Saint Matthew's

I was asked this morning about my internet (or is it still Internet?) browser preference. Why someone would want to know which browser I use to access the internet, I don’t know.

My answer – I am a Mac … I use Safari 4.0; however, I use Mozilla’s Firefox to upload posts to the church blog (why, oh, why doesn’t Safari 4 work well with Wordpress blogs?)

This hasn’t happened in a while — my sermon is done before Saturday afternoon.

Wow.

Plus, this is the first time in a long while I actually wrote out the entire text of the sermon. During the past year, I’ve been mostly outlining my sermon. For some reason, outlining always seemed to push me to Saturday afternoons in order to complete it. Don’t know why – it just happened.

My past couple of sermons have been train wrecks, so I vowed to change it up starting this week. And by changing it up, I’m back to writing the text out by Friday, giving me plenty of time to study it. This week’s theme – our hope in God.

Apple aired a series of very popular “I’m a Mac … I’m a PC” commercials. The premise of those commercials was that Apple products are better than Microsoft and Windows. I guess Microsoft wasn’t happy.

They recently started an ad campaign the goes after the high cost of Apple computers. In one ad, they promise a young woman that they will buy her next computer as long as it is under $1,000. She wants a 17″ laptop. First, to the Apple store and, of course, there are no 17″ computers for under that amount. They go off to an electronic store and amazingly, she has options. She settles for a computer that costs around $700.

There is only problem, I see, with these Microsoft commercials:

Even if you buy a PC instead of a Mac, you still have to use Windows. As a reminder:

Just wondering if you think this “political” cartoon is slightly anti-Semitic.

I do.

I had an early morning visit in Hackesack today, a visit that lasted all of 20 minutes, give or take a few seconds. This once-a-month trek to the capital of Bergen County is usually short, but today’s visit to a non-member was exceptionally truncated. After the visit, I decided to speed up the rest of my day and head off to Valley Hospital to visit a member.

However, as I was driving, I remembered I wanted to pick up the new Mark Levin book, “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto.” Driving into the parking lot at the Riverside Square Mall, I parked and headed over to the Barnes and Noble, where, upon entering, I cannot find the book. I walk up to the desk and ask if they had it in stock. The clerk punches the info into the terminal and then tells me that they did not have a hard copy of the book in the store; instead, they had the audio book.

Upon hearing this news, I was disappointed. The clerk, seeing my disappointment on my face, she tells me that the book is popular since a number of people have requested it. She proceeds to tell me that she could order it for me and it will be available “in a couple of days.”

A couple of days.

I put on one of those forced smiles and said, “No, I’ll just order it from Amazon when I get home,” an answer that caused her face to become distorted.

“We can order it and have it here faster than with Amazon. I could also check with our other stores and if they have it stock, we can get it overnight,” she told me.

I then told her I have Amazon’s $79 two-day shipping for a year program on my account. Plus, I could just order it from my Kindle for less than half of what either Barnes and Noble or Amazon were selling the hard cover, and I’d have it in my hands in less than a minute.

The clerk didn’t seem all that happy with me. “You have a Kindle. Don’t you miss holding a book in your hands?”

No,  I don’t miss it. The Kindle is a terrific device to read on. Whenever I want a book, I can go right onto the Kindle’s store and buy it for less than half of the cost of a physical book and it downloads right away. I stick to buying fiction books for my Kindle (minus Ann Coulter’s latest book I picked up since Barnes and Noble didn’t have that one in stock either). The latest was Patricia Cornwall’s “Scarpetta.” When it comes to theological or non-fiction books, I like to underline passages and take notes in the margins — can’t do that seamlessly yet with a Kindle.

As I was talking, I could see the clerk getting upset.

I then informed her of my problem with Barnes and Noble. I didn’t renew my membership card with B&N because the bookstore routinely never had copies of books I want to read in stock. How many times have I heard a clerk ask me if I wanted them to order a particular book for me? At least a dozen times during the past year, mostly in the non-fiction category (I read plenty of politically conservative writers). Instead of ordering from Barnes and Noble, I ended up just ordering them from Amazon – several times from my iPhone while I was still in the store! Eventually, I just got tired of going to B&N in Hackensack and finding that the books I want to read are not in stock. However, I still bought a fiction book or two per month from them.

When I purchased my Kindle from Amazon, my fiction book purchases ended. By purchasing from my Kindle, I saved more than half of what I would pay if I purchased a hardcover or paperback — my monthly cost dropped from $50 down to around $20.

If Barnes and Noble wanted to keep me as a customer, then they would have books I read in stock. Now, I am not talking about obscure conservative writers that people have never heard of.  Ann Coulter’s book was burning up the bestseller’s list at the time — they should order more than 10 copies for an entire store. And the same with Levin’s book today (the clerk said they only ordered a small amount of copies). What is the sense of shopping at a store that doesn’t carry what I want to buy?

Barnes and Noble lost me as a customer. I prefer Amazon.

Clearing out my email and Facebook inboxes this morning — two questions were posed to me, both of which elicit interesting responses. Here are the questions with my answers:

1. How is the diet going?

Last week, upon reviewing my food journal, I was instructed (or ordered, take your pick) by my doctor (who I have found out is moving to Pittsburgh – my heart is breaking)  to reduce the amount of carbohydrates in my diet. Apparently, my diet has evolved into one heavily reliant on carbs. She explained that I needed to have a more balanced diet. So, for the next couple of weeks, I am eating virtually none of the foods that have become staples in my weight loss program, so far. That means whole grain breads (was eating it at least twice a day and with greater than one slice at time), whole grain pasta (at least four times a week), and any sugar product (yes, the devil’s sweet tooth strikes again) are off limits. In their place, more vegetables and protein sources (fatty fish like salmon or tuna, lean chicken, turkey-based sausage).

So far, it has been going fine.

If you don’t know, my weight has been steady for a few months. It has gone up a couple of pounds one week, drops down the next. This cycle worried me since I had trouble with my thyroid in the past. My doctor assured me that it wasn’t because of my thyroid that my weight loss stopped. It was simply because I am eating too many carbohydrates and not moving enough.The body takes carbs and uses those for energy; when the body finishes, it stores the rest as fat. She said smaller portions could do the trick, but she felt I had to get over my addiction to bread and pasta. I hemmed and hawed, but I listened to her.

I started on Monday at 264.9, an almost-midpoint of my weight fluctuations over the past couple of months. Checked in with the scale this morning – I’m at 262.3.

2. Do I ever intend on writing that book?

If you don’t already know, over a year ago an old friend reached out to me and offered me an opportunity to write a novel. Years ago, I toyed with a story idea that she read over. I then entered seminary and decided to shelve the book. Some would call it fate, others just a bit of luck – Carrie and I ran into one another in the city last winter; a couple of weeks later, she inquired as to this book and why I never wrote it. She didn’t like my answer – I went to seminary and had to study for four years; got called to a parish and had to work. She suggested I find time to write it.

And over the past year, I’ve toyed with the idea – Carrie’s co-workers also reached out and tried to push me to write it.

Do I want to write it? Yes.

Will I? I don’t know.

Maybe I’m lazy. Maybe I don’t know if I could actually write something that others would want to read.

Essentially, I am lacking motivation right now to write.

My last two sermons can only be described as utter train wrecks.

They were completely unfocused, overly stuffed with “junk.” Instead of letting God’s Word lead, my mind pushed it to the side and used unrelated stories that made zippo sense.

I made this revelation last night during our Midweek service. Trying to fix a homily on the fly is never something good. Thankfully, I caught my sermonizing flaw before it became something larger and more insideously bad.

There will be a stark improvement in my sermon for this coming Sunday.

I’m going to let the Holy Spirit guide me instead of shoving him off to the side.

Last night’s Minnesota Wild – Rangers game at the Garden was very boring. And we have the Wild’s coach, Jacques Lemaire, a former coach of the New Jersey Devils, for this sleepy-time display of hockey.

I read somewhere Lemaire is considering retiring at the end of the season.

He should quit now.

Why?

This guy is ruining hockey.

His coaching style sucks the life out of everyone – players, fans, the poor slobs calling the game, the beer vendors, etc. Why would anyone want a coach who preaches slow-it-down, take it easy, dump the puck, clog up the neutral zone hockey? I was getting tired at 7:30 last night. Thank goodness for Sean Avery (and as I was told by a Devils fan, and I concur, Rangers fans are showing plenty of ‘man love’ for Sean), the first period would have really put me to sleep.

Please, I beg the brain trust at Versus and NBC — never show another Minnesota Wild game until Lemaire quits.

The MTA is raising subway, train, and toll fares (which makes this New Jersey resident angry). New York State is layoff nearly 9,000 workers. The economy in our region is in not-so-hot shape. And the top story in the great New York Post this morning?

The Swedish countess divorce trial!! To be honest, this story captivated me a while ago when it came out this countess was not happy with a divorce settlement figure of $36 Million. Why? She needed more money to live!!

I really love the Post!!

From page one of the Holy Bible to the last, the message is the same: God’s plan of salvation for His people. That is the most basic and critical understanding of the biblical canon. To see the bible as anything less or anything more misses the point that God so loved His creation, He did everything to see that we’d be with Him for all eternity. And He did so by sending his only-begotten Son to die for the sins of the world, that all who believe in Him would not perish, but have eternal life (paraphrase of John 3:16).

No matter the different authors, writing over centuries and centuries, the Bible that we have today is the Word of God and His plan of salvation for us. There is nothing inconsistent with that one basic and central thought that is woven through each word and page of that blessed book.

But…

According to Bart Ehrman, we would be wrong to centralize the message of Holy Scripture into this one area. We must, according to Ehrman, take into account the history surrounding the writers and why they may have written to a particular audience to express a specific topic, of course minimizing why the authors, especially of the Gospels, would write what they would write – to tell the story of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ. Maybe the authors wanted to tell a particular story about Jesus instead of telling the Good News in its blessed glory: God the Father sending God the Son to save His people.

Ehrman is more worried about perceived inconsistencies in the Gospels rather than what the Gospels express and extol. To him, apparently the Gospels are more about the audiences of the writers rather than the deep-rooted meaning of salvation. Take Matthew’s Gospel for a moment — Ehrman seems to be more concerned as to why Matthew would write for a Jewish audience instead of the importance of seeing how God’s plan of salvation comes through God’s chosen people, that they are central to this salvation, not apart from it.

I need to pick up Ehrman’s book to understand his thought process that is clearly linked to the historical critical method that takes Christ and His work on behalf of humanity at the cross and minimizes it to virtually nothing.

My doctor yelled at me last week – OK, she regularly yells and makes fun of me, so that’s nothing new. But she made a suggestion regarding what I am eating: Reduce the amount of carbohydrates I consume. I giggled a bit, at first, since I thought my carb count was down considerably from where it was before I started losing weight.

(By the way, I am still stuck at 265. I’ve been up and down a few pounds on each side of that number for a couple of months)

She made the suggestion after reading my list of foods that I’ve eaten over several months.

“Anthony, you’re eating too much bread, eating pasta too many times in a week, and eating things loaded with hidden carbs,” she told me to my amazement. Truthfully, I do eat bread for breakfast and lunch. At dinner, I eat less than a serving of pasta (15-20 penne noodles). But she says that the milk, OJ and grapefruit juices, and other foods are filled with hidden carbs. Too many of them will stunt weight loss.

I asked her what she truly wanted me to do.

“Cut the carbs. No bread or pasta. Dump the milk and all juices. Eat more leafy green vegetables. Stay away from fruit for a couple weeks. Eat a non-sugar based protein bar or two.”

I was quite stunned since what she was basically telling me to do is follow the Atkins or South Beach diet. I hemmed and hawed for the rest of the week. Then yesterday came – I decided to give the good doctor’s advice a try. This morning, I started to do what she said.

One of the things I like to eat for breakfast is Eggbeaters. I used to overcook a couple pieces of turkey bacon and make a quarter cup of Eggbeaters and put them between two piece of bread. This morning, I put them on a dessert plate instead. I crumbled up the horribly smelling bacon and put it in with the Eggbeaters. I threw some low-fat cheese on top and nuked it. Not a bad replacement for the bread.

Otherwise, by taking the bread and pastas out of my diet, I will be replacing them with more vegetables.

In effect, I’m cutting calories. The fewer calories in, more calories burned, and that equals weight loss.

I was arguing with a friend this morning over the direction of the Missouri Synod.

He was all gung-ho for a move to change the name of our beloved LC-MS to something more generic, or as he crafted his argument, making the name less “regionalized.” Additionally, he fully supported the changes being proposed to shrink the number of districts and increase Synodical official membership to include all church workers. Finally, he said that he continued to provide overwhelming support for the Synodical “Ablaze!” program that has so far raised $44 Million. Moreover, he explained he continued to endorse “evangelism” programs that made churches bigger while reducing the numbers of “smaller” churches by having them merge with other small churches to make them more viable.

It was early so I didn’t want to scream.

To answer his points with my ideas:

1. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with the name “Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod?” I mean, there is nothing wrong with it. It is historical and deep-rooted within the movement of confessional Lutheranism in the world. Just because some within the Synodical structure have this idea that we’ll get on TV more if we call ourselves something more generic doesn’t mean what they are proposing is right. Keep the name. Don’t worry about the PR. Just preach Christ crucified.

2. Reducing districts is a good idea – it could reduce overhead. However, as with all these “let’s merge district” movements, the bottom-line is that bureaucracy will not be reduced – it will be enhanced. Bigger districts mean bigger staffs – more people will be needed to “organize” the far flung areas of larger districts. Unless the Synod actually decides to gut its own bureaucracy and lead the way, our districts, even if they merge, will never get smaller or cost less. It is a pipe dream unless they get serious about how the bureaucracy will be eliminated at district and Synodical levels.

3. Why is it that the idea of evangelism never seems to be rooted in Lutheranism? Why do we need a major Synodical push for centralized and bureaucratic missions in the first place? Couldn’t the Synod provide more help for Lutheran mission programs worldwide if they encouraged local churches to support a mission or missions on their own? On the Ablaze program itself, why should churches fork over 10% of their annual budget to the program with the hopes of seeing some of that money returned to their church if they come up with some new “evangelism” program? Why not just keep the money and fund your own program without it going through the Synod?

4. The backbone of the Missouri Synod has always been its smaller churches. Most churches worship less than 100 people on any given week. Just because a bureaucrat feels that these churches should merge with other small churches in order to create larger churches doesn’t mean that it is right. Congregations should decide their fate, not some bureaucrat in a district or Synodical office.

Yesterday I received a free sample of Starbuck’s newest product – Via, their instant coffee. A friend of mine out in the Chicagoland area has tried it (the company is test marketing the product in their stores there) and said he liked it.

This morning I boiled some water and made a cup – not too bad. Full-bodied and actually tastes like coffee, not like other instants that taste like chemical compounds glued together with a little coffee flavor. This actually tasted like coffee.

The ‘guys’ were here at church this morning putting up a church sign on our front lawn. I took a group of pictures via my iPhone and uploaded them to my gallery on Me.com. Click here to see the small amount of photos. And when you’re in church tomorrow, thank Ed, Lee, Channing, and Martin for all their hard work.

1. Updated our weekly parish calendar page to include not only the coming week, but also our Holy Week schedule. This year, I will be holding a noontime prayer service several days during Holy Week. Please consider joining me for prayer at midday. Afterwards, we can go to lunch.

2. Also updated our Announcements tab – we’ll be using this section for meeting minutes and other church announcements during the week.

3. Start thinking about a bible study time after Easter Sunday – I am playing around with a lunch time study @ the Garden Cafe here in New Milford. Let me know if you like this idea. Additionally, consider either a pre-service or an after-service bible class. 

4. Ever think about having a weekly outdoors coffee-iced tea time after our Sunday services in the summer?