Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Stolen from Gunfighter.

1. What is your occupation right now? Vicar (intern Pastor) at Hope Lutheran Church Calgary, AB

2. What color are your socks right now? beige-y.

3. What are you listening to right now? 'High Society' (movie that the coDirector and the Boys are watching)

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Spicy turkey wraps for lunch

5. Can you drive a stick shift? yup. 5, 6, 10, 13, 15, and 18 gears as well as Caterpillars.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?office administrator.

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? nobody sent this to me. But I do like the person who's blog I stole this off of.

8. How old are you today? 27. Married and father of two. What have the rest of you accomplished?

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
rally car racing.

10. What is your favorite drink?
ice water.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? nope. shaved it, though.
12. Favorite food? pizza

13. What is the last movie you watched? Hitman.

14. Favorite day of the year? Christmas.

15. How do you vent anger?
grr.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? pet dog (I spent more time with it than any toy!)

17. What is your favorite season? winter

18.. Cherries or Blueberries? blueberries.

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
no. But they could post this themselves.

20. Who is the most likely to respond? dunno.

21. Who is least likely to respond? dunno.

22. Living arrangements? myself, the co-Director, and the Boys in a 2-bedroom suite.

23. When was the last time you cried? holding my youngest after he was born.

24. What is on the floor of your closet? a lot of my wife's crap!

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you're sending this to? again, not sending it to anyone.

26. What did you do last night? watched a movie...the rest is not fit for a 'G' audience

27. What are you most afraid of? losing one of my children

28. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburger? mmm...burger...(drools)

29. Favorite dog breed? border collie!

30. Favorite day of the week? Sunday


31. How many states have you lived in? I live in Canada! long live socialism!

32. Diamonds or pearls? how in the name of holy hell am I supposed to be able to afford either?

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

(#@#$%## holiday ads!

okay...I thought I could make it.

I thought I could make it through this season without standing on my soapbox and preaching on my corner. But I can't.

Because people, this has gone too far. The radio ads for useless crap have gotten worse since Christmas, if you can believe it. So let me add a couple of observations of my own:

I heard an ad for a jewelry outlet store, urging people to use their payment plan for a $4000 diamond engagement ring. They even had the audacity to say that they would accept other rings if women wanted to 'trade up' the one they'd received. Another commercial equated the size of the diamond with the amount of love the person offering it held for the person who was supposed to be receiving it.

To all the guys reading this, let me point this out: if she thinks the size of the diamond matters, or tells you outright what she wants, or wants to pick it out herself,

RUN!

Run fast, run far, and do not, under any circumstances turn around. Only prostitutes accept gifts for some sort of love.

To all the women reading this: if you feel that you're being given a ring to fix something broken in your relationship, or to keep you longer, or to tie you to someone,

RUN!

Run fast, run far, and do not, under any circumstances, turn around. You cannot be bought and paid for, although society tells you that you should be.

On to the next. To all those parents who think that your little darling children desperately need that $500 toy, don't buy it. Instead, try spending a little time with them, unless you've already ruined them.

And yes, I say ruined them, because it's YOUR fault they're shallow, thoughtless little sociopaths. Not the fault of their teachers, friends, television watching, or anything else. The greatest gift you can give your children is that of doing without.

Men: you married the woman you love. Trying to get her spa treatments, gym memberships, yoga classes, Mexico vacations, or anything else will not change the fact that you are both getting older and the changes of age are not always glamourous.

Women: face it, the man you married is the same man you live with now. Buying him gym memberships, bikes, quads, or any other useless crap will not change the fact that he is still the man you married.

You cannot change each other. The most you can do is be the best person that you can be for your partner because you know they don't deserve less than that.

Kids: ignore the TV. better yet; smash it with a hammer. You have my permission. Turn off the friggin' computer; leave facebook alone, burn your Ipod, and stuff your cellphone in the toilet.

Then try going outside and TALKING to other people. Yes, they're boring. Yes, they're rude. But you know what? People are like that! The reason why most people you meet outside your fekking electronic world seem so boring is because they are! But it's pretty difficult to pretend you're thinner, prettier, or more popular than you are when you're face-to-face with someone.

And one more thing: yes, Call to Duty and Halo are fun to play. But here's an idea. If playing soldier is that much fun, go out and BE one. Step into a recruiting office near you and give yourself a Christmas present: a whirlwind tour of all the hotspots in the world. Free room and board.

And maybe, when you come back, you might be able to better distinguish between reality and fantasy.

That the love you share with the woman you love makes the most expensive diamond ring look dull.

That when you look with love at that woman, you see that she really is the most beautiful woman in the world.

That she sees in you all the things you know you aren't, but wish you could be. And you know that you'll do your damndest to BE that person for her.

And that no amount of toys or games can take away YOUR responsibility in the lives of your children.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Sermon for Thursday December 25, 2008

Christmas Day
Text: Luke 2: (1-7), 8-20

I read a book a this past summer that conveyed a very simple message to the reader – that keeping a population in a constant state of fear makes it easier to be controlled. Reading that book, then looking around at my world, I see how in fact we are encouraged to be in a constant state of fear, if not despair, at all times.

Newspaper headlines scream about the economic catastrophe. Four days – four days!! – of weather headlines proclaimed the arrival of a snowstorm and cold snap that is really neither unexpected nor surprising for our geographic location and climate. If we don’t have snow tires, all wheel drive, four wheel drive, or traction control, we’re warned that we may not even make it out of our drive way without becoming buried in an avalanche of biblical proportions.

And for what? Would this even have made headlines 60 years ago? A generation ago, winter came and went with nary a peep. I’ve read newspaper articles from 1929 and 1930 that do more to foster hope in these circumstances than the blithest financial commentator on CNN.

And that’s just local news, really. Watch the international news and…well, if you can make it through the international news without strong medication you’re a better person than I. Even human interest stories – the Duggar family, for example, who just welcomed their 18th child – are tempered by editorial and reader comments that spout off such gems as “don’t they know that many children is too many for the environment to support,” and “don’t they know they’re hurting their children by not allowing them the room to be individuals?”

And I won’t even comment on the health and lifestyle news.

Fear. Fear that you’re not doing enough. That you’re not doing something right. That the world is coming to an end as a direct result of you and your choices. Fear that death from dubious circumstances lurks just beyond your sofa.

Even religion prospers from fear – throughout its history Christianity has certainly been guilty of promulgating conversion through the threat of fiery hell while at the same time condemning other religions that use the same tactics. In the Small Catechism Martin Luther begins every explanation with the statement “we are to fear and love God…”

Paraphrasing Adrian Rogers, a former president of the Southern Baptist Conventions, your Vicar would argue that most – if not all – of the problems of the world stem from 3 things –
1. sin
2. sorrow,
3. and death.
And those three problems are, in fact, fuelled by fear.

Because people fear the unknowns of the world they turn inwards to themselves and seek only their own advancement – sin.

Because they fear sorrow as the inevitable consequence of love they seek superficiality in relationships and use others as they themselves are used; and the fear of death that leads people to focus solely on their own immortality – through money, wealth, fame – as the expense of others.

St John writes in his first letter (1 John 4:18), “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment.” The root problem of fear is that it is irrevocably tied with the idea of punishment or retribution for what we’ve done wrong. Fear paralyzes us, leaving us unable to move outwards to engage in relationships and it freezes our attentions onto ourselves and we need to do.

And God comes into this world? Into this world of fear the Eternal Word becomes flesh and comes to us? Yes! That is exactly what happens. Into this world of fear and fright and terror God comes a single solitary baby. And this baby did not become God – indeed, God became flesh and dwelt among us so that fear would cease.

Rather than living as humans doing all those things that kept us from punishment we would instead become humans being in relationship with each other because that fear of punishment is lifted.

When the angels appeared to the shepherds who were in the fields, they brought with them a message that contained three instructions:
1.) do not fear.
2.) Look.
3.) See.
Three simple messages.

Do not fear. The shepherds were terrified, as would we be if the night sky over Huntington Hills was suddenly populated by a celestial chorus wreathed in blinding light. But their fear also had to do with the fact that, by and large, the angels in Old Testament stories are not usually ‘nice’ – they wrestle with you, or are part of a ginormous army, or are there to test you somehow – they aren’t cute, round, cuddly cherubim that look like Keiran with fluffy wings. They big, powerful, and carry with them the terrifying reality that God actually exists and quite possibly is mad at you.

But that night, the message they brought was different. Do not fear. That’s a common message in Scripture; that combination of words – ‘do not fear’ occur some 400 times in the 66 books of our Bible. But the angels brought something different. Instead of “do not fear, because the Lord is with you,” they brought the message ‘do not fear, because to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ, the Lord.” Instead of God being with them in spirit, in the form of those militant angels striding the field of battle God was with them in their humanity; in the great colossal theological mess that we label “the Incarnation” and let it be.

Do not fear, because you have a Saviour. Go and look at him.

Look. Go and look at where he is. Your king is born, not in a palace or castle but in a stable, and laid in a manger. Look not in the things or places of power in your world – where you are told the beautiful people are – but look in the everyday for the presence of God. In the manger, in the pages of a holy Book you will find the Christ, for he is present with you. You no longer need to seek out God’s face because that tiny, chubby face is looking right back at you. Look at it.

And see. See the glory of God and the presence of Christ in your lives. Yes, there’s a choir of angels in the night sky forming a celestial combo that’s rocking the world. But Christ is with you. See him. Because in becoming human, Christ was one of us so that we may find Christ in each of us.

One tiny baby. “Call him Joshua,” Mary was told. Yeshua, in Hebrew, meaning “Yahweh saves.” The Greek conquerors of a few centuries earlier left their linguistic legacy with Jesus. We call him the Christ – the Messiah, the saviour that was born that day – this day – in the city of David.

Not a delivered from oppression of an occupying army or the yoke of poverty – although these are indeed consequences when his message is taken and practiced and lived – but delivered from fear. From the fear of sin, sorrow, and death.

We talk of death-defying acts in our culture as those extreme-sports junkies who ski down mountains or parachute with a shopping bag from 60 000 feet. But those are death-inviting acts. You are participating in death-defying acts every morning you wake up, because you wake up baptized.

To defy death is to love Jesus Christ, and to love Christ is to bear out the expression of that love in relationships with each other. We maybe use different language, though – instead of death-defying, we call these things life-inviting. The incredible passion of this congregation for Inn from the Cold, the incredible response to the pleading of the Calgary Women’s Emergency shelter; the sense of mission that leads to the calling of more pastoral staff – all these things and all the others that you can possibly name invite into this community the presence of God and the gift of love.

I’ve often told confirmation classes and youth that I believe there are three things that are needed to have abundant life – God, love, and community. Those three things can exist separately, certainly, and even any two of them can coexist – but finding all three means finding everlasting life.

Do not fear. For God is with you and among you.
Look. For love is in you, and is a gift of God.
See. Because you are surrounded by community; as great a cloud of witnesses that has borne witness to the saving grace of Jesus Christ from the very beginning when the whole world was born by the breath of heaven.

You are a holy people; the redeemed of the Lord. You have been sought out. Go out and lift up your sign before all peoples: the message “Do not fear, for Christ is with you!”

Amen.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

8 Days

8 days was all it took.

8 days, since I announced at Hope that the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter needed help.

Economic conditions, combined with the ready supply of alcohol that is bought at this time of year, have resulted in a surge of domestic violence. For some women, the best hope they had for a Christmas without bruises or broken bones was a shelter that if they had room for them, possibly had no supplies.

I hate abusers with a passion that is almost holy. I'd be quite happy to break the arm of any man who's ever abused a woman or child, or his jaw so he'd keep his mouth shut. That wouldn't help the problem, though -- but at a place like CWES shelter women and children should have what they need. I knew that we could help with that problem.

Yesterday, I took a cheque for nearly $1500 down to to shelter -- donations made up out of spare bills, pocket change, and a lot of hope.

If by chance, you've been brought here by googling 'Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter,' please consider donating to them -- either directly or out of their Wish Book.

If you were looking for the shelter because abuse is a reality in your home, please seek out help. No love is love if it comes with bruises, broken bones, and scarring. There is a safer life for you -- and for your children -- with hope.

Thanks so much. God bless you.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

???

It's nice to know I'm not alone. Along with some other fine people, This drives me nuts.

Monday, December 15, 2008

if you're in the neighbourhood...

You ought to stop by. The Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter is desperately short of just about everything, so we're trying to do what we can.

So if, you're in the neighbourhood (and here in southern alberta that means within an hour or so's drive), you're invited!

Christmas Carol Sing-Along at Hope Lutheran Church
3527 Boulton Rd NW.
December 21, 2008, 3:00 p.m.
Come out and sing your favourite Christmas carols,
with The Range, Hope Lutheran Church's in-house band
and special guests.
Then join for some hot cocoa, cookies, and friendship after.
No charge for admission; but an offering will be taken
for the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter.
Come out for fun singing and support a worthy cause!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Sermon for Sunday, December 14, 2008

Text: John 1:6-8, 19-28

Let us pray…

Now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.

I am Michael Macintyre. I am a pastoral candidate in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada, a husband, a father, a son; I am…well, I’m lots of things. But somehow I can’t quite seem to capture everything in a list like this, so let me try again.

I am baptized. That’s the place to start. Usually, I tell people I was baptized. But, it’s occurred to me that if I were to tell people that I was married, you would likely either a) kick me out of this pulpit for idiocy (‘cause I know how lucky I am to have my wife); or b) offer your congratulations to said wife (‘cause I know how difficult I am to live with). I am married. I am baptized.

But what does that mean? Am I baptized United Church, you ask, or Lutheran, or Anglican, or whatever? Well, as a wise pastor in this congregation told me shortly after I came here, it doesn’t matter what denomination did the washing; Christ did the redeeming. I am a baptized Christian, a reality that shapes my worldview, my outlook, my values, and my identity.

Because I am baptized, I know that I am justified by the grace of God that I have received as gift through faith in Jesus Christ. In the words of that old hymn, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. It doesn’t mean that I am free of sin -- what we call our age-old rebellion before God – but it does mean that I am free of the sentence of death – death of soul – that is its end result.

I am baptized. I am free. Because I am free of working to redeem myself before God, I am free to turn and minister to those who live beside me, who in turn may need to hear that they too, can be free. I am free to bear witness to the light.

There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.

John was a scary sight. No pristine hair, no startling white alb, no suit, no tie. Mark tells us that John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and he ate locusts and wild honey. He didn’t smell all that bad, by virtue of standing in the river Jordan for so many hours of the day. But he was emaciated; his hair and beard matted by dirt.

Yet the people revered him as a man of God. Where he was, there were crowds of people who came to be baptized for the remission of their sins. He was so important that the Temple authorities sent men to question him; to find out exactly what he was about. Surely, such a popular holy figure must be someone important. So they sent priests and Levites – the cleanest of the clean – all the way from Jerusalem to where John was baptizing.

Who are you? They asked, meaning, are you someone we should trust and place our hope into? Are you one of us? Are you clean? Are you holy?

And John answered honestly. No. I am one who came to proclaim to you that though I baptize with water for the remission of sins, One who comes after me will wipe away all transgressions, one who is so powerful that I am unworthy to even touch his feet.

And the priests and Levites then asked, are you Elijah, who was supposed to come before? Or are you THE PROPHET – Moses? What are you talking about?

John answered again: I am one who proclaims the coming of the Lord, telling people to prepare themselves.

Again the priests: why then are you baptizing? Or more succinctly, why are you performing an official rite if you don’t have any official status?

And John replied: what I do doesn’t matter. All things will be through him.

The message John brought was one of hope: that for all the worries, cares, and demons that walked with the people who came to see him, he proclaimed that there would hope for the helpless, rest for the weary, and love for the broken heart.

That there would be grace and forgiveness and mercy and healing – for people wherever they were, no matter what. That for all who were broken, there would be wholeness. For those who suffered injustice, there would be justice. For all those who sat in deep darkness, there would be light.

There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.

To bear witness to the light means to bear witness to hope. Hope for those who feel hopeless and helpless:

- for everyone who’s lost someone they loved

- for everyone who struggles, just to hold on to today

- for the lonely, the lost, and the forsaken

- for the marriage that’s struggling just to hang on

- for the parents who can’t reach their children

- for all children whose nightmares come in the daytime

For all of us. For in Christ alone, all hope is found.

In our baptism we are joined together in the body of Christ. We are found, reborn children of God through Christ Jesus. In baptism, we become witnesses to the light of the world, the hope through which the world finds salvation.

We come to bear witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the light of the world, the light which no darkness can overcome. For He alone overcame the power of sin and death and brought to each of us everlasting life.

This is the promise that we receive at our baptism; the promise that we bear witness to. This is the song of creation, in which we unite and sing back to God, joining in the chorus of voices that proclaim the sovereignty of God in all creation, the incarnation of Christ in humanity, and the blessing of all of us in sanctity. We are holy, because Christ first was holy.

We are whole, because Christ made us whole. We are in Christ, because we are baptized. We are baptized; we are free. We are free to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, that because God so loved the world, he gave his only Son, that whosoever believed in him would not perish, but have life everlasting.

We remember God’s promise of salvation to the world; we remember Christ’s promise to return. We remember that Christ walked our path, first as a baby, so that we may walk with him, and not be lost.

There were people, sent from God, whose names were Grace, and Tanya, and Michael, and Stewart, and Margaret, and Norman, and Diäna, (their names are all the names spoken by the breath of God) -- all who were baptized into Christ Jesus. They came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through their witness. They were not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. And their song was joyous, and their reward was everlasting.

Amen.

Sound off!

for those of you who pass by this blog on your way to grander schemes, pause for a second, please.

When I woke up this morning, here in Calgary -- on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains -- it was -34 degrees celsius (that's -29.2 farenheit for you of the American persuasion).

So what I'd like to know, in the comments section before you toddle off, is the weather report from your neck of the woods.

Humour me~!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

missed....and hit.

So, I managed to avoid that old devil 'flu that's been stalking my house. In the midst of our toilet crapping out (pardon the pun) during out our little epidemic and the fact that Keiran is still pukey (smile-giggle-groan-puke-smile-giggle), I felt victorious.

But only for a little while. Last week I felt the tingly sensation at the back of my throat that signals a bout of my recurrent tonsilitis. So I attended to that.

But by Sunday afternoon I thought I was going to die. My sinuses were pounding. I have the worst sinus infection I've ever had. My hospital visits are cancelled for this week.

And I'm preaching this Sunday. Ick. Oh well, I guess if I sound like Boris Karloff telling the good news about Jesus Christ it'll make a good story for my internship review.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Christmas Tree

This is our Christmas Tree; I picked it up today.
What's that, you say? How nice! how cool!
But I for one was a bloody fool.

For in my desire to please my wife
I unknowingly endangered my life.

And came to the gradual conclusion
that my Christmas spirit may be an illusion.

'Cause as pleasing as the sight is to Her,
I, for one,
am allergic
to Balsam Fir.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

ick.

The 'flu made a visit to my house last night.

Boy2 and the co-Director are out of action. The Boy didn't want supper. This doesn't bode well.

Small mercy is that I'm not preaching tomorrow. But I still don't want to get sick.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

hm?

note: happened a couple of weeks ago, just didn't post.

me: (wearing a clerical collar, waiting to pay for gas)...

young lady: Father? can I ask a question?

me: (not bothering to correct the perception that I'm Anglican) Certainly.

yl: what do you think about spiritual people? I mean, I'm not religious, but I'm probably more spiritual than even, like, you.

me: how do you mean?

yl: ?? How can you ask me that?! (walks away.)


Wow, do I hate those discussions.

Monday, December 1, 2008

New Pics!

A few new pictures for those who've been waiting. The first is us visiting my Great Aunt. Note two things: one, just how much bigger I am than other members of my extended family; and two, just how fast I'm losing my hair!