The Root

 

There was a root in the Garden of Eden
That stuck out of the ground
An innocent root caught Adams toe
And cracked his new made crown
 
Why did you put that root right there
Said Adam to his maker
To punish me upon my pate?
And make of me a Quaker?
 
Dear Adam, said Creator God
What world would this world be
If all creation served the goal
Of your security
 
Where would the stories start or end
Tell what would be the plot
And how would heroes fight the fight
Gainst danger that is not.
 
You are the maker of your fate
I am the God of risk
You have the power of yes and no
Great stories come from this.
 

Thoughts on Good Shepherd Sunday

Jesus is riding on a donkey

And the people were cheering
 As he rode along,
they spread their cloaks on the road.
the whole crowd of his disciples
began to rejoice and praise God
with a loud voice for all the mighty works
they had seen:
 They Shouted:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

³⁹ But some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him,
“Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”
⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if they keep silent,
the very stones will cry out!”
How do you think Jesus felt as he got down off his donkey?
Did the words
“That’s what I’m talking about!” go through his mind
His sheep knew His voice.
They followed wherever he went
It was the story, just as He told it.
 
But when he came to the crest of the hill
Things changed
And as he saw the city,
The scattered multitudes,
he wept over it saying,
 If you had only known on this day, even you,
the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes.
³ For the days will come upon you
when your enemies will build an embankment against you
and surround you and close in on you from every side.
⁴⁴ They will demolish you—
you and your children within your walls—
and they will not leave within you
 one stone on top of another,
 
because you did not recognize the time
 of your visitation from God.”

It was the second time He cried.

Behold the source of the sobs of God:

The multitudes

Who did not know the time

Of their visitation from God.

Sheep without a safe place,

Scattered, homeless,

Shepherded? . . . no, more like

Preyed upon by the hirelings,

Who had run off

To chase profits in the temple,

And not the “speak for God” kind of prophets

No wonder He is angry!

No wonder He cleans house!

No wonder He empties the cluttered fold!

The Temple was always meant to be

God’s sheep cote,

For the Good Shepherd’s sheep

But now it is too late,

The Roman Wolves are coming

 

 

 

Another vantage point to see the city

Is Montrose harbor

One evening just about as it was getting dark

Dawn and I were looking across the harbor

When we saw the sailboats returning

 

Watching the Sailboats At Montrose Harbor

 They seem to know by instinct

The shepherd's call,

That tells them it is time for going home..

Like wooly sheep they come

White forms out of the misty cold

Nosing for the sheltered fold

 Alike, across the bay - downtown

The children graze the city's concrete meadows.

They frolic in the fading shafts of sun.

 Tough lambs are they

Who bear the lashings of the storms

They flock because they have no fold.

 

Wolves in shepherd cloaks compete

The bleating children run

From dirty street to dirty stree

 

And always deep within

The quiet Shepherd calls

Telling them it's time for coming home.

 

 

 

Are you there

 

Shepherd of sheep are you there?

I know how lambish I can be,

For though you're there,

I want you here, cause here

Seems safer, somehow closer

Lions prowl and roar

Seeking whom they may devour

And I am just a fearful little lamb inside

I have seen a pride of lions

In the city streets, asking where I am

Which tower am I hiding in

With power to devour all flesh

They're near and here

And yes, You are there, I know.

The man upstairs for prayers.

Come here, dear Lord

Shepherd of the lost sheep

Come near and I'll be found.

 

 

Three Metaphors for Love

Just came home from the wedding of Sara Wiele and Ryan Wendt. Following is the sermonette I presented.

For Ryan and Sara

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words

Then a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures.

I would like to offer for this grand occasion

The wedding of Ryan and Sara

Three metaphors for love.

 

Love is the ocean waves upon the beach

Like love the waves keep coming back

Again and again and again

They wash the shore of flotsam and jetsam

And carry it far out to sea

As far as the east is from the west in fact

 

At the same time the waves bring treasures

From the depths of the sea

Shellfish, oysters, starfish, crabs

And funny seaweed thingies

That make us wonder what they are

So does love bring home the wonders

That I have seen today

 

But best of all for this metaphor

Love breaks upon the shore

It turns to foam in the presence of its lover

And dissipates in the caress

 

And there are times when the winds of life

Reach hurricane force

Times when love has come to fear

The waves can tear away the beach

These are the words we wish we had never said

But miracle of miracles

When the fear is spent

The waves are back to build the beach again

To heal the scars, to break once more upon the shore.

 

Love is where the mountains meet the sky

Snow capped mountain peaks

Are white gloves with which we handle

The most precious things in life.

Mountains reaching

Always yearning for the beloved one

For as long as the next thing to eternity

Which is just as long as life does last.

 

And this is how love does otherness

Nothing could be more different

Than the granite mountain

And the wispy air of sky.

Love embraces otherness

First the otherness of male and female

Of course that is what love is for

But there are other othernesses

That can be like a sliver in the shoe.

That’s what the white gloves are for

Handle with care,

With tact and gentleness,

With the soft polishing touch of love.

 

Love is an arbor holding up a vine

Without this trellis the vine

Would lay upon the ground

When grape vines are pruned

They say the result is drastic.

Everything is removed except the stalk

Coming up out of the ground

And the first two branches

One to go each way.

Life sometimes does that

God says the pruning is His love

It takes pain to make prolific growth

And that is also true for the grapes

But while the pain is new

You need someone to hold you up

The arbor, the trellis, love

Hold you up to the healing invigorating SON(SUN).

The God one and the bright shiny one too.

 

If a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures.

Then a poem is worth a million.

 

 

 

 

 

How I Love You

 

I love you
Like the ocean loves the shore
washing bringing breaking
Again, again, again, more.

I love you
Like the mountains love the sky
Snowcapped hands reaching
Bring the beloved nigh.

I love you
Like the arbor loves the vine
Holding it up to the sun
Giving it time. . . to grow.

I love you all these ways
Just so.

 

With my best wishes

I love how you love each other!

 

Curt Mortimer

 

An Exercise in Metacognition

 

Metacognition = thinking about thinking

 

We have a group of students who come to Jesus People USA every fall to attend our Project 12 discipleship school.  We are experimenting with what is called a flipped classroom. About a year ago we started a class called Everybody’s Study Club. It was to be a test of the flipped classroom paradigm. Let me try to explain. A flipped classroom is doing the opposite of what traditional classrooms do. Normally the class meeting is used for media presentations and lecture, then sometimes tests to see if the students understand. Basically the class time is used to gather facts about the subject and to understand the facts and they to demonstrate mastery in a testing situation. These activities exercise mostly lower order thinking skills (LOTS) and we spend lots (most of our) time in school thinking this way.

A flipped classroom does all of what is done inside the normal classroom, outside of class as homework. There may be a movie to watch. The teacher sends a DVD home with the student. There may be a lecture or a demonstration. Again the teacher records the lecture and demonstration and sends a video home with the student. There may be a reading assignment assigned to gather more facts.

The students then come to the flipped classroom where they come face to face with the HOTS (higher order thinking skills through discussion questions asked by the teacher or through other classroom exercises. The LOTS and HOTS are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy which every teacher trained since the 1950’s probably knows about. The flipped classroom is only one application of the technology out of many. Bloom is all over the internet.

The way we at JPUSA experimented with the flipped classroom is in what we call Everybody”s Study Club. Really it is just a Sunday school class. But with some pretty dedicated adult students. Can you imagine giving homework for Sunday school? I want to give a shout out for our curriculum providers, III Millennium Seminary at http://thirdmill.org/seminary/s . These folks provide seminary classroom videos at no charge. They are produced for missionaries and indigenous peoples in many languages. I hope there is a special place in the New City for these generous folks and the people who support them financially. Of course their presentations offer a theological viewpoint but they obviously try to embrace rather than exclude in the words of Miroslav Volf. Differences make for great discussions.

A little more about Bloom. Below is a triangle of his taxonomy. It is called a taxonomy of the cognitive realm. A taxonomy is an arrangement from lesser to greater of any kind characteristic, in this case of simple thinking skills to complicated thinking skills. Generally the academic community accepted his breakdown with enthusiasm and only later in the last century made two changes, now called Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. They reversed the order of the top two thinking that creativity is more complex than evaluation. I can see the sense of that. And the second change was in the words themselves. Instead of using noun or adjective descriptions, they proposed the more active verbally based words, going from Creation to creating, for instance. I like that too. In case you want to follow this a little more closely let me give you a chart centered on using bloom’s taxonomy to ask questions.

 

Sample Question Stems Based on Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

 Remembering

 Who?

Where?
Which one?
What?
How?
Why?
How much?
How many?
When?
Can you name all the…?
Who spoke to …?
Which is true or false?
 
Understanding
 
What does this mean?
Which are the facts?
State in your own words.
Is this the same as …?
Give an example.
Select the best definition.
Condense this paragraph.
What would happen if …?
Explain why . . .
What expectations are there?
Read the graph (table).
What are they saying?
This represents . . .
What seems to be …?
Is it valid that …?
What seems likely?
Show in a graph, table.
Which statements support …?
What restrictions would you add?
Outline. . .
What could have happened next?
Can you clarify. . .?
Can you illustrate . . . ?
Does everyone think in the way that … does?
 
Applying
 
Predict what would happen if ...
Choose the best statements that apply.
Judge the effects of …
What would result …?
Tell what would happen if …
Tell how, when, where, why.
Tell how much change there would be if …
Identify the results of …
Write in your own words …
How would you explain …?
Write a brief outline …
What do you think could have happened next?
Who do you think…?
What was the main idea …?
Clarify why …
Illustrate the …
Does everyone act in the way that … does?
Draw a story map.
Explain why a character acted in the way that he did.
Do you know of another instance where …?
Can you group by characteristics such as …?
Which factors would you change if…?
What questions would you ask of…?
From the information given, can you develop a set of instructions about …?
 
Analysing
 
What is the function of …?
What’s fact? Opinion?
What assumptions …?
What statement is relevant?
What motive is there?
What conclusions?
What does the author believe?
What does the author assume?
State the point of view of …
What ideas apply?
What ideas justify the conclusion?
What’s the relationship between?
The least essential statements are …
What’s the main idea? Theme?
What literary form is used?
What persuasive technique is used?
Determine the point of view, bias, values, or intent underlying presented material.
Which events could not have happened?
If … happened, what might the ending have been?
How is … similar to …?
What do you see as other possible outcomes?
Why did … changes occur?
Can you explain what must have happened when …?
What were some of the motives behind …?
What was the turning point?
What are some of the problems of…?
Can you distinguish between …?
 
Evaluating
 
What fallacies, consistencies, inconsistencies appear?
Which is more important, moral, better, logical, valid, appropriate?
Find the errors.
Is there a better solution to…?
Judge the value of …
What do you think about …?
Can you defend your position about …?
Do you think … is a good orbad thing?
How would you have handled…?
What changes to … wouldyou recommend?
Do you believe …?
How would you feel if …?
How effective are …?
What are the consequences of …?
What influence will … have on our lives?
What are the pros and cons of…?
Why is … of value?
What are the alternatives?
Who will gain and who will lose?
 
Creating
 
Can you design a … to…?
Can you see a possible solution to …?
If you had access to all resources, how would you deal with …?
Why don’t you devise your own way to …?
What would happen if?
How many ways can you …?
Can you create new and unusual uses for …?
Can you develop a proposal which would…?
How would you test …?
Propose an alternative.
How else would you …?
State a rule.

Adapted from the following sources: Pohl, Michael. Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn: Models and Strategies to Develop a Classroom Culture of Thinking.
Cheltenham, Vic.: Hawker Brownlow. 2000; Tarlington, Denise. “Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.” Powerpoint;
www.center.iupui.edu/ctl/idd/docs/Bloom_revised021.doc, February 8, 2006; http://eprentice.sdsu.edu/J03OJ/miles/Bloomtaxonomy(revised)1.htm
WCPSS AG Program 2009 Toolbox for Planning Rigorous Instruction Section 5: Thinking

And here is your assignment: (Teachers can’t help it.)Write one question for each of Bloom’s levels.This assignment centers in on the application level but you will have to rise to the creative level at times. Or you could just evaluate me low on the affective taxonomy (Bloom has one of those also) and forget about it as they say in the gangster movies.

 

 Way back in the mid 1970s I was teaching high school in Menomonie Wisconsin. I loved the job and the students but being a new teacher I was very concerned about classroom discipline. The result is that I was very serious in the many cases of students telling jokes or pulling pranks. Didn't want the classroom to get out of control. Well about half way through the year the students told me that their nick-name for me was "Stoney" because I was so serene and serious all the time. It was true. I had to laugh at myself so I wrote several stories about Stoneyman. Here is the opening:

 

 

ORIGIN OF STONYMAN

As with all legends, the stories about the beginnings of Stonyman are many

and varied. According to one of the myths, the stony hero had his beginnings

in the haze of a hippie haven where the grass was not cut-—it was sucked. This

story pictures the beginning not of Stonyman, but of Stoned-man, one of Stony-
man's arch enemies. Another story, completely fallacious, tells of a vortex
of cosmic forces hovering over a statue of George Washington, thus producing
Stonyman.

You now have in hand the true story of the origin of Stonyman. In real life
he is the mild mannered teacher Lythos Stein, but in his heroic form he is
Stonyman, master of the basic matter of the universe, rocks, and stones,
pebbles, and even the smallest grains of sand.

Faster than a speeding fossil, able to leap tall pebbles in a single bound.
Is it a boulder? Is it a cliff? NO! It's Stonyman.
Lythos Stein was born an ordinary child, like all children slapped into life
upside down. He spent his boyhood days in a small Wisconsin town-—running,
laughing, crying, puppy-dogging like any boy in any town. In those days, there
was nothing heroic in his nature. He was normal in every way, normally good,
normally bad, normally educated in a small Wisconsin high school.
It was during the first year in college that Lythos first began to be interested
in rocks and stones. "Interested" is a mild term——he was preoccupied. His
roommate reported him to the college shrink. Lythos had stones in his closet,
pebbles in his drawers, and (at least his roomate thought) rocks in his head.

Perhaps Lythos was crazy in those days. His roommate was convinced, but
inside Lythos Stein there was order. His consuming interest lay in the stuff with
which the universe was made. His search was deeper than the inanimate rocks
and stones that he handled and observed. He was searching -— looking for that
which would bring unity to the universe. He was Aristotle. He was Plato. He was
Einstein.

In his search for rocks and stones, Lythos came to love digging. Whatever
came into his experience, he dug.  Legend says that when his pet dog died, he got
carried away and buried him twelve feet deep. Figuratively speaking, he dug into
any subject related at all to stones. Literally, he dug as a member of the Yeahoo
Archeological Society.

Lythos was chosen to lead the Third Yeahoo Expedition to an archeological
dig at the ancient biblical city of Jerusalem in Israel. To Lythos, his findings
were fantastic. The museum curators back home however, were not impressed by
the mass of artifacts sent back by Lythos. They were looking for bones, for pots,
for statues, but all they got were stones, rocks and pebbles. Finally Lythos'
funding was revoked. They wouldn't even fund his trip back to the states. Lythos
didn't care—-he was in heaven in his hole beneath the streets of Jerusalem. ;,

We pass quickly over the days of tedious digging——deeper and deeper. Lythos
found city foundation upon city foundation. He dug through a hundred glorious ages
in a hundred thrilling days. The deeper he dug, the simplier and more beautiful
the cities became.

]ust as spring was spreading over the Israeli countryside, Lythos was reaching
the first city. A normal archeologist would have stopped at this point, but Lythos
kept descending for the virgin soil on which the original city had been built. The
Easter pilgrims filled the city above the day that Lythos' spade hit the rock. He
quickly threw aside the last foundation stones and uncovered—-the R0CK——foundation
of a hundred cities. He shoveled away the dirt from side to side, but there was no
end to the Rock. It was as if this rock was the foundation of t  cities
all over the world. Exhausted, Lythos threw his shovel and began to study the
Rock. The Rock was hard but strangely warm to his searching fingers. There
also was a pulse in the rock, much like a heartbeat, barely discernable. Lythos
to this day refers to it as the Rock which Lives.

It is at this point that we must return to the surface for Lythos has never
revealed the details of his communion with the Rock. We see him only as he comes
forth from his digging--changed—-imperceptably but fundamentally different. There
is an understanding in his eyes. He knows why he is in the world and the world
will never be the same.

Stonyman, the rock has sent you.
Stonyman, Stonyman.
Stonyman, the Rock has shared his power with you. Stonyman.
May the Rock be with you forever. Stonyman, Stonyman.
May the Rock in you forever. Stonyman.

Lythos’ secretary Pebblius Granite put the whole history of those days in a poem,

THE DIGGINGS
 

"Behold that young fool

With excavating tool. "
Said the man in black,
As he turned his back.
 And the young man drilled
His shovel filled,
Hard at his work,
To the world, a jerk.
 
"He can not build,
He's too unskilled, "
Said the man in black,
Munching on a snack.
 And the young man drilled
His shovel filled,
Even he didn't know,
What he sought below.
 
"Why does he search,
It's in my church."
Said the fat in black.
Egomaniac.
 And the young man drilled
His shovel filled,
Found an ancient rock,
An old stumbling block.
 
"Wonder where he's gone?‘
Said the automaton,
Handicap in black,
Hypochondriac.
 Up the young man came,
With his heart aflame,
With a renewed mind,
Power to unbind.
 
It was such a shock,
That it stopped the clock,
Of the man in black,
With a cardiac.
 Now he knew how to build
No longer unskilled,
On that deep foundation,
Real edification.
 
But it’s got no pretty glass,
 And those people got no class.
Said a new man in black,
Dipsomaniac.