Evendays

It was an international tournament, with teams from Marseilles, Paris, Thun, Zürich, Geneva, Schaffhausen and Lausanne. The men and women players ranged from 12 to 55 years old. Fans were enthusiastic but polite, often rooting for the underdog. Yesterday afternoon the Third Annual Churches of Christ Indoor Football (soccer) Tournament ended with a first place finish by Team Paris. Though we live in Switzerland, we know our French brethren much better than the German-speaking Swiss Christians. Two years ago, the Shaffhouse Church decided to host this tournament to encourage better relations between Christians on either side of the language barrier. Geneva participated that year and the following, and several of their members decided to host this year’s event. 6 players from Geneva made Lausanne’s contingency of 5 complete. Those who stayed the entire weekend slept in the nearby nuclear bomb shelter. The toughest part of the tournament was when Lausanne, with Son 2 (goalie) and Daughter, played Marseilles and Son 1 (goalie). Wife and I cheered for both goalies and for Daughter whenever she dribbled the ball. A church sports’ league may sound commonplace to you, but for Europeans it is a unique experience providing opportunity for cross-language communion and worship.

The lawyer on Swiss TV said that publishing the names of companies that broke hiring laws would be a step back to the Middle Ages. I saw the documentary on King Arthur and Lancelot produced by Monty Python, and I can assure you I don’t want to go back to the Middle Ages. But that period is looking pretty good compared to the Roman period some are stuck in now. A Parisian friend reminisced about his frequent trips with his boys to see PSG play football (soccer) at the city’s stadium. Impossible now. Too dangerous. Even with over 2,500 policemen at the French Cup final on Saturday when PSG meets Marseilles. The World Cup starts on June 9 in Munich. For the month-long event, Germany is importing 40,000 migrant workers. Prostitutes, that is. It seems that the local girls won’t be able to appease the appetites of dedicated sports fans. In general, the press does not call the violence and lust “barbaric” or “uncivilized”. They are rather sad realities we moderns must learn to deal with, giving weight to the argument that we can resemble the Romans but should never adopt the morals of those poor souls from the Middle Ages.

Philippe and Dolores Dauner were here singing last week and, just for you, my dear Pepperdine Lectureship friends, I handed over almost 2.5 pounds of bite-sized, individually wrapped pieces of Swiss Chocolate, bought on sale at my third favorite store in the whole-wide-world. Problem #1: How do I find Philippe and Dolores?

• You could go hear him speak at Firestone Field house on Thursday morning (11:00), but I know many of you are not out of bed yet. And if you wait till then, the chocolate might be gone.
• You could go to their class (Vision for a Generation: A Strategy for the European Mission Field Based on the Work in Marseilles, France) on Friday afternoon at 3:15. Some of you may be up by then, but I know the chocolate will be long gone.

Problem #2: How do I make them think I’m just happy to meet them rather than only interested in Swiss chocolate?

• For the preachers and elders among you, this is no problem. You are good at making people think you care about them (even if you only want their chocolate).

Problem #3: All the chocolate is in one bag.

• This really is a problem. Should the one who gets the bag share? (YES.) Will he share? (It depends on if an elder or a preacher gets it first.)

I hope you got a look at Saturday’s post. The three racers did well, though times were slower than last year. It was the hottest day of the year (so far), about 78 degrees. The runners were not used to that kind of heat so they slowed the pace. But Wife placed 10th out of the 130 in her category, and 19th out of the broader category. Those of us who went to the near-Paris retreat enjoyed the weekend. Well, the kids loved it. Not much sleep, but lots of food and beautiful weather. New songs and times of fellowship with Bible study gave us opportunities to grow. The youth wore themselves out on the soccer field. Here’s the place we spent the weekend. There was a 200 year old Giant Sequoia at the end of the drive and a beautiful rose garden near the entrance. An old chapel was off in one corner as well as living quarters for those who come regularly for spiritual retreat. Ever had a youth activity in a place like that?

Here are Wife, Son 2 and K after their 10k race in Lausanne.

The local parish loaned us their building and the “Chorale Harmonie” from Marseille did a wonderful job communicating the gospel through song and words of encouragement. About a 100 people were present and the a cappella presentation of spirituals and hymns in French, English and Latin was powerful. It was extra special because Son 1 was singing in the group. The vocal blend was excellent and the music chosen, from “Down to the River to Pray” to “God’s Gonna Trouble the Water” was right in their range and brought the best out of them. But what was clearly communicated was their trust in God through Christ. The group is made up of singers from age 12 to 55 and they are on a mission to share the Message through song. I’m grateful they came back to Lausanne this year. – I’m off to a weekend youth retreat near Paris tomorrow. (Near there. Not there. Like Fresno is near Yosemite, but it’s NOT Yosemite). Daughter plus 15 kids from Geneva are traveling with a couple and me to the activity. Always interesting and reminds me of youth ministry days. (Eye twitch.) Wife and Son 2 are doing a 10 K race through Lausanne. Lucky rascals.

We started our recruiting for Let’s Start Talking (LST) last week by writing to all the old participants and to those who showed interest in past years. Almost all the “new” people in church here have come through this ministry. Though none were converted from non-belief to belief, they all were searching for deeper faith and ended up growing in communion with God through the program. LST trains USA university students how to give English conversation courses to English learners. They use simple texts that are taken from the Gospel of Luke (or Acts for those who are repeaters). The one-on-one, free lessons are designed to communicate one important spiritual truth, one seed idea, per session. That’s all. Though the USA student does everything possible to guide the conversation to spiritual realities, the learner is free to go there or not. About 80% of the participants who start the 6 week project survive to the end, which says a lot for LST. Most people keep coming back because the USA students listen and care deeply about them. Please pray for our recruiting. We’re looking for 30 “readers”, people we can serve, people who are searching.

19 of us stayed for an after-church, Sunday meal together. I had taken a chapter out of N. T. Wright’s book Following Jesus and preached on Revelation and Resurrection. We read all of the Gospel accounts of the glorious event before and during worship. We got Good Friday off. And Monday is off too. That means as many people as possible leave town for a few days of peace and quiet. It’s the last chance for students to rest up for the study marathon that takes them to the end of the school semester. It’s a long grind for them. Son 2 had 5 friends over for a Star Wars films plus video game all nighter. The goal was not to sleep a wink and drink as much Pepsi as possible. From what I understood, they only watched one Star Wars. Somehow Monty Python & THG, with Spaceballs and the Fantastic Four made it into the night’s viewing. Had I known, I would have voted “NI!!!” – For you Lincoln buffs out there, J. W. Booth shot the President on Good Friday, April 14, 1865. He died the following morning. Of course, this year, Good Friday fell on April 14.

For today: Matthew 26.47-27.61 and John 18.1-19.42. For Saturday: Matthew 27.62, Job 14.1-14, Ps 16.5-11, Rm 6.3-11. – I’ve just finished today’s readings from the Gospels, those stories which describe a day of sorrows for the man of sorrows, and I’m reminded of a chapter from F. Buechner’s book Telling the Truth. It’s the one on The Gospel as Tragedy where I seem to remember Buechner asking the question: Why do they call it Good Friday? There is denial by friends, false accusation, interrogation, slapping, mocking. More questioning, more beating, more mocking… Hand-washing, cross-bearing, nail-driving. Humiliation, question, abandon. Disgrace and darkness. Friday ends with a corpse lowered from a blood-stained cross. It ends with 70 pounds of burial spices smeared on a my-God-why-have-you-forsaken-me body. It ends with a wrapped cadaver placed on a bed of hard, cold rock. It ends with the grinding roll of a stone placed solidly before the tomb entrance.

Today we are reading John 12.37-50, Mark 14.1-11, Matthew 26.1-16. On Thursday we’ll read Mark 14.12-31, John 13.1-17.26, Luke 22.24-38. – Every 3 years, every member of our family is obligated to renew his/her resident visa. When we first came to Lausanne, I was able to get a renewable one-year work visa because Wife had been here since 1969. After I’d been good enough long enough, I got a three-year permit. Everybody, Swiss or alien, has to register with the “population police” any time they move, even if it’s within the same city. I’m also supposed to have my permit on me at all times, though no authorities have ever asked for it, except at the bank or the post office. When we travel, we’ve got to carry our passports to go through border controls in and out of Switzerland. Normally they just wave us through. But if they think we’ve got a carload of groceries, then they’ll stop us and ask if we’ve got anything to declare. That’s when I share my faith with them… I hear in America there is much talk about immigration these days. Here, there are the same discussions, similar problems, but different arguments. But you never hear anyone saying we’ve got to let people stay because Switzerland is a land of immigrants.