Still Lutheran...

Whew! It was close! It took a tiebreaker question, but turns out I'm still a Lutheran! An interesting mix of St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (not to be confused with St. Anselm, 8th-century Abbot of Nonantula) and Martin Luther (not to be confused with Martin Luther King), apparently.

And 0% Charles Finney. Who's not to be confused with Albert Finney, who played Daddy Warbucks in the movie version of Annie in the early 80's.

You scored as Martin Luther, The daddy of the Reformation. You are opposed to any Catholic ideas of works-salvation and see the scriptures as being primarily authoritative. Anselm 100% Martin Luther 100% Friedrich Schleiermacher 67% Augustine 67% Jürgen Moltmann 67% John Calvin 67% Jonathan Edwards 33% Paul Tillich 33% Karl Barth 33% Charles Finney 0% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

LH

We're #1!!!

[rant]

Well, it appears that at least for the time being, Nebraska has the honor of having the highest gas prices in the country:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070716/ne_gas_prices_nebraska.html?.v=1

Average price for a gallon of gas in Nebraska: $3.34
Average price in the rest of the country: $3.05

And when you factor in the cost of living, we're really taking it in the nose.

According to the US Census, Nebraska's median household income was $42,166 in 2004 (most recent year figures were available).
The U.S. average was $44,344.

Now mind you, I was an English major in college (for a very good reason), but best I can figure, compared to the rest of the country we're paying a bit over 109% of what the average American is paying for gas, and doing so with 95% of the income of said American.

Ick.

Oh well, according to this site we still ranked 5th in the country for lowest cost of living for the first quarter of 2007.

Whoopee.

And don't even get me started on the price of milk. (Over $4 a gallon? You gotta be freakin' kidding me...)

[/rant]

LH

Sunday updates, and an unveiling of sorts

A few things to update y'all on today:

Update #1: I wrote last week about our experience with "Spike," one of the Omaha Royals mascots. I ended up writing an email to let the powers-that-be know what happened, and received an almost immediate phone call back from a senior vice president. We had a nice conversation which ended with him offering to give us free tickets to any remaining home game this season. That's not why I said something in the first place, but it was a nice gesture on his part. The Royals are at home for most of August--I think we're gonna take him up on his offer.

Update #2: On a whim, I emailed Marty Haugen a link to the video of Kiddo singing Now The Feast and Celebration. I didn't expect anything back...maybe, at the very most a quick reply email saying "thanks." But kudos to the man--what did he do but create a BlogSpot ID for the sole purpose of leaving a comment on my blog! Marty, thanks for making a Lutheran dad's day! Someday, Kiddo will understand how cool this is...

Update #3: I have never had a job where I've had as much fun as I'm having with this one! I almost feel guilty getting paid to do what I do (not that I'm complaining, mind you...please keep the paychecks coming!). I'm blessed to be in a congregation with cool kids, amazing parents, a wonderful staff, and a congregation as a whole that's forward-thinking and out-reaching. We've begun a 7 week Bible study series--The Gospel According to the Simpsons, we've been to a baseball game and dinner and a movie, we've got our first high school lock-in coming up in a month, and I've started making appointments to visit families of middle-and-high school aged kids in their homes. I've got about 75 families that fit that description, and my goal is to see them all. It's such a blessing to wake up every morning and to be excited about going to work. And the congregation has been so welcoming to both me and my family. The more time that goes by, the more solidified I am in my conviction that God has led us to the right place for us.

The "unveiling" of sorts: Lastly, I've decided that it's time for me to formally introduce myself to the blogosphere. I wasn't sure at first what sort of form this blog would take, so I made the decision early on to remain at least semi-anonymous. My family and many of my friends have known for quite some time that I'm the author, and there's really no reason for anyone else not to know as well. So blogging world, hi! My name is Matt Schur, and I'm the Director of Youth Discipleship at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Lincoln, NE.

So there you have it. Anonymous no longer. I don't know why, but I almost feel a weight lifted off my shoulders.

I think I'll still generally sign off with my pseudonym (I have grown rather attached to it), but not necessarily always. There may be some posts that will ring more genuine coming from Matt rather than LutheranHusker. We'll see.

But for now, take care and God bless,

(for the first time) Matt

Friday Five

From the RevGals (two options this week, I chose the Harry Potter option):

As you may have seen in this Wednesday's Festival, Pottermania has hit the RevGals---though not all of them. Yes, I am all over Harry like a Seeker on the Snitch, but I know there are others who will be ecstatic to see the July madness end.So today's F5 is a Choose Your Own Adventure: do the magical version or the Muggle one, or both:

Option One: Accio Friday Five!

1. Which Harry Potter book is your favorite and why?
So far, it's definitely been Book 6. I've enjoyed each succeeding book even more than the one before. It seems with each go-round, Rowling has either become a better writer, or has allowed her writing to become more "adult" as the characters grow up and find themselves in more "adult" situations, or a combination of both.

I love the darkness of Book 6. I love the heartwrench and betrayal at the end. And I love the hints for hope and redemption that may be coming in Book 7.

2. Which character do you most resemble? Which character would you most like to get to know?
Hmmm...I'd say I most resemble Harry, only without the temper. People look up to him and he doesn't have the foggiest idea why--he's constantly thinking "if they only knew how unsure I am of myself, they'd never think so highly of me." He knows he has gifts, he knows a calling has been thrust on him, and he's just muddling through trying to figure it all out.

I'd like to get to know Dumbledore. He seems like the perfect mentor. And he likes candy. That's a plus.

3. How careful are you about spoilers?
a) bring 'em on--even if I know the destination, the journey's still good
b) eh, I'd rather not know what happens, but I'm not going to commit Avada Kedavra if someone makes a slip
c) I will sequester myself in a geodesic dome to avoid finding anything out
Wth the other 6 books, I would have been somewhere between a and b. For book 7, I'm leaning toward c...I have a feeling this is going to be a special reading experience, and one that doesn't come along but few times in one's life.

4. Make one prediction/share one hope about book 7.
I predict/hope that Snape redeems himself or shows that he's been on the "good" side all along--that Dumbledore's death was necessary, either as part of a larger plan or as proof of his following through on his vow to protect Draco. I also think that Draco's going to realize he's in waaaaaaaay over his head, and will try to turn on Voldemort--but will lose his life in the process. Rowling said at least two major characters will die...I think Snape redeems himself by dying to protect Harry...and somehow is able to find some peace in regards to his relationship with Harry's parents by giving his life.

5. Rowling has said she's not planning any prequels or sequels, but are there characters or storylines (past or future) that you would like to see pursued?
I would love to see a prequel (or series of them) dramatizing the events of Snape's and Harry's parents' generation at Hogwarts. I think there's some good stuff to be mined there.

LH

Now The Feast--Pizza Edition

Not too long ago I blogged about how Kiddo said his two favorite songs were Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Now The Feast and Celebration. Well, yesterday evening, we were in the middle of supper (leftover pizza...yummm...) when he started singing it out of the blue. (Now the Feast, not Twinkle Twinkle.)

The dad in me thought, "I've gotta get this on video."

The blogger in me thought, "I've really gotta get this on video!"

The church nerd in me thought, "I wonder if the celebratory feast in Revelation involved Papa John's pizza..."

So I grabbed the digital camera and he agreed to sing it again on the condition that I let him watch the video when he was done (nothing quite like appealing to a 3 year-old's sense of vanity).

Here ya go--Daddy paparazzi at the dinner table capturing a command performance of the chorus of Marty Haugen's Now The Feast and Celebration!!!

Cue the creepy singing animatronic robots!!!!

"...there's so much that we share, and it's time we're aware IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL..."

It is, indeed, a small world.

Especially in the blogosphere.

And especially especially in the Lutheran blogosphere.

This is another one of those things that I've been meaning to write about for a while, but just haven't gotten around to. One of the first blogs I ever started reading on a regular basis was Stumbling Toward Divinity. I still read it regularly. It's well-written, it has a good mix of "everyday stuff" and "churchy stuff", the blogger is around my age, used to be a camp counselor (like me), and is now a pastor somewhere in the Midwest.

Sometime around the middle of May, I came to the realization that I actually know this person.

It's a surreal feeling, that gradual realization that the nameless, faceless author whose site you've been reading for months is an acquaintance of yours. Even if it's been a decade since you last crossed paths.

We worked at camp together ten years ago...he was a counselor, I was a day camp site manager. He was on my day camp team twice--and one of those weeks was by far the best week I had the entire summer. Those of you who have worked at camp can relate--you know those weeks where everything just clicks...the staff, the kids, the location, the weather, in this case the host homes...

It. Was. Awesome.

So old friend, it's good to "see" you again! And blessings to you in your ministry!

And listen with me one last time to the creepy animatronic robots:

"It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world..."

LH

Friday Five

From the RevGals:

Today, what are you:

1. Wearing
Right now, old shorts and an old Lutheran Student Center t-shirt classic design on the back: "Where you are known as (insert name here) and not as (insert social security number here)". Later today when I play for a wedding rehearsal, khaki pants and a collared button-down patterned shirt.

2. Reading
No books right now...I'm saving up my "reading time" for a Harry Potter marathon in a couple of weeks when Deathly Hallows comes out. Woo hoo!!!!!!

3. Eating
Mmmmmm....leftover pineapple bratwurst with honey mustard, leftover 7-layer Jello salad, Cheetos (gotta be the crunchy ones, not the puffs), and a Coke. That's gonna be my lunch in about an hour and a half.

4. Doing
Staying home watching Kiddo, who currently has a touch of the stomach flu. Though he HAS held down the waffle he had for breakfast for almost three hours now...that's a good sign.

5. Pondering
How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? And why don't more lollipop manufacturers have chocolate flavored lollipops? Chocolate Tootsie Pops so rock my world!

LH

What Have I Done???

It appears that I, a church nerd, am raising a Church-Nerd-In-Training. I meant to blog about this a couple of weeks ago, when things were busy. Here's a transcript of an actual conversation that took place between me and Kiddo sometime near the beginning of June:

Me: What's your favorite song to sing?

Kiddo: Hmmm...I have two favorite songs. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Now The Feast and Celebration!

Watch out Raffi, here comes Marty Haugen!!!!!

LH

5 Things I Dig About Jesus

Mark tagged me for this and I've seen it on about a million other blogs, so here goes!

Here are the rules:
Those tagged will share 5 Things They Dig About Jesus.
Those tagged will tag 5 people.
Those tagged will leave a link to their meme in the comments section of this post so everyone can keep track of what's being posted.

Five Things I Dig About Jesus

1. Jesus had a sense of humor. And a good one at that. I'd be willing to bet that he loved a good laugh. My favorite part of this famous artist's rendering of a laughing Jesus isn't the perfect teeth or the groomed hair. It's the prominent laugh lines around his eyes:

I bet, even at age 33, that Jesus had laugh lines.

2. Jesus met people where they were, and transformed them. You name it...a bunch of fishermen who became disciples and apostles...a tax collector who paid back all he had stolen...a prostitute saved from a stoning who was challenged to go and sin no more...lepers healed...the list goes on and on. And he continues to do the same today.

3. Jesus was about wholeness, community, restoration. When there was a line drawn between us vs. them, righteous vs. unrighteous, any kind of division that served to separate, Jesus was always found on the other side of the line. He broke down human-made walls, allowing the Kingdom of Heaven to break through into everyday lives.

4. Jesus was God, yet still one of us. He became human, yet remained God. He was all-powerful, yet powerless. He was mighty, yet emptied himself. He was king of the universe, yet died a criminal's death on a piece of wood. He got hungry, thirsty, tired...he probably got cranky...he laughed, experienced joy...the whole human experience. Yet he was the same being who was there at the creation of the universe at the beginning of time.

5. Jesus had no patience for human-made rules that got in the way of God's work. He healed on the Sabbath. He touched unclean lepers. He ate and drank with tax collectors and prostitutes. He was about doing God's work, and anything that got in the way of that was useless to him, no matter how well-intentioned the rule may have originally been. Imagine the kind of work the church could do today if we followed Jesus' example instead of getting hung up on extraneous details that just get in the way of what we're called to do: love God and love our neighbor.

LH

"Take me out to the ballgame..."

Saturday night, Sweetie and I took Kiddo and his best friend Peanut (like "Kiddo", not his real name) to a baseball game in Omaha. Beautiful stadium (it's where the College World Series is played each year), beautiful weather (low 80's with a tiny breeze), sparse crowd (which meant great seats for us)...great night. The home team got taken behind the woodshed 11-3, but when you're watching baseball with a 3 and a 4 year-old, final scores don't mean as much as...say, the location of the cotton candy guy or the competition of how loudly you can yell "we want a hit!"

Or staying away from Spike.

The Royals have two mascots that roam the stands during the game--Casey and Spike. I think they're both supposed to be lions, though Kiddo insisted that Spike was a bear. Peanut thought the mascots were cool. Kiddo? Not so much. Terrified of them, in fact. Whenever they were around, he'd get out of his chair and crouch behind the seatback in front of him, whimpering and asking if they had left yet.

Early in the game, Spike was just a few rows in front of us, next to the visitor's dugout. I asked the kids if they wanted to go give Spike a high-five. Kiddo, predictably, wasn't all that interested in approaching the terrible beast. Peanut was, though, so I took him down near the front. Here's a picture of what happened for the next five minutes:


You'll notice a young child in a striped shirt with his hand held out toward a mascot who is taking much more interest in whispering sweet nothings into a young lady's ear than paying attention to a four year-old kid who just wants to give him a high-five.

Five minutes we waited. Five.

Finally, just as the young woman told the hormonally-charged mascot that there were kids who wanted to see him (a small crowd had gathered behind us), an usher came and said we all had to go back to our seats.

No high-five for you, young man.

A little later, I took both of the boys to the restroom between innings. There was a minor rush of fans to get to the concessions, and for a few seconds we were caught in a small traffic jam at the mouth of the tunnel leading to the concourse area.

It was then that Kiddo turned around and saw his nemesis--Spike. He. Was. Standing. Right. Behind. Us.

Kiddo freaked.

"Daddy, daddy, come on daddy! Come on!!!" He screamed, wide-eyed with terror. I think he was just as concerned for my life as he was for his own with what was obviously a flesh-eating monster of a baseball mascot not even two feet away.

But there was nowhere for us to go. We were in the middle of a crowd, and the crowd wasn't going anywhere.

Spike noticed my frightened son. Did he ignore him? No. Did he reach out his hand, ask for a high-five or pat him reassuringly on the shoulder? No.

Instead, Spike decided the appropriate thing to do would be to curl his fingers like they were claws and lunge at Kiddo.

Ever seen that scene in the movie 9 Months where Tom Arnold attacks a dinosaur mascot in a store, and they're rolling around and Tom is whaling away at lumpy pieces of dinosaur felt?

I so wish I could have done that.

Instead, I got my son away, and we went to the bathroom.

Trust me, letters will be written. I'm not one to raise a fuss, but that was downright ridiculous. And nowhere even close to funny. Ignoring kids is unfortunate. Scaring kids is unacceptable.

Luckily, Kiddo recovered--here's a picture of him imitating what Spike did:


And once the cotton candy kicked in, somewhere around the fifth inning--well, good times were had by all (I swear, I have no idea where Kiddo gets that cheesy smile and flair for the goofily dramatic...um...no idea at all...*ahem*):








LH