Saint Matthew's

Over at my private blog, I pulled back on my anger regarding my Wednesday rant over Logos 4 and Logos.com. After cooling off, settling down, and organizing my thoughts, I punching out a post giving more explanation on why I am frustrated with them. Read it here.

I’ve invested thousands of dollars on my pastor’s library, a major chunk of it at Logos.com that offers electronic versions of theological books including Luther’s Works, various CPH tomes, and terrific Greek and Hebrew language resources. For pastors, their library is their professional life.

For me, having a vast amount of my library in electronic form is a blessing. The time-saving researching capabilities alone make having an electronic library a must nowadays.

But …

Ever since Logos upgraded their program engine to “Logos 4,” the ability to use my electronic resources has become impossible. When they introduced their Logos 4 product, they introduced a full-featured Windows version that had all the bells and whistles that they promised. To Mac users, they promised that one day in the future, they would come out with some product that may equal the Windows version. For Mac users, they’ve rolled out useless and buggy Mac test programs that, to be honest, are worthless.

I’ve given up using my electronic library for that reason — Logos’ Mac products stink. I don’t own a Windows’ computer. While the rest of the universe is able to produce compatible Mac programs, Logos can’t. Instead, they take our money and hand us electronic junk as we Mac users hope for one day to have a product that is workable.

I am not the only one who feels this way — their own forum on Logos 4 is filled with complaints. Even my friends who have Macs and have used the Mac test programs Logos sends out are equally angry and dismayed that they have been ignored for so long.

This afternoon, just for fun, I opened up the Logos 4 application on my iMac and was prompted to download an update. Great. Another junky beta product that will constant crash. For fun, I downloaded it. After opening it up, it looked the same as before. But there was one major difference — nearly my entire electronic library was missing.

Everything except the Septuagint (the Old Testament written in Greek).

Luther’s Works. Gone. The various commentaries and language resources I purchased. Gone. Even the latest Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, gone.

So basically I’ve been duped by this company. They’ve taken my money with a smile and handed me junk and now they’ve have taken my library because their product doesn’t work.

I really am not happy.

See, it is not odd for a writer/reporter to enter the Office of the Holy Ministry, though this one is not entering Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

John Wilson, a columnist and editorial writer for the New York Post, is hanging up his pen and pad for some priestly vestments.

The 25-year-old worked his last day at the News Corp offices on Friday, after a send-off party at the Blarney Stone. He will be entering a seminary in Yonkers in two weeks.

And that Roman Catholic seminary is Saint Joseph’s in the Dunwoodie section of my hometown.

(via PolitickerNY – New York Observer)

Picking the newspapers up this morning, someone in the neighborhood asked me if everything was OK since I haven’t posted in a week. Assuring her that I’ve been battling a bout with summer writing laziness, I thought it was time I wrestled with this demon of laziness.

So, I have.

OK – quickly. Yes, parts of the site haven’t been updated in a while. That changes this morning, including this blog.

Yes, we have Divine Service this evening at 7:00pm. You’re invited.

Yes, we will continue our study of the Lutheran Confessions tonight, hopefully finishing up a look at the Creeds of the Church.

Yes, my schedule has been, and will continue to be, a roller coaster over the next couple of days. This morning, working in the home office followed by work in the church office and a visit at midday (brings me to noon). This afternoon, a conference call at 2, a telephone counseling session, and time set aside to prepare for tonight (sermons and studies don’t write themselves).

That’s it for a now – heading into church for Morning Prayer.

When the announcer came on The Weather Channel Friday evening and said that our part of Bergen County was under a Tornado Warning, I was kind of surprised since the words ‘tornado’ and ‘New Jersey’ aren’t usually used in the same sentence very often. But there they were, the words spoken by the announcer proclaiming that Bergen was facing a rough storm that could produce a tornado. The storm passed through New Milford with relative ease—a little wind, some rain, lots of lightning, all of which could be categorized as a “regular” summertime thunderstorm.  Oh, the storm did knock out power in our neighborhood (the third time we’ve had an extended power outage this summer), but after five hours, the lights came back on.

Recently, there have been a number of weather disasters that have struck our country, including our own here in Northern New Jersey. We’ve prayed for these communities who have been hit by these terrible storms, and by the grace of God, these communities are rebuilding and returning to normal. While our flooding and fallen trees won’t soon be forgotten by anyone, it was the flooding in Nashville, TN a couple of months ago that unnerved me a bit. To see the home of country music, the Grand Ole Opry, under water was heartbreaking. Yet through the heartache of these disasters, God’s people came together to pray and help one another get back on their feet. There was an overwhelming love of neighbor that took hold of people’s hearts and minds and they worked together to make what was old better than was there before.

Helping those in need. That is what we do as Christians. We don’t expect anything in return; we just help. When trees covered roadways and power lines were down, here in NJ neighbors helped neighbors get through the hardship. My friends, this is the love of Christ in action, the faithful pulling together to help. When we talk about a faith in action, this is what it all means.

Thankfully, no tornadoes were spun off on Friday night. The storm was intense, but by God’s mercy, we came through the night fine. Now only if they can do something about these power outages here in our neighborhood…

Early this morning, I sat in the living room at home staring out the window. There was a refreshing breeze blowing out of the northwest, a blessed sign that the warned about coming heatwave had not arrived just yet. Cooler than recent mornings, the breeze blew into the house, cooling down the rooms and trying to break the back of the indoor humidity. With the New York Post shining up from the iPad and a cup of Senseo dark roast coffee in the cup, it was a normal summer morning, finally.

Of the past several weeks, my days have been confusingly hectic when they really shouldn’t have been. Little calendar events ended up taking more than the time I allotted for them on my schedule. Paperwork because overwhelming. I’ve been struggling to find time to do anything for myself. There are times when I want to turn off the telephone, unhook the internet connection, and just find a quiet place to relax for the briefest of moments. So far this summer, these have been hard to come by; even on my scheduled Monday day off.

But this morning, with the eastern sun peeking through clouds being pushed on ahead by that nice northwest breeze, nothing.

Peaceful, for the briefest of moments.

In Morning Prayer, we’ve been reading the Gospel of Matthew. Every time I read that Jesus took some time away from the crowds and His disciples, I wonder what went through His mind. Of course, we know our Lord Jesus took time to pray, as the Gospel writer clearly tells us. But what of those times when Jesus was just walking to a solitary place, when He arrived and found a place to rest? What kind of restful peace did He find in those very short periods when no one was near Him?

I know for me, this brief moment of nothing provided me a moment to catch my breath, to begin to clear out the cobwebs and focus a little better on the tasks for today.

Nothing. Sometimes that is nice.

(reprinted from reviovine.com)

It’s 10 after 10pm and finally, I can close the book on this Tuesday. A funeral, added hospital visits, and a long counseling session, it feels good to yank my foot off the accelerator. I probably shouldn’t have had that last cup of coffee at around 8:30 and I will probably pay for it with a restless sleep, but that last jolt of caffeine really was needed to get over that final hurdle to close out this Tuesday.

My Wednesday and Thursday appear to be more conducive to getting office things done (tomorrow I need to lock myself in, at least in the morning, so I can tackle pre-sermon and service work that I’ve pushed off the past two days). Then there is our Wednesday night service and bible class, both of which need my attention at sometime during tomorrow. And that list of return phone calls – right now it stands at 7. Oh, and I have to find time to cook for the New Milford Senior Center’s “International Pot Luck” on Thursday.

But my reading list needs some attention – the newest “Law and Gospel” revision has been sitting bedside for a couple of days; Vince Flynn’s latest book can’t read itself; and I have newspapers (electronically, that is) piled up on my iPad that I may just have to delete.

That is it for Tuesday.

Early this morning, my cell phone rings (which, in a sense is a good thing since I have an iPhone on AT&T and 75 percent of the time, I can’t make telephone calls from inside the house). A nurse from a local hospital was on the other end. She asked me if I could come into the emergency room to provide some pastoral care for a gentleman who fell at home last night. I haven’t had a hospital emergency pastoral care phone call in a while, so I get up and get out in record time.

As I was driving to the hospital, it eventually occurs to me that a man falling at home usually never warrants a pastoral care visit. When the caffeine started to kick in, I  worried that the story the nurse gave me wasn’t the whole mess. And yes, the word “mess” fits this story perfectly.

Arriving at the hospital, I am taken behind a curtain where I find a young man with a large bandage is wrapped around his head while his doting wife sat beside him, holding his hand. The nurse leaves us alone and we talk. So far, nothing too dramatic. The man fell late last night and hit his head on their kitchen table. His wife said he had a bit much to drink at their Father’s Day party they held for their dads. I said a prayer and walked out from behind the curtain.

In speaking with the nurse, I was told that the loving couple only supplied me with a part of the story. Yes, the man had a little a teeny bit too much to drink at their party. But she urged me to go back in and prod them to tell me the entire story. With my interest piqued, I did so. The updated story — thankfully not covered by any sort of pastoral care silence rules — had me thinking about the movie “War of the Roses” where a longtime married couple was on the road to divorce, but they both wanted their luxury house. The entire film was centered around their comedic physical fight against one another. The movie was terrific and funny. Sadly, in the end of the film, it is surmised that the couple tragically died when falling from a chandelier.

My couple wasn’t so bad. They allegedly argued over their collective dad’s party. During their argument, instead of picking up a drinking glass or a roll of paper towels, the women allegedly picked up the toaster and may have flung it across the room that may or may not have hit her husband in the head, possibly causing him to fall and whack his head on their kitchen table. With the need of multiple stitches (and a possible concussion) and because his loving wife could not stitch up her husband’s wounds, the caring wife drove her husband to the hospital where his injuries were repaired. His headache, which may have come from the toaster, his fall into the kitchen table, or even the bottomless pit of beer he drank on Sunday, was this man’s worst problem.

I smiled when I listened, trying my best not to laugh. Yet, I giggled, which neither husband or wife appreciated, let me tell you.

And, of course, my giggle turned to outright laughter when the husband said that he didn’t remember what happened. He just remembers sitting in the car with a towel on his head while his wife drove him to the hospital. Puh-leeze!! Playing the good pastor in these early hours, I urged them to seek some sort of marriage counseling. I offered to say another prayer with them, but they forcefully declined (I think, “Can you please leave, now?!” was their way of asking me step out).

After walking out from behind the curtain the second time, I storm over to the desk asking them why they called me for this train wreck. One of the nurses said that since the police couldn’t do anything since the injured, yet loved beyond all human understanding by his doting and caring wife of about a year or so couldn’t remember how he got hurt, this couple needed to hear someone explain that the two of them should get some help. “Couldn’t you people do that? Why wake me up to come do this dirty work?,” I asked.

“Because we like the way you do the things you do.”

What they meant was that at times, I can give abrupt advice, something that most pastoral care agents in hospitals refrain from doing. Nearly every pastoral care visit is centered around people being sick or facing a long health battle; we pastoral care agents bring God to the scared and worried, and when facing an unknown future, we clergy provide some kind of peace. Then, of course, there are times when illness is not the central role in hospital calls. There are times when family members of the sick don’t understand why doctors and nurses aren’t providing the most immediate care for their loved ones and we pastoral care agents try to calm them down. But there are those times when the sick or injured get involved in some other “issues” whereby pastoral care is needed on a deeper spiritual level. In these situations, the need for care is rarely seen by the sick. It is in these events when I can be a little abrupt with spiritual or life advice, and apparently someone at the hospital noticed and felt that in this case, the couple needed someone to tell them to get counseling.

After giving them the evil eye (its an Italian thing), I told them not to call me the rest of the day.

But my story doesn’t end here: As I was leaving, the wife came from behind the curtain and called out to me. Afraid that she had some other sort of kitchen appliance in her purse, I cautiously turn around. The woman came up to me and apologized for being so “snippy.” She said that she and her husband had a fight and that they would work through their issues. Thanking me for coming to visit and she walked back to her husband’s cubby. Maybe some Godly words had an effect.

All I could think of as I walked out of the hospital this morning was that if I were the husband, I would stop eating toast and sell the toaster on eBay. I would probably also get rid of the blender, food processor, toaster oven, microwave, and all knives in their kitchen, just to be safe.

And as I got into my car and fiddled for my parking pass, I realized that once again it was Monday —- TODAY’S MY DAY OFF!! Ugh!!

Today is going to be one of those busy ones, though I am not complaining. My Wednesday is chock full of pastoral care work. I’ll be running most of the day, officiating at a funeral here in NJ with the committal in Westchester County, then running off to two visits prior to tonight’s midweek divine service and bible class.

Busy. But good.

Click to read my first (on the website, that is) Theological Thought over at our sermons and worship section of our website.

(The following is a new regular post on living the Christian life in the public square.)

Years ago when I was working in politics, one evening I was at bar on McLean Avenue in Yonkers, New York having a drink with an old time New York politician. Between sips of Scotch, he turned to me and said that he was saddened by our modern day political discourse. He remembered that at one time, Republicans and Democrats would be able to go toe-to-toe in the political boxing ring during the day, and at night, they would be able to sit across from one another and hoist “a cold one” knowing that even after their battles over substantive issues, they would be friendly toward one another. He complained that since the 1950s and 1960s, politics had taken a sour turn, and now, the poison and vitriol that were once not part of the debate had become commonplace. Politicians nowadays don’t have friends on the “other side” of the aisle. They only hang out with people with whom they agreed. In today’s body politic, if one politician disagrees with another, they go to battle in hopes of destroying the other.

During the past decade, there is no perfect example of this as protesters who disagreed with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney spent a considerable amount of time calling our leaders “Nazis” and “terrorists” and “murderers” all because the protesters disagreed with their policies on waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, President Barack Obama is called a “socialist” and a traitor to American because of his health care plan.

Within the church, coarseness of debate over theological issues has been ratcheted up to angry levels. Even in our Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, this coarseness has been seen in varying issues related to the heterodoxy of pastors and individual churches within our fellowship.

But it is recently within our local community where this coarseness of debate is evident. Honest disagreements over issues and elections have soured to a point where calling names is believed to be better than actual debate. The President of the county’s teacher’s union jokingly “prayed” that since God took home a number of famous people this leader liked, he reminded God that he really liked Governor Chris Christie, thus a terrible joke “praying” for the death of our Governor because the two men disagreed over union contract costs.

And last week, within the pages of the Twin Boro News, our local weekly newspaper, we read a letter that opened up with the following sentence:

For the record, I think Gov. Christie is an idiot.

Have we reached a point within our societal discourse where calling our leaders names and wishing for their death counts as debate?

The letter writer disagreed with Governor Christie’s work on trying to reduce New Jersey’s huge budget deficit. Instead of starting the letter with a sentence that explained her disagreement, she disrespected our governor by calling him a very childish word.

Now, this is not to say that her argument regarding the education budget made logical sense — I just wouldn’t read it because of the pubescent manner in which is started. This pushed me to ponder why our society cannot honestly disagree over issues any more? What has happened to reasoned debate using rhetorical devices that don’t stoop into the sewer? Why has a vast amount of our debate style and rhetoric has devolved into something found on the playground, a sort of exercise that can best be described as ” Your Momma Wears Combat Boots?”

As Christians, refraining from using dastardly language is hard since our sinfulness bubbles up faster than our righteousness. It is so much easier to call someone names rather than taking time to debate or talk about an issue. Yet, it is the Eighth Commandment that is staring us in the face, urging us to keep those bad words from coming out of our mouths. Even though our neighbors may not subscribe to the same understanding about the law of God and how it is used in our daily lives, we Lutherans need to remind ourselves daily of what it means to be a child of God. It is easy to call someone “an idiot,” granted, but as a Christian, why should we stoop so low and sin in this manner?

At times, I’ve fallen prey to these dastardly rhetorical devices, and I’ve pleaded for God’s forgiveness when I’ve acted in this very unrighteous manner. But as a society — as a community — we need to challenge ourselves to live by the words of Jesus Christ, who implored His followers to live their lives by loving and acting good toward others. This doesn’t mean disagreements must cease being disagreements, but when we as a people find ourselves on opposite sides of an issue, our first motivation should be to respect those on the other side, giving their opinions a fair hearing, and allowing ourselves to express our opinion in a similar manner. Aren’t arguments more intellectually effective when the name-calling, back biting, and attacking are left out of the debate? Oh, the debate will be a little more boring, but at least we would feel better knowing that when we open our local newspaper, people will be able to express themselves like adults and not espousing childish name-calling.

After Lent and Easter, I hit a wall. Of course, I didn’t hit a wall literally because that would hurt.

No, I hit a wall figuratively. I have been burning the candle at both ends for a while (even before Lent, mind you). Even on my scheduled day off in the week (Monday), I’ve been finding time to work, whether on the coming weekend’s services or on visits. Considering that I end working throughout the the rest of the week, eventually I was going to crash and burn.

And it happened after Easter.

I had no motivation to write or study or read. In fact, I entered what can best be described as a potted plant phase. While I went on visits and did church work, I didn’t perform up to my expectations. I was mailing it in. And after mailing in that part of the pastoral life, I was basically a potted plant. I sat a lot. I listened to the radio a lot. Even watched television (no, I wasn’t catching up from my self-imposed denial during Lent). OK. I watched a lot of television and came to the conclusion that there really is no reason to pay for it.

But I have reached a point where I have shake myself out of the crash and burn doldrums.

Last night while watching the Yankees-Red Sox and Canucks-Blackhawks games, I started to shake myself out of the crash and burn doldrums. Oh, I didn’t do anything productive. I just started to make a Monday plan of what I wanted to accomplish. First, I wanted to start a “Verse of the Day” here on the blog. Check. I wanted to blog on just about anything. Check. I want to straighten out my home office (the “Pastor’s Study” as the sign on the door says). I want to wash clothes and clean the house. I want to go to the bank. I want to pay my internet and home telephone bill at Cablevision.

Just a few of the little things that will wake me up and whack my backside to get me back into gear.

I’ve exorcised my writing demons – I will get back to the blog tomorrow morning. In a previous post, I mentioned a “Verse of the Day” post possibility. Tomorrow, it will be an every morning post. Otherwise, I do have a number of items I would like to stretch out including a pastoral response to a recent letter to the editor in the Twin Boro news.

It should be fun.

Considering I haven’t posted in a while, I think a quick notes post is appropriate:

- This past week, pastor friends of mine visited our Northern New Jersey hub. We spent time down at the shore (not that anything was open, but took the time to relax and laugh at old seminary stories), in New York City (Hayden Planetarium, Statue of Liberty, and Artie’s), and around our Bergen County area. It was  a fun to reminisce about days in the seminary and talk about issues each of face in the parish. They joined us here at Saint Matthew’s on Wednesday night at our Divine Service. On Friday morning, I drove them to LaGuardia Airport (actually, this is the closest major airport near New Milford) as they returned to their homes in North Dakota and northern Indiana.

One of the more interesting parts of their trip occurred on our visit to the Hayden Planetarium. We watched “Journey to the Stars,” a video narrated by Whoopi Goldberg that described the scientific understanding of the universe. Whenever a clergyman watches a science-based movie or video, our God-antenna is raised. While God reminds us that the end of the world will come like a thief in the night, the video stated rather emphatically that in 5 Billion years, the sun is basically going to fade away and that life on earth may or may not be different than what it is today. Well, I still keep my eggs in God’s basket.

- There has been some discussion regarding the possible T-Mobile cellular flag pole on our property and what it means to Saint Matthew’s and our status as a tax-exempt organization. When the cellular flag pole is erected, the portion of the property that is used for a “business” purpose would be taxable. That means, the square footage outside and inside of the church where any “business” related equipment would be stationed would fall under taxable status. This doesn’t mean the entire church property would be taxable. It is only that small portion of the property that is being used by a business entity would be taxable.

- Toby Keith’s “American Ride,” Carrie Underwood’s “Play On,” and Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” albums are three of my favorite right now.

- This weekend, we celebrate Good Shepherd weekend. The fruits of Jesus’ cross are highlighted in our readings as the love of God truly shines through.