A Good Weekend

This past weekend was our annual Good Shepherd Seminar. This year we had Rev. Jim Bushur from the seminary come out and teach us. It was very, very good. The audio files of his presentations have been posted on our web site. I very strongly encourage you to listen to them - it will be well worth your time. Click here to go to the page with these files (and also files from many of the other years of our seminars).

In other news, my father is still hanging in there. He has his good days and bad days, good moments and bad moments. We are just still waiting to see what the future hold. The hospice doctor is coming over soon, so hopefully we'll get some clarity as to what is happening.

My son comes home from college for the summer this week. It will be nice to have him home again for a while. My daughter is making preparations for her first year of college this fall at Virginia Commonwealth University. It will be a big change to have them both gone in the Fall!

My Phillies are still doing pretty well for a rebuilding club. They are ahead of schedule, playing above .500 ball, and have many exciting youngsters in the minors ready to come up either this year or next. The future is looking bright! I think the same could be said with the Eagles - they got some good free agents and have some good talent if they can stay healthy. All will depend on the quarterback of the future, Carson Wentz, working out. We shall see.

I guess that's about it. Again, make sure you go listen to the seminar. Really. Go. Listen. Really. Now. :-)

Catching Up and A Thought About Communion Practice

Been a bit since I posted. Still basking in the glow of Villanova's victory! :-) Got my National Championship hat in the mail yesterday. Way overpriced, but I wanted to have one.

In other news . . .

+ The Walk-Run-Ride for Life was today, to benefit our local pregnancy center. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the ride was a great success. Right now, they have raised 88% of their goal, which I'm sure will updated higher at the beginning of the week. That is (I believe) better than they usually do - so good news! It also seemed to me like they had more participation this year, which is also good!

+ Going to Wisconsin next week for a pastoral conference, and really looking forward to it. It is always nice to get away from the usual routine and spend some time with my brothers. Also have the District Board of Directors meeting, which will not be as much fun. Have some tough things to discuss and decisions to be made.

+The Phillies are off to a pretty good start - their record is 5-6 right now, but they have some really good talent on the cusp, so they are trending in the right direction. Last night, however, was abysmal. I got to watch as they played the Washington Nationals and so were on TV here, but they got smoked. Hopefully they'll do better tonight.

And now a thought I've been having . . . regarding Close(d) Communion practice in the Church . . .

It seems to me that not many churches actually practice what is called "open" communion. Oh, I'm sure there are a few that will commune anyone, anywhere, at anytime. But I think the great majority follow some sort of guidelines as to who may commune. So here's what I think the issue REALLY is: Who gets to decide? Is it the individual, or the pastor (in the name of the church/congregation)?

That, I think, is the crux of the issue. Our hyper-self focused, self-identifying, self-actualizing, self-centered, self-exalting culture puts the responsibility for deciding on the individual, while the Scriptures give that responsibility to the church. In our world today the former is acceptable, the latter is not.

To be brief, I'll just mention two Scriptures that speak to the church as having this responsibility. In the Old Testament, it was given to the priests to distinguish between the clean and the unclean, the holy and the profane. They did not announce a general description of what these things were and leave it up to the individual to decide where he or she fell - this was a task give to the priests. And even in Jesus' day, when He healed lepers, Jesus told them to "go show themselves to the priests." This was the church's culture.

Then in the New Testament, it is the apostles (and their successor) who are the stewards of the mysteries of God. They are the ones tasked with the proper distribution of the master's goods, to give them as He wants them given. It, again, is not left to the individual.

So that (I've been thinking lately) is really the crux of the issue - it is a clash of cultures. The world which believes authority lies in the self, and the Church which believes authority lies in God and His Word. Of course they're going to disagree! But what will the Church do?

CHAMPS!

Yes, now watch the video with the good ending . . .

I Need Someone in St. Louis . . .

. . . to contact the GM of the St. Louis Rams and tell him to go to confession, 'cause he just stole a quarterback from the Eagles. If he needs suggestions of a church to go to, tell him to contact me - I can give him the names of a few . . .

Replacement Refs

Replacement refs voting on a call?

I got to watch the Eagles-Ravens game yesterday, won by the Eagles! It was an exciting game, though greatly marred by the ineptitude of the replacement referees. They were simply terrible! I do not think they slanted the outcome of the game one way or the other - I'm talking about simple things, like, where to spot the ball. There was one point in the game that just got absurdly comical. The Eagles intercepted a pass and following that was a personal foul against the Ravens. The refs had to discuss at length where to place the ball - do they add on 15 yards from where the Eagles player was down, or from the spot of the personal foul?? I knew the answer to that in Elementary School! As a result, they spotted the ball in three different places before finally letting play resume. Good grief. Then there was not knowing how many yards offensive pass interference was, that holding close to the end zone is not the full distance of the penalty but "half the distance," and more. Simple stuff, but they kept messing it up, having to discuss, change, stop, restart . . . I'll bet they added 20 minutes to the length of the game going through all this. Terrible. Please, Mr. Goodell, bring back the real refs. Please.

Update

Haven't blogged lately - too much going on. Church, school, home. Hard to find time to get it all done. Classes are interesting but demanding. Spring break should really be two weeks: one week to rest and one to catch up! But it'll all get done. It always does.

Not really happy with how I preached today. I think I was just out of sorts. As I've said before, preaching every Sunday means that no matter how well or how poorly I think I did preaching each week, I have to put it behind me and start preparing for next Sunday. (And these weeks, for Wednesday night.) That's good. Can't get too high or too low - just have to keep preaching the Word and trusting that the Lord will work through His Word. And He does. He always does.

Finally:  Lehigh 75  Duke 70! My alma mater did well! I did not fill out a bracket this year, but if I had, I was actually toying with picking Lehigh. I probably wouldn't have, but I knew they had a really good player, but didn't think he'd be enough. They play Xavier tonight. For some reason, I think it will be a tougher test. Maybe not. We'll see. I should be home in time to see the second half.

Time to get to work.

Really?

No kidding . . . seen on NBC Sports web site:

Cheating material?

A website poll shows married women would rather have an affair with Eli Manning than Tom Brady.

Really? Why ask such a question? Have we degenerated that far?

No.

Well, its appears that in yesterday's playoff game, Tim Tebow threw for 316 yards. So guess what appeared on the Fox Sports web page? 316 . . . 3:16, as in John 3:16! Uh, no. Please. There is no divine significance whatsoever in the number of yards TT threw for yesterday. Stop it.

Pastoral Conference

I'm in Chicago for a pastoral conference for a few days. I haven't traveled much the last few years, since I started back in school, but it felt like the airlines had pushed their seats closer together since the last time I flew. When at looked at the little space they wanted me to squeeze into . . .  :-)  But I made it, though it wasn't the most comfortable.

Went to Giordano's for dinner with a friend and had some deep dish pizza. Good, but (I have to say) not as good as Lou Malnati's! Then, we got a few beverages and spent a while talking over lots of stuff until late. Which is good . . . except for having to get up early this morning. I forgot about the time change to Central time here, and so had to get up and ready for Morning Prayer at 6! Ohhh, that was tough this morning! But all went well. The hotel was extremely nice and let me use another room for it so I wouldn't have to bother my roommate, who had gotten in well after midnight. I think they'll let me do the same tomorrow.

I'm now on my second cup of coffee, and my head is still a bit foggy. Might just be one of those days. The conference starts at noon. My friend is presenting today, so that should be good. I'll have to try to think up some tough questions for him! I don't present until tomorrow. Tonight after dinner is the Divine Service. I'm looking forward to some time to just sit and listen and visit with the brothers.

Finally, the Eagles won yesterday! Before my flight I sat in the airport and watched some of the game and was pleased to be able to cheer the Eagles in the midst of a bunch of forlorn Redskins fans! Hopefully they can build on this and salvage the season before its too late.

In or Out?

In or out? That's the question being asked by many college basketball teams right now, as the selection for the tournament approaches. My team, Villanova, has not ended the season well: 5 straight losses, and 5-10 after starting out the season 16-1. One local sports radio guy says they should be out of the tournament. Sadly, I agree. They played themselves out. Give another team a chance. And if they make it, I will not pick them to get out of the first round. They just haven't shown me anything for a while. Both offense and defense look terrible. They peaked too early.

Oh. My.

Cliff Lee? Really? Merry Christmas, Phillies fans! (Of which, yes, I am one!) In high school and college I used to sell food at Veteran's Stadium. Those were good days, too. Even got in to see Game 2 of the 1980 World Series (confession time: Got in with my employee ID even though I wasn't working!).

The new moniker: R2C2. (Roy, Roy, Cliff, and Cole)

So to the rest of the National League: Thank you for coming. Your participation is no longer needed. (How's that for obnoxious?)

59-28

Living in DC and having to listen to insufferable Redskins fans all year round (yes, all year round!), last night's 59-28 shellacking by my Eagles is extra sweet. I will enjoy listening to their whining, especially all the questions that have arisen concerning Donovan McNabb. They are discovering what we Eagles fans have had to put up with for 11 years - yes, he is a good quarterback and leader and will make some spectacular plays, but he will also throw many should-be-easy-completions into the ground. And while he was an upgrade from your previous quarterbacks, did you really think you were getting a Pro Bowl quarterback for a second round pick? Like it or not, the Eagles knew what they were doing when they traded him to you. But hey, at least you're above the Cowboys!

World Cup

I have been watching the World Cup matches when I can. The end of the Uruguay-Ghana game yesterday was simply amazing. A Uruguayan player named Luis Suarez hand-balled a sure goal off the goal line at the very end of extra time (that's overtime for Americans!). Without it, Ghana would have won. With it, Ghana should still have won, but the penalty kick was missed, and Ghana went on to lose.

In reading the story about this, here's what caught my eye:

"To think that Suarez, when he committed the handball, knew what was going to happen afterward would be something superhuman," the coach said. "The hand of Suarez is the hand of God and the Virgin Mary -- that's how Uruguayans see it."

Uh, no.

Toast

Well, I'm done. Toast. Some folks at church and I had a friendly bracket competition for the NCAA basketball championship. Until this weekend, I was in the lead. However, I missed the entire Final Four - all of them! I had Louisville, who played an absolutely horrible game today; Memphis, who got torched by Missouri; Oklahoma, who lost to North Carolina; and Pittsburgh, who got beat by Villanova last night. The good news is that I am a BIG Villanova fan! So even thought my bracket is shot, I am happy Villanova won! Go Cats!

PS - This is the 100th post on my blog. Who'd have thunk it?

Good News and Bad News

Well, my Eagles lost. A truly ugly first half did them in, although they made it a game in the second half. I was going to be sad if they made it to the Super Bowl because I'm going to be in Kenya at that time and couldn't watch it! So I guess it's all good.

The good news today is that we are expecting some snow today - finally! Not a lot, probably only an inch, but we haven't gotten any yet this year, and I like to have some snow. So I'll enjoy watching it come down today, and make sure I fill the bird feeders to watch our feathered friends in it too.

Champs

Next . . . Penn State: National Champions

One More . . .

One more win . . . Ace on the mound . . . Bats starting to come alive . . . tonight?

Yes!

I haven't blogged in a bit - my brain has been void of thoughts and I've been busy and tired with all sorts of things, including learning Latin. But I had to put a word in this morning for my Phillies! R.I.P. Dodgers, Torre, and Manny. And if our pitching holds up, I like our chances in the Series.