The last words of Jesus in Matthew

Last night I went to a Bible Study where we began what is to be a 5-week study on The Bible's Call to Mission. As we went through it and I pondered what my mission is, I came upon the final words of Jesus in Matthew:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Very powerful stuff. You could spend hours on just these words. But the last sentence, to me, is the most comforting sentence in the Bible because of these words:

I am with you always

Marvelous.

NYC - A Holy Place, II

On Sunday after spending my first few hours thinking about Jesus, God, and the vineyard, we hopped on the Subway to head to our Kickball game. On the subway platform about halfway to our destination, I turned to my wife and said, "NYC is a holy place!"

I was inspired to say that just based on my experience that morning: Church, Coffee hour post-service with friendly folks, and the rush to make sure we got to kickball on time. Nothing overtly-holy in all that, more like an internal feeling. I tend to think NYC is a holy place anyway.

Just then, the Holy wanted to make itself "present." Next to us was a young man drinking a cup of Starbucks coffee. He stood up and walked over to a lady selling churros and asked for a bag of churros. He pulled out a $20 bill, but the vendor didn't have change. He was about to walk away from the vendor when a middle-aged woman enjoying her own bag of churros took out a dollar, paid for his bag, and gave it to him. He looked at her curiously, said "thank you," and sat down to enjoy his snack.

I looked at my wife, Wendy, and smiled. "See, we live in a holy place."

When the train came and we got on, the same young man got on with us but dropped his headphones and didn't notice. A gentleman who had gotten on behind him picked them up and brought them over to him. The young man smiled and said, "thank you."

The gentleman went back to stand next to his pregnant wife who was seated. An older woman got up from her seat and offered it to this gentleman so he could sit with his wife. Wendy and I were seated across from him, his pregnant wife, and what we assumed was her sister and the sister's toddler baby girl. The two women talked about babies, cooed, cuddled, and kissed the toddler girl. The little girl kissed her mom, played with her aunt, and the gentleman looked on at his family with a huge grin on his face. They sat there, a blessed family, enjoying each other's company on a Sunday subway ride.

Just then, a trio of older men walked onto the subway and began to sing. They harmonized, beautifully, some old gospel tune asking Mary to bless us, to ask her son Jesus to bless us and watch over us. The family across from us tapped their feet, with the mom dancing with her toddler in her lap.

As we got off the train at our stop, the trio still singing, I contemplated what we had just experienced -
- an Asian man getting the gift of churros from a Latina woman
- a white tattooed man returning headphones to the same Asian man
- an older Black woman giving up her seat to the white tattooed man so he could sit with his pregnant wife
- two heavily tattooed white women, one with baby in lap, one with baby in womb, showing a tremendous amount of love to the child
- three tattooed white folk tapping their feet and dancing to the gospel tune of a trio of older black men

In that moment, the race actually didn't matter (I bring it up only to show my love for the diversity of this city), the gender didn't matter, the socio-economic class didn't matter, the sexual orientation didn't matter, the faith or creed didn't matter. Here were New Yorkers being New Yorkers.

I looked at my wife, and she looked at me with a smile on her face. She knew what I was going to say. And she agreed.

"It's a holy place," I said.

"It totally is."

Joe Biden should be able to have a field day with this

I actually think the idea of Sarah Palin as VP is genius. Governor, small town, conservative, etc. Still genius. The candidate herself? Not so much.

I hope Joe Biden has a field day with this on Thursday. Take a look for yourself,

First Sarah Palin talks about the economy:


Next, Sarah Palin has to "get back" to Katie:


Then, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have fun with the interview:


Finally, it sorta reminds me of Miss Teen USA 2007 contestant, Miss South Carolina:

Goose the throttles

I found this NY Times article via New Advent. It seems the pilots will miss Shea Stadium a lot:

September 26, 2008

To Pilots, Shea Is Less Ballpark Than Landmark

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

For 44 years, the procession of planes from nearby La Guardia Airport has contributed to an unusual ballpark soundtrack at Shea Stadium, the roar of jet engines a thousand feet above blending with the cracks of bats and the cries from hot dog vendors.

With the stadium set to shut its gates for the final time — possibly Sunday, if the Mets fail to reach the playoffs — the spectators who can claim perhaps the most peculiar relationship with the ballpark may be airline pilots who, with a bird’s-eye peek at the field through cockpit windows, have participated in that uncommon convergence of baseball and aviation.

“You are so low and close you can see it and almost smell it,” said Glen Millen, who estimates that he has flown into and out of La Guardia 1,800 times since he began flying for American Airlines in 1986.

La Guardia is one of the few airports in the country where pilots use land markers instead of instruments to guide their landings, along with Seattle (a shopping mall) and Washington (a river). Shea Stadium, which from the sky looks like a blue circle with a green center, is a primary runway guidepost. For one of the more common landing routes, pilots are instructed to follow the Long Island Expressway until they arrive at the eastern side of the stadium, at which point they bank the plane left around the outfield wall and head straight for Runway 31.

Among pilots and air-traffic controllers, it is known as the “expressway visual approach.”

“We make a sweeping turn around Shea Stadium to land, and you bank the airplane and out of the corner of your eye you can see the scoreboard and the players,” said Joe Romanko, a pilot with American Airlines since 1990, who estimated that he had taken off from and landed at La Guardia 1,000 times.

“As you start coming around from right field to center field around the stadium, the fact that there is no back on the stadium allows you to see all the way in,” Romanko added, referring to Shea’s C-shape design. “It’s more dramatic at night because you track the lights on the stadium from way out. You can follow the lights all the way in and then you see the grass and the players.”

In 1964, the Mets’ first season at Shea, a pilot got an even closer look. He mistook the lights on top of the stadium for the runway and nearly hit it as the team took batting practice before a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, according to sportswriters who covered the Mets that season and a player on the field that day.

Bill Wakefield, a relief pitcher with the Mets in ’64, said Cardinals players chided him after the near miss. “They came up to me and rolled their eyes and said, ‘How can you play in this stadium?’ ” he said.

Until the 1980s, when radios that were used in cockpits to pick up transmitters began to be phased out, some pilots would tune them to the local broadcasts of the Mets’ games during landing and take-off.

“You would dial in and you could hear your plane fly over,” said Sam Mayer, a pilot with American Airlines since 1990. “There were guys who would goose the throttles to make a louder noise so they could hear themselves on the radio.”

The expressway visual approach, used for about a quarter of commercial landings, shortens trips for planes approaching from the south, saving pilots from having to circle over the Long Island Sound before making a straight approach using instruments. The landing is done without instruments only when visibility is high.

Considering the unusual relationship between airport and ballpark, perhaps it was inevitable that a pilot looking down on Shea would share a name with one of the biggest stars on the field below. Mike Piazza, a first officer for Delta Airlines, says he has landed at La Guardia about 60 times, including trips earlier this decade when another Mike Piazza was the Mets’ top slugger.

“Especially back in 2001 and 2002, there were times we just flew over the stadium we would say, ‘Mike Piazza is playing baseball and in the airplane,’ ” said Piazza the pilot, who is based in Atlanta. “I would say goodbye to everyone when they got off the plane and they would grab my name tag to check my name.”

Next season, Piazza and other pilots will have nearly the same vantage point for games at Citi Field, the Mets’ new home, which is being built next to Shea in its old parking lot.

“It will be a little trial and error the first few times as we learn how far we need to be from Citi Field after Shea is gone,” Mayer said.

“One of your familiar landmarks and orientation points won’t be there anymore.”

Of course, some of the pilots have experienced Shea the more conventional way, as fans in the seats. During many of his approaches to La Guardia, Romanko said, his mind wandered back to when he sat in the stands at Shea as a child.

“It brings up memories for me,” he said. “There is some kid probably watching me coming around.”

Forgiveness is divine

This looks incredible. I can't imagine:

Deacon Christian Alberto Ledesma?

So tonight I kicked the prayer into high gear during the Mets game. With Shea Stadium 's days winding down, my friends and I decided to pay a visit one last time. My Mets, as always, made me suffer.

Going into the 9th inning we were tied 6-6. I was thinking of getting into pleading/begging prayer mode, but figured that that's usually when God laughs and the Mets lose. Instead I petitioned on behalf of the players for speed and strength. I'm pretty sure I threw in something about becoming a Deacon.

And, what do you know? The Mets win.

How does Deacon Christian Alberto Ledesma sound?

Somebody's putting something in his Metamucil

This is what happens when you ditch a late night talk show host:

Include the third party candidates in the debates!

The first 1m 18s of this video helps explain, albeit with heavy editing, the difficulty I face in choosing either McCain or Obama. They do differ on some issues, but both will say what they need to say to their audience to get a vote.

Of course, I wouldn't necessarily vote for Nader, but I would LOVE to see the third party candidates included in the debate!

What happens to the prayers of Mets fans?

As I sit and watch my New York Mets fall apart for the second season in a row, I wonder what happens to the prayers of sports fans?

You always see it, fans in the stands with their heads bowed and hands together looking as if they were sitting in a pew on Sunday. What do you think happens with those prayers?

My bet is God laughs. And then he sends a breeze that pushes a Cub fly ball into the stands for a homerun. And then he laughs again. Those Mets, so funny!

A prayer for the week

Lord, take me where you want me to go;
Let me meet who you want me to meet;
Tell me what you want me to say;
and
Keep me out of your way

- Father Mychal Judge