Author: Wick

I still think on a day like today, even with the no doubt thousands of “trendy” relevant thinkers (who I sometimes pretend to be, and sometimes make fun of) in the world of faith who are saying it already…something like this deserves to be said.

Because no matter how many are speaking words like these, there will be even more speaking what we are bringing to light. So here it is:

We are careful this weekend to not make America our idol.

We pray that God would bless the WORLD, which includes both America and Iraq. (and Zimbabwe, Columbia (even the FARC), China, Canada, Israel, etc.)

I am proud to be an American. We have some great things. We have the freedom to enjoy those things. A great many sacrifices have been made to build this. But I’m even more proud to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, which pretty much trumps any flag or allegiance to it.

So celebrate. Light some fuses. Watch some expensive display of waste that probably could have been spent more responsibly. Cook out. Get sun burned.

But Sunday morning, when our worship leaders will no doubt ask many of us to sing our allegiance in the middle of a worship service…(which, even though it somehow was canonized into the Hymnal, probably isn’t the place for such things)….remember, and pray for God’s blessing outside of our nations borders as well as to those within them.

ps. Not that singing “God Bless America” on Sunday morning is wrong. But perhaps that God blessing America has a lot more to do with God’s revealing than it does our political/economic favor….and in that, we are called – especially when meeting together as the body – to lift up the world God has sent us into. i.e. ALL of it. So sing/pray loud, but be careful to remember that what happens in our churches across the world unifies us as the body of something much larger.

What else is there to say? ( I know hockey season is over….but this free agency season has been CRAZY)

As if the Red Wings weren’t already number one, and proved it by attaining both the Presidents’ Trophy AND Lord Stanley’s Cup this year. As if they needed anything else going into next year to be competitive. Here’s an update on just the past month:

Hasek retired. We knew that was coming. But Osgood is definitely back for another season….good enough, right? Wrong. We’ve signed Ty Conklin (remember the outdoor hockey game in Buffalo last season?) as our backup goalie. Check the stats. This guy is a brick wall.

Chelios has declared intentions to stay with the team one more season at least. Although he knows he’ll probably down on the 3rd or 4th lines. Defensively, Detroit was the best in the league. There was fear about Brad Stuart leaving the Wings, but we still would’ve been already with Lidstrom, Kronwall, Lilja, and Lebda, etc. But Stuart signed on for 2 more years…SOLID.

How about forwards? As the team with the most goals for in the league this past year, and all the players returning, you’d think we’d be set, right? But wait….Hasek is gone, which frees up some room in our salary cap. So what do we do? Remember that guy, Hossa, one of the top scorers for the Penguins as we fought through the final round of the Cup playoffs? Oh yeah….we totally just signed him for a year.

So to re-cap….take the Presidential Stanley Cup winning team from this year….give them better goal-tending depth, another solid defensive year, and an even higher scoring offense.

We are totally going to win the cup again next year.

We may even beat Chicago once or twice during the regular season. 🙂 (Right Noah?)

This past Sunday, I sneaked into an adult Sunday School class for the first time here at Moundford. I’m checking out the various classes our church has to offer for a few reasons. One, I’m curious what all the adults are doing while I’m teaching a small group of teenagers. Two, I kinda feel like I’m an adult these days, and maybe I should attend one of these classes once in a while. Three – a whole lot of unnameable reasons.

It was a good class. It was also a hard class. Hard to keep my fat mouth shut, that is. But I think I did a good job. Just sat, following along in heart and mind, and sipping away weak coffee. They were reading through John chapter 17. We read through the entire chapter once, and then began to go through it verse by verse.

We ended on verse 18, which I kept my mouth shut on. But I wanted to stand up and preach. I got through it quietly by promising my excitement I would allow it to blog about this later. So here we are.

I think this verse could possibly be one of the MOST IMPORTANT VERSES to our churches today. Look it up. Read it. It’s HUGE.

Christ does not send us into the world to conquer it’s political systems. He’s not called us to create and defend a “Christian Nation” (or even a “Christian political party”, donkey OR elephant). He doesn’t ask for us to crush the opponents of Christ in every visible realm (political, social, theological, everyday conversations by “one-upping” others). He hasn’t even called us to tuck in our shirts, and/or wear ties and Christian t-shirts and slap bumper stickers on our cars so that everyone might know just how Religious we are, even if they’re just driving/walking past us.

It’s not OUR JOB to make Christ look good/powerful/successful/attractive/like a winner.

Instead, we see in verse 18, a powerful and challenging statement. In the same way that God sent Christ into the world, so we are being sent. How did God send Christ into the world? Humbly. To Love. To Serve. To Die.

This is our calling, to the world around us. Humility. Love. Service. And ultimately, to die of ourselves (although adding “of ourselves” weakens it a bit…we might be called to actually die). Our goals, ambitions, dreams…even the ones we see as truly noble. To let go of these. To follow Christ to a cross. Not even one of self-denial or of self-pity, but of communicating God’s love, grace, and mercy to others. ALL others. Not just the ones easy to love.