Preaching is like pitching

Recently it has been a new practice for me to preach more often at different worship settings. Until these recent changes I have felt like I was something of a relief pitcher brought in. What I mean by that is when asked to preach I felt, because I did not preach that often, that I had to "throw strikes" all the time. I could not afford the luxury of balls or walks or hits and especially not allowed to give any runs up. I only get to "see" each batter maybe one time and I have no real ability to set up hitters for the next time I see them.

I have come to realize this way of preaching for me is very unhealthy and frustrating for me. I notice in these past several weeks that it is much easier to preach every week than to preach every so often. It seems that I can get into a pattern/rhythm when I preach more often. When I preach often I also feel like a starter pitcher in that I can afford some balls, strikes and even a hit or run. More than that I also feel like I can set people up for the real "heaters". What I mean is I feel as I preach more often that I can use one Sunday to set up the next Sunday. So I can throw a "ball" on week and that is okay because next week I am brining the heat. And that second pitch could not have been as effective if I would have pitched it first. It seems like pitchers need other pitches to determine or set up the next pitch.

Preaching for me seems to be the same way. I find it helpful to build my pitches.

Of course, every now and again it is fun and a challenge to be a relief pitcher again...

Hold this baby. I think I see a leak.

Over the course of many conversations I have had with people who either do not know, do not understand, have an oversimplificational view or people who refuse to hear about the post-modern world view. Some of these conversations have been easier to have than others, but all of the conversations have been fun and fruitful for my development at a Christian. Of the many things that come up in conversation regardless of the type of person I am able to engage a conversation with, one objection stands out in particular.

While it comes in many forms, typically it is expressed that post-moderns/deconstructionalists are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Perhaps this is because of my lacking ability to communicate things that I am struggling with (such as Universal truth claims). Perhaps it is something else, but, for instance, when calling into question universal truth claims I am often met with a degree of astonishment and dismay that I could even make such a question. It is as though the very thought of discrediting universal truth claims under minds the entire society by which we stand. Thus, I hear that I am throwing the baby out with the bath water. By calling into question universal truth claims I am calling into question the ability for anyone to make any truth claim at all!

This is silly.

Of course we all make truth claims. Of course there are things that are universal (for instance, there are certain biological factors that must happen in order for a person to be able to stay alive on their own accord). I am not calling into question so much the act of making universal truth claims, but I am calling into question the truth claims which are seen by many as common sense or foundational for Christianity.

I do not think I am trying to throw the baby out with the bath water, rather I think I am setting the baby aside and emptying the water and examining the tub.

Does the bathtub hold water? Does it leak? Do we need a bigger or smaller tub? Has the baby outgrown this tub? Are there more than one babies we need to bathe?

It could very well be that the post modern experiment will return to all of the answers that we already have. And post moderns will be the first to admit the failure of the post modern quest. We will be the first people to say, "You know what, the tub is great and it will continue to work perfectly. Now where is that baby?"

Why some threatened by or concerned for those who want to examine the integrity of the bathtub?

The practice of Lent - learning from spiders

A couple of days ago, a friend from Seminary came into town for a job he had in Addison. In the short time he was at AHUMC with Robin Stout (the new youth minister) and I, he shared with me a metaphor that I am holding onto for Lent.

A spider weaves a web. The web comes forth from the spider and is an extension of the spider herself. She moves back and forth working to create a web structure and it is beautiful. It is not enough to just create the web but she goes back over the web a second time, strengthening and augmenting the original web. At the end of this work, she has created an incredibly strong web that has the potential to be life giving for her. But in the moment, just after completion, it is not life giving. Creating the web is exhausting, but it is all she can do.

With the web completed, the only thing left for her to do is to wait. She does not ring bells or flash lights. There is no sign or banner. The only thing the spider can do, ever after all this exhausting work, is to wait and hope. She waits on that which gives her life and hopes it comes her way.

This is the spiders life.

And for the lent season, I will try to embody the posture of the spider. Create something out of my soul, an extension of my own self until exhausted.

And then I will wait on God.