Road Trip

My wife, youngest daughter, and I are in Connecticut this weekend for a wedding. Two of my member are being married up here at his home congregation, a beautiful old church in Bristol. We left early yesterday morning to get here for the rehearsal and purposely went a little out of our way to make the drive nicer. Our choice was: (1.) I-95 and the NJ Turnpike - mostly cities, industrial, and lots of traffic, or (2.) up through the mountains in PA - country, scenic, and less traffic. We went for . . .

The only traffic we really hit was for the last 15 miles in Connecticut, which took us about an hour! But, I was to find out, driving around here was going to be like that. Well, actually, like this:

Yeah, the roads here are tough. I got a little lost going to the church for the rehearsal, coming back to the hotel to pick up my family for the rehearsal dinner, going to the rehearsal dinner place, AND coming back to the hotel! Maybe it's just my age, but I used to be good at driving and finding things! But we got everywhere we needed to be and relatively on time - thanks to my smartphone and its navigation app. Without that, I'd still be out there driving around somewhere!

Here's an interesting tidbit for you all: in New York, they don't just have Rest Stops off the highway anymore - they have:

A sign of the times, I guess.

The hotel we're staying in - Homewood Suites - is very, very nice! Not too far from the sprawling ESPN campuses. (I don't think I've ever seen more satellite dishes in one place before!) 

So, takin' it easy this morning. I'll rehearse my sermon a few times, my sister is driving up to hang out with us a little (she lives about an hour from here), and then off to the church. Should be a good day . . . as long as I can get back to the church! :-)

Two Things

Two rather eyebrow raising things for you this morning . . .

#1: The front page, front and center, above the fold, prime location, lead story of the Washington Post Sunday paper yesterday: "When No Gender Fits." Really? With all that's going on in our country and world, that's the story you lead with? C'mon!

#2: In our study of the book of Romans (chapter 1) last week, we came across this passage:

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

What surprised us in that right in the midst of that lengthy list of sins was "disobedient to parents!" How lightly we take that in our day and age. It's almost seen as natural. Teenage angst. Part of growing up. No it's not! God includes it here as part of this list of serious sins. Maybe we should think about that a little more . . .

An Early Description of Christian Life

In reading for my exams I came across this quote, an early description of Christians living in this world in "an amazing and unexpected" character and paradox (a kind of "being in the world but not of the world"):

"They are at home in their own countries, but as sojourners. They participate in all things as citizens and they endure all things as foreigners. Every foreign country is their homeland and every homeland is a foreign country."  (Epistle to Diognetus 5:4-5)

For You

Jesus died. That's history.
Jesus died for our sins. That's doctrine.
Jesus died for ME. That's the Gospel.

No Favorites

I received a very good piece of advice from the recently retired Kantor Resch when I was at seminary. He said, "do not talk about or take into account favorites." Favorite hymns, favorite liturgies, favorite anything. Do everything in the Church based on the Word and the Word alone.

This avoids a lot of potential problems. Whenever anyone asks "why don't we sing my favorite hymn?" I simply respond: I do not pick hymns because of likes or dislikes, but because of the Word. The hymns that best fit the readings and theme of the day is what we sing. (Note: Sometimes there are hymns that fit well and sometimes not, but that is the goal! To have all that is spoken and sung unite in a common confession of the Word that day.)

This is also true for our liturgy. I have some folks whose favorite liturgy is Divine Service 3, some like Divine Service 4, and my organists absolutely hate Divine Service 2! (They tell me it is the most difficult to play.) Fine. We do them all over the course of a year, rotating seasonally. Why? Well, I recognize there is benefit in using only one liturgy and getting to know it well, but I also want my people exposed to as much of the hymnal and liturgies as possible. That way, when they travel or move to another place and attend another church, they will feel at home with whatever liturgy the church is using that day. They've done it and know it. That is a great benefit.

Do I have favorite hymns? Sure I do! But I won't tell you what they are. (I have too many anyway!) But I do not pick my favorites, or anyone else's, just because they are favorites. All in service of the Word and the Word alone.

The Best Laid Plans . . .

We're back from vacation and back from dropping my son off at college. He is attending Western New England University in Springfield, MA.

We had everything planned out. Since I would be in Florida for my Board of Trustees meetings, my wife would drive him up to Hartford, CT on Thursday and stay over for the night there. I would fly up from FL first thing Friday morning. They would then pick me up at the airport and we would drive up to the school and settle my son in - maybe even returning on Friday night. Easy, right?

Well . . . except that our van broke down. About 30 minutes south of the Hartford airport. So around dinner time on Thursday, I am on the phone with my wife trying to figure out what to do. But here's the good news: they broke down in Southington, CT which is where the parents of one of my members lives! So AAA towed the van and my family was able to stay with my member's parents for the night. Good so far.

In the morning (while I was in the air) my wife found out that the water pump had failed. (Which it shouldn't have, since it was not all that old, but that's another story.) That's a big, labor-intensive repair, so my wife rented a van, loaded my son's stuff from our van, then drove to the airport to pick me up. That delayed us a bit, but we made it to the University around noon - just enough time to move my son into his room and then for my wife and I to dash off to a parents' meeting.

My son's dorm, Windham Hall.

After our meeting, my son had a meeting and a bunch of other things to attend to, so we went off to get him a cell phone. (Yes, he still didn't have one of his own!) I had found one with a very customizable plan at WalMart, so we went there. Got back to campus after purchasing the phone but it wouldn't activate. Spent a bunch of time on my phone with their less-than-helpful customer service, who then finally told me I should take the phone back and get another. Sigh. So back off to WalMart, return, get an exchange, but this phone wouldn't activate either! Different reason, but same problem. So back on the phone with their less-than-helpful customer service, who after a bunch of time told me to take the phone back and get another! Really? Okay, I've learned. So back to WalMart, return, but NO exchange this time for this piece of junk! Found another phone, a little more expensive plan, but they activated it for me so at least I got a phone for my son!

Now it getting close to 9 pm. Say our good-byes and head back to CT so we return the rental van in the morning and get our car. Not cheap. But now the van is running well with a new water pump and timing belt (since you always replace them together, there's so much labor involved). Got home about 6 pm Saturday.

Youngest Peasant child, with the Golden Bear, mascot of WNE.

All-in-all, a very tiring and frustrating few days! But our son is there and settled in. I really think this school was a good fit for him, so I look forward to hearing from him how things work out.

Oh, and by the way, do NOT purchase the LG Pulse Virgin Mobile Custom phone from WalMart. They are junk. You will just wind up returning them.

Vacation!

Takin' a break! See you in a bit . . .