Kurt M. Boemler

My thumb hurts. I can't use it--the one on my left hand. I'm left handed. I have gout. The first time I had it was just after I turned 25. That was eight years ago. I woke up one morning and I thought I had broken my left ankle. In my sleep. It took a year and two more flare ups before the doctors stopped thinking of me as a clumsy drunk (I was going to the campus clinic) and actually considered that something medical might be wrong. Up until six months ago I thought I only got gout in my knees and ankles. But this winter I got it in my elbow. Yesterday it set in in my thumb.

Just want to get this out in the open at the get-go:

There's a general understanding among some United Methodists that if one is a candidate for ordination, it is not one's place to criticize (even constructively) the denomination, its board, agencies, doctrine, or discipline. In accordance with my conscience, I respectfully disagree.

My God, Our God, sometimes we find the words of your Son upon our lips:

Why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping us?

Do you not hear us calling out to you?

In long days and even longer nights, we cry out to you but so often we receive no answer; we find no relief.

The rest of the year we hear stories from your scripture of how others cried out and were saved.

But tonight we feel the full burden of our helplessness as we see Jesus,our friend, our brother, mocked, scourged, and killed upon the cross.

Those of the world mock us for believing in what seems like foolishness, that God became like us to be killed for all our wrongdoing.

You are the God of our childlike faith, but now that we are older, doubt assails us from all sides.

Those who do not believe in you grow in boldness every year.

Our bodies and minds age and fail us.

Our nation struggles economically.

Nations war against nations—people against people.

Suffering and death surround us.

Civility passes by the way side.

Friends turn against friends.

Religious communities are rend apart.

Hypocrisy abounds.

In our darkest days the Evil One works in our midst scattering us as the disciples were.

But into your hands, O Lord, we commend our entire selves.

We trust in your Son.

We trust in what we memorialize this day, his mighty act on the cross.

Even when we cannot hear your voice, sense you are listening, or feel your presence, we trust and know you are with us, that you hear our cries to you, and that you continue to speak to us through your Holy Spirit.

So we praise you together as a congregation.

We tell the story of your love to all we can, in every way we can, for as long as we can, so that people from around the world may turn to The Christ--the one who has freed us from the power of sin and death.

I've been preaching through John Wesley's 44 sermons. I read them through twice, picking them apart paragraph by paragraph and summarizing each, filling the margins of the Big Blue Book of Wesley Sermons with my scribbles. Then I exegete the primary text (ans surrounding text) that he bases the sermon upon. Once I've done all that I write it all down in quick notes on a yellow legal pad. Then I put it all together in using my own particular speaking style, illustrations, and observations.

YAWN.

(Just wanted to letcha know I'm neither plagiarizing nor reading JW's from the pulpit.)

Last Sunday I preached from Romans 8.1-8 and sermon 8, "First Fruits of the Spirit". I did something along the lines of talking about dancing with a partner or something like that (it wasn't good). Since I had been writing papers all week, pulled an all-nighter Friday, and played Santa on Saturday, I had little time to put quality work into refining the sermon. I relied heavily on my manuscript and just got plain lost while speaking due to shear exhaustion (I can't wait for the day where I don't have to try to preach in the midst of taking finals). I thought it was crap.

Afterward, I had four people (out of 26 in worship) thank me for the sermon. At first, I did the typical, "It was all the Holy Spirit, cause I just wasn't with it this morning," shtick. But now that I've had time to think about what I had preached and what others had said in response, I think I know what's going on.

One of the things Wesley hits hard in "First Fruits of the Spirit" is what it means to not be condemned for sins because of one's relationship with Jesus. The short of it is this: If we are forgiven, there is no punishment. If there is no punishment, we have no rational cause for guilt. If we're not guilty, then there's nothing to fear. And that past part is what did it for people.

How many Christians go through life afraid of sin? Worried about damnation and hell? Not assured of their salvation? Worrying if they had ever committed the unforgivable sin? Thinking they have to be prefect? From the reaction of folks at church, probably more than I can imagine. Now, I'm talking about people who earnestly do not want to sin, who attend to it in their own lives frequently, who try to avoid both inward sins of the heart and outward sinful actions, both of commission and omission. But sometimes we start to get that mentality that our slavation is dependant on our own actions. This can become quite stressful when you begin to realize how much we can sin due to our own ignorance, because of situations that we find ourselves in, or just because we're surprised by our own humanity. Jesus simply doesn't hold us accountable for honest mistakes and things that are out of our control.

Yet Wesley, always the pragmatist, reminds us that we're not to try to take advantage of this fact. Willful sins are what break our relationship with God--and willful neglect. A serious athlete who misses a point or is outperformed by another athlete or makes a mistake due to equipment or environmental issues can be surprised by their failing. A dutiful musician who misses a conductors cue or miss-keys a note can by startled by their error. Its not their fault that they made a mistake any more than its someones fault for feeling hungry, thirsty, sick, or lonely. But if the athlete skips practice, eats poorly, and doesn't work out--if the musician doesn't practice techniques, misses rehearsal, and doesn't maintain his or her instrument--then those mistakes are on his or her head.

You see, we get in trouble for willful mistakes, by our actions or by the fruits of our intentional neglect.

What was refreshing to those folks was this: If you trust that Jesus forgives you and makes things right between you and God, then you're not condemned for your sins. As long as you're human being you're gonna be prone to sin, temptation, and mistakes. You don't have to worry about the eternal consequences as long as you're putting forth genuine effort.

Reminds me of the immortal words of Jules Winnfield, "The truth is...I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd.

I would like to say a word about “contemporary” worship.

To use the word “contemporary” in juxtaposition with “traditional” to describe a religious service has no meaning, as these words actually describe two separate axes of worship, style and form, respectively. Thus, all worship must be both contemporary and traditional.

Traditional worship consists of prayer, the reading of scripture, proclamation, praise through song, and Eucharistic celebration—all of these are aspects of worship that are rooted in some way or another to Christianity's Jewish heritage. Any worship employing any of these acts is traditional.

The definition of “contemporary” is that which describes something that is occupying time with something else. Worship always exists in a contemporary setting, as it exists in the same time with the rest of the world. Worship that is not contemporary is that which neglects to bring the deep traditions of the Church into dialog with the current state of the world and the people who live in it.

Therefore, “traditional” refers to the order or form of worship, whereas “contemporary” refers to the stylistic expression of an order or form, which is unique to a people who are living in a specific place and time. I prefer to use the word “indigenous” over “contemporary” to refer to the stylistic expression of worship, as “contemporary” has been co-opted by many to mean a less structured worship order or form which employs a praise band or worship music team. “Indigenous” is a more flexible descriptor as it refers to the most familiar, comfortable, and meaningful expression of worship for a particular worshiping community.

I can't help but think about all the times that I have a preserved a friendship by not talking about salvation in Jesus. I can't help but feel a bit ashamed. I'm way too full of lame excuses.

It's about 4:00 p.m. Central Standard Time time which means its about bedtime (10:00 pm) for me here in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The weather is rainy and around 65 degrees. We haven't done much since arriving, mainly moving into our rooms, fighting jet lag, and a short walking tour of the immediate area around Belfast. there are ten other students other than myself on this trip, and Dr. Billy Abraham is here with us as our professor. We're staying in the Methodist chaplaincy; in other words, its kind of like a Methodist fraternity house where the Methodist chaplain (campus minister) for Queen's University also lives. My room is on the fourth floor (60 steps; no elevator) with a beautiful view facing out toward the north of Belfast.

We took a walking tour this afternoon into the Protestant working-class part of town. We saw several memorials commemorating Protestant/Loyalist (pro-England) para-military groups. I've already seen quite a bit of graffiti that reflects the sectarian and racial hatred that still runs in the undercurrent of Northern Ireland. Tensions are expected to rise just a bit as we approach July 2th; the day in which the Ulster Protestant Loyalists defeated the Irish Roman Catholic Republicans. To get an idea of what it the feeling is like, imagine if the colonies did not defeat the British in the Revolutionary War, and then a British holiday was declared where they celebrated the defeat of the rebel American colonists. Or perhaps if there was a holiday where the United States celebrated the defeat of southern rebels, with Union parades marching down the streets of the most prominent Southern cities and towns.

I've taken some pictures and will be posting them at Picasa here. It's 6 minutes past my bedtime, and I am feeling it. I'll have more for you all tomorrow.

I remember Transformers having PSAs at the end of each episode, but I didn't know they used the same tagline as G.I. Joe. For some reason, this one made me laugh.

I'm finally caught up enough to do a Friday Five. It only took a month after the semester's end.

1. Grocery shopping--love it or hate it? Actually, I kinda enjoy it. I like comparing different products for their nutritional value, and figuring out the best buy. Sometimes bulk is not cheaper, so I keep my phone's calculator handy.

Jeff Slater over at life|emergent asked the question, "Why be United Methodist?" I started to respond there, but then realized that I hadn't posted anything of substance here in a while. :-)

I don't have a UMC identity as much as I have a Wesleyan identity. They are not one and the same. The disconnect is, that the UMC has lost much of the subtle, yet vital, nuances of the Wesleyan heritage.

• We have lost Wesley's understanding of prevenient grace (it lets the totally depraved see their deprivation--that's all).
• We've used the word grace to whitewash every dead tomb of sin--grace is not permissiveness, but the means by which God continually calls all sinners to the Gospel Feast where lives can be transformed. It seems to me that the way we use the word 'grace' diminishes the our ability to speak honestly about the impact of sin in our lives and in the world, thus neutering the power of the Gospel and the affect of Christ's attonement of that sin.
• We have completely abandoned the idea that true happiness only comes from living holy lives through intentional obedience and devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ.
• It is rare (in my experience) that one hears a sermon on the rational and experiential assurance of one's salvation from a UM pulpit--which is a shame against John Wesley's lifelong theological endeavors.
• The idea that we can be perfected in Christian love in this life is surrounded with modernistic explanations that diminish the miraculous synergistic power of the Holy Spirit working within the repentant sinner. Of course, that's better than laughing or the subtle wink and nod that I've witnessed on occasion.
• And of course, most of this went by the wayside when class membership ceased to be a requirement of membership. Accountability was the chief tool of Methodism, and that's why it grew so rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries.
  

• Everyone who wishes to join the church would become members of the Annual Conference and Elders and Deacons in full connection would be members of either the Regional or General Conference.
• The membership requirements and vows to join an Annual Conference would be the same as that of the local church, now.
• Each local church would be a Society Congregation, where the membership vows would be the General Rules of the United Societies.
• Membership in a Society Congregation would be more fluid depending on the level of commitment of the member of the Annual Conference Church. Just like Wesley regularly kicked folks out of societies, Society Congregations could do the same. Likewise, just like in the early days of Methodism, the ejected member would immediately be invited back into community with the Society Congregation with a grace that tolerates not sin, but earnestly calls for repentance and striving for holiness.
• Each church would be made of classes--of which attendance would be expected--and bands--which attendance would be encouraged. Here, the real work of the church would be done, as class and band members would provoke one another in love to conform their minds to Christ's mind and walked as he walked.
  

Here's a quick vid of Walter Brueggemann addressing some of the issues that prohibit a pastor from being the faith community's scholar and teacher.



HT: Adam Walker at pomomusings

Beth and I sang at Diane Sander and Nate Shoemaker's wedding. Beth and I are friends with Diane through the Springfield Wesley Foundation, and Beth and Diane were roommates for a while during undergrad. Beth's folks drove out to Hermann, Missouri and caught the song on the digital camera.

I read webcomics. One of my favorites is Penny Arcade. Though I'm not technically a gamer (playing bubblebreaker on my phone in class [it helps me pay attention, honest!], tower defense while I should be studying, and Super Mario anything on the NES/SNES/GameCube does not a gamer make), I do like to keep my finger on the pulse of the gaming world. I know gamers. I'm friends with gamers. I'll probably meet more gamers. And most importantly, I like to be able to talk with folks about the things they like; it's the evangelist in me. Gabe and Tycho help me do this.

Last week, the duo critiqued Microsoft's new method of buying music for the Zune (here's the comic). Now, I haven't really bought any music in several years, be it through online retail or at a store, but their critique of Microsoft's marketing methods stuck me as interesting.

What Microsoft needs badly is a shaman. They need somebody who is situated physically within their culture, but outside it spiritually. This isn't a person who hates Microsoft, but it's a person who can actually see it. I can do this for you. Give me a hut in your parking lot. I will eat mushrooms, roll around in your cafeteria, and tell you the Goddamned truth.