My sermon begins at 22:55.
Soon it was back on the plane, traveling once again through Chicago's O'Hare International, where I sat for some supper at Chili's - salmon. Finally, it was time to travel the rest of the way home to Joplin. I was in bed by midnight, ready to preach the next morning at church.
 Joplin High School show choirs, Touch of Class and Sound Dimension performed their preview show, Thursday evening. I was able to attend and applaud for Hoggatteers ALLIE, JOSIAH, LIAM, MACY, and TAYLOR, a group that spans from freshman to senior classes. Touch of Class, the all female group, performed their show entitled "Rip Up the Recipe". Sound Dimension performed songs to the theme of "Scooby Doo". In between, the three-year-old middle school group, New Sound, entertained with a show called "This is Halloween". Sadly, I didn't have any former students in the middle school group. It was rewarding to have the opportunity to speak with these entertainers (and my former colleague MONICA, the director) after the show. ALLIE is ready to finish her senior year and attend nursing classes at Pittsburg State University. LIAM did a stint at the Naval Academy last summer. MACY was in both choirs and pours her heart into every performance. TAYLOR is going to pursue culinary arts and is working in a restaurant on Main Street. JOSIAH shook my hand and made sure I knew that the improv things we did in class were helpful to his success in performing and other aspects of his high school life. I was taken aback by his positive memory from the fourth grade. Other former students sat in the audience - all supportive sisters of the performers. I never tire of talking to them whenever I get the chance (which doesn't come often enough). EMILY, PAIGE, and SOPHIE have changed tremendously since the fourth grade, but every one of them has something to offer to this world. I hope I get to watch them achieve great successes as they enter adulthood.
I am delivering professional development for Kentucky teachers this year, having visited for the first time, earlier this month and discovering a connection that comes in the form of an old musical instrument - a melodeon that is located in the library. This melodeon was the source of controversy in the church and the Restoration Movement. It is of particular interest to me, since I am also a preacher for the church of Christ. The church of Christ understands Scripture to describe a single method by which people may worship God musically - through singing. The human voice is never described in the New Testament to be accompanied by any sort of mechanical instrument. We do not assume any liberty in the silence of Scripture on the subject of musical instruments. The command to sing defines God's acceptable method and negates all other musical methods.
Finding the university was simple. I drove under the gate arm and took a right to drive around to the rear of the school. I parked behind the library and walked across the snow-lined sidewalks to find the Stark Building. I found myself along in the dark, a few minutes before anyone else arrived. Here is where I would present pedagogy for lessons about The Pilgrims, the Mayflower Compact, and the First Thanksgiving.
I don't want to be too quick to judge. It seems so easy for people to fall to addiction. And addiction comes in many forms. Drugs and alcohol are the first to come to mind, but sexual addiction is always next on the list...and sexual addiction comes in many forms. It was a shock to hear that a person we know was arrested last week. He is a teacher who sits at the point of retirement. He is a preacher for a local denomination on the side. He directed my daughter's honors choir in elementary school. And he was arrested for an apparent addiction. A sad story. It would be unbelievable if addiction were not so prevalent and so easy. Child pornography. So many have commented on the topic. Many are shocked and have questions, but others don't want answers: they only want "justice". Justice in the form of punishment.
I won't write all the comments here. Some just aren't for public consumption: the accusations are about child pornography after all. Images downloaded onto his personal computer and his school-issued laptop computer. Hundreds of pictures of children. We don't know the level of the tawdry content, but any level is unacceptable. It's made all the worse because he was an educator. But we're confused. The guy seemed like his heart was in the right place. But it's easy to fall into addiction - especially with the prevalence of availability. Somehow millions succumb to it, ignoring will-power. Before long, they can't bring themselves to stop. One time leads to another. And another. Always trying to get to the perfect situation, but never quite able to achieve it.
How does this happen?
I don't have much to say. It's enough to render one speechless. As much as a person can get angry and vindictive, I don't want those emotions to drive me. As much as a person can be confused and bewildered, those emotions can stop a person completely. I don't want to shout for extreme punishment or even execution. I'm certain this particular man has cried his eyes dry in jail. I'm sure his family has covered the gamut of their own emotions. I'm convinced that he slid down a rabbit hole and came to a point where he could no longer easily deny the temptation. I hope the family and the man get the help they need to move them through the issues. I pray they can find forgiveness among the community and the forgiveness of God. I hope they can bring themselves to forgive him. How many more are there? Closeted individuals. Men and women. Young and old. How many more are addicted to harmful lifestyles that impact our children? How many more silently deal with serious issues - debilitating addictions. It is a rampant problem. I suppose it always has been. Maybe we should all investigate our own lives and rid ourselves of any addictions that might be there. May we pray for deliverance from them.
This part of Kentucky is also famous for bourbon. That was obvious when I made it to J. Render's restaurant. Still, I was only there for a late lunch. I ordered brisket with sides of baked beans, Brussel's sprouts, and cornbread. Being the only customer in the restaurant, I decided to eat my meal as if I was a food critic. I tasted everything separately first, being sure to hold my fork upside down.
The hotel was only about a year old, and it showed with a lovely sitting area, a desk with a rolling section, a kitchenette, several cabinets, two queen-sized beds, and a large window. Even from the fourth floor, the view didn't offer much to appreciate. Still, the hotel was in a pretty affluent area, and I enjoyed the quiet of the evening. It allowed me to peacefully look over the material I would use the next day when presenting professional development sessions as a contracted representative of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
I just returned from a one-night stay in Lexington, Kentucky. Flying out at sunrise in Joplin, Missouri, this flight was uniquely without cloud cover for its entirety. Soaring over the snow-blanketed fields and small towns gave passengers a different view of the earth. Approaching Chicago for a short layover was interesting as we flew out over the frigid edge of Lake Michigan on our approach to the runway at O'Hare. Also unique to this flight was the fact that we arrived a full 45 minutes earlier than schedule. I had been concerned that my layover was too short. If anything delayed this first flight, I would miss my connection to Lexington. As it was, there were no delays and I had plenty of time to relax before jumping onto the next plane.
Things were strangely familiar to me as this was my third time in this portion of the airport in just a short time. I felt like a frequent flyer for the first time in my life. Now I was on my way to my first in-person Gilder Lehrman event as a presenter of professional development for educators.  Church History through the First Two Millenia Following the Ascension of Christ Jesus
Originally posted January 2015  Today is Monday, January 19, 2015. Today is a day that has been set aside as a national celebration of the contributions of people like Martin Luther King Jr. This man was instrumental in bringing forward the issue of discrimination in our all-men-are created-equal nation. In our class, I have attempted to raise the issue of treating people equally, and not discriminating based on skin color. We have done so when discussing President Thomas Jefferson and his struggle to define equality when writing the Declaration of Independence. We have also talked about the way he wanted the native peoples in the West to be treated when he sent his representatives, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to explore unknown territories. All the while expressing the desire to get along and maintain positive relations, Jefferson struggled with the fact that his own family owned slaves and depended upon them to live. Besides the big idea of unfairly treating our fellow man, two concepts have been brought to the forefront in our class. First, the United States history is often ugly, and second, themes in history are definitely more complicated than they appear. Whether talking about the Civil Rights Movement, the removal of Native Americans from their ancestral lands, or the Japanese Internment Camps during World War 2, we must understand that we will not pay justice to the topics with fourth graders. Sometimes things are just too ugly or too complicated for young minds to understand, but that doesn't stop us from beginning the conversation.  "A Class Divided" As long as you're looking for something to do on the internet, why not check out the Class Divided website? Click on the "Watch the Full Program Online" button, and think about how lessons, classrooms, and attitudes have changed - or not changed - since 1970. In the video, a teacher in an all-white school in Iowa conducts a lesson with a class of third graders. She purposely injects discrimination into her classroom, not to be cruel, but to simulate the consequences of prejudice for her students. Within 15 minutes, she says, her class became a microcosm of society, demonstrating the plasticity of our children's beliefs and attitudes. Once you get to the classroom part of the video, it will be hard for you to stop watching. Look at how frankly those students speak about the issues and the connections they make. Wonder how their belief systems were developed. Who influenced them to believe such things? Notice the forlorn faces of the students who are assigned minority status. I'll warn you upfront, though, you may get angry at the teacher, and you may be upset with the choices some of the kids make. You may also be unhappy with the inappropriate names that are expressed when dealing with the topic of black people. I am in no means endorsing the use of such derogatory language today, but the brief inclusion of those words in the video wholly demonstrates a culture shift from 1970 to the present. It was an interesting time. As I reflect on my own childhood (I was only three or four years, and a couple of states, away from being in the Class Divided.), I realize I never was in a class with an African American until college. I realize there were only a couple of black students in my elementary school and none in my middle of high schools. When my mom spoke with other moms about their feelings about busing, I didn't know what they were talking about. Not long before, Rosa Parks had inadvertently begun the Montgomery bus boycotts, the Freedom Riders had been viciously beaten in Mississippi, and nine black high school students were escorted by the military to attend a previously all-white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. King was killed when I was three, long before I became interested in American history or politics. It was a long time before I knew anything about discrimination or racism - though I never liked being called four-eyes.  Martin Luther King Jr.'s Funeral Wagon Since then, I have given a lot of thought to the Civil Rights era. I have seen documentaries and fictionalized movies and TV shows. I have read books and magazine articles outlining many of the issues. I have made connections throughout history, from the Gullah Islands, Uncle Remus stories, slavery in the American colonies, and the treatment of slaves in the Deep South. I have stood in the courtroom of the infamous Dred Scott Decision right here in Missouri. I have walked in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, at his house in Springfield, Illinois. I have touched cannon and bayonet used during the Civil War. I have been in President Grant's house, have ridden on Huckleberry Finn's river, and have seen Martin Luther King's Ebenezer Baptist Church. When I had the fortune to visit the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, I took a few hours to drive to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. While there, I fixated on one object for several minutes - an old, weathered wagon. I learned from the room that surrounded me that this was the wagon that carried King's body to the cemetery. King wanted his funeral to be yet another opportunity to preach about inequality and humility. Drawn by mules, the wagon transported his body through crowds of mourners. All the other items in the museum - the video screens, oversized photos, and the statuary - paled in comparison with this single, real icon.  Lorraine Hotel, Memphis Tennessee (Location of MLK Assassination) A while ago, I also traveled to Memphis, Tennessee. While there, I also visited the location of King's assassination. It's always interesting to me to stand in the actual location of just about any historic event, to touch items of historic significance, and the internalize the significance of those events. Making those events come alive in the classroom takes some creativity and some serious conversation in order to pique the interest of fourth graders, but it is a possibility.
Our history is still in the process of being written. When I consider the ongoing current world issues involving discrimination - religion, gender, orientation, and politics being among the most obvious - I realize the past, present, and future have been delicately intertwined and can not be simplistically isolated. Our history is ugly, and without a doubt, it is complicated. As we move forward, may our children make righteous and informed decisions. The church of Christ in Carthage, Missouri, is conducting an adult class about church history. We're calling it FIRST2000, because this class is about the first two millennia after the death of Christ. This post is intended to be a supplement to the class and the handouts. Below, you will find mostly visual aids and links. Feel free to look in on our live class at the church building.  This lesson focuses on the generation of church leaders who carried on after the last of the apostles had passed. These had connections to the apostles but were not inspired. Their writings give us insight into the early church but may have flaws and mislead the church. Note also that the artwork that appears in this lesson is not always accurate - from the wardrobes to the settings: the artwork, remember, is a result of future generations, and the artists often depend upon their current culture rather than display historic accuracy. Clement of Rome What do you notice in the artwork below? What do you wonder about it? This is an image concerning the martyrdom of Clement of Rome. Clement served the church during the time of John's exile to the island of Patmos. To learn more about the faith of this man, we will consider a couple of quotes from his writing. Afterward, here is also a short video to explain more.
Ignatius of Antioch Ignatius of Antioch was a disciple of John. What do you see in the image below? Before we learn more from his Epistle to the Magnesians, what do you wonder about what you see here? What do the writings of Ignatius tell us about the Lord's Day during his time? Why do Christians gather on the Lord's Day?
Polycarp of Smyrna Smyrna was one of the churches in the opening chapters of Revelation, and Polycarp was a leader there for much of the first half of the second century. We will glimpse some of the messages in his Epistle to the Philippians, but first, look at the image below. Afterward, we'll watch the video.
The Didache We have a couple of passages from the Didache that we should discuss. This was an early anonymous letter, probably intended for candidates of baptism to inform them about Christian ethics.
Epistle to Diognetus Another anonymous letter was written to an unbeliever. We have a lengthy passage from the letter to discuss.
As we close out this lesson, we will look at everything through the context of a timeline, filling in the blanks provided.
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