A preacher, reporter and teacher walk into a bar ...

I couldn't remember who said it: a preacher should carry a Bible under one arm and a newspaper under the other. Turns out the quote is probably apocryphal but most often attributed to 20th century German theologian Karl Barth.

I'm willing to invoke Barth's support of the two arenas in which I've spent most of my life, the newspaper business and the church. It appears there's another advocate,* none other than Ben Franklin. In a letter to the Ministry of France in March 1778, Franklin reportedly wrote:

"A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district -all studied and appreciated as they merit -are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty."

Old Ben apparently saw that a thriving society looked something like the three-cornered hat resting upon his head, with faith, a free press and education making up the three. May your Bible be tattered with use, your newspaper subscription never lapse, and your local school a source of pride.

* In addition to the First Amendment, which had something fairly important to say about religion and the press.

Original posts at http://wrigleypreacher.blogspot.com

If Jesus had a Twitter account ...

None of what follows is mine, nor is the provocative title above -- "If Jesus had a Twitter account, what would his 160-character bio say?"

The question was posed by Susan Hogan, with whom I once was honored to share the title of "colleague" in the fraternity/sorority of daily newspaper religion writers. Her latest venture is Pretty Good Lutherans, in which she tells stories of faith so that their messages may become "tools of spiritual transformation."

Last week, she asked the above question.

Among the responses were several by Randy Schatz, whom I do not know and know nothing about (except that his Facebook bio identifies him as an "ELCA Lutheran in an ecumenical sort of way.")

His responses to "what Jesus' Twitter account would say" are the best summation of the Gospel I've read in a long time. Here they are:

"No time to tweet 2nite! Got a dinner date with some prostitutes, then to a movie with a gay freind. Peace! JC"
Wed at 8:43pm

"Meeting some dancers @ Ihop after they get off work. Like 3AM. Join us?"
Wed at 9:39pm

"Can you take the 3AM Ihop? I gotta stay up with a teen cutter in the psyc ward...step dad was messing with her. I sit with him in court 2morrow. JC."
Wed at 10:16pm

"On my way to Starbucks 2 meet college freshman started class yesterday...and found out she is pregnant...deciding what to choose."
Thu at 7:19am

Just passed churchy protesters with signs that say "God Hates Fags!". WTF?!?
Thu at 7:19am

@LarryKing & @Pope want to interview me. Maybee tomorrow, kinda busy 2day.
Thu at 7:20am

"Cutter made it through the night OK. Hanging w mom after step-dad's court thing...mom has tons of guilt. Gonna b a long day."
Thu at 7:22am

"Court is done. Heading 2 homeless shelter 2 start dinner. MEATLOAF =) Swing in if U R free. JC"
Thu at 1:26pm

"Volunteers had dinner started-thanx. Gotta go visit college gal's BF, he's got a ton of shame going. Maybe I'll give the M.N. Twins a little miracle 2night, just for fun =). JC"
Thu at 2:07pm

"Change of plans. Going 2 JV football game of a freind. Dad drinks the grocery money, mom has a black eye. Twins will have 2 win on their own. JC"
Thu at 2:38pm

"OK, so that field-goal was a miracle, what are you trying to say? Sat by that goofy dad. Nice guy, but seems lonely. His kid was the kicker.JC"
Thu at 3:03pm

"I find great humor in my followers who have GoodWill pick up the rubish sale left-overs. What part of 'first-fruits' is hard to understand? I'm just saying. JC"
Thu at 3:16pm

"Rejoycing with an industrial strength sinner who finally gave me a call. I had been hoping to hear from him soon. JC"
Thu at 4:32pm

Thank you Randy, Susan and Jesus.

Original posts at http://wrigleypreacher.blogspot.com

Haiku

I'm attending a spirituality conference in Plymouth, Mich. (where I am supposed to be in quiet contemplation so as to not be aware of things such as the Cubs losing on a bottom-of-the-ninth-inning home run last night out on the West Coast).

Anyway, one of our exercises was to respond to our learning utilizing some art or literary form "outside our comfort zone." Hence, my attempts at Haiku:

~

Breathing stale cave air.
Trapt in Plato's dark shadows.
Freed to turn and see.

~

Canopies of pine.
Green haven, sanctuary.
Risk the desert's call.

~

Do no harm. Do good.
Gather at the table long.
Stay in love with God.

~

Original posts at http://wrigleypreacher.blogspot.com/

Born again

Former NBC news anchor John Chancellor brought two phenomena to the fore during the 1976 presidential campaign. He was the first to coin "red state" and "blue state" as descriptors for how states voted in a presidential election. He also introduced the American public to what it meant to be "born again." As in "born-again Christian."

Actually, it was born-again candidate Jimmy Carter who brought evangelicals out of the political underbrush and "born agains" into the light of day. But it was Chancellor, in a nationally televised interview with Carter, who elevated the term into public discourse by asking what much of Middle America wanted to know: What exactly is this business of being "born again?"

(Ever the intrepid journalist, Chancellor prefaced his questioning with the reportorial assurance: "We've looked up born again, and it is nothing new." Columnist Cal Thomas wrote years later, "The term wasn't invented by Jimmy Carter, though the one who coined it had the same initials.")

It seems a silly question now. For nearly 30 years, abetted by the success of Carter's successor Ronald Reagan and his political operatives, evangelicals became major players in U.S. politics. Born again was no longer a foreign-sounding phrase.

But like so many religious concepts made into sound bytes, "born again" has been caricatured and delimited until it seems only to define a demographic with a penchant toward conservative politics.

Deep religious truths don't fare well when they become slogans, especially when appropriated for political reasons. It was refreshing, then, to come across these lines this week from Diary of an Old Soul, by George MacDonald:

"But we who would be born again indeed,
Must wake our souls unnumbered times a day."

Being born again is nothing less than committing one's self, day by day, moment by moment even, to being in conscious awareness of God. That is a deeply spiritual exercise. Once engaged, we may or may not say we are born again. But we can always say we hope to be.

Original posts at http://wrigleypreacher.blogspot.com

The Julie/Julia Project

Something about the movie has stayed with me, like the richness of coq o vin that lingers on the palate. Julia Child was little more to me than an easy voice to impersonate until I watched the film. (I've not attempted French cooking, personally, although Chicago's now-closed Ambria made me a fan.)

But it's Julie's story as much as Julia's that intrigues me. Is it because Julie Powell wrote herself out of a cubicle job into fame as a writer? Perhaps. But I think it's more because she connected with her passion, followed it, believed in it even when she questioned it, and somehow – perhaps most miraculously – brought those she loved along with her.

Here’s Julie Powell’s original blog:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/08/25.html

And here’s her current blog, What Could Happen?

http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/

Bonne lecture!

Photo of Julie Powell by Salon.com

A pearl in a gold mine

I go looking for gold and instead find a pearl. So it goes every week as I craft a sermon.

You've done it, too, although maybe not sermonizing. You know, you're looking for a missing earring underneath the dresser, and instead you find a $5 bill.

Sidney Harris, a syndicated journalist, used to write an occasional column called "Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things." He also found pearls while he was looking for gold.

So this week's find -- while I was researching Christian unity (or disunity) -- was this bit of wisdom about the church's willingness to change.

It's from the Alban Institute's Daniel P. Smith and Mary K. Sellon, authors of Pathway to Renewal: Practical Steps for Congregations (courtesy of Homiletics Online):

“Your congregation is what it is today not because of what a bad pastor did to it, or because the neighborhood has changed or because our culture is going to hell in a handbasket. Although those occurrences and many others have had an impact, your congregation is what it is today because of how it responded, or failed to respond, to the realities it faced.

"What your congregation will be in the future is up to you and the other members and how you work together to create something new from the realities you face. What you do or don’t do now will make the difference. Your actions will either reinforce the patterns that have become established in your congregation or start to counter and shift them. The leadership provided by your pastor can help or hinder, but it cannot make your congregation succeed or keep it from ultimately achieving the goals you set for yourselves.”

If you're part of a church, that's food for thought. If you're not, and you've read this far, maybe there's a congregation nearby whose newly discovered reality includes you.

Original posts at http://wrigleypreacher.blogspot.com
Image by NaturalyPure

Purls of Wisdom

Today's entry on my wife's knitting desk calendar reads:

"Knitters are frequently accused of being obsessed with the process and the stuff we use to do it with. I think that sounds sort of negative. Instead of describing myself as 'obsessed with knitting,' I prefer to think of my lifestyle as exquisitely focused in a very narrow direction."

Knitting, baseball, God ... fill in the blank. It works.

High school reunion

Beverly Clark sits on the end of a bed, confessing to an acquaintance her fear of losing her husband. Her deepest lament? “We need a witness to our lives,” says Clark, played by Susan Sarandon in Shall We Dance. “There's a billion people on the planet … I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things ... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying, ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness.’ ”

Some of us have been blessed by spouses or partners. Others have led lives as single people. Others have been married, then not, then maybe partnered anew. Which really isn’t the point here.

The point is, who are the witnesses to our life?

Our class is having its 30th high school reunion this weekend. We’ll blow three decades of dust off memories that have accumulated like so many old record albums in some closet of our brain. What is the allure of going back, metaphorically if not literally?

For some, I suppose it’s to be reminded of the days when life seemed simpler. Or of how little we’ve changed. Or of how much we have.

But these friends really are unique witnesses to our lives.

Beverly Clark feared losing her husband because he came home late, night after night. Ultimately, her fears were unfounded. He (Richard Gere) had been out taking dancing lessons in hopes of rekindling their relationship.

Those of us who spent years together through high school and then went our separate ways – we’ve been out learning lessons, too, dancing or otherwise. After being gone so long, we’ll come back home to remind ourselves that in a world of relative anonymity, we are rare witnesses to the long spans of our respective lives.

Photo courtesy of Helen Bryan

Paint it Blue

Photo © Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune

A ball falls between three Cubs fielders in a Friday afternoon loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.

Not that it's taken me 38 years of being a Cubs fan to figure this out, but the obvious became moreso this weekend: the reason one remains a Cubs fan is that when they win, Wrigley Field is more fun than any ballpark in America. When they lose, none is more blue.

So it's for the former that I stick it out. I've just got to work on my timing.

Friday, we're in the 10th row, directly behind home plate. The Cubs implode in the 6th inning and lose 8-3 to St. Louis.

Today, we're listening to the car radio on the way home, and the fading crackle of AM-720 is barely audible as the Cubs beat those same Cardinals 5-2. And Wrigley is singing again.

So, we went the wrong day. But that is a long-established corollary of my life as a Cub fan, two others being primary among them:

• The outcome of the game is inversely proportional to the quality of my seats. (I've seen a lot of victories from the upper deck and watched a lot of losses from the box seats.)


• Never get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the game; the other team will hit a home run. (Friday: top of the 5th, I go to the men's room and Albert Pujols parks a fastball in the center field bleachers. Sixth straight game that's happened. Next time, I'm not even drinking water on game days.)

Road trip

What do you take on a two-day road trip? I mean, packing light is sort of the point of a road trip, isn't it? If you have to pack at all? Jump in the car (preferably a convertible), some cash in your wallet, a baseball cap, and you're off. It's not like a vacation, where you need different pairs of shoes, clothes for changing weather, several pairs of socks, toiletries beyond your toothbrush, a lint brush if your hosts have a cat ...

Because I essentially live in two places nine months of the year, I've become an obsessively minimalist traveler. I don't even like lugging my laptop anymore. With cargo shorts, a good pair of walking shoes and two pair of tech-fabric travel underwear, you can be pretty minimalist. At least for five months out of the year.

Don't have a convertible, but I'm heading out anyway.

Madison, Evanston, the El, Wrigley Field, Milwaukee, 48 hours. Begins now.