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 Friday, April 27, 2007
All I ever really needed to know about Sabbath Keeping I learned in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a neighborly day in this beauty wood. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

He was a treasured guest in our childhood homes. First he went to the closet, where he exchanged his coat and shoes for a more comfortable sweater (knitted by his mother) and sneakers. Then he sang to us in a way that made us want to sing along. We boarded the Trolley and went on a journey, awakening our imagination to the land of make believe. We were treated to story time and games like show and tell. He encouraged us to get in touch with our childhood feelings and gave us the freedom to play. All this happened under the carefree clock named Daniel, who had no hands. Not that we cared much about time then; it could be whatever time we wanted it to be. It is an overworked genre of literature, but a fitting book cries out to be written, All I Really Needed to Know about Sabbath Keeping, I learned in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

Sabbath invites us into a different kind of space. . . . . a different dimension of time. . . . . . a place of seeing God. . . . . . an imaginative spirit of of "make-believe." Done consistently, over a period of time, Sabbath keeping will make us believe in God in a much deeper way. Sabbath, in this vein, is a place of faith-making.

Eugene Peterson, in an article entitled Confessions of a Former Sabbath Breaker, defines good Sabbath keeping as a creative combination of praying and playing. He invites us to find a place (a sanctuary) and craft a routine (a ritual). Those involved in church leadership have the additional need of finding a time beyond the working Sunday. Whatever the case, be it Monday or Saturday, it should be kept as consistently as possible. If Sabbath is to do its gracious work in us it must become a life rhythm.

Praying. Find a place for worship and prayer, a sanctuary. From a sacred space in your home to a quiet walk through the park, locate some holy ground and “take off your shoes.” (i.e. prepare to meet God.) Take off your watch. (Eternity is timeless) Enter in with praise and thanksgiving. Sing, but resist the temptation to write songs. Chant the Psalms. (Don’t worry about how to do it—make it up!) Take a prayer like our Lord’s Prayer and pray it slowly and deliberately, as a guide. Spend time reflecting on your calling and the way it is unfolding. Get in touch with the creation and remember the works of God in your life. Thank God for your gifts and reconsecrate them to Him. Break free from the idolatry of worshipping worship. Always be reminded: worship is a revolutionary reorientation around the radical idea of a God-centered existence.

Playing. Put the dreaded “to-do” list aside and go have some fun. Read some good fiction. Go to a movie, but try to avoid television. Take a long drive in the country. Visit a park and swing and slide. Learn to play games like cards or chess that stimulate thought and give attention deficit addictions like GameCube a rest. Make a call or write a letter to an old friend. Be inventive; just resist the temptation to work.

Can you hear the Lord of the Sabbath singing? It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. . . . would you be mine. . . could you be mine? That’s what it’s all about.

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/27/2007 06:43:00 AM | 3 comments

 

Thursday, April 26, 2007
The Bully
Anger. . .
steals the seed of Love
stunts the growth of Hope
wilts the flower of Joy
blinds the eyes of Vision
robs the soul of Memory
traps the spirit of Life
kills Creativity
Destroys

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/26/2007 11:48:00 PM | 2 comments

 


Tiffani Does it Again!

Tomlin takes home 6 Dove Awards at 38th Annual GMA Ceremony last night.

Photo: That's FARMStrong First Lady, Tiffani Walt with Chris a few months back at the Grammys in LA. Tiffani has worked for Chris these last seven years. She's been in Nashville all week for the festivities. Today, my hat is off to her. She is truly an amazing woman.
And yes-- FARMStrong has had ALL 4 KIDS at home. How on earth does she do it all? PRAY she has a safe drive back today. ;-)
posted by John David Walt | at 4/26/2007 07:37:00 AM | 3 comments

 

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
EasterTide Quote
"Because Jesus lives to triumph,
there will be the real Community,
with its real Banquet
in its real City
amid its real Splendor,
as no penultimate community
or banquet
or city
or splendor is
really just and loving or tasty or civilized or golden.

The church has to rehearse that sentence in all her assemblings,
explicitly and in detail."



Robert Jensen, How the World Lost its Story
Photo: This is the first newspaper advertisement I have ever seen highlighting the celebration of the 50 days of Easter. It was in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette the week prior to Easter, when everyone else was advertising their Easter Sunday extravaganzas. This Pentecostal Church has the vision don't they?

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/24/2007 08:47:00 PM | 1 comments

 

Monday, April 23, 2007
Stillborn Spring
Stillborn spring
cold callowing bloom
crisping tender leaves
tepid flower's doom
death rebuking hope
or winter's last wound?
stealing the gold
but not the green
still born, spring



the photo tells the story of our spring around here. it came forth so faithfully and yet got smashed by repeated freezes. the trees were left looking like fall. as i walked to work each day i just kept looking at those drooping leaves that just days before were golden. these words captured it for me. there's lots going on in this metaphor. any thoughts?

I suppose this is why the general Kentucky rule is no gardening prior to Derby Day-- which is coming soon.

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/23/2007 09:12:00 PM | 1 comments

 


For those Fresh Strawberries. . . . .
here's another entry from Mom's Cookbook. Remind me to tell the story of that treasure trove sometime.

Marshmallow Fruit Dip

1 cup powdered sugar
8 ounces cream cheese
7 ounces marshmallow crème

Mix all ingredients well. dip with apple wedges, strawberries, etc. Easy and Very Good.

photo: Easter at Camp David.

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/23/2007 11:34:00 AM | 0 comments

 

Saturday, April 21, 2007
Sabbath Keeping Encouragement


In the early 1980’s, when the cold war was raging hot, the Soviet Empire seemed a formidable place. Red Square, with all its pompous splendor, was the symbolic center of the Russian Nuclear SuperPower. It was an impeccable fortress, or so we thought. On an ordinary day, a sixteen year old German student named Matthias Rust, piloted a small single engine rental airplane from Denmark into Soviet airspace. Despite one of the most advanced anti-aircraft radar systems in the world, the German student “buzzed” the Kremlin and landed the aircraft in the center of Moscow’s Red Square.

On the outside, everything seemed to be in order. But on the inside, something entirely different was taking place. An internal collapse had been underway for who knows how long. Chernobyl was next, the most devastating nuclear reactor accident in world history. Soon the walls would come tumbling down and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sadly, Red Square and the collapse that ensued, is an apt metaphor for all too many ministry leaders and pastors in our day. On the outside, all seems to be in order. But on the inside, something entirely different is taking place. A high energy schedule and break-neck pace cloak the rising tide of burnout. The desire to do something great for God. . . . . to make the grade. . . . . to be successful in our mission disguise fame-hungry ambitions. Derailing moral breakdowns loom perilously behind a self assured sense of invincibility.

There is no shortage of data concerning the well being of pastors in ministry. Take this data from a recent survey, which was funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc., by Dean Hodge and Jacqueline Wenger:

How important was each of the following possible reasons why you left your position in local church ministry?

I felt drained by the demands on me = 58%
I felt lonely or isolated = 51%
I felt bored or constrained in the position = 43%
I was not supported by denominational officials = 43%
I found a better job outside of congregational work = 38%
I had marital or personal relationship problems = 27%

I love the way our late friend, Sam Eden, used to frame his most emphatic sentences: "Note well." Note well: people aren't leaving ministry because they haven't read enough books. As important as scholastic devotion may be, apart from the disciplines and dispositions of a Spirit filled heart, it will mean little to nothing in the long term sustenance of servanthood.

In the midst of the chaotic stress of our post-modern lives comes the ancient cry of God, Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor but the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord. For centuries, Sabbath Keeping has provided the people of God with a sword of protection and shield of refuge from the subtle enemies of the soul.

Sabbath keeping forges deep channels of reflection navigating us beyond the shallows of our coffee-break prayer lives. Gordon McDonald, in his book Ordering Your Private World, says Sabbath keeping is a "fine tuning of my inner navigational instruments so that I can make my way through the world for another week." Sabbath, through the sheer will to keep showing up, has a way of restoring our radar almost effortlessly. It does so by bringing us back to true North, over and over and over again. . . . . week after week after week. . . . . . taking our focus off of "the next thing" and re-establishing our view of the horizon.

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy = 24 hour day that begins at night once per week + Ritual entry and exit + (ceasing x resting x feasting x embracing).

photo: John Deere--The Early Years. Artist: Sandra Partridge

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/21/2007 06:31:00 AM | 3 comments

 

Thursday, April 19, 2007
Sabbath Keeping Essay

Yesterday I enjoyed the opportunity to share my thoughts on Sabbath Keeping with a group of Ministry Leaders from the Greater Lexington area. They all serve as mentors to our various students in fulfilling their ministry internship requirements in local churches and other ministries. I invited them to FARMStrong for further processing of the ideas. As some of you have noticed, I have started using labels which are a helpful way of collecting similar ideas posted over time. Just click on the label "sabbath" and it will pull all the posts together. I am now in the process of going back through the three years of FARMStrong and labeling things that make sense to label-- beginning with thoughts about Sabbath keeping.

Here's a piece i wrote on Sabbath Keeping published as a chapter in a book on personal Spiritual Formation for Ministry Leaders

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/19/2007 07:11:00 AM | 0 comments

 

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Only in Arkansas (part 2)

yes-- that's a cigarette butt!










better than memphis bar-b-que












just outside "back-gate" on the way to the farm












one can too many

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/18/2007 07:00:00 AM | 2 comments

 

Monday, April 16, 2007
Mom's Cook Book
Betty’s Cold Cheese Dip

1 pint mayonnaise (u gotta love any recipe that begins with 2 cups of mayo) ;-)
1.5 cuts grated mozzarella cheese
1.5 cups grated cheddar cheese
8 oz. sour cream
4 tbsp. Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp. dried onion flakes
Garlic powder to taste

Mix together and chill. Great with crackers, chips or big pretzel twists.

photo: Mom washing feet at our River-House Maundy Thursday Kid-Friendly Worship Service

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/16/2007 07:54:00 AM | 1 comments

 

Friday, April 13, 2007
sabbath keeping encouragement
Here's a Sabbath idea to ponder as we move toward the turn of another week. Be encouraged to stay with it.

Technical civilization is man’s conquest of space. It is a triumph frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence, namely, time In technical civilization, we expend time to gain space. To enhance our power in the world of space is our main objective. Yet to have more does not mean to be more. The power we attain in the world of space terminates abruptly at the borderline of time. But time is the heart of existence. . . . . Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time. . . . Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time. . . . The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals. . . . . One of the most distinguished words in the Bible is the word qadosh, holy; a word which more than any other is representative of the mystery and majesty of the divine. Now what was the first holy object in the history of the world? Was it a mountain? Was it an altar?
It is, indeed, a unique occasion at which the distinguished word qadosh is used for the first time: in the Book of Genesis at the end of the story of creation. How extremely significant is the fact that it is applied to time: ‘And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. There is no reference in the record of creation to any object in space that would be endowed with the quality of holiness.

Abraham Joshua Heschel The Sabbath.

That's the new baby gorilla at the Little Rock Zoo. The photo said "Sabbath" to me. ;-)

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/13/2007 05:06:00 PM | 1 comments

 

Thursday, April 12, 2007
Curious. . . . . . .

what's John Piper trying to do here?
posted by John David Walt | at 4/12/2007 10:50:00 PM | 11 comments

 


Easter Legs

I wanted to write a poem with this title--- the picture says it all.

what do you see? look closely now?

see also John 20:2 and 4.

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/12/2007 05:34:00 PM | 3 comments

 

Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Cathedrals of Memory: A Word Shaped Life

In a recent Sunday’s New York Times Magazine I read the often interesting “Lives” essay that closes the publication each week. Tom Chaffin, a visiting scholar at Emory University tells the story of his recovery from brain surgery to remove a tumor. The following day a physician approached him asking if he would name all the animals he could think of. Chaffin could only name four. Chaffin writes,

“Then about a day or so later, while working with a speech therapist, I found that I could recall the first dozen or so lines of a favorite poem, Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of the Open Road’:

‘Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leaving wherever I choose.’

I soon discovered that I could repeat—and find solace in—other bits of cherished poetry and song lyrics long commited to memory: shards of Whitman, Wallace Stevens, Bob Dylan, Cole Porter and others.”

Months later, after fully recovering, Chaffin finds himself still puzzling over the recall of poetry when all else was forgotten. He closes the essay with this:

“I’ve since learned that an ability to repeat memorized passages from poems and the like is a common trait among expressive aphasia patients. Even so, I can’t help thinking of those words and images of my interior life as essential landmarks in finding my way back to the ouside world. Those lines that came back to me, when all other words failed, provided me with a geography of hope, like some distant but clearly visible shoreline.”

Essential landmarks of an interior life. . . . .Doesn’t this make us wonder what we would remember in such an instance? What is most deeply stored in our memory? When my late grandmother had no recall of anyone around her she could still recall the words of hymns, scripture texts and oft-repeated prayers.

More fascinating to ponder is the way these “landmarks” of memory must undoubtedly steer our course. Nothing more shapes our life than the content of our memories. Perhaps this is why the Psalmist says things like, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you,” and “but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.” The question we must ask is whether our memory is moored in Wisdom or are we tossed about on the ever shifting seas of popular culture. Despite their popularity, the wisdom quotient of Whitman and Dylan remains debatable.

There must be some prescriptive guidance in Chaffin’s discovery. What if we thought of our memory like it were a building project? And what if we thought of our building project as a cathedral? How would we build? What materials would we choose? This is how I am thinking about Scripture the past few years; essential landmarks of an interior life. I suppose I first learned it from Maxie Dunnam, who taught me his daily practice of rehearsing Colossians 1:29. He says aloud, “Maxie, the secret is simply this: Christ in you, yes-Christ in you, bringing with him the hope of all the glorious things to come.” You see, this isn’t a Scripture memory program. It’s a daily rehearsal. This simple affirmation started me on a Word-pilgrimage that is slowly forming a well contoured landscape of Scripture in my soul.

“Consider this guidance from Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa along these same lines: “God says to the prophet, ‘Take and eat this scroll, gobble it up, swallow it.’ There is a huge difference between simply reading or studying a book, and swallowing it. In the first case, the book remains outside; the relationship with the Word is mediated and detached. The Word has only passed by way of the eyes or the brain of the proclaimer; a sort of simple decanting takes place, from the pages of books to the ears of the listeners. . . In the second case—the swallowed book—the Word becomes ‘incarnate’ in the proclaimer, becomes ‘word made flesh,’ a living, efficacious word. The relationship between proclaimer and Word is immediate and personal. There is a sort of mysterious identification, which gives one indeed to think (by analogy, of course) of the incarnation. Proclaimers who swallow the Word and welcome it into their belly, as Mary did, allow the Word of God to become incarnate again and to ‘dwell among men.’ The Word swallowed is a Word assimilated by a human being, even though this is a passive assimilation (as in the ase of the Eucharist); the proclaimer is in a sate of ‘being assimilated’ by the Word, subjugated and overcome by it as the more powerful vital principle.” The Mystery of God’s Word, p.30-31.

Bit by bit I am growing in my practice of swallowing the Word of God, of hiding these words in my heart and I’m finding myself more and more at home—almost inside of them. They are literally forming my memory through simple acts of daily remembering them. For the past few years, each morning in the shower I repeat John 15:1-17 aloud. As I tie my shoes I say Psalm 121. These past several weeks I rehearse Colossians 3 as I have a cup of coffee. As I am walking down the sidewalk to the office I whisper Psalm 1. Each night before closing my eyes I whisper Psalm 127. Every seventh day it’s Psalm 131. At every meal together we chant some word of scripture aloud as a family. Through the 40 days of Lent it’s been, “Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.” Post Easter we are having fun with, “Wake up, O sleeper, and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.” I think they are adding up to something. These small simple daily hidden acts of remembering are building a cathedral of memory. I once practiced a devotional life primarily rooted in my own words. I feel like I’ve discovered the obvious reality of a devotional life primarily composed by God’s words. And I’m finding that bit by bit in the most simple ways these landmarks are landing me in a geography of hope.
posted by John David Walt | at 4/11/2007 03:50:00 PM | 1 comments

 

Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Only in Arkansas
We're back from the Arkansas Easter Pilgrimage. I'm going to start a series of posts from the journey entitled "Only in Arkansas." This one should inaugurate the series in FARMStrong style. You wouldn't believe this without the video proof. This is also the first FARMStrong Tube action. Enjoy.



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posted by John David Walt | at 4/10/2007 09:20:00 PM | 7 comments

 

Friday, April 06, 2007
FARMStrong Good Friday Offering
Mystery's handles
seek hiding in Light
flickering candles
bearing ancient night

transporting the senses
through history's veil
focusing lenses
deencrypt time's brail

rescripting a Story
unnerving the grave
refashioned Glory
played out in the nave

poet's note: Last evening I accompanied my mom and dad to the Maundy Thursday worship service at our local First United here in the Big D (dumas, arkansas). We'll give a Tornado alley update later. It was a good night yet I found myself both engaged and disengaged through the service-- mostly the latter. As a way of staying engaged and attentive I turned to poetry as I often do these days. Ritual will do one of two things. It will either distance us from the mystery or usher us more deeply inside it. What makes the difference?

In retrospect, most of it was a religious program. Though filled with ritualistic accuracy, the service lacked congregational engagement. However, looking at my work above, I would have to admit I was engaged. Regardless, I don't mean to critique unduly here. I loved it. For me, the most engaging moment happened when the preacher did something I have never seen done before. As he was turning to extinguish the Christ Candle, the last light in the room, he took his snuffer and slowly pointed it around the sanctuary in a 360 degree circle, literally making eye contact with everyone in the room and then pointed it to himself before snuffing out the light. We departed in darkness.

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posted by John David Walt | at 4/06/2007 12:05:00 PM | 3 comments

 

Monday, April 02, 2007
FARMStrong Fam Roller Derby



If you FS'ers know anything by now, you have learned that the FARMStrong Fam doesn't mess around. On this tour to the Land (a.k.a Arkansas) we got right to it with a trip to the ole Roller Rink. Gimme a little of that Y---M-C-A. I counted them up and its been 15 years easy since I've donned the 8 wheels. When the Abba kicked in I was pure love on wheels-- COUPLES SKATE!!!! And Don't try that baby skate thing at home.

THE FARMventure continues here later in the week with a recap on the Clinton Presidential Center 100,000 Easter Egg Scam and the big Lily turns 3 this week.
posted by John David Walt | at 4/02/2007 02:57:00 PM | 2 comments

 

Sunday, April 01, 2007
April Fools!!!

photo opp @ Clinton Presidential Center Gift Shop
posted by John David Walt | at 4/01/2007 06:38:00 PM | 3 comments

 

Today...