids were so excited about winning first that it's okay not to tell them. Afterwards, we spent the evening walking down the parkway with my sister and her family. It was a nice, relaxing evening.

It was a short trip this year because I couldn't make myself take 2 Sundays off in a row, so after breakfast on Saturday morning, we headed back. It was quite a trip. We stopped just north of Knoxville for gas, then we went straight to Lexington, where we had lunch with a friend and met her new baby, who was born right around the same time as our little Sqooshy would have been born. I caught myself wondering what it would be like now if we hadn't lost the little one back in August. After we left Lexington, it was a straight shot to Katie's parents' house to pick up Pork Chop, and then to home.

It has been a fantastic 10 days of vacation, but I am certain ready to get back to the grind. As you know from a previous post, I've started a series on the Holy Spirit at church, and I'm really excited about it. I can't help but think that God is preparing us for some awesome things on the horizon.

Vacation 2010 - New Orleans

Katie and I took a few days to go down to New Orleans with her mom for a conference. We worked for part of the trip and enjoyed the town for the rest of it. We left on Tuesday, April 27th and flew to Tampa where we had a 2 hour lay over, then landed in New Orleans around 3 or 4 local time.

The best part about the vacation was that, because we were working while we were there, we didn't have to pay for the flight, hotel, or food for half of the trip. If you're going to take a vacation, be sure you do it on somebody else's dime!

Now, the real best part of the trip had to have been the food. I can't even begin to describe how good the food was down there. We went to some top notch restaurants - Domenica, Court of Two Sisters, Mr. B's Bistro, Besh Steak, Brennan's, Frank's, Charlie's Sea Foods, Cafe du Monde and Bacco... and McAlister's Deli, but I don't think that really counts.

I decided that I was going to try something new at every meal, and it was quite an experience: roasted goat, turtle soup, red snapper (along with some amazing grits.... seriously, if grits actually tasted like this each time I ate them, I would eat them all the time), 38 oz "cowboy steak" (a bone-in ribeye), fried oysters, muffuletta, whole crawfish boil, po boy, and giant (whole) grilled shrimp.

What was really cool was that while we were at Charlie's Sea Foods, we met the owner/chef Frank Brigtsen, who is a friend of the people we were visiting for the afternoon. Why is this so cool? He is a James Beard awarding winning chef - that's like a culinary Oscar. He was, simply put, the nicest, most gracious man... not to mention, he could cook like nobody else!

We did do some other things besides eat on this trip. We took a guided tour of the French Quarter. Our guide was very good and he gave us some great insight into the history of New Orleans and the French Quarter. We also were able to see his father's house, which is right in the middle of the French Quarter. Very fascinating.

We took a stroll down Bourbon Street, which was awful. I know that it's one of those "things to do" when you are in New Orleans, but it is disgusting and heartbreaking. Half-naked girls stand in the doorways trying to get you to come into their bar/strip club. People are running around acting like idiots all over the place. One place, called Big Al's World Famous Love Acts, had a guy standing outside trying to get people to come in, and as a way of enticing the passers-by, he held a sign that said, "No Cover." Clearly, he meant there was no cover charge to get in, but certainly there was no cover on the people inside as well. My only thought, which I tweeted afterwards was - "so many broken people looking for the wrong kind of fix." In honor of Mr. Gump... that's all I have to say about that.

After the conference was over, we still had a couple of days. On Saturday, Katie's friend Tre picked us up and gave us a local tour of the area. She told us a lot about the rebuilding that has been going on. It seems like on every corner there is something new, or something that is in the process of getting torn down.

On Monday, we had planned on doing a walking tour of the Garden District, but that fell through, and we spent the morning/afternoon walking around the French Quarter some more. We went through the French Market, where I purchased a gator head to go next to the mounted piranha in my office.

One big deal while we were down there was that New Orleans was inaugurating its first white mayor in decades. The outgoing mayor decided to hold on to a lot of money during his tenure, and decided to spend it now that he was leaving office. Because of that, nearly every single street in the town was getting worked on, which made traffic quite a chore. Thankfully, we didn't have to navigate it ourselves.

Obviously, the other big thing going on was the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It was on the forefront of everyone's minds because if it comes too near the shore, it is going to have a major impact on the fishing industry, which supplies the seafood for nearly half of the United States. On our flight out of New Orleans, we passed over the area where the oil spill is going on, but there was too much cloud cover to see it. Apparently, though, it is bad enough that we could have seen it from the plane.

All in all, we had a great trip. Unfortunately, the miscarriage that we have been expecting decided to happen while we were there, so that certainly put a damper on things, but we tried to not let it get us down. New Orleans is certainly an experience, and quite frankly, the food is incredible. It's not cheap, but it is fantastic.

A New Kind of Worship

I came across this video this morning. I think it is an important direction that all churches need to move in.... Okay, that's not true. I do find it pretty funny that Northpoint isn't above making fun of itself. It's encouraging.

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

THS: The Holy Spirit, Part 1

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, May 9, 2010. The text for this week's message is John 14:23-26.

There is a cable channel called the E! Network, which focuses on the entertainment industry. Every once in a while E! will show something called True Hollywood Story, or THS, featuring the biography of celebrities. And typically, this show will tell the audience three things: 1) who is the celebrity – where did they come from, what was their early life like; 2) why they are a celebrity – how did they break into the business, what did they do to become so well known; and 3) what they are doing today. And as I was approaching these next few weeks on the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t help but think that maybe we could all use a THS on The Holy Spirit. So, that is what I would like to do over the next few weeks.

We are going to take the same approach that E! takes with celebrities and look at 3 questions: 1) Who is the Holy Spirit, which we will focus on this week; 2) What does the Holy Spirit do, which is next week; and 3) in two weeks, on Pentecost Sunday, we will look at what the Holy Spirit is doing today. It will be a different approach on Scripture than we usually take because we won’t necessarily be going as in-depth on the individual passages, but we are looking at a more bird’s-eye view, a more theological perspective. I’m excited about this series, and I hope that by the end of it, you’ll be able to better see how God is working through the Holy Spirit in your life and in our congregation.

To start off this morning, I want to do something a little different than normal. This will be one of those times when it’s okay to talk during a portion of the sermon. In fact, we might sit here all morning unless somebody does say something – you’ve been warned.

Now, have you ever heard of Mad Libs? Mad Libs is one of those books that you can find where you have somebody fill in the blanks with a particular part of speech. It’s a lot fun because you can get all sorts of crazy, nonsensical things going on. We are going to do a Mad Libs this morning.

I’ve written a paragraph, and then I’ve taken out a few key words. I’m going to let you tell me what words to replace them with. This is what happens when I have three weeks to work on a sermon. The title of this Mad Libs is News Report… because it is in the form of a news report. Original, I know. Okay, let’s start.

[If you're interested in what the Mad Libs was all about... well, you missed. You're just going to have to make sure you don't miss another Sunday in case we ever do another one again!]

Here’s what they paragraph that I wrote says: This just in – The Holy Spirit has descended upon the disciples in the greater Jerusalem area. Reports are saying that disciples are speaking in tongues and people are putting their faith in Christ by the hundreds. We aren’t quite clear on what the Holy Spirit is, but we’ll keep an eye on this story for you.

Okay, enough of the fun stuff. Let’s dig in.

If I were to ask you to explain to me the Holy Spirit, could you? Let’s face it, we don’t know a lot about the Holy Spirit. Think about the Apostles Creed that we recited at the beginning of worship today. You start off by saying, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” And there’s quite a bit about the Father in that statement.

We know that the Father is almighty, which means his has authority and is sovereign over all things. We know that He is also the creator, the one who made everything around us. We learn quite a bit about the father in that first statement. We learn even more about the Son in the second clause.

As we recite the second clause of the Apostles Creed, we retell the story of Jesus - conception by the Holy Spirit, the virgin birth, his suffering, death and resurrection, and the promise of his return. Those are some key things that we have to know about Jesus. But then we get to the third clause, and it’s really vague. We don’t get a lot of information about the Holy Spirit.

What’s the third clause? “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” That’s all we get about the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus, and we believe in the Holy Spirit. It’s no wonder why we can give a good explanation of who the Holy Spirit is – in the most ancient and basic of creeds, we don’t get a whole lot of explanation on who the Spirit is. It’s never really been explained to us.

I’m not saying that today you are going to walk out of here with a definitive understanding of the Holy Spirit, but, hopefully, you do walk out of here this morning knowing at least a little bit more about who the Holy Spirit is. And by the end of the series, I want you to be able to talk about the Holy Spirit without having to stumble through a vague explanation that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

To begin, let’s make something very clear. The Holy Spirit is not the Force. It’s not some mysterious thing out of a Star Wars movie that is going to help you see the future, or, more importantly, help you move things without having to get up. The Force is science fiction. The Holy Spirit is non-fiction. The Holy Spirit is not some sort of impersonal, generic, “life force,” or energy, that connects all things together in some kind of mystical union, either. That’s New Age philosophy, which has no place in the Christian Church. The Holy Spirit is a personal being.

The Holy Spirit is never referred to in Scripture as “It.” Personal pronouns are regularly used in reference to the Holy Spirit. In John 16:7, Jesus says, “I will send him to you.” The Spirit prompts individuals to do things throughout the Book of Acts. The disciples consult with the Holy Spirit, as though talking to an individual.

The Holy Spirit acts in ways that a person acts. In today’s passage, we are told that the Holy Spirit will teach and remind. Throughout the New Testament, the Spirit guides, convicts, intercedes, calls and commissions. These are not things that impersonal, generic “energies” do. These are things that people do when they are in relationship with other people.

At our baptism, we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We aren’t baptized into an idea, but into a relationship with the Triune God – Father, Son and Spirit. You cannot be in relationship with objects. You can be obsessed with objects in your life, but you can’t be in relationship with them.

Why is that? Because a relationship is a two-way street. I hate to break it to you, but your car doesn’t really care about you. Your television doesn’t really care about you. Anything that you can think of that is an object doesn’t really care about you. You can be in a relationship with a Father. You can have a relationship with a Son. Likewise, you can have a relationship with the Holy Spirit

And while we are on that subject, the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. While the Trinity itself is sometimes a complicated subject, and we don’t really understand how it works, this is what we do know from Scripture: the Holy Spirit is a part of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and in the Trinity, each member is a personal being that has a role in our life of faith. While they are three distinct individuals, they are also united as one in the Godhead.

Now, I know I may be using some unusual terms here – Trinity and Godhead for example - and if you aren’t familiar with them, that’s all right. You don’t have to be able to explain them in detailed, theological terms. Some things in our faith are mysteries that we don’t have to be able to understand 100%, and the Trinity is certainly one of those things.

And let’s face it, there are a lot of things in life that we simply don’t understand as well. I’m willing to bet that only a handful of people here understand in complete and exact detail how their car works. I don’t. Here’s what I know about my car. I put gas in, I start the ignition and it works… most of the time. I don’t understand how the gasoline makes the car run, but I do know that if my car runs out of gas, it doesn’t run. And at this point in my life, that’s all I really need to know.

So many times, we want to know everything 100% before we buy into it, but we fail to realize that there are things that we take for granted each and every day. We don’t understand them, but that doesn’t make them any less real for us. We know that we need food in our bodies. We know that when we hit the power button on the remote the television turns on. We know that our bodies need rest. Why do all of these things happen the way they do? I don’t know. I don’t care. I know that certain things in life are true, even if I can’t fully explain them. That is how it is for us and our approach to the Holy Spirit.

Here’s what I know about the Holy Spirit, and I hope you walk away knowing at the end of the day. The Holy Spirit is real. The Holy Spirit is a personal being that cares for us as individuals. And the Holy Spirit longs to be in relationship with us so that we can be truly alive.

Happy Mother's Day

I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus the last couple of weeks due to the fact that Katie and I have been on a much-needed vacation for a while. It's good to go on vacation, but it's always good to come home as well. I'll put up a little more on our vacations in a few days, but I wanted to take just a moment to say, "Happy Mother's Day" to all mothers, and those who haven't had the chance to be one yet. And as a way of... honoring... my mother, I thought I'd put up one of my favorite pictures of my mom and dad. It really explains my own fits of insanity, doesn't it?