Saint Matthew's

I hope they Zamboni the ice better at the NHL Winter Classic in Chicago tomorrow than they do driving it.

As the snow began to fall this morning, I was on the telephone speaking with a friend from out west. He asked me what I was looking forward to in 2009.

“That it won’t be 2008,” I responded.

As many of you here at Saint Matthew’s know, my 2008 was a little sad. Burying another childhood friend in February is not a good way to start any year. Watching a friend deal with her rape has been nearly too much to bear. Getting knocked out, hospitalized, and then going through months of tip-toeing around because of the resulting concussion – not something I would wish on my enemies (and yes, pastors do have enemies). There was just too much personal ugliness this year.

My hope for 2009 is that I won’t need as many Kleenex boxes as I went through this year.

Of course, many good things happened in 2008. Family members and friends struggled and battled through illness, yet came through the year healthier. Friendships were strengthened and built. I started losing weight.

However, we are always overtaken by sadness. As we all await clocks striking midnight tonight, I hope that 2009 will be far better than 2008.

I shouldn’t laugh, but it just so fits my 2008.

Someone I know invited me to his “New Year’s Blowout” party that he holds every year. I haven’t attended one of his parties since I returned from seminary, so after receiving his New Year’s Eve invite I made plans to attend.

Well, those plans went up in smoke.

On Sunday, black soot filled his house while he was out. When he arrived home, his house was just a mess. He can’t get it cleaned until after New Year’s Day, so he’s staying with his brother in Mount Vernon. Therefore, he canceled his party and will instead watch the ball fall with his family.

So, my plans are once again open.

Ugh.

Just a reminder  – we have church tomorrow afternoon at 4pm. Everyone is invited.

OK. I am running on no sleep.

For some reason last night, I could not fall asleep, no matter what I tried. My mind was racing.

So I was up all night, reading, listening to music, and watching television.

Still, I was barely on-time for Morning Prayer.

If it wasn’t for the fact I was in attendance and didn’t want to make a complete idiot of myself, I kept myself from vomiting all over the Garden after watching the rotting team corpse of the New York Rangers lose to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.

Horrible.

Disgusting.

Made me sick.

Something has to change with this team. I keep reading that the entire team buddies around after leaving the ice rink, that they play video games together and listen to the same music. Maybe they even hold hands like little children when they cross the street. That’s all nice and dandy.

BUT THEY ARE A HOCKEY TEAM FIRST.

I don’t care that the locker room is united. But what are they united for? To play Wii tennis or to win hockey games?

They aren’t scoring or playing defense. They give up short-handed goals, and of course, on Saturday night, they let in another. Poor Henrik Lundquist. He’s trying his best to keep this team from sinking, but everyone else seems to be mailing it in.

I don’t care that the Captain, Chris Drury, is a nice guy and cares. But Drury hasn’t been playing well. Actually, he’s been quite bad this season. Personally, I believe a team captain has to play better and show a little fire once in a while. Someone on this team has to stand up and call out this pathetic group of hockey players. If it is not the captain, then maybe they need a new captain.

Ranger fans can complain that Glen Sather made bad decisions in free agency this past off-season or that Tom Renney is not getting the job done as Head Coach. I don’t want to wallow in Monday Morning quarterbacking. This group of players, as highly paid as they are, should be playing much better than they are, no matter who’s behind the bench or up in the GM suite.

This season is on the backs of the players.

Larry Brooks of the Post believes the Rangers need a transfusion – namely, a tougher transfusion in the name of Sean Avery. Right now, the Rangers are too soft. Avery would definitely change things.

Wow. That was fast.

Eric Mangini has been fired by the New York Jets following their annual December football collapse. Even with Brett Favre, the December swoon arrived on time for the Jets.

Yes, I took a few days off from blogging.

It was the Christmas season, don’t you know? Not that I did a lot of family stuff; worked a lot outside of the office. Now that I am back in the office, I guess I work.

And yes, I will work today on my day off.

We have church on Wednesday afternoon – have to get ready for that sometime.

Talk about a Christmas gift.

Well, at least for Yankees fans.

And no crying about how the Yankees are destroying professional sports. So what – they’ve spent over $420 Million on three players this off-season. They also paid over $26 Million in revenue sharing. They’ve filled up stadiums from coast to coast, making a lot of teams a boat load of money. No crying about how they’ve destroyed baseball. They’ve funded baseball for years.

Yesterday, I spent a good amount of time talking about God with a young Jewish woman in the hospital. She is recovering from injuries sustained in a car accident. But she had a bigger problem that she is now trying to deal with – she’s been abusing cocaine.

We talked about the issues that led her into her downward spiral where she lived in a world of sex and drugs and how she, as a law student, was able to hide it from everyone.

But our conversation centered around whether there truly is a God.

I do not want to write a point-counterpoint post. While this part of our talk was theologically engaging, I would have to write a lot about her life and I promised her that I would keep this to ourselves. Even though she wasn’t a member of Saint Matthew’s or even a Christian, I have an obligation to keep her story between the two of us and God.

We all have people in our life circles who are facing spiritual hardships that manifest in different ways – drugs, alcohol, arrogance, hatred, you name it. Many times we say, “Oh, that’s just” so-and-so. But these people are fighting a spiritual war within their hearts.

It is God versus sin and the devil.

Sinning is too easy because it is so much of what our flesh is about. We think that alcohol makes us feel good by kidding ourselves that we’re having fun. We believe that a few drugs is just experimental and will not hurt. Free and open sex, as long as it is “safe,” is fine because it makes us feel good.

That is just the opening the devil is looking for and then the spiral commences. The Evil One wrests the will to love God and believe and trust in our Lord and destroys it. He replaces it with the will to do that which God does not want His children to do.

I see it with many people I know.

At times, I see it in myself.

I talk a lot about the forgiveness of sins, how our Lord Jesus Christ paid our sin debt at the cross and won the victory over sin, death, and the devil. Sadly, I know many people who just shrug it off, believing that God doesn’t forgive their failures. But God tells a different story – He forgives our many sins because of Jesus Christ, His Son.

We all fall away from God in our daily walk. We all fail to live up to the life God wants from all of us. The battle we have is not to give into sin. We struggle everyday to fight back those urges to do what God doesn’t want us to do. Saying “Yes” to sin is too easy. Trusting in God and in His love and staying true to Him, that’s the hard thing. Fighting sin is what our lives are as Christians. In life, every single choice we make is one of sin versus living in a God-pleasing way.

Sadly, many of us take the easy way out and sin.

When I left the hospital yesterday afternoon, I gave this young woman my bible and I made her a promise that I would come visit with her on Wednesday, Christmas Eve.

In this Christmas season, take a few moments to think about those people in your life who are in need of God. Pray for them. More importantly, tell them how you feel and how you’re praying for them.

Yesterday, the New York football scene shone a bright light on the differences between the two teams who share Giants Stadium here in New Jersey.

Both the Giants and Jets were reeling coming into this week. They’ve been losing badly or winning ugly the past couple of weeks and as football teams, they both looked lost. The vaunted running games of both teams had disappeared. Manning and Favre looked less like the MVP caliber quarterbacks that they are and played more like second-string rock chuckers.

This week, both teams had to show up. The Jets had to face an easier team to beat, at least on paper, in the Seattle Seahawks. The Giants had to battle one of the best teams in the league in the Carolina Panthers.

This morning, we know two things about these football teams, namely which team was mentally and football-prepared and showed heart. Only one team left everything on the field yesterday.

The Jets embarrassed themselves and their fans yesterday, losing pathetically to the Seahawks 13-3 in Seattle. Offensively, defensively, and coaching-wise, the Jets were unprepared and were completely outplayed by a rather terrible Seattle team. Playing those types of games in December usually costs a head coach his job. In order to make the playoffs, the Jets need to somehow beat the Miami Dolphins next Sunday and pray for a miracle.

But after yesterday, the Jets don’t deserve to go to the playoffs.

However, the Giants showed up to play. The Giants used their best offensive weapons – their running game anchored by Brandon Jacobs and Derek Ward, and an offensive line that just punishes defenses – to crawl their way into OT and take the game. They showed up to play, the Giants did, and this morning they have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Last night was all about old-time G-men football. Short passes, a punishing offensive line, running backs that powered their way for every yard, and a defense that held when they needed to stand up.

Yesterday, football fans in this area had the opportunity to see which of their two teams had the heart to stand up.

They got their answer.

… there is church today. The roads are very slick. If you are coming to church, then please take precautions.

According to a local police officer, the roads aren’t great. They are snow covered and icy. As of 7:30am, the snow is falling at a fast clip.

So, if you’re coming to church, take it slow. If you’re staying home, we’ll see you Wednesday.

Or a New Year’s Eve cookie … received the following in an email earlier. Very funny.

—-

Tequila cookies, best cookies ever if you are looking for that special cookie recipe to share during the holidays, this is the one I make on Christmas Eve so I can deal with the “family” on this joyous occasion.

Mats Sundin is going to play for the Vancouver Canucks and not the New York Rangers. The answer to the “Why” question is simple - it was the money.

Sundin is 37-years old and has only a few years of good hockey left in him. Why not try and make the most money possible?

The Rangers could only offer between $2.5 to 3.5 Million.

The Canucks offered $10 Million.

Which would you choose?

That is why from the beginning of this saga, I have maintained to anyone who wanted to listen that Sundin would choose the Canucks over every other team. And what led me to that conclusion? It was the money.

The Yankees introduced two star pitchers yesterday, both of whom said the right things at their press conference at the old Yankee Stadium – they wanted to be with a winner.

But when you’re CC Sabathia and have a huge $161 Million deal staring at you and the next closest offer was around $100 Million, and when you are A.J. Burnett and have a Yankees $82.5 Million deal on the table where no other deal was comparable, is there any wonder why they said they wanted to be in New York?

As a Yankees fan, yesterday was Christmas a week early. To have two top pitchers anchoring a pitching staff that has stunk for the better part of the last 8 years is a great gift.

Make no mistake about it – it was the money that led CC and A.J. to the Big Apple. As a fan, as long as my team wins, let them spend the cash.

Driving this morning, I saw a rather sad bumper sticker. I couldn’t get a picture of it, but it was red with white letters and said the following: “Santa’s Dead But Jesus Lives.”

Being a clergyman, my focus is squarely on Jesus Christ and His coming — the old “Jesus is the meaning of the season” mantra. Kids in my congregation and most others who are of age believe both in Jesus Christ and Santa. The message of Jesus’ coming is the central point of this Advent-Christmas season — Jesus coming to us to save us from our sin. It is a season of God giving to us all that our we should desire (being with our Lord), and He does so by giving us His only-begotten Son. 

Santa gives us a secular example of what it means to love and to give to all. In a churchly way, this shows the sanctified life of a faithful believer (and hello, Santa is a good Christian, Saint Nicholas).

Jesus gives us Himself to save us. Santa shows us how we respond to what God has given us.

That person in the blue mini-van should take that bumper sticker off.