Thursday, April 19, 2007

Columbine/Virginia Tech

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Columbine school shootings, and this comes just a few days after the tragic Virginia Tech shootings. I understand that the VT shooter was influenced by the Columbine shooters. What do we do? What kind of a world do we live in? How do all these things make you feel?
Here are some prayers/readings dealing with tragic events. Take time tomorrow to pray one or two in honor of those who lost their lives at Columbine and Virginia Tech, and to soothe your own soul as you try to figure things out. (You can always leave a comment here, call me 403-2403, or email me richard@catumc.org.) [Prayers and readings from The Book of Uncommon Prayer by Steve Case]

God, we've read the newspapers
We've seen the video on the news
We talk about faith
Our brains demand evidence
Our hearts long to believe
Forgive us our doubts, God
The world is a cruel place
The hungry and hurting reach out
The questions and doubts rise up like a raging river
We could drown in our own ignorance
Come into this place
We will open our hearts
We will open our minds and souls
Show us
Enlighten us
God, we need to know you are here. Amen.

***
Give us faith to stay on the path
Give us the courage to face the coming days
Give us the strength to pray in the face of things we don't understand
Give us the strength to believe in the mercy and grace you've promised us all
Give us the grace to entrust to you those we lost
Invite them to your table
Serve them their favorite foods
Give them eyes to see how much we miss them
Give us the eyes to see their smiles in the sunrise
Give us the ears to hear their voices in the rain
Give peace to their families and friends, and to the world. Amen.

Psalm 23
Matthew 5.1-12

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Sarai Preaching Sunday


This Sunday, April 22, is Sarai Case's last Sunday with us at Catalina before she moves to Chicago to go to seminary. She is preaching in both services of The Refuge. Her Scriptures are below.
Jeremiah 5.1
Luke 10.38-42
2 Timothy 3.1-9, 10-14
Acts 9.1-19

Ignored Beauty

What would happen if a world-renowned violin virtuoso played a $3.5 million Stradivarius in a subway station? Would anyone notice? Check out the video. Look for the post "Ignored Beauty".

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Virginia Tech

I may say more about this later, but for right now, I will mention that Lilly Lewin has posted some awesome prayer ideas in response to the shootings on her blog.

Do we worship the God of the past?

I cited Mike DeVries in an earlier post, and he has put another insightful article on his blog. Read it here.

Noticing our presuppositions

A few months ago, Bart Campolo (son of Tony Campolo) wrote an article called The Limits of God's Grace. It was published in The Journal for Student Ministries, and was quite controversial. It was controversial for a couple of reasons. One reason was that Campolo stated that he didn't believe that a loving God would assign anyone to the torment of hell. Secondly, it was controversial because of the reasoning that Campolo used to come to his conclusion. He stated (to simplify) that the kind of God he believed in would not send a deeply loved creation to hell. Campolo has a follow up to his article. This article is well worth reading. It argues that everyone of us comes to the Bible and all theological thought with our own presuppositions that color how we interpret the Scriptures. Very thought-provoking.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Is God Real?


This is the title of an interview/article in Newsweek's April 9, 2007 edition. Jon Meacham interviewed Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church and author of the best-selling The Purpose Driven Life, and Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. The discussion was pretty good, and I would recommend reading the article. I'm not sure if Warren was the best choice for this interview. I would have preferred Jim Wallis or Bono. I dont' think Warren could leave his fundamentalist-evangelical viewpoint long enough to give broad answers. He is a person who lives out his faith and puts his money where is mouth is. I think he could have emphasized Christian experience a little more.

Who is God and what is God like?

This was sort of the theme for our study Sunday morning in The Refuge. It was the first in our series "Moving Forward", and my thesis was that we cannot move forward in our faith with incorrect or unworthy concepts of God; and that the questions that nag us and doubts that haunt us will hold us back. So, we said 5 things that go with the Scriptures listed in the Thursday post.
1-I can move forward when I realize God is a mystery Isaiah 55.8-9 Read this post by Mike DeVries.
2-I can move forward when I realize my faith is not a superstition. Acts 17.24-27
3-I can move forward when I take risks. Genesis 32.24-32, Matthew 14.24-33
4-I can move forward when I look for God in the everyday. Exodus 3.1-5 Moses was just going to work when he encountered God in the burning bush.
5-I can move forward when I understand the goodness of God. Matthew 7.9-11

SUNDAY Sunday Sunday




We started out at 7am at Reid Park with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Mindy, Bethany, and I did the 5k non-competitive race (walk in our case) and Tyler and Jeremiah did the 5k competitive. Tyler's time was pretty good (24:42/159th overall) since he is not a competitive runner. I was really blown away by all the Catalina people who were part of Race for the Cure this year! Of course, Friday night the arthritis in my left knee started to bother me. But I made it through! The photo is Mindy and three of the Melchers at the Race. We recognized RACE participants in the Refuge worship at 11, and they were an enthusiastic bunch! In fact, I would say the atmosphere in the hall Sunday morning was as good as I've ever known it to be.

Then during worship at 11am, we baptized and confirmed Chloe Kolaz. This was a special honor for me. Chloe is an awesome member of our youth group. I know this may sound self-serving, but I think it was the best confirmation service I have ever seen.

Eventful Saturday


Saturday Mindy and I chaperoned the Sahuaro Drumline on their trip to the State Drumline competition in Phoenix. We had a pretty good time. Sahuaro won fifth in the state. Not bad. The return trip was exciting: the Sabino bus broke down and we picked them up on the interstate (Sabino and Sahuaro are arch-rivals), and a boy threw up on the back of the bus. Sounds like fun, huh? This is Tyler in his drumline costume.