Pensive McGuffee

Resolutions for 2012

2011-12-31T23:13:00.000-06:00

It's New Years Eve and once again people around the world are making resolutions. Here are my five resolutions for the new year.

In 2012, I resolve to refrain from eating chikin. I don't want my consumer dollars going toward corporations that donate to groups that discriminate (see Yes, Chick-fil-A Says, We Explicitly Do Not Like Same-Sex Couples ). Eating chicken is still fine.

In 2012, I resolve to stop making ridiculous assumptions. For example, there is no reason to assert that Jimi Hendrix is a Jehovah's Witness due to his performance of "All Along the Watchtower".

In 2012, I resolve to stop being compliant in my three year old son's request to "smell this Daddy".

In 2012, I resolve to tell better lies or tell the truth. Either way it will be the same to you.

In 2012, I resolve to start a charity that distributes horse manure based lawn fertilizer for distressed lawns in Austin so when people ask the question "who gives a sh_t?" the answer will be --> James McGuffee does!

Prayers at the Table - September 2011

2011-09-27T12:50:00.000-05:00

In September 2011 it was my joy and pleasure to share prayers at the table as an elder at Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Austin, Texas. As part of my personal blog, I am sharing the four prayers that I prayed this month.

Sunday, 04 September 2011

Loving God,

As we gather around the Lord's table,
As we eat the bread and drink from the cup;

We remember how Jesus lived his life;

A living sacrifice dedicated to sharing the WORD - aware of the very real consequences that such a boldly lived life might bring.

As we communally partake of this sacred meal we ask that your living presence be with us this morning and we ask that your Holy Spirit embolden us to live transformed lives as Disciples of Christ.

AMEN

Sunday, 11 September 2011

Eternal God,

We thank you for all your mighty works of salvation. As we gather around this table we are reminded of our special gratitude for the transformative salvation that we experience through Jesus Christ our Lord.

As we eat the bread and drink from the cup we remember the sacrifice and the pain of the cross.

But, more than remembrance, let this spiritual food nourish us and strengthen us as we go from this place and boldly live transformed lives of love and peace.

AMEN

Sunday, 18 September 2011

Dear God,

Thank you for this Holy meal.

Thank you for the bread.

Thank you for the cup.

As humans took grain from the field and transformed the ingredients into one loaf; we ask that you take us, dear Lord, and bind us together in unity and love as the one body of Christ.

Let this be your message of hope to downtown Austin and beyond as we eat this meal in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN

Sunday, 25 September 2011

O' God who listens and speaks to us in prayer;

We come once again to this special table.

The table where bread and cup unite us.

The table where we are not only reminded of the actions of our Lord, Jesus the Christ, but are reminded of his words and his teachings.

Be with us now as we obediently follow his command to eat the bread and drink from the cup in remembrance of him.

AMEN

2010 The Year in Review

2010-12-31T00:00:00.000-06:00

Every year at least a few of my friends send me their annual letter recalling the events that occurred in their family over the past year. It is often factual and boring. I'm hoping this one is neither.

Saints win! Saints win!

The gumbo was flowing and the jambalaya was hot as we cheered for the New Orleans Saints as they won their first Super Bowl in franchise history.

Visiting Rural Pennsylvania

In mid-May we visited one of Lynn's friends in Pennsylvania. I'm not allowed to comment.

Backyard Extravaganza!

At the end of May we celebrated my oldest son's birthday.

Shamu

In June we had a family vacation at Seaworld San Antonio.

James turned 40 in 2010.

In July I turned 40. The lighting of the birthday candles necessitated a visit from the fire department.

Then the second half of the year was mainly full of Lynn complaining about being so pregnant. Until, one fateful night as foretold by the prophets...

Birth of the McGuffee baby!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 5 of 5)

2010-12-24T01:16:00.000-06:00

When you hear good news, what do you do? Why, you tell others about it. As Christians we have the greatest news of all. In fact, the word “Gospel” is derived from the Old English “god-spell” which means “good news”. Christ has come, Christ has dwelt among us. Let us share the good news.

The Christmas song I share with you in this blog post is “Go Tell It On the Mountain”. I have chosen the version sung by the duet of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

One last thought. A few years ago, I went with my wife to the Christmas Eve service at St. Joseph’s in Moulton, Texas. In his homily, Fr. Gabe described the Incarnation as God pitching his tent with us for a while. I find this camping analogy very interesting and when I think of “camp”, I can’t imagine anything more “campy” than this version of “Go Tell It On the Mountain” performed by Jim Nabors (known by millions as the actor who portrayed Gomer Pyle).

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 4 of 5)

2010-12-23T01:18:00.001-06:00

"Love Came Down At Christmas" is a poem written by Christina Rossetti. The poem was first published in 1885. This poem has been adapted to many different tunes over the past 125 years. However, none of the musical versions of "Love Came Down at Christmas" have caught the popular attention the way other Christmas songs have. This is a shame as these are some of the most beautifully poetic words written about the gift of Christmas.

The video below is from Jars of Clay and this is their contemporary version of "Love Came Down at Christmas".

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 3 of 5)

2010-12-22T00:27:00.000-06:00

The first two parts of this blog series featured Advent songs. This post features an actual Christmas song. "I Pray on Christmas" was written and performed by Harry Connick, Jr. The song was first featured on his 1993 album When My Heart Finds Christmas. "I Pray on Christmas" is a great tune but it also has a wonderful message of thinking and reflecting in prayer on Christmas Day. Here's the lyrics to the song:

I pray on Christmas - That the Lord will see me through

I pray on Christmas - He'll show me what to do

I pray on Christmas - He'll help me understand

And I pray on Christmas - He'll take me by the hand

I pray on Christmas - That the sick will soon be strong

I pray on Christmas - The lord will hear my song

I pray on Christmas - That God will lead the way

And I pray on Christmas - He'll get me through another day

I pray on Christmas, I pray on Christmas,

I pray on Christmas, He'll get me through another day

I pray on Christmas - All our problems gonna be worked out

I pray on Christmas - God'll show us what love's about

I pray on Christmas - To do your will each day

And I pray on Christmas - That I'll be with you in heaven some day

I pray on Christmas - Oh, the sick will soon be strong

I pray on Christmas - The lord will hear my song

I pray on Christmas - That God will lead the way

And I pray I really pray on Christmas

He'll get me through another day

He'll get me through another day...

Here are two video performances of this song. The first is Harry Connick, Jr. with Kim Burrell and is featured on the 2003 DVD Harry for the Holidays. The second is a cover of the song by Dave Barnes and was released this year.

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 2 of 5)

2010-12-21T00:44:00.001-06:00

One of the nice things about the Advent Season is that as Christians we can use the waiting for multiple purposes. We, of course, remember the waiting for the birth of Jesus some 2,000 years ago. However, we also use this time in the liturgical calendar to think about and reflect on the return of the Christ. In the song I wish to share in this post, the artist asks us to consider in what form Jesus might return. As the people were surprised that the "King of Kings" arrived in a lowly manger, how might Christ's return surprise us?

As we prepare for Christmas, here's Collin Raye with "What if Jesus Comes Back Like That?"

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 1 of 5)

2010-12-20T01:12:00.000-06:00

This Christmas season I've decided to post and briefly write about five different songs. These aren't the most popular of Christmas songs but I find them meaningful and will share.

The first song I've chosen is actually more of an Advent song. In fact, it is one of the most famous Advent hymns and was composed by Charles Wesley. I find that all too often, we as Christians want to jump right to Christmas and forget about the waiting and the preparation of the Advent season. So, I encourage you to take a few moments and enjoy either (or both) of these versions of Charles Wesley's classic "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus".

A Tale of Two Merchants

2010-12-06T16:56:00.001-06:00

On Saturday, December 4, 2010, our family trekked 17 miles to go to the Arboretum in northwest Austin where we were promised, among other things, two 5X7 photos of our son with Santa. To see what we were promised, go here --> http://www.freefuninaustin.com/2010/11/free-holiday-fun-and-santa-photos.html

When we arrived we learned that we would have to return on Monday or Tuesday between 10am and 6pm to pick up the photos from Knotting Hill Photography (KH). I received a KH business card with the information about the photo pickup hand printed on the card.

Today (Monday, December 6, 2010), I made the long trek back to the Arboretum Shopping Mall and arrived at KH at 1:10pm. The business was closed. I waited. The owner arrived at 1:45pm. He was rude and refused to give (or even sell me) photos of my child with Santa. He told me he was "doing the mall a favor" and he could do what he wanted to do. I was in shock with the rudeness of this person.

He told me to leave his store and if I had a problem with it to contact the mall office. I asked him where that was but he refused to give me the information.

Which is where the GOOD merchant comes in. The fine folks at Con' Olio Oils & Vinegar could not have been nicer. It's a great little shop and if you like olive oil, you'll love Con' Olio.

So, does anyone know where I can go to get a photo of my son with a Santa?

The Spirituality of Giving

2010-10-24T20:50:00.003-05:00

Transcript of a sermon preached at Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on Sunday, October 24, 2010.

“The Spirituality of Giving”

Luke 18:9-14
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’ (NRSV)

In our lectionary gospel reading this morning Jesus is teaching a lesson, as he often does, through parable. Parables are meant to describe the essential truth through the use of common, everyday examples. The problem is, in 2010, Roman tax collectors and Pharisees are not common everyday experiences for us. So, in order to understand this parable, a few words of explanation are in order.

About 500 years before the time of Christ, as recorded in the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people of Israel were allowed to return from exile in Babylon and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Though no longer in exile, the people of Israel were surrounded by a mix of different religions and cultures. Within Israel there was a movement to return to the word of God, the Torah. The people in this movement also thought it very important that the Hebrew people should only marry other Hebrew people. These followers of God wanted to separate themselves from the heathen and even took to calling themselves Pharisee, which is the English form of a Hebrew word which literally means “the separated ones”.

The Pharisees were the people in Israel that loved God, the ones that followed the law, the Torah, the word of God. It is from this group that we get the very idea of rabbi (or teacher). In fact, many scholars maintain that Jesus himself was most likely a Pharisee as his disciples called him teacher. Also, do you remember the story of Jesus when he was 12 as told at the end of the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke? The story says that each year Jesus’ parents would go to Jerusalem for Passover. One year, when Jesus was 12, they had already been a days journey from Jerusalem after Passover had ended when they realized Jesus was missing. Joseph and Mary had to double back to Jerusalem and spent a few days searching and finally found young Jesus in the temple, sitting with the teachers. The exact type of behavior you’d expect from a young Pharisee.

I mention all of this to let you know that when Jesus told his parable in Luke chapter 18, being a Pharisee was not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, a Pharisee was a person that loved God, a person that honored God and kept the law of Moses. However, this love, devotion, and service, without humility - is sinful. For no matter all the good things the Pharisee did - his fasting and his tithing, he was brought down by his lack of humility.

Contrast this with the tax collector. Now, for many of us, the phrase “tax collector” probably brings to mind some bureaucrat that works for the I.R.S. However, in Jesus’ time, a tax collector was so much more. Do you remember the Romans? The biggest baddest army on the face of the planet? If you are a country and the Roman Army shows up, that’s it. Your time is up. Essentially, you have two choices. Choice A - resist and the Roman Army will come in, fight, and destroy your country. Your men will be killed, your women will be sold in to slavery, your cities will be burned to the ground. Choice B - surrender and agree to be a part of the Roman Empire. Part of this agreement meant that you would send regular taxes to the Roman government so they could afford to continue to pay their army to fight those countries that chose option A. However, the Romans were deviously wise. Instead of directly collecting taxes, they recruited locals to do the work for them. This way, the Romans only had to deal with a few tax collectors when they needed their money. On their behalf, the tax collectors would go around to people and businesses and demand tax payments. And how much did they collect? Well as much as they could. For you see, the Roman government informed the local tax collectors how much they had to pay on a regular basis. However, the tax collector was free to get as much money as he could from the locals – with the threat of the Roman Army if they didn’t pay up. The local tax collector could keep any amount he collected that was over the amount required by the Romans. In a very real sense, the tax collectors worked on commission.

Not only was a tax collector a person that took your money. He was in conspiracy with the Roman Empire. He was working for and in collaboration with the very empire that enslaved Israel. In a very real sense, he was a traitor.

So, if we listen once again to the parable, we shed new light on what would have been obvious to the listener in the time of Jesus. Once again, Jesus has told a parable where the roles are reversed. The good guy does the wrong thing and the sinner does the right thing. In fact, Jesus says that the tax collector went to his home justified - in this context justified means “right with God”. And what was the difference between the actions of the tax collector and the Pharisee, it was the spirit in which they approached their actions that made all the difference.

Which leads to the title of today’s sermon: “The Spirituality of Giving”. This month at Central Christian Church is stewardship month. For the past two Sundays, Rev. Lynskey has preached on the importance of giving. Next week will be Consecration Sunday when each of us will have the opportunity to pledge our money, our time, and our talents to the ministries of Central Christian Church.

Today, as we enter our last week of prayerful preparation for Consecration Sunday, I’d like you to consider the spirituality of your giving. In other words, I’d like you to consider what your giving says about your relationship with God.

Are you a cheerful giver giving out of your abundance with joy in your heart? Or, are you giving out of a sense of obligation or fear? Or worse, are you like the Pharisee in the parable, giving because you want others to know how good of a person you are because you give?

Well, even if you do lack humility, you are out of luck if the latter is your motivation. If you don’t know, the amount of money that you pledge to give to the church in 2011 will not be publicly shared. Only our church treasurer and one or two other administrators will know how much you personally pledge to give – and they aren’t talking. Also, and this is very important, our minister and all non-secretarial church staff will never know how much you pledge nor how much money you give over the year.

So you see, the monetary amount you personally pledge next week will truly be between you and God. So, your task this week is to pray and ask yourself the tough questions of what your financial commitment says to you personally about your spirituality and your relationship with God. It’s an intensely personal and intensely private decision. My prayers are with you.

But if you think the money part is the hard part, you haven’t been paying attention. For not only does God ask for a portion from your financial abundance, God also asks for your time and your talents.

As we move into a bold new future with our new permanent senior minister, how will you respond to God’s call to ministry? And make no mistake about it, as Disciples of Christ we are all called. The part you have to figure out is what you are going to do – not if you are going to do something.

And sometimes we are called to show up – even if we aren’t really sure what we’ll be doing.

I remember when I was five years old I was attending an all boys small group session at my church. Two very nice men were doing their best to teach the parable of the Good Samaritan. Unfortunately, I had zoned out. I can’t remember what I was thinking about but the one thing for sure was that I had not been paying attention. So, I was in a mixed state of panic and shock when I heard “James, you will play the part of the priest.” I had no idea what was going on. One of my friends was laying on the ground moaning. I would later discover he was playing the role of the traveler in the story but at the time I was clueless.

So, I’m sitting there and I’m scared but I knew I had to act. So, I mustered up all the courage I could in my five-year-old body and walked up to my friend on the floor. I looked at him, shrugged my shoulders and said, “I’m sorry but I have no idea what you expect me to do.” Then I went back to my seat and sat down.

The group leaders looked at me and said “Wonderful, you perfectly captured the spirit of the priest in the story.” Somehow, in my complete and utter confusion but in my willingness to act, God managed to use me in that lesson.

And so, when you consider next week, how much of your time are you going to pledge to the works and ministries of Central Christian Church? Even if you don’t think you have any idea of what you are doing – just show up. Volunteer your time. You’ll be amazed at the ways God can make use of your presence.

Of course, many of us are aware of a gift or talent. Or perhaps you’ve heard or sensed a calling from God. Listening and responding to God’s call is not always easy. It can be disconcerting, and to tell others that you feel called to do something is perhaps one of the strangest things you’ll ever do. So, let me break the ice and share something deeply personal with you this morning.

Effective August 2011, our denomination, The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada, will implement a new set of policies and criteria for the ordering of Ministry. As part of these changes, our church will recognize three distinct categories of ministers. These categories are ordained ministers, commissioned ministers seeking ordination, and commissioned ministers not seeking ordination.

The first two categories are fairly straightforward. The ordained ministry is for those men and women who have been vocationally called to serve the church. They have undertaken serious seminary study and a long period of discernment. The commissioned minister seeking ordination is a path that allows seminary students to be and work as ministers during the time they are preparing for ordination.

The third category, commissioned minister not seeking ordination, is somewhat like the older term “licensed minister” but the new wording and expectation is that this will be a more flexible category that allows for the creativity of the Holy Spirit to shine through in various and unique ways. It is to this purpose that I sense a calling to serve.

Over the past year, I have prayed and I have discussed this matter with my wife and with our minister. I have shared this news with our elders. I’ve also shared this news with our newly called senior minister and I’ve even informed our area minister, Rev. Allen. Also, since September, I’ve been attending the Licensed Minister mentoring program in the Capital Cluster of the Bluebonnet Area. So, it’s not exactly been a secret that I’ve been responding to this call. However, today, right now, is the first time I’m sharing this publicly with you, my home congregation and I appreciate your prayers over the next few years as I work to figure out what serving as a commissioned minister might mean for me. Quite frankly, I don’t have all the answers but I do sense a call and I am responding.

Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that most of you listening today have not been called to be a commissioned minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). However, as I said earlier, as Disciples of Christ each of us are called to assist in some way in the work and ministry of Central Christian Church.

Perhaps you are called to sing in the choir? Dallas Heenan welcomes you with open arms.

Perhaps you are called to work in some capacity in Christian Education? If so, Heidi Bounds would love to hear from you.

Perhaps you are being called to serve as a deacon, to serve by serving others? If so, I encourage you to use the nomination form that is in the bulletin and nominate yourself to serve as a deacon.

Whatever it is you are being called to do, I ask that you pray about it and carefully consider your own personal relationship with God and how your giving reflects the nature and spirituality of that relationship.

AMEN

Faster Than Light Travel

2010-09-23T13:09:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week I received a letter from the rental car agency that I had used when attending my uncle's funeral this past February. The letter was a notice that I had been assessed a toll of $1.33 on Wednesday morning, 24 February 2010. Additionally, the rental car company told me "not to worry". They had paid the fine for me and were going to charge me an additional $5.00 courtesy fee for the work they performed in paying the toll for me.

Well, there were two major problems with their letter (which I politely described to the person I spoke to on the phone):

I had arrived home on Tuesday evening and during the time the toll supposedly took place, the car was parked in my driveway in south Austin.
The letter showed the time I turned in my rental car Wednesday morning. The letter also showed the time and location the toll supposedly took place. In order for the car to have been in both of those places would have required me to break the known laws of physics. I realize that their company shares the same name as the United Federation of Planets starship captained by Jean Luc Picard but right now (in 2010), faster than light travel (e.g. warp drive) has not yet been invented.

I was told, politely, that the facts didn't really matter. I was charged and I need to pay. I could protest but the process of protesting would cost me more than $6.33. So, they were actually doing me a favor and letting me get away with simply paying $6.33.

I guess there is one big lesson they've learned from "Star Trek: The Next Generation". Namely, the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition!

___

Prayer as Affirmation

2010-09-19T13:46:00.003-05:00

The following is the written draft of a sermon I preached at Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Austin, Texas on September 19, 2010.

Prayer as Affirmation

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Luke 11:1-4
I Timothy 2:1-7

In it's long history the Christian Church has at various times and places sought to state what it believes in a series of creedal statements. The most famous, the Nicene Creed, was first formulated during the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. The intent was to give a brief, easy to understand common understanding of Christian doctrine that included a description of each of the roles of the Triune God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What would seem to be a relatively straightforward exercise was, in reality, heavily debated over hundreds of years. The most infamous of these debates is known as the “Filioque controversy”. Filioque is a Latin phrase meaning “and the son”. This tiny piece was added to the description of the Holy Spirit during the Third Council of Toledo in 589 A.D. So, instead of the original Nicene Creed that stated that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, this updated Creed now stated that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This tiny change led to great controversy and was one of the major reasons for the East-West Schism of 1054 and why it is to this day, that the Roman Catholic Church is split from the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Now, in our tradition, The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), it has been our history and practice to reject the use of creeds as any kind of litmus test for Christian fellowship. In fact, to join a Disciples’ church one simply has to affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord – that’s it. However, sometimes I wonder if Disciples go too far. In our appropriate zeal for inclusivity many of us go way beyond rejecting the need for creeds as a test of membership to having the opinion that ANY stated formulation of belief is wrong. In a sense, “not having a creed” has become our de facto creed. To me, that’s not just throwing out the baby with the bath water. It’s also throwing out the tub and claiming that water doesn’t exist. In other words, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

But instead of trying to examine historical creeds that aren’t part of the Canon, let’s look to the Bible itself. Specifically, let’s take a closer look at verse 5 from the second chapter of First Timothy. In this verse, the author writes, “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human,...” Does this sound familiar? Have you heard this type of phrasing before?

What about our first scripture that was read this morning? The fourth verse of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” And if you think it sounds familiar to us this morning, you should consider the audience when First Timothy was written. For you see verses four through nine of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy aren’t just some random verses found in the Bible. These verses are the beginning of the Shema, named after the beginning of this most famous prayer “Shema Yisrael” or, in English, “Hear, O Israel”.

In his book, To Pray As a Jew, Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin writes the following about the Shema:

"The Shema is not a prayer in the ordinary sense of the word, but for thousands of years it has been an integral part of the prayer service. The Shema is a declaration of faith, a pledge of allegiance to One God, an affirmation of Judaism. It is the first "prayer" that children are taught to say. It is the last utterance of martyrs. It is said on rising in the morning and on going to sleep at night. It is said when one is praising God and when one is beseeching Him. The faithful Jew says it even when questioning Him. The Shema is said when our lives are full of hope; it is said when all hope is gone and the end is near. Whether in moments of joy or despair, in thankfulness or in resignation, it is the expression of Jewish conviction, the historic proclamation of Judaism's central creed."

And the Shema is more than just a prayer that is said, it’s a prayer that is remembered in many ways. Recall that verse 9 of Deuteronomy chapter 6 states “...and write them on the doorposts of your house...” For many Jews this is not metaphoric language but is taken literally.

During the time when I was in graduate school at LSU, I shared an apartment with fellow computer science graduate student, Gili Mendel. Gili was from Israel and had been a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force and more than being an Israeli, he also took his religion very seriously. In fact, it was one of the reasons Gili and I got along. While we had different religions we both respected the seriousness of devotion that each of us had to our religion. One thing that Gili had in our apartment was a mezuzah attached to the frame of his bedroom door. When Gili would walk in to his room or when Gili would leave his room, he would touch the mezuzah. The mezuzah is a tiny container and you know what’s in that container? A tiny piece of parchment and on that parchment, in Hebrew, is written the Shema.

That’s right, this prayer, this simple, powerful prayer is prayed and remembered and held dear.

As I’ve been preparing this sermon I tried to think if there is anything like that in my past: a phrase or affirmation so powerful that it resonates with me to this day. Two examples came to mind: the first an example of a public, community affirmation and the second a more personal, familial affirmation.

In the Spring of 1984, I was 13 years old and a Junior at a public, residential High School in Natchitoches, Louisiana. I remember one day, our recreation director, Mr. Boutte, asked if any of the students wanted to go hear a speech given by a Presidential Candidate. Yes, little old Natchitoches, Louisiana was being visited by a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. I didn’t know much about the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the time. Remember, this is pre-World Wide Web, so I didn’t even know of Rev. Jackson’s association with Dr. King. In fact, all I knew was that he was a black man and a Baptist minister and he was running for president. Well, my father is a Baptist minister so I thought “why not”, I’ll go hear this man speak.

And speak he did. But more than speak, he got the audience to join in. He brought us to a crescendo chanting the phrase “I am somebody”, “I am somebody”, “I am somebody”. And thinking back, saying those words had two major impacts. One, the obvious, it gave me a sense of value and self-worth. Yes, I am somebody. I am a child of God. I am precious. But second, and I think maybe more important, is that on that day, I heard everyone else say “I am somebody”. No matter their color, their age, or their gender, no matter their physical shape, their marital status, or their sexual orientation, everyone in that room was somebody. That’s an important message and a strong example of the power of community in positive group affirmation.

My second example of affirmation speech comes from some of my earliest memories. When my sister and I would visit our McGuffee grandparents, every night, before going to sleep, our Papaw and Mamaw McGuffee would lead us in a reading from the Bible and group prayer. As part of this routine, after everyone had said their individual prayers, we’d all say the following phrase “Bless the Lord all my soul and all that is within me. Bless his Holy name.” It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I finally realized that the phrase was from the 103rd Psalm but by then it was more than just a verse in the Bible, it was an ingrained part of my psyche. A continual reminder to this day that my ancestors cared for me and cared that the blessings of the Lord be upon me. For you see, when my grandparents said the phrase “all that is within me” they weren’t just referring to themselves but their children and their grandchildren. And so it is in verse 7 of Deuteronomy chapter 6 that we are told to “Recite [these words] to our children and talk about them when we are at home.”

This morning, to the parents, I ask you, when is the last time you talked about the Bible with your children? When is the last time you shared a verse that had special meaning to you or when was the last time you asked your child to share a verse with you? As Disciples we claim to cherish the scripture. By our actions do our children know how special the Bible is to us?

And so, these two examples drawn from my life gave me just the tiniest of glimpses of the importance of the Shema and that brings us back to First Timothy, “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human,...” As some have noted, this appears to be a reformulation of the Shema. It’s taking a base that the reader would know, inherently, and adding basic Christian doctrine. Namely, Christ Jesus is our mediator. And while the word mediate might, at times, have negative connotations, there is one definition of the word that I really like and I think fits perfectly in this context. Mediate: to remove misunderstanding.

To me, that’s a perfect image of Jesus. For by his own words, Jesus clearly tells us he did not come to remove or do away with the Word of God. Rather, by his words and by his actions we can experience the Word of God revealed in a fresh way, for many, a more accessible way.

It’s Jesus who teaches us not to be caught up in preconceptions about who is or is not God-like. For example, Leviticus 19:18 tells us to love our neighbor. When questioned about the meaning of this scripture, Jesus gives us the parable of the Good Samaritan. In this parable there is a Priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. The two people that we would assume would be most conscientious about God’s law, the Priest and the Levite, actually ignore the man in distress. Rather, the Samaritan, the one who would be despised by the audience listening is shown to be the compassionate neighbor. Thus, Jesus not only knows the law but understands the law and the love God intends for us to show one another.

One of the radio programs that I listen to regularly is “This American Life” which is heard weekly on National Public Radio. Each week, various stories based on a theme are brought to the listener. One of my favorite stories first aired in January of 2005 and is Shalom Auslander’s story of “The Blessing Bee”. When he was in the third grade of an Orthodox Jewish School, young Shalom had the chance to participate in a blessing bee. It’s kind of like a spelling bee but instead of spelling words you have to correctly identify which prayers of blessing have to be given for certain foods. For example, there is a specific prayer of blessing for vegetables grown in the ground versus those grown above ground. There is a different blessing for mammals than for fish. What makes it complicated is mixed dishes. For example, what is the blessing for a tuna casserole? Is it a blessing for fish, for the macaroni? For both and if both, which blessing is more important and is said first?

To me, the blessing bee is a metaphor for the kind of minutia which takes us away from the point of the blessing in the first place (i.e. to thank God for the food). As mediator, Christ Jesus takes us away from a rigid fear of the law but frees us to live in the love of God. Jesus makes it clear that to act in Love is the most important thing to do.

When questioned about which is the most important commandment, do you remember Jesus’ response? Well, his response was from the Shema. Deuteronomy Chapter 6, verse 5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” and then Jesus added “love your neighbor as yourself”.

So, this morning, Central, I ask you. Do you love your God? Do you seek to affirm that in your daily life? Do you take the time, do you make it an intentional act to affirm your belief and love for the one true God? If not, I encourage you to do so.

_____________________________________________

Angels Shutting Mouths

2010-08-28T22:56:00.003-05:00

Today I finished reading the book An Altar in the World. The book is a collection of twelve essays by former Episcopalian Priest Barbara Brown Taylor. I liked the book and found something to cherish in each chapter. I was particularly touched by one paragraph in the second chapter on the topic of reverence. Brown writes:

"Some of the most reverent people I know decline to call themselves religious. For them, religion connotes belief. It means being able to say what you believe about God and why. It also means being able to hold your own in a debate with someone who believes otherwise. They, meanwhile, are not sure what they believe. They do not want to debate anyone. The longer they stand before the holy of holies, the less adequate their formulations of faith seem to them. Angels reach down and shut their mouths."

As a person whose spiritual and religious beliefs are deeply personal and very important and as a person who cherishes good conversation with others on religious subjects, I empathize deeply with those that do not want to debate. I don't want to debate. Often, I think people have trouble grasping the concept that I don't want to debate and merely wish to share. If I have to choose between religious debate and silence, I'll pray for more angels and more mouth shutting.

The Crucified God

2010-07-29T21:11:00.004-05:00

Last night I finally finished reading The Crucified God by Jurgen Moltmann. This author was recommended to me by my friend, Rev. Jackie Baker. I think she is aware of the soft spot in my heart for WWII era German protestant theologians (e.g. Tillich and Bonhoeffer).

The ideas in this book are very interesting. The subtitle "The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology" is illuminating as to the focus of the book. The first three chapters are a painstakingly thorough investigation of meanings and theological definitions. While well done (with literally hundreds of footnotes) this is not a "casual" read. This is an in-depth "you'd better be awake and fully engaged while reading it" type of book.

The next two chapters deal with the trial of Jesus. Chapter 4 deals with the historical aspect and goes in to such matters as "what was the crime that Jesus committed that warranted death?". Chapter 5 concerns the eschatological nature of he trial of Jesus. This is a very dense and very heavy theological chapter. Moltmann is insistent and clear (over and over) that while he examines all points, you can't truly separate the historical trial from the eschatological trial. He is also insistent (and consistent) that you can't separate the historical Jesus from the resurrected Christ.

The final three chapters of this book deal with the consequences of what he has set up in the first part of the book. Chapter 6, the "Crucified God", concerns itself with the theological implications of a "God" that dies. there is quite a large portion dedicated with references to forms of atheism and the more recent "God is dead" concerns. Chapter 7 concerns the psychological liberation of man and is very much focused on Freud. Chapter 8 ends the book with a reflection on the political liberation of man. To oversimplify Moltmann, how should Christians treat others if we take seriously the premise that our Christ suffered and died on a cross?

In summary, I found many of the ideas in this book to be interesting and illuminating but due to the absolute struggle of actually getting through the text, I am not inclined to read more Moltmann anytime soon.

Instrumental TV Theme Songs

2010-07-27T04:37:00.003-05:00

In the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly it is reported that Grace Park will play the role of Det. Kono Kalakaua in the new version of Hawai Five-0. Upon reading this I immediately thought of the theme song and it's been stuck in my head all day. So, I started thinking and came up with a list of five great instrumental only television theme songs that capture the essence of the television show they represent.

FUTURAMA

With its odd pops and organ like chimes this song just feels like the future - a future as envisioned by someone in the 1960s. Which makes a lot of sense since this theme song, composed by Christopher Tyng, is based largely on Psyche Rock by Pierre Henry with the classic "Amen Break" thrown in for good measure.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

The fuse is lit and the tension is evident from the first chord by composer Lalo Schifrin.

DOCTOR WHO

Created in 1963 by Ron Grainer, the theme to this cult BBC television show has undergone various tweaks and changes (as has the lead character, btw) but the underlying sound is unmistakable and other worldly; Galifrean perhaps?

SANFORD AND SON

Also known as "The Streetbeater" this song by Quincy Jones is forever linked with the late comedian Redd Foxx. When I hear the song I can see the old red pickup truck.

HAWAII FIVE-0

And to end it all we have the song that inspired this list. Listening to the heavy percussion from the Ventures I can just feel the wave crashing down on the Hawaiian beach.

Monika Hellwig's "advantages" to being poor

2010-06-06T22:46:00.003-05:00

During the morning service at my church, our minister shared a list of ten statements written by Monika Hellwig (source: The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancy, Thomas Nelson publishers, 1995, page 115).

Here's the list Rev. Lynskey shared on Sunday morning:

The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption.
The poor know not only their dependence on God and on powerful people but also their interdependence with one another.
The poor rest their security not on things but on people.
The poor have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated need of privacy.
The poor expect little from competition and much from cooperation.
The poor can distinguish between necessities and luxuries.
The poor can wait, because they have acquired a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence.
The fears of the poor are more realistic and less exaggerated, because they already know that one can survive great suffering and want.
When the poor have the Gospel preached to them, it sounds like good news and not like a threat or a scolding.
The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready for anything.

We were challenged to replace the word "poor" with "I" and explore how we do or do not fit with these statements.

Thoughts?

Parakletos

2010-05-23T14:32:00.004-05:00

The following is the written draft of a sermon I preached in Rocky Branch, Louisiana on May 23, 2010.

Parakletos /pah-ROCK-lay-toss/

Scripture: Gospel of John 14: 8-17 & 25-27

Seven weeks ago, something happened. Who remembers? That’s right, seven weeks ago we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. In a large part of the Christian world, Easter is more than one day. It is celebrated as a season lasting for seven Sundays. Why seven Sundays? Why not six, why not eight? The reason is that on the seventh Sunday AFTER Easter, we celebrate Pentecost Sunday and that is today.

So, what is Pentecost? The word Pentecost literally means “fiftieth day” and is associated with the Festival of Weeks. If you’re interested, you can check out the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. Specifically, the first twelve verses of chapter sixteen describe Passover and the Festival of Weeks. The Festival of Weeks lasts seven weeks after Passover. So, the final day of this Festival is the fiftieth day after Passover and this day is known as Pentecost.

Okay, so that is the origin of Pentecost but what exactly, does this have to do with the Christian calendar? Well, you’re going to need your Bible again. This time you’ll want to turn to the New Testament and the second chapter of the book of Acts. In this chapter we find the Apostles gathered together in one place on the day of Pentecost when suddenly they hear a sound like that of a rushing wind and the people gathered around are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Thus, it is today, Pentecost Sunday, when we as Christians are called to reflect and consider our relationship with the Holy Spirit. In other words, today is the day we consider how God is working with us in the here and now. Not the external deity that we have trouble defining and even imagining, not the incarnation that was born in a stable and died on the cross, no, today I ask you to consider the God that is with you, the God that comforts you, the God that guides you. Our Parakletos.

Our what? That’s right, I said parakletos. You might be thinking, well that sounds like Greek to me. And you know what? You’d be right. You see, the Gospel of John was originally written in the Greek language. Our gospel reading this morning is an English translation from that original Greek text. In verse 16, when our Lord is telling his disciples about an Advocate, the original Greek word was parakletos. Advocate doesn’t quite capture the full meaning of the Greek word parakletos. In fact, in some English translations of the Bible, the word parakletos is translated as “comforter”. Some of the best scholarship around claims that the closest English word to parakletos is “helper” or “one called to assist another.” Furthermore, Leon Morris states that the best English meaning of parakletos is “the legal helper, the friend who does whatever necessary to forward their best interests”

And this is important and it’s a powerful message that Jesus is giving to his disciples. In John 14 we are in the Upper Room. Jesus has already washed the feet of his disciples, these are the last things that Jesus is teaching prior to his arrest and execution. This is important stuff.

And it begins with Phillip asserting that if Jesus would only show them the Father, then that would be enough. Can you hear the sigh? The big enormous sigh that must have emanated from Jesus? For you see, these weren’t strangers, these were Jesus’ closest disciples. These were the men that had heard his teachings, they had experienced the miracles, yet – they wanted more. Jesus, ever patient, ever the teacher goes on to explain the relationship between himself and the Father asserting that if you have seen him, you have seen the Father.

But Jesus, knowing that he would soon be leaving the disciples, left his disciples with another hope. The promise of the Holy Spirit, or parakletos. The Holy Spirit who will be with us and guide us and remind us of who Jesus is and what he teaches.

And just as important as what the Holy Spirit is, I think it’s as important to remember what the Holy Spirit is not. One thing the Holy Spirit is not is a “Genie in the Lamp”. You all remember the story of Aladdin and how he is granted three wishes from the genie of the lamp? This and similar stories often end up badly for the human involved. The essence of these stories being that humans really don’t know enough to consider all the consequences of unlimited power.

However, too often Christians fall in to this trap. When someone is sick we pray for a miraculous healing without considering the consequences. Worse, when someone does make a recovery we make statements like “well, there’s proof that prayer does work” – too often forgetting all the times when people we loved weren’t miraculously healed. In those dark times do we ever say, well gosh I guess that’s proof that God doesn’t answer prayer?

And this is tough and I know a lot of you don’t want to hear it but the Holy Spirit is not your magical source of power. As a Christian you aren’t immune to the suffering and pain in this world. In fact, in the sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us that the sun rises on the good and the evil and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. I can’t tell you why good and bad things happen. Honestly, I don’t know. But, I can tell you that if you speak for God and claim that you know God’s intention, you are likely blaspheming.

So, if the Holy Spirit is not some wish fulfillment mechanism, some holy djinn to grant our wishes, then what is it good for?

Well, at the risk of being repetitive, the Holy Spirit is our parakletos. Another way of thinking about this - the Holy Spirit is the way in which we touch, the way in which we grasp, the way in which we glimpse – the Divine.

In ancient times, God gave his people the Torah – his written law that the Hebrew people carried with them and honored and glorified. It was one way that the Divine, the Almighty, was reaching out and trying to connect with his creation. In fact, by about 70 A.D. the festival of Pentecost had changed from its more rural roots and had become exclusively focused on God’s gracious gift of Torah!

So, how fitting it was that the Holy Spirit first appeared to the believers on Pentecost after the Resurrection of our Lord. My friends, no longer do we have to try and decipher the presence of God through ancient law. No, now God is accessible to us in spirit and in truth.. God is with us, as our helper, as our friend, as the one who always has our best interest in mind. God is our Parkletos.

And so, dear brother and sister, I ask you this morning, what have you done with this magnificent gift from God. Do the actions of your life reflect the spirit of God that is with you at all times, helping you, guiding you? Put another way, if a stranger meets you, would he or she know that God is guiding you?

Do you embrace God as your parkletos, your helper, your advocate, your friend? Do you let others know about this magnificent gift? If you went on a television game show and won a brand new car, how many people would you tell? My friends, the gift of the Holy Spirit is incalculably more precious than a new car? How many people have you told about your precious gift from God? And more than telling, if you won that new car, how many of you would drive it? I know I would. I’d want everyone I know to see me in my shiny new car. My friends, how many people see the work of the Holy Spirit in you? Do you help the poor, do you feed the hungry, do you do the work of the Lord?

In conclusion, let us rejoice and celebrate. God is with us, God has sent his Holy Spirit to be with us and guide us. Now, Christian brothers and sisters, let’s go out in the world and let’s let everyone know about it.

AMEN.

John 21:1-19

2010-04-17T23:19:00.006-05:00

This weeks reading from the Gospel is John 21:1-19. This is from the last chapter of the Gospel of John and occurs after the Resurrection. It includes the story of Jesus instructing the Disciples to cast their nets on the other side and the resulting large catch of fish (verses 1-14). It also includes the narrative of Jesus asking Simon Peter three times "Do you love me?" (verses 15-19). I've found three video/songs related to this reading which I include below...

Ancestors and Legacy

2010-04-12T01:39:00.008-05:00

In my home in the hallway hangs a collection of six photographs. This collection was compiled in the mid 1970s and represents six generations of McGuffee men. Me, Harry Woodson McGuffee (my father), Harry Stanley McGuffee (my grandfather), Felix Winston McGuffee (my great grandfather), Aaron David McGuffee (my great-great grandfather), and Alfred Hardy McGuffee (my great-great-great grandfather, pictured above). For years I have had these photos as a reminder of my past. It's also a set of photos that my wife introduces to my infant son and describes as his grandfathers. It's our heritage. Though I know their faces and names I know virtually nothing about the two oldest ancestors in this collection.

That's the funny thing about heritage. Sometimes new information can come crashing in on you at the strangest times.

Have you been paying attention to the news and the trouble that Governor McDonnell of Virginia caused when he declared April 2010 to be Confederate History Month and he did not mention the horrors of slavery? He has since apologized. However, on Sunday, Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi defended McDonnell by saying "To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's not a — it's trying to make a big deal out of something that dudn't amount to diddly." (source: CNN Interview. For video, follow this link --> www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/11/haley-barbour-defends-bob_n_533358.html )

Then, on this very same Sunday, I am casually using Google image search and I see the image you see above on the results screen. I am intrigued. It's not every day that you stumble upon an old photograph of your great-great-great grandfather. What page does it link to? Why, a confederate soldiers memorial page. Here's the direct link if you'd like to see it --> www.angelfire.com/ms3/davidg33/biosC.htm#McGuffee,AH

I learned that my ancestor was a private in the Confederacy by way of the Mississippi militia. At age 31 he was wounded in the Battle of Franklin, TN. After the war, he returned to his home in Monticello, Mississippi and lived there until he died in 1920.

So, as far as I know, none of my ancestors owned slaves. However, my director ancestor, a man I share a name and DNA with, fought on behalf of a confederation who was fighting for the rights of states to continue the practice of slavery.

Well Grandpa, no matter what the current Governor of your state says, I say that what you did was wrong. I can never know your motivation for fighting for the Confederacy and, therefore, do not judge you but I can and do publicly state that what you did was wrong. While the rhetoric of the time may have been "states rights", the underlying evil of slavery was there. To fight to continue slavery was wrong.

I am happy to report that your grandchildren have not carried that legacy and I suspect that in the 56 years that you lived after the war, your heart and mind was changed as well. For I know that your great-grandson (my grandfather) fought in the United States Marine Corps in World War II in the Pacific theater. After the war, Harry Stanley McGuffee became a preacher. One of the stories that my Dad tells is that as a young boy his father, Rev. Harry S. McGuffee, said something from the pulpit that made the KKK so mad that shotguns were fired in to their house one night (the bullet flying just inches above the sleeping heads of my Dad and Uncle). So, in less than 100 years, the McGuffee men went from fighting for a corrupt government trying to protect the institution of slavery to an outspoken preacher man that angered white supremacists.

Quite a legacy indeed.

Doubting Thomas

2010-04-10T16:50:00.005-05:00

The Gospel reading for April 11, 2010 is John 20:19-31. This passage of scripture is often referred to as the story of doubting Thomas. Thomas is quoted in verse 25 as saying, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." (NRSV)

Today as I prepare for worship on the morrow, I am reflecting on what it means to doubt. As part of this preparation, I found a really nice song by Nickel Creek. The song is "Doubting Thomas" and I am embedding a video of the song at the end of this post.

My Hometown

2010-04-09T21:03:00.003-05:00

My wife is from Moulton. She states this with pride and will tell everyone she meets.

I don't have a hometown. Growing up I lived in many small towns all over north Louisiana.

However, with amazing Google My Maps Technology, you can now use Google Maps to interactively discover where McGuffee grew up.

Just follow this link --> Where is James McGuffee from?

Cotton field image courtesy of SXC. Used with permission.

I Don't Worship a Zombie

2010-04-04T22:43:00.013-05:00

Today is Resurrection Sunday (a.k.a. Easter) and while reading three different wall posts on Facebook, I came across the phrase "Zombie Jesus". Now, each of the three occurrences used the phrase in completely different contexts. However, it caused me to think, "How strong is this meme?"

So, I did a basic search and came across several different items

Zombie Jesus Day - a blog by "American Infidel" Ashley Decker
"Zombie Jesus!" Trailer - a YouTube video
Zombie Jesus Day - a website that let's you send "Zombie Jesus Day" e-cards

This is just a small sampling of what is out there. I had no idea.

I am saddened by this imagery. I'm not saddened that there are people out there that would mock Christian beliefs. People have mocked and ridiculed Christianity from the beginning. I am saddened that we as Christians have done such a poor job of explaining our faith that people can make the confused comparison between demented reanimated flesh and a resurrected Lord.

However, we live in strange times. There is a church in Corpus Christi, Texas whose Easter worship services seem more like a jumbo sized version of a "My Favorite Things" episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show than a Christian worship service (www.reporternews.com/news/2010/apr/03/the-million-dollar-giveaway/) . This material message of "free gifts" and the comparison being made that the Easter message is as simple as receiving your "free gift" of heaven without any consequence, commitment, or anything else is pretty sickening. Not to mention the distortion that the good news of the Gospel is ONLY talking about a promise of an afterlife in heaven.

Is it any wonder that we are being mocked with the "Zombie Jesus" meme? Is there any truth to this imagery? To me, it seems like a lot of Christians are walking around like "brain dead" zombies. Could this be part of the problem?

But I didn't start writing this blog post to complain or chastise. Rather, my main goal is to proclaim to the world that I do not worship a Zombie. Jesus the Christ is Risen, Alleluia! My Lord is not some reanimated flesh with a hunger for brains. My Lord lives and if you ask me how I know he lives - well, he lives within my heart!

Notes/Credits:

Zombie image courtesy of SXC. Used with permission.
The last sentences is inspired by the hymn "He Lives". Words and music by Alfred H. Ackley.

I Forgive You

2010-04-02T00:27:00.006-05:00

Doctor Who is a serialized science fiction program produced by the BBC. The show features a Gallifreyan Time Lord known simply as the Doctor. At the end of the 2007 season, the Doctor’s archenemy and fellow Time Lord, the Master, returns to reek havoc. The Master imprisons the Doctor and puts him through some pretty painful physical experiences. With a little help from his friends, the Doctor escapes his prison and is restored to health. At this point the Master looks shocked. We see a sense of dread across the Master’s face as he realizes what is about to happen. We hear him plead, “No, no. I know what you are going to do. Don’t do it.”

The Doctor approaches the Master with arms outstretched and says three words, “I forgive you.”

The look of pain on the Master’s face is a wonder to behold. With three simple words the Doctor has completely turned the table. He has not succumbed to the fear and hate of the Master. He has won the day with goodness and love.

I’m not sure what religion Russell T. Davies (the producer and writer of this Doctor Who episode) does or does not practice but this scene speaks to me as a Christian. I am reminded when on the day of his crucifixion, Jesus spoke from the cross and said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34 NRSV)

The message to forgive, not just when it’s pleasant or convenient but even when in the midst of agonizing pain is powerful indeed. Lord, as I reflect this day on the meaning of the cross, instill in me a forgiving heart so that I may be more like you each and every day.

Image courtesy of www.inmangine.com

Christ Welcomes You To the Table

2010-04-01T01:07:00.009-05:00

I love this artistic image of the Lord's Last Supper. In this sculpture we see the familiar symbols of the chalice and the bread. These sacred elements that provide such deep meaning to Christians the world over. I too join with my brothers and sisters in Christ in attributing great importance to these elements.

However, the image of this sculpture has more than just the traditional elements usually associated with the Last Supper. Look closely. Look at the hands of Christ. Christ is welcoming ALL to the table. This is an open invitation and all are welcome.

Praise be to the Christ who provides a table where all are welcome. May all Christians be faithful disciples of Christ and follow the example of our Lord. May we welcome all - the friend, the stranger, and, maybe most importantly, those that we perceive as our enemy.

Image courtesy of freefoto.com. Used with permission.

Experiencing Holy Week Through Art

2010-03-31T17:50:00.002-05:00

I love words. I love to read them. I love to write them. I love to think them. Sometimes, though, it helps to experience the transcendent through other means. Today's Holy Week blog post is short with two items for your consideration.

Easter and Holy Week Artwork (weblink)
This is a site with links to many paintings and other works of art related to Easter and Holy Week.
Holy Week through Art from Catholic Westminster on Vimeo.

Good Enough?

2010-03-30T01:02:00.008-05:00

scene from "Sergeant York" (1941)
featuring Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper

As the conversion of Alvin York is theatrically portrayed we hear the familiar sounds of the hymn “Gimme That Old Time Religion” whose refrain is “It’s good enough for me.” As this Lenten season is coming to a close and as I prepare to remember in prayer and in worship the first Lord’s Supper on Thursday and the Cross on Friday, I’m left wondering, is it really good enough?

Okay, let me be completely honest here. It’s no longer a question for me. I can say with certainty that the old time religion is not good enough for me. The simplistic one dimensional non questioning faith of my departed grandfather (Rev. Harry S. McGuffee) stopped being good enough for me a long time ago. The religion that claims the extremely complex relationship between mortal and the Divine can be summed up in one or two statements and all one needs is a proclaimed conversion experience, I’m sorry Grandpa but that religion is not good enough for me.

The hubris of the evangelist who claims he has the exclusive claim to the truth and that all who disagree are damned to hell. Well Grandpa, not only is that not good enough, I find that part of your religion to be appalling and blasphemous.

On the other hand, there is a verse in the hymn that I love: “Makes me love everybody.” I absolutely adore this verse. This verse gives me hope. So, while I find much of the old time religion to be pablum there are things that I wish to preserve. Oh, I yearn for the parts of that old time religion that compel me to love everybody. That is definitely good enough for me.

Two Goats and a Lamb

2010-03-29T00:30:00.009-05:00

The origin of the term ‘scapegoat’ may be found in the Bible in chapter 16 of the book of Leviticus. In this chapter Aaron, the brother of Moses, is instructed to use two goats to complete the atonement ritual. The first goat is used as a sin offering. This goat is slaughtered and the shed blood on the altar is meant to atone for the sins of the people (verses 15-19). Next, Aaron is instructed to take the live goat, a.k.a. the scapegoat, and ceremoniously lay all of the sins of the people on this goat. This scapegoat is then released into the wilderness so that the sins of the people may be carried away (verses 20-22).

The Paschal Lamb is an observance that can be found in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, verses 1-28. This ceremony involves the ritualistic slaughter of an animal to commemorate the night that the angel of death spared the lives of the firstborn of any family that had the blood of the lamb spread on the door posts of their house. In other words, the angel of death “passed over” any house that had the mark of the blood of the lamb.

Most Christians only have some vague idea of these things and, very commonly, merge these distinctly different concepts together and place this new amalgamated sacrificial ritual onto the back of Jesus Christ. So, Jesus becomes the sin offering goat, the scapegoat, and the sacrificial lamb (i.e. two goats and a lamb).

As a thoughtful (pensive, meditative, and even sometimes reflective) Christian, I struggle with all three symbols and I certainly bristle at the concept of a feel good three-in-one Eucharistic combo-meal that is so readily consumed by the masses. Dealing with the events of Holy Week for the early Christians must have been extremely painful. I have great empathy and compassion for my fellow believers separated in time and their use of midrash to try and make sense of these events.

However, as a believer in Jesus Christ, my resurrected Lord, I am not bound by the limitations of the understandings of these folk. It is my intention to lay aside the goats and lamb this Holy Week and experience anew the wonder, the joy, the pain, the bewilderment, and finally, the resurrected hope that this week will bring.

Whatever path or journey you take this week, it is my sincere desire that all Christians remember that the table of our Lord is large enough for all of us. I hope that you attend your place of worship and take advantage of the services offered. If by chance you don’t have a church home and you are in the Austin area please know that you are most welcome at Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in downtown Austin.

Image of goat used with permission. Image owned by SXC

Guidelines for Discussing Recent Health Care Reform Legislation

2010-03-25T18:07:00.005-05:00

This week I've noticed that the rhetoric surrounding the recently passed health care reform legislation has been particularly heated. I have been saddened and shocked by the attacks and irrationality. In response, I've come up with three guidelines that everyone should follow when discussing the health care reform issue.

Guideline 1: No Personal Attacks

Yesterday on Facebook, I saw where a poster posted a reference to Psalm 109 and said "look it up." That particular Psalm is a call for the death of a tyrannical leader. So, with Scripture reference, this person was insinuating that someone should kill the president. This kind of rhetoric is way out of line. It's also pretty outrageous and offensive to use the Holy Bible that way.

Additionally, I have heard that members of Congress have received all kinds of threats against them and their family. This has to stop.

I realize that many folk are afraid but it is not appropriate to attack in this way. If we could all agree to stick to a discussion of the issues and not try to attack each other personally, we would go a long way to being a much more civil nation.

Guideline 2: Be Informed

I am struck by the amount of misinformation that is out there. I am going to provide some links where you can go and find actual information.

CBO Reports: Health
link to information from the Congressional Budget Office (a non-partisan source of information). Though this is the most unbiased source I could find, it is also the lengthiest but the information is there if you wish to dig.

Benefits of Health Care Reform, District by District Impact
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Committee has prepared, for all 435 congressional districts, a district-level analysis of the impact of health care reform legislation. This analysis includes information on the impact of the legislation on families, small businesses, seniors in Medicare, health care providers, and the uninsured.

Putting Americans In Control of Their Health Care
Official site of the President of the United States

KFF.ORG > Health Reform
Kaiser Family Foundation

Health Care Reform Bill Summary: A Look At What's In the Bill
CBS News

Health Care Bill Passes: What You Need To Know
The Huffington Post

If we are all informed we will be better off. Which leads to my third and final guideline.

Guideline 3: Deal in Reality

The Health Care Reform Act of 2010 has passed and was signed in to law by President Obama. That is not going to change. Even if the 2010 elections bring about a sweeping change in Congress, it is nearly impossible to imagine a situation where there would be enough votes to repeal the current law. Remember, it would take a two-thirds vote of Congress to overturn a Presidential veto.

Instead of dealing in the land of hypothetical, let's all deal in the land of reality. Where are we now? What is really happening? Are there improvements that can and should be made?

Can you make those suggestions without personally attacking me or anyone else? Can you make those suggestions without distorting the truth? If you can, I'll listen to you.

Peace,

James

My Thoughts on Spong's Book

2010-03-18T11:11:00.005-05:00

The subtitle of John Shelby Spong’s book is A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile. After reading his book, this sounds like the title Spong chose. The provocative phrase of Why Christianity Must Change or Die sounds like a marketing ploy used to sell lots of books.

Spong uses the analogy of exile to try and explain where Christians stand today in light of science and rationality. The analogy he uses is to compare our present situation with the situation of the nation of Judah after everyone had been taken in to exile to Babylon. Since most of the worship of the ancient Jewish state had been based on the physical Temple and the physical location of Jerusalem, people’s conception of God were radically altered when they were forced to live in exile in Babylon.

After presenting this analogy, Spong then goes in depth and explains his understanding of the nature of God, the reality of Jesus and the relationship of Jesus to God, the meaning of prayer, the basis for Christian morality, and his vision of the future of the church.

One of the interesting things for me about this book is that Spong is a student of Tillich. I too enjoy the theological writings of Tillich. It was interesting to read how Spong and I share some of the same pragmatic realities in light of the theology espoused by Tillich. It was also just as interesting to read where Spong and I don’t agree. The best part of this book is how Spong so naturally and openly lays out his faith, fears, doubts, and hope. The courage to open oneself to the world in the way that Spong has done is remarkable. It would be wondrous if we all could have the same type of courage to share AND if we all could be courageous enough to listen to one another in dialogue without fear and without resorting to a knee-jerk reaction to debate.

If you are interested in reading what others have to say about this book, here are some links:

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2096/is_4_48/ai_54064309/

www.theseekerbooks.com/articles/spong.htm

www.goodreads.com/book/show/80209.Why_Christianity_Must_Change_or_Die_A_Bishop_Speaks_to_Believers_In_Exile

atheism.about.com/library/weekly/aa081898.htm

Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich

2010-03-15T02:27:00.007-05:00

One of the intentional things that I decided to do during Lent this year was to read Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich. I finished reading this book on Sunday, March 14th and I’d like to share a little bit. Tillich begins the book by stating “Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned...” In order to understand this book you really have to understand Tillich’s definition of faith. Over and over again, Tillich reminds the reader of his definition and rejects the idea of faith as a belief in things without evidence.

Doubt plays an important role in this definition of faith. In fact, Tillich asserts that faith cannot exist without doubt because we as finite creatures can never fully and completely grasp the ultimate concern. There is a lot of density packed in to 127 pages and I recommend that you spend the time to read the entire book for yourself in order to more fully wrestle with the ideas presented by Tillich. In order to give you a flavor of the book, let me quote two sections of the book that particularly appealed to me.

In chapter V. THE TRUTH OF FAITH, section 2. The truth of faith and scientific truth, Tillich writes:

“The famous struggle between the theory of evolution and the theology of some Christian groups was not a struggle between science and faith, but between a science whose faith deprived man of his humanity and a faith whose expression was distorted by Biblical literalism. It is obvious that a theology which interprets the Biblical story of creation as a scientific description of an event which happened once upon a time interferes with the methodologically controlled scientific work; and that a theory of evolution which interprets man’s descendance from older forms of life in a way that removes the infinite, qualitiative difference between man and animal is faith and not science.”

The second quote I’d like to share is from chapter VI. THE LIFE OF FAITH, section 1. Faith and courage:

“In those who rest on their unshakable faith, pharisaism, and fanaticism are the unmistakable symptoms of doubt which has been repressed. Doubt is overcome not by repression but by courage. Courage does not deny that there is doubt, but it takes the doubt into itself as an expression of its own finitude and affirms the content of an ultimate concern. Courage does not need the safety of an unquestionable conviction. ... Even if the confession that Jesus is the Christ is expressed in a strong and positive way, the fact that it is a confession implies courage and risk.”

If you’d like to read more perspectives on this book, here’s a couple of links:

source note: All direct quotes in this blog posting are from Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich, 1957 Harper & Row.

It’s How Not What

2010-03-11T11:24:00.007-06:00

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper is the stage name for one of the greatest professional wrestlers of the late 20th century. One of his famous catchphrases is “"Just when you think you know the answers, I change the questions." From now on, I think I’m going to use this approach whenever someone asks me the question “What does your church believe?” I will lovingly explain that they have it all wrong. What they really need to be asking is “How does your church believe?”

let me explain…

I am a member of Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Austin, Texas. We are part of a denomination known as The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). One of the defining characteristics of a Disciples’ church is that we have no formal creed. The way you become a member of Central Christian Church is to affirm your belief in the simple confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. Beyond this there is no specific thing that you must believe. Each member is given the liberty and the challenge to read the Bible, to study their faith, to examine their lives, and to live boldly as Jesus has taught.

So, while some churches can provide a list of “We believe X, Y, and Z”, my church simply does not do that. Simply put, we are not a “what church”. We are a “how church”. So, go ahead and ask me:

How does your church live out the message of God as proclaimed by the prophets?
How does your church use Jesus the Christ as a model for behavior?
How does your church challenge its members to be active in their faith?
How does your church respond to a hurting world?
How does your church practice hospitality?

See, now you’re asking the right questions!

Squeezing an Infinite God in to a Finite Universe

2010-03-07T17:43:00.007-06:00

Last week, the Regional Minister of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Southwest sent me a Facebook message with a link to the Disciples' Institute for Scientific and Cosmological Inquiry. The blog entry I read concerned the possible verification this year of microorganisms from the planet Mars. The blog entry stated "...the theological implications, as well as our geo-centric Christology, will no longer be the topic of idle speculation but confront us with a reality that demands a response to the world."

Which has me asking the question, why does new scientific knowledge and discovery demand a response to the world from Christianity? Why would any nugget of knowledge in the finite, observable universe have any impact upon our theology? Sadly, I think the problem is that Christian leaders have done a really poor job in helping believers understand the true and awesome power of the infinite (or as Paul Tillich might say "the ultimate concern").

If God is infinite and we are finite, it's not that there is a large number of things we don't know, there are an infinite number of things we don't know about the creator. If we were to learn ten trillion new and groundshaking new things, guess what? There is still an infinite number of things we don't know. Such is the nature of infinity.

For too long, people have mistakenly taken past temporal symbolic understandings of the infinite and have placed them as equivalent to an actual understanding of the infinite. While in reality, all they have done is relegated past understanding to a false importance. In doing so, they miss the whole point. There is no way that a finite creature can have an actual, true, factual, and complete understanding of the infinite. Not in the past, not in the present, and not in the future. I pray for the day when the false idolatry of Christian Fundamentalism will fall and people will be free to reach out using a dynamic faith and seek the presence of God in their lives unfettered by the false hope of complete understanding but satiated by the never ending blessings of the desire for relationship with the Divine.

Maybe then, people will stop being confused at how I can have both a scientific, rational mind and a strong, deeply personal Christian faith. Maybe then, people will stop assuming that because I am a Christian I reject scientific fact and inquiry.

I don't hold out much hope that this will happen anytime soon. However, I believe in an infinite God. There's no rush.

Remembering Uncle Pete

2010-02-21T21:48:00.004-06:00

This past Friday while attending a Disciple’s Men’s Retreat I received word that my uncle had died from complications related to a long-term illness. Here’s a brief family history. Back in the middle of the last century, Harry Stanley McGuffee, Sr. (part Choctaw ancestry, part Scottish ancestry, and 100% Marine) married the lovely Hattie Mae Terrell. After WWII, my grandfather briefly worked with his father in the furniture business in McComb, Mississippi but soon felt called to preach and he and his young bride began their journey in ministry. Apparently lacking for quality entertainment in rural Mississippi they ended up having six children. The children, in birth order, are Harry Woodson (my Dad), David, Betty, Harry Stanley, Jr. (a.k.a. Pete), Jimmy, and Hattie. Yes, my grandparents had two sons named Harry and the third born son was the junior. According to my Grandmother, the doctor would not sign Pete’s birth certificate unless she named him Harry Stanley, Jr.

Pete was born on April 23, 1955. Pete was kind of a typical teenager of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. However, in July of 1970 his life was changed forever with the blessed arrival of his first nephew thus changing him from “Pete the punk teenager” to “Uncle Pete”. I am privileged to have played such a pivotal role in the formative years of my uncle’s development. In fact, as he was wont to tell me, I set the stage for his later development as a loving father. You see, one Sunday night in 1970, Pete figured out a way to skip going to church – he volunteered to take care of his baby nephew James. What Pete had not counted on was that when he went to change my diaper I still had not finished and, apparently, I had great aim OR as Uncle Pete would always tell me “Boy, you peed right in my eye.”

Apparently, I did not permanently traumatize Uncle Pete as he went on to father four sons: Trey, Brandon, Bryce, and Brian and be a father to the children in his blended family.

The last memory I have of my uncle is on the afternoon of Thanksgiving 2009. Lynn, Gage, and I traveled with my sister’s family and my Dad for a large Thanksgiving gathering at my Aunt Betty’s house in Mississippi. As many of you know, my Dad suffers from MS and has trouble with balance. As we were getting ready to go, my Dad was having trouble getting to the car. So, Uncle Pete offered to help my Dad to the car. Trouble is, at the time, Pete only had marginally better balance than my Dad. To the external observer, it was this wild scene of snake like mass of McGuffee men wobbling to the car. To those that knew, it was two brothers that loved each other and would do anything for each other no matter how ridiculous it might look to the world.

I love you Uncle Pete and trust that you are in the loving hands of God. We mourn because we miss you. There has never been and never will be anyone else like you.

It’s Not All About ME

2010-02-19T02:21:00.000-06:00

On Thursday (February 18, 2010) a plane crashed in to a building in Northwest Austin. With the aid of the Internet I was quickly able to find and locate the name and apparent suicide note/manifesto of the person who apparently flew the plane in to the building. As I was reading through the text I noticed how Andrew Joseph Stack seemed to blame ALL of his problems on external entities and never seemed to take personal responsibilities for his own actions.

Then I thought back to Amy Bishop and how her actions (shooting several colleagues at a University faculty meeting in Alabama) are being attributed to her feelings on not being granted tenure and how she purportedly blames others for what happened. I kept wondering if there is some connection between self-centered thinking and the thinking that leads some to such lethal outbursts of rage.

Later in the day I thought of my own life. How sometimes I have similar thoughts of “me versus the world”. Am I someone that is capable of the same type of “extreme thinking” that leads to violence? I certainly hope not. How do I handle life when bad things happen? There are times in my life when people do some pretty bad things that negatively affect me. Should I ignore it? Is that even possible?

I think one of the biggest things I need to do is to realize that it’s not all about me. Yes, I live in the world and suffer but the “world” is not out to get me. I am not homo-superior and deserve “special treatment”. I’m just me. Yes, I’m a unique individual but so are all the other 6.8 billion people on this planet. If you think being one out of nearly 7 billion makes me feel small, don’t get me started on the size of the finitely large Universe and, please, for your own sake, don’t even mention the “i” word.

Now, as I write this blog, I’m thinking of my faith tradition and of the example given by the life of Jesus the Christ. One of the biggest lessons I learn from my Savior is that I should be externally focused on helping others. Some of the most joyful and “at peace” times in my life have occurred when I have been in service to others. This lesson of being there for each other and not being self focused is a powerful message. Perhaps there is hope in the world after all.

P.S. The “i” word is “infinity”. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Reflection on Dr. James W. Van Meter, Jr.

2009-12-30T15:17:00.006-06:00

This past Monday night, the members of my church received an email from our minister, Dr. James W. Van Meter, Jr., informing us that this Sunday, January 3, 2010, would be his last Sunday in service at Central Christian Church. As I reflect back upon his ministry at Central Christian Church in Austin, I can think of many things. Today, I’d like to share one significant and deeply personal memory.

In February of 2004, I was in pain. In less than a two-week time, I had been hit hard with two life changing events. First, in late January, one of my freshmen students was found stabbed to death in her home in Northwest Austin. I know some of the details because, as far as we know, other than the man that killed her I was the last person to see her alive as she left my Monday afternoon class. Then, eleven days later on a Friday afternoon, I came home to find an empty house. As I was to find out, my wife of nearly seven years had decided to leave and while I was at work had packed up a trailer and left. It would be several weeks before I was able to contact her through legal counsel.

So, how did I end up on that pew in the back of Central Christian Church on that Sunday in February?

A little background. I was born the son of a preacher man. Then, throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies I was very active in the church. E.G. While attending graduate school at LSU, I served as a youth leader and deacon at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Baton Rouge, LA.

However, after being married in 1996, my church attendance waned. It’s not that we didn’t go to church, it’s that we didn’t go regularly and didn’t want to get too involved. In a six-year time span we went to First Methodist, University Christian, and a handful of Episcopal churches in the greater Austin area.

In 2004, feeling lost and not really knowing what to do I decided to go to church. But, I didn’t want to go to a church that knew me as a couple. I just wanted to go to a place, to sit, and be quiet. That’s how I chose Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Austin, TX and that’s when I first saw and heard Pastor Jim.

I don’t remember much from that day but I do remember one part so vividly and clearly. Near the end of the sermon Pastor Jim mentioned that he sensed someone was in pain and hurting that morning. He wasn’t sure who it was but he wanted them to know that God was here for them. Now, for the unbeliever or those that have never had such an experience, this might sound trite. For me, however, this was the hope I needed. It literally reconnected me with my creator and I felt the love and the presence of God wash over me. It gave me the strength to endure the process of divorce and months of professional counseling. It opened my heart so that in late December 2005, I married my lovely wife and that led to the birth of our beautiful baby boy in May of 2008. Both my wedding and my son’s dedication took place in Central Christian Church and Pastor Jim was part of both those blessed events. In fact, here’s a bit of trivia, the photo of Pastor Jim that was on Central’s website for the past few years on the staff page was taken while he was reading from the Bible during my wedding. I am posting that photo at the top of this blog entry as it soon will be leaving the church’s website.

That moment when I felt God’s presence in 2004 also encouraged me to reaffirm and become active in the congregation. I have taught Sunday School, served on the Board, served as a deacon, served as an elder, preached, and am currently chairing our Pastoral Search Committee. Being a leader at Central is not always easy. In fact, recently there have been some challenges. However, going back to that moment in time in 2004 when I felt the love of God wash over me, I am strengthened enough to face those challenges and do what is right, no matter how difficult the path may be.

So after this coming Sunday, Dr. James W. Van Meter, Jr. will no longer be my pastor but Jim will always be my friend. For allowing God to use him as an instrument to touch my life, I am eternally grateful and can think of no greater compliment than to let him and others know how his actions so positively affected my life. Thus this blog entry, please feel free to share.

Peace,
James

"In the Flesh" (John 6:51-58)

2009-08-16T14:51:00.003-05:00

The following is a transcript of a sermon, "In the Flesh", that I preached 16 August 2009 @ Central Christian Church in Austin, Texas....

Today’s Gospel reading caused me to remember a time back in the early 1990’s when I was still a student in graduate school and I was visiting my parents for the weekend in their small town in central Louisiana. As usual, I attended Sunday morning services with them. This Sunday their church would be celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Unlike our church, my parents are Baptist and they don’t necessarily celebrate the Lord’s Supper each Sunday. In fact, at their particular church, they only observed Communion four times a year. Knowing that, you’d think it might be a special occasion. Unfortunately, just the opposite happened. For you see, the kind sweet woman who was in charge of making sure there would be grape juice and bread, well, she forgot and being a very rural community there were no nearby stores open on a Sunday morning. Being the resourceful folk they were, they did manage to improvise. Someone found some very old very stale crackers in the very back of the pantry and they broke them into the tiniest of pieces. Then, someone found a package of grape Kool-Aid drink mix, but no sugar.

Now, I knew none of this. So, at the end of the worship service, as I deftly avoided chipping a tooth on the cracker while at the same time trying to figure out the composition of this strange tasteless purple liquid that was sitting in my mouth, my face contorted to express a mixture of wonderment and confusion. My mother, sitting next to me, noticed my confusion and gave me “the look”. The look that only mothers can give and very quietly yet very firmly told me “just drink your Jesus and be quiet.”

As I’ve told this story over the years, I am amazed by how people are always taken aback by the crudeness of my mother’s statement. But it is just this kind of plain, in your face language that Jesus uses in today’s Gospel lesson. When referring to eating the bread of heaven, the Greek word used by the writer of the Gospel of John is “esthio” – a very common, refined way to refer to the consumption of food. However, in verse 53, where we find once again the English word “eat”, the writer of John used a different Greek word. The word he used was “trogo”. Trogo is a less common word and usually refers to what cattle would do with feed. Trogo is an onomatopoetic word. Onomatopoetic words are words that sound like the concept they are trying to define. Two common examples in English are “swish” and “boom”. As they are being said, we think of the sounds the words make. So, imagine if you are in the audience and you are listening to Jesus and you just heard him say that you are going to have to TROGO his flesh and drink his blood.

To me, these are disturbing thoughts. In fact, to step back a bit and be completely honest, when I hear someone on radio, television, or even in person extolling the life of Jesus they will often say, “just read the Bible, it’s so plain and simple” or “everything I read just makes me feel good.” Well, I just scratch my head. Exactly what Bible are they reading? Excuse me but this is some challenging stuff.

But you know what? I think it’s supposed to be. I think Jesus intentionally uses language to get our attention. He wants to shake us out of our complacency and he certainly doesn’t want his message to be plain and predictable.

He also wants the message to be memorable. Think about it, the earliest Gospel was not written until several years after the death and resurrection. The Gospel of John, around 70 years after Jesus walked the Earth. However, the message and words of Jesus were remembered and I think one of the reasons they were remembered so vividly is the, for better words, shock value that they provide.

And like most great religious texts, today’s Gospel reading is layered with multiple meanings both literal and symbolic.

First, the narrative, or what is going on here. The Gospel of John, chapter 6 opens with the story of the feeding of the five thousand from two fish and five loaves of barley. The next day, the crowd keeps following Jesus. We get the impression that some of these folk are following just because they are expecting a free meal. Jesus then begins to teach the crowd to not pursue the bread that perishes but to seek the bread the gives eternal life. The bread of life, if you will. However, as mentioned in verse 66, after Jesus starts talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, he loses a lot of these followers. So, a large part of the meaning of the sixth chapter of John is the narrative of a large group of folk following Jesus because they expect one thing. Then after hearing something that is unexpected a large number of those folk just go away.

To me, the narrative is at the core of why I titled the sermon “In the Flesh”. In fact, I think the entire Gospel of John could be subtitled, “In the Flesh”. For it’s the Gospel of John that time and time again reminds us that the Word has become flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus was not just some kind of spirit that floated around but was actual flesh and blood. Likewise, to be a Christian is not just some idealistic goal. Jesus confronts us in real, physical ways; ways that aren’t always comforting and are often quite challenging.

A second layer of meaning in our reading is the imagery and references to stories from the Old Testament. To understand what is going on, one must know the story of the manna in the wilderness. Of how the people of God were brought up out of slavery and, as part of their long journey, were given sustenance by God the Father in the form of bread from heaven. Then, Jesus is able to take that story and by analogy, explain how he is the living bread sent from God the Father.

By the way, Exodus is not the only Old Testament reference to God providing food for his people. In our reading from the Psalms this morning we heard that “He provides food for those who fear him, …” So, as is true in most of the New Testament, a deep and meaningful understanding of Old Testament scripture is essential if we wish to have a complete contextual understanding of what we are reading in the New Testament.

There are many more layers of meaning to our Gospel reading that I could discuss but I’d like to talk about just one more, namely the Eucharistic implications of the text. First, so there isn’t confusion, when I use the words Eucharist, Communion, and the Lord’s Supper, I’m referring to the same thing. I’m referring to the part of a Christian worship service where participants drink the juice of the vine and eat the bread as directed by Jesus on the night before he was betrayed.

To me, what is interesting about the Eucharistic meaning of today’s Gospel reading is that, in narrative context, it appears no where near the time of the Last Supper. In fact, of the four gospels, John is the only Gospel that doesn’t have a narrative account of the Lord’s Supper. However, the imagery and message are clearly present here in this, the sixth chapter of John. So, while the primary meaning of our reading is not about the Eucharist, it’s Eucharist overtones are undeniable.

So, does this mean that we should apply the concept of “trogo” when we take the Lord’s Supper? Should we really think we are munching on the flesh of Jesus? Paschasius Radbertus thought we should. Paschasius Radbertus lived in the 9th century and resided in the monestary at Corbie. When referring to John 6:53 and it’s implications to the Eucharist, Paschasius Radbertus wrote “There he is certainly speaking about nothing other than the true flesh and the true blood.”

In contrast, Ratramnus, another 9th century monk at Corbie wrote “… it is clear that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ in a figurative sense.” Now, to be clear, both monks certainly wrote that the Eucharistic elements were the body and blood of Christ but they apparently disagreed about the way in which the elements were the blood and body of Christ.

These two men have been quoted through the ages and their writings have been used, or in my opinion misused, to theologically bruise and batter fellow Christians for a long time. But, I mention these two Today for a different reason. For a reason that doesn’t get a lot of discussion or thought. And it’s a simple thought – while Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus certainly disagreed on the physical nature of the Eucharist they were both monks in the same place at the same time and, in all likelihood, they worshiped together. They both took Communion at the same time. They worshipped the same Lord. They both received the bread of life.

This concept of being able to worship together, to take the Lord’s Supper together, while still holding various doctrinal beliefs is to me the heart and soul of our church. What we believe is most important is that Christ invites us to his table and we share with one another. And we go further than that. We believe that Christ invites everyone, not just members of our Church, not just members of our denomination, but anyone that serves Jesus as their Lord and Savior is invited and welcome to partake of the living bread that came down from heaven.

So, as I conclude, I’d like to ask you: How do you experience Jesus as the living bread of heaven? How does the reality of Christ impact you? I don’t want you to tell me these answers but I do challenge you to ask yourself these questions and reflect upon your answers. I am here to simply proclaim the Word. You, individually, have to decide whether or not you are going to eat it.

Imitating God (Ephesians 5:1)

2009-08-09T18:28:00.003-05:00

The following is a transcript of a sermon, "Imitating God", that I preached 09 August 2009 @ Central Christian Church in Austin, Texas....

The title of this morning’s message is taken from our reading from Ephesians. Specifically, I want us to examine the first verse of the fifth chapter where the writer instructs the readers to be “imitators of God”.

“imitators of God”

These are three English words that pack a wallop. So much so that some English translations of the Bible choose different ways to translate the phrase that serve to soften the blow of this extraordinary command.

The Authorized Version of 1611 says, “Be ye therefore followers of God”, the New Jerusalem Bible translation instructs us to “take him as your pattern”, and Today’s NIV goes “follow God’s example.”

However, most modern English translations use the English word “imitators” as a translation of the Greek word “mimetes” found in the original text of Ephesians. Mimetes, by the way, is very similar in derivation to the English word “mimic.” So, it would seem that the author of Ephesians truly is asking the reader to mimic or be an imitator of God.

In his commentary on the book of Ephesians, James Boice writes “it is the only place in the Bible where these words occur and what makes them so startling is that they point to a standard beyond which there is no other.” Others concur.

Noted 19th century preacher Alexander MacLaren calls Ephesians 5:1 “the sum of all duty.” William Barclay declares it to be “the highest standard in the world” and Martin Lloyd Jones calls it “Paul’s supreme argument … the highest level of all doctrine and in practice … the ultimate ideal.”

All of this sounds great but there is a problem. How do we, as mere humans, imitate God? It’s not that God is merely some degree better or greater than we are but God is something completely different than we are.

For example, let’s say I want to be a great basketball player so I decide to imitate LeBron James. Now, we all know I would never be as good a basketball player as LeBron James. However, no matter how outstanding his basketball skills are, and they are amazing, LeBron James is no deity. LeBron James and I are both humans with two legs, two arms, two eyes, etc… and there is at least a conceptual framework upon which to base an imitation.

But God? How would I even begin to frame an idea of how to compare myself to God? I don’t even think I can use the same words.

And I’m not alone in this concern. Over 700 years ago in Summa Theologia, Thomas Aquinas wrote that we must say “nomino dictunur de Deo et creaturis secundum analogiam”. For those of you who may be a little rusty on your Latin, the English translation is “words are used of God and creatures according to an analogy.” Meaning, a word used as an adjective for humans may be the same word we use as an adjective for God BUT because God is so completely different from human beings the adjectives can only be said to be similar in an analogous fashion. They aren’t and can’t have the same literal meaning.

To take this one step further and to reveal a little of James McGuffee’s theological ponderings; this problem of the conceptual difference between myself and God is so personally striking that I have trouble answering the seemingly straightforward question “Do you believe God exists?” Now, I would guess that, reflexively, most Christians would respond without hesitation that yes, they believe that God exists.

But for me, it’s not that easy. For starters, just trying to determine whether or not I exist is an intellectual challenge. But I can and do have help with this and by reading and pondering the works of Descartes I can at least reasonably assert that yes, I do in fact exist.

But, I exist in a specific and particular type of way. My existence appears to be bound by unidirectional temporal mechanics (in other words, I perceive time in a linear fashion). Also, there was a time when I, in fact, did not exist.

God has none of these limitations and to try and say that God exists in the same way I exist, well it’s very confusing and fraught with many philosophical problems. The best response I can give to the question of “Do you believe God exists?” is to simply affirm that I believe that “God is what God is.”

Now, back to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1. Given all of these problems, how are we to ever figure out how to imitate God? If only we had some kind of theological Rosetta Stone to help us decipher this mystery. Fortunately, as Christians we have such assistance. Namely, the incarnation of Jesus the Christ is our guide to understanding what it means to be imitators of God. In fact, the second verse of chapter five puts it plainly “and live in love, as Christ loved us…”

It is through the words and actions of Jesus that we learn what it means to be godlike. Not merely following a set of rules given by a distant, abstract being but understanding that we are made in the image of God and through love try to emulate our creator.

When we read of Jesus caring for the sick, we learn what it means to imitate God. When we hear how Jesus socialized and interacted with the outcasts of society, we learn what it means to imitate God. When Jesus teaches us through his many parables, we learn what it means to imitate God. When we remember Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we learn what it means to imitate God.

But, you may ask, is this really different than simply following God’s law? Wouldn’t it be okay if we just simply did what God told us to do? Isn’t that good enough?

I think there is a big difference in these two approaches. Let me try and illustrate with an example.

Suppose one day as I was leaving for work, Mrs. McGuffee asks, as she often does, “What are your plans for the day?” and my response was “My plan for the day is to try my best to not commit adultery.” Now, that’s a sound Biblical answer. In fact, I am positively asserting that it is my intention to obey one of the Ten Commandments. This is a good thing. Right?

Let me try again.

Suppose the response to my wife’s question was “I’m not exactly sure of all the things I’ll be doing today but I want you to know that I love you and will be thinking about you all day.”

The differences in the two responses are clear. The first response demonstrates a legalistic understanding of my obligation as a husband. The second response shows a deeper understanding of the nature and importance of my marriage relationship.

To me, shifting our focus from worrying about what not to do to a more positive approach of imitating God and emulating the love of Christ is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. Jesus the Christ moves us away from a legalistic fear of God and transforms our religion into a loving relationship with our creator.

When I was five years old and first learning how to ride a bike I remember that my Dad installed training wheels. These were two smaller wheels attached to either side of the main back wheel. The purpose of the training wheels were to keep me from falling if I tilted too far to the left or too far to the right. After a time, when I was ready, my Dad removed those training wheels.

To me, the laws of the Old Testament are like training wheels. They are suitable for instruction BUT to be more evolved in our relationship with God we need to live and act in love as imitators of God.

And make no mistake about it. Removing those training wheels doesn’t mean we are free to sin. If I tilt too far to the left or too far to the right, I’m going to crash and it’s going to hurt and it’s going to be painful. It’s just that now, without the training wheels, my focus is not on “how to not make a mistake” but my focus is on riding the bike to the best of my ability. And you know what? Riding a bike without training wheels is a lot of fun.

And so it is with being a Christian. By imitating God we are moving beyond the ordinary. We are striving to be greater than ourselves. We are living in love, as Christ loves us.

AMEN.

Summertime and the Living is Easy

2009-05-25T01:31:00.004-05:00

Just a quick post to show a new set of photos from Gage at 11 months.

After the rain

2009-03-27T23:07:00.003-05:00

After the rain on Friday morning the sun came out and the little one went for a stroll. The sun was bright so he needed to wear his cap!

What's new in March

2009-03-15T19:27:00.003-05:00

Lots going on in our household.

Old Navy is "restructuring" and Lynn will no longer be an Old Navy employee after March 28, 2009. We are trying to figure out what we are going to do as a family. Right now we are leaning toward Lynn being a SAHM (stay-at-home mom) and maybe a part-time grad student.

Gage is now on his fourth prescription for a recurring ear infection in his right ear. Poor boy. At least Gage still looks great in his latest photo shoot.

Here's two composite pics for you to see. If you want to see more, you need to become a Facebook friend of Lynn and/or James.

James and Lynn @ Mardi Gras Dinner

2009-02-21T23:57:00.005-06:00

Camera phone pics in a dimly lit room. Yes, we are wearing masks.

8 Month Pics

2009-02-07T16:24:00.003-06:00

So, this woman in a mini-van backed into my truck the other day when I was picking up these pics so I'm not sure how I feel about the whole JC Penney studio pic thing anymore. However, I still love the pics.

Just Hanging Out

2009-01-19T18:14:00.001-06:00

Reading a book last week in Louisiana

2009-01-11T17:19:00.002-06:00

Driving Home

2009-01-01T00:47:00.004-06:00

Just a quick post to show you a pic I took of Gage when he was all strapped in his car seat. He seemed genuinely happy to see me.

Wedding Anniversary (28 DEC 2008)

2008-12-29T02:42:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was our 3rd year anniversary. The maternal grandparents were in town and happily agreed to sit with the spawn while we went on a movie and dinner date.

The movie we saw was "Slumdog Millionaire". It was very good. Here's the trailer...

After the movie we drove downtown and had a wonderful meal at Truluck's. We started with calamari that included pieces of fried jalapenos and lemons - it is Texas after all. My wife had the chicken and rosemary potatoes (not the adventurous seafood lover). I had the shrimp and grits. Oh the irony in calling the delicious seafood I had "shrimp". These critters were HUGE. My wife ended with an enormous slice of carrot cake and coffee while I had a delicous cup of white orchid tea.

Before sending the grandparents home we ended the evening with a brisk walk around the block - to help with the digestion of such a wonderful meal.

Christmas of Hate and Fear

2008-12-26T23:40:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, Christmas Day 2008, I was involved in a family incident that still bothers me. I was confronted with the knowledge that real and true evil still exists in this world. This is not an evil like that of Bruce Jeffrey Pardo and the madness of his Christmas Eve acts of destruction. In some ways, this evil is worse because this evil is so passively accepted and tolerated. People that perpetrate this evil are excused with such comments as “oh, that’s just the way some people think” or something similar.

The evil that I am writing about is ignorant racism. On Christmas afternoon I angrily stormed out of a family gathering after one of my wife’s cousins used the “N” word multiple times referring to President-Elect Obama (including the phrase “he’s a f***ing N*****”). The blatant use of this hate speech really threw me for a loop. I guess I may have been blinded because, after the election, I had naively assumed that we were in a post-racial America. And when I say “threw me for a loop”, I’m not exaggerating. I physically reacted with anger. I threw down the plate of food I was eating, called my wife’s cousin a “f***ing racist”, stormed out of my wife’s aunt’s house, and shook with anger for more than an hour.

I need to publicly thank my wife for very calmly gathering our things (including our precious son) while I “stewed” in the front yard. My father-in-law tried to be a “peace maker” but really only made things worse by trying to tell me it would be okay. I’m sorry but it’s not okay and it never will be okay to use hate speech around me and especially not around my child.

But, I need to learn to be more patient. I need to channel the love of Dr. King and attack hatred with love. And THAT is going to be my new years resolution.

I will not sit quietly in the room. I will not tolerate your racism. I will not let you attack the President-Elect with hate speech. BUT, I will not attack you back with hate. I will love you and will continue to love you. By the grace of God, may this be true.

To this end, I found a really great resource on the web and wish to share. It’s an education page from Tolerance.org (a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center). Check it out, it has some really good information --> RESPONDING TO OBAMA: America at the Extremes.

Thank you for reading, may we all have a blessed and prosperous new year and remember that I love you.

P.S. In case my mommy is reading this. Yes, I did send my wife’s aunt an apology note for throwing her delicious food down and storming out. I almost signed the note “Elmer Gene” but I don’t think anyone would have had any idea what I meant.

Hanging out on Friday night

2008-12-20T00:19:00.001-06:00

Gage and Dad looking at Dad's new camera phone!

Gage and his cousin playing

2008-12-14T23:05:00.004-06:00

On Thanksgiving day, the family drove down to Shiner to visit Lynn's brother. Gage spent some time playing with his cousin (born two weeks after Gage). Yeah, that sounds all sweet and nice now but you should have been with the family last Christmas with two pregnant women running around - oy vey!

Family Christmas Photo Time - 2008

2008-11-24T20:20:00.003-06:00

Honoring Woodson and all other Veterans

2008-11-11T16:42:00.004-06:00

Today, November 11, 2008, is Veteran's Day. For those of you that don't know, each and every time I sign my name I am reminded of one special World War II veteran.

My grandfather, Harry Stanley McGuffee, served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He had a friend that served with him. His friend's name was Woodson. In fact, this man made such an impact that when my grandfather had his first son, he named him Harry Woodson McGuffee in honor of his fellow marine.

I'm proud to say that this tradition of honor has now carried forward three generations. Both my son and I proudly have the name "Woodson" as our middle name. So, in honor of the brave service of my grandfather, Woodson, and all that have served our country, I am grateful and I remember and honor your service on this very special day.

image source: http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/photoessay%5C2006-11%5Chires_060911-D-7203T-010.JPG
(used with permission)

Gage @ 5 months (31 October 2008)

2008-11-04T23:31:00.002-06:00

Halloween Costume Preview

2008-10-26T19:55:00.002-05:00

So, what will my son be dressed as this year? If you guessed "sale costume from Old Navy" then you are correct!

btw, the infant red dragon costumes were on sale.

Gage @ 4 months (29 September 2008)

2008-10-12T00:13:00.007-05:00

First Day @ Day Care

2008-09-30T16:23:00.003-05:00

Our little boy spent his first few hours without Mommy in the comfort of day care as Lynn went back to work. Here's a pic of the little guy after a full morning...

Gage @ 3 months (29 August 2008)

2008-09-11T02:53:00.002-05:00

@ Lone Star Ruby Conference

2008-09-06T19:59:00.004-05:00

Thursday night (04 SEP 2008) through tonight (06 SEP 2008), I have been attending the 2008 Lone Star Ruby Conference. I even gave a brief presentation on Saturday afternoon (see the pics). It has been a great experience to hear and be around various folk in the Ruby community. Another nice benefit is that for three days I have NOT been the nerdiest guy in the room.

I've also met several employers that may have intern opportunities for computer science students at St. Edward's University. I also met a nice man from Baltimore that showed me a really nice genex Ruby web-site (it's okay if you don't know what that means). I learned of a nice Ruby "gem", NARRAY. I also met and heard a keynote presentation from the creator of the Ruby programming language --> Yukihiro Matsumoto

Right now I am listening to the final panel and they are discussing Ruby in Cocoa. Bonus points if you know what that means.

Gage @ 2 months (30 July 2008)

2008-08-10T14:39:00.005-05:00

Gage's Baptism & Other Pics

2008-07-27T17:34:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Aunt Glenda for sending us these digital photos...

During the ceremony. Godparents Craig and Glenda are scared because Fr. Joe is quizzing them and they didn't know there would be a test.

Gage letting Fr. Joe know that he's not entirely happy about the whole wet head thing.

Parents, Godparents, Grandparents, and Holy Cross Priest surround Gage in Christian love.

Grandma Barta holds Gage during cousin Brodie's baptism ceremony.

Lynn and Gage in church.

Lynn and Gage at home.

Chillin' with Aunt Glenda.

Daddy helps Gage use PoPo Barta as a horsey.

The McGuffees riding on the river.

_______________________________________________________________

It's my birthday

2008-07-08T21:27:00.002-05:00

Today is my birthday and this is the first one with no cake. That's a good thing though (being a diabetic and all). I did have some lovely sugar free jello with strawberries.

So, my sister posted the pic on the right to her Facebook account. Cute, wasn't I?

5 Weeks Old

2008-07-08T00:40:00.004-05:00

Here's a sample of some shots taken on July 1st...

New Glasses

2008-07-01T20:52:00.004-05:00

Last week my new glasses came in. My prescription has not changed but it had been two years since I had bought new glasses. Since I lost quite a bit of weight over the past year, the old ones were getting kind of loose.

I got two pairs. The one pictured is the transitional lenses (i.e. they turn to shades in sunlight). My other pair is fashionable titanium. The lenses on both pairs are significantly smaller than the previous pair.

Why people vote Republican...

2008-06-23T01:47:00.000-05:00

Visitors

2008-06-17T00:07:00.003-05:00

This week my parents, sister, and her three children are visiting Gage. On Monday night, after my ACC Board meeting, I took my nephews and niece out for ice cream at Amy's. I think we have the new photo for their next ad campaign!

Progress

2008-06-11T01:42:00.002-05:00

check it out --> A Pragmatic Guide To Programming Languages

Stylin' and Profilin'

2008-06-09T14:52:00.001-05:00

Sunday Nap

2008-06-08T17:50:00.002-05:00

pics from a Lazy Thursday

2008-06-06T02:26:00.001-05:00

2008-06-03T21:01:00.002-05:00

Less than six days ago (6:00pm on Wednesday May 28th) Lynn and I entered the South Austin Hospital. Near 8:00pm, her water broke. The contractions were intense. Her whole body shook. Five hours later she complained of intense pressure. In less than thirty minutes of pushing, our son was born.

I watched the entire birth. I always knew I would be in the room but had assumed the details would be too overwhelming and I would just concentrate on Lynn’s face. But nope, I saw every medical detail. It was miraculous. Lynn, however, is/was still too squeamish. She refused to have them place a mirror. So, I will always have the honor of having seen Gage first.

After the birth, he was weighed and checked and then left in the labor and delivery room with us for an hour. Then Gage was shipped to the nursery for a more formal check-up. As the father, I was able to follow him in the nursery. I didn’t want my son to be alone. I watched the nurse bathe him and check him over.

When we returned to Mommy, we moved to another room in the Women’s Center. There we stayed for the next two and a half days. Those days are a sleep-deprived blur. In fact today is the first day I don’t feel completely exhausted. I’m not complaining, just stating a fact.

On Monday morning, Gage went to his regular doctor for the first time. All is well. Our next visit will be his two-week check-up. His pees and poops are wonderful and he is eating well (about every two hours).

People are welcome to visit but please call first. If you are sick or if you have sick kids, we ask that you don’t visit right now. Our son needs a few weeks before he can build up any type of reasonable immunity system.

Also, feel free to bring healthy food and share a meal with us. Be prepared to hang out and chat with me if Gage is hungry. Mommy is a bit modest and we want to help her out.

Okay, now it’s time for me to get back to work. This summer I am writing an on-line text. This work is funded by a St. Edward’s University presidential excellence grant. My next blog may be about this work. So be prepared to “nerd it up” if you wish to keep reading this blog.

More Pics

2008-06-03T14:18:00.005-05:00

I had intended to write a blog about my feelings of fatherhood but I've received a few angry e-mails asking for more photos. So, before I spend the time writing my feelings, let me show you some pics...

Gage in the Hospital

When I came home for a few hours on Friday night, Lynn picture mailed me this photo of my sleeping son.

After a Bath

On Monday night, while I was attending the ACC Board meeting, Gage had his first bath at home. This is the newly cleaned baby boy.

A few more pics

2008-05-30T02:36:00.002-05:00

The chair in Lynn's hospital room is intolerably cruel. However, my pain is your gain. I've come home for a couple of hours to take a nap. Taking a few minutes to upload a few more pics. enjoy...

Gage Woodson McGuffee

2008-05-29T07:41:00.003-05:00

29 May 2008, 03:27 CDT

7 lbs. 12 oz., 21 inches

Continuance of Pain

2008-05-28T13:08:00.003-05:00

Lynn had a regularly scheduled appointment to see her obstetrician today around lunchtime. Lynn is still having labor pains every eight to ten minutes. She is a little bit further along BUT just a little bit.

Lynn's doctor wants her to come back in Friday to see her again. Something could happen before then but it is appearing more and more that Lynn is one of the lucky few women that get to endure prolonged and long suffering labor.

The baby's heart rate was checked again over a period of time (see pic on the left). Apparently our son is very content where he is.

Check back later...

@ OB/GYN's office - Tuesday Morning & Tuesday Afternoon

2008-05-27T16:00:00.001-05:00

Lynn called her doctor's office this morning and we went in and were there from 9:00am-10:15am. Labor has definitely started but could last a long time (i.e. days). We are just in the very first phase of labor.

They hooked Lynn up to a fetal heart monitor to check the baby's response during contractions. Everything is fine. To the right, you can see what Lynn looked like all hooked up.

If contractions continue at this intensity (or greater) the doctor wants us back in her office between 2 and 3 pm today.

Afternoon Update: We went to the office @ 3pm and not much has changed. So, we are back home and the Doc wants Lynn to try and get some sleep. To help, she has prescribed some medication that should help her sleep but won't hurt the baby.

Again, I can't stress this enough, everything looks fine. Biological processes can just take some time. If there is more news, we'll post it here. Don't be surprised if there aren't any updates before late Wednesday afternoon.

Memorial (not Labor) Day

2008-05-26T18:07:00.004-05:00

This morning around 3:30am, Lynn was complaining of severe pains. However, after a bite to eat she was able to go back to sleep. One thing the obstetrician has made clear: if Lynn can sleep, it's not yet time to go to the hospital. The pic on the left was taken at 6:00pm this evening. Lynn is taking a nap with Posie. So yet we wait...

We did go walking around the block this morning. We also went shopping at Target around 3:30pm. Lynn continues to have pains but at intervals greater than five minutes apart.

We are still a couple of days from the "official" due date. Gage will be born when he's ready. We'll keep you posted right here.

Peace and Love - The McGuffees

Bothered by Hagee

2008-05-24T00:34:00.003-05:00

For many years I've been a late night television viewer. I'm not referring to traditional network television fare that puts you to sleep by 11:30 or midnight. No, I'm referring to the wee hours of the morning on small tucked away cable channels where the crazies come out. This is how I first learned of Pastor John Hagee. That's right, I've heard a few sermons from this man and I'm finding it very hard to swallow John McCain's assertions that he didn't know about Hagee's controversial views.

Hagee is many things but subtle he ain't. Just listen to a few minutes of any of his sermons and you know his point of view. If you aren't familiar with Hagee and want a pretty good primer, I would suggest the fine article by Daniel Benjamin, "The Devil's in the Details" published on the web-based daily magazine Slate.

What bothers me personally about Hagee (and ministers of his ilk) is their overly simplistic explanations of God and world events. His smug assertion that he knows the truth and that this "truth" is so simple is so very annoying. His claim that he personally knows the will and purpose of God; that's blasphemy and he should be called on the carpet for it.

The fact that thousands of people flock to this man's church every week and believe in the pablum that flows from this guy's mouth; well that just makes me sad. Really sad.

Another Day, Another Limb (plus baby updates)

2008-05-22T09:34:00.004-05:00

We awoke this morning to the loud barking of the creature (i.e. our little dog Posie). When I went to let her outside for her morning ritual of the backyard cleansing of squirrels and birds, I noticed that another large limb had fallen from the sky. Well, this one was not quite as big as last weeks and there were no leaves so I'm suspecting it was an old, dead limb.

While I was doing the work of chopping it up and clearing it out of the backyard the city inspector arrived and I am pleased to announce that our brand new patio cover is now "city approved".

Lynn wants everyone to know that she's in a lot of pain (not quite yet go to the hospital pain) with back-aches and other things that are symptomatic of an impending birth. She is still planning on going to work today 1pm-10pm but that may be subject to change.

Remember, you can always check here for the most up to date information. Please, when we do go to the hospital don't inundate us with calls. Just check here on the blog - thanks.

Finally, you may have noticed that this blog now has Google ads at the bottom. It's from Google's AdSense and, apparently, if enough people click on the ads I make a small amount of money. The way it works is that Google scans this page for text and posts supposedly relevant ads. To that end, I'm going to post some phrases here to see what comes up. Other than that random silliness, there is nothing left to read in this blog:

Baby Gifts
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
Chilean Sea Bass
Chocolate

The infamous Pittsburgh tale

2008-05-21T13:25:00.005-05:00

PITTSBURGH

A Tale of
Lust and Insanity
inspired
by the Internet

In the Fall of 1991 I was a pioneer in electronic flirting. I was one of the first human beings to lustfully communicate via the Internet. This may not seem all that special to you today but consider, the world wide web as we know it wouldn't even begin to take shape until late 1993. No, my communication was not filled with sounds, video, or even cute little icons. There were no pictures or graphics of any kind. The only tool at my disposal - a simple little thing known as a MUD.

A MUD is a text-only interactive database program. I would login to the MUD and my screen would fill with text describing the "room". If someone was logged in at the same time and we were both in the same room, we could "chat". This is how I met Diamond and that is how I ended up in Pittsburgh.

The sad thing is, I don't even remember her name. All I remember is her login screen name – Diamond. I was a 21 year-old computer science graduate student. She was a 19 year-old sophomore at Allegheny College (a small liberal-arts school located about 90 miles north of Pittsburgh). For months we would chat online. We thought we were in love but alas, in retrospect, it was pure lust. Actually, it may not have even been lust, it's entirely possible it was curiosity. Thank goodness I'm not a cat.

As winter turned to spring, we came up with the idea that I would fly to Pittsburgh (where her mother and grandmother lived) and visit with her during Spring Break. Somehow I managed to scrape together enough money to pay for the trip. My parents lived in Alabama at the time and my Dad agreed to drive me to the Montgomery airport. This was actually kind of tough for my Dad. You see, he's still a little bit racist and well, Diamond was a little bit black. Okay, she was a lot black. This bothered my Dad. Me? I was just happy that a woman would talk to me.

For me, this was my very first time to… fly in a commercial airplane. That's right, I had lived over 21 years on this planet before I flew on my first commercial airline flight. I was a virgin in more ways than one. There were two parts to the flight: a short hop from Montgomery to Atlanta followed by a longer flight from Atlanta to Pittsburgh. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful. There were very few people on the plane. The flight to Pittsburgh was different. There was not a single empty seat on the plane. I was trying to get comfortable in my window-view seat when the scariest person I had ever seen sat down next to me. He was in his thirties, bald with a goatee. He was covered in tattoos on most every surface of his body. Large spiked earrings hung from his ears. He was also wearing white shorts and a Hawaiian style shirt. I thought that the devil incarnate had decided to be my travelling companion. I tried to hug the window as we took off and prayed that, somehow, I would live through this experience. About halfway through the ordeal I was a little more relaxed and noticed that some folk in the cabin had their seat reclined. I deduced that it must be the button by my left hand. I pushed the button. Nothing happened. I pushed it again. At this point Satan's hand collapsed on mine and I heard the booming voice say in controlled anger, "That's my button, yours is on the right". Good lord, I was certain to die.

The next thing I remember is splashing water on my face in the bathroom of the Pittsburgh airport. Somehow I had lived but then I realized why I was there and I began to worry that maybe the worst was yet to come. I could not have been more correct.

I took the courtesy shuttle to the rental car place. There I met Diamond in person. For some reason she had driven out to the airport and made me rent a car. It turns out she only had use of the car for a few hours so I would need to drive the rented car for the next few days. I'm still not sure why she met me at the airport and didn't just give me directions to her home in Pittsburgh (actually quite a distance from the airport). However, seeing as how I had just flown across country to meet a woman I had met on the Internet, I was in no shape to enforce logic on the situation.

I was lodging at a motel near the airport so we stopped off there first to drop off my luggage. Once inside the room it dawned on me. Good lord, I'm alone in a room with an actual live woman. I'm not just typing words on the Internet, she's actually here. We sat on the edge of the bed, she held my hands, looked up at me and spoke. "James, I shore am hongry!"

This was it. All my desperate worries about dying a virgin were about to be wiped clean. She was hungry and I had just the man meat to satisfy her. Just one problem, as I clumsily found out, she wasn't "hongry" for McGuffee. She was "hongry" for some french fries. That's right, as I sped along the freeway trying to keep up with her as she raced to her favorite downtown Wendy's, my mind was in a complete and utter fog.

The next few days are pretty much a blur. Oh, I did go to a Pirates game, worship at a strange church, had my fingers smashed in a car door outside the Science Museum, saw the movie "The Lawnmower Man", watched as two women gleefully stole a bottle of mustard from a Chili's restaurant and was almost car-jacked. However, none of this compared to the scariest conversation of my life. The conversation came right after we had visited Diamond's grandmother in the hospital. Apparently, my good manners and charm must have had some powerful effect. For on the drive back, Diamond told me…

"James, I just want to let you know that I come from the poor ghetto but all my life I have fought for things that I want and I want you and I am going to fight to have you and to marry you. You are going to be my ticket out of the ghetto and I'm going to have it because I always get what I want."

If I remember correctly, I sat in stunned silence for a good long time. Her speech woke me out of the Internet induced mental haze that I had been in. I realized that she and I were both absolutely crazy. I vowed then and there to try and make a return to sanity. I vaguely remember saying something like "well, sometimes things don't always work out the way you envision they will. You just have to wait and see." The truth is, I was just trying to bide my time to drop her off at her mother's and make it back to my home as quickly as possible.

…

Several months later I received a phone call from Diamond. "Guess what?" she asked. Before giving me a chance to ask she continued "My girlfriends and I are going to take a road-trip to Baton Rouge this summer."

"Okay," I replied warily "where are ya'll planning on staying?"

"Well I was thinking I would stay with you."

Before I had a chance to edit myself my mouth just enthusiastically uttered, "Think again!"

The phone went click and I never heard from her again.

Baby Photos & Tree Limb

2008-05-16T14:55:00.006-05:00

As soon as we can we will be posting pics of our baby here on this blog. However, the hospital we are using utilizes a professional baby photo service. I have no idea how good they are nor do I vouch for them in any way. However, when the time comes the wife and I will most likely be busy so let me go ahead and post the link for you now. The place is called WebNursery and here is their URL --> www.our365.com/newbornportraits/

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We had a pretty big storm two nights ago and according to the National Weather Service, Austin did not have tornadoes but did suffer some really strong straight force winds (40-60 MPH). The elm tree in our backyard lost a limb. You can see what it looks like by the camera phone pic on the right.

I called a tree service and they will remove the limb for only $300. However, if I chop this up myself and drag to the curb, the city of Austin will pick it up for free. Guess what I'm doing this afternoon?

Also, what the city does with the limb is mulch it up and turn it in to "Dillo Dirt" which is environmentally sensitive compost. So, a little effort on my part and I'll save money and help the environment. Someone needs to pat me on the back.

Latest Baby Sonogram Movie

2008-05-13T20:54:00.001-05:00

This sonogram was taken Tuesday, 06 MAY 2008.
Due date is 28 MAY 2008.

ACC Fire Academy Speech

2008-05-11T17:32:00.006-05:00

Last night, I was honored to give the commencement address for the 36th class of the ACC Fire Academy. I am posting the transcript of that speech on this blog.

I would like to thank Brette Lea, ACC's executive director of Public Information and College Marketing, for her assistance in the creation of this speech. All of the ACC facts and much of the excellent wording in the speech come from Ms. Lea. The "goofy remarks", questionable grammar, and any other mistakes that may appear - that's all me.

Commencement Address
36th Class of the ACC Fire Academy
Taylor High School
10 MAY 2008, 19:00

Good evening, on behalf of President Kinslow and the Board of Trustees of Austin Community College I bring you greetings and thanks for a job well done. This is a special occasion and it is my honor to be here today to celebrate you as future firefighters and graduates of the Austin Community College Fire Academy.

As the primary trainer of first responders in the region, Austin Community College is proud of the Fire Protection Technology program and the nearly 1,000 graduates who have trained here over the past 18 years and are serving as firefighters in communities throughout Central Texas.
However, before I get too serious, I’d like to start with a brief story that illustrates the willingness of firefighters to solve problems no matter what crisis might befall their way.
As the story goes, a couple of firefighters are out in the woods hunting when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. His friend and professional colleague whips out a cell phone and dials 9-1-1. He gasps to the operator: “I think my friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line and says: “OK, now what?"
It’s at this point that I think Dr. Kinslow may regret encouraging me to use my ~quote~ “irreverent sense of humor”. However, not everything in my life is a joke and there are a few things that I take very seriously.
One of the things that is important to me is my country and the pride I take in American accomplishments. In that spirit, I am proud to say that I stand here today at the nexus of two great American creations: Community College education and organized firefighting. In the 20th century after the World Wars, we, as a nation, began to evolve in our understanding of the need for post-High School education. No longer would higher education be accessible to only a few but all peoples in our great nation would have access to as much educational opportunity as they were able to put in the effort to complete. I am so proud of the community college system and specifically of Austin Community College. It is an honor to serve as one of your nine-elected Trustees.
And then there is organized fire fighting. The history of modern organized fire fighting can be traced back to 1736 when Benjamin Franklin organized Philadelphia’s Union Fire Company. Yes, that Ben Franklin. The founding father who was scientist, beer lover, and by most accounts, quite the ladies man. Should it come as a surprise that he was a firefighter as well?
And one doesn’t have to go back nearly 300 years to remember historically significant contributions made by firefighters in this country. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I remember waking up late – I’m a teacher at St. Edward’s University and that Tuesday my first class of the day was in the afternoon. I got up that morning and the first thing I did was check my e-mail messages. That’s how I first learned of the tragedy. I immediately turned on my television and saw an image that haunts me to this day. CBS news had a close-up shot of one of the towers and just as I turned the television on several people started jumping out of upper story windows. The channel zoomed out and Dan Rather quickly apologized. However, the image was there. An image of a tower in a fiery hell that people were going to leave, no matter what the cost. Well, as we learned, not everyone left. A few brave souls were actually entering the building. Those brave souls were fire fighters. Fire fighters doing what they were trained to. Making the ultimate sacrifice in order to try and save the lives of others.
Now, one might think that the acts of 9/11 were acts of bravery but it wasn’t just on that one day that the firefighters were brave. In 1908, Edward F. Crocker, the chief of the Fire Department of New York said “firefighting is a hazardous occupation; it is dangerous on the face of it, tackling a burning building. The risks are plain.... Consequently, when a man becomes a fireman, his act of bravery has already been accomplished.”
The Fire Academy’s vision is to develop professionals who provide our communities with emergency services for the 21st century. Their motto - “Desire to Serve, Ability to Perform, and Courage to Act” - sets the bar high.
Today, we honor the 29 cadets who leaped over that bar and who are now ready to take on the challenges of being a firefighter. For the past 16 weeks, you have trained hard, in the classroom and in the field. More than 600 hours of hard work have gone toward learning how to respond to emergencies, extinguish fires, contain hazardous materials, and save lives.
The classroom work challenged your mind, while the skill training was physically demanding. It wasn’t easy, but neither is the job.
You have received some of the best training available in the state, and because of that training and your experiences here, you will be singled out as leaders at fire departments and in your community.
When you leave here today and go to work at fire departments in Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown, Oak Hill, Del Valle, San Marcos… wherever you choose… men and women, girls and boys – and the occasional cat - will look up to you as a hero.
This class of cadets is no stranger to performing heroic duties. I’m told we have several here today who have served our country in the military overseas, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want to thank you for your service to the country and I am glad you have chosen to continue serving on the frontlines of our communities by becoming a firefighter.
You’re in good company. Some big names have served as firefighters over the years. In addition to the previously mentioned Benjamin Franklin; George Washington, Sam Adams (Founding Father, not the beer), John Hancock, and Paul Revere all served their country as firefighters.
I am proud to say that ACC provides more firefighters to our communities than any other organization, and I am proud of your accomplishments
I hope to never have a fire in my home, or get in a car accident that requires emergency services, but if I do, I am confident I will get the best service possible because of the positive influence this Academy has on firefighters in this region.
To Captain Terry Hill and the entire Fire Academy team, I say Congratulations. Your total 300 years worth of experience, combined with an unmatched dedication to excellence, has paid off big.
To the cadets, congratulations on successfully completing the ACC Fire Academy program and “thank you” for the vital contributions you are about to make to the citizens of Central Texas.

How I graduated from High School at the age of 14

2008-05-10T09:38:00.001-05:00

Note: This blog was written in May 2005 and originally posted on my MySpace page. I have copied the blog here in case anyone is interested.

20 Years Since High School Graduation

This past weekend I attended my 20th High School reunion. I was a member of the first class of the Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts. This school (created in 1983) was the first of its kind - a residential publicly funded High School for the academically gifted and artistically talented. If you want to learn more about my school you can check out the school's website, http://www.lsmsa.edu/.

As part of our reunion activities, the class of 1985 participated in this years graduation exercises. The guest speaker at the event was Dr. Robert Alost, the first executive director of the school. As part of his speech, he told my story (i.e. how does a 13 year old end up in the eleventh grade at the Louisiana School?). Well since he went public with the story and so many people often ask - how did you graduate at such a young age, I've decided to tell the story. So, here it is...

I was born in 1970, the oldest child of a Southern Baptist minister and a stay-at-home mom (who later got a degree in elementary education when I was 10). My Dad never stayed at any church for too long and as a consequence, we moved around a lot. Here's a summary:

birth - August 1970 Collingston, LA
1970 - 1972 Bastrop, LA
1972 - 1975 Oak Grove, LA
1975 - 1977 Liddieville, LA
1977 - 1980 Natchitoches, LA
1980 - 1982 Archilbald, LA
1982 - 1983 Marion, LA

Growing up I was a very smart child. If there was a gifted and talented program, I was in it. If there was an academic achievement test, I always scored in the 99 percentile. When I was in the seventh grade, I met a man that would change my life. His name, George Harmon Smith. Mr. Smith is an author (his book Bayou Boy was made into a film by Walt Disney). Mr. Smith was also the mayor of Marion when I lived there. As part of an extracurricular assignment, I interviewed George Harmon Smith. Mr. Smith was so impressed with me as a 12 year old that he asked my father if he could test my IQ. You see, Mr. Smith was also an educator and educational testing expert. Well, on one Saturday afternoon I was given those tests and, while I won't give you the numeric results, it was the highest of any person that George Harmon Smith has ever tested.

Okay, you following the story so far? I was 12 and had just been tested. When George Harmon Smith explains these results to my father, my Dad goes nuts. My Dad knew something was up (I mean I was the one that had been correcting the grammar in his sermons since I was 7), he just didn't know what to do. Mr. Smith gave my father some suggestions. I needed some kind of "advanced" educational opportunities. He mentioned that if I was just a bit older I should apply to that "new" school they were starting in Natchitoches (i.e. The Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts). The only problem, LSMSA was just going to be for 11th and 12th graders (I was in the seventh grade, remember).

Well, my Dad was pretty stubborn and he ended up having me apply to the Louisiana School. He personally visited Natchitoches and spoke with Bobby Alost. Bobby (aka Dr. Alost) thought my Dad was nuts. However, to deal with this crazy man, he told him to have me apply and they would consider my application. So, I took the SATs, I completed the essays, and went through the interview process. After this, Dr. Alost's staff came to him with a problem, "that McGuffee kid has made it through the selection process, what do we do now?". Well, in one last step they had me come to Natchitoches and take an eleventh grade achievement test and (even though I was only in the seventh grade) I scored in the 99th percentile.

To his credit, Dr. Alost took a chance on me. I'm not sure why he did it, it was kind of crazy. However, I thrived at the Louisiana School. Even though everyone was three years older than me AND these were the best and brightest in the state, I did well. I ended up graduating with honors (top 3rd of my class).

It wasn't always smooth and easy. For example, when it came time to graduate, I didn't have enough credits (see I skipped the 8th, 9th, and 10th grades). But, just a little time before my graduation the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education took the highly unusual step of waiving my credits and awarded me a High School diploma. They also wrote me a personal letter commending me on my achievements.

So that's how I graduated from High School at the age of 14.

10 Things To Do Before I Die

2008-05-10T08:34:00.000-05:00

Write a book. This summer I'm actually writing an online Programming Languages textbook thanks to a generous Presidential Excellence grant from St. Edward's University.

Catch a game in Wrigley Field. I guess my fascination with this field and the Cubs started when I was a young boy in the early days of cable television and WGN brought the exotic images of Chicago to my home.

Dance at Carnival in Brazil. Don't you just love the beat of the drums?

Tour a whisky distillery in Scotland. Or a vodka distillery in Russia, or a tequila distillery in Mexico, ... I think you get the point.

Walk along the Great Wall of China.

Climb a pyramid in Mexico.

Bathe in Japan.

Enjoy a cruise.

Visit the remote Isle of Colonsay. Apparently, my great...great grandfather John MaGuffee left this little place in the 1600's.

Take communion in a Catholic Church. And I mean in a legitimate, non-sneaky way. I.E. This is a hope for the full communion of all Christians.

The Nature of Sin

2008-05-06T02:05:00.000-05:00

Recently, I attended four hours of baptismal classes at St. Ignatius Martyr. I attended these classes to support my wife in her faith and in anticipation of the Roman Catholic (RC) baptism of our son and our nephew. Lynn’s older brother is expecting a son in June and our son, Gage Woodson, should arrive before the end of May. One of the subjects covered was the RC definition of the four categories of sin: mortal, venial, original, and omission.

This discussion caused me to think of what I believe of sin and I wanted to share my thoughts. I dislike the oppressive guilt-inducing definitions of sin. I don’t view sin as an act that displeases God but as an act that causes us to be separated from the loving perfection that is God.

Let me give an example. Consider the love of a long-term committed relationship with a spouse. I love my wife. I love having sexual relations with my wife (for proof see pending birth mentioned in the first paragraph). One of the great things about the sexual relationship with my wife is the bond and closeness we share. To me, this is a gift – a divine gift if you will. If I were to sin and commit adultery, I would be hurting my loving committed sexual relationship with my wife. Thus, the act of sinning would be separating me from a loving family life.

And that is an example of how I view sin. Sins are those acts (or in the case of sins of omissions – lack of action) that keep me from living the most fulfilled loving life that I can live. With this view of sin I don’t go around “not sinning”. Instead, I try to go about living a “Godly life” and by doing that I avoid sin.

The difference may seem subtle but to me, it’s important. Consider the Greek word “metanoia”. This is the New Testament word that is translated in to English as the word “repentance”. Literally, “metanoia” means, “changing one’s mind”. Thus, to repent is to decide that the actions one had chosen previously are inferior to the actions one has now decided to embrace. In other words, to repent is to turn away from sin and embrace actions that are superior and more in line with the actions of a child of a loving God.

Pensive McGuffee

Resolutions for 2012

Prayers at the Table - September 2011

2010 The Year in Review

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 5 of 5)

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 4 of 5)

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 3 of 5)

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 2 of 5)

Christmas Songs 2010 (Part 1 of 5)

A Tale of Two Merchants

The Spirituality of Giving

Faster Than Light Travel

Prayer as Affirmation

Angels Shutting Mouths

The Crucified God

Instrumental TV Theme Songs

Monika Hellwig's "advantages" to being poor

Parakletos

John 21:1-19

Ancestors and Legacy

Doubting Thomas

My Hometown

I Don't Worship a Zombie

I Forgive You

Christ Welcomes You To the Table

Experiencing Holy Week Through Art

Good Enough?

scene from "Sergeant York" (1941)featuring Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper

Two Goats and a Lamb

Guidelines for Discussing Recent Health Care Reform Legislation

My Thoughts on Spong's Book

Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich

It’s How Not What

Squeezing an Infinite God in to a Finite Universe

Remembering Uncle Pete

It’s Not All About ME

Reflection on Dr. James W. Van Meter, Jr.

"In the Flesh" (John 6:51-58)

Imitating God (Ephesians 5:1)

Summertime and the Living is Easy

After the rain

What's new in March

James and Lynn @ Mardi Gras Dinner

8 Month Pics

Just Hanging Out

Reading a book last week in Louisiana

Driving Home

Wedding Anniversary (28 DEC 2008)

Christmas of Hate and Fear

Hanging out on Friday night

Gage and his cousin playing

Family Christmas Photo Time - 2008

Honoring Woodson and all other Veterans

Gage @ 5 months (31 October 2008)

Halloween Costume Preview

Gage @ 4 months (29 September 2008)

First Day @ Day Care

Gage @ 3 months (29 August 2008)

@ Lone Star Ruby Conference

Gage @ 2 months (30 July 2008)

Gage's Baptism & Other Pics

It's my birthday

5 Weeks Old

New Glasses

Why people vote Republican...

Visitors

Progress

Stylin' and Profilin'

Sunday Nap

pics from a Lazy Thursday

More Pics

A few more pics

Gage Woodson McGuffee

Continuance of Pain

@ OB/GYN's office - Tuesday Morning & Tuesday Afternoon

Memorial (not Labor) Day

Bothered by Hagee

Another Day, Another Limb (plus baby updates)

The infamous Pittsburgh tale

Baby Photos & Tree Limb

scene from "Sergeant York" (1941)
featuring Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper