Looking for someone to blame

I guess there is no right answer to the thoughts that I have this morning concerning the Virginia Tech incident. However, my initial thoughts concerning the media are not good ones. Anytime blood hits water, the media sharks start to swarm. They ask questions that have no real answers, and when the answers don't match their expectations, they ask the same question using a slightly different phrase or word. Most of the answers early in an investigation are usually, "I don't know, we have not finished our investigation."

But the questions that bother me the most are the ones that try to find someone to blame. "Was there something more that could have been done?" "After the first incident, why wasn't the campus shut down?" "What is being done to prevent this from happening?"

Here is my answer. The police, the administration, the campus security, the campus emergency response systems, the security of the buildings are not to blame! Blame lies with one coward who took advantage of over 60 innocent human beings and shot a gun! Why is it assumed that after one "isolated" incident, the individual is going to commit crimes even more outrageous?

If the campus was shut down for two hours, and the coward waited three and went to the academic building, would that have been enough time? If the campus was shut down for 24 hours, and the coward shot again a day later, is that enough time?

We live in a free and open society. We take for granted that everyone, or should I simply say that most upstanding citizens are going to play by the rules. People just don't, dare I say shouldn't come into a building and blow people away.

Media sharks - back off. Let the administration, police, and families sort all of this out before we go asking more questions. But I know that's just not going to happen.

In the meantime, I'm not going to cast blame on anyone except the one who committed the crime. I am also going to pray, for all the individuals, the families, and the entire campus community who is affected by such a tragedy.

Injustice

I just finished watching the Press Conference Covering the Dismissal of Charges related to the Duke Lacrosse team. Much was said about justice being served, the great injustice that has occurred over the last year, and how it was now the time to move forward.

However, there is one thing that was not said, and I wish that it had been said. It is so important, that I had hoped that one of the accused players would have been the one to say it.

Rape is real, rape exists. Rape is a violent crime against another individual and it is something that society should stand against in our justice system. Rape affects people, tears up lives, and makes an indelible mark on a person.

But just as a a false allegation is an injustice to those who are accused, false allegations are an injustice to those who who have had their lives destroyed by the violence of rape. False allegations make it more difficult for justice to be served, for all people.

Our litigious society and our media hyper focused society should remember that our justice system is built upon the notion that a person is innocent until proven guilty. As repugnant as that might be for those who are truly guilty - they deserve the same justice system to prevail.

Not the day we expected

On this Easter morning, when the temperatures are not what we expect for April, I am reminded of that first morning when the Disciples arrived at the tomb of Jesus. It was no the day that they expected!

Jesus has triumphed over the grave!

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed!

Help us to accept everything that we hear from your Word this day, O Christ. Help us to believe, help us to live. Thank you for the empty tomb, and thank you for this day. Even if it isn't the day that we expected.

Good Friday?

You could come up with sermon titles very simply by listening to the questions that kids ask, and by listening to the very poignant statements that they make. I had that thought yesterday, as our children reminded us of the very significance of the week.

Our middle child asked at the dinner table a question that has been asked countless times. Why do they call it Good Friday if Jesus died? Good question and a thought provoking one. But to tell her that it is probably another way of saying "God's Friday" was not good enough. I imagine that the thought running through her mind was, "good is good, God is God, they are not the same, so my original question still exists - why Good Friday?"

The other came from our older daughter who upon entering the sanctuary yesterday and seeing a cross that appears at this time of year said, "Easter is on Sunday, I guess that means that Jesus is going to have to die all over again. That's just GREAT!" I guess from the eight year old perspective - getting to Easter is Awesome enough. Why kill Jesus over and over again.

Telling and retelling the story to our children is a good lesson. It is a reminder that the news of Jesus Death on a tree is Good News, it is God's News, even if there is pain. Yet it is because of this pain and suffering and death, that we live.

That is "Good" News on this God's Friday.

Thank you, God for the Cross. Thank you Christ for your love.

Balancing Act

Yesterday was an awesome day of worship at College Hill. What a wonderful experience to come into worship and proclaim God's Word and message of Salvation. Palm / Passion Sunday has always been one of those days where I feel the need to balance the celebration with the pain, the Palms and the Passion. I am always keenly aware that not everyone will be back in worship until next Sunday, Easter Sunday. I don't want people to miss the ultimate message of the week - and that is that Christ died and became broken, so that in our brokenness, we might be healed.

However, I don't have long to decompress following worship yesterday, because this is a busy week. I am participating in several community services in Beaver Falls this week, so I don't have "extra" services for which I need to prepare. I do, however, need to begin to focus on Easter.

That's were the balancing act begins.

I feel a tremendous amount of pressure to get this week "right." Add on top of that, the idea that there is such a potential for sharing the message to a person for the first time. Add on top of that, the folks who only come twice a year. Add another layer of proclaiming a message that many already know. Add on top of that, add on top of that . . . .

Oh - this will also be the first time that I have shared an Easter Message on Easter in five years after having been an associate pastor in that time. So, I want to get it right.

I am praying for everyone who might come to hear the good news, and praying that God would speak through me.

Have a blessed Holy Week, friends.

When Uninstall won't work

Friends, I have to admit to you that I have been rather dazed and confused this entire week. That is until now.

I have an old PDA. It is a Handspring Visor. I've had it four about 7 years now and I love it. It is rugged, dependable, and usually reliable. I use it a lot! It is my lifeline to being the anal retentive, calendar driven individual that I am.

On Monday, I tried to Hotsync my PDA with my computer, and when I did - it shut the computer down completely. This is not the first time this has happened to me in my years of using a PDA, but usually it happens once, and then I can move forward. Not on Monday.

After several hours of attempting this sync, I resorted to trying to reinstall the software. When that didn't work, I went online for some suggestions about compatibility problems with the recent time patches for Outlook, etc.

I then went to the Palm Site (Handspring was purchased by Palm years ago). I got some advice. Found some FAQ's about the problem that I was experiencing. They told me to uninstall and reinstall the Palm Desktop software using the Uninstall program on the computer.

I did - nothing. At this point, I was at a full blow!!! My children were asking my wife what was wrong, and all she could say was, "just stay away from Daddy!"

I walked away, tried to eat dinner, and tried a hard and soft reset. Nothing!!!!!!

I then proceeded to write tech support to ask for some help. The response was to uninstall.

But did you know that is not enough? It turns out that you need to search for hidden files! How frustrating is that!

Long story short - I also told myself that I was going to wait until today to try to do anything. It is my day off, and what would be a day off without a little frustration, right?

I followed the directions, which were four pages long by the way, and IT WORKS!!!!!

Is there a connection to the church? Sure there is! I think that sometimes as Christians we do our darnedest to remove sin from our lives. We focus on that during lent. We repent, we reaffirm our faith, we try to move onto Perfection, and still there are the hidden things in our lives that prevent us from being who God has called us to be.

Because of that - we have to dig deeper and deeper, pray harder and harder, and continuously seek God's grace in all that we do.

The Gospel of Matthew says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect."

I seek that!

But now I have to repent for all the bowling words I used this week.

Apocryphal Renderings

I don't know whether you know this or not, but apparently there is a little known text that goes like this:

As Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, he said to his disciples, "as soon as you make disciples of me, forget everything else that I have said about the poor, the hungry, the lost. Forget about the sheep, they can feed themselves. Worry about yourself, your kind. As soon as you grow my church to be about the size that you want it - stop. Put a hedge around it, insulate yourselves from the outside and wait. I'll be back. And before I go - don't let too many people help others, I don't trust them. Let those who are paid, be paid to do your work."

I know what you're thinking - where did that come from? I don't know either, but it must be there somewhere. I say that because I have been a part of so many discussions this week with others that lead me to believe that we have a real struggle on our hands as the people of God.

When did we get to the point that we were more worried about ourselves than others?

When did we get to the point that we thought that it was the "paid professional's job" to care for our children?

When did we get to the point that we leave a church because we didn't get enough attention?

When did we get to the point that churches will poach, steal, and accept good disciples in the name of church growth instead of fulfilling the Biblical mandate - and I'm not referring to that fictitious one from above.

I don't care what church you are in (I know there are a few exceptions), but we have a lot of work to do. We have got to do a better job of teaching, modeling, preaching about our responsibility to those who are not here. It is not the paid professional's job - only - to care for those who are already here.

And just another thought. When did we get to the point when you were the number one priority?

Those are my thoughts - if you can tell me where to find that text from above, I'd love to see it.