Saint Matthew's

Earlier this afternoon, I spoke with a local resident who was basically stunned that I took out that plastic tab in my clerical collar when I was standing online to pay for a bottle of water.

See, sometimes my neck itches, so I scratch it. In order to properly scratch my neck, I take out the plastic tab and unbutton the collar and then I proceed to stop the itch. Apparently, my “undressing” at 7-Eleven was too much for him to bear. 

He said that his priest would never lower himself by taking off his Godly clothes while in public. He “explained” that I should be more understanding about what it means to be a holy man of God. He actually told me that I stopped being a regular person when I was ordained.

I told him I didn’t stop being a human being on June 25, 2005 when I was ordained into the Holy Ministry. I “explained” to him that pastors, priests, and other assorted “holy people” are normal people underneath all those black clothes we wear. I told him I sometimes like to drink “adult beverages,” watch sports, go out with friends and people of the opposite sex, and even go to rated R movies. And when I told him I was thinking of going to a bar on Sunday to watch the Super Bowl, I think the little hairs on the back of his neck got tingly – he walked away.

So, I was wondering, am I normal?

One my so-called “New Year’s Resolutions” was to get more organized. For some reason, my 2007 was my worst organized year ever. I allowed papers to pile up. I would fail to wash dishes. My living room looked like a disaster area. And my personal papers! Yikes!Everything just was a disorganized mess last year. Hence, my “promise” to make this year much more organized.So far in 2008, so good. Considering that today is the final day of January, my disorganized home and home office life is moving along swimmingly. However, my church office looks like a bomb hit it. Ugh. Got to work on this sometime this glorious Thursday. 

Wednesday is shaping up to be a busy day. But a few things:

1. Got my car back last evening with a new passenger side window.

2. I ended up going over to New York for a short visit with my father yesterday. He received his test results on his liver – the spots on his liver are not cancer. Talk about taking a load off his back. The report showed that the spots on his liver were caused by the statin drug he’s taking for cholesterol. He will be undergoing additional tests in March. Thank you all for all the prayers and good wishes during the past several months. Who says prayer doesn’t work?

3. A couple of weeks ago during one of the NFL playoff games, Dr. Pepper promoted a new soda, Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Chocolate. (Insert Homer Simpson drool right here) A friend and I have been searching for this soda concoction for more than a week, but to no avail. Until last evening … I stopped off at Stop & Shop to pick up an item they had on sale and just for a laugh, I walked down their soda aisle to see if they had this new Dr. Pepper in stock. Low and behold, there on the shelf was a single 12-pack of this magnificent blend of sweetness and no calories. Of course I had to pick it up.

I ended up traveling last night to deliver this masterpiece to my soda searching partner.

And yes, it is a good soda. However, it does have caffeine. I only had one can.

4. Bible class tonight at 7:30. Talking about Islam.

Now I am heading out on a day of visits, meetings, and studying.

Today can be classified as a bad day.

I was out earlier this morning on a visit and my car got broken into. The passenger side window was smashed. Thankfully, the only items stolen were my XM Satellite Radio, which the police officer said the thief may have thought was a GPS unit, a pocket sized bible and a bag with some pads, pens, and file folders I had just purchased at Staples.

Since I have a Kia, I called their emergency office number before contacting my insurance company. And this a good thing – the Kia people responded quickly and said that if I brought my car in, they could have the window replaced either by tonight or early tomorrow morning. My cost? Zip. Apparently with my lease, I have some kind of window insurance – if a window gets smashed, they fix it under their policy as long as I am under their 10 year, 100,000 mile agreement.

Who knew? I didn’t.

When I got back to the house – they even dropped me off – I put-on-hold my XM Radio account. I ordered another radio through them, saving $114 – which breaks down as $100 for their $139 unit (I paid only $39) and $14 in activation costs.

I’ve canceled my other appointment this afternoon. I will be working here at home and in the church office all day.

Oh, on yesterday’s movie – it was spectacular! The 3D images of the concert were out of this world. And U2 was pretty good, too!

As a U2 fan, I was excited to hear that they had produced a new concert movie, but this time in 3D.

Today, like last Monday, I am heading into New York City, to 68th Street, to catch this dazzling concert event, though on the big screen. If I play my cards right – and I know I won’t, I can just feel it – I could also get a chance to get to take part in Restaurant Week once again. If not, food from a street vendor is always great.

I’ll let you know what I thought of the concert when I get back this evening.

As a quick reminder – this evening, Saint Matthew’s is holding its annual Chinese New Year’s Dinner. Tickets are still available – $13 for adults, $5 for children under 12. It starts at 5:30pm.

See you there.

Even as a big Giants fan, I have to say that I am sick of the Super Bowl hype.

Oh, all week, if it isn’t stories about “Where is Tom Brady?,” or “What’s with that cast on his foot?,” we’ve been bombarded with stories from former and current Giants, football players, and “Sopranos” stars saying that the Giants will win next Sunday’s Super Bowl.

The Daily News has gone so far as to have a “Super Bowl Countdown Clock” on their internet sports page. No, really, they have a clock.

Please, just stop with this.

Just play the game.

If you don’t already know it, I like musicals. Whether on Broadway or in the movies, musicals have always held a soft spot in my heart. Don’t ask me why – most of the time, musicals don’t have a really good plot. But I find them fun and light and I actually enjoy watching them.

Well, there was one movie musical that never clicked with me – “Moulin Rouge.” It came out earlier this decade and starred Nicole Kidman and Ewen McGregor. It is not that I didn’t like the actors – they are terrific – there was just something “too serious” about the movie that made me not like it.

I’ve talked to people about this and they’ve collectively told me to eat dirt. Apparently, they loved it and thought my opinion of the film was skewed.

For some reason, last night after I got home, I clicked on my computer and fired up iTunes and started browsing their movie section. As I clicked through, I noticed that they were offering “Moulin Rouge” for rental at $2.99.

Now, I only watched it once in the summer of 2001 and it didn’t thrill me. But maybe I needed to see it a second time to improve my opinion of the film (which usually happens). Maybe I had a bad day when I watched it the first time. I could have been in a bad mood.

So I rented the film. I didn’t watch it last night – I have 30 days to watch it before it deletes itself from my system. According to Apple, any movie that is rented from their iTunes store must be watched within 30 days or it will be deleted. That is 30 days if it just sits there on a computer or Apple TV. When the film is played back, renters have 24 hours to watch it before it deletes itself from a person’s computer.

Rev. David Petersen of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana has a terrific post dealing with what are pastors to do in the Missouri Synod who feel that the tide has turned against confessional Lutheranism. Some pastors and congregations have up and left the Synod. Others seemingly are in a box as to what to do. Rev. Petersen’s answer?

Preach the Gospel.

We must preach it rightly, which means condemning sin and proclaiming the forgiveness of those sins.  It means rightly balancing Law and Gospel in the preached word. It means telling it like it is, not like how society wants it to be.

But he also reminds all of us the importance of catechesis – learning and re-learning what it means to be a Lutheran.

Rev. Petersen also raises the specter of how to use the Internet to help do this job of keeping confessional Lutheranism alive.

A fabulous post.

For about a year, I have been throwing around the idea of a bible class dealing with Islam. Reading through various source materials and taking time to actually study what that religion is all about, I have found myself excited to teach this course. I have structured a multi-part course dealing with the history of the religion to the basic tenets of what Muslims believe.

Our one problem – our Lenten Midweek services are coming up rather quickly, so we’ll have to postpone the nighttime bible study during February and March. I’ll try and figure out something regarding this study for Lent.

We start tonight here at church beginning at 7:30 following our Midweek service.

Yesterday, I tried to figure out what I was going to do with all my Monday time considering that I got all of the office work for the week done on Sunday night.

Lo and behold, I ended up going to lunch with a friend to Mesa Grill on 5th Avenue in the City. And it was terrific! It was a dynamic afternoon where taste buds were popping and were deeply satisfied. My mouth is still watering. Add a fun afternoon of conversation, the day was a rousing good time.

Mesa Grill is owned by Bobby Flay, star on the Food Network. Since it is a Flay creation, Mesa Grill is inspired by southwest cooking.

AND considering that it is Restaurant Week in the City, Mesa Grill offered a rounded full-course lunch at a relatively good price – $24.07 per person. But the food and atmosphere was so good, it is definitely a place to go on a “non-Restaurant Week.”

Since Restaurant Week goes from yesterday through Friday and then picks up again for another week starting next Monday, I have to make some time to visit NYC. I’ve always wanted to go to Tao Restaurant…

Last night during the Giants-Packers game, I ended up working while watching — which, of course, is dangerous. Never work and concentrate on your favorite football team winning in the NFC Championship. It is inevitable, something will go wrong.

Well, something did go wrong – not for the Giants, but for me. I ended up forgetting a portion of this coming weekend’s service AND I completely missed a couple of matters while I was studying this weekend’s readings. Ugh.

I know, this doesn’t sound all that bad because I am days ahead of where I should be. But this morning after Morning Prayer, I was typing away putting in the missed liturgical portions. Following, I reviewed my study materials for crafting this weekend’s sermon and added in those missed parts. By 10:30am, I was done. My Tuesday work is complete.

But it is Monday and I have nothing left to do. It is my day off. I need to ease back off the accelerator.

Maybe I will go out to lunch. Or dinner. Or catch a movie (though nothing in the theaters excites me). Or rent a movie.

I wish I could figure out what to do…

Let me just say that I am thrilled beyond all thrillness that the Giants are headed to the Super Bowl after beating the Green Bay Packers yesterday.

But I am not happy that the next two weeks are going to be absolutely nuts – I already hate the Super Bowl hype and it has only been hours since the Giants and Patriots made the big game.

Ugh.

Stumbled over this story on Fox News – it is enough to make anyone vomit several times. This story shows clearly just how sinful and evil some people can be.

Utah Teen Charged With Raping Dog in ‘Unspeakable Ways’

Whenever stories like this surface, people don’t want to chalk up this stuff up to the fallen sinful nature. The boy who did this is an evil person. Period.

Tomorrow the temperatures here in the Northern New Jersey area are supposed to fall into the mid-20s with wind chills much lower than that.

Our local news media is already banging the drums, warning everyone that tomorrow is going to be cold, really cold.

I don’t want to hear it. It is winter. It is usually cold around these parts.

And it shouldn’t come as a surprise – it also snows here, too. Well, not tomorrow. But sometime this winter, we’ll get a snowstorm. Of course, the news media will do its best to scare the heck out of us when this storm comes, just like they did earlier this week warning us of a 6-8 inch snowfall, one that never materialized.

So, for the rest of the winter, no whining about how cold it is out.