Saint Matthew's

Funny thing happened this morning at the hospital: I was asked by a young woman a rather serious theological question. She was there with her grandmother in the emergency room, who was going through a few tests. I had just finished visiting a non-member who was rushed to the hospital and I was preparing to leave.

As I started to leave, the woman posed “a hypothetical” question – what if she and her boyfriend moved in together. Is that so bad? Is God going to be mad at their “taking the next step” in their relationship? And I could see that she didn’t like my 3:24am answer:

“Yes, God won’t be too thrilled with you shacking up with the boy toy.”

We clergy people, at least those of us who take God’s Word seriously, can be harsh sometimes, especially when it comes to the discussion of individual sins. Name the sin, we clergy take a harsh tone when dealing with it. And it’s not because we are such holy rollers and are so perfect — it’s because we see sin through the eyes of God’s Word, and seeing the sin hurts us in our souls.

Our sin as clergy people is grevious enough, but when it comes to those in our individual flocks (or be honest, even in those outside of our churches), it pains us to see them wallowing in sin. Maybe I am being overly dramatic, but to me, seeing sin in all its horror attack the lives of those in the flock that our Lord placed me to be His undershepherd, it hurts me in my soul.

When I tell someone that what they are doing – or have done – is sinful and they should stop, it is not easy. My heart cares for those who come to see and speak with me. Maybe I care too much. That’s always been a problem. I am surprised I’ve never gotten an ulcer.

I do worry about those here at Saint Matthew’s. When I look into their eyes and see the struggle, my heart breaks. I do want to play “the big brother” and put my arms around them and tell them that they’re loved. It’s just the way I’ve always been. And it’s not some “Superman” complex that I have – it’s just that I have a heart and hate it to see people who I care for being hurt. And if you don’t think I cry over situations that people I know are going through, you’d be wrong.

The words of God must be spoken, and those words tear right into the sinner’s heart and, I pray, would turn them against the sin that is paining them.

The young woman this morning wanted a free pass to sin. Sorry. You’re not going to get one from me.

Early this morning, I received a telephone call to visit someone who was rushed to the hospital (for those Saint Matt’s people, the someone was not from our church). So I get up, get dressed, and run over to the hospital.

On my way home, I had my satellite radio on in my car and they played “Hey Ya!” from Outkast. It is a catchy song … and it’s so catchy, I can’t get it out of my head!!!

All morning, I have this tune and the words pounding through my brain. And it’s not the greatest song in the universe (the thoughts behind the words are a tiny bit racy), but the tune is so catching and the song moves so quickly, it’s just a good overall song.

AND I CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY MINID!!! 

I will be spending today working at home. Get me either on the parsonage line (201)  262-0566 or on my mobile (201) 407-9563.

For those of you who have been on my Yahoo! Messenger, I downloaded an update that caused the messenger to send out “access” emails to some people and not others. Now, if you have been on my Yahoo! Messenger and didn’t receive an email, we can still see one another. However, if you received an email and you want the opportunity to IM with me, you have to click on the link in the email.

As soon as I post this, I will be headed off to New York. I should be back around noon, maybe a little afterwards. I’m going to visit my father in the hospital as he continues his chemotherapy treatment. My father called me this morning at 6:00am (no, he is not like me, waking up at 4:00am on a regular basis) and asked me to pick up the New York Daily News for him. Of course, I said I would. However, he’s also going to get a copy of my favorite New York City tabloid, the New York Post. Why? Today’s front page is to the left.

Of course, I am speaking of the little notice at the bottom of the front page – Johnny Damon’s 2-run home run that propelled the Yankees to defeat the Red Sox last night at the Stadium in the Bronx.

What? You thought I was talking about the Leona Helmsley headline????

Those little hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever I hear someone say, “Jesus never spoke about…” and fill in the topic of the day.

There is no debating that Jesus never spoke about abortion, homosexuality, drinking shots of whiskey after a hard day, driving really fast down the Turnpike, urinating in public, and the like. He didn’t.

But it doesn’t give us the right to infer that Jesus would give God’s Goodhousekeeping Seal of Approval on them.

This is where I just lose it in theological discussions and debates. We waste more time trying to make ourselves feel good for sinning and rejecting God’s Word that we fail to see our Lord anywhere. If we cared anything about God, we’d never “think” what God would “think.” We already know what He thinks — we have His Word!!!

Sinful people ”think” God would say it’s OK to have a homosexual clergy. Sinful people “think” God would say it’s fine and dandy to allow abortion. Sinful people ”think” it’s just peachy to take parts of the Holy Bible and rip them out because times have changed and we’re more enlightened than those Neanderthals we find in the Bible.

Aaahhh!

As a friend of mine used to say to his political clients: “Stop thinking, you’re hurting the team.”

If we don’t stand on God’s Word, we stand on nothing. We take the idea of “church” and remake it into a social club. Church loses the importance of being the place to receive the gifts of God for the strengthening of our faith. Sadly, many Christian churches have recreated ”church” into some gathering time where we can all sit around and sing songs and feel communally good.

And what caused this rant? This dopey post on the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog.

…why Roman Catholic priests can’t get married?

Rev. Paul McCain explains why here.

The prohibition of a married clergy in the Roman Catholic Church has very little to do with Holy Scripture. As Rev. McCain points out, Saint Peter (the first pope) was married.

Near the end of McCain’s post, he writes:

The Augsburg Confession here rightly asserts that marriage is a gift from God to be received with thanksgiving by laypeople and clergy alike, and to teach otherwise is a teaching of the Evil One. When considering the problems among Roman Catholic clergy and child abuse one need ponder long and hard the extent to which insisting on celibacy among the clergy has not provided a supposed “haven” for homosexuals and others dealing with sexual problems, thinking that the “safety” of enforced celibacy will help them resist their particular sexual temptations. One can hear in the words of the AC (Augsburg Confession) the direct, personal experiences of those who were forced to live celibate lives, like Luther and Bugenhagen and others of the Lutherans who were at one time Roman clerics or monks.

“For it is clear, as many have confessed, that no good, honest, chaste life, no Christian, sincere, upright conduct has resulted from the attempt to lead a single life. Instead, a horrible, fearful unrest and torment of conscience has been felt by many until the end.” (AC XXIII.6; Concordia, p. 46).

No one could say it better.

One of the more interesting aspects of driving to Fort Wayne, Indiana for seminary was seeing the incredible numbers of dead animals on the side of the road. Deer, raccoons, and other assorted animals were just lying there, deaths caused by trucks or cars speeding down Route 80. The carcasses were only waiting for animal control to pick them up.

You can add the Yankees to the road kill list. Or at least “The Moose,” Mike Mussina.

Last night – losers – 16-0 to the Tigers.

Ugh.

I’ve only gotten one “so, how ’bout them Yankees” emails from a Mets fan this morning.

“Antnee, them Yankees look like world beaters, don’t you think? Oh, they forgot to score a few runs last night. I guess Derek Jeter will have to watch the playoffs like to rest of this year, on TV. At least the Mets will be in the playoffs.”

Thankfully, the Mets fan I was with last evening didn’t rub it in about the drubbing. But then again, it’s still early.

UPDATE: Larry from Fresno, California writes in an email:

“Father Iovine, we Angels fans are smiling that the Yankees are being spanked around. What is a good day? The Yankees losing and the Red Sox winning.”

No, a good day is having Eric Gagne on the mound for the Sawx and him blowing a save.

(I’ll post Larry’s letter as a comment)

…but today, I have made the best gravy (tomato sauce) that I have ever created. I don’t know if it is the tomatoes, the basil, or the garlic, but the gravy is great. Every flavor is blending wonderfully. It’ll cook for another few hours, but as it is going, it is looking good.

Now, this post is very much “not like me.” I’m not one to brag. But today, I have created one terrific gravy. While mia nonna (my grandmother) would probably smack me in the head for acting like a braggart, I think the gravy would do her proud.

Oh, I am making a soft polenta with Italian sweet sausage and broccoli rabe on the side.

It will all be done by 7pm.

Yesterday afternoon, I had the opportunity to meet with a gentleman who reads this blog. He calls himself a good Roman Catholic, but he is doubting some of the laws of the church. During the height of the clergy sex scandal in Boston and Long Island, he even thought of leaving the church.

We met Friday in Northvale and talked for a period of time about the differences between Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism. Some think of Lutherans along the lines of us being “Catholics-lite,” but in all reality, we are very different. For me, it gave me a wonderful opportunity to explain to someone why the freedom that Christ won for us at Calvary is something to held onto and embraced.

He was very interested in the differences between looking at the church as a place to receive the gifts of God and being strengthened in faith from the mandatory nature of attendance at Mass.. Over time, he said he’s lost interest in the homilies and he has failed to get anything out of going to church.

Our conversation was short – he had to go and pick up his daughter. But for just the little time we had, I pray that our Lord opened his eyes to be blessedness that comes from being a true evangelical catholic.

Dear Christians, for just a brief moment, just read the following and have some fun. From the Weekly World News supermarket tabloid that is ending its print run this month:

GET INTO HEAVEN WITH THE “WHOLE SOUL WORKOUT”

“…The spirit needs to stay fit, just like the body,” said Dr. Carter. “If you eat too much junk food, your body gets fat. Similarly, if you sin too much, your soul will also get flabby.

“You see, Jesus chose his words carefully,” Dr. Carter went on. “He said ‘hunger and thirst.’ It’s a nutritional analogy. By being morally upright, you eat and drink righteousness, which is non-fat. By committing sin, you consume evil. And evil is very high-caloric for the soul.”

…

“There’s a practical reason why sinners don’t go to Heaven,” he went on. “Their souls are just too heavy. They sink through the clouds and into Hell from all that weight. It takes a certain spiritual physique to ascend to paradise. Have you ever heard of fat angels? Fat demons, certainly, but not fat angels. Those wings can only handle so much mass.”

Unfortunately, if this discovery holds true it will be unpleasant news for many Christians.

“They’re used to the idea of repentance and absolution,” said Dr. Carter. “However, if I’m correct, it will take a lot more than repenting one’s sins to get into Heaven. It will take a spiritual weight-loss regimen. Being aggressively good and cheerful, like TV weather people.

What a hoot!

…or does it seem like whenever Yankees “relief” pitcher Sean Henn gets in a game, they lose.

He killed them this morning – again – in Detroit, giving up a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 11th. Yankees lose, 9-6.

The game lasted until 3:30am. A four-hour rain delay coupled with extra innings will do that.

The pitching line looked pretty good, after Clemens gave up 6-runs through 5 innings, that is. The bullpen was excellent from the 6th through Mariano (you have to ignore his shaky relief appearance, but at least he didn’t give up any runs). Joba was lights out – only tossed 10 pitches and had one strike out. Farnsworth followed Joba and was actually better – only threw 9 pitches. Ramirez and Vizcaino were also hot. But then came Henn.

The Yankees gave this one away.

Our Summer Camp here at church ends its run this afternoon. It has been an incredibly successful summer for the camp. We had over 30 children in what can be considered an extended Vacation Bible School. The children had fun, the parents are happy, and as a ministry of the church, we pray that this opened some eyes for what kind of a church we truly are.

I would like to thank all the parents and children who have spent time here at Saint Matthew’s during the summer. Our doors are always open.

The next step, of course, is our preschool that kicks off on September 10th. We’re intentionally keeping the number of children enrolled to a basic minimum so we can run through the program for a year and work out any bugs that will crop up. If we tried, we could’ve filled the church building this year. But we want to be smart and build a program that is sustainable and workable. We want to do this right. We don’t want to be a fly-by-night operation.

We’re going in the right direction.

Say a prayer for Toni, our director, and for the church as a whole as we take this bold step in the future of Saint Matthew’s.

I have been captivated by CNN’s latest “CNN Presents” series dealing with Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. For the past two nights and ending tonight at 9:00, Christiane Amanpour has been looking at the apparent extreme elements of the three religions. Tonight we get to see her Christianity report, which, of course, is going to try and portray the “extreme” elements of the Christian faith as equal to the terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans on 9/11.

This alone is going to be interesting and will raise my blood pressure.

Now, I have not watched the Christianity program yet, only the first two shows on Judaism and Islam. But I get the feeling that this look at apparent “extremists” is not getting to the heart of the matter.

Or to put it another way – is it proper to equate Islamo-fascists who believe murder and mayhem is the only way to defend Islam and to get to “heaven” and their supporters (which total about 20% of the American Islamic population in recent polls) to Christianity and the tiny number of kooks who do evil in the name of Christ?

Remember the abortion clinic bombers who rationalized their killings by saying that they were doing the work of God by killing abortion doctors? Well, they weren’t doing the work of God when they murdered people. I am as pro-life a person as you’re going to find and there is no way to defend those murderers who use God to excuse their evil actions.

But the fact is the numbers of Christians who believe that the killing abortion doctors is fine is very, very low. We tend to believe that prayer and talking about Jesus Christ works better to turn hearts from abortion rather than using a bomb or a gun.

To me, you can’t equate a murderous Islamo-fascist to a Christian praying for the end of abortion. After last night’s Islam show, I have this icky feeling that CNN is going to try and make the case that the extremists in Christianity are just like the extremists in Islam. They would be wrong.

Another matter that I have to clear up in my mind – I kind of got the feeling from the first two shows that Amanpour believes that faith in Christ that leads to heaven, faith in God in waiting for the Messiah in Judaism leads to heaven, and the radical Islamic belief of strapping a bomb to one’s self and murdering innocent women and children on a bus is all the same — they’re extremist thoughts.

I’m going to rewatch the first two shows and Tivo tonight’s Christianity show.

If my blood pressure explodes, I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Just so everyone has a heads up, on Sunday, September 2nd (which is Labor Day weekend), we are holding a special Sunday morning “Spoken Divine Service” at church. Warren, our minister of music, is off for a couple of weeks and I thought it would be good to expose the greater congregation to our Saturday night service.

If you want to test out the spoken Divine Service before September 2nd, then come on by this Saturday night at 6:30pm.