The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

To hear is to receive an invisible vibration and give it a frame of reference. To have faith is to receive an invisible vibration and give it a frame of reverance.

To a Pastor who wrote on Facebook that she caught two confirmation kids having "flaming sex" in the balcony....

Rich Melheim Start a Bible study for the confirmation students on Song of Solomon "passion fierce as the grave, it's flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame..." And then remind them the first command God gives in the Bible is "be fruitful and multiply" and then remind them that God invented sex and hormones and nerve endings concentrated in certain places (don't you just love God!) and then remind them Jesus said "The two shall be one, and whatever God joins together, no one should tear apart" and then remind them Paul said, "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful" and then remind them that they are precious, precious, precious to God, to you, to the church, and then.... what I'm doing here is trying to keep them in relationship, in theological dialogue, in the church where they can hopefully remain and grow and mature and still be a part of the people of God in spite of the fact that they are young and human and hormonal). If we only had a little more passion in the church, maybe we'd have a future. SIDEBAR: Since Lutherans don't have much of theology of adult conversion, maybe we should encourage this?

Comfort and Affliction

I remember someone once saying: "The job of the preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

Our problem comes when we are either too afraid to lose our jobs that we lose our prophetic voice (which means that WE are too comfortable), or too confident in our rightness high up there in our mighty and righteous pulpits that we can't see the neediness in the frail folks we're afflicting (which means WE are afflicted ourselves.)

The OWLS (Old, Wise, Lutherans)

A fun idea and link to photos from my buddy Scott Ness:

Hey Rich,

Hope the summer is grand! Just spent a week with high schoolers at our annual leadership academy. Equipping them with faith skills to share stories, articulate faith, and name the people that have had an impact on their life. High of the week, without a doubt, was when we had 11 of our OWLs--older, wiser Lutherans, join us for an afternoon of faith interviews. High schoolers interviewing the older folks. They laughed together and cried together. Then they prayed together and had those who witnessed it crying together. Awesome and amazing. God's blessings in a huge way! Hoping that it is a way to bring down some of the barriers on Sunday morning so that the two sunday school classes can partner together every once in awhile. You can see some of the pictures and a few other stories here: http://www.stjohnsgc.org/Ministries/CampHub/AcademyatWitt2011/tabid/140/Default.aspx

If the universe is really made up of music (tiny vibrating strings), then isn't "La La Land" really a good place to spend your time?

Dismissing the Children

Many children "dismiss" the children in worship. What does it mean to dismiss? Here's how one website defines it:

 

Dismiss

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To send away; to give leave of departure; to cause or permit to go; to put away.

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To discard; to remove or discharge from office, service, or employment; as, the king dismisses his ministers; the matter dismisses his servant.

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To lay aside or reject as unworthy of attentions or regard, as a petition or motion in court.

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Dismission. (Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/words/di/dismiss155527.html#ixzz1Ocp1P3nL)

Read this again. Discard. Lay aside. Reject as unworthy.

Is that the message you really want to give children? If so, you might as well tell the last kid out the door to turn off the lights and put the for-sale sign on the lawn. They'll be gone and they'll never come back.

You can't come back to a place you've never been.