A friend sent me this link last night.  I of course had heard some of what had gone on at Coral Ridge.  It’s hard not to hear about it if you’re in church circles at all.  I had heard rumors that the music director and organist had resigned, but until I read this on the organist’s own blog, it was just that:  a rumor, and I didn’t want to comment or speculate on a rumor.

There are quite a few things that really bother me about this, but this is at the heart of it:

On Wednesday evening, an elder came to announce that choir members, who had signed the original petition calling for the congregational vote, were to be removed from the choir. (This was all done without due process as called for in the PCA Book of Church Order. Signing a petition is a congregation member’s right under the BCO.) Upon the announcement of the removals the choir was immediately ripped to shreds with people protesting, crying – it was awful and unthinkable that this was happening in a church. Some of the members have been in this choir for 40 years. Three elders in the choir stood up to protest this saying that it was not allowable without session action and that none of these people had been charged with any wrongdoing. [Music Director] John Wilson left part way through the announcement, having become too emotional to stay.

The three elders who stood up are 100% correct.  First, those choir members who signed the petition calling for a congregational meeting were simply exercising their right under the Book of Church Order (a part of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church  in America).  Second, simply because they signed a petition calling for a congregational meeting does not mean they were planning to vote to get rid of the pastor:  it simply means they wanted the issues discussed in a public forum rather than whispered behind closed doors.  (Several years ago, the session of the church we attended was trying to pass a controversial action and a petition was circulated for a congregational meeting to discuss it.  Those who signed the petition did not have their minds made up about the action:  they simply wanted the opportunity to hear both sides, to ask questions, and to let their voice be heard.  That is their right.)  Third, even if a majority of those who signed the petition did want the pastor removed, how does this sort of “scorched earth policy” advance the Gospel?  How does this square with “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”?  It has been reported that a “culture of intimidation” has been the order of the day for several months around this church.  These actions toward the choir seem to lend credence to those reports.

There’s something else that disturbs me greatly about this.  Say that, a month from now, the session apologizes, saying that its actions were unconstitutional.  What then?  The damage has been done.  The organist is gone.  The choir is gone.  The choir director is gone.  It’s already been established, in the many reports about the conflict at Coral Ridge, that the new pastor “prefers rock bands to organs and choirs.’ Do we really think there will be a serious effort to re-establish the tradition of choral and organ music that has flourished at Coral Ridge for the past 40 years?  That is all gone.  It will continue, no doubt, at the new church (that had 65 people in the choir on its first Sunday), but at Coral Ridge, it’s gone.  (In related news, the director of the Coral Ridge Concert Series was also fired this week.) Proponents of “contemporary” worship used to complain about their views being shut out by traditional churches.  Now that those proponents are the decided majority in the evangelical world, what are they doing to traditional church music?  Practicing the Golden Rule?  As I have to tell my children almost every day, the Golden Rule is not “do unto others as they have done to you.”

Increasingly over the years, I have seen an arrogant Philistinism creeping over the evangelical landscape.  I’ve had pastors brag to me about their new church buildings that were being built in such a way as to ensure that there could never be a choir or an organ in the sanctuary:  just a rock band.  Pastors with little or no experience in, or appreciation for, music are making artistic judgments and ignoring the advice and the impassioned pleas of the musicians in their midst.  I know precious little about visual art.  I’m one of those people who would buy the painting that matches the couch.  Still, I wouldn’t suggest that a church that was full of Michaelangelo frescoes hire Thomas Kinkade to come in and paint over them in a style that “people today can identify with.”  Why obliterate such a heritage?  But that’s exactly what’s going on with church music around the country.  Sure, let’s do new music.  Let’s discover music of other cultures.  But let’s not chuck our heritage in the process.  There should be plenty of room at the table for everyone.  But then again, we’ve never really gotten the hang of inclusion, have we?

The denomination that Coral Ridge is in, the PCA, has now almost universally rid itself of this heritage of church music.  It is now almost universally opposed to any music that is more than 25 years old.  Ironically, this same denomination is, at the same time, almost universally opposed to any theological formulations that are less than 350 years old!  No one in the PCA would consider for a second the suggestion that they only pay attention to theologians of the 20th and 21st centuries.  Why, then, is it OK to do that very thing to the artists of the church?  There are a lot of smart people in the PCA.  Have none of them thought through the possibility that our heritage of worship might serve to inform our theology?  Has no one wondered if worship that is completely cut off from the past might be at odds with the belief we espouse in “the communion of saints”?  That communion is not only catholic–reaching around the world–it is also timeless, reaching down through the centuries.  It’s not just lex credendi, lex orandi.  It’s also lex orandi, lex credendi.  Not only does our theology inform our worship practice:  our worship practice also shapes our theology.  What are we doing to ourselves by throwing so much of our history, and so much beauty, out the window?

Coral Ridge is not only about to jettison 40 years of church music heritage at that location.  They are about to jettison centuries of Christian wisdom and beauty embodied in that heritage.  And it’s not just music of the past that has been assigned to the dustbin.  Coral Ridge has been instrumental in introducing the music of many present-day church musicians to the world, through its TV presence as well as through its Church Music Explosion conferences.  Cindy Berry, Craig Courtney, Allen Pote, and my good friend K. Lee Scott have all had their music performed extensively by the Coral Ridge choir.  The same is true for hundreds of other composers living and writing today:  composers who are truly contemporary although not writing in a pop style.  Their gifts have been treasured and utilized by Coral Ridge.  I seriously doubt that they will be utilized, much less treasured, any longer.

I know that there were bad attitudes on the other side too.  I don’t believe it was right for people at Coral Ridge to be bad-mouthing the new pastor.  However, I also wonder why someone would go to a church only to dismantle its entire culture.  If I interviewed at a church that was 180 degrees away from my convictions regarding worship and ministry, I would not go there.  I would not be the right person for that church.  That is not a slam against that church or against me.  It’s just not a match.  Perhaps the PNC did not represent Coral Ridge or its desires for the future accurately to the candidates.  Perhaps the candidate did not represent his intentions accurately.  Perhaps it was a little of both.  No matter how it happened, now it just is what it is.

And what it is, is a terrible, terrible shame.

We have Presbyterians of all stripes who read this blog, including (but certainly not limited to) PC(USA), ARP, PCA, EPC, OPC, Church of Scotland, Free Church of Scotland, and EPCEW.  We also have Baptists of many different kinds, Episcopalians/Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and probably some more that I’m leaving out.  Every tradition “does” Communion a little differently.  Furthermore, even within a particular tradition, individual congregations have their own ways of doing things.

On this World Communion Sunday, I think it will be encouraging to our congregation to read the stories of what makes Communion special in your church.  If you have pictures, send them along with your stories.  The more stories and pictures, the better!  Even if you have only one or two sentences to share, such as the name of a song you always sing at Communion, send it in.  Don’t imagine that everyone does Communion the way your church does.  For example, the first time I played for a Methodist church, I discovered the tradition of leaving money at the altar rail for a special Communion offering for the poor.

Send your stories and pictures to knowtea-at-knowtea-dot-com (writing the address properly, of course).  But please send it to me by Friday so I can print your story for the board.  Thanks, and I pray that this World Communion Sunday is a special one for all of you.

Take a look at this video (and read the original poster’s thoughts on the subject too). Then come back here and let’s talk.

I’ve seen Bobby McFerrin in concert before. (At the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, with my cousin Lela, who has yet to comment on this blog!) He did this very experiment with us that night, and everyone instinctively responded as this audience does, with a pentatonic scale.

Pentatonic folk tunes about all over the world. Some of our best-known and best-loved hymn tunes fall into this category, such as NEW BRITAIN (”Amazing Grace”) from Scotland by way of Appalachia, WAYFARING STRANGER, also from Appalachia, JESUS LOVES ME, based on a Chinese folk tune, etc.

Shaped-note singing enthusiasts will immediately think of MORNING TRUMPET, BEACH SPRING, and many others such as “Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal.” The Celtic tune SLANE (”Be Thou My Vision”) is one of the most deeply-loved hymn tunes we have: also pentatonic.

So, what is it about the pentatonic scale. Why does it resonate so deeply with us? (I’m not using those words figuratively, either.)

Here are two of the responses:

Ours is a regular service – a praise song before greeting and then 2 hymns or praise songs, then offering, then the choir does 2 songs – mostly Southern Gospel – message, and invitation… for your youth services – which are the 5th Sundays – We sing contemporary praise and worship songs – big ones first and slow down to worship preparation – then the message and then invitation.

Well we usually have an opening hymn and after we sing the first and last verse, we have the musicians play through a verse and chorus or just a verse while everyone shakes hands and greets, then we sing the last chorus. Then it’s announcements followed by two more hymns. Then we have offering. then the choir will sing one or two songs (depends on how long they are). Then we sing amazing grace (that’s every sunday at this time), sermon, then invitation.

The first one is introduced with, “Ours is a regular service.” Is it? I know I’m in my own world, but is it? Now these are not liturgical churches, so I’m not going to say anything about the absence of Communion (oops! I just did). But why is there no confession of sin? Why no Assurance of Pardon/Declaration of Forgiveness? Regardless of denominational bent (and these churches are admittedly of a different one from mine), I think all believers need to acknowledge in worship that sin disrupts our relationship with God and needs to be acknowledged and, more importantly, that we all need very much to hear, from Scripture, the promise that our sins have been forgiven through Jesus Christ. Without the cycle of confession/assurance of pardon, the entire concept that we are approaching a holy God in worship is lost.

On an even more basic level, however, are these two questions:

1) WHAT ABOUT PRAYER? Don’t Christians pray anymore? Didn’t Jesus say something about his house being “a house of prayer for the nations”?

2) WHAT ABOUT SCRIPTURE? Both mention a sermon or message, but nothing about the public witness of Scripture. Our tradition (and the tradition of most liturgical churches) is to have a Hebrew Bible (aka Old Testament) reading, a Psalm (either read in unison, responsively, or antiphonally), an Epistle lesson, and a Gospel lesson each Sunday. The sermon will only be on one of these selections–usually the Gospel–but we believe the public reading of Scripture is as important a part of worship as the sermon, if not more so. It certainly isn’t something we would consider optional or dispensable.

So, those of you in more broadly evangelical churches, more “contemporary” churches, etc., do the above really describe a “regular service”? If so, how do you account for no prayer and no public reading of Scripture? Call me a stick in the mud, but I consider those two things to be non-negotiable.

In conservative evangelical circles, especially among the more Calvinistic in those circles, many people regard John Piper to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Me, not so much.  Those who know me may write this off by saying “Well you’re not much of an Evangelical anyway,” and you’d be right:  I’m not Evangelical with a big “E” as a brand name.  I am orthodox.  I gladly and readily affirm all three ecumenical creeds (Nicene, Apostles’, and Athanasian) and a whole slew of Reformed ones to boot.  I read Calvin all the time.  Scarcely a Sunday goes by that I don’t have a “Calvin says” in my sermon (ask my congregation).  But you won’t ever hear a “Piper says” from me.  Not a fan.

OK, first off, I have to admit that my introduction to Piper was not felicitous.  We sat under the preaching of someone several years ago who quoted Piper at every turn.  The quotes chosen never resonated with me in the least, and they were repeated ad nauseam.  Not only did they not encourage me to read Piper:  they had the effect of encouraging me to stay away from him.  So Piper has always had a strike against him in my book.  I realize it’s not his fault, just like it was not the fault of Strick’s Barbecue that I happened to come down with a nasty virus the same day we ate their food, and I met that food again, all night long, in several unpleasant ways.  Still, even though I knew it wasn’t the fault of the barbecue, the association was there, and I couldn’t even think of eating at Strick’s ever, ever again.  I have a friend who had a similar experience with Golden Flake Cheese Curls.  Even though it was not the Cheese Curls’ “fault,” the mere mention of them made her shudder.  So Piper is my Strick’s Barbecue, my Golden Flake Cheese Curls, if you will.

But Piper hasn’t done anything to redeem himself, in my book, from his Strick’s Barbecue/Golden Flake Cheese Curls status.  And I’ve tried.  I’ve really tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, because so many people seem to think he’s all that.  I can’t.  Here’s why:

• Piper is a Fundamentalist Baptist.  Please don’t be offended if you are a Fundamentalist Baptist reading this.  I’m not saying you’re a bad person.  But I’m not any kind of Baptist, and particularly not a Fundamentalist.  I tire of hearing conservative Presbyterians quoting Piper as the be-all end-all of Reformed theology.  Sure, Piper is a “Calvinist” (using the term loosely) in terms of his soteriology:  he holds to the Doctrines of Grace, which of course are the Canons of Dordt.  As they are not found per se in Calvin’s writings, calling an adherent to these doctrines a “Calvinist” is a bit of an overstatement.  There is so much more to the Reformed tradition than simply the Canons of Dordt.  Piper’s hermeneutic and ecclesiology are characteristic of the Fundamentalist Baptist mindset and bear scant resemblance to a Reformed outlook.  (More on each of these below.)  I’ve heard PCA Presbyterians characterized by other Presbyterians over the years as “just Baptists in Brooks Brothers suits,” and in many cases that is true.  I interviewed at a church several years ago where two on the pastoral staff described the church as “Baptist with a thin veneer of Presbyterian,” and they seemed entirely OK with that.  I’ve got more than a “thin veneer of Presbyterian” in/on me, so Piper doesn’t exactly float my boat theologically.
• Piper’s Ecclesiology Excludes Me, and Probably You Too. For Piper, only those baptized by immersion and “believer’s baptism” at that are part of the Church.  Not just the local membership of the local church: I mean THE CHURCH.  Piper’s ecclesiology posits a church that is made up only of the “faithful,” that is only those who have made a “credible” profession of faith (as determined by Piper and the elders of his church) and have undergone “believer’s baptism” by immersion. No other type of baptism is valid.  Infant baptism is not a “real” baptism for Piper:  it’s a sham.  Even a “believer’s” baptism done by affusion (pouring) or aspersion (sprinkling) would be a sham for Piper.  Piper and his elders sought a few years ago to pass a proposal that would allow believers to join his church even if they’d been baptized the “wrong” way, but this proposal was withdrawn.  Still, even in the midst of that controversy, Piper still maintained that other modes of baptism were “unbiblical.”  Piper’s ecclesiology does not conceive of the church as covenant community.  This is quite at odds with the Reformed view.
• Piper’s Hermeneutic is Bizarre. Perhaps I should say, Piper doesn’t seem to have a hermeneutic, other than “It is what it is because I say it is.”  I first noted the strangeness of his hermeneutic several years ago, when the aforementioned preacher embarked on a sermon series on worship that was entirely drawn from this sermon series by Piper.  I was not aware this was a Piper series, as the preacher in question did not cite his source, but others in the church soon found the series online.  I was, however, aware from the very first sermon that the thing didn’t sound very Presbyterian to me.  In particular, this sermon made me bristle, because it was founded upon the premise that because there is no express mention of “worship services” in the NT (which I would strongly dispute anyway), that means that “Old Testament worship was external, while New Testament worship is internal.” I remember thinking, “He’s doing to the theology of worship the same thing the Baptists do to the theology of baptism!” A Reformed hermeneutic does not view the New Testament as a radical break from the Old, but as an outgrowth of it.  We believe there is one God and one covenant of grace. Thus, for example, with baptism, we don’t say, “Show me in the New Testament where children are included in the church,” but rather we note in the Old Testament that they are, and say to the Baptist, “Show me where they are put out of the church!”  In the recent brouhaha over the tornado in Minneapolis, Piper cites Luke 13:4-5 as “proof” of his position that the tornado was sent as God’s judgment on the ELCA, but Piper misses (or ignores?) the point of the passage altogether.  Those who were questioning Jesus assumed that such things were direct payback for this or that sin.  Jesus says in essence, “Look, you’re all going to die one way or another, so you’d better be sure you’ve repented!” Jesus’ response does not affirm their assumption that the tragedy was “payback time,” but rather refutes it.

Now, just a brief word about the tornado thing.  I’m not saying Piper shouldn’t be able to call a tornado an “act of God.” I’ve heard Piper’s supporters say this all week : “How come insurance companies can call a tornado an ‘act of God’ but a preacher can’t?”  That’s not the point.  Of course the tornado was an “act of God.” I’m not even saying Piper had no business publicly disagreeing with the actions of the ELCA.  He’s entitled to his beliefs, and he is entitled to state them.  It’s in his assigning motives to God for the tornado that crosses the line.  Piper says with certainty:  “The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin.” Not “I believe the tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning . . .” Where is he getting this inside information?  How is this any different from Robert Tilton saying “God told me . . .” on TV?  How is this any different from the Sunday School teacher I heard in a PCA church several years ago who said the Holocaust was “God’s punishment on the Jews for rejecting Jesus”?  Piper is free to preach and teach the Bible as he interprets it (even though I think his hermeneutic is wack), but that doesn’t mean he has an inside track to God’s motives.

So, before this week, I was not a fan of John Piper.  Now, even less so.

You can’t win, you can’t break even
And you can’t get out of the game.
People keep sayin’ things are gonna change,
But they look just like they’re stayin’ the same.
You can’t win; way over our head
And you’ve only got yourself to blame.
You can’t win, chile, you can’t break even,
And you can’t get out of the game.

I know, inspirational, yes? Sure, it’s no “We Are the World,” but I’ve been singing it to myself all evening ever since I left work. “Work” in this case is my second job, waiting tables at a restaurant. I took the second job, many of you will remember, quite some time ago to try to make ends meet (read: feed a family of eight, keep them clothed, and keep a roof over their heads). Well, the strain and the pain–some emotional, some physical–is not worth the “gain” (and I use that term extremely loosely). Lemme ’splain.

Last night, for example: I worked as a server in hopes of making some money for the coming week, to buy stupid stuff like, for example, groceries. Sometimes I work as a cashier, for which I get paid $7.00 an hour and work about a 3.5-hour shift. A server can often make $80-$100 in tips on a good shift. Servers get paid far less per hour, of course: they really work for the tips. Since things are so tight for us all the time, I’ve tried to add some server shifts to make more. I got tired of leaving after a shift knowing I’d just made $28 and the servers had made three times that much in the same span of time. The only problem with that is that it’s a gamble. One never knows if it will be a busy night, and one never knows how people will tip. The paycheck shrinks because server pay is less than cashier pay, so it’s up to a good night of tips to bring in the money.

I was counting on last night being a good night, especially since our account had taken such a hit last week at the grocery store. We are always struggling just to make ends meet as it is, but couple that with not only the inflated food prices of late but also the unusually high cost of living where we live and the result is truly disheartening. (And no, I’m not comparing the prices we paid where we lived before–five years ago–with today’s prices here. I’m comparing today’s prices here with today’s prices pretty much anywhere else. Every time I travel, I go in a grocery store, and every time I do it makes me absolutely sick how much more we are paying for everyday items than people do in other places.)

So I’d just like to thank the family of five who took up two tables and made a royal mess, whose drinks I frequently and promptly refilled, who consumed every morsel of food I brought them, as well as the dessert, who left me the grand sum of zero dollars for a tip. I’d also like to thank the party of twelve who came in fifteen minutes before dinner was over. I had about decided not to take any more tables since it was so late, and taking your party would mean having to open up a special section, which of course would also mean that I would have to stay and clean said special section after everyone left. Still, because I needed more money, and because you were a big group, I took your party and opened that section for you. I brought about 50 refills to your table, promptly brought your requests from the kitchen, kept your table clean of extra plates, and pretty much made sure you had everything you needed. You ran up a tab of more than $105.00, and for my trouble, for all my time serving you, for the extra hour it took to clean up after you and your messy kids, you left me all of $4.00. I hope those children enjoyed that night out. My children don’t get to eat out in restaurants: their mom and dad can’t afford it. Wonder why?

At the end of the evening, I wanted to cry. I don’t know what was worse: the scared feeling that it is still one week to payday from Job #1 and what I brought home last night was/is our grocery money until then, or the anger I felt at these people who would come in, make total slobs of themselves, and then stiff me like that. My last table left at about 9:30, and I did not leave until 11:20 because of all the cleaning up I had to do. To add insult to injury, or more precisely, to add injury to insult, I slipped and fell in the kitchen last night, leaving me with a big knot on my arm and a bruise on my back and aches all over my body.

So I am not going back to Job #2 for the foreseeable future. I had already made that decision before last night (I wouldn’t just walk out with no notice), but last night confirmed that. The hours I have to put it, for so little return, are not worth the strain it puts on my family, not to mention that it makes it impossible for me to be there whenever I am needed by church members. Maybe that’s why required language of a Call to a Minister in our denomination says that the pastor’s compensation package is to be such that he may be “free from worldly cares and avocations” (”avocation” is an old word for a second job).

Yes, we have a budget. Yes, we’ve been through this. It was not, contrary to popular opinion, a magic pill that makes all your troubles go away. Ramsey isn’t saying anything that Larry Burkett didn’t already say anyway: he just does it with all the charm of Michael Savage, all the compassion of Rush Limbaugh, and all the patience of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, hence his popularity on talk radio. But even Ramsey himself in his seminars says that when you’ve cut everything you can cut, what you need is to increase your income. In the words of my 11 year old, DUH! Only nothing I’ve/we’ve tried has gotten me/us very far.

I’ve already said we don’t eat out. Don’t have cable. Don’t take vacations. My wife and I have not bought any new clothes in I can’t tell you how long. An online friend recently said, “Yeah, before you do Crown Financial or Dave Ramsey you’re miserable because you don’t have any money. After you go through them you’re miserable because you still don’t have any money and you never go do anything!”

My wife and I have no health insurance. The children are on our state’s S-CHIP program. (Sorry, Republicans: you may look down your noses at us for this, but the only other option we have is for them to be uninsured, and we’re not going to do that to them, so despise away.) Even S-CHIP doesn’t pay for everything, like our special-needs child’s much-needed (and much-neglected) physical and occupational therapies. (She has one session a week with a tech under the supervision of a PT or OT, not the at-least-two-a-week with an actual PT and OT that she really needs.) And when they do get care (at the Dr. or dentist) they are treated differently. They are treated as “Medicaid kids,” which apparently are a different class of human being from “regular kids.” “Oh, I’m sorry, we’ve scheduled all our allotted Medicaid appointments for the day. The Dr. can see your child three weeks from today.” (I’m not making this up.)

I’ve read all summer (on blogs and Facebook) about families going to the beach. The only time my kids have been to the beach was when I did a wedding for some dear friends from Mississippi. The parents of the bride paid for us all to come down and stay at a very exclusive condo. On top of that, they still paid me an honorarium for performing the ceremony, as if the trip to the beach were not payment enough! Anyway, that was four years ago. They still talk about it, even the ones who were too young at the time to remember it now (they’ve heard their older siblings talk about it). They want to know when we’re going back. So do I, but more importantly, I want to know when my wife will be able to go to the grocery store without crying, when we will be able to pay the bills and set aside the food money and have something left over for school books, soccer registration fees, Scout dues, etc. When we won’t have to say “No” to even the smallest requests from our children, such as going to Sonic for stupid “Happy Hour” half-price drinks (yes, we’ve cut that out, too). When I won’t feel like I’m disappointing my wife and children daily by not providing for them, thus rendering myself “worse than an infidel.” I am worn out with fatigue and anxiety, and I don’t see an end in sight.

I’ve tried to do many different things. I had hoped to get some music published this year. First one publisher passed, and it looks as though another has as well (they said I’d hear something by July 1, and it ain’t July 1 if you haven’t noticed). My wife is trying to get some things going, but that takes at least a small amount of capital: gotta have money to make money, as they say.

It used to be that, when things would get bad, really, really bad, something would “turn up,” as Mr Micawber says all the time in David Copperfield. A wedding would come along, or even a funeral (although I never expect an honorarium for a funeral, I have almost always been pleasantly surprised to receive one), or a speaking engagement at a retreat. All of these have happened in the past at very opportune, one might even say providential, times. It’s been a long, long time since anything like that has happened.

Is there an end in sight? Do I even want to know the answer to that question?

I just wanted to pop in and drop two observations and then run:

1) I agree that we should be outraged about an apparently stolen election in Iran. But where was the outrage when there was voter intimidation in this country (caught on videotape), in Philadelphia and other places? Poll “security” armed with night sticks keeping people out of polling places. And then the Justice Department refuses to pursue them. Left, right, center, or wherever you may be on the political spectrum: it doesn’t seem right to me.

2) Considering what’s going on in Iran, not to mention here at home (Government stake in GM, anyone?), why in the world are these yahoos staging a protest over a TV SHOW??? I agree that the original joke was in bad taste and that the first apology left something to be desired, but he went back and apologized, and his apology was accepted by the persons he targeted in the joke! (FWIW, I, like Dave, assumed the daughter in question was the older one too. I don’t follow the Palins’ travels with rapt attention, and I daresay I’m not in the minority there.) If the approximately 15 people involved in this protest think they represent the “Christian right,” they’d better think again. “Right” (as in right wing, not as in “righteous”) maybe. “Christian,” no. Again, Palin forgave the man, people. You should do the same. After all, the Golden Rule is not “do unto others as they have recently done to a politician you idolize.” Again, it’s a TV SHOW, people! My TV has more than one channel. TV lives and dies by ratings. You don’t like a show, don’t watch. Enough people don’t watch, it gets canceled. These yahoos need to realize that, in TV, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Letterman’s ratings have gone up significantly because of this whole thing. All attention has been on Conan O’Brien as the new kid on the block. Dave was seeming pretty stodgy to a lot of people. Now, people are reminded of the old Letterman who used to take swipes at the “pinheads at NBC” while he was still working there: the edgy, unpredictable Letterman, and they’re tuning back in.

Ascension gets overlooked.  It gets overlooked by liturgical churches because it’s lost between the “big” days of Easter and Pentecost.  And it gets overlooked by non-liturgical churches because most events in Heilsgeschichte (the History of Redemption) are not celebrated by non-liturgical churches, except for the Nativity and the Resurrection.  Of course those two events are important, but they do not tell the complete Story.

We don’t need to overlook the Ascension.  The Ascension story reminds us that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ (Matt. 28:18).  It reminds us that Christ now rules and reigns as King of kinds and Lord of lords.  The reign of Christ is not a future reality:  it is a present reality.  Without the Ascension, we lose sight of that.

The Ascension story that is read today in many churches and on this coming Sunday in many others (Acts 1:1-11) also reminds us that the ascended, reigning Christ is also the Christ who will one day return.  The Ascension directs our attention to a glorified Christ, one who is worthy of all our worship, and one who will one day return as the judge of all.

Sonnet No. 7 from La Corona

Salute the last and everlasting day,
Joy at th’ uprising of this Sun, and Son,
Ye whose true tears, or tribulation
Have purely wash’d, or burnt your drossy clay.
Behold, the Highest, parting hence away,
Lightens the dark clouds, which He treads upon ;
Nor doth He by ascending show alone,
But first He, and He first enters the way.
O strong Ram, which hast batter’d heaven for me !
Mild Lamb, which with Thy Blood hast mark’d the path !
Bright Torch, which shinest, that I the way may see !
O, with Thy own Blood quench Thy own just wrath ;
And if Thy Holy Spirit my Muse did raise,
Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise.

John Donne (1572-1631)

1) Adam is incredibly talented and I enjoy watching him perform, but not everyone does.  I like Axl Rose and Geddy Lee too (who have similar singing styles to Adam), but not everybody does.  A lot of people don’t like to listen to it.  There are others who enjoy watching Adam perform but who say they wouldn’t necessarily buy a record by him.  Kris proved himself, I think, to be more marketable as a recording artist.

2) Danny’s fans were very passionate.  Many of them were very vocal in their hatred of Adam.  On the top three show, only 1 million votes separated Adam and Kris.  With Danny gone, his fans switched their votes to Kris.  How many were voting for Kris or simply against Adam is impossible to tell.

3) I don’t think the young women who constitute the majority of Idol voters were ready for a non-traditional eyeliner-wearing pop idol.  Kris has the look of a pop star.  Looks have played a role in the pop idol business going all the way back to Frank Sinatra and his bobby-soxer fans.

Kris will be a bankable recording artist for the producers of AI, which is what they want.  Adam will be hugely successful too.  He will have a career on the stage à la Clay Aiken or go on tour for the next 1,000 years like Cher.  Or maybe with Cher.  Or maybe as Cher . . .

I get several updates on Twitter that tell me about a “crash on I-59,” etc.  On the news everyday, we hear about some “car crash” on the highway somewhere.

When I read “crash on I-59,” my mind’s eye envisions an airplane that has made a crash landing on the interstate.

I say wreck.  Car wreck, train wreck.  Plane crash, yes, because a plane plummets from the sky and crashes to the ground.  But it has always been for me car wreck and train wreck.  I used to hear “car wreck” from the media too.

When did all the wrecks become crashes?