What do Alanis Morissette, Bob Dylan, Che Guevara, Alec Guinness, Courtney
Love, Stevie Nicks, George S. Patton, Henry David Thoreau, Queen Victoria, Andy
Warhol and -- wait for it -- John Wesley ... have in common?

This is a motley collection of names. The commonality is that they all kept or keep
diaries. Probably some of us have as well -- but not all of us, for it takes a certain mindset and outlook to stick to daily journaling.

Vampire Diaries. The TV series. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005). That's about it for most of us when it comes to anything with the word "diary" in it. Maybe you remember Bridget Jones's Diary movies.

However, journaling may suit your personality, and, if so, there can be several
benefits. A journal can help you:
- clarify your goals,
- sort through ideas,
- make you a better communicator,
- have an outlet for your burdens and outrages,
- keep a record of your blessings and joys,
- affirm the reality of your life, and
- turn ideas into words.

In some cases, it may even help others later to learn from or about your life. Or, as in the case of the diary of Anne Frank, it can give later readers an inside glimpse...

"Aoccdrnig to rscheearechrs at Cmabrgide Uinervtisy,it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbemls. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."

Can you read this statement?

A few cautions: This popular internet meme may be spurious because when "researchers at Cambridge University" were asked about this research, no one at the prestigious British university was aware of any studies of this nature whatsoever.

Second, the assertion of this meme is blatantly false. In addition to its horrible sentence structure, the order of the letters in a word does matter in certain contexts. Who can read this, for example?

"Bblaaes! pryleas pnmrrioefg srillaimy, aeoulltsby dvrseee clbrpmaaoe capnmeooistn."

The sentence reads:

"Baseball players performing similarly absolutely deserve comparable compensation."


Don't worry if all of this sounds confusing. That is precisely the point! Now you can understand what was happening in Acts chapter 2: One can scarcely commemorate the birthday of the church without more than a passing nod to the confusion and chaos on that day - the day we know as Pentecost Sunday. About 2,000 years ago, the universal church came into being, so today as we begin a new year is a good time to ask how we understand the church - how we spell "church" - and if we can do church with a proper beginning and ending, even if the middle is a mess.

In New Testament Greek, the word for church is "ekklesia." The word is usually translated "church," and also means "assembly, congregation or meeting." The Greek literally means "called out ones" from ek meaning "out," and kaleo, meaning "to call." Some scholars have stressed that this "called out" sense of the word provides a hint as to how we should understand the church: an assembly of those who have been called out, or separated, for a special purpose or called out from the world to live godly lives.

But how might we spell "church" in English? Such an acrostic might look like this:
C = Charis
H = Healing, Hopeful or Healthy
U = United
R = Radical
C = Compassionate
H = Hospitable, Honest or Helpful


Here are a few talking points to get you started on fleshing out..

Today, somehow, we have the wrong scripture in your worship folder. We are looking at the gospel of John 1:1-14.

Have you ever awoken in the night and you stumbled to feel for a light switch? You carefully navigate your feet, right? What you think might be on the floor at the time...trying to remember exactly where the chairs are, the nightstand, the dresser, the lamps...other obstacles, so that you don't stub your toes or bump your knees. You move cautiously and carefully through the dark room until...you extend your hand on the wall, right? As you move your palm up and down on the wall trying to find that light switch, right? Trying to find the light switch and you're puzzled to wonder if there ever is a light switch on the wall. You question yourself, you begin to search with your fingers in the other direction until you say, 'Oh, there it is,' and you turn on the light.

Now everything is clear, right? The glowing light bulb overhead makes all the difference in the world to navigate your bedroom. This is what the writer of John is trying to communicate to us in his gospel.

When we try to navigate life without light - we move cautiously - and if we aren't careful we can run into danger. In fact without light in our lives - we are lost.

What does it mean to live in the light? How do we receive the light? What difference does the light make anyway? John gives us this cosmic...

Christmas has come! Homes are decorated with Griswoldian fervor, our freezer, refrigerators and stomachs give new meaning to the word "stuffed." And the music is everything from Bing and Chip to James, Kenny and George Frederic. Christmas has come!
Many families are experiencing family once again. Moms and Dads of test-weary, college aged students have fantasized about this very moment: having their "whole families together" in church, in the warmth of candlelight and love.

Christmas has come! And we welcome Christmas Eve. Christmas has come once more. But this is no ordinary night. God is once again on the move to make the Christmas story our story.

God's desire was from the beginning of the first moments of creation, up to this very moment to have the birth of Jesus in that manger so long ago to be a birth in us. God wants to take his Christmas story from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

There was a snickering in the congregation. People were glancing one way and then another while parents were trying to quiet their children. It was a snore - a mixture between a groan and a whistle. Someone had fallen asleep in worship-and they were snoring loudly. The priest seemed unaffected by it. He had just concluded a sermon on the need for kindness to the poor, the outcast and homeless. And, while children had slipped into their dreams of Christmas, the adults had slid into thoughts of persons they didn't like or trust. Just the kind of people the priest was talking about. At the conclusion of the homily, the priest continued and that's when the snores began. They soon identified the culprit, wrapped in a blanket and fast asleep. He appeared to be a homeless bum that had drifted into the church for a safe and warm sleep.

And as the parishioners looked at this nameless intruder, it happened. In the midst of the snickering and disgusted glances a small voice said, "Do you think he had a nice Christmas, too, Mommy?"

122 years ago this week, people started to think differently when exposed to a new reality. What was this new reality? Any trivia buffs out there know? It was the new reality of air travel. If people picked baby names on the basis of historical importance, the world today would be full of Orvilles and Wilburs. But it's not.

Still, few people have changed the course of history more than the Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio. In the process, they developed steering techniques that are still being used in 21st-century airplanes, spacecraft, submarines and robots. On December 17, 1903, Orville took off from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, near Kitty Hawk, and flew the gasoline-powered Wright Flyer for 12 seconds. That same day, Wilbur piloted the plane for 59 seconds, covering a grand total of 852 feet, the two of them thus becoming the first flyers¾ first famous flyers, first famous frequent flyers. And thus, too, the advent of the age of aeronautics.

Because of these feats, people started to think differently. What had been heretofore impossible was now possible. Worlds that before December 17 were inaccessible were now accessible. Bill Gates puts it in perspective when he says that "The Wright Brothers created the single greatest cultural force since the invention of writing. The airplane became the first World Wide Web, bringing people, languages ideas, and values together."

Not many such days come along in history when people from that moment on start to think differently. We've had a few in our own time. The day Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak jerry-rigged a computer in their garage and the day atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the bay of the Enola Gay come to mind.

The day a baby was born in Bethlehem was such a day. With his birth, everything...