clark olson-smith - Latest Comments

Re: Doing Love, Not Feeling Love

Clark Olson-Smith — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:30:03 -0000

Sometimes I do. It's "elusive" in the best sense of mystery and surprise, in God's hands.

Re: Doing Love, Not Feeling Love

Joel — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:04:39 -0000

Since coming to know this truth, sir... and perhaps now going out of your way to love more than you did before - do you now feel that feeling of love during praise & worship? Or does it still elude you?

Re: http://kristoforwithak.tumblr.com/post/4758423234

Cynweeks — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:43:30 -0000

Woo Hoo!

Re: May Day

Cynweeks — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:00:22 -0000

Thanks for the lovely "shout out!"

Re: a way to describe myself

AW — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 22:37:53 -0000

"Waiting for God." I like this, whether one is unemployed, on sabbatical, engaged in a temporary assignment, working full-time or beginning a new call. If you don't mind, I think I'll borrow it.

Re: be real, and, if you want, be friends

AW — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 22:27:59 -0000

Beautifully stated, Clark. Although I’m not a pastor, I am an introvert (with well-developed extrovert skills) and I found myself nodding in agreement from beginning to end.
A couple of additional thoughts, particularly about friendship... First is the way that so many different relationships — including intimates, family members, colleagues, parishioners, random people from the internet —huddle beneath Kelly's“friend”-umbrella. Frankly, Facebook’s business model notwithstanding, there’s a whole lot more of my life I want to share with my sister than I do with my current students or with the teenager across the street. Do I value all of them as “co-creators and fellow travelers on a spiritual journey” (something that Kelly seems to think can’t happen if they aren’t on my FB friends list)? Indeed, I do, and I regularly learn and grow on account of their presence in my life. Do I try to live and act with integrity in my relationships with them? Sure. But that isn’t the same thing as being friends.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus suggests that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. I can imagine a few scenarios when I would willingly (and even gladly) risk my own life for the sake of another, and I pray that God would give me the courage to do so. I can’t speak for Kelly, but would I do that for 1000+ FB “friends”? I seriously doubt it. I wouldn't even invite all of them over for pizza night at our house.

Re: not my job

Clark Olson-Smith — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:44:25 -0000

Thanks, Becky. Professor Satterlee thanks you too, I'm sure. No doubt he has a classroom full of rebellious seminarians he'd like you to talk to.

In these weeks of hearing sermons instead of preaching them, I've felt acutely that hunger for the good news. Without it, something always feeds me in worship, but boy, I go home feeling like I just got a snack, not a hearty meal. So I'm with the disciples: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." And I can never get enough.

As for the balance...I think the challenge is no more for me as a preacher than for you as a parent. It's worth wondering together about how we learned about loving our neighbor. My own answer--and my suspicion for each of us--is that it comes down to being loved. Being loved makes us lovers and gives us ears to hear the truth that hurts.

Week to week, I try to stay focused, not on what I think we need to hear but on what God wants to say. God always strikes the right balance. So I ask, What is God saying to us in these scriptures? I follow what I hear there. I listen to the ones I'm serving. I remind myself: teaching about loving neighbors means repeating the good news about how God loved us in Jesus. I also remind myself: the most convicting sermons I've ever heard were the ones that most richly lavished God's love on all us listeners.

The hard part is not so much finding the balance, as letting Jesus show it to me and trusting the "hidden, inscrutable, playful, and unresolved” ways Jesus always does.

Re: not my job

Becky L. — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:46:46 -0000

I really like this post! As a congregation member, I never get tired of hearing the good news from the pulpit. I've been to churches where the preaching often centers around what we should do as Christians. It's exhausting week after week to be hit over the head with a standard I can't live up to. It's great to be reminded that Jesus did it for us! I would think it must be challenging as a pastor to find a balance between teaching about "loving your neighbor," but keeping the focus on what God has done for us.