Sabbatical

Greetings folks,

Well, for those of you who weren't in church on Sunday, I officially preached my last sermon until September. We have started our Sabbatical, although it doesn't really seem like it. Sunday afternoon was the crazy day we like to call Baccaluareate at Dixon High School. I don't quite know how we started this trend, but we brought all of our sound equipment from the church to the high school, and assembled it all and provided the music for the Baccaluareate service. So church got out around noon, the praise team kids and friends started disassembling things right after church and loaded it into my car. Then we had pizza together so that they wouldn't be famished when they played. Then we got to the school around 1pm, with a steady downpour putting a damper on attendance. But we got all the sound stuff into the auditorium and got it set up, all within about 45 minutes, it was awesome. John Lightner who is our sound technician, did a fabulous job. We also managed to get Kevin Dagner from the Sauk Valley Comm. Church to play guitar and sing with the girls. He's a wonderful musician with a pastors heart, and added a lot to the group. It was a nice service, although someone said that one of the class officers is Bhuddist, which surprised me that she felt like she had to participate in a Christian service. I think we'll clarify that in the future. So that was the afternoon of our sabbatical kick off.

That night proved to be another challenge. James barely slept all night with an earache/ear infection. Then Monday we thought he was feeling better so we went to a Memorial Day picnic with friends. He did alright there, but we left early becuase John was pretty tired and James became lathargic as the day wore on. He had a better night, but still woke up a few times. John on the other hand, only woke up once. (good job). It's funny how our perspective changes about what is a good night.

So our Sabbatical has not started out as spiritual as I had hoped. I wanted to sit and read and rest most days, but being a parent, that's not possible. I think I might take the boys to day care, just so I can rest and read a few days. I have high hopes for my reading list, but it's not getting off to a good start. I also have the responsibility of doing VBS this next week. I'm not a VBS kind of guy, I enjoy doing camps and games, but I was stuck with this responsibility, and I know I'm not very good, I just hope it goes alright. We are joining forces with First Presbyterian so there are added challenges in combining resources and personel. We'll see how it goes.

Back to Sabbatical, I got the resgistration for the seminar and the different workshops that I can take. I'm very pleased and excited to be able to go to Princeton Seminary, even for only a week to study preaching and to be challenged and educated a little bit more about the craft of preaching. I've always known preaching was important, but then my preaching prof. at Northern Sem. said that he led a church through transformation and growth primarily through preaching. Which I saw my dad do, but it was good to have it re-enforced. So I desire to be a good preacher, but I have to balance that with being a good dad/husband/ and pastor. I don't just want to be an orator, but i want to be a shepherd of sheep. I feel that is my calling. So we'll see how God leads me during this time of rest and rejuvenation. I pray that this will lead my to deeper sermons, which will yield deep thinkers in the congregation, and hopefully a healthy and robust church.

I'll keep this post updated with Sabbatical happenings.
Peace.

Love Thy Neighbor

Everyone shows shows love in different ways, but as Christians there is no question we must show, this most excellent virtue to neighbors and enemies and everyone in between. The question is how to does this play out in everyday life. Does love mean we give everyone a Valentines card or roses? No we need to redefine love according to Jesus' definition, and his definition (as evidenced by his actions) of love is desiring God's best for a person. When the woman who was accused of adultery was brought before Jesus in John 8 how did he demonstrate God's love? He not only saved her physical life, but he cared for her spirit in this famous phrase, "Go and sin no more." The question for me is, "Do we love people enough to tell them, go and sin no more?

In our permissive culture it seems that no one wants to stand up for truth, everyone is ok, everyone is a nice and good person. No one these days takes criticism well because in a post modern culture there is no authority save oneself. Yet for Christians our authority is Christ who calls us to obedience and to discipleship through discipline. No one likes discipline but endures it for a time because they trust that it will produce the desired results. No kid wants to give in to the discipline of his parents, but they trust the parents are acting in the kids best interests. Should we think any less of our relationship with Christ. Does God not discipline those He loves? Doesn't He tell us to go and sin no more? Should we not then do that same to the people we love?

I know this seems like a tall order, but imagine the alternative to tell somone you love them and let them destroy their life. How is that love? Too many parents have enables their kids to make bad choice in the name of love, which turned out to be anything but love. In fact it is laziness on the part of parents to correct their children, or ignorance on how to in fact to teach them to live a virtuous life. Parents cannot teach something they don't know. So my hope is that as Christians we can be a voice of love and salvation for our society, a voice that says, Go and sin no more. We need to hear Jesus say it to us each day, and at the right time in a spirit of humility and peace, with respect we should say it to others to save them, and truly demonstrate God's love to them.

One of my seminary professors was fond of defining love this way. "To love someone means that I am unwilling to wallpaper their jail cell for them." What a superb definition of love. We want someones best, we don't want to make them feel good about their addiciton, their oppression, their sinfulness. Hollywood would have you think that love means we all go about our business and not get involved, and not care what other people do. But loving someone demands action, demands involvement. To love our neighbor means that we care about their well being now, and also their eternal salvation.

So my question for you is, "How well do you love?"

Parenting

Hello world,

I have just a few minutes before John or J2 as he is sometimes refered to (thanks Emma) wakes up. Today was the first day that I had both boys by myself. Not a big deal, since I took James to day care, but I was at home with John and did all the Mr. Mom things, and he behaved well. I worked a bit while he slept. He didn't even wake up when I used the drill, which is way different than James. I just wanted to ask parents what they've learned through their kids. I have learned a lot about myself through the naughty stage that James has been going through. I learned that I jump too quickly to wanting to spank, I learned that I want my kids to be as close to perfect as possible, I learned that I can have patience and pity if I'm in the right frame of mind. But when I'm tired and stressed, I don't tolerate much. I used to think I was so easy going, and I am most of the time, but I take my kids discipline seriously, and I don't want them to be brats, or greedy, or inconsiderate kids and adults. But they are not my kids, they are Gods, and I have to keep praying for wisdom on how to raise them. I don't know if there will be unique challenges to raising two boys, but I suspect that they will fight, and compete, which is ok as long as they do it lovingly. :) I think i'm pretty naive here, but I can hope. In any case, God continues to teach me a lot through my journey as a parent. I think I'm becoming a better pastor because of them as well. Now if I can only make more time to visit people and work on my sermons more... that is my earnest prayer. Amen.

John Bunyan Cocar

Greetings folks!

It's been a crazy few months at the Cocar household. This summer has been spent getting ready for the arrival of our new baby boy, John Bunyan Cocar. He finally came on August 27th at 3:25 AM. He was a bit of a surprise, not having him, but how early he was. We were thrilled to have such a healthy boy, he was 7lbs. 11oz. and 21 in. long. James is adjusting very well to his baby brother. Two days after we brought John home, James fell in the driveway and broke his collarbone. He was in a sling and ace bandage for a few days, which got him some more attention than usual, that has helped the transition. He is on the mend now and is without a bandage, we are looking forward to his birthday party this Saturday.
Rachel has been a doing remarkably well after the delivery. She was up and about a day after the surgery, and has not needed much pain medication. Thank you for all the prayers, God has certainly had mercy on us. Although, we don't sleep very well since John wakes up every 2 hours, we have been blessed.
I have felt a bit awkward not going to church for the past two weeks, but it's been good to spend time with the boys and Rachel. Also Jim and Arden Olsen, (Rachel's parents) have been here for the past two weeks. Life is getting back to normal, and now we just have to adjust to two boys. They say going from one to two is the hardest and I don't know if I want to find out if they are right or not. I think two boys is enough for us to handle. Praise the Lord they are healthy and we are doing well.
So that's where we're at, I promise my future posts will be more about theology and/or home improvement, but for now I have to catch up on my sleep.

Good Night.

My adventures in plumbing

Greetings cyberspace,

It's been a few months since my last post, but things are fairly much the same. Our house is still under construction, my son is still not potty trained (working on it), the church is doing well, could always be better, and Rachel is still very much pregnant, but doing well. So life is good. My current project has been to put in a toilet into our basement. We had this huge walk in shower that was probably 6x6, way too big for a shower, so we decided to add a toilet. Last Wednesday I broke up a bit of concrete and made a hole big enough and deep enough to see that there is a clay pipe right under where I wanted to put the toilet. I was unsure so I asked around and it turned out that it wasn't that big a deal, except clay pipes are really delicate, they are really thick, but they crack easily. So the hole got a lot bigger real fast, and I exposes the pipes pretty much all the way around. There is the main stack for the house which is cast iron and a floor drain from the laundry room all going to this clay pipe. And wouldn't you know it, it was cracked. There was sewage leaking into the ground, it was all mud, so nasty. Anyways I should have waited for plumber, but I was impatient and didn't want sewage spilling into the basement. So I broke off the pipe and that's where I got stuck, I've never done a ton of plumbing so I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew someone who did.

The guy who told me what to do in the first place, a deacon at the church, Ed, volunteered to come over and help me fix the problem. I was ready to patch it back together and forget about it, but he knows how to do this kind of work and he was willing to help. It worked out really well because he was planning on coming to Vacation Bible School with his wife to help out, and he said he'd just come help me instead. He's a great guy, totally humble and kind, honest and hard working, my kind of guy. So we worked for 2 hours to get it all fixed up and ready to be used as a sewer again. He let me grind off the clay pipe, which I did, fairly well, I prayed before each cut, because if it broke off it would break off too deep and we couldn't get a rubber gasket on it. This happened once, but we were able to fix it. So now we have to finish putting the shower drain in, fill the hole back up with sand, then top it off with concrete, and finally add the toilet and build a glass wall in between. Piece of cake. I learned a lot this week, not much of it theological but I learned about ID and OD, important plumbing things to know. I hope my sermon this Sunday didn't suffer for lack of more preparation time. Lord knows I could always spend more time preparing. I trust in God's goodness and mercy. I didn't feel like I left the people with that one importnat thought, but it was more of an experience of loving other people. I pray that it was honoring to God.

Peace.

Since Christmas

Greeting blog readers... its been four months since my last post, but it feels like only yesterday. A lot has happened since Dec. Most notably James is so much bigger and wiser. He talks more than Rachel and I do, and he's always on the go. Although recently he has learned to sit still and do one activity at a time. He has even started sitting at the table with Rachel and I. He's a great kid, and I'm proud to be his dad. One thing that is not so great is that he has yet to sit through church. On Easter he sat/squirmed through the first 15/20 minutes until childrens sermon, then went downstairs to play. I think at almost three I was sitting through church, although throughout my childhood I was always trying to find out ways to get out of church. But I'm sure as he matures he'll learn to sit through church. We'll have to make sure it's not too boring... :)
Speaking of church, that is going well. It could always be better, but I'm thrilled with how well everyone works together and how God's Spirit is present and working. There are certainly challenges, but compared to other pastors and situations, we're very fortunate. God continues to be so good to us.
On the house front we have almost finished renovating our kitchen, it's be a LOT of work, and a lot of money, but it's looking good, and we're happy to have a functional kitchen that is safe and convenient.
More theological discussions to come...
Peace

the problem of evil

Recently Rachel and I were given a book about the Tsunami that happened in Asia back in the Christmas of 20o4. I remember some of the devastation, but didn't really grapple with it back then. I was still in seminary and newly married, so the event passed by like so many other tragic events. This book is entitle "Where is God in the Tsunami?" I don't usually need a dictionary when I read a book, but I do with this book. But regardless, it's a good read about the problem of evil. Why did the tsunami take place? Who is to blame? Can we say that God punished those sinful people, like some preachers claimed right after the event? The author Hart is arguing against atheists that say, "See look, there is so much evil and devastation, how could there possibly be an all powerful, all loving God?" The old question of, if there is an all loving and all powerful God, how could there be evil. Either he is not all loving, or he is not powerful enough to stop it. These are good questions, how can we as mature Christians answer these people who look at the world and say, there can't be a loving God.

I know how I would respond, right now. I'll let you all know if I get an new insight into this answer from the book. What do you all think of how to asnwer this historically difficult question?