Baccaleaurate Prayer and Blessing

As part of the Volga, SD ministerium I was able to take part in the baccalaureate service for the Class of 2013 at Sioux Valley High School.  There were about six of us who split up the service, and I said the closing prayer and gave a blessing.  I chose the Prayer for the Journey but did some slight editing so those who aren't familiar with fine theological works and ideas could hopefully appreciate it.  As for the blessing, I'm sure something like it has been written before, but this one came from my head.  Feel free to use it and change it if you like.

Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, though you see all; by paths as yet untrodden, yet you are present in all places; through perils unknown to us, but not you.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us.

As you go from this place...

When you learn, may God bless your brain.

When you work, may God bless your muscles.

When you serve, may God bless your hands.

When you go, may God bless your feet.

When you speak, may God bless your words.

When you experience opposition, may God give you patience.

When you experience anger, may God give you peace.

When you go through temptation, may God give you strength.

When you feel fear, may God give you courage.

When you experience achievement, may God grant you humility.

When you experience joy, may you have thankful a heart.

When you sin, may you know God’s forgiveness.

When you give praise to God, may he bless your heart.

Amen.

The Love of Children

Two nights ago, my three-year-old son Isaac fell backwards off his bench at a restaurant. He was playing after we had just finished our evening meal. His head hit the floor with that horrid hollow thunk that craniums make when they come in contact with hard objects. I was in the bathroom when this happened; when I heard the crying I thought, "MAN, I hope that isn't Isaac!" There were wails of pain, screams that tore out my heart. If you have seen the move "The Princess Bride," it was just like the scene where Wesley made a "sound of ultimate suffering" while in the machine inside the Pit of Despair. As I walked up and saw it was MY son making those noises I went into protective father mode, ready to engage his attackers no matter the enemy. When Claire told me that he had fallen off the bench and bonked his head, my rage quickly subsided as one cannot defend their loved ones by fighting the floor. All that was left was a brain full of concern, guilt, worry, fear...

What followed was amazing, and was acted out not by adults but by two children about Isaac's age. The little girl across the dining area was apparently amazingly worried about him; I think her mother stopped her from coming over to check on him because as we walked by them on the way out the door she said, "Oh, see, he's okay. You don't have to worry." I got the idea she had actually stopped her daughter from coming over. There was also a little boy seated closer to us who did approach Isaac. He didn't say a word, just started playing with the toy that had come in his kids' combo meal while looking at Isaac. It was like he was beckoning Isaac to bring his own toy and come play with him, to come have fun and enjoy himself. Now, you have to understand that Isaac was still wailing at this point, screaming in pain. To spell it out would look something like this: "AAAAH!!!!" *quick breath in* Repeat, ad infinitum. In fact, he told Claire last night that he hoped "the sparkles" don't come back because they hurt him; he hit his head so hard he had seen stars! Still, despite his pain, I could see on Isaac's face that the invitation from the little boy was tempting.

So here is the thing: none of the adults came to see if Isaac was okay. They looked at us, sure, but didn't make any move towards us or motion of concern. They could have been either worried or annoyed, I'm not sure which. This little girl and boy, though, were immediately concerned and wanted to take action. The girl wanted to make sure Isaac was okay. The little boy wanted to help Isaac feel better. They showed, I think, the kind of love that Jesus wants his people to show each other and the world. These two children hadn't yet been taught to keep to themselves, to not get involved, to mind their own business. Their childlike faith was put into action at the mere sight and sound of someone who had been hurt. They couldn't have healed his physical affliction, but they were still worried about the whole of him. That boy and girl had love for the other that didn't depend on familiarity or a culturally-perceived appropriateness.

Isaac is better now. No trip to the ER was necessary. His bump on the back of his head has shrunk down. I'm still moved by the care these kids showed my son. I'm not angry at the adults: they acted within their rights and I'm sure had we needed it they would have helped. Those kids, though... they did something special. They loved Isaac even though he was loud and a stranger and his pain interrupted their meals. Aren't we called to be actors with the same blatant love for those who are suffering? Wouldn't Jesus have us minister to all of the person, not only the presenting issue? When Jesus healed the paralytic in Mark 2 he forgave his sins first, then proceeded to the physical part of the healing. Healing the woman who had bled for twelve years not only stopped her condition but restored her to a place of cultural acceptance she hadn't known for over a decade. This little boy and girl at the restaurant wanted Isaac to be better, both physically and emotionally. I'm thankful for these little kids and for the love of a fellow human that moved them to want to act. I pray that my faith could be put into action without concern for cultural restraint or self-consideration. I pray that I would be as quick to act when I see or hear suffering!

Welcome to Confirmation

Welcome to Confirmation by UberHank on GoAnimate

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Confirmation kickoff video!

...and now we rock.

On Easter morning during the sunrise service at Lake Campbell Lutheran Church, I played a guitar duet with an exchange student from Germany during the offering. We sounded GREAT. Unfortunately I don't think we got a recording of it, so I decided to record the parts we played--the melody and bass lines (including a few additional parts)-- and upload them for people to hear. This is "Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds" from the Lutheran Book of Worship #143. Enjoy!

Technutheran

So... my wife has convinced me to post this song. I took the hook from a Lutheran hymn and gave it a funky, funky beat. It should only take about 2.5 minutes of your day. Enjoy!

The Watchmaker's Workshop

The Watchmaker's Workshop
(this is a retelling of Matthew 21:33-46 and Isaiah 5:1-7)

There was a watchmaker who really enjoyed and was very good at making watches; really, he was the best at it! He was never alone because his son was a good helper and liked making watches as much as the watchmaker did. It was together that they made watches, but it was the son who wound them all and made them run. One day they decided that they wanted help making watches because with help they could make even more watches than normal. With his knowledge of inner workings and small parts, the watchmaker designed and made machines to help with the task. The son made sure they were all wound tightly and started them up. They gave their creations a nice space to work within the workshop where they could watch over them.

Before they started the watchmaker told the machines one thing: “Make watches with me.” That wasn’t enough to tell the machines, however, because one of the watchmaker’s enemies convinced them they could do things other than just make watches. This meant they spent time otherwise preoccupied, and therefore the watches they made weren’t as good nor as numerous as they could have been. Despite being sad his creations didn’t follow his intentions, the watchmaker let them continue helping but decided to make new machines with new instructions.

The next machines the watchmaker designed were told “Make watches with me, and make them as good as you can.” Convinced that was enough for their creations to follow, the watchmaker and his son continued their own work. Eventually the watchmaker started to notice unfamiliar noises in his workshop. When he checked on his machines they were using techniques to make the watches that he hadn’t taught them! He asked where they had learned those methods and they told him, “Another watchmaker taught his workers to assemble this part like this. We thought it was better than the way you taught us, so we started to use it here too.”

Again upset that his machines had done different than he intended, but still glad he had made them, he designed a few new machines to watch what the others were doing. He told them, “Make watches with me, and make sure you and the others follow my directions.” They were made to give the others reminders and written instructions if necessary to make sure they followed the watchmaker’s plans. For a while after that things went very well! Eventually, though, one of the watches his machines made reached his desk for review. He noticed it wasn’t as high quality as previous ones had been, but figured it was just a mistake so he let work continue.

When a sample from the next batch was brought to him he noticed it was even worse than the last one, so he and his son went to watch his machines work. They saw their creations focusing more on the instructions than on the watches they were making! Somehow the instructions on how to make the watches had become more important than the watches themselves, and so the machines had stopped caring how the watches looked. They were so disappointing to the watchmaker and his son that they decided to send them away to punish them.

When he brought them back, the watchmaker had hoped the time away from his workshop would change their minds regarding what was more important, the watches or the instructions. The first watches they made were wonderful! As time progressed though, the quality started to decline again, so the watchmaker’s son had an idea. “Send me to the floor, dad. I’ll teach them how to make watches the way you taught me to make watches.” Loving his son and wanting his creations to succeed, the watchmaker agreed. His machines were important to him, enough so that he would do anything to help them make watches how he intended.

As the watchmaker’s son walked the floor, he talked with many of the creations. The ones that needed slight adjustments in their work would get a friendly correction. Other machines that were following the original instructions were praised for their work. The presence of the son vastly improved the work of many machines! All of the machines that heeded what the son said were granted a special winding that helped them continue doing the work of the watchmaker. Some of them even started telling others about how they were made to work according to the son.

There were a few, however, that somehow had gotten the wrong idea into their heads about what the watchmaker wanted. Those machines still believed that the instructions the watchmaker had given them were more important to the watchmaker than the end result of the watch. The son tried talking to them about what they were doing but they kept going and told others to do it their way.

Even after speaking firmly and directly, some machines kept making watches by focusing on the instructions and not paying attention to the watch. They knew what the watchmaker had said: “Make watches with me;” “Make them as good as you can;” and “Make sure you and the others follow my directions.” To be sure they could continue doing that, they organized a way to make the son go back up to the watchmaker’s workbench and leave them alone.

What does the watchmaker do next?

Floor Show!

The library at my seminary held a video contest for $$$ in our bookstore. Here is my entry!

I Hope You Are Too

The leaves drip and glisten
from a freshly fallen rain.
We navigate puddles
as the sun shines on us.
An ice cream truck tantalizes us--
okay, me--
from across the valley.
The birds discuss the evening news
and I wonder where the worms are
as we walk home again
so you can go to bed.
As we go you coo a few things:
“Aahhh-ooooo;”
“Eeka deeka deeka doooo;”
and “Da da da da da.”
I'm so happy right now,
and I hope you are too.
Love, Dad

Ah, Memories!

On our trip home over the 4th of July weekend my mother gave us some old papers of mine: school work, awards, doodles, newspaper clippings, etc. One thing in particular that caught my eye was a story I wrote in high school. With great pride I reproduce it here for you now exactly as it appears on the college-rule lined paper (with some minor layout editing).

Dr. Williams

is

SALAT FRAÜLEIN

with her sidekick

Crouton Girl

There's a reason Hidden Valley is hidden...
Deep in Hidden Valley Headquarters (H.V.H.Q.) there lies a secret laboratory filled with wonders and atrocities. Come down the escalator and one would find a huge table in the middle of the room with all sorts of creepy instruments used for unhuman experiments. Also in this room are cages, filled with cute little monkeys they shoot into space with huge bowls of salad and Hidden Valley dressing. One day, as Dr. Williams and her team were getting ready to fire a monkey into orbit, a group of blind sightseers came down the escalator looking for the bathroom. Dr. Williams noticed them and said "Excuse me...!"
"Oh, sorry, I didn't know this stall was being used." So the sightseers went back to the escalator and started to go up. They didn't get far, though, as they escalator was a down escalator. They didn't stop, though, just kept stepping. Dr. Williams turned around to face her team.
"Alright, boys, " she said, "let's get that chimp in the rocket." So the team got to work.
"Hydro-spanner-boosters?"
"Check."
"Propulsion crystal splitter?"
"Check."
"Zingers, Ho-Hos, Twinkies?"
"No thanks!"
Unfortunately, when it was time to get the monkey, one of the blind tourists that got a job there grabbed Dr. Williams and put her in the space capsule. When the team noticed Dr. Williams wasn't there, they just figured she had got a bite to eat. They launched, and she was shot into orbit with only salad, salad dressing, gum, and duct tape.

Five Days Later

"This sucks! Salad, and that's it! I never realized what we were doing to those monkeys! Poor fellas! That's it! I'm outta here!"
"Come on, dude! You can go out and get a burger or something. Dr. Williams is stuck up in space and you are complaining. Typical!"
"Oh, yeah! Hey, I'm going out for a burger. Want something?"
"Nah. I'm gonna have a salad."
"OK."

Another Five Days Later

"Well," said Dr. Williams, "I'm finally getting outta here. Good thing these tests are only ten days long. I can't wait to see my fish." The capsule came crashing down into Hidden Valley and the scientists all came out to check on Dr. Williams. When she opened the door, all the scientists fell back in horror, then just kinda stared. Before Dr. Williams was shot into space, she was really ugly. U-G-L-Y! That's why they fell back, because they knew was was coming. Or so they thought. All that Ranch with Bacon dressing and the gamma particles from the sun's ultraviolet rays made Dr. Williams the most beautiful woman in the history of women. (The three men in the team of seven fell in love immediately and the three women became insanely jealous and shot themselves into space. It's now been three weeks since we've heard from them. As for the blind guy, he made friends with the monkey, and they took a road trip to Kansas.) The dressing and rays and stuff also gave Dr. Williams unbelievably neat powers. She now has the ability to shoot Ranch with Bacon from her fingertips and make things she touches turn into lettuce. With these powers, she is now called SALAT FRAÜLEIN! Patrolling the streets, well, back streets and alleys of Hidden Valley, she keeps the scum out of those precious hidden valleys, and also makes sure those dopes never send her into space ever again. As for Crouton Girl, she just kinda wandered into H.V.H.Q. and tags along with SALAT FRAÜLEIN on her patrols. No real powers, just likes croutons.
The blind guy and the monkey are now in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Never trust a monkey to get you where you want to go. They're so stubborn and won't ask for directions.
The blind guys who needed to use the bathroom are still on the escalator, and they still have to go.

SALAT FRAÜLEIN

und Crouton Girl

Naptime Prayer

After reading Yertle the Turtle it is hard to say a prayer for my son in an un-Dr. Seuss way. So without further ado let us not be delayed: this is the prayer we prayerfully prayed.
Based on a true prayer, edited for length.

Dear God, we pray for Isaac as he lays down for a nap.
He's had trouble sleeping at night, and we're worried about that.
So now with a tummy full of vegetables, milk, and meat,
we pray that he might finally be able to sleep.
Daddy is going back to work
right next door--what a perk!
Mommy is doing what she does best--
being awesome as he rests.
And God, you are right here with our son--
weave his dreams from the sleep we've spun.
AMEN.

Sermon Illustration: John 17:20-26

I made this video from the slide show I gave during my sermon Sunday May 16th.



And this is the version I did for the smaller group at Thursday night worship May 13.

National Day of Prayer

My prayer for world peace, the final prayer at our National Day of Prayer breakfast today.

God, is peace possible
between individuals, nations,
ideologies, or ethnicities?
We ask that it is.
When we hear of wars,
invasions, or conflicts,
another bit of hope within us
dims.
Reignite the hope of peace
between nations and within nations.
But Lord, we ask for peace
that doesn't depend on
the death or suppression of others,
but a peace that brings,
honors, and supports life.
We pray that peace may be fostered
by the equal sharing of wealth
and resources, not
the selfish hording by nations or
the leaders of nations.
For us and for all people, Lord,
we pray for the power to be gentle,
the strength to be forgiving,
the patience to be understanding,
and the endurance to run this race.
Only you can truly bring peace:
We pray for peace from fear,
peace from hate, jealousy, and pride,
peace between individuals, nations,
ideologies and ethnicities.
We pray for peace for our entire world.
You alone are God,
and to you alone we pray.

The "Amen" is yours to say.

I wrote this prayer for the mother-daughter banquet at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Rock Falls IL on May 4, 2010.

Mighty, and loving God, you have blessed us so much, often in ways we don't even realize. There is nothing like a mother, as you know from Jesus' mother Mary. We lift up our thanks for daughters and mothers, grand and great-grandmothers; thank you for the love they show us! Bless them as they play pivotal roles in our lives. Give them your grace, and help them with peace, patience, strength, and love.

Lord, you gather us under your wing like a mother hen gathers her chicks. Wrap your loving Spirit around us in this room. For those without a loving mother, we ask that they know your loving and nurturing care; grant them knowing you. We ask all this in the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Almost Big News!

I almost got really excited there!

Formerly Forsaken

Forsaken,
marry me, your builder,
no longer Desolate
in a renamed land.

I'll never stop,
never stop listening,
working, loving, illumining
until eyes far and wide
see your beauty,
alluring and holy.
A beacon for all to see;
flip the switch on the marquee.

Delight,
formerly Forsaken,
the path is cleared to Sought Out.
Salvation comes with
recompense preceding,
and Daughter's reward
in my right hand.

Formerly Forsaken,
you are a crown of beauty,
in my hand and red
on my head.

(inspired by Isaiah 62:1-9)

For the first post, I'd like to share a poem-- "Unlimited Grasp"

I could die and
go straight to heaven
or
I could die and
be taken to a funeral home
pumped full of chemicals
mourned over in a church
put in the ground
sit in my casket, rotting
decompose until there was nothing left to decompose
lie there for many many years
be rumbled around by earthquakes
not feel the shockwaves of dropped bombs
have my bones cooked by rising temperatures
freeze at a coming ice age
burn up when the sun swallows the earth
and I would still be alive in Christ