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' FAMILY' WORSHIP SUNDAYS!

This year our church has instituted a once monthly practice of Family Worship services.  While in the truest sense, we realize that EVERY service of worship is intended for ALL of God's children, the reality is that the traditional service, with the traditional, often fairly lengthy, sermon may not reach younger children all that well. Therefore we have made a deliberate attempt to offer a unique kind of service on a once monthly basis. Since we only have one service each week, this Sunday service is different from that of the other three or four Sundays in the following ways:

1. It is significantly shorter- often between 35-40 minutes.
2. We do everything we can to have children serve as greeters, readers, as those taking up the offering and as singers in the choir for that day.
3. We intentionally pick music that is easy for young people to join in.
4. We strive to have our older youth serve as leaders in crafting skits and creative ways to tell the Scripture story. We will even on occasion use contemporary available translations of Scripture e.g THE MESSAGE.
5. My sermon is not the ordinary behind the pulpit 10-15 minute message yet is integrated into the service in different ways, sometimes actually staggered through the different parts of the service.

Now while I strongly believe that these efforts are important, I wish to state that while this is the Sunday service not ONLY for those with young children but also for the entire congregation, the following is important:

1. Though the method of delivery may be different, the Biblical message must remain clear and meaningful to ALL.

2. It is important that our youth be exposed to certain worship traditions and practices. It is also important that they learn some of the great hymns of our faith heritage so while we may shorten them a bit, we will be sure to give our youth the opportunity to learn and sing AMAZING GRACE, HOW GREAT THOU ART and many other 'traditional' hymns.

I believe that our attempt at a more inclusive approach to church participation has been a valuable one. As the year moves along, we will continue to evaluate this for what is at stake is one of the most important hours in all the week.  All of which leads to a final point:

Churches must never cease to work hard to offer worship opportunities that help open the door for the spirit's stirring. Perhaps more so, we need to work so that we do not slam the door on what people really need.......We need to plan well to create worship that gets out of God's way and just lets God be God!!
PB

THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH

If you look at the right hand side of this blog, you will see a picture of MARTIN LUTHER.  As we approach the last Sunday in October, we prepare to observe what has traditionally been called REFORMATION SUNDAY. The UCC has given it the title of REFORMATION/RECONCILIATION SUNDAY....

Luther's picture is up there because his actions in Germany in October of 1517 set off the sequences of events that have come to be known collectively as THE REFORMATION. Interestingly enough, this feast day coincides with the end of our religious history series in which we are looking at the current state of religion in these United States. It's also happening as we start our annual Budget deliberations and try to make decisions about our priorities as a congregation.

My Reformation Sunday message next week is entitled ' FUTURE CHURCH'.  The fact is that those events in the 16th century were spurred on by a  vision ( actually, a variety of visions) of what the church of the future should be.   And so I wonder.....

What's your vision of the church of the future?  How will or SHOULD it be different from the present or the past? How will or SHOULD it in any way be similar? Is there anything that remains ESSENTIAL about the church regardless of the age in which it exists?

I'd like to start a discussion on this here....Hope you join in!!...






PB

FAITH AND THE LIFE OF THE NATION: SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?

In preparing our recent Adult Education series on Religion in America, I am struck once again by the ongoing debate between the role of faith and governmental policy and decisions and what we mean in practical terms by 'separation of church and state'.

We'll be talking about that in our session tomorrow, but I'd like to open it up on this blog as well:

When it comes to practical questions like:

* Prayer in public schools
* The teaching of evolution
* How to present religion in public schools
' ' God' in the Pledge of allegiance and on our money......

and many more.....

How do YOU make decisions about religious faith and public life? The separation of church and state?

I'd love to read about that....

PB

FAMILY WORSHIP

This Sunday October 18 we will celebrate our first FAMILY WORSHIP service of the year. While it is a service deliberately designed to bring parents and children together in worship AND to provide a worship style conducive to ALL AGES, it's also going to be THE worship experience in our church this weekend...

ALL OF WHICH LEADS TO THIS POINT........

It is important that churches make significant efforts to reach those of all ages and to recognize that sometimes one needs to really do something a bit different to engage people in worship ( This, of course, is important in dealing with faith and young people!). HOWEVER, even as worship styles may vary to meet a variety of needs( THIS WEEKEND THE SERMON IS SHORTER THAN USUAL!!!), it is important that we understand that we are worshiping TOGETHER as a community.

Which is why I hope as the year rolls along, we can get more and more young people coming to worship with moms and dads and siblings..... It's important both that young people be exposed to the traditions of faith AND important too that those traditions evolve and adapt to meet the needs of those of different ages and backgrounds, all the while ENRICHING US ALL...

Blest be the tie that binds all of our hearts......young and older alike!!

PB

GOD: OUR HELP IN AGES PAST, OUR HOPE FOR YEARS TO COME

This coming Sunday, at Family Worship, I will deliver a BRIEF message with the simple title GOD. The brevity of the message is certainly not proportionate to the importance of the subject. I also like to think that week in and week out, we explore the breadth and depth of this topic. Nonetheless, in this BLOG entry, I wish to pose some questions for you to consider, questions that really get at the heart of your own THEOLOGY i.e. your thinking and talking...about GOD!

For now, I only have a few questions:

* When you think about God, what's the picture you have in your mind?
* In a related question: When you think about God, do you envision God as PERSON ?
* Where does Jesus fit in to your visualization/conceptualization of God?

I look forward to your responses...

PB

GOD: A NAME FOR GOD

The phrase ' God is a name for God' has been attributed to the late theologian Paul Tillich. While at first glance or hearing, it might sound  a bit flip, the phrase conveys an incredible depth of TRUTH. WHO and WHAT God is cannot be contained by any name or image. God is always greater than anything we portray Him to be....

Did you notice that I just added another limitation to God by saying HIM? Any human language is incomplete. This is not intended to be a picky point; rather, it is testimony to the majesty, power and love of that which we call by the name GOD.

On October 18, we are having a FAMILY WORSHIP SERVICE in which our young people will be very involved....My sermon title that day is a simple one:  GOD
In this VERY SHORT SERMON ( promise), I hope to help us all reflect not only on the ways we might limit God, but on all that GOD IS and all that we may have even have considered...

There's wisdom in Tillich's words-

PB

GRATITUDE AND CONVICTION

First...a word of GRATITUDE..............

Over the past two weeks, we have had some wonderful discussions in our EDUCATION SERIES about religious history, discussions which have probed the backgrounds of Catholicism and Protestantism........We have been fortunate to have really engaged participants sharing significant thoughts and questions...

AND....a CONVICTION

It is SO important that churches work to help people understand religious roots and history.  Faith, knowledge and reason need not be at war with one another...

Wherever you are reading this.....

I encourage you to be part of a church education group which probes deeply into history, the Bible, and ethics...and into great books that help us think, understand and question....

If your church does not offer this, perhaps you can suggest it.....

If you want more information and if I can be of help, just BE IN TOUCH via this BLOG-

PB

MORE ON THE BIBLE

Today in church we looked at some difficult texts from the Bible including the end of the fifth chapter and beginning of the sixth in Ephesians and the stories in both books of Samuel about the relationship between David and Jonathan. These texts are challenging to many of us in varied ways.

I'd be interested in hearing from you regarding any passages in the Bible you find particularly difficult to deal with.....Maybe it contains something that doesn't connect with something you've understood about your faith ( Ephesian's 'slaves, obey your masters' is a complex one for me!) or maybe it's just one about which you have many questions.

This wrestling with Scripture could become an important feature of this BLOG...............I write about it more in the entry below...

Feel free to comment..

PB

FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.............

At church, I am right in the middle of a sermon series on FAMILY VALUES. In today's message, I alluded to many passages from the Bible, some that members of the congregation said they had never heard read in church. It struck me again, as it always does, that the Bible is an amazing and complex collection of 66 books containing texts which have the power to change our lives and to express the inner longings of our hearts and souls.

As a Pastor, I am constantly reminded of the continued need for good and thorough Bible study as well as study of the essentials and fundamentals of both our own and other religious faiths. I have commented before on how deeply I have valued the writing RELIGIOUS LITERACY by Stephen Prothero. Such literacy is needed more than ever, I think, both within our churches and within our world.

THANKS to those who attended today's Education program and who commented on today's message. May we continue to grow in our knowledge.....and our faith-

PB

The Local Church

With the start of a new program year in local churches, it is important that we take time to once again recognize the value and importance of our nation's churches. I got to thinking about this as I read Susan Campbell's column in the Hartford Courant about the soon to be released study of churches done through Hartford Seminary. This study details concerns about declining church enrollments and the challenges in maintaining and building upon church vitality.

I'd be interested in your thoughts and comments about the place of the local church in your life.......It's something I thought about a lot as I wrote my doctoral thesis years ago .....and it's important to come back to thinking about it over and over...

PB

GREAT HOPE!

Yesterday was one of those days at church that offers such great HOPE....a new church school year with lots of children present, a feeling of warmth and welcoming, a visit from a distinguished scholar of Hannah Moore, Union native, and the exciting possibility of getting a group of young people together for exciting Youth Ministry ventures......

There's a lot of spirit in small church life.....and we are sure feeling it in Union!

What a joy!

PB

UNASKED QUESTIONS.....

I read a column this week by James Carroll of the Boston Globe in which he raised some questions that don't seem to be asked all that much. He called into question our escalation of the war in Afghanistan saying in effect that this war has the potential to become President Obama's Vietnam. Carroll always writes with remarkable insight and is wonderful at asking the right questions.

As John XXIII did so well in his groundbreaking letter PACEM IN TERRIS, written as he prepared himself for his death, one must always question the assumptions that support war so that one can support paths of action that are moral and right. It is important that voices such as Carroll's be raised so that society can move more deeply into responsible use of its resources, both human and financial. These financial questions become real human questions, especially as we consider where we as a society should be spending our money.

As I said from different pulpits during Desert Storm, our attacks on Afghanistan and our efforts in Iraq, we need to have some serious moral reflection on what might ever constitute a 'just war' in light of all of the realities of the current age., an age which happens to be a NUCLEAR ONE!

In light of much of the craziness and name calling going on out there, it's important that serious conversations about serious matters take place-----be they about health care, race or matters of war and peace....

On a real positive note.....

KUDOS to the Connecticut Conference, United Church of Christ, for such outstanding efforts as devoting Fall Annual Meeting time to ongoing DIALOGUE on the subject of RACE....

We need opportunities like this!!

PB

LESSONS FROM A CONVERSATION

I will start this entry with my point lest it be lost within the story:

It is important that we who claim to follow Jesus embrace the message He offered as He drew near the end of His life:

' I pray....THAT THEY MAY ALL BE ONE....'( paraphrased from John 17)

And now the story.................

I'm going to let you in on a dialogue I had this week with a couple of other people, originally labeled PERSON ONE and PERSON TWO. Here goes:

PERSON ONE: Yeah, my husband has started coming to church with me. He calls himself a recovering Catholic

ME: I'm a recovering Catholic too. No, not really. I'm an ex Catholic

PERSON TWO: Is it possible to ever be an ex Catholic?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Someday, as a former Catholic, if I am given the gift of time and a willing publisher, I want to write a book or at least an article entitled THE CATHOLIC GIFT TO PROTESTANTISM. I also happen to think a companion volume could be written called THE PROTESTANT GIFT TO CATHOLICISM. Those of us in the Christian community have a richness from which to draw in the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox traditions. I'm thinking of this now as I research and prepare for our Fall Education series.

It's funny: That dialogue I repeat above is one that I have had OVER AND OVER in my adult life. I have had to think a lot about those phrases: RECOVERING Catholic, EX Catholic. I like to see Catholicism as having deeply influenced my Christian spirituality. I see my freely chosen Protestantism as containing many gifts which can and has influenced the universal church.

In being a part of conversations such as these, I'm reminded of how important it is to be PASSIONATE about the spiritual unity of which Jesus spoke and how vital it is to dialogue with one another and to recognize each other's gifts.

I look forward to the direction of this discussion...

PB

PICKING AND CHOOSING....

In a recent discussion at church, we were talking about the literal way Amish Christians deal with the teachings of Jesus. In the ensuing conversation, a participant remarked that most Christians are not as literal and rather 'pick and choose' the Scriptures with which they are most comfortable.

I got to thinking.....

The idea that one could read Scripture and be inspired by the Holy Spirit without interpretation from church authority was one of the most noteworthy changes in mindset to emerge from the Reformation. Protestantism has been marked by the belief that each person is capable of hearing God's Word in the Bible without the intervention of ecclesiastical authority to explain what God's really saying...

HOWEVER.......

There is a danger in 'pick and choose'......i.e. the danger that I SELECT what i want God to be saying, that I LOOK for Biblical arguments that fortify my own. In so doing, it is easy to cease to be open to what God is saying in and through Scripture.

WHAT IS NEEDED.....

Protestant churches continue to need GOOD BIBLICAL STUDY so that the principle enunciated in Reformation times of ' Scripture interpreting Scripture' make sense in the contemporary context. It is NOT AUTHORITARIAN to recognize that there are factual matters in Biblical writing that are simply not open to interpretation in the way many use that term. The statement of FACT need not be seen as authoritarian.

FINAL NOTE.....

All religious groups are culpable in the matter of 'pick and choose'....

May our common quest be to do God's Will-

PB

GREAT MUSIC!

I had the opportunity to attend a great concert last night. We heard a performance by the distinguished musician MARTYN JOSEPH from Wales. Music is so important and it struck me that as wonderful as many 'big name' performers are, there are so many 'lesser known' artists who do incredible work and are well known to people who are exposed to such quality artistry and performance.

Martyn is appearing in New Haven today and while this is late notice and you may not be able to attend, consider checking him out at www.martynjoseph.com

Look for the FREE DOWNLOAD of a beautiful song FIVE SISTERS, inspired by the bombings in the Mideast this past winter.....

Music and poetry are so important to the spiritual quest that is life.....and it's so wonderful to have eyes opened through the work of someone so gifted!

PB

9/11

9/11....

Those numbers alone evoke memories and emotion. September 11, 2001 has become a day so unlike all of the ordinary days of our lives, so different from most of the days which constitute that which we call history. It is important that we pause today to remember those innocents so unjustly taken away, to give thanks for heroic deeds done by heroic people, to acknowledge the pain of those who continue to suffer such grievous loss, to consider the ways in which this world can find a way to live the way God intended us to....

The very first chapter of the Bible's very first book reminds us that:

' God saw what God made.....and it was good'

Years after this awful tragedy, God's world goes on and God's people seek a world built on the promise of God's original blessing....

As we recall the events of a day we must never forget, may Tennyson's words hold true:

' Come, my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a newer world'

Pastor Bob

IN FAIRNESS TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The recent controversy over the President's speech to schoolchildren indicates once again that public schools have become lightning rods for many people and a target for criticism and attack. There is a good number of individuals who very sincerely link public schools to the breakdown of this society and with creating a culture that is secular and antireligious.

As someone who has worked in public education for 21 years, I look at this differently! Many of my colleagues are committed believers and active participants in their places of worship. Actually, some of the most devout folks I know work in public schools and my experience has been that those who do not participate in religious activities are most respectful of those who do.

However, there IS a limit to what public schools can do and parameters in which they must operate. The First Amendment of our Bill of Rights prohibits anything resembling the establishment of a particular religion. Public schools must insure that the rights of ALL students and teachers are protected and public school leaders must always be cognizant of the fact that the schools they run are different from the churches, synagogues or mosques they may attend. Of necessity, their goals must be different!

One area in which public schools generally need to shore up however is in the academic study of religion. Religious illiteracy really hurts the study of history, culture and litearture and many schools don't offer educational opportunities for students to understand what religions really stand for and how understanding their particular history and doctrines can be valuable in our awareness of the world!

As we have seen with the outcry over President Obama's speech, public schools have a daunting task. It's important to take a serious look at our history and thus understand the inherent limitations under which they must operate.

PB

LABOR DAY

As is the case with so many Holidays, ask most people who have the day off why they do and the answers can get quite fuzzy! Unfortunately, this is so often the case with schoolchildren and days off from school! Labor Day is a case in point.

The 'last blast of summer' or 'unofficial end of summer' has its roots in something else indeed. Labor Day, developed by organized labor in the late 19th century in this country, celebrates the dignity of the working man and woman.

As is the case with words like liberty, justice and equality, the phrase 'dignity of the worker' can be a lifeless and sterile one which does not tell the real story of what has so often been a terrible struggle. Allow me to illustrate with a personal example from my family history:

I grew up in a working class mill town with lots of factories. Many towns within a fairly close radius were the same. I had a relative who died of cancer whose death was clearly related to the asbestos he inhaled daily as he worked in the plant. Throughout the course of our nation's history, there have been people who have worked very hard to make all of our lives better: They prepare and pick and package our food, clean our streets and parks, make beds and clean bathrooms at the hotels in which we stay. They clean our schools and make safe our streets. In short, they make possible BOTH what we all too often take for granted AND the wealth of those who benefit financially from the fact they work so hard and who simply could not do what they do without them.

Labor Day is a crucial reminder not only of the importance of WORK but of the fact that THE WORKER has rights and dignity and relevant to this blog and the faith espoused by this writer is a CHILD OF GOD and, as such, endowed by his/her Creator with certain inalienable rights....

As the child of two hard working parents, I suggest we take a moment in the midst of our enjoyment to reflect on the value and dignity of the working person who so often does not reap the benefits of what he or she deserves as others live off the burden of his/her labor...

BUT........in the eyes of God and in the words of GODSPELL( I couldn't resist the commercial!!):

Who is the land for? The sun and the sand for?
You guessed! IT'S ALL FOR THE BEST!

Happy Labor Day!

PB

A POWERFUL COMMENTARY- IN SEARCH OF EMPATHY

I read this column yesterday and I want to share it with you......

Jim Carroll is a remarkable writer.....

He speaks in defense of EMPATHY........along with CIVILITY ( previously blogged about!) something we need so much.

Please tell me what you think...

You can click on:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/08/17/in_search_of_empathy/

A WONDERFUL RESOURCE IN HARTFORD

Here in Connecticut, we have an amazing resource in the HARTFORD STAGE COMPANY.

My wife and I had the opportunity last evening to see PART ONE of Horton Foote's THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE....

If you are looking for amazing and thought provoking drama dealing with some of life's closest to the heart issues, issues about which religious perspectives make real interpretive differences, this is truly a great production to see...

In uncertain times, in times all too often dominated by 24 hour news cycles and raw emotions, we need this kind of work....to keep us GROUNDED!

Check it out at www.hartfordstage.org

PB

GODSPELL IS COMING!!!! Be part of the excitement!

I am thrilled to be getting the word out about the play GODSPELL, coming to First Congregational, Vernon, in May 2010................

This will be a REGIONAL effort...directed by JOE CONNOLLY...directing this play in his FIFTH DECADE!

SPREAD THE WORD!!!...Joe's looking for performers, ages 10-30....from the Eastern/Central Connecticut region...

REHEARSALS WILL BE ON SUNDAYS!

An ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING will be held at 1 pm on OCTOBER 4 at First Congregational, Vernon

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO ACT OR SING BUT WANT TO HELP......consider coming to the meeting!

PB

SOME BASIC SENSIBLE CIVICS......PLEASE

This is another one of those topics in which making a comment can be readily misunderstood as going on the partisan offensive. I don't mean it that way....I really don't:

Our President wants to speak to our nation's schoolchildren about staying in school and working hard. He wants to encourage them not to drop out. In his life, he has not only talked the education talk. He has walked the education walk. He worked hard. He valued education. He has credibility on the subject.

While there are policy differences in this nation, there are also core American values, one of which is the importance of education. Another has to do with the Presidency.

A long standing tradition in America's public schools has been that the President's picture would be posted in individual classrooms. That act was never intended to promote Republican or Democratic policies. Instead it was to encourage respect for the office of the Presidency.

In my honest view, legitimate differences of opinion on current issues has clouded much of the reaction to the President's speech:

When President George W. Bush addressed the nation on the night of 9/11, he did so in his role as our leader. It was not a night for Democrats to attack his policies. It was a night for this nation to seek unity around common values.

Be we Democrat, Independent or Republican.......education is a value and the freely elected American Presidency is a value.......For such free elections, we declared independence.....

I honestly think that if we don't like a President's policies, well, we vote him or her out of office.......but during his/her term, we need to find common ground...

If governing is nothing more than pure political campaigning.....how can we ever come together as a nation? Seems to me that this really crosses over from a political discussion to an ethical one....

PB

A NATION MOURNS SENATOR KENNEDY

Most Americans would agree that the political climate has been very volatile in these last few weeks. It is encouraging and refreshing to see the depth of heartfelt bipartisan tributes pouring in upon the death of Senator Edward Kennedy. John McCain and Nancy Reagan and many other Republicans have joined Chris Dodd and Joe Biden and other Democrats in honoring the memory of the man who served Massachusetts in the US Senate for forty seven years.

I don't want to make of this space a partisan political battleground. In honesty, though, I have to say that this young Catholic boy, child of working class parents in a working class town, was deeply inspired by the Kennedy family and their commitment to public service. This commitment, embodied in Senator Kennedy, has been duly recognized by colleagues mentioned above as well as his dear friend, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah.

For a good while, the personal flaws of Ted Kennedy and his brother were held up as examples of immoral behavior by public officials and both brothers underwent considerable public villification. In time, we have all learned that immoral behavior is quite bipartisan as well. Even if you were to quarrel vociferously with his politics and the policies he espoused, please join me in paying tribute today to a man with a great heart and with deep compassion and a profound love for this country.

Please join me as well in a recognition of God's grace that this man, by his own admission, realized the mistakes he had made in his life and then went on to serve his family well and to build a loving marriage. Join me also, if you will, in thanksgiving for God's grace, that this son of privilege, who endured enormous pain and heartbreak in his life, is now at peace and in the eternal presence of God and surrounded forever by an indescribable and incredibly fulfilling love, a love that knows no bounds.

For me, it's tough to write this because I DID admire him and his brothers and I really don't want to have a posthumous fight about politics here in this space. Yet I DO have to say that there is something to be said about admiring the values and ideals and work of certain individuals. I also have to say that one of the best things that can happen to anyone is having people in their lives, public people, who stand for something and inspire you to stand for something too!

So, in my life, I'm glad this family made an impression on me. As a little 8 year old, I'm grateful I heard those words:'Ask not what your country can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country' .I'm glad that in 1960 a barrier of discrimination came tumbling down making possible the removal of other barriers in the future of the nation. I'll long be grateful that when I was quite young I had a chance to meet a then rather young Senator and to speak with him, as he inspired in me a sense that even if you are young, you should get involved, take a stand and not be afraid to speak if you have something to say.

Well, I guess I got the message...........and I am glad that we live in a nation where maybe, just maybe, we can appreciate each other and find ways to see the good in those with whom we might disagree. Our nation needs that and Senator Kennedy exemplified that so powerfully and so well.....hence the tributes over these last two days...

In the ancient words of the faith he cherished so deeply:
.....REQUIESCAT IN PACE

May he rest in peace!

PB

REFLECTIONS ON AN OLD MAINE HIGHWAY...

Yesterday afternoon I found myself traveling an old highway through some very small towns in Central Maine. Instead of finding a restaurant along that old road, we found one small church after another, churches of every possible denomination- Independent Baptists, Congregationalists, Nazarenes, Churches of Christ ( not United, by the way) and so on and so.......Let's not leave out a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall.

Travel Europe's back roads in about 1500 AD, little more than 500 years ago, and for the most part, there was ONE church, the universal ( Catholic) church......Yesterday, I thought to myself ( and spoke aloud!) that Martin Luther would be amazed at what the Reformation he triggered had produced. What would he have thought, I wondered, about all the 'splinter groups' within this one Christian movement...

Well, I don't have Luther to ask, so I will ask you: What do you think? Is Christianity TOO divided? Is there REALLY a UNITY beneath it all? I have my thoughts, but I'd love to hear from you and to give them as response to yours...

By the way, we will look at this more closely in our church's Education series starting SEPTEMBER 27...details linked on home page of www.unioncc.com

Pastor Bob

EVEN THE DEVIL CAN QUOTE............

This past week, a man brought a gun to President Obama's Town Hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was wearing a shirt which contained the same quote from Thomas Jefferson that Timothy McVeigh wore on the day he blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Many admirers of Jefferson would cringe thinking that his words might be used for such purposes.

This anecdote does highlight the fact that the same words are often used for different purposes. I think of the old adage that 'even the devil can quote Scripture' and think of how it applies to so many documents, including Scripture! In my view, this highlights the seriousness of the task of interpretation......What was the original INTENT of the writer? What was the CONTEXT in which these words were spoken? Where do these words fit into the framework of other words from the same author?

When we neglect the task of interpretation, we end up using the words we want to use to reflect the opinions we want to express......

Kind of makes you understand why some skeptics are pretty cynical about religion.......You just take your own prejudices and use a 'sacred source' to justify them....

IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!!

PB

CIVILITY AND TOWN HALLS

Several years back, Yale Law Professor Stephen Carter published a widely discussed book that went by the simple title CIVILITY. Among its many helpful points is the simple one that our society has lost the fine art of engaging in civil discussion and disagreement. He notes well that constitutionally protected speech is not to be confused with helpful and worthwhile speech.

I thought of Carter's work this week as I witnessed some of the public reactions at various Town Hall meetings centered on the health care debate. Interruption and insult are a central, integral part of the agenda of too many participants in these sessions.

While my opinions of WHAT they are saying are certainly colored by where I stand in this debate, this issue of CIVILITY is a separate one. I find myself longing for days when liberals and conservatives and all of those in the middle could have reasoned conversation over those matters about which they disagree.

This problem, made manifest recently in respect to this issue, is a real problem within the Christian church as well........

How can we disagree without being disagreeable?

It's pretty important, wouldn't you say?

PB

A CLARIFICATION

In thinking through the discussion after yesterday's sermon, I have concluded that I was UNCLEAR in something I said:

In response to a comment related to self defense when attacked, I quickly noted that the right to self defense has been part of the Christian moral tradition. While technically and historically correct, my answer did not focus enough on what is quite clear: That in the teachings of JESUS, enunciated in ' The Sermon on the Mount ( MT: 5-7), it is pretty hard to argue against the position that Jesus Himself was a pacifist. What the tradition takes into account is that we as individual moral agents have to make concrete judgments based on the application of moral principles.

HOWEVER................that TECHNICAL FACT has been used all too facilely and glibly and RUNS AWAY FROM the importance of confronting WHAT JESUS REALLY THOUGHT. It was NOT my intention to do that.

PB

What is going on?

After today's sermon on FORGIVENESS ( see below), we had a discussion and then after church someone came up and raised a question that could well lead to another discussion:

This summer, we have seen several examples of horrible, mindless violent acts, the most recent being the shooting at the LA Fitness outside of Pittsburgh. What's going on here? Why are these things happening? What is BREAKING DOWN in the fabric of our culture?

People answer these kinds of questions in different ways:

* Some emphasize the 'personal' i.e. these are circumstances in individual lives and we cannot generalize about these matters.

* Others emphasize the 'sociological' i.e. there are things that have happened within society ( including economic crisis) that make these things more likely....

* Others analyze it in such a way as to emphasize a breakdown that has taken place within both private and public morality...

I've got some opinions on this.....and will share them......but I'd really love to hear yours....

Isn't it great how conversations in church spur on even more conversations?

By the way, if you want to read a book that places these issues front and center, you may want to try Wally Lamb's novel THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED.....a fictional piece with Columbine as a central action.....

Talk to you soon-

Pastor Bob

CELEBRATE OLD HOME DAY

UNION celebrates OLD HOME DAY this coming weekend! Join the festivities on Saturday and join us for worship on Sunday ( see notes on the right.....)

Read more about Union's OLD HOME DAY by checking out the wonderful book UNION LANDS...............

PB