Last week I had the privilege of presiding at the funeral of a gentleman whose life was, among other things, a testament to the sacredness of God in the dirt of everyday life.

He was an “insurance man” and in so many ways a gentleman. He loved to wear a coat and tie. But he was also an outdoorsman, an avid hiker in Arizona and around the country. He also appreciated the value of manual labor. Digging in the dirt. Moving stuff around. His son recalled being a partner in a tree stump-moving project. He and his dad would tinker around in the backyard digging up and moving around trees stumps — sometimes the same tree stump more than once. There was something therapeutic about digging in the dirt, the sweat, and the physicality.
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It is safe to say that I have the best job at PPC. Others may debate it, but I am convinced. I just returned from a three day trip with our high school students to Durango, Colo., for our annual ski trip. I am not a skier or a snowboarder, so it isn’t the perks like a weekend of skiing that steals the title for me, but it is the company. Our teens continually show me what being the church is all about. I have been truly blessed to be a part of their lives, and I am confident that Brandon would second that. I know that many of you haven’t had the opportunity to get to know them personally and to be intimately involved in their lives, so let me give you a glimpse of who they are and what their vision of the church is, it truly is inspiring and humbling.

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If you don’t yet know about Rachel Held Evans, here’s your chance.

In her late 20s, Rachel is an award-winning author, speaker, blogger whose reflections on faith and life have been featured in interviews everywhere from the NPR to the London Times to Oprah. Her first book, Evolving in Monkey Town (Zondervan, 2010), explores the relationship between faith and doubt and recounts the challenges of asking tough questions about Christianity in the context of the Bible Belt. This past October, Rachel finished a yearlong experiment in “biblical womanhood” in which she attempted to follow all of the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible. That experiment will be documented in a book published in 2012.
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Thinking about the new year, I’m taken back to a quote a student of mine gave me nearly 20 years ago. It was from the Jewish writer Ismar Schorsch. Schorsch speaks of the idea of rest and Sabbath which has structured the dreams and practices of many Jews for centuries:

To rest is to acknowledge our limitations, we cease our power to tinker or transform. Willful inactivity is a statement of subservience to a power greater than our own.*

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Taken from John, chapter 1:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.”

I have been meditating on this text for the last few days. What does it mean to refer to God as the light of the world?

Each of the gospel writers chose their own way of beginning their message to the world. They chose how to articulate the the significance of the incarnation: Why does it matter that God became flesh and lived among us. Read more…

I have been an athlete most of my life. I have also been a Christian. But I have never been particularly comfortable with the combination of the two.

Mostly because I do not believe that God is or ever will be in the business of winning and losing football games, track races, tennis, matches or any other sporting event.

Ironically, sports culture is among the most fervently religious sectors of American life. Players often point to heaven after a clutch play or a win, or thank God for success in post event interviews. Last year’s game between the Oregon Ducks and the Auburn Tigers was a particularly conspicuous example of this. (And let me preface this by saying that I love college football and think that both Oregon and Auburn are great teams.)
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