We are doing a series of the Psalms at Kairos now, and this past week I taught Psalm 139, a Psalm where David has stirred the imagination of listeners throughout the ages.  He proves to be  a poet that is a master of iconic reflection, as Bernard of Clairvaux has said, "Just as we taste food with the mouth, so we taste the psalm with the heart."

The art pieces in the order presented are as follows. The first is a piece by Irv Davis, some Jewish art inspired the the entire psalm. The second piece of art is called Trail Riders, spurred on by Ps. 139:14.  The third piece is by Sarah Warren called Woven Together.  The fourth piece by by Suigii is called Intricately Designed. And finally, there is piece of art called Children by Harry Motro.  Click on the images to enlargen.

So as you reflect on this psalm and some art that has been spurred by it, pray in the words of Fredrick Beuchner, "Lord, catch us off guard today, surprise us wit some moment of beauty or pain so that for at least a moment we may be startled into seeing that you are with us in all your splendor, always and everywhere, barely hidden beneath, beyond, within this life we breathe."  And now for the Psalm, in the TNIV. 

PSALM 139
You have searched me, LORD,
       and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
       you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
       you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
       you, LORD, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
       and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
       if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
       your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
       and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
                                              before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
       How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
       they would outnumber the grains of sand—
       when I awake, I am still with you.

                                        If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
       Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent;
       your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
       and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
       I count them my enemies.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
       test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
       and lead me in the way everlasting. 

David von Druissenbergenhoffer the Third (1/10)
Originally uploaded by david in den bosch

"A cheerful heart is good medicine" Proverbs 17:22

I just heard this story on Saturday.  It demonstrates how insane our legal system has become.  This was the First Place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

Charlotte, North Carolina. A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against, among other things, fire.

Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost “in a series of small fires.”

The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason, that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.

The lawyer sued.. and WON!

Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company, which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire” and was obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the cigars lost in the “fires”.

Now for the best part...

After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!!

With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

PRAYER - WE ARE READY TO LISTEN

Healing, sovereign God,
overmatch our resistant ears
with your transforming speech.
Penetrate our jadeness and fatigue.
Touch our yearnings by your words.
Through your out-loudness, draw us closer to you.
We are ready to listen.
Amen.

Walter Brueggemann, from Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth

Mission Trip To Suburbia
I posted recently about our week long missions trip to suburbia. We basically spent the week serving in Lower Bucks County. We worked with different housing groups and social service agencies. A highlight for me was the evening we spent with the “Chapel and Chow” folks at Philadelphia Park Racetrack. There is apparently a chaplain there (Jack) who has been quietly serving the workers of the racetrack. Most of the workers are immigrants who come from low income situations. He works there in a pastoral, counselor, social work role. He spends Wednesday and Sunday evenings in worship and the rest of the week working to make sure these employees are taken care of physically, emotionally, medically, etc. It’s really a neat ministry. Another hightlight was the realization that there are a lot of people quietly working with the poor in our county. We just never really hear of them since we are really good at hiding our poor. We’re also apparently really good at hiding those who work with them. The church in suburbia doesn’t really need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to caring for the poor among them. We’d be better off partnering and giving much needed resources to those who already have more experience and are already deep in the trenches. It was clear that most of these organizations were very excited to have a local church concerned about the same things they were concerned about. If you are part of a church in the burbs, I’d suggest that you find a way to connect with the social service agencies in your communities and neighborhoods. That’s really a great place to start.

Poverty Forum at The Well
Part of our missions trip week as that we hosted a forum on Suburban poverty. It was really a great event. We had three social workers, a local politician, a businessman and a pastor on a panel. Gary (my co-pastor) led the discussion around the challenge of poverty in our community. It was a great awareness event and we had about 50 people there, most of them weren’t from our church. One person who was there said, “I’ve been a Christian for a long, long time and its been just recently that I’ve even heard about stuff like this…” This both a problem and an opportunity. The suburban church needs a vision for its neighboring community and especially the poor. I think that starts with a gospel that addresses a holistic view of salvation and the recreation of all things… but that’s another blog post that I probably won’t write…

Missional in Suburbia Seminar
We had a great seminar with Al Hsu. Read more from Al here and you can listen to audio here.

8 Years of Marriage
Wow. So on July 29th my wife and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We’ve known each other for 12 years now and that’s a long time if you look at the fact that I am 31. I’ve now known her for almost half my life. I can honestly say that I love her more than I did 8 years ago. Not only that, but she makes me a better person. I can’t imagine who I would be without her… Okay. I’m done being a sap.

1 Year Anniversary of Mason’s Adoption
On August 4 we celebrated bringing Mason into our house for the first time. I can’t believe its been that long. If you are not a long-time reader of my blog, we adopted our youngest son Mason from Guatemala last August. He’s doing great.

The Well is growing and we’re learning to deal with it…
Usually summers are the times where we take away the chairs and move up the sofas for a more “intimate” worship gathering. Mostly because attendance really drops off in the summer due to students being gone and vacations and different schedules. This summer we’re not only adding chairs but we’re running out of room. God’s brought us some amazing people and its been a blessing to have a little more experienced folks join our community as well. We’re dealing a little with growing pains but its a really exciting time to be leading this church. So, we’re trying to embrace all the kids, the lack of space and chaos that comes with growth.

Okay, that should make up for my lack of blogging for a little bit at least. Enjoy your weekend.

So where did you think the first meeting between the presumptive presidential nominee's would take place? Would you have guessed Saddleback Church in Orange County, California?  Probably not, but it is happening.  According to On Faith, an informative jointly sponsored website by the Washington Post and Newsweek Magazine, this will be the first time that a church pastor has ever moderated an event, in a local church, featuring the two major candidates for President.

They say that "the two-hour format will be held in a non-debate form, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. PDT (Saturday, August 16th). There will be commercial breaks every ten minutes, enabling Dr. Warren to have a separate long-term conversation with each candidate for 50 minutes."  Rick will ask them both the same questions in areas like - stewardship, leadership, worldview and America's role in the world.  Rick had planned for a panel to ask questions, but the candidates preferred Warren to interview them. According to the TV Guy, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News will cover Obama and McCain at the Saddleback Civil Forum. If you want a great overview of what will be happening, then check out this on faith article, which has a bit more information that the Saddleback Civil Forum website.  Here is the front page of that website:

Come Sunday morning, Rick will be sharing a message at his 20,000 plus member church on "The Kind of Leadership America Needs", which according to on faith, "National new agencies have expressed interest in broadcasting."  We live in pretty interesting times, wouldn't you say.  Most every major news outlet has articles written about this fascinating event, here are just a few:

New York Times: McCain and Obama Agree to Attend Megachurch Forum
Los Angeles Times: Visits by McCain, Obama to Orange County church underscore pastor Rick Warren's prominence
Washington Post: Obama, McCain Plan Joint Appearance at Rick Warren's Church
International Herald Tribune: Obama and McCain aim for faith vote at forum
NPR: Planning A Purpose-Driven Talk with McCain, Obama
CNN: Pastor - Not going to play 'gotcha' with McCain, Obama
MSNBC: McCain vs. Obama: Getting Religion
Fox News: Obama, McCain Set for First Joint Election Appearance at California Megachurch

On Faith posts the endorsements that McCain and Obama for Warren's PEACE Plan, here is what they say:

Endorsement of the PEACE Coalition by Sen. John McCain
"The consistent message of the Gospels calls us to recognize that all life is sacred because all human beings are created in the image of God, and Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. The billions affected by poverty, diseases, illiteracy, and oppressive or corrupt governments are our neighbors and they deserve our compassion, support and comfort. They are living without hope, happiness or good health. This is why we need the PEACE Plan and the PEACE Coalition. Together as individuals, churches, corporations, and countries we must do all we can to cooperate in eradicating these 'giant problems.' The mobilization of local churches to aid, educate and empower others through the PEACE Plan has already made an impact on these problems and will only increase. I am so grateful for the PEACE Plan and I thank Rick and Kay Warren for their leadership worldwide."

Endorsement of the PEACE Coalition by Sen. Barack Obama
"Through the PEACE Plan, thousands of partners are acting on the belief that the challenges we face today are not simply technical problems in search of a ten-point plan. They are moral problems, rooted in both individual callousness and societal indifference, due to the imperfections of man. The PEACE Plan marshals the hard work and good will of churches, placing trust in the limitless power of a living and awesome God. It proclaims with loving witness that the weary and heavy-laden across the globe can find rest and strength in the arms of their brothers and sisters -- ordinary people empowered by God to change the world. Michelle and I will be praying fervently for the success of the PEACE Coalition. Moreover, as partners, and as friends we will be working with Rick and Kay Warren and all Americans willing to see that the aims of this great plan are realized. God's call to be our brother's keeper and our sister's keeper requires of us nothing less."

So what do you think about the event?  Check out the thoughts from the Pew Forum. Staring September 28th, the week after our 5th Year Anniversary, we at Kairos Los Angeles, will be having a 5 week series on Faith and Politics.  It is there I will be sharing some of my thoughts on this topic.

In our society we are inclined to avoid hiddenness. We want to be seen and acknowledged. We want to be useful to others and influence the course of events. But as we become visible and popular, we quickly grow dependent on people and their responses and easily lose touch with God, the true source of our being. Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves. - Henri Nouwen