Five Thoughts on Laudito Si

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My household relies on one of those old-style push lawnmowers with rotary blades and no engine. I like it for a couple of reasons. First, it’s quiet: I can mow and still talk to my kids. Second, it meets two needs at once: the lawn needs cut and I need exercise. I’ll admit that it doesn’t always do a great job when the grass gets particularly long. However, the only thing it’s cost us in the last ten years is a little bit of lapping compound (to sharpen the blades).

As I was mowing last week I was thinking about Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical letter Laudito Si (On Care for Our Common Home). Like most people, I usually think about papal documents as I cut the grass. Laudito Si has been on my to-read list for a while. I tried reading through it online a few times (available here), but because reading on a screen stinks I never finished it. Continue reading “Five Thoughts on Laudito Si” →

Is Climate Change Divine Judgment?

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I remember the first time I visited the Rocky Mountains in Canada.  I was just a kid, but I was still impressed by the signs that marked the retreating glaciers. Years later, before heading to Glacier National Park with some friends, I remember reading about the same thing: there were less glaciers in that landscape than there used to be, those that still existed were shrinking. Earlier this year the New York Times ran an impressive multi-media piece showing the same phenomenon on a much larger scale. All this has come to mind as I’ve been reflecting on the Psalm assigned for worship this coming Sunday. Here are verses 10-12 of Psalm 85:

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.

The Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase. Continue reading “Is Climate Change Divine Judgment?” →

We’re all in Debt – And it’s Not a Bad Thing

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I’ve spent the last several days at a national church conference in British Columbia. Sadly, given the location, I only managed to escape the conference centre a few times. One of the terms I heard repeatedly over the weekend (while not getting outside) was “institutional church.”

As in, “The institutional church would do things that way, but I’m different.”

Or, “The institutional church is dying, but thankfully my friends and I have our own thing going.”

Or, “Don’t blame me, I’m only on the fringe of the institutional church.”

What was curious was that this dismissal of the “institutional church” was happening at a gathering organized and funded by the “institutional church.” The justice work many of us celebrated was initiated by the “institutional church.” The place where we advocate for change was in the “institutional church.” The schools that educated many of the conference participants were sponsored by the “institutional church.” The collection of music from which we sang was created by the “institutional church.” The digital projector showing the pictures of the “non-institutional” initiatives was rented by the . . . wait for it . . . “institutional church.”   Continue reading “We’re all in Debt – And it’s Not a Bad Thing” →

Is there anything we need more than wisdom?

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Imagine an alien spaceship hovering over a city. Let’s say the aliens have an anthropological bent and start making observations. What intrigues them most is the city’s traffic. Initially it looks like chaos. The aliens are astounded by the fact that there aren’t more accidents. Not only do they observe many different kinds of vehicles, but they’re all going in many different directions, at different speeds, through intersections, making lane changes.

The alien anthropologists realize that there must be some logic or code behind it all. So they take a bunch of video and the run it through some powerful analytical tools. Pretty soon they’re looking at a printout of the rules of the road. They wouldn’t be entirely right, but they’d be close. They might misinterpret speed limits as minimums and yellow lights as invitations to zip through intersections, but for the most part they’d understand how things work.

Wouldn’t it be nice, we might think, if life were like that? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some underlying code that we could figure out? Continue reading “Is there anything we need more than wisdom?” →

Speaking of God – An Essential Guide to Christian Thought

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So, here’s the cover of the book. It should be available sometime in October. One early reader, Stephen Backhouse who is author of Kierkegaard: A Single Life and Director of a fascinating project called Tent Theology has this to say:

“This is an excellent book for anyone interested in helping Christians think Christianly about their own Christianity. Siegrist writes with clarity and ease. His thinking is biblically informed, historically grounded and personally tested. His theology is generous, winsome and deep.  In my work as a teacher and traveling theologian I am often asked to recommend books to people new to theological thinking. Siegrist’s work has shot to the top of my list.”

Thanks to Stephen for the kind words and to the good folks at Herald Press for the design work and editorial advice along the way.

The Weekly Dose – Worship as Reorientation  

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Earlier this month the lectionary assigned a reading from Revelation 5. The passage is an excerpt from John’s vision of a heavenly throne room. John sees the throne of God surrounded by twenty-four elders and four strange creatures. He sees a scroll, which no one can open. No one that is, until a lamb, one that had already been killed, steps forward and opens it. Then John sees the elders and the creatures all worship the lamb and the one on the throne. Continue reading “The Weekly Dose – Worship as Reorientation  “ →

Babies, If, and Simple Instructions

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I’m am not an expert on children or parenting or teaching or mentoring—I claim no expertise in those fields. One thing I have noticed, though, is that just as soon as you feel like you have a kid figured out, they change. Last Sunday our congregation celebrated the arrival of two new little ones. As we usually do, we joined their families in celebration and then committed ourselves to supporting the parents and being decent examples for the children. The babies were champs. The only tears shed came from adults. Then the scripture reader read to us the passage assigned for worship on that Sunday. It was John 13:33-35. It is not explicitly a passage about the nurture of children. Continue reading “Babies, If, and Simple Instructions” →

Reflections on the “Clergy Health Crises”  

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I believe it was the ancient theologian Irenaeus who said “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” Part of that celebrated state, it seems right to assume, would be satisfaction with one’s work. If that’s true then pastors are (reportedly) well-positioned to bring God buckets full of the good stuff. Apparently pastors are more satisfied with their work then just about anyone else. One survey from the US found that more than 87% of pastors were very satisfied with their work. That’s 20% better than painters and sculptors and a bit better than physical therapists and firefighters. However, knowing pastors as I do, it’s a number that I find hard to believe. It turns out that the survey didn’t actually include very many pastors—just 68. What seems more realistic is the finding of another study that suggests clergy are experiencing depression at a rate 3% higher than the general population. The disparity is even higher among men. Many pastors do find ministry to be deeply satisfying, yet even they find it to be full of anguish as well.

Continue reading “Reflections on the “Clergy Health Crises”  “ →

Easter—This Time with Honesty  

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Preaching on Easter Sunday is hard. Expectations are high. Whenever there’s a trumpet involved in a worship service, the preacher is obligated to step up. But Preaching on Easter is also hard because it can feel dishonest. Or maybe not ‘dishonest’ exactly, but certainly ‘hollow’ or ‘one-sided’. Already, in the few days that have elapsed since Easter, I have spoken with a number of people who are suffering—who have been suffering for a long time. Some are in hospital beds, some have creaky knees, some have relationships that are strained to the breaking point. What does Easter mean in those situations? How do we speak about victory over death and evil, when there seems to be so little actual victory over death and evil? Continue reading “Easter—This Time with Honesty  “ →