Saint Matthew's

Reading this morning’s NY Post, I ran across a story dealing with a MTA bus driver who is up in arms over the agency ordering her to wear pants instead of a skirt. But it is the driver’s reason as to why she wants to wear a skirt instead of pants: It’s against her religion.

Tahita Jenkins told her supervisors that wearing a skirt is against her Pentecostalist faith. She even brought in a letter from her pastor explaining the prohibition of women wearing pants. But the MTA is standing firm; they claim it is for safety reasons that she must wear pants.

When I read stories like this, I think Lutherans should be happy that they are Lutherans.  

The Yankees … 14 and half games out of first place. Which, of course, is a funny statement in itself. Why? They’re in last place.

They lose last night to Toronto. Oh, they lose badly, once again. They get terrific pitching from Andy Petitite and they squander it again. I don’t know if Roger can help pull this team out of the depths.

Maybe they need to play out that scene from “The Natural” where the psychologist came and spoke to Robert Redford’s team that was in the midst of a terrible losing streak: “Losing is a disease…”

And A-Rod may be in some hot water with his wife.

At least the Mets are having fun. They’re in first place. Plus, they beat those former New York Giants, now of San Francisco, last night at Shea.

…at both ends, that is.

I’ve truly been doing too much work during the past week. Way too much work…My daily calendar looks insane.

That candle that I’ve been burning, it’s been going at both ends … and from the middle.

Everyone is telling me to ease back a little and pull back from the work abyss. I think I’ll do that. Amen.

For fun…

It seems that everyone’s favorite gossip-page fixture, Paris Hilton, has some new reading material, namely the Bible. From this morning’s Page Six in the NY Post:

The slammer- bound celebutard, who heads to jail June 5 for violating probation in her booze-related reckless driving case, popped into a Hollywood book shop this week to pick up some inspirational literature. No, not the Enquirer or In Touch, but copies (inset) of the Holy Bible and “The Power of Now,” the best- selling self-help book by em powerment guru Eckhart Tolle.

I don’t what to think of it. Paris reading the Bible. It can’t hurt.

 FINALLY….I can sit down and get ready for church tonight. If you’re not busy, church begins at 7:30pm.

- Everyone here at Saint Matthew’s who is either in the hospital/nursing or rehab home or are sick at home are doing well this afternoon.

- I had an opportunity to go to last night’s Yankees game, but the opportunity fell through. And probably, it was a good thing. The Yankees looked horrible in their loss to the Red Sox.

- I went to the NJ District office yesterday afternoon for a meeting. Over the coming days, I’ll tell you more about the meeting. In general, I could be helping out with the district newsletter and some other things.

- For the first time in a long time, I am listening to Mike and the Mad Dog on WFAN. Since I spend money to listen to XM Satellite Radio, I usually keep the over-the-air radio off. But today, for some unknown reason, I’m listening to Mike and Chris hit the Yankees for their pathetic performance last night. Plus, I get to hear our New Milford neighbor, John Minko, doing the sports updates.

Now, back to work.

Sometime during the coming weeks, we’ll set up a direct place where you can download our church’s weekly devotional and prayer list. A number of people have asked for this. It will get done.

Until then, to download our prayer list and weekly devotional, click here.

It is in a PDF and ready to print.

I don’t know if you caught it, but the Daily Mail newspaper of England had a terrific photo of lightning hitting the Empire State Building this week. It is just a magnificent picture that really has no theological meaning.

Powered by Qumana

Benedict emphatically sets aside the view that faith amounts to a form of law, and insists that the relationship of the believer to God through Christ defines Christian belief. He does not acknowledge his debt to Martin Luther, but it is palpable.

Those sentences come from a book review of Pope Benedict XVI’s latest book, "Jesus of Nazareth:From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration", in this morning’s New York Sun.

Maybe His Holiness is starting to see Luther’s point: Faith is not a law. Faith is a gift of God, nourished by God through His gifts He gives to the Church.

Of course, the Pope doesn’t go that far. But it’s a start.

Powered by Qumana

- My allergies have been horrific that past 12 – 18 hours. Ugh. My head pounds so hard that no amount of allergy medication can stop it. And when it pounds that hard, I get dizzy. Oh, do I hate that! I can usually ignore the dizziness, but yesterday afternoon and evening and early this morning — forget it. I stayed home and laid down.

I know – me laying down in the early evening is weird. But at I couldn’t do much.

This morning was basically the same. It’s the tree pollen. It is way too high. So I am looking to the west and that cold front that will bring relief later today.

- Midweek service will be held tonight. 7:30pm here at church. We will continue the bible study we started last week on God’s Word. Now, if it is storming out tonight – something that is expected – don’t travel to church. I will put copies of the bible study out in the nartex on Sunday.

- By the way, we will celebrate Holy Communion at our service this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday.

- Responding to an email this morning (of course, a week late): It is only $28 Million. Roger Clemens asked, the Yankees gave. Personally, I am thrilled that Clemens is back in pinstripes. I remember hating him when he was with the Red Sox. Oh, I mean pure, unadulterated hate!! Then he left, went to Toronto, and my hatred waned. When he came to the Yankees, he became my favorite. He was now OUR fireballing, hard-nosed, tough as nails ace. Even when he left the Yankees under the guise he was "retiring" and ended up going to Houston, I didn’t hate him  I actually listened to some of the games on XM Satellite Radio that he pitched in when he was with the Astros. Now that he’s back in the Bronx, he’s my favorite again. Maybe he can bring some attitude and stability back to the team.

Today is Mother’s Day.

It is a blessed day because everyone gets an opportunity to thank a mom for all that they do and have done. Even those of us whose moms have passed from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant, today is blessed day. We get to remember and count all the ways in which our moms led us, guided us, taught us, and loved us … even in those times when we didn’t know they were doing it.

My mother was a tough cookie, but if it wasn’t for her, I don’t know if my faith in God would be as strong as it is. She dragged me and my brother to church every week until the cancer that wore her down prevented her from worshiping. She made sure my brother and I went to Sunday School, studied our lesson, memorized the Small Catechism, and prayed. To her, our faith wasn’t a joke.

Thanks mom, for everything!

Powered by Qumana

Tonight, our Saturday service experienced what can only be called a “very low attendance” night. Two people – plus me – came to our sanctuary to receive our Lord’s gifts of Word and Sacrament.

Two.

When people read that only two people graced our doors tonight, there will be some here at Saint Matthew’s who will say that our little extended experiment with Saturday night services has failed. There may be people who will want to cancel this service and save on the cost for turning on the lights. They will also say that we haven’t had enough “return” on our Saturday investment whereby not enough of those people who don’t show up on Sunday mornings are worshiping on Saturday nights. With all those who have children who don’t come on Sunday … with all those who would rather sleep …. with all those who don’t put any priority on spending even a few minutes with God in His house a week … who could argue with those who would want to cancel this service???

I can!!

In this world of ours, church still matters. It is the only place where we leave the world behind and receive the gifts of God. It is the only place to spend time with God, regardless of the pseudo-religious folks who believe “God is in everything.” Offering this time for worship is important … very important. It doesn’t matter that there is only $15.00 in the offering plate. God’s gifts of Word and Sacrament are priceless for the faithful.

On Monday night, our Voter’s Body will gather for our monthly meeting. I hope to spend a little time to talk about our Saturday service. If you can, please come on by at 7:00pm.

(Via: Michelle Malkin)

A Baptist church in North Carolina is coming under a little heat for statements they put on their church sign:

Of course, the Muslim community is outraged at the sign. To be honest, the message is very provacative. I am by no means a scholar in Islamic studies, but from what I have studied and what Malkin points out in her post, there is a emphasis in the Koran on converting non-Muslims and, if they don’t convert, to kill them. The religion is very submissive – one has to follow the teachings of Islam or face punishment from Allah. There isn’t a lot of love in that kind of message. This isn’t evangelism.

The bomb strapping part of the sign is over the line for a church.

When Christian Churches deal with the issue of Islam, we must not fall into a pattern of insulting Muslims. Yes, there are many who are believe in strapping bombs to themselves, boarding buses or walking into schools, and blowing themselves up to kill others. But there are many more who don’t believe in this. In my opinion, the lack of a strong "moderate" Muslim wing that speaks out against terrorism is fostering the notion that "all Muslims are killers because that’s what their religion teaches," whether it is true or not. Until there are Muslim leaders who come out and condemn terrorism uniquivacally, then people will continue to lump all Muslims in the same boat.

Powered by Qumana

This weekend, our First Reading is taken from the 16th Chapter of Acts where Lydia believes and is baptized. As it is shown throughout many portions of this wonderful book, the people hear the Word of God and then they believe. How? God takes His word heard by the hearer and creates faith in their hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit. In our reading this weekend, Lydia hears and believes and is baptized.

Faith is a miracle none of us can explain. We just thank God for it.

Also, God’s Word is a miracle. It has survived down through the centuries even though people were out to destroy it. But yet, we still have God’s Word.

When we hear about the great evangelism projects promoted by our Synod or other church bodies, it is only God’s Word that creates faith and builds His church. That is why we tell the Good News to those who need to hear it. That is why we do missions here in America and around the world. We do it to tell the Good News, the Gospel, to those who need to hear it. By hearing it, God creates faith in the hearer. And as Romans 3:28 tells us, it is faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ that saves. No need for fancy programs. It just takes God’s Word.

Powered by Qumana

Sometimes when I have a cup of coffee next to me as I type, I can’t help but to write…

———

Just finished Morning Prayer where we read Acts 4:1-22. Peter and John were told by the Sanhedrin not to preach in the name of Christ. They, of course, told them they couldn’t do that. The reading provoked my mind to ponder the nature of the preaching office. We pastors preach God’s Law and Gospel. We preach His Word. We preach Christ crucified. But of importance to those sitting in those pews, we preach the forgiveness of sins through the blood of our blessed Lamb, Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven because our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself over to death for us. His resurrection from the dead presents the clear and visible sign that the forgiveness won by our Lord at the cross is real, not some fantasy. And his ascension back to heaven gives us the blessed hope for His second-coming when all believers will stand before Him for all eternity.

That is what we pastors do every time we step into the pulpit or onto the sanctuary floor or into homes when we speak of Jesus. We preach Him.

John and Peter wouldn’t cower to the threats of the chief priests and elders. And neither should we in this day cower in the face of a world that presents God as either some cosmic weakling or some all-powerful judge who is punishing all the time. Our God is a God of love. He loves us so much that He forgives us our sins not because we deserve it, but because Christ His only-Son has taken the punishment for our sins. Why would we want to preach anything else but salvation comes only through faith in Christ?

—–

My father is coming home from the hosptial today. After an internment at Westwood Cemetary this morning (helping out a fellow pastor who is out of town today), I will be headed over to New York for a while. Yesterday, my father was a little nervous that he hadn’t “passed” any waste since his surgery last Wednesday, the 2nd. He had major surgery that removed his colon, parts of his intestine, and the doctors opened a colostomy on my father’s left side. He started eating real food this past Tuesday afternoon. Even though I tried to tell him that his body is still trying to get over the shock of everything and that these things take time, he was a little nervous. Thankfully, yesterday afternoon the colostomy proved successful. The doctors then gave him the OK to go home.

——

The New York Daily News has been selling at the newsstand for a quarter for the past two weeks during the work week (that is, for non-pastors, Monday through Friday). They say it is a “thank you” to their readers. I think it had more to do with the fact that the New York Post raised their price for their newspaper from a quarter to fifty cents in Manhattan. But then again, I am a cynic.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of the Daily News, though I do read it every now and then. Growing up, the Daily News was a staple in our household as my father would bring it home from work each day. The News was the picture newspaper – it always had a lot of pictures, and in New York, immigrants flocked to the News because of the photography. You may not have been able to read the stories very well, but the pictures told the story. My father’s side of the family were immigrants from Italy (and by the way, they were legal immigrants). They loved the paper for the pictures. So I grew up on the News. When I went to middle school, my friends and I would bring the newspaper to school to read the sports section and find the hidden man and dog in the Bay Rigby political cartoon (everyday Rigby would hide a little dog and man in his cartoon and we’d fight to see who would be first to find it). As I grew up and went to high school, I fell away from the News and went to the New York Times. My social studies teacher suggested we read it for current events; my English teachers suggested we read it to help with our vocabulary for the SAT. And that is what I did! Plus, I learned to love their crosswords.

It was in college where I was re-introduced to the News. I attended Saint John’s University in Queens and regularly took the subway. I would pick up New York Newsday (when they had a specific New York City edition) and the now-defunct National Sports Daily newspaper (what a great newspaper!). Once in a while, I would pick up the News, but it lost something from the days of my youth. It wasn’t as zippy or sharp as I remembered it. Then, one day, I saw the New York Post on the newsstand as I waited for the D train. There was a huge picture of Alexander Hamilton, the founder of the Post, with a tear coming down his face. I plucked down some change and bought my first copy of the Post. Every single story ripped their owner. The paper was brash and arrogant. But WOW! The entire newspaper was written to get their court-appointed temporary owner canned. It was great! From that day on, I was a Post reader.

One of my professors at SJU was a crime reporter for the Daily News. John Marzulli was (and is) a terrific writer and taught, surprisingly, the crime reporting class at SJU when I was a student. I don’t know if he is still teaching this course or even it is still being offered. I have noticed that for the past two weeks, Marzulli is still there at the News. After taking this class, I would pick up the News more often, just to see if my ‘prof’ was printed. However, the paper seemed to have lost its zip. It seemed as though they were trying too hard and not hitting their mark. Growing up, the News always seemed to get the story and pictures right. They seemed to care for the little guy and for the communities that never got covered by papers like the New York Times. The paper always seemed to fight for the little guy, with columnist Jimmy Breslin leading the way. The News was the voice of New York, with columnist Mike McAlary giving a voice to those people who needed a voice. But that was then. Today, as then during my college days, the News is a step behind trying to be a gossipy newspaper that is holding on to its roots.

It ain’t working. Pick one or the other.

Since it has been a quarter, I’ve picked the paper up each Monday through Friday during the past two weeks. Still, it’s missing something. It doesn’t have an identity anymore. It is trying to be all things to all people. If you talk gossip in New York, you’re headed to the Post and its Page Six or Cindy Adams or Liz Smith. If you want hard-edged political opinion, it’s the Post again. Want liberal spun news and opinion? You’ve got the New York Times (which I still read, by the way, in their new Times Reader format). For the News, I don’t know what they’re doing and what their focus is anymore. It can’t be a good sign when their top sports writer, Mike Lupica, is penning political columns in the front of the paper (and as with his sports columns, his political columns are too whiny). Thankfully, the News still has Filip Bondy and Bob Raissman. When it goes back to fifty cents, well, I will go back to my regular Daily News habit.

I do read the New York Post everyday. I have a subscription to their electronic edition where you get the whole newspaper as a download and read it on your computer. It is the same newspaper as on the newsstand, nothing different. Plus, it is cheaper than picking it up at the newsstand. There is just something about this newspaper I have loved since that fateful morning at 59th Street waiting for the D. It is brashy, it is tough, it is not afraid to take on the bad guys. The sports section is wonderful. Its opinion pages are the best in any newspaper I have ever read. The only thing I don’t like – their comics section. I wish they would bolster it a little. To be honest, that is the one thing that the Daily News better – they have three pages of comics every Monday through Saturday and a full-color comics section each Sunday. But for me, it is still the Post.

——

Someone (or some group) left a broken down bicycle near the front steps of the church today. The front wheel is off and is bent, something you would see when a bike gets hit by a car. I was told just a little while ago that this bike was in our parking lot yesterday.

I don’t mind the kids in the community using our parking lot as a bike riding lot during the week. I don’t mind that they sit under our tree and talk and eat (most of the time, they clean up after themselves). Heck, I don’t even mind that they use our green lawn behind the church to play stickball or football. They respect the church and treat our property with respect. We finally have a good relationship, something that has been a long time in coming.

If this bike belonged to any of the children in our community, I am sure that they would never leave it on our property.

Powered by Qumana

Just when people were having some fun with advertising divorce services, it is learned today that divorce rates have dropped to the lowest point since 1970.

So, why has the divorce rate dropped?

It isn’t because people are smarter or are choosing better mates.

What’s fueling that decline? According to 20 scholars, marriage- promotion experts and divorce lawyers consulted by The Associated Press, a combination of things.

The number of couples who live together without marrying has increased tenfold since 1960; the marriage rate has dropped by nearly 30 percent in past 25 years; and Americans are waiting about five years longer to marry than they did in 1970.

Shacking up and or waiting to get hitched or not getting married in the first place. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Powered by Qumana