Category Archives: Spiritual Formation

Preparing for Communion

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I love what Frederick Buechner says about life in his book Wishful Thinking.

A sacrament is when something holy happens. It is transparent time, time which you can see through to something deep inside time.

Generally speaking, Protestants have two official sacraments (the Lord’s Supper, Baptism) and Roman Catholics these two plus five others (Confirmation, Penance, Extreme Unction, Ordination, and Matrimony). In other words, at such milestone moments as seeing a baby baptized or being baptized yourself, confessing your sins, getting married, dying, you are apt to catch a glimpse of the almost unbearable preciousness and mystery of life.

Needless to say the church isn’t the only place where the holy happens. Sacramental moments can occur at any moment, any place, and to anybody. Watching something get born. Making love. A high-school graduation. Somebody coming to see you when you are sick. A meal with people you love. Looking into a stranger’s eyes and finding out he’s not a stranger.

If we weren’t blind as bats, we might see that life itself is sacramental.

from Wishful Thinking by Frederick Buechner

We look forward to experiencing the sacrament of communion on Sunday as we enjoy the sacrament of living every day.

…of God and of Google…

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I’ve been reading a little of this over the weekend:

Google’s Time Crystal Discovery Is So Big, We Can’t Fully Understand It.

Read that headline again.

I read such things because I love science. I miss studying engineering and especially physics.

Honestly, as I read things like this, I realize how much I never knew, how much I’ve forgotten, and how much I’ll never know.

I find the idea of “time crystals” amazing.

In addition to my amazement regarding time crystals, I’m amazed by how many things we take by faith – and how many things we refuse to take by faith.

I have read a lot on Reddit – a lot from atheists – and I repeatedly find them “loving on science”. I get that. Remember, I studied electrical engineering at the university. I love science. But there is a vocal subset of people who love science and hate religion. One of their stated reasons is that they can’t trust that which requires faith. They want empirical proof.

Yet, most people reading about time crystals will merely understand them from a layman’s perspective – the perspective of the same physics course I took. Then they will walk away as clueless as I.

Some will admit it.

Some will not.

Most people won’t even have the physics classes to think back to. Yet they will “believe in” time crystals.

Not sure?

Think back to the headline of the news article. “…so big we can’t fully understand it.”

We won’t understand it but we’ll believe it. Without comprehensible empirical evidence, we will accept the existence of Google’s time crystals.

Such is the essence of faith.

This quality of humans – this ability to trust – is what makes much of Christian faith believable. We don’t fully understand the hypostatic union, the triune nature of God, or the mystery of concurrence any better than we understand time crystals.

So faith becomes, among other things, a simple decision.

For me, I trust the physicists and the biblical writers.

Doing so causes me joy as I stand in wonder at endless scientific discoveries and kneel in reverence to the One who made it all.

Pursuing Reconciliation

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You are welcome to join us Sunday as we worship God.

A very relevant story for a people who must pursue reconciliation

In person at 725 Susquehanna Avenue at 8:00 and 10:45 AM
-On YouTube at 8 AM with traditional music
-On Facebook at 10:45 AM with today’s Christian music

“I’m not lusting, but I am mad as fire!”

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There’s an interesting phrase in Scripture where Paul is talking about whether one should get married – or not.

But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1 Corinthians 7:9 (ESV)

Most of us know what it is to burn with passion in the context of physical relationships, so we get what Paul’s talking about here.

But there’s another kind of burning with passion.

It’s spoken of in a post that a friend of mine sent me today.

Dr. Rob Reimer on Social Media

He said that it hit him right between the eyes. I understand.

Anger – among old and young and among men and women – seems to be the zeitgeist – the spirit of the age.

We blame social media or corporate media, but honestly, that’s like a teen boy blaming a pretty girl for the burning in his heart – it doesn’t work.

You and I are responsible for the fire – the passion we feel in our lives. We are responsible for what we feed it and what we do with it.

Does the zeitgeist have a hold on you?

What are you doing with your passions? What are they doing to you?