You may know that our son is an active-duty chaplain serving in the U.S. Air Force. Becky and I visited him and his family this past week. What a joy. They live on-base in a family housing area that could be mistaken for a nice suburban neighborhood anywhere in the United States. The minute we pull into the driveway, grandkids rush out to greet us. As we make our way into the house, we feel right at home in that familiar place, with grandkids hurrying to show us their latest projects or climbing on top of us.

Getting on base, however, requires more than simply turning into a nice suburban neighborhood. The base visitor center is just outside the main gate.  Our son meets us there to request visitor passes for us. An airman scans our driver’s licenses and taps other information into his computer. We have photos on file so can skip that step, and in due time a printer spits out our passes. The passes tell us to stay out of restricted areas and that any undefined “adverse action” on our part will be noted in our son’s personnel file.  Passes in hand, we drive through the gate, show our passes, and then go past security devices and procedures we notice and more we don’t notice.

When we stay at the base hotel, we sign a form acknowledging the Air Force’s right to kick us out without notice should they suddenly need our room to house in-coming airmen or officers. Continue reading →

Proverbs 17:6
Grandchildren are the crown of the aged,
and the glory of children is their fathers.

The first few rows of my third grade class picture. 37 kids, one teacher. And, yes, I am in the photo.

A friend from long, long ago recently posted some black and white classroom photos from our shared years at Northmont Elementary School on his Facebook page.  Though I was not in Jim’s third grade class, I recognized most of the faces in the photo even if I did not remember most of the names.  I was impressed by the commentors who did remember every face and every name. I rummaged around for my own black and white third grade class picture, and found it.  Again, I recognize the faces but don’t remember all the names.

The photos were taken 64 years ago this fall – a long time ago.  Remembering is sometimes good just for the sake of remembering. I have no idea what has become of most of the students in those photos – what joys and what sorrows, what successes and what disappointments they have encountered since 1959.  I don’t need to know. There’s enough reward in the remembering. Remembering can be a good thing in and of itself..

For some of us, though, memories are not rewarding. We may need to acknowledge the bully and the bullied in the third grade classroom (I think we were pretty bully-free, but I might revise that memory if someone tells me otherwise).  Sometimes, however, we are tempted to revise what we remember of the past to suit our understanding of the present. We might make bullies where there were none. Continue reading →

The old adage reminds us “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” But what if they don’t want to hear something nice?

I’m still thinking about a request I received recently from an organization for a personal reference for someone seeking to serve in its work.  The request named the individual and the nature of the work they might do, and then said, “If you, as a church leader, have any concerns about the individual listed above, …please respond to this email and share those concerns. If the individual is an active participant in your church and you would, indeed, recommend them…, there is no need to respond.”

Serving as a personal or professional reference, completing recommendation forms, or verifying application details go with the territory.  They are some of the things a pastor just does.  And typically, happily so.  My guess is that I have offered references, recommendations, and verifications hundreds of times over the years.  From candidates for ministry or mission positions, to scholarship applicants, to, recently, someone wanting to be a prison guard, I have been honored to be asked to offer a word or two about friends, parishioners, and proteges.

Most of the time when I have been asked to provide a recommendation for someone, it has been a happy task.  I have good things to say – sometimes so good as to advise the asking organization not to pass on the opportunity the applicant represents.  But I also take seriously the challenges/weaknesses section most reference forms have.  I try to offer honest and candid assessments. Occasionally sitting on the other side of the table, I have found no weaknesses, walks-on-water/turns-water-into-wine recommendations to be mostly useless. Continue reading →

I like to be right, and there can be something wrong about that.

When I was in seminary, we were taught that maybe the best way to think about the Bible’s King David was as if he were some sort of ancient Middle Eastern Robin Hood – more legend than fact – but a great story and a nice message.  You know, take from the rich and give to the poor, face your giants, or “don’t worry, even people after God’s own heart get themselves into trouble.”

It looks like my professors were wrong.

The current edition of Christianity Today has an interesting article, How Archaeology Affirmed the Historic Stature of a Biblical King.  The subtitle is “Once, the House of David seemed like a folk tale. Now, the rocks testify to its historic significance.”  You can read the story, but the point is that there is there is good evidence of David being more than a legend and his kingdom extending far beyond Sherwood Forest.

My guess, however, is that the new archeological findings have not moved every scholar to considering more faithfully the one whose story begins “Once in Royal David’s City.” And my guess is that we’ll still get lots of bad sermons about facing our giants (and maybe a few about taking from the rich and giving to the poor). Continue reading →