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Author: Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn

Advent Preparation

Posted by | Nov 22, 2009 | , |

Advent is the preparation time for the coming party. The King is coming December 25th! Party preparations are always busy, filled with checklists, to-do’s, cleaning, cooking, invitations, etc. We can all relate to this flurry of activity for our own Christmas day. But this King is still coming – he comes for the heart, the soul. How then does one prepare for a party in one’s soul? Slowly, unhurriedly, unbusy, quiet, reflective and in holiness. Advent is a time of anticipation and a time of purification. December 6th is the traditional St. Nicholas Day and it is a festive day. Many Christians give gifts on this day and have a huge meal. But the day before is fast from meat. Many Christian traditions around the world celebrate a small series of fasts and feasts during Advent. Lakeland families can capitalize on this tradition by fasting and feasting. Fasting isn’t always a “strict fast” of no food or drink. You may wish to fast from meat once a week during Advent and pray for the world’s hungry. You may wish to fast from sweets, “saving up” and building anticipation for the coming Christmas Day feasting. Be creative and build the excitement towards Christmas Day and you and your family will appreciate the day so much...

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The Discipline of Inconvenience

Posted by | Nov 6, 2009 | , |

A few stout individuals mowed nine lots in the inner city from April 1st until… well they haven’t stopped yet. They committed to ten times to raise money to help fund their pilgrimage to China last June (’09).  All have continued to go down and mow well beyond their necessary ten times.  Over half didn’t have mowers.  They picked up trash, chopped, sawed and weed-trimmed.  Others brought their push mowers from home and beat the heck out of them on beer bottles, ditches, holes, logs, rebar, half-buried bricks and small trees.  Several people got poison ivy over and over. Still they went.  They went to stand along side the poor, the criminal, the forgotten and voiceless. They swam upstream in a world that says ‘forget about the inner city, it’s a lost cause.’  If you haven’t heard Kansas City MO has the highest number of vacant homes in the nation.  This is something the City Council has recently reacted to with some kind of committee to buy up these vacant houses – uh huh.  Zip code 64128 is the number one killing zip code in the state of Missouri (we mow next to that zip code, 64130). Tall weeds and unkept vacant houses and vacant lots create a downward spiral of neglect and violence (reference the KC Star, Jan. 26, 2009).  So we decided to do our part –...

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Have a very evil, terrifying wicked All Hallowed Ones’ Eve

Posted by | Oct 29, 2009 | , |

Halloween is not supposed to be Happy.  It is the night before All Saints’ Day, the glorious day when the minions of hell are reminded they lost the battle to King Jesus and his holy ones.  The holy ones consist of all historical Christians and us today.  Halloween has various pagan backgrounds (you can google this stuff all day long if you desire) but for authentic Christians the eve of remembering and celebrating the legacy and victory of the new people of God through Jesus’ victory over death and evil, Halloween is nothing more than that moment to watch the demons flail about, torn to bits within their own chaos and destruction. I find it interesting that local Christians have forced our schools to stop saying Happy Halloween.  Now they have Fall Festivals at school instead of Halloween parties.  My guess is that none of these Christians understand nor celebrate All Saints’ Day November 1st.  Yet, I will assume most would celebrate the lives and causes of Christians like Francis of Assisi (the poor), John Calvin (reformed the western church), William Wilberforce (slavery in Britain), Clara Barton (started the Red Cross), Corrie Ten Boom (saved Jews during WWII), Rev. Dr. M.L. King, Jr (civil rights in America), Bishop Desmond Tutu (against Apartheid in S. Africa). Historical Christians have helped bring education and medicine around the world; come along side...

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Time is a crop

Posted by | Oct 9, 2009 | , |

I realize once again that my default setting is “more efficient.” I signed up for a drawing class during the day so I could be home at night. But the class overlapped a standing meeting. As I searched for another time slot for the standing meeting, I found my self saying these words, “By taking the drawing class during the day, I thought I was being more efficient.” In other words, I want to do more in a fixed amount of time each week. The answer therefore is simple: be efficient. Eugene Peterson says ‘hurry is a form of violence done on time.’ Henri Nouwen says the best word to describe our lives is “compulsive.” I am convinced the demons of our False Self thrive best on chaos. Noise, noise, noise. Televisions on all the time, radio on all the time, just-in-time shopping, squeezed between suburban soccer practice, church meeting, dinner (eaten in mini-vans as God created us to do – J. Ortberg), car fill up, movie rental return, run by the office supply store for a padded envelope… You get the idea. What if time was not a commodity, which we could barter for, trade for, collateralize and squeeze? Time is a crop. This definition of time means we should think of time as something to be nurtured and tended – not “hot-housed,” synthesized or plasticized. Perhaps the...

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Eat This Book

Posted by | Jul 21, 2009 | , |

The question was asked, “If you only could eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?” “Turkey sandwich.” His answer was as quick and deliberate as a gavel rap. “No question about it, turkey sandwich.” I was thinking about the Bible, the Lord’s Table and the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer’s petition to g-d after the Eucharist… Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen. The entire Breaking of the Bread is washed over with edible language… Alleluia. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. The gifts of God for the People of God. Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving. The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. The Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation. I love the sacrament of the Lord’s Table. I believe the metaphor of food and drink are wonderfully confusing – eat Jesus’ body? drink Jesus’ blood? It is like this: It is like when you drop your...

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