Depth 1.16.2025

     Last week we discussed the stratification of snow-ice-snow in the recent winter storm in Southeastern Illinois. The point I made last week is that details matter. The different layers of the precipitation that fell created a complex and dangerous mix that was due more to the details of the storm than anything else. The natural next step is to consider depth. The details of the storm created circumstances of difficulty that were worse than mere depth. How it fell was more significant that merely measuring amount. And after a week those details still play havoc with digging out. 

    We had more snow on Friday and Saturday. Perhaps 6-7 inches. That additional depth didn’t make the problem worse. That snowfall was light and relatively easy to move. That depth, added to what had already accumulated was easier to move and by itself, did not constitute much of a difficulty. It was the earlier storm, with its greater variety which was the real problem. The details accumulated with greater depth, but not all depth is as deep, and not all details are created equal. 

    And so, it goes with this admixture of detail and depth when we use that model in analyzing our preaching. How detailed should we be and how deep should we go? In our age of easily accessible turn-key preaching systems which require the preacher to do no more than assimilate and regurgitate the work of others this question is out of order. Yet for those pastor-scholars who still make their own soup it is essential and multifaceted.  There are at least two applications to consider. The depth of our own study, and the depth of our preaching. 

Depth of Study

    There are easy and difficult approaches to most endeavors. This is true of what goes on in your study. You may approach the task in such a fashion that you create more chaos and move more slowly than you should. Do not confuse making easy things difficult with actually doing difficult things. They are not the same and making a clear distinction will give sound initial guidance when deciding how deep to go in study. 

    I advocate doing hard things. If you are preaching from 1 Peter, you should become an expert on 1 Peter. This will take hard work and some of it is difficult. You will need to consider backgrounds, language, social setting, chronology, and theological issues. You will need to spend long uninterrupted time digesting the relevant secondary materials and week by week you must do the detailed work of exegesis. By the time you get 3/4 of your way through the book the burden will ease as you draw from your own recently stocked well of information. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. 

    Far too many preachers approach their work like last week’s winter storm. Three days of prediction followed by three days of affliction. They become frustrated and burned out. The very work they were called to do has become exhausting because they allowed themselves to become buried in details and overwhelmed by the rising depth. How can this be avoided? The answer requires me to mount some favorite hobby horses. Plan ahead. Break the work down into manageable portions. Determine early which details matter. Have a system. Start early. If the water is over your head, it is too late to learn how to swim. 

    If you are consistent, methodical, and disciplined you will learn to manage the details and assess how deep you can go in a given study for preaching from a particular book, section of scripture, or topic. If you reinvent the methodical wheel for every series or message, there is little that can be done other than trying to resuscitate you after you go under. 

Depth of Preaching.

    So, having done a thorough job, accumulating a new depth of knowledge on 1 Peter, how much do you take into the pulpit? As much as it takes to communicate the message. You must now learn to become the judge of how deep your own people can go. Good preaching distills for the pulpit what goes on in the study. It requires a pastoral touch and a willingness to engage in basic audience analysis. Are there many who are unregenerate? What is the maturity level of the congregation? Do you have people who consider themselves experts who are actually out of their depth? Preaching is pastoral work written large. It is from the pulpit that disciples are discipled. The modern notion that discipleship is individualized, personalized, and nontransferable is silly nonsense. 

    Every book in the New Testament was intended to be heard and absorbed by the group. Flock-formation is what gives other pastoral tasks context. There will be exceptions of course, but the modern Church has made attending to personal (selfish) needs of the individual the benchmark of discipleship and the negative impacts are clear. The purpose of the Church is to make disciples not mollify the marginally involved. 

    Your preaching should reflect deep, detailed study adequately and correctly prepared for teaching, exhorting, correcting, and guiding your congregation. Not only does that make for good sermons it provides a basis for long-term sustainable ministry. People will know what to expect and even when you are preaching from familiar texts you will be able to engage people to a depth that challenges them to grow. Much contemporary preaching is nothing but cheerleading. For those who are already growing and have some capacity to feed themselves it stokes the fires for another week of service. For those who cannot feed themselves it is a missed opportunity. They go away encouraged but they have not been given proper tools for continuing growth. Every person who comes to Church deserves preaching which takes them as deep as they are ready to go. That requires a preacher to go into the deep end to gather materials and then to synthesize his learning into clear, understandable messaging. It is time for the Lord’s Church to get out of the kiddie end of the pool 

1.9.2025 Detail

     Like many, I am behind in my work this week. We cancelled Church Sunday, and most people in my part of Illinois are only now, really able to move about freely today—Wednesday January 8. I talked about snow last month in leading up to Christmas. If I were to write about snow today, the tenor and content would be substantially different. Yesterday I walked down from the Parsonage on the Hill. I worked steadily through the day and got quite a bit done. Then slogged my way uphill from the Church House. In the afternoon the parking lots at the Church were cleared and my driveway as well. Today allowed me to pretty much get back to work. 

    Actually, I am both behind (this piece should have been drafted yesterday) and ahead (I will preach the sermon intended for last Sunday on the coming Sunday). Good ministry (as I never tire of saying) requires large uninterrupted blocks of time for study—reading, writing, and thinking. Even today, when there are few people about, I’ve had many other ministry opportunities. I had someone come by for conversation, followed by two ministry colleagues calling or texting for differing kinds of consultations. 

    Ministry has a variety of opportunities. My visitor today has been going above and beyond in caring for a sick neighbor. I routinely thank him for his acts of kindness and grace. One of the reasons I never get tired of my work is this continuing variety it brings and the wonderful flexibility in the grace of God. He uses us to bring comfort, peace, hope, and kindness to those in need. When a Pastor is able to commend others for being pastoral it is one of the true pleasures of the calling. 

    So now I turn my attention to matters of Study. I will be lecturing on NT Survey this winter. I made great progress yesterday but there is much remaining. I am working my way through Matthew until June. Lots of exegesis, examination, and thinking through the teaching of Jesus. Church organization and administrative issues need attention at the beginning of a new year, as well as time spent tweaking personal productivity systems. 

    One wants to be on top of the details without shifting into patterns of undue worry. Jesus warns us about worry in the Sermon on the Mount. It can be challenging to be faithfully attentive to our necessary tasks without being motivated by misplaced worrying. The details matter but the result, the outcome is the point. 

Yesterday when I was walking to the Church I noticed and photographed an interesting phenomenon resulting from the storm. A drain culvert allowed me to see—in almost sedimentary fashion the actual composition of the various layers of precipitation laid down over the weekend. For many of us this storm contained several differing kinds of wintery mixed precipitation. In some combination and varying order most of us had snow, sleet, ice, even freezing rain.

     The result was quite interesting. Here in Grayville the final tally looked like this. We had about 4-5 inches of snow which was compacted by about 2 inches of ice—heavy ice. On top of the layer of ice was another (very icy) layer of about 2-3 inches of snow. Grayville is very hilly, so it is difficult to calculate exact depths at any one place. But where I stood, looked, and photographed the layers laid by the storm these were the details I was able to observe. 

    The life of ministry consists of similar details laid throughout the course of living and serving. At various times of our lives the first layer of snow will be light and airy, easy to move and no trouble. At other times life offers a dreaded “wintery mix” that causes us to slip and slide. Things will feel out of control and the wise will move with increased care. And there are times that feel kind of like this storm, Snow, ice, snow. 

    The details of life change. You will not always face the same challenges throughout life and ministry. There are times when we simply must put on our muck boots, open the door and see what things feel like. So, tie on your scarf grab a walking stick, open the door and see how the winds blow.

The Business at Hand 1.2.2025

     The time we have is easy to quantify. Days. Weeks. Months. A year. Opportunity will manifest itself in many ways. Just consider the nouns. People, places and things. During 2025 we will meet people and say goodbye to people. People will fill us with anxiety, joy, heartache, hope, aspiration, and perspective. Some will go places. Mrs. Beckman and me, we like to stay home. Some of you like to go, go, go. You will vacation, go on mission trips, or just have a satisfying drive. Now, “Things” are a bit of an oddity. The category itself would seem to encompass everything not “people” or “place” which, for me at least, calls into question the definition of noun as a “person, place, or thing.” It may have worked during school days, but it certainly doesn’t do any justice to the wide variation of “stuff” we encounter during our lives.

    Let’s summarize. We meet people, go places, and do things. We did in 2024, and we will in 2025. What we have not done is to in some way quantify or otherwise describe those people, places, or things. To continue the grammatical path (trap) we are on (in which we are imprisoned), we need to add some adjectives, some good-ol’ modifiers that will allow us to make some basic judgments about all this “who, what, and where” we are confronting. 

• New, exciting, challenging people.
• New, exciting, challenging places.
• New, exciting, challenging things.  

OK so we each know, encounter, and experience different “noun categories.” The stuff of life! What of it? How do we process all this information? What is our purpose? What is the business at hand? In some sense, this is, or must be, our purpose. Verbalizing the nouns of our experience, quantifying, comparing, describing, and categorizing them. Acting upon the stuff of life with a coherent approach and appropriate purpose. 

    Now…I understand most people are not so explicit in all this “noun-verb” talk, but we are each involved in the conversation. We might ignore it, argue with it, or try and otherwise elude it but all of us are intimately involved in the making of meaning in our lives. We are always working to match up the verbs and nouns of our experience, to mix in the right modifiers and in some way make sense of our lives. You may not use grammar to conduct the search, but there is some kind of protocol you are following. 

    The business at hand is understanding our place in the world. Either we make it up or someone discloses it to us. We get to choose the source, our own limited horizon or someone else. Ultimately, defining and describing the world according to our own personal desires or standards is an act of enormous hubris. Why should my nouns, verbs, and modifiers articulate reality for others? 

    Throughout history, the wisest among us have discerned that this “search for meaning” this process of engaging in the “business at hand” is bigger than any one person. In fact, it is not a material, physical, or even a linguistic quest—it is inherently spiritual. We are Spiritual beings and our ultimate purpose, the business at hand for the human person is to seek ultimate truth outside of our self, from the ultimate self who defines and delimits reality for us. 

Technically the “enlightenment” ended in 1804. For more than 220 years humans have behaved as if it never ended and that we have been liberated from simplistic spiritual needs. Except, more people now are hollower and more unfulfilled than ever. Perhaps our reason has kept us from seeing what most reasonable people before us always understood. Meaning we “make for ourselves” is narrow, selfish, narcissistic, and solipsistic. Man as a spiritual being exists in community. In isolation we are mere ghosts in the shell of our own humanity. 

    If you want to do the best job humanly possible of pursuing what it means to be human, you need to find a place in and become a part of a Spiritual community. A church. The family of God. I realize that sounds a little off in our self-centered, self-defined age. Perhaps the present has been bent out of shape not by obsolete theologies but by the even older issue of the fall. Sinners first look to self and only look to others when their own weaknesses and vulnerabilities become unbearable. 

    What if we, you and I—did not wait for some collapse to find meaning in relationships. In other people. In the verbs that give life to the nouns. 

    In the New Testament. Jesus describes the Business at Hand as “the Kingdom of God”. In the Kingdom, God rules, but His people reign. In the Kingdom we find God’s love, justice, mercy and kindness. In Kingdom we are more human, not less. In Kingdom we discover that the business at hand is to love and to know God, and to love and to know other people. In Kingdom we learn freedom--not fear. In kingdom we learn wholeness not brokenness. In kingdom we learn service, sacrifice, and salvation. In Kingdom the business of heaven is the business at hand. In whatever way you describe it—whatever nouns you nominate or verbs you articulate—kingdom means God with us in the person of Jesus, loving His world even to His own death. He has done His part. It’s time to go to work.

What Are you Doing New Years? 12.26.2024

     For a lot of people, the week between Christmas and New Years is sort of a limbo. What to do? Some must work. For others, the time is filled with family and extended celebration. I write this the Monday before Christmas. I will send it off on the 26th, so this very essay is emblematic of the transitional nature of the “holidays”.

    I have enjoyed the season so far and look forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas day. For we who wear His name Jesus is celebrated year-round. It is nice to hear others, some with no faith some with flickering faith, others with anxious faith sing simple songs regarding the coming of Jesus. Some sing to fan the flame of faith. Others will sing, using their own voices to drown the pain, or longing, or pressure which has come to define their lives. In a sense, and in any season, Jesus has the answer for both crushing doubt and renewed clarity. It is the business of the Church to keep the message of Christ resonating within our culture. We do that by proclaiming His gospel and living like His disciples. Perhaps that is the best way to spend the time between December 26 and January 2. 

    There is an old Harry Connick Jr. Song which asks the rhetorical question “What are you doing New Years, New Year’s Eve”? For some the whole season is nothing but a party. An opportunity to drown cultural, social, and spiritual sorrow with making merry. Now, I like parties just fine. I like gathering and celebrating. Honestly, there is a pretty good chance that I will “Ring in the New Year” sleeping. Let’s consider ol’ Harry’s question. What are you doing in the New Year? Are you going to make tweaks to your worship, devotional, or service schedules? Is there something new to learn? Do you need to make a hard call or knock on a door? 

    You see, a new year is always a new start, even when it doesn’t feel that way. Our world does not revolve around seasonal changes—except for this one special time of year. From Advent to New Year’s everyone is driven by some seasonal concern. Parties, programs, presents, and caroling, and cookies, and cakes. And concerns. 

Take a deep breath. Close your eyes and Pray. 

“Father, What are YOU doing New Years…

     New Year’s Eve.”

Nope 12.19.2024

     It seemed like a good idea to write about snow when it snowed on the last day of November. It was cold last week, though no snow. On Monday morning I awoke to thunder. It rained hard. It was 58 degrees. There was no snow in the forecast. I seemed like a fraud, an imposter when I tried to consider a “snow theme” for this week. That’s what happens when you select a weather-driven concept for a month’s writing. It sometimes just doesn’t work. 

    So here I sit, roughly a week before the big day trying to come up with an idea (or two) for the last blog-essay before Christmas. I’ve been in the text this week. Studying the Magi for 12.22.2024, duly noted in Things and BusyCal as “functionally Christmas Sunday." Actually, I kind of like Christmas back in the middle of the week again. It gives me some “first of the week” next week to get some work behind me before the holiday. As of 10 minutes ago, upon finishing my Christmas Eve sermon, I am “ready for Christmas.” I’ve noticed as I get older that the time passes much more quickly. It only seemed like yesterday we were celebrating Thanksgiving. And now we are a week before Christmas. 

Is there snow? Nope. 

Is there joy? Yep. 

Is there hope. Yep. 

    The Magi didn’t make the trip to Judea for the weather. It was not a vacation that brought them to Bethlehem, and it wasn’t really a business trip. Despite our creative derivation of abundant riches for decorating our houses they did not accumulate their Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh for their own enjoyment. They may have been ignorant of the time of this Kings birth, the city where it occurred, and all that it signified but they did know what needed to be done upon their arrival and they certainly did it. 

“saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”” (Matthew 2:2 ESV)

“And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11 ESV)

What a refreshing approach to life. They set out from their homeland intending to “worship” this new-born King, and when they got their bearings straight that is exactly what they did! Imagine that. They did what they intended, and their intent was direct, practical, and doable. They did not appear to know exactly how to worship a “King of the Jews”, so they brought what they thought of as appropriate gifts—gifts that were fit for a king.  

    I love the holiday season. I love Christmas sermons and Christmas Eve services. I love sitting in the evening with the living room illuminated only by the sparkling tree. I, umm, have not wrapped any gifts yet. I will. And I will giggle when they are open by my beloved. The house has been filled with the smells of baking bread, Chex Mix, and pie. The Christmas season is awesome. 

There may be a point (after we travel!) when I sashay to the window or open the door and wistfully look outside thinking “Snow might be nice.” Of course, Christmas is on a Wednesday this year so a White Christmas would mean kind of an uncomfortable Thursday. Sometimes it’s better to wish and hope that get and shovel! 

    I don’t think that those Magi, those wise men, those supposed “Kings of Orient Are”, bantered amongst themselves about how picturesque it would be if there were fluffy flakes floating down when they knelt and opened their beautiful, worshipful, valuable, but impractical gifts. They did not ponder the purity and beauty of a well-timed, gold-encrusted, tree. They did not think of Nativities past, or how the old-fashioned trips to Bethlehem—like they took when they were kids—were so much better than these modern trips to Bethlehem. They did not argue the overt commercialization of their trip, the political fallout of the tyrants hissy-fit, nor the geo-political ramifications of Kingdom asserting itself against Empire. Their intent was not starting a movement, but to pay simple homage to a King whose presence they did not grasp, whose divinity they did not understand, and whose salvation they did not comprehend. 

    They may not have known much. But they did the right thing. And here we are, twenty centuries later getting all teary eyed about a snowy landscape, a perfect turkey, and a well-trimmed tree. When, if we sit still in the silence, we may be allowed to hear the lilting tones of “Angels on High” and the profound promise of eternal salvation. A Christmas which makes our hearts white as snow is so much more satisfying than a White Christmas, don’t you think?

Snow White 12.12.2024

    Fairy tales are a part of our culture. Even as adults we are not immune from them. We read them and enjoy them, we read them to our children and grandchildren, we watch the motion pictures “based” upon them, and we preachers often use them to illustrate sermons. 

    Yes, the Disney folk often transform them. If you’ve ever read some of the original tales in Grimm and compared them with what you listened to on some loved-one’s lap, you find no fault with such a procedure. Most of the tales we loved as children in the 20th century had already been through the transformation from rustic, realistic, and rough stories to the more domesticated fare one reads to children. 

    Disney’s adoption of Snow White was a watershed in colored, animated film making. While we still treasure the story one imagines contemporary parents being shocked at some of the actual content. Greed. Jealousy. Evil. Anger. Murder. We don’t typically tuck our children into bed with such adult themes. In our world we use the basics of the story to inculcate the virtues of Snow White in opposition to the vices of the evil queen. “Night Night!”

There is another way to understand the story. 

    Once upon a time there was a beautiful bride. She was made pure, not by her own innate virtues but by the loving intervention of her bridegroom who provided a kiss of life that restored the prospects lost to her in competition with the powers of evil let loose in this world. 

    Now, the endgame was years, centuries-even millennia in the making. The evil the princess experienced was personal, institutional, and communal. She was a victim both of her own innocence and her own self-will. While she sheltered and was sheltered by those she knew and loved; her place in the world was forever changed by the evil she experienced. The final act of fatal evil was a seemingly harmless apple which, though sweet to the taste, was deadly to consume. 

    Her prince came to her, not on a noble charger but upon a humble donkey. His intervention was not a literal, physical kiss but his own embrace of her fallenness and failure. To end her suffering and wake her from seemingly eternal suffering, he took that suffering upon himself. Thus, having released Snow White from her prison of death, he was able (some graces are not susceptible to simple explanation) to claim her has his newly awakened bride. White as Snow. 

“…and his Bride has made herself ready; Revelation 19:8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” (Revelation 19:7-8 ESV)

    This is not a fairy tale. It is not a romantic children’s story. This is our Gospel. Snow White is awakened by her Lord not from simple slumber but from lingering death—a death caused by the poisoned apple of sin. Snow White has been awakened not to testify her own virginal purity but to the purity of the one who undeservedly tasted of death to redeem her. Snow White has been called to bear witness to her Bridegroom by using her renewed life to describe His love, live for His purposes, and to indulge in His blessings. This is no fairy tale. This is the reality we celebrate at Christmas. 

  that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, Ephesians 5:27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:26-27 ESV)

    When the babe was born His disembodied Church was mortally afflicted. While His own mother nursed and nurtured Him the crushing wheel of Imperial hatred bore down not only on His people, but all people. His life of loving ministry, the words of life preserved in His Gospel are the clarion call to His bride to join Him in a renewed garden to partake only of refreshing, redeeming fruit. 

Snow White is not a Christmas story. We have lots of those. We will watch them, tell them, sing them, and celebrate them. In hearts aflame with faith we will be given, perhaps just briefly a full look at the redeemed bride, whose snow-white gown has been cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus. Prince of Peace. Lord of Lords. Redeemer of His Snow-White Bride. 

“Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from    God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2 ESV)

White as Snow 12.5.2024

    When I started learning how to play White Christmas three weeks ago, my goal was not to be able to play and sing it while it was actually snowing. Things here alongside the mighty Wabash have changed a bit. Some might say things have gotten out of hand. That particular hand might be extended with a snowball. Snow arrived here before December.  We had several inches on Saturday, and today (Monday) it seems to keep on falling. 

    For many people snow is an acquired taste. For others—Mrs. Beckman for example snow is ironclad proof of the love of God. She loves the stuff. I can make do. The issue for me, and others, is that we have to get out and go while it is coming down, and when it stops, if there is enough (too much) of it, it must be moved. This is the story of winter here in the Midwest.  Right now, it is disarming if not aggravating. In a month we will wear shorts to take the trash to the curb. 

    During the Advent and Christmas season snow is less a weather phenomenon and more of a romantic enhancement. When the snow is falling, and you are putting up decorations one relishes the ambiance. Interestingly, I was driving around town Sunday morning about 6.00 a.m., relishing no ambiance. I was simply trying to determine whether or not, on December 1, the roads were safe to travel. Not exactly a romantic morning, but part of the process of a snowy December morning, hoping against hope for a White Christmas.  

    Most Decembers we wait much longer. The month rolls in with hope and anticipation, we hit a couple of days nearing sixty degrees, we see someone at the Casey’s wearing shorts and we think “No White Christmas this year!” Some are sad. Others (silently) rejoice that the events of a busy month will not be impacted by snowy roads and slippery parking lots. Some sit by their windows and long for some idyllic past when our days were all merry and bright, and all Christmas’s were white. 

    Longing is an interesting emotion during Advent. Longing during this season reminds us that in the far-off past people had more on their minds than snow. The time between the closing of the Old Testament canon and the first appearance of Jesus was a time of longing. Rather than our yearly renewal of Advent hope, God’s people looked for the appearance of a long-anticipated deliverer, an anointed one who would announce jubilee and Kingdom to a desperate world. Much of their anticipation was wasted on forlorn forecasts of military might and earthly dominion. Little did they know that Immanuel would come not robed as overlord but swaddled and diapered. 

    They learned the hard way that what we hope for determines what we are able to see. Because they entangled their hopes and dreams with promises of earthly power, they could only be disappointed. Their disillusion was not because our Jesus lacked anything, but because their vision of the future was shaped by longing for the wrong thing. They looked for certainty in a world defined by uncertainty. They wished for knowledge when much of life requires trust. They wanted to see, when faith itself is Kingdom’s substitute for sight. 

    And every year we have the opportunity to reconsider our ways and reconfigure our thinking to more fully align with what we find in Scripture. That is what advent is for. Yes, the texts are familiar, and the hopes might seem melodramatic. However, if we allow ourselves the time and distance necessary every advent is an opportunity to reignite our faith in that promised Savior who came not to meet our expectations—but God’s. 

    We will sing familiar songs and inhabit well-worn traditions. I’ve been wearing Christmas ties and soon will deploy a sweatshirt or two. We look at the calendar and try to figure how and when to get there and then with those that we love. Lists are made, and some checked twice all presuming that this season is about more than the tinsel, the decorations, the gifts, and yes—about more than the snow.