Arise, shine; For your light has come!

Arise, shine; For your light has come!
And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people;
But the LORD will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light... Isaiah 60.1-3

He looked back down the road. He’d obviously taken a wrong turn somewhere. He could retrace his steps, but that would take too long. … Where the hell was he? “You have a problem, Dennis,” he said aloud.
Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton, p 195.

In the film version of Jurassic Park, Dennis has just crashed into the road sign that points the way. But the crash has broken the sign from its footing, and the arrow now spins pointlessly. Dennis is terrified, hopelessly lost in the darkness and rain. There is no way to find reorientation. Brutal predators are loose and afoot.. Moments earlier he thought he had it all. Now, he knows he is lost and alone.

What Dennis thinks he needs most is to know the way to the East Dock. In reality, Dennis has no clue what he needs most. For even if the sign weren’t broken, even if he found a map, even if someone were there to give him directions, Dennis won’t make it. He’s being hunted by that spitting dinosaur. He thinks his problem is that he has lost his way and will miss the riches-bringing rendezvous. But really, his most immediate problem is that he is about to become dinner for a dinosaur.

But his most immediate problem isn’t his deepest problem. Even were he not about to become dinner, and found the way to the East Dock, he was still Dennis. He was still greedy, dishonest, and a traitor. He was nobody that anybody would aspire to be.

Which is what Advent, Christmas and Epiphany are all about. Darkness has covered the earth. The earth is faced with increasing terrorism, poverty, plague, war, and ecological disaster. But those, as urgent and fatal, as important and pressing as they are, are not even the deepest problem. They are enormous things we must face. But they are not our root problem. The root of all of these dangers is Dennis. We need global transformation. But at the root, we need personal transformation. We need the Light to shine!

The Good News is that the Light HAS come. And that is what about Christianity is all about. Nothing less than this:
Joy to the world… the Lord has come.
Let earth receive her King!

So, arise! Shine!

The Lord be with you!

Why Young Pastors Leave the Ministry

While thinking about Barbara Taylor Brown's book, Leaving Church, I stumbled across the the "Naked Religion" blog, where I read this:

There is an epidemic occurring right under the nose of church middle judicatories and no one seems to notice. Young pastors (less than five years in the ministry) are leaving in droves. The Lilly Foundation has poured millions of dollars into “Sustaining Pastoral Ministry” initiatives and it’s too soon to tell whether or not their approach is working. Aside from the obvious reasons pastors leave the ministry (sexual impropriety, financial mismanagement, and marital dissolution) here are the top ten reasons why young pastors call it quits:(To read more, go to: Why Young Pastors Leave the Ministry)

Perhaps more interesting than the "Top Ten List" the writer gives are the responses that follow. Even more interesting, I think, is the discussion on a different blog site that references the original. To read that discussion, go to: Monday Morning Insight.

It would be interesting to have a discussion with others, not about young ministers leaving the church so much, but about the nature of the institutional church in America today -- what that does or does not have to do with Christianity. I think the discussions on the two blog sites listed above would be an interesting discussion starter.

I wonder if St Markers might be interested in talking about this during our Lenten Study in the Spring.

The Lord be with you