My wife sent me a link today to a poem called Being Poor which she found in the recent Magazine of the Heifer Project. Just one line:
Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.
Andrew asks a good question about one of the time honored practices typically found in the worship services of smaller congregations: Passing the Peace of Christ.
This one got a bit of a rise out of me, mostly from the suggestion that it’s just sort of randomly placed in a service without much thought to the practice. In contrast, as my comment posted to his blog suggests, I see it as a deeply theological act rooted in the flow of worship. Christ extends grace and peace to us so we in turn extend it to others.
It’s not often that Iowa makes it big in celebrity news: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore Party in Iowa. Not really sure why Ashton thought it might be possible to find a chopper at 2AM to take them back home. Guess he’s been living in LA far too long.
Recently, I picked up a copy of Shane Claiborne’s book Irresistble Revolution. A breezy, sometimes humorus, but awfully convicting read. Today, I ran across a review at Relevant Magazine which does the book great justice. Check it out if you get a chance.
I remember having some of the same ideas (along with my friend Mark) that Claiborne actually lives out: Like living on the streets for a few days, to see what it’s like and actually getting to really know some homeless people. Or living together with a group of friends in a home being accountable for simple living and investing oneself in genuine christian community.
I just never had the guts to live those ideas out. Yet seven or eight years later they still seem just as compelling as they did the first time we talked about them: Like I really am missing something by living in a beautiful home, tending to my lawn, and being the spiritual shepherd to a flock of great believers.
My wife and I were discussing our impressions of the book after we both read a few of the first chapters. I don’t think we are trying to be dismissive of Claiborne’s message, but we both have wondered if some people are simply given the gift of such radical discipleship (such as Claiborne or Mother Theresa.)
It that true or am I just a big chicken?
Does anyone know who wrote this famous saying, “When you sing, you’re praying twice?†I was originally lead to believe that it was attributed to Martin Luther, but recently I’ve also seen it attributed to both St. Agustine and St. Basil. Does anyone have authoritative knowledge about the author of this famous quote?
The PC(USA) has entered the 21st Century, or at the very least three Presbyterian pastors are trying to lead us there. Check out these three pastors who’ve entered the world of podcasting at Decently and In Order.
It sounds like they might be recording out of a basement, but the one podcast I listened to was interesting and entertaining. What a great idea! Hope they keep it up.
Finally back from a good vacation spent relaxing, shopping, recreating, and catching up with family and friends. Had such a good time that I can hardly wait for the next vacation…
Thought I’d point you toward what promises to be a great blog series: For the Love of God: 20 theologians and why we love them. Maybe at some point, I’ll dovetail this blog series with some reflections of my own.
Woo hoo! On a full weeks vacation starting tomorrow. Will be taking the computer along but no guarantee of WiFi access so if I don’t check in here hope you have a blessed week!
I recently received in the mail from Paraclete Press a free copy of Scot McKnight’s new book “Praying with the Church.” This free book actually comes at a bit of a cost: I’ve been asked by the publisher to join with other bloggers in blogging about the book sometime in the future, most likely in June. More information about this blogging event is forthcoming.
Also forthcoming is a much needed week’s vacation starting on Monday. I’m looking forward to reading my new book, but I’m also hoping to finish all those books I’ve got outstanding in the sidebar list on the right of this webpage.
For some reason I have a rather bad habit of making it about 2/3 of the way through a book and then never getting around to finishing it. This greatly preplexes me since I’m clearly a “J” (meaning I have a preference for closure) in the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator.
The ‘liberal’ theologian John Calvin, in the 1500’s, writes of God in his Commentary on Isaiah:
If it be objected, that God is everywhere called “a Father,†and that this title is more appropriate to him, I reply, that no figures of speech can describe God’s extraordinary affection towards us; for it is infinite and various; so that, if all that can be said or imagined about love were brought together into one, yet it would be surpassed by the greatness of the love of God. By no metaphor, therefore, can his incomparable goodness be described. - Isaiah 46:3
God did not satisfy himself with proposing the example of a father, but in order to express his very strong affection, he chose to liken himself to a mother, and calls [the people of Israel] not merely ‘children,’ but the fruit of the womb, towards which there is usually a warmer affection. - Isaiah 49:15
Just some words for thought in the on-going argument about the specifically male language we use for God. This must make some of my reformed and presbyterian brethren blush a bit. I don’t read Calvin as much as I should, but when I do I often find him surprising at various turns.
Check out David Walker’s CartoonBlog for his witty cartoons and commentary about life in the church.
I’ve been following the arguments being lobbed around the issue of women in ministry as taken up in a statement written by the four speakers who hosted the Together for the Gospel conference.
One defender of the statement on the exclusion of women in teaching offices (see articles XVI and XVII) in the church, in a comment posted on the JollyBlogger, goes so far as to say:
“The complementarian view is that women are not to be made elders or to take authoritative positions over men. That leaves plenty of room for exercising gifts of teaching in groups that don’t include men, even groups that include males who are not yet men.”
Wow, some folks are still really in the stone ages. Anyway, I must admit that I’d not even heard of this term ‘complementarian’ until I began to follow this particular discussion. Aside from all the biblical passages (most if not exclusively from Paul or writings traditionally attributed to him) being used to support this particular view, I was primarily taken aback by one particular view of the Trinity that gets thrown into the argument.
That’s what I focus on in the following response, starting with the Westminster Catechism which says:
“There be three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one true, eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory; although distinguished by their personal properties.”
The current moderator for the PC(USA) Rick Ufford-Chase writes some wise words on the issues of immigration. With this line he identifies one of my core concerns in writing legislation:
Further, the church community has continually insisted, and will continue to insist, that any documentation program must provide the ability to reunite families, allow workers the ability to move independently to look for work (so that they don’t become a captive, “slave†labor force for an employer who can threaten them with deportation), and the ability to work toward citizenship if they are solid members of the community.
There has got to be recognition that where one person comes to the US there are host of others persumably left behind. A mother comes to send home income to support her young son. A father comes to send home income to his family. Seldom is an immigrant coming to the US solely for their own personal gain. I fear most legislation will fail to recognize this reality and in effect will forever split families.
Seems like I was not the only one burned up by the Together for the Gospel Conference that failed to include any women. The conference’s four speakers put together a statement of faith which includes an article defending the exclusive assignment of men to teaching offices in the church.
Rhett Smith writes his two sense worth here and David Wayne responds.
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