More Inspiration for Appleton

Not possible, you say? This is from one of the oldest congregations in the US - Episcopalian.
Alexander Hamilton is buried at this church.
Trinity-Wall Street Episcopal Church.

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The clown: symbol of "divine foolishness".

Note to Self: Bring Big Floppy Shoes and Round Red Nose to Church May 22

April 27, 2005

Dear Parish Family,

On May 22, Trinity Sunday, we will have a Clown Eucharist, "doing church" as if we were a circus come to town. We will celebrate the Eucharist and learn about the basic traditional outline for Eucharistic worship by experiencing it and participating in it from a new perspective.

It will likely be a surprise to see clowns inside Trinity Church, but think about it this way: how we perceive the world in light of our relationship with Jesus could rightly be called foolish. Jesus looked at things in a new and strange way - a foolish way. But, as St. Paul said, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of the world. Paul declared himself a fool for Christ's sake.

He held that in common with a Trinity clergyman of years ago, who I understand would walk up and down Wall Street at noon carrying a sandwich board printed with the words: “I’m a fool for

Christ.” The back of his board read, “Whose fool are you?”

We are all fools of one sort or another. God’s foolishness is light, joy, and life. Man’s foolishness is darkness, despair, and death. In the clown, God has shot from his cannon for us a vivid symbol of divine foolishness.

Clowns represent the underdog, the lowly, the remnant people. Their foolishness is a call to unpretentiousness. They take incredible risks - balancing on tight ropes, eating fire, keeping silent, being poked by others, or getting soaked in water. Clowns are parables in themselves, spending great amounts of energy uncovering small things, then showing forth the hidden treasure of life (like the kingdom of God) and, surprisingly to us, giving their most cherished possessions to others.

In rodeos, clowns protect people. In other scenarios, the clown may be down and out, but he is also continually raised up by a spirit within, lifting our own spirits as he overcomes life's stumbling blocks. Clowns look at the world, like parables, inside out and upside down: the last shall be first, the smallest seed is the greatest tree, and those who work all day get paid the same as those who worked an hour. To the world, this is foolishness.

Yet foolishness—the foolishness of God—is wiser than man. It brings light, laughter, joy, renewal, salvation, and life. Whose fool are you?

Years ago, I saw a film created by the Rev. Floyd Shaffer on clown ministry and worship. I hope you will find the opportunity to read his recent book, If I Were a Clown , prior to our worship together on May 22.

All are invited to come in clown dress, big hats, floppy shoes or some sort of foolish garb. Those watching on the Internet might even be foolish enough to put on some white face or a big grease-paint smile as we worship God and learn about the structure of the Eucharist by being the circus which came to town and to church on that day. I look forward to worshiping with you.

Faithfully,
Jim Cooper

Finkelstein on the Pagan Puppet Parade

This Appleton icon would make a good puppet.
Many lessons could be learned.
Real. Relational. Relevant.

Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Steal This, Appleton - I Need Another Belly-Laugh":

Worship reduced to pure spectacle. You can see it written on the faces, and in the actions, of the onlookers in the audience-- "onlookers in the audience" being folks who, in times past, might have been referred to as "worshipers." Now they are consumers of spectacle, the same as if they were sitting in front of the television on Super Bowl Sunday. It is revolting. The reactions of the children are the dead giveaway. They are honest, in an innocent sort of way, when innovation is thrust upon them -- "look at this strange thing and that strange thing, one after the other!" Almost like I feel sometimes after I have been duped into visiting a Lutheran CGM congregation.

Freddy Finkelstein

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GJ - What prevents the Emerging Church model from doing the same? Nothing. "Worship is mostly adiaphora." WELS lay leader.

Steal This, Appleton - I Need Another Belly-Laugh

Presbyterians. Don't quit until the skunks come in.

Still Clueless

Not funny.


KFax has left a new comment on your post "Clueless in West Wachagootchie":

You're hardly one to criticize anyone for wasting their time or being juvenile, Pastor. Or for being a faux pastor, for that matter.

As far as bored's mess goes, you can make up whatever reason you like, and hide it with as many personal insults as you want. I could really care less.

It's sad, I agree with you on so many things such as the sadness of Church Growth and especially UOJ. But you are such a bitter, spiteful person, and you would reach so many more hearts about these important issues if you just went about it in a different way, and didn't mock everyone who debates with you at every possible chance.

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GJ - Bored will have to back me up on this.

KFax is such a charmer. He could have been on Team Ichabod, but my sense of humor alienated him from a noble cause. Being against CG and UOJ does not require an IQ over room temperature. The trouble is, most WELS pastors lack that one attribute - or pretend to be stupid. I am not kidding. They end debates with "I am fat and stupid" (meaning I won't discuss it) or "I don't remember that."

I don't know who knocked  the specimen jar into this Wheaties, but he sure got testy the last few days, regular posting after an unlamented absence.

Faint Praise for Gaba

Name the WELS church - not Grace, but another Church and Money Changer operation.


west59wy (http://west59wy.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Gaba Does Grace, Milwaukee - Home of Fuller-traine...":

Deacon Gaba's comments are perceptive both for what is said and what isn't admitted.

First, is his critique of liturgical vestments, posture and bearing. It reminds me about what a certain LC-MS blogger pastor commented after viewing archived filmed footage of the dedication of the St. Louis seminary. Said blogger was struck by how the celebrants were attired in business suits, i.e. Gaba's "liturgical ineptitude." He was thankful for how far the LC-MS had come since that time. I conclude he meant chasubles, collars, albs, stoles, capes, copes, hose and a hundred other types of ecclesiastical foppery. That being said, the WELS, even when it tries to be "liturgical"--for example, "Grace church" which prides itself in its liturgical expressiveness--comes across with all the aplomb of a hillbilly's mullet.

On the other extreme, is the sector of the LC-MS with which Deacon Gaba is apparently so enamored. That can only be indentified in terms of Romanizing tendencies, chancel prancing, and ridiculously arcane codicils of rubric interpretation which direct the way the pastor is turn, genuflect, and land a triple axle. It's the sector from which Rev.Fr.Dr.Sir.Esq.Pr. Fenton, he of Gottesdienst fame, like others before (sic - missing pronoun) jumped to swim the Bosphorus. However, there is something to be said (sic - missing word) the DG's observation about a church operating a coffee shop. I suppose it is, in principal, no different than the combination oil and lube/coffee shop which recently opened up down the street. Whatever it takes to get 'em in. And some believe people can't see that for what it is? Give me a break!

***

GJ - Those who refuse to police themselves will find themselves examined closely. Any discussion of WELS should begin with Valleskey becoming seminary president after endorsing Fuller Seminary's doctrine in the gushing tones of a schoolgirl smitten by Johnnie Depp or the sainted Michael Jackson. Just as bad - Huebner was elected Number Two in WELS after spending his entire career promoting his alma mater, Fuller Seminary. The Soul Cafe coffee shop is just one example. His "parish consultant" scams are another. WELS cannot condemn what they love so dearly, what the ELS silently approves while claiming confessional status.

Gaba is a wee bit too Roman for me. I highlighted the remarks which were right on target.

Missouri is going Roman as a solution to 30+ years of Fuller promotion. I do not see one form of Enthusiasm as superior to the other.

Liturgical worship is still a concern. As I mentioned in the latest sermon, youth meetings at my LCA church consisted of learning a service from the hymnal (Vespers, for instance) and singing hymns. We also had progressive dinners and other social events, but never a dance at church. The annual youth service was limited to youth leading the historic liturgy. No one even suggested Rock N Roll, even though we were in the Elvis to Beatles generation. No one imagined going to church to be entertained.

We had Swedish egg coffee because Salem was a Swedish Augustana congregation. That also meant an abundance of Swedish pastries, which I took for granted until I lived in non-Swedish areas.

Gaba noticed that Huebner has introduced a number of Reformed elements into the Sunday service, not to mention the Moneychanger's cafe. Huebner is a Church and Money Changer - no shock there.

Gaba's criticisms are not nullified by his extreme Romanism. The disgust many Lutherans feel about Fullerism is the prostitution of the Sunday service:

1. The lack of Holy Communion comes from the effort to turn worship into a recruiting service. The sacrament offends non-Lutherans, so the sacrament is made scarce - like the Confessions.
   
2. Introducing the Scripture lessons is derived from the Reformed view of the Word. Huebner has mocked the efficacy of the Word in print, but has never been disciplined. Instead he has been rewarded for his union theology. The people in the pews are idiots, according to the Reformed Fuller Seminary view. They need the Word of God explained to them before it is read. Calvin would grin in approval.
   
3. The coffee shop is a felt-needs gimmick, like free coffee and cookies at the bank. Reformed methods are all gimmicks. Add gimmicks to the Lutheran Church and it becomes Reformed because the motivation is pure Enthusiasm. At Victory of the Movie Theater (WELS), visitors are given a drink and a snack as they enter the service.
   
4. Mocking Gaba's extreme high church tendencies does not rescue WELS from the charge of promoting and rewarding false doctrine. Huebner, Valleskey, Jeske, Kelm, Bivens, Sorum, and Olson are prime examples of WELS Orthodoxy equaling Fuller/Willow Creek apostasy.

The Intrepids have been looking at the elements of a Lutheran worship service. I would favor anything from the range of very simple liturgical services to incense and lace, as long as the Word of God is proclaimed in its truth and purity. Because we are in a confessional crisis, we must avoid appearing Reformed or Roman. I appreciate Gaba's effort in visiting Grace and reporting. It would take a SWAT team to get me into Grace, so the eyewitness account has spared me another day of agony.

Clueless in West Wachagootchie

KFax has left a new comment on your post "English 101 - Editor Edit Thyself":

How come you didn't (sic) Brett or bored? Especially bored, with his absolute slaughtering of the English punctuation system.

Or did Brett really mean that the good doctor "heard" something early this morning? You did a stealthy job of hiding his fourth grade error though.

And please publish my post this time, there's no reason to be afraid of your bias.

***

GJ - Bored did that on purpose, something which the slow-witted failed to notice.

Brett Meyer and Church Lady write better than Paul McCain, MDiv, who is an alleged CPH editor and faux pastor. Brett and Church Lady understand justification, while a significant number of Syn Conference clergy agree with ELCA's crypto-Universalism.

I cannot edit comments posted underneath, but I mentioned long ago that I edit messages from people I like and (sic) the rest. Many find it endlessly amusing that the Wisconsin sect claims a superior educational system while turning out Fuller/Mars Hill clones who cannot spell, parse, or explain the Small Catechism.

I publish juvenile messages like this one just to reveal how some people waste their time.