What colonoscopies can teach us about hospitality

I have never had a colonoscopy but I hear they are not something that many people look forward to undergoing. Maybe this is why we may not look to colonoscopies when thinking about hospitality, but the now infamous 1996 study might make us rethink our assumption. 

Quickly from the wikipedia entry, here is the study:

Colonoscopy patients were randomly divided into two groups. One underwent a colonoscopy procedure wherein the scope was left in for three extra minutes, but not moved, creating a sensation that was uncomfortable, but not painful. The other group underwent a typical colonoscopy procedure. Kahneman et al. found that, when asked to retrospectively evaluate their experiences, patients who underwent the longer procedure rated their experience as less unpleasant than patients who underwent the typical procedure. Moreover, the patients in the prolonged discomfort group were far more likely to return for subsequent procedures because a less painful end led them to evaluate the procedure more positively than those who faced a shorter procedure.

This is one example to show how it is the endings of an event that impact the way we remember the event. If the ending was bad, the remembered event was bad. If the ending was good, the remembered event was good. 

In the Church there is a lot of emphasis on the first impression we make to guests. This is why we try to have well kept landscaping and facilities, clearly marked parking and signage, greeters at the door, free coffee and doughnuts, a "glad you were with us for the first time" gift, etc. While these first impressions matter, so does the last impression.

To my preacher friends, I would submit that all the work that is done to find the "right opening hook" to a sermon, perhaps we need to spend time on the "right ending". It may very well shape what is remembered.

The day I accidently ran 13.1 miles

Hate may be too strong of a word, but I really am not a fan of running. I know it is all the rage and cool people everywhere have a sticker on their car about the miles they have run. I applaud those who run, but I also think there is something wrong with people who are cool to just take off running. It is said that soccer is the most boring sport among American spectators - I would argue it is running. 

One day in Colorado my father-in-law and brother-in-law (who love to run) invited me to go on a run with them. While I hate running, I love the family I married into and I always look for ways to continue to dupe them into thinking that I am not as lazy as I really am. So I go running with them. 

After about a mile or so, it is clear these two are holding back for my benefit. And because I also do not want to put a damper on their run, I tell them to go ahead. The air is thin, I am out of shape, they are runners, and there was no way I was going to allow them to watch me kill over and wheeze. So they begin to pull away and before long they are out of sight on the trail. 

I decide that when they get to the end of the trail and turn around they will run past me and that will be my cue to turn around and run with them. This is a brilliant plan because it gives the impression that I am not lazy and I also do not damper their run. I smile as a delight in my genius plan as I continue to run. 

They never come back up the trail and after awhile I begin to think that I should just turn around. My pride of not being seen lazy would not let me. So I kept running.

I ran to the next town. 

At this point I realize that I have to have energy to run back and I still have to have energy to make it through the rest of the day. Feeling defeated that I could not even run half of what my family-in-law could run I begin the run back. 

The next time I saw my family-in-law was back at the condo. My father-in-law eating yogurt and my brother-in-law just finishing off a short stack. 

Soaked in sweat and needing to go to the bathroom, I asked how long they have been here.

About 30 minutes. 

I come to discover that the trial that I was on had a fork in it: go left and you circle back to the condo but go right and you go to the next town. They went left and I went right.

To recap, I hate running, I ran just over a half marathon, my family-in-law was eating breakfast. 

I am sure there is some sort of moral here or some sort of lesson that I should have learned in all this. Perhaps there is a deep spiritual truth that is expressed in running beyond what you are able to do or knowing when to submit to forces larger than yourself. Perhaps this should inspire me to run more often and work up to a full marathon since I ran a half marathon without knowing it.

Perhaps, but I really hate running. 

A sermon put to Explosions in the Sky

You have heard of them but you may not know that you have heard of them. However, Explosions in the Sky have an album entitled The Earth is Not a Cold Dark Place. Which you can see why a preacher may use this album often. Especially around Easter time. 

On that album there is a song, Your Hand in Mine. This is a great song and I wish I wrote it. 

Then in a tribute to the stage productions that I do not like (the musical), I delivered the Easter sermon to this tune. 

The entire sermon is the length of the song just over 8 minutes. (As a sidenote I was given crap when I turned in an 8 minute sermon as part of my ordination. If only I put that sermon to music then could have gotten away with it.)  

If you don't want to listen to it...

The crux of the sermon states that in Matthew, the women go to the tomb of Jesus not with spices to clean the body but simply to see. The word used to describe their seeing is θεωρέω (theōréō). This is the root of the word "theater". The women go to see the tomb like we would go to a theater. Passive and without a role to play.

The angel however invites the women to see, but uses the word ὁράω (horaó). This means to see, but often with metaphorical meaning: "to see with the mind". The angel invites the women to see this experience so that it changes them. Seeing not as a passive action like at a theater, but seeing as an action that integrates what you see into your life and actions. 

If I can be so bold as to brag and say the interesting thing for me about this sermon is that it is delivered in a rather theatrical way but it is inviting us to abandon seeing the resurrection as theatrics. (I think it is sort of smart, but it could just be me.) Bragging over. 

There are other great sermons on this site. You will know the great ones because we have labeled them as "by Estee Valendy". (okay now bragging is over).