The Fish Were Jumping in the Boat!

Jesus in the early part of his ministry was teaching alongside the lake and the vast crowds were pushing trying to get closer to him. crowding him to the water’s edge. So Jesus sees two boats (one of which belonged to Simon Peter) and Jesus asked if he could teach from the boat. Makes sense.

The real purpose of this Gospel episode was not to teach the crowd but to call Peter to be an Apostle and to get him ready for his new job.

After Jesus finished teaching he asked Peter to take the boat out into deeper water and to let down his nets to catch some fish. Of course Peter had been fishing all night long and was tired and just wanted to go back home and a carpenter is giving him advice on how to catch fish. hHe explained that to Jesus but followed Jesus’ advice anyway.

You know the story they caught so many fish that the nets were tearing apart and the boats sinking… they were about to lose everything. And then Peter in his amazement did a very unusual thing… he got on his knees before Jesus and said that he was a sinful man and asked Jesus to leave. The truth is that Peter was afraid to be in the presence of Jesus because Jesus told Peter…

“do not be afraid from now on you will catch men”

Those prophetic words were fulfilled on the day of Pentecost after Peter cast the nets by preaching the Gospel and invited the fish to “repent and be baptized…” and three thousand of them were at that moment and on that day. Imagine the great lines of people lining up and the disciples immersing each and every one of them.

Peter transformed from being a simple fisherman who was afraid of Jesus, some days catching fish and some days not, to one of the preeminent disciples whose teaching caused the fish to jump in the boat.

We shouldn’t be afraid either.

Bridegrooms, Seamstresses and Wine Makers

Jesus used three figures to the Pharisees and Scribes to defend his habit of eating with spiritually bankrupt people and their charge that his disciples shouldn’t be feasting but should be like their own disciples who fasted and prayed.

First he likened himself to a bridegroom and how the bridegrooms friends are going to party and celebrate until the marriage takes place… then they could fast and pray.

Of course it was party time when Jesus walked the earth… great teachings, great healings and great miracles. When he was hanging on the cross all the partying stopped.

Second he compared patching an old garment with a piece of fabric donated from a new garment. Who does that? Nobody. And the Gospel of Christ was not going to be just a patch on the Mosaic law. That old garment was going to be thrown away and the new garment would be wholly separate and distinct from the old garment.

Third he asked the question who puts new (unfermented) wine in an old wineskin? No one in the winemaking business reused old wineskins because as the liquid fermented and expanded the old wineskin would have lost it’s elasticity and would burst and the new wine lost and wasted. New wine goes in new wineskins that are elastic enough to contain the expanding fluid.

Jesus was the bridegroom, his Gospel and New Covenant was the new garment and his message was the new wine which the Old Covenant couldn’t begin to hold.

The Pharisees could not understand these figures and probably not the disciples at this early stage of the Gospel either but they would come to understand and obviously with hind sight so can we. And that’s why we are not some kind of hybrid Jew.

Eating With the Worst

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:29-32

In this text Jesus is dining with some of the worst outcasts of Jewish society and when questioned he describes himself as a doctor who is healing the sick.

Just to follow up on that… what kind of medicine was Dr. Jesus using?

The text does not indicate he was doing any teaching or identification of sin with accompanying admonition. No Jesus was socializing with these spiritually sick people. Undoubtably he was going to follow up with some of those tactics but he started by sharing a meal and getting to know them.

What kind of social outcasts might we share a meal with today? Drunks and drug abusers? Prostitutes? Homosexuals?

I recall several years ago a young man came to the building asking for money to buy a meal at Whataburger. I asked him why he wasn’t working. Somewhere along the way I found out that he had been living with his girlfriend in her parents home and the father had kicked him out. I told him the father should never have allowed him in the house in the first place and he deserved to be kicked out. I was pretty proud of that answer.

In retrospect and especially when considering these verses I wish I had taken him to Whataburger and shared a meal with him. I’m guessing that’s what Jesus would have done and who knows what might have happened. O’ to be like him.

Paperless Hymnal and Congregational Singing

At our services when I am in the audience I don’t sing from the Paperless Hymnal. I sing from my book. The reason I do that is because I believe I have a richer spiritual experience when I sing from my song book. Here’s why…

I like being able to view the whole song rather than being spoon fed short clips of a song.

When I can see the whole song I can go back during the song (usually during the chorus) and re-read the verses. Especially if the song leader doesn’t lead all the verses.

I can look at who wrote the song and when it was written. I can look at the notes I have made about a song. I can preview what I am about to sing and be prepared for it

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Even though scriptures are posted on Power Point I like for the kids to pick up their Bibles, find the scripture and follow along reading for themselves. Besides finding scriptures in the Bible I think it’s also beneficial for kids to pick up a song book and find the song. I also think that’s good for adults.

I also think it’s good for everyone to have their own personalized songbook. It’s a richer spiritual experience for me when we sing a song and I see that it was sung at a beloved member’s funeral and was his/her favorite song.

I’ve heard from a former member that moved to a larger congregation that Parkway’s singing was better than the larger congregations. I asked about that and she said it wasn’t the volume it was that Parkway had stronger parts people (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Base). She said that at the larger congregation everything was on Paperless Hymnal and folks tended to just sing Soprano (Lead).

I see how that can be true. When I am learning a part I need to have my book in front of me and have my finger on the notes. There’s a song that is led at Parkway in Paperless Hymnal that is not in our books. I have tried and tried to learn the base on that song and finally have given up. It’s a complicated base part and the song has a fast tempo. Too fast for my slow brain. Now when they put that song up I just sing the Soprano part.

In addition on Paperless Hymnal the time signature is not on each clip of the song and I have found myself not being able to figure out which note gets a full beat.

I’ve also noticed that when people are asked to stand for a song that the short kids and the elderly who remain seated can’t see the words on Paperless Hymnal.

I want everyone to have a deep spiritual experience (even the short people) during our song service. Thanks for thinking with me.

Adding Jesus

My daughter sent me this photo of something my five year old grandson did. When you "add" Jesus... it fixes a lot of things.

Song Leading and Paperless Hymnal

I have had a few questions about why as a song leader I don’t use Paperless Hymnal.

First of all I take my responsibilities as a song leader very seriously (not that others don’t). I’m going to pick out songs that I think will encourage and uplift the congregation. I am not going to lead songs that I have difficulty leading or songs that I don’t think the congregation know very well.

Since I am responsible for uplifting the congregation I want total control over the song service and with Paperless Hymnal I don’t have that. If I make a mistake during the song service then that’s on me… but if the mistake is on anyone else then I’m not happy.

Paperless Hymnal doesn’t give me the flexibility I need as a song leader. I may have picked a song with a strong Alto/Base lead for instance and then come to services and find out my strong Altos/Bases are not in attendance. When I pick songs I have back-ups picked for just that sort of occasion.

The other day before services I noticed that a member who had been out for six months or more while she was receiving chemotherapy was in attendance. I happened to know her favorite songs so I had the flexibility (without Paperless Hymnal) to change it up at the last minute and did change it.

Sometimes when I’m inspired during a sermon I think of a much better invitation song than the one I have selected. It’s not uncommon for me to change the invitation song at the last minute to better stir the hearts of those listening.

Sometimes we might have a long prayer or long comments at the Lord’s Table. As a song leader I am also trying to manage the song service so I can get the Preacher up there when he needs to be up there. I like to get Marc up to preach at 11:00 am but have seen times when he didn’t get up there until 11:10 am and the Paperless Hymnal song leader is locked in to singing every verse of every song.

I take leading songs very seriously and think I can do a better job of inspiring and uplifting the congregation without Paperless Hymnal and that’s why I don’t use it.

My next article will be why I use my book and not Paperless Hymnal when others are in charge of the song service.

Unintended Influences

An old friend stopped by our clinic the other day and he mentioned he had read my book (Uncle Rob’s Blog) and checked out my website. Then he said… you know I just finished my third tour of the Bible and I said… that’s good Monte… really good. Then he said… do you know how I started reading my Bible? And I said… no I don’t Monte.

He said… years ago when we were working together I was so impressed with your Bible knowledge that I decided I needed to start reading my Bible. I said… I didn’t know that Monte, thanks for sharing that with me.

I didn’t know that I had that kind of influence on Monte but there’s something to be learned by that… study your Bibles every day and become Bible experts. The other thing to learn is don’t be afraid to bring the Bible into discussions wherever you are and whenever you can.

You don’t know who might be listening or watching and maybe some thirty years down the line someone will tell you how much they appreciate you.

It's a Sad Old World

This world is really a sad old place. Oh… it has it’s merits and a lot of good things but really its pretty sad. And the sadness has to do with losing the ones you love the most in this world.

It usually starts with your grandparents who you were always so glad to see because they loved you so much and meant so much to you.

It gets worse though when you start losing your parents especially when they are relatively young and its unexpected. It’s like a sucker punch to the belly and you can’t breathe for a while.

Then you start losing uncles and aunts and then brothers and sisters. When my brother died recently all my kids and their cousins (12 of them) huddled up and called each other. My kids and my surviving brother’s kids said to each other… that could have been us and our dads… and they cried and felt so sorry for the six cousins who had lost their dad.

I guess the worst pain has got to be losing a mate I guess its because its like losing yourself or someone you like better than yourself. After all you are one flesh with her. I dread that day.

I guess it’s kind of like a big beautiful Live Oak tree and every once in a while you take a chainsaw and remove a branch and after a while it doesn’t look much like a tree anymore. Finally when there are no more branches you look at yourself and think its time for you to go too because you’re tired of living in such a sad old place without the ones who have meant the most to you in this world.

But for those with faith there’s a great hope that there’s a great forest of beautiful trees in Heaven and in Heaven there are no chainsaws to separate you from your loved ones. Until then we must endure the woes of this sad old world.

Birds and Their Songs

We have an owl that lives on our place and every evening and through out the night we hear his soft hoo… hoo…hoo. Julie made the comment that she was surprised that he didn’t get tired of saying the same thing over and over again all the time.

We used to have a mocking bird sit in the tree outside our bedroom and I guess during mating season that bird made the awfullest song/noise during the middle of the night. It was so annoying that I jumped out of bed one night and emptied my shotgun into the tree where he was. I’m sure I didn’t hit him and he just went and found another tree somewhere.

I love to listen to Randy Travis sing “I come to the Garden Alone” and will join in and sing with him. Sometimes the girls at work will have google play rap music and it makes me want to empty my shotgun into google.

The scriptures speak about how God’s people should talk… speech seasoned with grace and kind words and a loving spirit and the like and it’s kind of like that owl hoo…hoo…hoot-ing at night... so pleasant.

You might think hearing the same old thing gets a little tiresome but it never does for me because I would rather listen to that than a mocking bird in mating season or an old grackle and I’m not just talking about birds.

Unexpected Things

Some unexpected things have been happening to me… well after my brothers death people are coming up and telling me how sorry they are. Of course I wrote some thoughts down about my brothers unexpected death and shared them on Facebook and sent them out on my email list.

On Facebook several shared various emojis and made comments. On our volleyball night a handful of people offered their condolences but one young man caught me outside of the gym and said he didn’t want to say anything on Facebook but wanted to say something privately and in person. I appreciate that from Matt. BTW... I have a few at Volleyball who tell me they love me. That's also unexpected.

I have several of our clients who are friends with me on Facebook and as they have been coming in for me to look after their pets at the conclusion of the visit just as I’m about to exit the exam room they say… by the way I’m sorry about the loss of your brother.

Last night we were visiting at supper with a preacher friend from out of town and during the conversation he said… I’m very sorry about your brother. I had forgotten that he is on one of my email lists,

We have gotten several cards at the house but it’s unexpected and nice that so many have not forgotten and care enough to say something because I certainly haven’t forgotten and live with sorrow.