Marc’s Musings

Last year I wrote a post on alternative names for a Super Bowl party. It seems the NFL is going after churches and organizations calling their parties “Super Bowl Parties.” They claim it’s copyright infringement!

Get a life.

Well, in order to not have to deal with a cease-and-desist letter, I’m pleased to announce that we’ll be having a Salad Bowl Party on February 3 starting around 6 p.m.

We’ll probably have a TV on and tuned to an athletic event involving a ball that is in a person’s hand more often than on their foot. We may even have some Pats on the back but not for any Giants.

We already have some chips and salsa. But feel free to bring any drink or chips or, yes, salads.

And feel free to invite your friends!

We’re always looking for new (and even quirky) ways to show our community God’s love in practical ways.

Sam’s Club sells a box of 28 packets of this microwave popcorn for about $6.40. So a couple weeks ago I bought 10 boxes! And this week, I got my outreach card order from OvernightPrints.com. So last night, I attached the cards to 140 packets (5 boxes).

Now a local party store has a box to give away, the library has a box to give away, and the local homeless shelter has a couple boxes.

At the shelter, I asked if the popcorn would be a blessing. They immediately said “Yes!” As I passed it to them, I explained that we believe lots of people have heard of God’s love but very few have actually seen it in practical ways.

Before I could even finish that brief explanation, a woman I’d never seen before blurted out, “You must be the Vineyard!”

Wow. I was about 6 inches off the ground when I walked out.

Everybody’s going to have a rep. I’m glad serving people in practical ways is ours!!

I just heard a review about this on NPR.

It sounds amazing.

I sure hope it comes close to me!!

Here are the caucuses for Waterville:

Republican
Feb 2 at 10 a.m. at the City Council Chambers downtown

Democrat
Feb 10 at 2 p.m. at the Waterville Public High School

As far as I can tell, approximately 6 people in each party are active.

Democracy is dependent on all people being involved.

If you live in Waterville, Maine please, turn out.

If you don’t live in Waterville…well you can always dream you did.

Listening to political pundits on NPR yesterday, I heard on say that Bill Clinton’s attacks on Obama are troublesome.

The reason they were troubling was that Bill is being a loose cannon. Despite saying Hillary will be the decider, he definitely has his own opinions. The pundit pointed out that this could lead to a vocally divided White House.

I don’t think I’ll be voting for Hillary. (But I’m not really pleased with the mess of the Republican “front runners” right now so who knows!) I honestly believe that it’s time we had a female president. But I think Bill is a real liability.

Can you imagine if Laura Bush were speaking out against the excesses of the current administration, like warrantless wire tapping? As refreshing as that might be, it would be incredibly confusing for the country.

I sure hope Bill quiets down and becomes an asset for his wife.

This quote reminds me of what I spoke about on Sunday when talking about the importance of the stories we believe about ourselves.

Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.

- Charles Swindoll

I could’ve just got up, read that, and said, “Yeah. What Chuck said.”

To hear the sermon yourself, go to the Vineyard Church of Waterville sermons page.

This morning I found myself praying defensive prayers. “God protect us.” “God please war on our behalf.” Stuff like that.

Good stuff. Don’t get me wrong. God needs to be fighting our battles if anything is going to happen.

But defensive-only prayers remind me of the holiness I see of the religious in Jesus’ time. Their holiness was a fragile commodity, one easily broken.

They couldn’t touch certain people or eat certain food or do certain things. If they did, the “holiness” would be shattered and they’d have to start over.

In this world-view, evil seems stronger. It easily taints the holy ones of God. It is so strong, it could passively make you unclean. You get slimed by going into the “wrong” places or being around the “wrong” people.

Defensive only lifestyle leads too building bigger walls for us to hide behind. “Christian” music. “Christian” books. “Christian” movies. It doesn’t matter whether they’re of inferior quality. At least they’re “safe.”

Not so with Jesus.

Jesus hung out with all the wrong people in many of the wrong places. Jesus talked to prostitutes, touched lepers, he even touched the dead!

Rather than shattering his holiness, he made them whole. His Life was so robust, it imparted Life to others.

He was like a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. No stain was too strong for him. He came in and left people and places cleaner than he’d found them.

That’s how I want to be. If I truly believe He’s living me, transforming me into His image, than I too am filled with this infectious Life.

So, in addition to defensive prayers, I’m committing to pray Magic Eraser prayers too.

Yesterday after church, Caleb looked at his electronic, handheld Connect Four game and said, “Dad, it seems like alot of my toys say ‘Made in China’ on them.”

I said, “Yes Cale, more and more of our things in the US are being purchased from China.”

Cale: “Well then, shouldn’t we be selling more and more stuff over there too?”

Talk about a proud father! He gets it!

So we had a little lesson on global economics:

• how free enterprise involves getting goods for the least cost
• but how in our global society, the least cost often is the product of slave labor or inhuman conditions. (I’m currently reading IJM’s Terrify No Moreabout the ongoing problems of bond slaves and human trafficking are.)
• And how we should be carefully weighing the real cost of our purchases between dollars and cents and the values of freedom and dignity that we hold dear.

All this as we were driving into our local Wal-mart.

Ironic, no?

I was honored to give the invocation at today’s Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast.

This was the first time I’ve written an invocation down. Mine are normally off the cuff. (It’s amazing how similar the content “off the cough” or “moved by the Spirit” prayers can be. Usually some thankfulness for the weather and for the people present. And sadly little else.)

This event seemed worthing of a written prayer. I guess my Episcopalian roots were showing.

Being a good Gen-Xer, I googled “MLK Invocations.” I figured with multiple editions of the Book of Common Prayer online, surely there would be some MLK day invocations I could use for a starting point.

I was wrong.

All that search and many other variations brought up were the names of others giving invocations at MLK events.

*sigh*

So I started where I should’ve any way: asking God to give me the words. (Actually, I think I did ask that when I hit the “search” button on Google too…)

Here’s what I came up with. I’m posting it for two reasons:

1. maybe it will be a starting point for others in my situation using Google with similar results and
2. It’ll be easier for me to find this in the future. I’ll never find the journal I wrote it in if I’m asked to do this next year!

Here it is:

Let us pray.

Lord, we welcome Your Presence here. Thank Your for the life and legacy of Your son, Martin Luther King, Jr. May this time together not be merely a check off of our annual “to-do” list, not merely self-righteous remembrance of some slowly fading past.

Lord, please take this offering of our time and attention and fill us with the same Spirit that compelled Your son Martin. Let all of us, as people of our respective faiths, move toward dismantling injustice in all of its various forms–even here in the Greater Waterville region.

And in particular, may those of us who are followers of Jesus, be as captivated by the person of Jesus as Your son Martin so that we would strive to see the day when every tribe, every tongue, and every nation worship You with no division but in Spriit and in Truth.

We ask this in Your precious Name.

And all God’s people said:

Amen

Amazing Grace will be the movie for the men’s small group this week. This one is another 2-hour movie so we’ll start at 7 p.m. sharp at my house.

You don’t have to go to our church to come! But you do need to have the correct chromosomes.