Preaching 101 - What is True? What is Felt?

 A week or two ago I was attending a virtual conference. One of the sessions that I went to was title 'Preaching 101.' As a part of this session, we were asked to reflect on the parable of the Prodigal Son as if we were going to preach on it. The instructions were somewhat simple, read/listen to the parable then think about a personal connection, the scripture reading itself, and a practical message/takeaway. 

What follows is what I would have shared if the session had only had about 10 more minutes. At this point, I think I should also share that I've been thinking about this parable for a couple of years now and plan to continue to think about it for many years to come. 

If you're not already familiar with the parable of the Prodigal Son you're welcome to quick read it now before reading further. CLICK HERE or turn to Luke 15:11-32.

A few months ago I was reading former President Barak Obama's book A Promised Land. Ok, you're right, I wasn't reading it I was listening to it. Specifically, I had driven home to Grand Rapids for my mom's birthday. Yes, yes I am an amazing son... But truthfully part of my willingness to make the five-hour drive there and then five hours back was specifically to listen to this audiobook. In clear Barak fashion (Michelle Obama's audiobook Becoming, also excellent, was only 19 hours) the audiobook is 29 hours and I was under a library deadline to have the book returned. 

All this to say I was driving back from Michigan to Ohio listening to the audiobook when a particular line struck me. It hit me so hard that as soon as I got home to my apartment I took the hardcopy off my shelf and set to finding it. The quote came toward the end of the sixth chapter (page 126 for those interested) and said, "But it was hard...to distinguish what was true from what was felt."

Ever since hearing that line and then subsequently reading it, I have had the lingering questions rolling around in the back of my head... What is true..? What is felt..? 

From my own daily life to the memories of previous feelings and experiences I wrestle with trying to distinguish between these two things. 

Similarly in the parable of the Prodigal Son, there are any number of instances where we can ask the question what is true? And the question was it felt. 

There are two specific instances I want to look at, one with the younger son and one with the older. 

First, we see the younger son laying among the swine feeling as if he had squandered everything and was unworthy, "I no longer deserve to be called your son." This younger son seems to feel so deeply that he is not deserving of his father's love.

Second, we see the older son returning to a feast he was not invited to celebrating a brother he did not think was deserving, "He said to his father...'Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends." It seems clear to me that this older son is left feeling neglected, overlooked, unloved. 

Now in having looked at what was felt I am left to wonder what is true? To me what is true is the unconditional love of the father. Whether his sons felt worthy of the love, or couldn't seem to feel the love at all, the father never stopped loving. With this in mind, I have two additional questions I'm now left trying to wrestle with... 

In what ways do I feel and know I am loved?

And in what ways do I show my love for others so that it is not only felt, but understood as true? 

A Person Whom Jesus Was Like

Two or three years ago now I was sitting at my favorite brewery in town enjoying some great beer and delicious Indian food. For the three years that I lived in Grand Rapids most recently this was where you could find me on most every Wednesday night. Most often with the same one or two friends. 

Many nights were spent talking about gripes we each had in our jobs, our take on the latest political or Church scandal, the worlds of Middle Earth, D&D, and Hogwarts, and even the occasional conversation about cats, bathroom renovations, and gardening. I assure you each and every Wednesday surely could have been worthy of further reflection and a blog post or two. However, there was one night in particular that I have been thinking about for a couple of years now. 

I can tell you exactly what table we were sitting at and what I was eating/drinking (this bit isn't too hard since I merely rotated between two food options and two beer preferences each Wednesday). After our normal catch-up on all that was troubling us in life and work since our last Wednesday gathering there came a moment in the conversation where my friend prefaced what came next as potentially heretical...It was in this moment that my friend told me about her grandmother who had just passed away. Specifically, in describing the kind of woman her grandmother was, she said, "she was a woman who Jesus was like." I assured her that this wasn't even close to heretical...and I would know...

So often growing up I was told to consider the question What Would Jesus Do? I can't even begin to tell you how many promotional wristbands etc I had with WWJD on them. But never once was I encouraged to think about how I could live my life in a way that one could say Jesus was like me... I was always told to live my life to be like him...a task I'm not sure I'll ever be able to live up to. 

Somehow being a person for whom Jesus is like seems not only more doable but also seems more admirable and honorable of a goal. Perhaps this is all too prideful and it is heretical, however, what I know with certainty is that if once I'm dead and gone someone, a child, or grandchild, a friend, loved one, or anyone who knows me is able to say, "Mike was a man who Jesus was like" it would certainly be enough!

I never met this friend's grandmother and I'm not entirely sure I ever learned her name. Nevertheless, I'm confident that she is someone I won't soon forget. 

Panther Pause

As I begin to prepare to return to Michigan for the holidays I am left completely bewildered as to how quickly the last five-plus months have gone. In my last post, I wrote down some wandering thoughts about my various offices on campus. With this post, I want to go back just a bit further in my time here at ODU. 

Specifically, I find myself thinking back to the middle of June. Somewhere around June 16th or so my sister and I made the 5 ish hour drive from Grand Rapids to Columbus and just after noon I parked in what is my now everyday parking spot and stepped into the parking lot of what has been home for the past five months. Standing in the parking lot in a button-down and some nice red/salmon shorts I meet my new boss in person for the first time. 

During this initial greeting/small talk exchange, while waiting to meet my other new boss (yup, two offices means two bosses, and I suppose if you want to get super technical and cheesy about it three offices really means three bosses #Jesus) an airplane flew overhead. Now naturally there are often times airplanes flying the friendly skies overhead all the time and we never even notice. ODU however, is located close enough to the airport that planes flying overhead are loud enough that they interrupt your conversation. Even when on a virtual call with the office window open the planes can interrupt. 

Now while I think it would be easy to find this overhead interruption annoying I personally find it nice, moreover, ODU has taken to calling these interruptions, these moments when an airplane interrupts a panther pause. Named after ODU being the Panthers, thus the title of this post. 

Personally, I think there are two possible reasons for why I not only don't find these pauses annoying but actually rather enjoy them. One is because I rarely find pauses annoying. As many of you get to hear me say with some regularity "don't be hasty." Sure there is a lot to get done and I should really be reading that book article etc. that doesn't mean I need to rush. The second reason, the one that I have been thinking about since June, is that these airplanes, these panther pauses remind me of church bells. 

You may be wondering 'what in the hell is Mike talking about...has he truly gone round the bend? Airplanes sound nothing like church bells.' In this observation, you are absolutely correct. Planes do not sound like church bells. And yet to a certain degree, they do an excellent job at accomplishing what church bells are meant to do... 

Church bells ring not merely to make noise, not merely to indicate the hour and the passage of time, but are meant to call us to prayer. Fundamentally, the bells ring to call our attention to God. 

And so for the past 5 months and I hope for many months to come when I hear the plane passing overhead, I strive to truly pause. Not just because the plane is too loud, not just to see what airline the plane belongs to, but to completely and fully be present to that moment and in that moment draw my attention to God.  

Yes, this is Notre Dame, I, of course, cannot think about church bells without also thinking about The Hunchback of Notre Dame! 

My Third Office

Well, it has certainly been a while... The last time I found motivation/inspiration to write a reflection here was over a year ago. I was traveling from Utah back to Michigan and I found myself enjoying a peaceful dinner in the Salt Lake City airport looking out at the mountains... 

Since then a great deal has changed. First, the world found itself in the gripes of a global pandemic the likes of which hasn't been seen in over a hundred years. 

Naturally, this meant it was the perfect time for me to start a new job in a new city. In July for the second time in my life, I made the move from Michigan south to Ohio. For the past few months, I have been navigating a new job, in a new city, during a pandemic. 

Those of you who have heard me talk about the new job have likely heard me talk about one of my struggles being that I have two offices. One for the Residence Life side of my position the other for the Campus Ministry side of my job. The biggest struggle I find myself having with two offices is that inevitably once a week and sometimes once a day I find myself looking for a document or book or note that of course is in the other office. 

Oftentimes colleagues and students alike will ask me which office I like better. The honest to God's truthful answer is that I like them both equally but for different reasons. My reslife office is one large room. It's spacious it has a great big window (out of which I often see a woodchuck I've named Kevin) and all in all, is well decorated and set up for meeting with students 1:1. My Campus Ministry office is more of a suite and has three rooms. One has my desk which is ever overly cluttered and very much a lived at desk. The second room is what I started out calling the stress room... It's a small storage/kitchenette space that still needs more organization, but for now, is far less stressful. The third room is my favorite because it has my books and a couple of very comfortable chairs for meeting with students, reading, contemplating, and just sitting in. 

At this point, you might be wondering why this reflection is titled "My Third Office" since I just clearly described the two offices I have. 

Well, the reason for that is because one night heading home from a meeting around 10:30PM I realized I do in fact have a third office. It's incredibly spacious and has one of my favorite places on campus, but it's not my office alone, and not technically an office at all. 

This, of course, is the Chapel of Christ the King. Our humble yet beautiful (even if falling apart in some spaces) chapel on campus. 

As I approached the building in which the chapel is a student who only moments ago must have used the automatic door function (I'm sure to avoid touching the handle because of germs and not because of laziness) to open the door the below image lay before me. In this moment, a moment of peace and calm quiet and serenity I saw the Chapel as if for the first time. And it was stunningly beautiful. 

Each week I get to spend time in this space. Each week I get to work to prepare everything needed for Sunday Mass and a weekday Mass. Sometimes I do this in a hurried fashion, just trying to get a job done before getting to go home for the day. Other days I really take the time to be present in this space. As both a blessing and a curse at times part of my job is going to Mass. 

If I had to pick an "office" that was my favorite it would certainly be the Chapel. From sitting in the choir loft "hiding" from the problems and stresses of everyday life to looking out the stained glass windows pondering, reflecting, and contemplating anything and everything and even at times finding the motivation and inspiration to sing, the thing I know I will always find in this office is comfort and peace, if only for a moment. 

If you've made it this far after the above ramblings, then I'm curious to know what your office is like, and where you most find peace? 

I Want to See Mountains Again

Anytime I travel by airplane I think about the opening scene of the film Love Actually (Click here for Clip) where they talk about the beauty of airport arrivals showing loved ones reconnecting after who knows how long. Perhaps most fittingly on this trip, I think about the notion of love being all around us because I am traveling after being at a dear friends wedding. A wedding at the Red Butte Gardens (Click here to see their website), a beautiful venue that gave me insights I never realized I was lacking. However seeing the sunset behind the mountains bathing the horizon in a pinkish gold I began to understand even more that not only was I surrounded by love, but by immense beauty as well.

While I truly love to travel I am also a massive homebody and find myself increasingly introverted and more specifically introspective when traveling. From sitting at the airport to the flight, the Uber rides, and aimlessly wandering I find myself to be far more contemplative in these moments than I typically am in my everyday life. When the trip includes Mountains I find myself to be even more struck by the wonder and awe that surrounds me. As I sat eating lunch in the Salt Lake City International Airport I had a beautiful view of the mountain range that Salt Lake as a city hugs (See photo below, thanks to United/Dan Ingram for letting me fly the friendly skies).

Having arrived very late in the evening Friday to Salt Lake I didn't fully understand the immense and as my Uber driver described it "undeniable" beauty of the city. It wasn't until I was in the light of day Saturday that I truly began to comprehend where it was that I found myself.

Now naturally in true nerd fashion Anytime I spent time simply sitting gazing at the mountains I could hear nothing but Bilbo Baggins voice in my head saying "I want to see mountains again, mountains Gandalf!" (Click Here for Clip) more and more I find myself relating to Bilbo more and more... perhaps 26 is the new 111.

Even more truly in nerd fashion, last nights wedding reception afforded me the opportunity to catch up with a grad school friend I had not seen since grad school. Having been separated for years now we took the opportunity to take a deep dive into some of our latest and greatest theological thoughts and insights (some may call heresies). Specifically, I recall us talking about the closeness of God and how we as humans created in the image and likeness of God, bearing an imprint of the creator on our souls could not possible physically distance ourselves from God. Yet at the same time, it is very possible for us to distance ourselves from God. In failing to recognize the love and beauty that is around us and within us it becomes at times natural to distance ourselves from God, yes I know how cliche and cheesy religious hopeful that sounded... I almost vomited a little when I wrote it, even so, I actually do believe it.

I believe it because the love and beauty don't have to be the touchy-feely hallmark love and beauty. Whenever traveling or finding myself with extended amounts of free time I tend to fill it by listening to podcasts. Today I was still reflecting on the above conversation when listening to a podcast that referenced and played a clip of Chopin's Prelude in E Minor (Click Here). The podcast commented on how it is exceptionally sad. One of the hosts of the podcast sad incredibly sad yet hopeful and the other retorted and said no it's not all that hopeful at all. In hearing that I thought to myself yes it is incredibly sad and no it's not hopeful, because it doesn't have to be. Even in its sadness, it is truly exceptionally beautiful.

While some may find it difficult to believe the song is both sad and beautiful at the same time, I welcome the complexity of such a belief. Just as I welcome the complex reality that while God may never be far I may still create distance.


Peace and Blessings Always
~M

Blessings

Earlier today I was talking about a program that provides middle school students with food to take home at the end of the day. The program is called Backpack Blessings. With this being at a public school, I paused and wondered if this were not inappropriate and a subtle form of proselytization upon unaware younglings. I was of course quickly reminded that the students needed food and were getting food so I shouldn't spend too much time being bothered by the name seeing as it would seem they picked the name based on the alliteration... A writing tool I find at times captivating and in other instances tremendously lazy. 

(If anyone wonders why I'm such a strong supporter of keeping things such as prayer out of public schools I'll let you read what my friend Toby had to say about this, Click Here).

As I continued to think however I began to wonder if I didn't also have an issue with the use of the term blessing in this instance altogether. Should the charity of others be considered a blessing? With this question on my mind, I went to my office on a Friday night to begin looking for a definition of the term blessing. 

It was then that I was easily able to find and understand a bit more why I may have had pause in this casual, alliterative, lazy use of the term blessing. First I checked the YOUCAT and found the following, "a blessing is something that comes from God (Latin benedicere; Greek eu-logein = to call good); to bless is a divine, life-giving, and life-preserving action." 

While I found this to be a good starting point, I was not satisfied. So naturally, I turned to the actual Catechism of the Catholic Church for what I hoped to be a more detailed definition. "A blessing or benediction is a prayer invoking God’s power and care upon some person, place, or undertaking. The prayer of benediction acknowledges God as the source of all blessing. Some blessings confer a permanent status: consecration of persons to God, or setting things apart for liturgical usage." 

Here again, I found this to be more detailed and certainly more in-depth, but I did not find satisfaction. 

What I did come to realize is how limited my view on blessings had become. In part, because I grew up with these definitions defining not only what I believed, but what most of those around me knew. A blessing is from God and we are lucky and should thank God if we find ourselves in his good graces. 

Yet what if we took the term blessing and removed the religious implications? Yes, I understand that in doing this I want to completely change the meaning of the word from its origins to mean something else and perhaps I should simply look to use a different word, but instead I've decided to try and craft my own definition of the term. 

I would like to propose that we give the term freedom to mean any type of favor, kindness, charity, and/or love that is shown. In this way, I hope that we can recognize one another as blessings ourselves to one another, as well as recognizing our actions of love and kindness toward one another as kindness. Now perhaps what I'm suggesting is simply a realization or recognition of the divine, the imago Dei, or image of God within all of us that was imprinted upon us and within us by the creator... Which of course I think is true, but perhaps for now on this Friday evening I can keep things a bit more simplified and just leave you all with a blessing of brevity. 

I am curious how you might define blessing.

Peace and Blessings Always

~M

A favorite image of mine just for fun

Why I Personally go to Mass

Yesterday was the feast of St. Dominic, working at a Catholic Dominican college means we not only had a lovely mass, but also a delicious feast day feast. In all honestly, it's been awhile since I'd been to mass on campus. In part because of complicated schedules and in part because I've been pretty pissed at the church lately and haven't made mass attendance a priority. However, as I sat in the pew, listened to the music, sang along to some of the songs, heard scripture, and reflected during the homily I was surprised by the experience of both great calm and motivation. As I was able to sit in the pew I was able to simply sit and relax. Much of the time was spent thinking about a number of non-mass related realities.

Yet after mass I left feeling refreshed and recharged. The reality for me is that I don't often enough take this time in my life to sit and simply be. Sure I take plenty of time to watch movies and Netflix, spend time with friends talking, and every couple weeks find time for catching up on sleep, but I know these moments of relaxation just aren't the same. From the music, the space itself, and the subject matter mass for me becomes a space for relaxing and recharging and honestly that's why I go. That's why I need to recommit to taking time to go to mass.

There is nothing profound about this. There is nothing overly special or insightful about this, I really don't know why I'm writing this as a blog post, perhaps I just needed to share it in a way that was indirect, perhaps these words will help someone else find their way to realizing why they go to mass.