Schlemiel or Schlemozzle

Part of my late 1970's and early 1908's TV menu was a steady diet of Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, even when they moved to California. However, it was not until this week that I began to understand the deeper value of the latter show.

At the start of every Laverne and Shirley show they are walking down the street arm and arm coming at a stop in front of some stairs. At this point they both yell out two Yiddish words I have never understood until now: Schlemiel and Schlemozzle.

Here is what Fredrick Buechner says about these words, "The Yiddish word schlemiel has been translated as the kind of person who is always going around spilling soup on people and a schlemozzle as the kind of person he is always spilling it on." (Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale)

With this in mind the show makes so much for sense! Laverne is the schlemiel and Shirley is the schlemozzle.

I believe it is safe to say that Jesus was the schlemozzle to our schlemiel.

Terror Texts

These are only new if you have not read the section of your Bible that still have the gold leafing on the edges.

I am glad to see they are telling theses stories. They are wonderful, horrific and part of the faith. It only goes to prove people, yes, even Bible people, are messy and the Scriptures are credible.

Terror Texts

Their MySpace page

What do you call a tire made out of 365 condoms...

Ed Young has thrown done the gauntlet! "Have sex for seven straight days!" “I think it’s one of the greatest things you can do for your kids because so goes the marriage, so goes the family.”

Now there are a lot of things Young has done I don't agree with (the tank thing being one of them), but in this video I think he is unfairly beaten up by the reporter. Young is not advocating r.a.p.e.(her word, not his), pressure or abuse! He is simply moving the topic of sex between married couples to the forefront of their relationship. Sex the way God designed it is beautiful and exciting. It promotes the bond of marriage.

All too often husbands and wives get too busy, too tired, too distracted to make sex a priority. I know this because I have been there myself. I think what Young is suggesting is a good idea. Make sex, intimacy and time alone a priority in your marriage. It is not only wanted but, critical to a marriage. Besides nothing strips away barriers and defenses like naked time!

Now, I don't know if anyone told Ed he is a little late to the sex challenge game and a little short too. But there is already a book written advocating the "30-day Sex Challenge."

I am not sure if the author ever had a biology lesson, but a 30 day sex challenge may be going too far when some people only have a 28 day cycle.


...a Goodyear!

My Week+

I got talking with Chris today about my week and I discovered it is very packed!


Saturday- Missional Leadership Development Training, plus work.
Sunday- Worship, reading for home group, plus work.
Monday- Sermon prep, plus work.
Tuesday- Sermon prep and Lunch with Aaron S. , plus work.
Wednesday- Coffee with Chris, sermon prep, home group, read.
Thursday- Dinner with Brandon and Chrissy J. and sermon prep, plus work.
Friday- Sermon prep, plus work.
Saturday- Missional Leadership Development Training, sermon prep, blog.
Sunday- Set up, worship, preaching, lunch with Mary C., blog, read.

Missional Thoughts

The elders at Evergreen are going through some Missional Leadership Development (thanks Dan and Casey). In short, we are having some great discussion on what it is to be missional, on leadership and how the to combine the two in order to create a church community that lives the gospel message.

Over the past week, though not related directly to the training, I have been listening to Michael Frost talk about being missional and what that all means. I love what I have heard and have been likewise motivated to think of radical ways of reorienting my life around missionality (if that is even a word).

However, I do have an issue with Frost's in this talk/sermon/lecture.

At the start, Frost states, "God is at the very core of his character missional." A few sentences later he says, "God is mission. God cannot not mission." I understand what Frost is getting at, but I have to diverge from him and think he is putting the cart before the horse. No where in Scripture does it say "God is mission." Yes, I get this is an argument from silence and I can see this characteristic of God's played out through redemptive history, but we do have a direct statement about the character of God along these lines when John says in his epistle, "God is love."

God is at the very core of his character love! God is love! God cannot not love! Thus he is missional, sending and extending to those who have not yet been set free because of his love. If God were missional at his core, the question would be asked, "why?" "What motivates God to send or extended himself?" These questions are profoundly answered by the characteristic LOVE!

Why did God send Jesus? Love
Why did Jesus die? Love
Why did Jesus send the Holy Spirit? Love
Why did are we sent? Love

I have a theory...in 1 Corinthians 13:13 Paul writes, "Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." Have you ever asked why love is the greatest? Here is what I think...God has no need for faith or hope and in a Edenic setting neither would humanity. They were create or come into existence as part of God's restorative plan for all creation. However, love is part of God. Love is not God, but it is central to who he is. Love is uncreated because it is the character of God. Thus love is the greatest because it most clearly reflects the character of God.

So, for Frost to say mission is the core of God's character is a little self serving, when the Bible states that God is love. However, I would argue along with Frost that because of the love that God has for creation his activity to redeem creation is displayed in his mission and we as Christians need to be involved in the same activity!

Quote of the Week

"Today is not a dress rehearsal for life. It is life!"


--Aaron Stewart, in the Park Blocks eating lunch, people watching and discussing purpose.