nfl draft 2006

I confess to being a bit of a draft nerd--though not as much as I once was. In 2000 we had just moved to the Tampa area and I entered an on-line draft contest on the Buccaneers' website. You had to fill out you own mock draft. I finished in second place out of all the entries & missed first place (tickets to a game) by just one pick. I did get a nice prize package of shirts and hats for the Bucs which I promptly gave away since my loyalty remains with my Steelers. I'll be hanging around today checking in on ESPN or NFL.com to keep up with who's picking who. Since my boys are the World Champs they're scheduled to pick last which makes it very difficult to figure out who they'll take. They need a safety or a center. They'll also need to replace Randle El as a slot receiver/return man/trick play threat. I'd like to see them take Michael Robinson (QB-Penn State) to fill the trick play role. He was QB at Penn State, but also played receiver & running back there as well.

new photos

I got tired of the slow upload time (even with our cable modem) for Fotopages so I just created some of my own photo albumns for now. Click here for pictures of our vacation up north last month.

If anyone out there knows of a better, easy to use, free photo hosting site please let me know.

Alleluia, Christ is risen!

We gathered as a community last night around a backyard campfire for our easter vigil service. We read the Old Testament stories of God's calling and saving his people. We shared the light of Christ from our easter candle, and shared in his body & blood during communion. At the start of our celebration of the empty tomb I recited the Exultet, the ancient Easter proclamation. It is my favorite prayer/hymns of the church so I thought I'd share it here as well.

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people!

It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and voices
we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father,
and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal Father!

This is our Passover feast,
When Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is the night,
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery,
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night,
when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin.

This is the night,
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all
defilement, are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.

This is the night,
when Jesus broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?

Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!

Of this night scripture says:
"The night will be as clear as day: it will become my light, my joy."

The power of this holy night dispels all evil,
washes guilt away, restores lost innocence,
brings mourners joy; it casts out hatred,
brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed, when heaven is wedded to
earth and we are reconciled to God!

Therefore, heavenly Father, in the joy of this night,
receive our evening sacrifice of praise,
your people's solemn offering.

May the Morning Star which never sets find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

holy days

Palm Sunday has just passed. Passover began this evening at sundown. Tomorrow marks the start of the Easter Triduum (three days). Our community will gather for Holy Thursday for a communion service, Good Friday for a meditation on the way of the cross, and Easter Vigil on Saturday evening to celebrate the resurrection. We'll finish things off with an Easter party and our traditional egg hunt for the kids.

As we gathered for our All Group meeting this past Sunday I reminded everyone that these are holy days. To be holy is to be set apart, and these days should be set apart for us. They should be set apart to tell & remember our Story. As a community we do this by gathering on consecutive evenings. I also encouraged everyone to find some way to personally mark these days, perhaps by reading the Gospel accounts of Christ's last days leading to his crucifixion and resurrection.

I am grateful to my parents (and my Catholic heritage) for instilling in me a profound appreciation for these days. Growing up we always had Good Friday off from school (Catholic school) and my dad always had off from work. Good Friday was observed as a somber day in our home. My parents' rule was that from noon to three o'clock on Good Friday there was to be silence in the house. No TV, no radio, no phone, not even casual conversation. We were strongly encouraged to take that time to meditate upon the cross. I remember every year looking through an old National Geographic magazine article about the Shroud of Turin and what the man on the cloth must have suffered. I would read the passion narratives in my bible. Then we would attend the three o'clock service at our church. That day for Catholics is a day of fasting (three small meals) and abstenance (no meat). I don't necessarily agree with manditory proscriptions such as these, but making a sacrifice on that day seemed appropriate. As was our family tradtion--cultural and "old" Catholic--we also abstained from meat & fasted on Holy Saturday as well until after attending the Easter Vigil service, then it was time to break the fast & celebrate with a late snack.

There is something special about these next few days and I always look forward to them every year. I'm greived somewhat that the business of work & life often interfere, but do my best nonetheless to set these days apart in my heart. I pray that you will find a way to do so too.

communion of the saints

Here's an article I've just finished writing after reflecting on the losses of Chad & Palmer in the last month or so. It seems I'm not the only one doing some reflection on this subject.

A mystical Three-Legged Race
by Tom Ponchak

With the recent untimely passing of two fellow followers of Jesus (Chad Canipe and Mark Palmer) I’ve been reflecting on our connection with our brothers & sisters in Christ who have gone before us. We profess in the Apostles’ Creed that “we believe in the communion of saints”, but I have found few outside the Catholic of Orthodox camps that have any appreciation or understanding for this term. Several years ago I out together a small group teaching about the communion of saints using Hebrews 11 & 12 as a foundation.

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is known by some as the “Hall of Faith” due the litany of Old Testament heroes mentioned in it. The author of Hebrews starts with Abel and moves through Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to Moses, Rahab, Gideon and Samson to David, Samuel and the Prophets. It celebrates all of their accomplishments made possible by their faith. It goes on to recount the stories of other unnamed witnesses and martyrs. The chapter ends in a rather peculiar manner with the following verses:

39And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. (NIV)

We’re told that all of these giants and heroes of the faith did not receive their promise because God had something better for us. Even more radical is the thought that the fulfillment of their promise of being made perfect is somehow tied up in our story as well. Somehow, I have some part to play in Abraham or Moses getting to see their promises fulfilled. The key to understanding how this happens is laid down in the first few verses of chapter twelve:

39And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. (NIV)

When looking at this passage it is important to remember that the original author did not create chapter and verse breaks in the letter. While chapter and verse numbers are helpful they can often prevent us from seeing what is intended to be a single flow of thought. This is the case between Hebrews 11& 12. The “therefore” should be read as a bridge from chapter eleven to chapter twelve, connecting the two segments as a single thought process. Taking this approach we can see that the reason it is important for us to “run the race” is so that those heroes of the faith in chapter eleven can receive the blessing of the promises made to them through their connection with us. They are the “great cloud of witnesses”.

So how is this supposed to help me understand the communion of saints? I believe the key word in this passage of scripture is “surrounding” in the first segment of Hebrews 12:1. For so many years I’ve heard teachings and sermons making reference to this cloud of witnesses as the saints cheering us on from the heavenly grandstands. They rooting for us and encouraging us. This paints a picture of those who have gone before us, those who have “made it” kicking back and passively encouraging us from a distance.

When I actually broke down this passage for study and looked at the Greek term that we have translated as “surrounding” I gained a whole new understanding of this piece of scripture and a new appreciation for the communion of saints. The Greek word used here is περικειμαι (perikeimai). It literally means “to be encompassed with”. It is a word used only four other times in the New Testament and those other usages provide a better insight to its meaning. I’ve printed these other passages below and highlighted the way perikeimai is translated.

Mark 9:42
"And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.”

Luke
17:2
"It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

Acts 28:20
“For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain."

Heb 5:2
“…he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness…”

Looking at these passages it becomes apparent that the cloud of witnesses is not cheering us on from the grandstands—they’re bound to us. It’s almost as if we’re running a divine three-legged race with those who have met the Lord before us, and with those who will come after us. We are inseparably united with them for the sole purpose of seeing this whole thing through to the end so that we all get the prize that is awaiting us.

That is the communion of saints. That is koinonia, fellowship, intimacy, community. That is the Kingdom of God. In some mystical way I am now more intimately connected and bound to Palmer and Chad than I ever was in this life when I only e-knew them through blogs and shared values & vision.

great family road trip of 2006

well we survived our road trip up north. we drove from lakeland to lexington, ky to mckeesport, pa to charlotte, nc and back--exactly 2,390 miles in a jam-packed honda civic with two adults, two kids and a baby, not to mention a tightly packed trunk. i took this picture as we pulled in last night at 11:15 after driving 8-1/2 hours from charlotte. in all we had a great time. clare was wonderful, sleeping for most of our driving time. out of 30+ hours in the car she probably cried for only 60-90 minutes of that time.

i'm currently working on getting our pictures up to our fotoblog. so far i've got images from our kentucky weekend there. i hope to have the rest up within the next few days. here are some quick thoughts, observations and awards:

• state with the most contstruction: florida with pennsylvania a close 2nd
• most unreasonable speed limit: 50-mph thru downtown orlando on a saturday nite. i was doing 65 and getting passed like i was standing still.
• fewest state police observed: south carolina. drove thru the whole state & didn't see one cop on the highway at any time.
• worst roads: pennsylvania, hands down
• best idea for the trip: lisa will kill me for saying this, but bringing along her battery operated breast pump so the girls could feed clare without us having to stop.
• second best ideas for the trip: tie, getting the car windows tinted (see best idea #1), and getting the girls a portable 2-screen dvd player so they could avoid boredom by watching movies
• coldest location: lexington--actually saw a little of the white stuff while we were there. we don't see that in florida unless a drug plane crashes in the front yard or something.
• most insane drivers: florida by a long shot
• dumbest traffic law: stop signs at the end of on/off ramps in pennsylvania

overall it was great to connect/reconnect with family & friends. we had a great time in kentucky at casa de creech sharing and exploring ways to express our faith in a new context. it was great to be able to have my family spend time with the girls and see clare for the first time. i got to travel to my football mecca--heinz field in pittsburgh. finally, the girls loved getting to see the former neighbor and best friend hannah at her new home in charlotte. i've said it before and i'll say it again, it's our relationships that make life meaningful and important.