the green fields beyond

Poem: Opportunity

2011-07-22T09:22:00.003-04:00

It's been too many months since I posted poetry. I memorized this one when I was a kid (for school? maybe) and then it lay dormant in my mind until this past week when it popped up. I suddenly see something relevant in it. Plus it's fun.

OPPORTUNITY

by: Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887)

HIS I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:--
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged
A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.

A craven hung along the battle's edge,
And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel--
That blue blade that the king's son bears, -- but this
Blunt thing--!" he snapped and flung it from his hand,
And lowering crept away and left the field.

Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle shout
Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.

Poetry Month: Christmas is Really for the Children

2011-04-23T13:05:00.002-04:00

Christmas is Really for the Children
By Steve Turner

Christmas is really

for the children.

Especially for children

who like animals, stables,

stars and babies wrapped

in swaddling clothes.

Then there are wise men,

kings in fine robes,

humble shepherds and a

hint of rich perfume.

Easter is not really

for the children

unless accompanied by

a cream filled egg.

It has whips, blood, nails,

a spear and allegations

of body snatching.

It involves politics, God

and the sins of the world.

It is not good for people

of a nervous disposition.

They would do better to

think on rabbits, chickens

and the first snowdrop

of spring.

Or they'd do better to

wait for a re-run of

Christmas without asking

too many questions about

what Jesus did when he grew up

or whether there's any connection.

Poetry Month: Paul Revere's Ride

2011-04-19T14:08:00.002-04:00

Today in 1775, British troops and Massachusetts militia clashed in Lexington and Concord, and sparked the Revolutionary War. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about the events of the night before, in which Paul Revere rode to warn the townsfolk that the British were coming to seize their leaders & military supplies. The poem leaves out the other riders who spread the word, but for drama it can't be beat. And the part about the lonely signaller in the church tower, afraid of the shadows and ghosts, still spooks me.

Paul Revere's Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the somber rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and somber and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Poetry Month: Detected

2011-04-12T10:29:00.001-04:00

Written over a hundred years ago, this is still quite relevant:

DETECTED

by: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

In Congress once great Mowther shone,
Debating weighty matters;
Now into an asylum thrown,
He vacuously chatters.

If in that legislative hall
His wisdom still he'd vented,
It never had been known at all
That Mowther was demented.

"Detected" is reprinted from The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce Vol. IV: Shapes of Clay. Ambrose Bierce. New York: Neale Publishing Company, 1910.

Poetry Month: The Silence of God

2011-04-04T08:43:00.003-04:00

April, as you may be aware, is National Poetry Month. I love it for its annual reminder of the need that poetry meets in our prosaic lives. Here's a poem--a song, actually, but it counts--that i recently heard and loved: Andrew Peterson's "The Silence of God," from his Love and Thunder album.

The YouTube video includes the lyrics on-screen.

Pictures: Land-clearing and the footer

2011-02-17T21:36:00.016-05:00

I haven't taken as many pictures as I've wanted to, but here are a few shots of our house progress recently. The two shots below are of the heavy equipment that cleared the trees away from the house-site and the septic field. The operators of these machines were impressive: they could, almost gently, pluck a large tree from the ground without disturbing its neighbors.

They soon had the beginnings of a driveway, which has now been culverted and graveled and smoothed:

The tree-clearing guys did an excellent job. They knew that we're planning on having a woodburning stove, so they made a separate stack of wood that's best for burning (not pine, mostly).

After the land was cleared, a silt fence was put up. That means if water washes some of the soil away from the construction site, it doesn't go into the little stream and thence into the river.

Here's our wonderful contractor, Mr. Dave Hurst, staking out the house's perimeter, with measuring tape and cool laser-gadgets and...stakes:

After which, ANOTHER piece of heavy machinery arrived to dig out the foundation/footer of the house.

Creating trenches that eventually looked like this. Note the rebar.

Then yet another large vehicle showed up (yeah, the carbon footprint for this phase is huge): the cement truck!

And Dave and his assistant expertly directed the chute on the truck to place just the right amount of cement in each trench.

When they were finished, the trenches looked like this:

So now the house site looks like this:

Next up: blocks/bricks.

Thank you all SO much for your encouragement, prayers, suggestions, and help. The process is well and truly underway.

My last check-out

2011-01-31T20:34:00.004-05:00

Since, despite our letters and pleas and our questions at board meetings, the Williamsburg Regional [ha, that's a laugh] Library is revoking the privileges of out-of-area residents, and since they aren't even allowing us the option of paying a fee for service, today was the final day for me to use the library I've used for parts of the past 13 years.
So today I joined others in donning a "All We Are Saying is Give Fees A Chance" T-shirt, wrote a thank-you note to the circulation librarians (who've always been nice) and walked into the library to check out my final allotment of items. My card has a limit of ten, so here's what I ended up with:

The Castle in the Forest: A novel (Norman Mailer)
The divine hours: A manual for prayer (Phyllis Tickle)
Human Smoke (Nicholson Baker)
The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime (Miles Harvey)
Keep the Change: A Clueless Tipper's Quest to Become the Guru of the Gratuity (Steve Dublanica)
Lonesome Road: a novel (Mary Louise Clifford)
Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in his Own Time (Sarah Ruden)
Rules of Thumb for Home Building, Improvement, and Repair (Katie Hamilton)
State of Play (a DVD of the feature film)
Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert (2-CD set)

I also bought a couple of books at their used-book table. The librarian reminded me that, though my borrowing privileges are ending, "you'll still be able to come in and buy books." Well, sure. But a 2-shelf used-book-store isn't what I drive to Williamsburg for. Sad day.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2010-12-11T17:06:00.003-05:00

Mel and I saw The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the Movie Tavern last night (note to self: Movie Tavern fries, yes yes! Movie Tavern "club wrap with avocado" will not make your stomach happy).
A few quick reactions:

--Casting: Eustace was wonderfully well cast. He was perfectly bratty, a real snot, complete with the self-righteous diary-keeping. I found myself identifying with Edmund & Lucy and others who were irritated by him. I'm not sure why Eddie Izzard isn't doing Reepicheep's voice anymore, but Simon Pegg made a fine replacement.

--The Dufflepuds were just as sycophantic and cowardly as they should be...but I was disappointed not to see their foot-canoeing trick.

--Lucy's "temptation" at the Magician's spell-book was very well done, though slightly changed from the book: I won't say much so as not to spoil it.

--The Dawn Treader was a beautiful ship, and had many of the details Lewis mentions in the book.

--Low points: tempo, tempo, tempo. I understand that the filmmakers had to trim a weeks-long voyage down to 2 hours, but they didn't do a good job of it. We were stampeded from one island or episode to the next, without enough sense of the days and weeks' worth of travel. It felt like a 3 day cruise. Annoying. Also, why did the quest to find the 7 Lords need to become a quest to find the 7 Swords of the 7 Lords? Lewis' version makes it a matter of honor for the young King Caspian; this version just felt like a Plot Coupon.

--Overall grade: B, but worth seeing.

Is a male savior good news for women?

2010-10-19T11:19:00.002-04:00

In Alan Bennett's play & movie The History Boys, a female teacher wearily describes history as centuries of [male-initiated] slaughter, rape, and pillage, with "women following behind with the bucket." Because I want the next centuries to be better than that, I am looking forward to reading this book by my fellow WTS alumnus Neil Williams: The Maleness of Jesus: Is it Good News for Women?

From the description: "At the center of Christianity is Jesus of Nazareth—whose maleness is used by many to justify the subordination of women and to emphasize that men, rather than women, better represent Jesus.
"This raises a number of questions that are the subject of this book. What is the significance of Jesus' maleness? Does it reveal the character of God? Is it foundational for the gospel? Is Jesus' maleness associated with an ongoing created order of male priority? Our answers will affect Christianity's task of love, justice, and reconciliation in a world that is characterized by the global marginalization, oppression, and abuse of women."

Ambulance at 170 mph

2010-08-04T08:06:00.004-04:00

My brother-in-law Matt is in Afghanistan, flying medevac helicopters with the Army. A photographer from the Sacramento Bee recently spent some time with a unit very much like Matt's (some of the pictures are of people he's served with in other deployments). The men and women of the medevac units do amazing work, airlifting not only injured U.S. troops but also Afghan soldiers and civilians. Check out the photo essay here.

Even Your Beer-Barrel Cries Out

2010-07-11T20:47:00.003-04:00

Loved this. It's one of those clarifying, liberating thoughts that can continue to provide more food for thought (and action!) as I meditate on it: Don't be paralyzed over "What does God want me to do?" Rather, look at where you already are, what you do for a living, and your existing relationships, and find God's "will" for you in the mundane details of life. But of course Luther says it in a better, earthier way than I would:

"The incomparably clearest sign in God’s providence is the fact that we have the neighbor we actually have. In that fact lies the law, an evidence of a definite vocation. Uncertainty [as to what God is “calling” us to do in life] is often due to regarding oneself as an isolated individual, whose “call” must come in some inward manner.

"But in reality we are always bound up in relations with other people; and these relations with our neighbors actually effect our vocation, since these external ties are made by God’s hands. A craftsman’s workshop is like a Bible, in which is written how that person is to conduct himself toward his neighbor. Your tools and your food, your needle and thimble—even your beer-vat—call aloud, 'Use us for the well-being of your neighbor!' Things are the vehicle of the Word of God to us."

From Gustaf Wingren's Luther On Vocation, p. 72, summarizing an aspect of Luther's commentary on the Sermon on the Mount

Death's Cold Wave

2010-06-14T11:59:00.001-04:00

Some people get "peaceful" deaths with visions of angels, etc. Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, didn't have that kind of death. His widow Denise, in a painfully honest post, talks about her family's experience and about the hope that's getting her through this brutal time. Well worth reading, if only to immunize us against the lie that Christians will have an easy time of it: http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/sometimes-its-just-plain-hard

Poetry Month, Earth Day, and Wendell

2010-04-22T10:05:00.001-04:00

From Wendell Berry's collection "A Timbered Choir, the Sabbath Poems 1979-1997"

It is the destruction of the world
In our own lives
that drives us half insane, and more than half.
To destroy that which we were given
in trust: how will we bear it?
It is our own bodies that we give
to be broken,
our bodies existing before and after us
in clod and cloud, worm and tree,
that we, driving or driven, despise
in our greed to live, our haste
to die. To have lost, wantonly,
the ancient forests, the vast grasslands
in our madness, the presence
in our very bodies of our grief.

This isn't about my boss, by the way...

2010-04-17T21:43:00.003-04:00

I've been enjoying Charles Spurgeon's Lectures to My Students which, though dated in some of its references, has valuable insights for young pastors. Here's one of many quotables, featuring the usual Spurgeon wit:

"There are brethren in the ministry whose speech is intolerable; either they dun you to death, or else they send you to sleep. No chloroform can ever equal their discourse in sleep-giving properties. No human being, unless gifted with infinite patience, could long endure to listen to them, and nature does well to give the victim deliverance through sleep. I heard a man say, the other day, that a certain preacher had no more gifts for the ministry than an oyster, and in my own judgment this was a slander on the oyster, for that worthy bivalve shows great discretion in his openings, and he also knows when to close. If some men were sentenced to hear their own sermons, it would be a righteous judgment upon them; but they would soon cry out with Cain, 'My punishment is greater than I can bear.' "

Poetry Month: A Word to Husbands

2010-04-09T11:18:00.001-04:00

A Word to Husbands
Ogden Nash, 1964

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.

Poetry Month: In the Neolithic Age

2010-04-06T21:03:00.002-04:00

A useful reminder for readers, writers, and critics....

IN THE NEOLITHIC AGE
Rudyard Kipling, 1895

In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage
For food and fame and woolly horses' pelt;
I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man,
And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt.

Yea, I sang as now I sing, when the Prehistoric spring
Made the piled Biscayan ice-pack split and shove;
And the troll and gnome and dwerg, and the Gods of Cliff and Berg
Were about me and beneath me and above.

But a rival, of Solutre, told the tribe my style was ~outre~ --
'Neath a tomahawk of diorite* he fell.
And I left my views on Art, barbed and tanged, below the heart
Of a mammothistic etcher at Grenelle.

Then I stripped them, scalp from skull, and my hunting dogs fed full,
And their teeth I threaded neatly on a thong;
And I wiped my mouth and said, "It is well that they are dead,
For I know my work is right and theirs was wrong."

But my Totem saw the shame; from his ridgepole shrine he came,
And he told me in a vision of the night: --
"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
And every single one of them is right!"

.....

Then the silence closed upon me till They put new clothing on me
Of whiter, weaker flesh and bone more frail;
And I stepped beneath Time's finger, once again a tribal singer
And a minor poet certified by Traill.**

Still they skirmish to and fro, men my messmates on the snow,
When we headed off the aurochs turn for turn;
When the rich Allobrogenses never kept amanuenses,
And our only plots were piled in lakes at Berne.

Still a cultured Christian age sees us scuffle, squeak, and rage,
Still we pinch and slap and jabber, scratch and dirk;
Still we let our business slide -- as we dropped the half-dressed hide --
To show a fellow-savage how to work.

Still the world is wondrous large, -- seven seas from marge to marge, --
And it holds a vast of various kinds of man;
And the wildest dreams of Kew are the facts of Khatmandhu,
And the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban.

Here's my wisdom for your use, as I learned it when the moose
And the reindeer roared where Paris roars to-night: --
There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,
And -- every -- single -- one -- of -- them -- is -- right!

*diorite: a type of igneous rock
**Traill: HD Traill, journalist and editor who classified poets into "great poets" and "mere versifiers."

Poetry Month: Brother's Keeper

2010-04-01T13:01:00.002-04:00

April is National Poetry Month, so I'll get things started with the lyrics to "Brother's Keeper," a song written in 1994 by Rich Mullins and David Strasser.

Now the plumber's got a drip in his spigot
The mechanic's got a clank in his car
And the preacher's thinking thoughts that are wicked
And the lover's got a lonely heart
My friends ain't the way I wish they were
They are just the way they are

And I will be my brother's keeper
Not the one who judges him
I won't despise him for his weakness
I won't regard him for his strength
I won't take away his freedom
I will help him learn to stand
And I will ~ I will be my brother's keeper

Now this roof has got a few missing shingles
But at least we've got ourselves a roof
And they say that she's a fallen angel
I wonder if she recalls when she last flew
There's no point in pointing fingers
Unless you're pointing to the truth

And I will be my brother's keeper
Not the one who judges him
I won't despise him for his weakness
I won't regard him for his strength
I won't take away his freedom
I will help him learn to stand
And I will ~ I will be my brother's keeper

A Turtle for the Princess

2010-02-06T08:04:00.003-05:00

This isn't any kind of coherent eulogy for my grandmother, just an attempt to get something down in writing, lest it fade:

People keep talking about Grandma's "turtles." See, she used to make these quilt/pad things, colorful ovals about three feet across, and then sew four stuffed "flippers" and a turtle's head on to each one. Not a realistic head, of course; that would be scary. Brightly colored, cartoonish, friendly. People would lay the turtle out on the floor for their baby to sit, crawl, play, or nap on. Kids liked 'em, parents liked that the kids liked them. Grandma made them for friends and family who were expecting, and she also used to sell them at the Senior Citizens' Craft Center in Clearwater.
The turtles had two brief moments of fame. In 1982, when Diana the Princess of Wales gave birth to her first son, and in 1988 when a daughter was born to Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York, Grandma sent them turtles for the new babies. In each case she received thank-you notes from ladies-in-waiting to the Duchess & Princess. She kept the notes; my aunt & uncle showed them to us before the funeral. Our local paper also did a story about it at the time. Mostly, though, the recipients were just ordinary families.

We miss Grandma already, very much. I was cheered just a little bit, though, by the reminder that her handiwork is brightening children's days all around the world.

Using his skills to pay their bills

2010-01-20T21:26:00.005-05:00

I know you've all received appeals to give aid to Haiti, but I wanted to bring one particular fundraising effort to your attention. Graphic designer Mike Fretto, who has designed some wonderful book covers for the press where I work, has teamed up with his dad to produce some beautiful T-shirts, the profits from which will all go to aid Partners in Health, who are even now treating Haitian patients in field hospitals. A very creative use of the Frettos' talents for a good cause. The shirts themselves are high-quality American Apparel, and shipping is free, i believe. Please check them out!

the history of actual places

2009-12-14T09:44:00.003-05:00

Susan Wise Bauer's The History of the Medieval World, part 2 of a world history series, is due out in February, and the early reviews are starting to come in. Publishers Weekly just posted one that was quite favorable:

The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade Susan Wise Bauer. Norton, $35 (640p) ISBN 978-0-393-05975-5

Bauer (The History of the Ancient World) continues her witty and well-written examination of world history with a volume that is rich in detail and intriguing in anecdotal information. In describing dramatic events (such as the worldwide –impact of the eruption of Krakatoa in 535 C.E., or civil war among the descendants of Charlemagne), near-legendary individuals (like the great general turned mercenary El Cid), and decisive historical movements from the fourth century C.E. to the beginnings of the 12th century, attention is effectively paid not only to western and eastern Europe but to North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Far East, South Asia, and the Americas. The political and military rise and fall of rulers or would-be rulers and the prominence of religion in matters of conscience and state give force and power to the narrative as does the constant impact of simple human emotion and ambition on the flow of history. A bit overwhelming in its scope, Bauer’s work nevertheless proves perfectly, and entertainingly, that the “more things change, the more they stay the same.” 20 illus., 85 maps. (Feb.)

I was one of the proofreaders for this book, and I heartily concur with PW's assessment of the quality of the writing. I'd like to add something, too: you see that little number at the end of PW's review: "85 maps"? That should actually say "100 maps"...PW made a mistake there. But whether it's 85 or 100, that amount of maps is a big deal.
Susan, working with artist Sarah Park, created 100 maps for this book to ensure that readers can quickly identify where they are, in the swirl of medieval kingdoms & empires. So many history books go for the cheap option: 3 maps at the beginning, and then we're off into a million place-names that the reader doesn't recognize, leaving history floating in the air instead of grounded in terrain. For instance, John Keegan's The First World War, stuffed with references to places from Belgium to Baghdad, only contains 17 maps.
In this book, the reader is never more than a couple of pages from a map specially drawn to depict the places & events of the chapter he is reading. It took lots of extra time, effort, and expense on SWB's and Sarah Park's part, but it's so, so worth it.
Go pre-order a copy now!

...and she's beautiful, too.

2009-10-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

Another year of surprising me with wit, grace, wisdom, and ninja cooking skills. Another year of forgiving me when I've been a fool. Another year of praying, listening, and working overtime for the people of her congregation.
But she never loses sight of the real heroes, like Kermit.
Happy birthday, Mel!

.3 of a Century isn't very old

2009-10-26T08:38:00.002-04:00

Wonderful birthday weekend:
--Friday night, Sushi and "Where the Wild things are" with Mel. Good food, good movie; thought that was the end of it.
--Saturday morning, Mel suggests breakfast at the Five Forks Cafe. Innocently, i accompany her there, only to find two old friends from out of town, James and Eric, waiting for us. Surprise! So we breakfast, and then i accompany them to the WM Homecoming Game, in which we trounce JMU. Go Tribe.
--Butwaitthere'smore: because when i returned home with them, I found that Mattias and Mark were waiting at my house to surprise me further. Huzzah! And here's where it got really tricky: because they started talking about birthdays past, and steered the conversation to the chicken suit that my friend/boss Pete gave me last year. "Oh, some of us haven't seen that suit. Try it on and we'll get a picture of you in it," they said, as if on the spur of the moment. Foolishly, i complied, but while photos were being taken, Pete pulled up in his van and they carried me to it, still in the suit. Away we all went to the Green Leafe....
---Where Charlie, Dave, Armistead, and Mike met us for dinner. Got some truly odd looks in the suit, and in the bathroom was the target of some hilariously obscene jokes from a drunk guy who then said, "So what do you do?"
"Oh, i'm a pastor."
"Oh, i'm so sorry, Father! But you do look ------- funny in that suit!"
---Had a great time at dinner, and stopped by a Chick-fil-A on the way back, still in the suit, because these opportunities don't come very often. I asked them if they served anything but chicken, and feigned a horrified/indignant response when i realized the chick-i-cidal nature of their "family restaurant." The manager was amused until i began to suggest that the patrons take their business to a not-so-fowl establishment, at which point he (understandably) ran out of patience, and we left.
--Back to Pete's house, where I demonstrated my lack of prowess on Guitar Hero.
A wonderful weekend, and sneakily orchestrated by Mel, Charlie, Peter, et al. Thanks!! My hat is off to you and your slick deceptions! I feel lucky to have friends such as these. And strangely unembarrassed about the whole chicken thing. Now i'm going to eat leftover pieces of Mel's AWESOME carrot cake for breakfast.

P.S. Yes, there's photo and video of all this, but i'm not posting it here. Other people are doing a great job of that already. It's not that hard to find.

The Law of Freedom

2009-10-21T17:22:00.002-04:00

Exciting! My copy of Dr. Dan McCartney's brand-new commentary on James has arrived! Many of us have been waiting for this book for a long time. Dan McCartney, who taught New Testament at WTS for many years and who is now Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Redeemer Seminary in Texas, is an excellent teacher, a careful exegete (he ought to be: he did the revision of Machen's Greek textbook, after all), and a model of "pastoral scholarship." I've not read through the commentary yet, but hope to do so soon. I'm seeing some very useful things just from my brief skim-through so far.

'Til the Dawning of the Day

2009-09-11T13:57:00.001-04:00

For September 11^th: “The Dawning of the Day,” a traditional Irish tune given new lyrics in 2002 by Mary Fahl, for the play-based movie The Guys (about a writer who helps a FDNY fireman write eulogies for all his men killed in the 9/11 attacks). Lyrics are below, but it’s much better to listen to Ms. Fahl perform it. Here’s the only audio I could find, which sets the song to a video of clips & images from September 11^th, but it’s not necessary to watch the video if you’d rather focus on the beautiful song & lyrics.

This morning early I walked on
while my darling was in a dream
The last sweet days of summer bloomed
and dressed the trees in green
Then soaring high in the gleaming sky
from far across the bay
came a fearsome roar from a distant shore
at the dawning of the day.

Then I called my men to follow me
knowing well that the view was dim
Though tired and worn, how they fought all morn'
as time was closing in
And my heart was sad though sore with pride
for brave lads all were they
As the angels fly, how they climbed so high
at the dawning of the day.

But the edge is moving nearer now
inside the fading sun
and calling, calling out to them
my brothers, one by one
But only dusty silence sounds
The ashes float away
as the twilight ends and the night descends
'til the dawning of the day

Forgive me love, I'm going now
so very far away
When darkness falls, only think me near
and do not be afraid
And please don't grieve when I am gone
Abide in what remains
'til the shadows end and we meet again
at the dawning of the day.

For when shadows end, we shall meet again, at the dawning of the day.

Guilty as charged...

2009-08-26T16:56:00.004-04:00

Oh, I have definitely been guilty of the "pseudo-prayer" described below when leading a church service. Don't try to impress people with your praying, or to (not so subtly) preach at them during the prayer. And don't pray aloud(as i once saw being done), "And Lord, we ask that some of us, like the girls in the back row, would stop giggling and be more respectful." No matter how much you want to.

"Prayer should not have another purpose than to speak with God...prayer as a demonstration [to listeners] of one’s own faith, as a disguised sermon, prayer as a didactic preparation of the listener for the sermon or as a summarizing resume of the content of the sermon, prayer as an instrument of edification for other people, is obviously not prayer at all. Prayer is not prayer if it is addressed to anyone else but God."
--Ulrich Luz, "A Commentary on Matthew chapters 1-7," quoting Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics III.4,88

Truth filtered through personality

2009-07-14T15:20:00.004-04:00

Ben Arment seeks to help preachers out, with his post "Ten Ways to Improve Your Preaching by at least 20%."
I particularly liked point #8: "If you were an animal preaching -- hang with me here -- what kind of animal would you be? Now... do people typically shoot that kind of animal?"

The tomato, the deer, and the Big Mac

2009-07-07T12:02:00.005-04:00

Mel and I have always enjoyed food together. Eating out, cooking at home (mel as chef, me as sous-chef and dishwasher), having friends over for dinner, whatever. We also enjoy thinking about why we buy, grow, and eat the things we do...especially since moving to the country, where Mel has revealed a talent for vegetable gardening (95 percent of last night's dinner was grown in our garden or our neighbor's), and where the neighbors are initiating me into the lore of deer hunting (meat doesn't get much more local than "the deer that just ate our soybean crop!").

Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" gave us LOTS to think/talk about in this regard, and was a fun read to boot. I was going to post a review/summary of it, but Joel Garver did a better job than i can. Read his review here, and a much longer philosophical reflection on some issues raised by it (Garver is a philosophy prof, after all) here.

Both Garver's posts and the book are highly recommended.

A thing of beauty

2009-06-05T22:07:00.003-04:00

Usually, people only notice a proofreader's work when he makes a mistake. In that respect, proofreaders are like bodyguards, safety inspectors, and others whose work is spotlighted more often for its failures than for its successes.
But I want to stop and pay tribute to the person (or more likely, persons) who proofread Lonesome Dove (20th anniversary Hardback edition). I was about halfway through this 864-page novel when I realized that I hadn't seen a misspelling, a typo, or a misplaced bit of punctuation anywhere. If I hadn't already had proofreading on the brain, i'd never have thought of it at all....which is the POINT of a proofreader's work. And it's typeset nicely too: wide pages with just the right amount of text. I was suddenly inspired to redouble my efforts at my own proofreading and copyediting work. I'd like to produce books that are so error-free that the reader will, as it were, meet the author face-to-face without the abominable Mr. Misspelling and Ms. Error interrupting the conversation, making rude noises and putting on distracting faces.

Reading for Memorial Day

2009-05-25T10:58:00.002-04:00

A few books that would be appropriate to read, or to begin reading, on Memorial Day:

Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels. Won the Pulitzer Prize, and continues to win readers even among those who don't much care about the Civil War or war stories. Beautifully done, and far superior to Shaara's son's imitative series of historical novels.
Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier. Not so much a "war novel" as a story about war's effect on two women and on the man they both love. Lovely and sad.
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried.

Poetry Month: What Girls' Fathers are Really Thinking

2009-04-14T11:50:00.001-04:00

Song To Be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children by Ogden Nash

My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky; Contrariwise, my blood runs cold When little boys go by. For little boys as little boys, No special hate I carry, But now and then they grow to men, And when they do, they marry. No matter how they tarry, Eventually they marry. And, swine among the pearls, They marry little girls. Oh, somewhere, somewhere, an infant plays, With parents who feed and clothe him. Their lips are sticky with pride and praise, But I have begun to loathe him. Yes, I loathe with loathing shameless This child who to me is nameless. This bachelor child in his carriage Gives never a thought to marriage, But a person can hardly say knife Before he will hunt him a wife. I never see an infant (male), A-sleeping in the sun, Without I turn a trifle pale And think is he the one? Oh, first he'll want to crop his curls, And then he'll want a pony, And then he'll think of pretty girls, And holy matrimony. A cat without a mouse Is he without a spouse. Oh, somewhere he bubbles bubbles of milk, And quietly sucks his thumbs. His cheeks are roses painted on silk, And his teeth are tucked in his gums. But alas the teeth will begin to grow, And the bubbles will cease to bubble; Given a score of years or so, The roses will turn to stubble. He'll sell a bond, or he'll write a book, And his eyes will get that acquisitive look, And raging and ravenous for the kill, He'll boldly ask for the hand of Jill. This infant whose middle Is diapered still Will want to marry my daughter Jill. Oh sweet be his slumber and moist his middle! My dreams, I fear, are infanticiddle. A fig for embryo Lohengrins! I'll open all his safety pins, I'll pepper his powder, and salt his bottle, And give him readings from Aristotle. Sand for his spinach I'll gladly bring, And Tabasco sauce for his teething ring. Then perhaps he'll struggle through fire and water To marry somebody else's daughter.

Poetry Month: Seven Stanzas at Easter

2009-04-11T20:56:00.002-04:00

By John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

Poetry Month: The Heaven of Animals

2009-04-10T10:02:00.003-04:00

April is National Poetry Month, or something like that, so once again this year I'll post a few.

The Heaven of Animals

BY jAMES dICKEY

Here they are. The soft eyes open.

If they have lived in a wood

It is a wood.

If they have lived on plains

It is grass rolling

Under their feet forever.

Having no souls, they have come,

Anyway, beyond their knowing.

Their instincts wholly bloom

And they rise.

The soft eyes open.

To match them, the landscape flowers,

Outdoing, desperately

Outdoing what is required:

The richest wood,

The deepest field.

For some of these,

It could not be the place

It is, without blood.

These hunt, as they have done,

But with claws and teeth grown perfect,

More deadly than they can believe.

They stalk more silently,

And crouch on the limbs of trees,

And their descent

Upon the bright backs of their prey

May take years

In a sovereign floating of joy.

And those that are hunted

Know this as their life,

Their reward: to walk

Under such trees in full knowledge

Of what is in glory above them,

And to feel no fear,

But acceptance, compliance.

Fulfilling themselves without pain

At the cycle’s center,

They tremble, they walk

Under the tree,

They fall, they are torn,

They rise, they walk again.

I Love Dorothy Parker

2009-04-07T11:42:00.002-04:00

Best...book review...ever:

Dorothy Parker reviews Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged: “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”

This Post (probably) Isn't About You

2009-03-16T13:35:00.003-04:00

On a whim last week I started re-reading a book I'd had for a while, but had never finished. Marshall Shelley's Well-Intentioned Dragons: Ministering to Problem People in the Church is a helpful little book for anyone who's involved in church work. Primarily it consists of case studies, some hair-raising stories from ministries around the nation, and assessments of what could have been done better when working with the "well-intentioned dragons" of the title.
A few varieties of dragons from his menagerie:
--the Wet Blanket: this person's constant refrain is "it's no use trying that," or "we tried it ten years ago and it didn't work," etc.
--the Bird Dog: this person is very eager to point out problems or needs in the church, but has no interest in helping to fix those problems or meet those needs himself (like a bird-dog, who is good at spotting the prey but of course cannot shoot it)
--the Fickle Financier: stops contributing money to the church if he/she disapproves of any decision, large or small...uses money as a weapon, especially if he or she is a major contributor to the church
--the Sniper: picks off pastors in private conversations with others ("Be sure and pray for our pastor...he has some problems, you know....")

The list goes on...Shelley realizes that we're tempted to think solely of OTHER PEOPLE in this, so he points out that we ourselves may be these "dragons" at the same time as we think we're guarding the congregation against dragons.
Shelley has lots of practical wisdom for working with people like these. But he includes, early on, a very useful reminder for when one is in the heat of conflict, or when one is tempted to "win" by "defeating" problem people:
"The rest of this book deals with various kinds of dragons, their tactics, and the ways to handle them. But from the beginning a premise stands clear: the goal in handling dragons is not to destroy them, not merely to disassociate, but to make them disciples. Even when that seems an unlikely prospect" (p. 34).
As I hinted in the post's title, I'm not "aiming" this post at anyone specifically, nor am I reading this book because I'm currently surrounded by "troublemakers." I'm reading it, rather, as preventative medicine.
I think Amazon Used has the book for 4 or 5 dollars; if you work in a church or ministry setting, you might want to pick up a copy.

Not the other guy, but me

2009-02-26T11:25:00.003-05:00

Liberty Baptist Church, down the road from us, invited the people from our church to join them for an Ash Wednesday service. Mel, Pete, and I went last night, along with several others from our congregation, and I'm glad we did. One of the first songs in the service was the old gospel number, "Standing in the Need of Prayer." It struck me at first as a little cheesy, and it is a little cheesy, but I was suddenly humbled by how it strips away all of our finger-pointing and Pharisee-ism in order to leave us bare before God:
"Not my brother or my sister, but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer...
Not the preacher nor the deacon but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer...
Not the thief, not the liar, but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer..."

Amen.

These Go to Eleven

2009-02-05T09:22:00.002-05:00

John Stackhouse has a memo that all church musicians should read. I agree with his points, drummer though I am. At no point should these guys become our models for musicianship.

We love you drop your guns

2009-01-11T18:32:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Mel and I saw a movie at the Kimball Theatre, Williamsburg's version of an art-house. We didn't know a lot about the film, going in; I had read about it somewhere online and thought Mel would like it.
I am so glad we went. We emerged an hour and half later, awed, inspired, and reaching for words that could describe the experience without cliches.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is an amazing documentary about Christian and Muslim women in Liberia, who came together in order to stop a horrific civil war. I don't want to say too much about what they did, so as not to ruin the story, but suffice it to say that these are some incredibly brave ladies.
If it's playing anywhere near you, go see it right now. If it's not, put it on your Netflix queue, or ask your library to buy a copy of the DVD.
Catch the trailer on Youtube here, or visit the official site here. (I should note: The film is not rated, but contains some brief disturbing images of war victims, and at least two retold stories of atrocities. However, I don't see how they could have told this story without including at least some of the brutality the women were trying to stop.)

Home again, home again

2009-01-06T20:51:00.004-05:00

Back from an amazing trip to Guatemala. Mel has put up several blog posts with lots of captioned pictures, which you can read in order:
1. Guatemala!
2. Guatemala - Day Two
3. Guatemala Part Three (How Paint Fumes Lead to Partying)
4. Guatemala Part Four: Mayan Villages and Chicken Buses
5. Guatemala Part Five: COFFEE
6. Guatemala Part Six: The Other Side (or, Christmas Eve at the Malnutrition Center)
7. Guatemala, the Final Installment (at Christmas, people from some cultures sing "silent night" and go to bed early; people from some other cultures blow things up at midnight. Confusion ensues.)

Guatemala

2008-12-19T18:45:00.002-05:00

We're in Guatemala with my parents, visiting my sister and her family for Christmas. They work at Iglesia del Camino in Antigua, Guatemala. IDC is a wonderful church which, besides holding worship services and Bible studies, also assists a local malnutrition center. You can read more about the church at www.iglesiadelcaminogt.com, or read more about my sister's new life as a missionary at http://ottofamilyadventure.blogspot.com/.
Mel, who is much better with photo-editing, etc, than i am, has put up some lovely pics here. And yes, that's me playing the bongos at a Wednesday night church service. I'm not really sure how that happened. the drums were there, and i was there...

A poem for Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T11:30:00.000-05:00

Te Deum
by Charles Reznikoff

Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.

Not for victory
but for the day’s work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.

....and we're back!

2008-09-26T12:35:00.002-04:00

Last week I mentioned that my laptop had suddenly gone comatose. But then this past Tuesday, as I was preparing to send it to a friend who might be able to recover some of the data, I thought, "why not try it just once more?" and pushed the power button. Whaddya know, it started right up and has been fine since.
I'm glad to have it back, but of course it will have to behave for quite a while in order to regain my full trust.

the black screen of death

2008-09-17T07:33:00.002-04:00

My laptop has died. Or at least has entered a very deep coma with no hopeful prognosis. This sort of thing does not help my already-shaky relationship to computers. It's mostly me, i think...i don't actually know computers well, beyond surface applications, and I expect things out of them that they just can't give. Perfect consistency over years of service, for one.
The laptop's death has been, of course, hugely inconvenient (especially since I'm on a proofreading deadline for work...proofreading a grammar book, in case you were wondering, really is as thrilling as it sounds). But it's been a shock to realize how much time i was spending (wasting?) on the computer, mostly on the internet. I find myself doing more reading now, and am (somewhat) more attentive to what needs doing around the house. I'll have to get another computer, eventually, but i hope i can learn something from this enforced internet-fasting.

And Mel will be happy again because i'll stop stealing her laptop to check email.

Of PhD's and Smoke-Screens

2008-08-08T09:19:00.004-04:00

The Westminster administration has released some statements and reflections on the seminary's recent controversies and battles. These documents reveal some new information, and I do appreciate that. I'm glad that the seminary is reflecting on what it has recently gone through...but my goodness, there's also a WHOLE lot of spin going on here.
One particularly egregious example caught my eye: in this document, the VP for academic affairs (Dr. Trueman) discusses the pressure on WTS to have professors with PhD's in order to be accredited. He strongly implies that certain recent departures (Steve Taylor, perhaps?) were made necessary not for theological or personal reasons but only in order to fulfill accreditation requirements and to secure WTS' status as an academically respectable institution. He says things like this:
"That seminaries have typically had lower standards on this matter and
employed faculty who have spent many fruitless years on doctoral
programs has not served them well but has rather compromised their
academic integrity."

Just a quick reminder, in case anyone had forgotten:
Professor Al Groves never got a PhD. Neither did John Murray or John Frame. And we all know how much those men compromised the academic integrity of WTS.
As far as I can tell, these current and former WTS professors were hired years before they completed a PhD, ThD or equivalent...some never did. If they had been asked to leave, would we have had much of a faculty left?

Poythress [he had a PhD in an unrelated field and didn't do a ThD until later]
Oliphint
Leonard
Gaffin
Green
Edgar
McCartney
Murray
Groves
Frame

Are we supposed to believe that if accreditation standards hadn't been so "lax" in earlier years, these men wouldn't have been able to teach at WTS? If Westminster's academic integrity has been so compromised, why have recent graduates been accepted to doctoral programs at Harvard, Yale, Duke, Oxford, Cambridge, Notre Dame, Brown, U.Chicago, U. Michigan, Columbia, Saint Andrews, and William & Mary, just to name a few?
What "weakened" the seminary's academic credentials more: the laxity that allowed these professors to teach, or, perhaps, the forced departure of Pete Enns, one of the most highly qualified men on the faculty (Harvard PhD, numerous publications)? Why the reluctance to admit that theological issues may have had something to do with Taylor's departure?

Who in the World...?

2008-08-02T09:44:00.003-04:00

Half of my work-week is spent at Peace Hill Press, helping to create quality educational materials (especially in the fields of history, grammar, reading, and composition). I wear lots of hats there: sometimes a fact-checker for history textbooks, sometimes proofreading composition books, and sometimes overseeing some new products. Two of those new products were released this past week: audio versions of some junior-level biographies we had released earlier.
So...yeah...these are my first audiobooks: Who in the World Was the Secretive Printer? The Story of Johannes Gutenberg, and Who in the World Was the Unready King? The Story of Ethelred. They're also available on Amazon, if you want to give your money to the Internet Behemoth instead of a brave little family business. :)
Next up: The Acrobatic Empress and The Forgotten Explorer. I love being a history nerd.

The Parting of the Ways

2008-07-23T10:30:00.002-04:00

Westminster Theological Seminary and Dr. Peter Enns released a joint statement today. You can read the text at the WTS site or at Enns's site.

Other than announcing that Enns will be leaving Westminster immediately, the announcement doesn't include a lot of new info. WTS says that Peter's teaching is within the purview of Evangelical thought (nothing is said about Reformed or Westminster-ish thought) and Enns says that the WTS leadership has the responsibility to stick with their confessional commitments.

All true, of course, though the obvious question "does the teaching and writing of Peter Enns fit within those confessional/Reformed parameters?" remains a live one.

I'm sad, though not shocked, at this outcome. I believe WTS has pushed out a professor who represented some of the best of what Westminster offers. If you are a praying person, please pray for healing, charity, and wisdom for all those involved in this domestic dispute within Christ's household.

Enns Responds to Critics

2008-06-04T15:34:00.002-04:00

Those of you who've wondered if Peter Enns had any response to recent criticisms (from fellow Westminster faculty) of his book Inspiration and Incarnation should check out the new series he's begun on his website; it's called "Some Reflections on I&I and the Reformed Tradition," and it's a modified version of a paper he submitted to the Westminster faculty/board earlier this year. Go to http://peterennsonline.com/ii/ to read the various sections of the response (as of June 4th, two parts are up).
Having read what Enns has put up so far (and his other responses in print forums), I'm impressed with his willingness to clarify or even modify some of the points that he made in the book, and also with how he deftly dismantles some of the accusations which have been made against him.

Save Our Money

2008-04-28T13:25:00.003-04:00

Taking a break from Westminster updates, at least for one post: I've got something happier to tell you about.

First, you should know that I'm not very good at sticking with resolutions, and I'm not much good at making and keeping a budget. Mel's better at budgeting, but not perfect. We know that we SHOULD do it, and that it would help us save money or to spend what we do have more wisely, but it usually seems too intimidating, or time-consuming, or just too much of a hassle. So we've sort of been hit-or-miss about our budgeting, knowing generally what we have and generally what we're spending, and that fuzziness has probably cost us more than we'd like to admit.

...Which explains just how thrilled I've been with a new program called Pearbudget. The whole point of Pearbudget, as its friendly website will tell you, is "Really Simple Budgeting." It's the most intuitive computer program i've ever had the pleasure--yes, pleasure--of interacting with.
Mel and I have been using it for a couple of months now, and already it's saved us money and changed the way we think about our finances. Mostly it's made the process smoother, easier, and less scary. But in addition, because it involves inputting your receipts at the end of each month, it's made us more thoughtful about our spending...especially on items that don't seem like much at the time ("whoa, did we REALLY spend that much on soda this month?" "What in the world is 'ten dollars for breath mint expenses'?" etc).

And Pearbudget only costs 3 dollars a month. Three dollars. I bet it'll save you more than that in the first month you're using it. Try out their 30-day free trial and see. If you don't want to take my word for it, peruse the testimonials on their front page, or read some of the rave reviews it's getting from financial bloggers like Squawkfox: (she says that Pearbudget's simplicity and money-saving ability are "sexy," which wasn't the adjective that first leaped to MY mind, but whatever).

Full disclosure: I know the folks who invented Pearbudget, but they haven't asked me to post this. The service has been quite helpful to us, and the fact that it's run by friends is a nice bonus.

Heroes, and Hard Questions

2008-04-03T18:35:00.003-04:00

He wouldn't want such a title, I'm sure, but Dr. Dan McCartney of WTS is one of my new heroes, after the amazing sermon he preached at chapel there yesterday (April 2). Take a few minutes to listen to it, and ponder not only its challenge for us to follow Jesus' way of sacrificial leadership, but also its bold timeliness, given the recent goings-on at Westminster.

In other news, Mel has gone into barracks-lawyer mode and has posted some hard questions for the WTS leadership, regarding inconsistencies between the Enns suspension and the way that the ByLaws and Handbook call for such things to be done. If "due process" is indeed to be followed, these questions deserve good answers.

Update: Board decision announced at WTS

2008-03-27T18:02:00.002-04:00

The following announcement was released today, via email to the WTS community. I'll just quote it in full:

March 27, 2008

Thank you very much for your prayers for the special meeting of the Board of Trustees that was held on March 26 to address the disunity of the faculty regarding the theological issues related to Dr. Peter Enns’ book, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. After a full day of deliberation, the Board of Trustees took the following action by decisive vote:

“That for the good of the Seminary (Faculty Manual II.4.C.4) Professor Peter Enns be suspended at the close of this school year, that is May 23, 2008 (Constitution Article III, Section 15), and that the Institutional Personnel Committee (IPC) recommend the appropriate process for the Board to consider whether Professor Enns should be terminated from his employment at the Seminary. Further that the IPC present their recommendations to the Board at its meeting in May 2008.”

In order to provide the entire Westminster community with a more complete understanding of the Board’s decision and to offer an opportunity for questions and dialogue, the Chairman and Secretary of the Board will join the President on campus for a special chapel on Tuesday, April 1 at 10:30 am. Students and staff are encouraged to attend and participate. Following that special chapel, they will hold a separate meeting with the faculty.

Our concern is to honor the Lord Jesus Christ and assure a faithful witness for Westminster for years to come. To that end, please pray for everyone involved during the next two months.

Jack White

Chairman of the Board

Please Pray

2008-03-26T12:24:00.002-04:00

For those who have been following the current events at Westminster Seminary: today is an important meeting of the seminary's Board. The Board will be hearing about, and working through, some tough issues in this meeting and in their May meeting. These people have a great responsibility, and we should all be praying that they'll have all the wisdom, patience, and charity that they need in these hard times.
I know it's easy to say "I'll pray," and then forget to do it, so please take a minute now or soon and pray for the seminary community and for the Board meeting.

Thank you.

Upcoming Student-Led Demonstration at WTS

2008-03-18T19:59:00.005-04:00

I recently heard about an event that's been called for next Tuesday, the 25th, on the WTS campus. I can't be there, but I believe that it's something worth supporting. I'll reprint the announcement here, so the organizers can tell you about it in their own well-chosen words. Be sure to read their purpose statement and their guidelines.

The Orthodoxy of Dr. Peter Enns: A Public Student Demonstration Recognizing the 12-8 Majority Faculty Vote in Favor of the Orthodoxy of Dr. Enns’ Teaching and of His Book, Inspiration and Incarnation.

Date: Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Location: The Campus of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
Time: 10am
Invited: All Students, Alumni and Friends of Westminster who agree with the 12-8 faculty vote in favor of Dr. Peter Enns’ orthodoxy and can participate in a show of solidarity for this decision.

The Event: A Public Presence and Proclamation of Dr. Enns’ Recognized Orthodoxy
The Purpose: To inform any students or others not aware of this faculty decision of its existence and attest to its importance by means of a personal, public testimony.

Background, Call and Responsible Parties:
Drew Matter and Allen Drew are fourth year MDiv students at Westminster Theological Seminary. The following call that we are issuing has not been solicited by any member of the faculty, staff, or board of Westminster. It is being pursued after months of deliberation, prayer, and seeking the wisdom of our elders in the faith. Behind us stand an unknown number of students and alumni, and it is with them and for them, and the classes of students who will follow us, that we make this statement.

It is our conviction that on both sides of the current debate at Westminster Theological Seminary stand godly men who, despite their differences, deeply desire to honor both the Lord Jesus and the students for whom they have taken vows to train for service in his church. These men are our beloved professors, and from our experience in their classes we know that they hold their convictions with great depth of study and much prayer.
They are men who do not ultimately desire division at Westminster, but whose convictions at the moment run deeper than their desire for unity. As students, we acknowledge that those tensions run deeper than we understand, but they have had a tangible effect on us as students. By gathering together, we do not desire to further conflict between faculty, nor between them and us as students.
The administration and faculty of Westminster have assured students with great patience and understanding that there is no desire to silence students, nor to keep us uninformed concerning this division. This we must trust. Nonetheless, students are at times inhibited for many reasons from knowing what would actually be helpful for us as developing pastors, counselors, and academics. It is our conviction that the fact that the teaching and writings of Dr. Enns was approved of in December 2007 by a 12-8 majority of our faculty is crucial to our theological development. For by this vote, the faculty, as a whole, have affirmed that the current tensions at our seminary are not simply the result of his teaching.
Our fellow students, we need to know this and we need to make this known, both for ourselves and for all who consider the future of our seminary. We are therefore gathering on Tuesday, March 25th at 10am on Westminster’s campus to hear this motion read and to recognize it. This gathering will be surrounded by scripture and prayer.
We are fully aware of the limited knowledge of students at the seminary, as well as the tendency to ungodly speculation and emotionalism that threatens any onlookers who attempt to make sense of the current divisions. Speculations and personal preferences have only distorted our convictions and forced us to inappropriately dissociate what should be a melding of theological concepts. Practically, such guess work has led only to the working out of wisdom that James 3:15 tells us is “earthly, unspiritual, demonic (ESV).”
Therefore, the following are required of anyone desiring to participate in this demonstration:
1/. There will be no statements made concerning information that has not been made public by the seminary.
2/. There will be no statements made that could be easily construed as slanderous or retributive toward any person.
3/. There will be no actions taken on seminary grounds that could be easily construed as outside of the bounds of a normal, civic presence conducted coram deo.
4/. The statements to be made will concern the 12-8 vote of the faculty (with moderator abstaining) on the “Edgar/Kelly motion” which affirmed that Dr. Enns’ book Inspiration & Incarnation is consistent with the Confessional stance of the seminary, that it is in line with the historical trajectory of the seminary, and that an “incarnational analogy” is one that has been used by a long line of orthodox, Reformed scholars to describe the essence of Scripture.
5/. Anyone desiring specifics concerning the “Edgar/Kelly motion” should not rely on hearsay but request this public document from any member of the Westminster faculty either by email or in person. The faculty have been authorized to provide this document to anyone who requests it, and we encourage you to read it.
If you can subscribe to these stipulations, we eagerly urge you, whether student, alumnus, or friend of Westminster, to join us for this presence. Many of us are aware and ashamed of ungodly caricatures that have defiled Westminster’s name recently. If you cannot refrain from such expression, we ask—and will ask—you not to join us. We will be gathering to speak in the middle of Westminster’s campus, for all to see; may they witness a gathering conducted in a manner worthy of our Lord.

It was Geerhardus Vos’ conviction that "…the ultimate is in a very important sense the normative, that to which every preceding stage will have to conform itself to prove the genuineness of its Christian character” (The Pauline Eschatology, 42). We agree with Vos here to our very core. Accordingly, this demonstration is out of the desire to conform the difficulties of Westminster in this broken, sinful age to the completeness of the Kingdom of God that has come, and is coming. Our cautious hope is that our Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward Westminster as He alone sees fit.

An Update on the Situation at WTS

2008-03-13T14:45:00.002-04:00

Update, March 13th, 2008

I know that some of my readers have felt that saveourseminary.com was based on rumors or exaggerated fears. Well, it turns out that my fears were actually UNDERestimating the urgency of the situation at WTS. Some new developments have now been made public (these can be confirmed by inquiring with the faculty, who are now at liberty to speak to inquiring parties about this particular event/issue). Read on, for all the depressing details:

This past weekend, President Lillback of Westminster Theological Seminary sent a 200-page message to faculty at WTS. This is coming just before a board meeting in which Lillback will attempt to persuade the board to ignore what the faculty have already voted on (read on for more information on that) and to fire Pete Enns. This document includes only negative reviews of Enns’ book (positive reviews from respected scholars such as Tremper Longman III, M. Daniel Carroll Rodas, Joel Garver, Christopher Heard and John Armstrong [the list goes on] were noticeably absent), as well as a journal article by Lillback himself in which he attempts to prove that Enns’ book is outside of the bounds of the Westminster Confession of Faith and that Enns is the source of disunity at WTS. President Lillback presented this motion after the faculty voted last year 12-8 that Pete’s book was inside his confessional vows. (One faculty member abstained from voting, because he was the faculty moderator.)

In other words, this disagreement had already been settled in faculty votes, with the majority of faculty concluding that Pete is orthodox and his book is not outside the bounds of WCF. But Dr. Lillback is continuing to pursue this issue and attempting to push Pete Enns out.

Please consider signing the petition or writing the board to express your concern at these events. the petition will be mailed to the board before the Mar 26th board meeting. Please forward this to anyone you know who would not like to see Pete Enns kicked out of WTS, or who doesn’t want WTS to lose its long-held status as a faculty-led seminary by bowing to the pressure of one man (or at best a small minority).

Fiction drought

2008-02-27T11:29:00.002-05:00

No matter what else I'm up to, or what non-fiction I'm reading (currently: Consider the Lobster And Other Essays), I like to be going through at least one good novel at any given time. I enjoy "decompressing" from the day before bed, with some fiction (lately, Mel's been using Sudoku for the same purpose...but I'm scared of it...numbers make my head hurt). Well-written prose is a pleasure to read, and it also helps me, as a sometime preacher, to develop an "ear" for sharp language and narrative.

But the past several novels I've tried have been disappointing. I don't know if I haven't been in the right frame of mind, or if I've just been unlucky in my picks. Kingsolver's "Prodigal Summer" was ok but preachy. Lee Jackson's "Redemption" started out with a cool, near-future premise about a fugitive trying to hide from an out-of-control Homeland Security department, but then swerved into lame cliches, cardboard characters, and silly villains. There were a couple of others but I can't even remember them. I retreated back to the dependable John Le Carre, who once again did not disappoint me (A Small Town in Germany is now a bit dated, but the characters kept me interested, and the plot twist still works). But he's sort of a known quantity, a cop-out. I'd like to try somebody who's new to me.
So: any fiction suggestions? I don't care if it's old or new, any genre or subject matter. But it's got to have three-dimensional characters, well-crafted sentences, and some sort of plot that holds together. That's not too much to ask, is it? Oh, and i should add that if I don't like the book, i won't hold it against you personally...this stuff can be pretty subjective.
I look forward to hearing your suggestions!

For the Love of My School

2008-01-17T17:02:00.000-05:00

Hi all...
After trying several other avenues of action, I have written a petition/expression of concern regarding some disturbing recent trends at my seminary. If you are a Westminster alumnus, or are otherwise connected with the school, please check out saveourseminary.com and consider signing the document. If you don't know what Westminster is, no need to go read something that will probably only depress you.

I hope to post on happier things soon.

UPDATE: for those of you who are curious about this Vision Forum organization I criticize in the document, you can check them out at visionforum.com (be sure to browse their store) and visionforum.org.

Not that Elvis, the other Elvis

2008-01-16T12:48:00.000-05:00

The lyrics are wonderful by themselves, but do yourself a favor and go catch a performance too.

As I walk through this wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity,
I ask myself: Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside, there's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny about peace, love, & understanding? Oh, What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

And as I walk on through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony.
'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, it just makes me wanna cry
What's so funny about peace love & understanding?
Oh, What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

Well, it's good to have that cleared up.

2008-01-10T22:51:00.000-05:00

From the website the-end.com:

"From now until the latter part of 2008, many prophecies are going to begin to be fulfilled, especially the Seven Thunders of the Book of Revelation, which the apostle John saw but was restricted from recording. Those thunders are revealed in this book, as well as detailed accounts of the final three and one-half years of man's self-rule on earth, which are recorded in the account of the Seventh Seal of Revelation."

"Some of these prophecies concern the demise of the United States over the next year, which will be followed by man's final world war. This last war will be the result of clashing religions and the governments they sway. Billions will die! This time will far exceed even the very worst times in all human history."

"As these events unfold, the world will increasingly become aware of the authenticity of the words in this book and realize that Ronald Weinland has been sent by God as His end-time prophet.This book is primarily directed to the people of the three major religions of the world (Islam, Judaism and Christianity), whose roots are in the God of Abraham. Ronald Weinland has been sent to all three."

Some thoughts on this:

1. Since the United States, apparently, won't survive 2008, I don't have to decide who to vote for in the upcoming primary elections. Now I don't have to slog through any more election coverage on CNN or NPR.

2. I should also find out if our 401(k) fund includes any U.S. Treasury bonds...it may be time to pull out of those.

3. I like the modest scope of Weinland's calling. He's ONLY been sent to Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. A nice, small task.

4. It seems to me that someone, somewhere, told us something like: "at that time if someone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear...for as lightning appears in the east and is instantly visible in the west, so quick will the coming of the Son of Man be...no one knows the day or the hour...so you must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

But i guess that poor guy was wrong. Too bad no one explained to him about Ronald Weinland and his handy little book & website.

Good stuff online

2008-01-01T23:47:00.000-05:00

A happy New Year to all!

I'm pleased to announce that one of our favorite professors from seminary, Dr. Peter Enns, finally has a website where he can post book reviews, essays, and lectures on the Bible and following Christ in today's world, and where he can put up rants about how awesome the New York Yankees are. He's always worth reading.

Mosaic of the Nativity (Serbia, winter 1993)

2007-12-14T17:01:00.000-05:00

On the domed ceiling God
is thinking:
I made them my joy,
and everything else I created
I made to bless them.
But see what they do!
I know their hearts
and arguments:

"We're descended from
Cain. Evil is nothing new,
so what does it matter now
if we shell the infirmary,
and the well where the fearful
and rash alike must
come for water?"

God thinks Mary into being.
Suspended at the apogee
of the golden dome,
she curls in a brown pod,
and inside her the mind
of Christ, cloaked in blood,
lodges and begins to grow.

--Jane Kenyon

More on the SOA

2007-12-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

Follow-up to my post of a couple weeks back...some of you had asked for more information about the School of the Americas, particularly information from sources other than the (sometimes-shrill) SOA Watch folks.

Not everything that the SOA does is 100% bad, of course. They've trained Latin American officers in all kinds of useful skills that will help their countries. And it is also true that, under pressure from protesters and from Congress, the school has recently made changes. Problem, though: the new "human rights" classes are almost all OPTIONAL, while the counterinsurgency/interrogation/etc classes (85% of the curriculum) are NOT optional. Funny, eh?

Some of you have asked about the "a few bad apples" possibility. You're right that people can take anything to an extreme. There are bad apples in every barrel. I wish that were the case here. But hundreds of SOA graduates have been deeply implicated in murder and torture and all kinds of abuses. They've been convicted by local courts, by U.S. courts, by international courts. At some point we have to say, "maybe their training had something to do with this."....especially when some of them have testified that they learned all their methods at the SOA. If you want to see some of the manuals that were used at the SOA and in other training areas, you can read about them and even download them here:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB122/index.htm (that site is an independent, nonpartisan database sponsored by George Washington University. As you scroll down, notice that even when the Secretary of Defense--who is now our Vice President--and other high-ranking officials learned of the manuals, they made no changes).

One problem is that the SOA trains these officers to see people who speak against their governments in black/white, "enemy" terms. They're not trained to see much distinction between, say, a Marxist rebel terrorist and a newspaper editor who wants to bring land reform to a corrupt system. Both of them are treated as the enemy.

If you want more info from non-SOA Watch sources, check these out:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/july-dec99/sotamericas_9-21.html
This is a transcript of a PBS Newshour report...well worth reading. It gives the Army a chance to give their side of the story, it addresses the "a few bad apples" issue, and it includes testimony from former instructors at the school.

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/TrainingViolators.asp
That page features lots of good info, including quotations from Senators, Congressmen, and others who have tried to close the school.

!No Mas!

2007-11-17T12:54:00.000-05:00

What kind of school teaches torture, extortion, intimidation, and the squelching of free speech?

What kind of school trains its students how to target the poor and how to silence anyone who speaks for the poor?

What kind of school puts alumni who have become brutal dictators into its “Hall of Fame”?

What kind of school has graduates features graduates who have started wars, murdered priests, nuns, and children, overthrown democratic governments, earned fortunes through drug trafficking, and ruthlessly eliminated anyone who denounced them?

A Taliban training camp, perhaps? A North Korean covert-ops school?

No. It is the School of the Americas (recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). It’s located in Columbus, Georgia; it is run by the United States government, and your tax dollars are funding it right now.

Disgusted? Me too. And no amount of name-switching or cosmetic alterations will suffice to rehabilitate this place. It needs to go.

I’ll be posting more on this next week. But for now you can read details here, and can learn more about the school's curriculum here.

An eyebrow ring, Proverbs 19:14, and that smile...

2007-10-30T00:07:00.000-04:00

October 30th...Happy birthday to Mel!

"Sometimes hidden from me
in daily custom and in trust,
so that I live by you unaware
as by the beating of my heart,

suddenly you flare in my sight,
a wild rose blooming at the edge
of thicket, grace and light
where yesterday was only shade,

and once more I am blessed, choosing
again what I chose before."
--Wendell Berry, 1994.

Micro-updates

2007-10-26T21:09:00.000-04:00

It's been a while, so a few notes about recent events around here:

For those of you who haven’t heard, I spent last week in St. Petersburg, Florida with my family, helping my dad as he recovers from major heart surgery. The doctors repaired his enlarged aorta and replaced a faulty heart-valve with a titanium one. I came down the day he was released from the hospital, and got to spend a week with him at home, helping with his exercise & medication regimen, and just keeping him company. In some ways it was like old times: we watched college football (South Florida lost to Rutgers, sigh) and laughed at old episodes of our beloved “Andy Griffith Show.” But in other ways it was all a very new situation—he isn’t yet able to be his old active self, though I hope he will be soon.

Then Delta Airlines messed up my return flight, and I spent the night in Atlanta. The less said about that unfortunate evening and its stunning display of abysmal customer service, the better.

This past Tuesday was one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had. Mel made an amazing carrot cake (I like it even better than chocolate, which she finds insane, but she indulged me). Then we visited our friend Elizabeth who works on a small, sustainable farm near West Point, Virginia. It’s an amazing little operation, a “Community Supported Agriculture” farm which grows a vast variety of crops on a surprisingly small patch of land. The couple who run the place, both Divinity-school grads, were hospitable in a gracious, low-key way and welcomed us to their lunch table without a second’s hesitation. We want to be that kind of couple.

Now Mel is in Chicago for a reunion with friends. Next she’ll be in Pennsylvania for a few days, doing on-site work with her part-time employer, a social work agency in Philadelphia. I miss her. It’s been raining nonstop since she left, and that just about sums up my mood. But it’s not all gloom; I made a dish I’ve never cooked before, using some vegetables from our own garden, and it turned out pretty well. Rosemary and pepper make anything taste good.

Next week I’ll be meeting Mel in Philly when I go up to CCEF’s annual counseling conference with a group from our church.

Medicine for the Sick, Life for the Dead

2007-10-07T17:15:00.000-04:00

John Calvin sometimes gets a bad rap. People accuse this 16th-century refugee theologian of creating a cold, heartless God who enjoys frying people.

But that's not the Calvin I see when I read his commentaries on the Bible, or his Institutes of the Christian Religion. I see a pastor-scholar-theologian who's awestruck at God's love and beauty, excited about the Holy Spirit at work in our world, passionately concerned about helping the ordinary uneducated folks who just want to know how to love God and love their neighbors, and wickedly sarcastic when confronting the wolves who've been preying on those everyday folks.
I've been especially helped by reading Calvin's observations about the Lord's Supper...serving the Supper to people is one of the most amazing parts of my pastoral work, but it's also one of the most mysterious. Calvin certainly leaves lots of room for mystery, but he's good at explaining what can be explained. This passage, on deciding whether we feel "worthy" to receive the Lord's Supper, was beautifully encouraging:
[after discussing and rejecting the false idea that we must root out all our sin before coming to the Table]: "Surely the devil could find no speedier means of destroying men than by so maddening them that they could not taste and savor this food, with which their most gracious Father had willed to feed them! In order, therefore, not to rush headlong into such ruin, let us remember that this sacred feast is medicine for the sick, solace for sinners, alms to the poor; but would bring no benefit to the 'healthy,' 'righteous,' and 'rich'--if any such could be found! For since in it Christ is given to us as food, we understand that without him we would pine away, starve, and faint--as famine destroys the vigor of the body....Therefore, this is the worthiness, the best and only kind we can bring to God: to offer our vileness and our unworthiness to him so that his mercy may make us worthy of him; to despair in ourselves so that we may be comforted in him; to accuse ourselves so that we may be justified by him...moreover, to aspire to that unity which he commends to us in his Supper; and, as he makes all of us one in himself, to desire one soul, one heart, one tongue for us all...we shall think that we, as being poor, come to a kindly Giver; as sick, to a Physician; as sinners, to the Author of righteousness; finally, as dead, to Him who gives us life."

The Blind Side

2007-09-30T17:17:00.001-04:00

Saturday afternoons in my childhood often found the family seated around the TV, watching college football. When the game was exciting, it was lots of fun; if the action was slow, then at least the crowd's chatter and the droning commentators provided good background noise for a nap.
Like a lot of people who enjoy watching college ball, I thought I understood what was happening on the field, and usually focused my attention on the quarterback, the wide receiver, or whoever seemed to have the football at the time. I thought that's where the crucial action was.
I was wrong.

I know that many readers of this blog aren't big football fans. Some of you (I'm looking in your direction, Ros) may even disdain it as a strange and brutal American curiosity. But I'm going to recommend Michael Lewis's book The Blind Side to all of you, anyway. The Blind Side is the true story of Michael Oher, a poor, shockingly neglected young black man from Memphis whose bleak life was transformed by three things: first, the fact that he was gifted with amazing speed, strength, and size; second, the rich white family who gave him a home, a change of high schools, and lots of love; and third, a strange evolution in football strategy that created an intense demand (first in the pros, then in college and high school) for people like Michael to protect quarterbacks from getting smashed from behind (the quarterback's fatal "blind side," usually on his left, provides the book's title).
The story is incredible enough, and would probably make a terrific movie. But Lewis's fine writing takes it to surprising places, dealing sensitively with race, religion, class, money, and more. He explains football tactics and strategy in ways that novices can understand. The book features many quotable passages (my longsuffering wife has put up with me, all weekend, saying "hon, let me read you this page..."). Here's one, describing the game that became a duel between professional quarterback Joe Theismann and his nemesis, the quarterback-assassin Lawrence Taylor. The key play began three seconds ago:

"Four Mississippi: Taylor is coming. From the snap of the ball Theismann has lost sight of him. He doesn't see Taylor carving a wide circle behind his back; he doesn't see Taylor outrun his blocker upfield and then turn back down; and he doesn't see the blocker diving, frantically, at Taylor's ankles. He doesn't see Taylor leap, with both arms over his head, and fill the sky behind him. Theismann prides himself on his ability to stand in the pocket [the sheltered space created by his blockers] and disregard his fear. He thinks this quality is a prerequisite in a successful NFL quarterback...Theisman has played in 163 straight games, a record for the Washington Redskins. He's led his team to two Super Bowls, and won one. He's thirty-six years old. He's certain he still has a few good years left in him. He's wrong. He has less than half a second."

Okay, so that wasn't one of the hilarious parts, of which there are several. But it was good. Anyway, go check out the book; I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Um, Thank You?

2007-09-19T22:09:00.000-04:00

'Fess up, O kind person who sent us a lovely floral bouquet, via F.T.D, to congratulate us on our ordination! We want to thank you, but either you were too shy to sign your name or F.T.D. left it off of your note.
If you don't like admitting on my blog to being a flower-sender (and really, who could blame you?), then email me at justinmoore79 AT gmail DOT com.

UPDATE: Mel's brother Matt has confessed to being the flower-sender. He couldn't make it to the ordination service; he had some lame excuse about having to help sick people, 7000 miles away, and that the Army would put him in jail if he tried to leave.
Seriously, thanks, Matt!

What we're getting ourselves into...

2007-09-02T20:21:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are interested, here are the ordination vows that my wife Mel and I will be taking, when we are ordained as ministers at Peace Hill Christian Fellowship next Sunday. At the bottom are promises that the congregation will be making. This list is based on the Presbyterian ordination service, with some modifications.

Charge to the Ordained:

1. Do you believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the living word of God and that they are the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and will you, by God’s grace, faithfully apply the Scriptures to teach, correct, rebuke and train God’s people in righteousness?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE WILL”.

2. Do you promise to listen with humility to the concerns and counsel of your brothers and sisters in Christ, and will you make the work of Christ and his church your mission? Will you make decisions about the ministry and mission of the church in like-minded agreement with the other leaders of the church?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE DO”.

3. Have you been called, as far as you know in your own heart, to seek and take up the office of the ministry out of a love for God and a sincere desire to promote his glory through the Gospel?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE HAVE”.

4. Do you promise to be zealous and faithful, holding on to the truths of the Gospel? Will you promise to faithfully work towards the purity, peace and unity of the church, whatever difficulties may come on that account?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE DO”.

5. Will you, by God’s grace, be faithful, careful and persistent in the exercise of all private and personal duties which become you as a Christian and a minister of the Gospel, as well as in all the duties of your office, honoring the profession of the Gospel by your life and setting an example of godliness for the congregation over which God shall make you overseer?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE WILL”.

6. Do you, as sinners under the grace of God, confess your dependence on the grace and mercy of God to carry out this office? And do you promise, as those prone to human weakness and error, to be mindful both to receive the Word with humility as those under the grace of Jesus, and to minister the Word with a gentle and humble spirit?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE DO”.

7. Are you, at this time, willing to take the charge of this congregation and do you promise to discharge the duties of a pastor to them as God shall give you strength?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE ARE”.

Charge to the Congregation:
1. Are you, the people of this congregation, ready to receive ____________, whom you have called to be your ministers?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE ARE”.

2. Do you promise to receive the word of truth from them, listen to their counsel with meekness, love and submit to them in the proper exercise of church discipline for your souls’ health?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE DO”.

3. Do you promise to encourage these ministers in their difficult work, to obey them as leaders of the church, and submit to their authority as they keep watch over you? Will you seek to obey them and to make their work among you a joy and not a burden?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE WILL”.

4. Do you promise to continue to support them financially and care for their physical needs? And do you promise to continue to them, while they are your pastors, that care and support which you have promised, and whatever else you may see as needful to honor your love and care for them, and for their comfort among you?
IF SO, ANSWER BY SAYING, “WE DO”.

That sounds about right...

2007-08-27T09:27:00.014-04:00

Came across what claims to be an advertisement from the June 16, 1875 Milwaukee Sentinel:

Wanted--a pastor for St. James' Church. He must possess all Christian graces and a few worldly ones; must have such tact and disposition as will enable him to side with all parties in the parish on all points, giving offense to none; should possess a will of his own, but agree with all of the vestry; must be socially inclined and of dignified manners--affable to all, neither running after the wealthy nor turning his back on the poor; a man of high-low church tendencies preferred. Salary should not be so much his aim, as the desire to be a zealous laborer in God's vineyard; should be able to convince all that they are miserable sinners, without giving offense. Each sermon must be short, but complete in itself--full of old-fashioned theology in modern dress--deep but polished, and free from the eloquence peculiar to newly-graduated theologians. He should be young enough to be enthusiastic, but possess judgment of one of ripe years and experience. Only he who possesses the above qualifications need apply. To such a one will be given steady employment for a term of years.

I'm glad we're not coming to work at that church!

Tohu

2007-08-09T14:41:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago we fulfilled a long-time dream and brought home a dog from our local shelter. We've named him Tohu...from the biblical Hebrew for "wild" (see Mel's better explanation, with reference to Genesis 1:2, here, along with another Tohu-picture). We love him.
Here he is facing down one of our neighbor's Alpacas. Sorry if he's hard to see; he blends in with the shade.

My first Sermon-Podcasts!

2007-07-31T09:04:00.000-04:00

Since last I posted here, Mel and I have started working part-time on the pastoral staff of a small church in Charles City, Virginia. I've preached there the past two weeks, and some of you had asked about hearing or reading the sermons. Our co-pastor, Peter Bauer, has just uploaded the text and audio of my first two sermons to the church's Podcast page. The text versions are a detailed outline of what I say (the congregation receives copies of this each week at the service), but they aren't an exact transcript, since I tend to go "off script" with other stories, illustrations, or spur-of-the-moment explanations.
The podcasts can be found here. Mine are on Psalm 96 and Psalm 13, and they'll have my name next to them.
Thanks to all of you who have been praying for and encouraging us!

a few graduation pics

2007-06-23T18:16:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

I'm not yet finished collecting graduation pictures for your viewing pleasure, but here are three that we did have...

1. My brother Travis and I wondering why Ph.D. dissertations have such incomprehensible titles. Note: We're in the church where graduation was held, sitting in the large coffee shop (?!) which is located between their massive, bigger-than-the-one-at-McDonald's indoor playground (!?) and their internet-access stations. Ummm...

2. Westminster alumna and dear friend Liz Hager was overcome by jealousy at my splendid regalia, and tried to steal it. But after i reminded her that she's already got an identical getup in her closet, we overcame our differences and enjoyed the ceremony.

3. Fellow graduate Joe Troutman, now beginning a pastoral internship in New Jersey, poses with his daughter, Elizabeth of the Wild Hair.

On Not Being Asked to the Prom...

2007-06-15T17:06:00.000-04:00

Long-time readers of this blog may remember my progress through the various levels of Jeopardy! auditions last spring. After the 2nd level (the Philadelphia audition), we hopefuls were told that either we would be called sometime in the next 12 months (to be asked out to LA for an actual show) or we would not receive a call, in which case we should "try again in the next audition cycle."
Well, it's been just over a year, and guess what? No call. I didn't make it.
It was always a long shot, but it's disappointing nonetheless. I hope that they didn't pick the defense attorney who auditioned with me; he said that if he won money he'd spend it on "booze and hookers." As long as it wasn't that guy, I won't be too down.
So it's back to the day jobs for me! I'll be paying off my college debt the slow way, after all.

From Florida to Guatemala

2007-05-30T12:13:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,
Thanks for all of your well-wishes and congratulations on the end of seminary. And yes, graduation photos really are coming soon!
I've added a new link to my list of blogs. My sister Jessica and her husband Steve have, for the past couple of years, been working through the process of becoming full-time missionaries. Their church in Florida has a sister church in Antigua, Guatemala, that needs help establishing and running a bilingual Christian bookstore, and Jessica and Steve will be tackling this exciting job. Right now they are preparing and fund-raising, and they'll be posting updates on their new blog, the Otto Family Adventure. Drop them a line, see pictures of their three cute kids, or read their updates to hear more about what our omni-lingual God is doing in another part of the world.
Love ya, sis!

Finish line crossed!

2007-05-15T17:14:00.000-04:00

Update: I finished my fourth and last exam at 4:00 this afternoon. Thanks to everybody who's offered prayer, encouragement, procrastination, and pep talks over these last two weeks.
There is much more to blog about, but i'm way too tired right now.

Schedule for tomorrow:
1. Sleep in! Maybe until 8:30!
2. Get an oil change
3. Clean up the papers, study sheets, and other debris of exam-week.
4. Wait for the DHL delivery guy (who has TWICE failed to show up at the promised time)
5. Start on my non-exam reading (first up: Susanna Clarke's novel of spies and rival wizards in an 1808 England-that-never-was: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell)
6. Start work on a coloring book that I'm helping to put together (yeah, you read that right.)

Thanks again, everybody!

Finish line in sight...

2007-05-12T10:04:00.000-04:00

Papers handed in...Two exams completed...two more big ones to go...

I should be finished, one way or the other, by Tuesday night.

Two for Tuesday

2007-04-24T10:15:00.000-04:00

It's been a hard weekend. It's been a hard couple of weeks, in fact. So we need two poems this time.

TRY TO PRAISE THE MUTILATED WORLD

Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.

You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You've seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.

Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where the music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.

Praise the mutilated world
and the gray feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

--Adam Zagajewski (Translated from the Polish, by Clare Cavanagh.)

Why It Matters (song lyrics)

Sit with me and tell me once again
Of the story that's been told us
Of the power that will hold us
Of the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters

Speak to me until I understand
Why our thinking and creating
Why our efforts of narrating
About the beauty, of the beauty
And why it matters

Like the statue in the park
Of this war torn town
And its protest of the darkness
And the chaos all around
With its beauty, how it matters
How it matters

Show me the love that never fails
The compassion and attention
'Midst confusion and dissention
Like small ramparts for the soul
How it matters

Like a single cup of water
How it matters...

---Sara Groves

Those Winter Sundays: Poetry Month Continues

2007-04-19T12:30:00.000-04:00

Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

--Robert Hayden, 1962

(As Mark Twain pointed out, our parents seem smarter, the older we get. Thanks, Dad.)

Losses

2007-04-13T10:29:00.000-04:00

In honor of National Poetry Month, I'll be posting a few poems over the next couple of weeks. This first one...well, it's a downer, but they won't all be so.

Losses
Randall Jarrell

It was not dying: everybody died.
It was not dying: we had died before
In the routine crashes-- and our fields
Called up the papers, wrote home to our folks,
And the rates rose, all because of us.
We died on the wrong page of the almanac,
Scattered on mountains fifty miles away;
Diving on haystacks, fighting with a friend,
We blazed up on the lines we never saw.
We died like aunts or pets or foreigners.
(When we left high school nothing else had died
For us to figure we had died like.)

In our new planes, with our new crews, we bombed
The ranges by the desert or the shore,
Fired at towed targets, waited for our scores--
And turned into replacements and woke up
One morning, over England, operational.
It wasn't different: but if we died
It was not an accident but a mistake
(But an easy one for anyone to make.)

We read our mail and counted up our missions--
In bombers named for girls, we burned
The cities we had learned about in school--
Till our lives wore out; our bodies lay among
The people we had killed and never seen.
When we lasted long enough they gave us medals;
When we died they said, "Our casualties were low."
They said, "Here are the maps"; we burned the cities.

It was not dying --no, not ever dying;
But the night I died I dreamed that I was dead,
And the cities said to me: "Why are you dying?

We are satisfied, if you are; but why did I die?"

What Can We Sing When Life Stinks?

2007-04-04T14:43:00.000-04:00

Sometimes we Christians think that if we admit to feeling angry, scared, depressed, or sad, then we'll be thought of as failures. If we admit that the world can seem like a scary, lonely place, people will think we don't believe in God anymore. So in our hymns and other church-songs we sometimes add lots of "happy" or "joyful" affirmations, just so everybody knows that we're still high on Jesus.
If, like me, you've ever felt dishonest while singing hymns or choruses with lines like "...and now I am happy all the day," etc, and if you've ever wondered if God allows us to talk honestly about our pain, then you should check out this article, in which Carl Trueman encourages us to recover the gritty, multi-emotional, realistic-yet-hopeful power of the Psalms for our private prayer and public worship.
He wrote the article because he looked around and felt that "the typical Christian church offered the broken-hearted nothing whatsoever to sing in praise to God on a Sunday; and in so doing, the church was failing in her duty to care for the hurting, the downtrodden, the depressed."
Give it a read...good stuff.
(If you enjoy Carl's article, you might want to read his excellent collection of essays, The Wages of Spin. )

Shooting Pains

2007-03-24T12:15:00.000-04:00

As Mel and I prepare to move to Virginia, we're working through the usual checklist: How to change our address, how to transfer insurance, figuring out if our cell-phone network will work in our rural destination, etc. Mundane stuff, mostly.
But by far the most amusing discoveries have been the Virginia gun laws. See, Mel's dad restores and collects firearms, and he's thinking of giving us a couple of rifles when we move. In inquiring whether we needed to register them or anything, I discovered some useful facts:
+ It's illegal to carry concealed guns, nunchuks or Ninja "throwing stars" in Virginia.
+ Unless you are a mailman.
+ Or the HarborMaster of the city of Hopewell (it's just Hopewell! Sorry, Norfolk, better luck next time).
+ It's also illegal to drive with a loaded rifle or shotgun in your vehicle, unless:
a)you are engaged in official military or police duties, Or,
b)you are "any person who reasonably believes that a loaded rifle or shotgun is necessary for his personal safety in the course of his employment or business."

Now, (b) raises some interesting questions...who exactly does this apply to? Drug dealers? Farmers with a grudge against groundhogs? Who?

And best of all, given the vocation we'll be pursuing in Virginia: it's illegal to carry a gun, bowie knife, or other dangerous weapon into a place of worship, during a worship service, "without good and sufficient reason."
Now again, what's that last clause supposed to cover? "I need a shotgun in case the sermon gets boring;" "I never liked that stained glass window, so I'm going to smash it with this katana;" "we're staging a modern setting of the Crucifixion, and the Romans are going to carry M-16s." Etc.
This is going to be an exciting place!

Interview with Susan Wise Bauer

2007-03-20T08:46:00.001-04:00

Blogger Mindy Withrow (co-author of a multi-volume history book for kids) has posted an exclusive interview with Susan Wise Bauer, whose The History of the Ancient World: from the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome recently hit bookstores. Susan opens up about the writing process, learning how to balance motherhood, scholarship, marriage, and job, and how a chicken shed can be a writer's best friend.

Berenstain Bears response paper

2007-03-09T17:22:00.000-05:00

John Keegan begins his now-classic work on human reactions to combat, The Face of Battle, with the disclaimer “I have never been in a battle.” I need to give my equivalent of that at the start: I have never raised a child; my wife and I, as yet, have none. So as I offer a brief critique on a book dealing with parenting, I’m very mindful that most of my knowledge of kids comes from babysitting, tutoring, working with the church youth group, or from books and classes. There is MUCH I don’t know.
Having said that, I’m posting a brief reaction paper, from one of my Counseling classes, on a popular children’s book, The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies (you can read excerpts from the book using the Search Inside feature here). 260 million copies of Berenstain Bears books have been sold since they first appeared, making them perhaps the best-selling children’s series in history. The interaction is much briefer than I’d like (we were under a word limit), and it proved to be more challenging than I’d expected: how do I appreciate the Berenstains’ insights and challenge their blind spots, while not offering simplistic replacements? I’m not completely satisfied with how it turned out, so I really do welcome your comments, criticisms, or suggestions! Here goes...
I was surprised to realize that TBBGTG is aimed not only at kids but also at their parents. Of course the format suggests an audience of children, but the epigraph on the title page reads, “when a cub’s behavior takes a turn for the worst, it’s hard for parents to know what to do first,” which strongly implies that the authors want to educate parents, too. “We know that raising children is hard,” they are saying, “but we think we’ve discovered what to do first.”

As a book for families, TBBGTG connects with everyday concerns and rings true with everyday experience. It deals with mundane struggles of life: how do you provide for and delight your children without “spoiling” them? The Berenstains paint an accurate picture of greedy kids throwing tantrums, and of parents’ rising frustration. Anyone who has tried to safely guide a demanding child through a supermarket will identify with Mama’s exasperation and Papa’s helpless embarrassment (pp. 11-12), and the cubs’ tantrums are all too realistic. The book’s illustrations help, too: we see the passersby staring indignantly at the noisy scene the cubs are making, and we know that Mama and Papa feel the burn of every disapproving glance.

What causes the gimmies? The Berenstains’ narration suggests several contributing factors: overindulgent parenting (page 2), a consumeristic society that bombards the cubs with advertising (page 3), even genetics (pages 21-22 reveal that Papa had the same gimmie-habit when he was young). All these explanations accurately diagnose real-world problems, but the book stays at this shallow, external level and never asks why the cubs are so susceptible to these influences. Why do they get “that old gimmie gleam in their eyes”? What’s going on in their hearts and minds? Are they to blame at all for their behavior? The Berenstains don’t try to address these questions; they stay at a pragmatic level.

How can the gimmies be solved? Papa first tries a moralistic lecture: the cubs should appreciate what they have. They shouldn’t want more because life won’t give them all they want, and they’ll be dissatisfied. Of course this airy, abstract advice doesn’t stick with the cubs for long, and soon they are behaving greedily once more. Now that moral exhortation has failed, Papa gets advice from his parents and tries their more pragmatic approach: the cubs can each pick out one, and only one, item to get each time they go to the store, and if they throw tantrums they’ll get nothing. This plan works beautifully, and soon the cubs are even casting superior looks and self-righteous platitudes at other families whose children have the gimmies.

While it certainly makes trips to the store calmer and less embarrassing, this approach to curbing the cubs’ acquisitiveness leaves much to be desired. It appeals solely to their greed: if they’re well-behaved, they get a treat every time they go to the store, while bad behavior means no treats. They are being bought off. If we press the logic of this approach, it seems to imply either that the cubs are annoyances to be bribed into silence, or that their greed is a legitimate “given” and can only be channeled, not challenged. This is a bleak and ugly view of children. The proposed solution makes the family slightly more functional, for sure, but it’s only a quick-fix or Band-Aid. (Not to mention the obvious practical flaw: what happens when the cubs grow older, and “treats” become more expensive things like convertibles or trips to Hawaii?)

I believe there’s a better way—addressing the cubs not as obstacles or embarrassments but as young “people” who, just like their parents, need to change at the level of the heart. This approach will take a bit longer than the Berenstains’—there are no quick fixes—but I believe it will produce deeper and more lasting change. The parents know, already, that this greed isn’t good for cubs or for the grown-ups the cubs will become (p. 6). So first, Mama and Papa should check their own attitudes and actions: are the parents behaving greedily at home, or are they displaying self-control? (The Berenstains are right that the cubs are influenced by what they see in their parents.) Are Mama & Papa showing love to their kids in a variety of ways, so that the kids don’t only think of love in financial terms? The Berenstains only address the children’s problems, leaving unaddressed Papa’s warning signs: outbursts of rage, empty threats, inconsistent parenting. His unbalanced craving for control and tranquility is just as grave a problem as the cubs’ craving for treats.
Secondly, the parents need to challenge their children’s greed—not in a “you can’t always get what you want” way, but in a “let me help you see what’s going on” way! They need to explain that being selfish is wrong: it’s wrong to want everyone to serve your every wish, and to bully your parents into buying things for you. Specifically, it’s wrong because there is a God who is generous and giving towards us, and wants us to be the same towards others.
But this shouldn’t turn into a condemnatory lecture. I hope that Mama and Papa, all through the cubs’ lives, have been telling them wonderful true stories about Jesus. Jesus could have stayed with his Father in heaven, where he had everything. But he came to earth because we needed to be rescued from all our greedy, hurtful attitudes and actions. He even gave up his life to save us. And now he lives again, full of God’s power and ready to change us, slowly but surely, into unselfish “cubs”! So faith in Jesus is not just a “religious” compartment in life. It’s inseparable from grocery-store tantrums and the way that those tantrums reveal our hearts.
Along with patient, long-term instruction in faith and its implications, Mama and Papa could teach the kids about generosity and responsibility. What about having them save their pennies until they had enough to buy something they wanted? Or broadening their horizons by bringing them along to volunteer at a shelter for cubs who have nothing? And of course, buying them the occasional gumball or coloring book is fine, if the parents aren’t blackmailed into it.
Fighting our gimmies is a lifelong struggle, with no easy answers. But the process will never begin if we only feed our greed.

Gimme

2007-03-05T11:14:00.000-05:00

After nearly four years of Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Qoheleth, and Paul, this week I'll be reading and commenting on the heaviest piece of writing i've been assigned yet...

The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies. All 29 pages of it.

For one of my Counseling and Psychology classes, with Dave Powlison (who i'd love to be when i grow up), we're reading this Berenstain book to see one way that psychology works at the popular, rather than academic, level. Like Dr. Phil or other popular psychologists, the Berenstains want to educate people and improve life. All well and good. But what assumptions do they make about human nature, about what changes people and what the goal of child-rearing is? Can they actually deliver what they promise?
It may seem over-picky to ask these questions of a kids' book. But kids' books can provide an amazing window into how a society's priorities and how it tries to shape its children, and we ought to take them seriously. I'm looking forward to this, and I'll try to post my response paper later this week.

Jesus the Girly Man

2007-02-23T16:58:00.000-05:00

A few recent books and articles have claimed that men aren't coming to church anymore, because church has become too "feminized" or "impotent." These writers claim that contemporary churches sing too many soft, romantic, "feminine," Jesus-is-my-boyfriend songs that real manly men can't stand. Now, leaving aside the strange, one-dimensional views of masculinity and femininity that such remarks betray, and leaving aside their disturbing implication that having lots of women in your church is a problem (would they say the same if mostly men were coming?), let's take a quick look at the lyrical evidence. A quick glance through scripture and hymnic history shows that men can write wonderfully soft, intimate, tender lyrics about Jesus, while women can write blood-and-thunder, revolution-starting songs too.

Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
I, even I, will sing to the LORD;
I will praise the LORD, the God of Israel, in song.
Deborah, Judges 5:3,9

Show me the wonders of your great love...
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings...
David, Psalm 17:7-8

He (God) has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble.
Mary, Luke 1

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Julia Ward Howe, "Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Jesus, Lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.
Charles Wesley, "Jesus, Lover of my soul"

Like a rose, trampled on the ground
You took the fall
and thought of me
Above all
Michael W. Smith, "Above All"

(thanks to Dorcas George for steering me to some of these examples).

Now, I too am suspicious of self-centered, romantic songs about Jesus, but our worship does need to be both "masculine" and "feminine." Jesus is the New Humanity. He's the prototype of what God wants all humans to be, and if we put our trust in him we are launched, by his Spirit, into a process of being transformed into individual versions of him. Read the gospels; see Jesus stretch and break our modern notions of womanliness and manliness. He's tough AND tender, nurturing AND brave, and he calls us all to imitate him. So can we please cut the crap about "the church impotent" and getting "wild at heart" through imitating Aragorn or William Wallace or whoever, and get back to the real adventure of following the Lion who was a Lamb for us?

For all the saints, who from their labors rest...

2007-02-06T11:53:00.000-05:00

Last night we lost a wonderful teacher and mentor, Al Groves. Mel says it better than I can.

The blog kept by Al and his family during this whole process has been an amazing example of how to endure suffering while still holding on to the robust hope that, since Jesus' resurrection, "death itself has begun to work backwards." We'll see Al again one day, whole and free from pain. But until then, we're going to miss him terribly.

So you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword...

2007-01-29T11:44:00.000-05:00

...and we'll try and kill each other like civilized people...

Last week, Books and Culture published a review, by Susan Wise Bauer, of John Stackhouse's Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender. Shortly thereafter, Presbyterian pastor Rick Phillips, a contributing blogger at Reformation 21, posted a response to her review, a response in which, by my reading and that of many others, he came across like a bit of a bully and a misuser of words, rather than like one Christian defending a hotly-contested issue to another Christian.

Now, Susan has posted a response to Phillips' article. She's published it not on her blog, which is primarily aimed at readers of her Norton books on history and homeschooling, but here, on the blog hosted by my wife Mel. (Disclaimer: Mel and I have been friends of Susan and her family for a long time, the church she attends has been my "home church" since 1999, and I'll be taking a part-time post there later this year. Let me take this opportunity to say that, no matter what some bloggers may have implied, Susan Wise Bauer is neither a flaming liberal nor interested in undermining the Bible, the creeds of the church, etc. So can we all stop implying so?).

I encourage you to read her original article, Mr. Phillips' post, and then her response, in that order. No matter what side we come down on in the ongoing debate on women in ministry, let's learn how to address the topics without misrepresenting or assassinating each other. That seems like a modest enough proposal.

P.S. Given this latest mess, it seems that John Frame's observations about "Machen's Warrior Children" are, sadly, still timely.
Lord, have mercy on us all.

Loving Enough to be Angry

2007-01-25T13:42:00.000-05:00

As a relative of mine continues to go through an awful situation, in which he is being wronged on a daily basis, I've struggled with how to be angry at unfairness without also harboring hatred. My "righteous indignation" so easily becomes plain old bitterness. So this week it was comforting, in a way, to come across this paragraph in Frederick Dale Bruner's excellent Commentary on the gospel of Matthew:
"The wrath of God is not the irritability of God; it is the love of God in friction with injustice. It is the warm, steady, patient, but absolutely fair grace of God in collision with manifest selfishness. God's wrath does not contradict God's love; it proves it. A love that pampers injustice is not lovable." (2nd edition, page 92).
As my family continues to find a way through all of this, may I continue to learn how to love as God does: generously, forgivingly, but still seeking justice and refusing to minimize wrong.

Learning Starts Here

2006-12-24T14:02:00.000-05:00

My good friend Armistead and some other folks have put together a wonderful organization called The Global Playground. It will build and equip schools (and playgrounds) in places that have lacked them, partnering with local authorities and NGOs to bring quality education to many, many children. Their first project is a school in Wakiso, Uganda. (And in case you were wondering, this is no fly-by-night bunch: they're organized, above-board, legally registered, and run by quality folks like Armistead and others I'd vouch for).

If you're like me, the Christmas season often overwhelms you with appeals for charitable giving, and a small group like this can fall through the cracks. So why not bookmark the page, and return to it in the cold, bleak days of February, when you can give it the consideration it deserves?

From their Mission Statement:
Global Playground's mission is to raise awareness and share resources with people of the developing world to create educational opportunities where they do not exist.

Merry Christmas to all!

Ezekiel for 2006

2006-12-04T13:39:00.000-05:00

One of our assignments in my seminary class on the Prophets was to make a translation, from the Hebrew, of certain passages from Ezekiel. We had to defend our translations with reference to grammar, vocabulary, commentators' notes, etc.
Of the options we were offered, i chose Ezekiel 7:23-27. The passage had unsettled me in my first read-through (in English), with its scary prophecy that unfaithful Israel was going to be punished soon. I worked through my first translation, and it came out OK, but afterall of that dissection and searching through critical commentaries, and questioning every last syllable and "redactional layer," I needed to re-evoke (for myself, at least) the horrifying force of the passage, that force which caught me in my first reading. So here are both of the translations: a more "academic" one and a modern-ish paraphrase.

23) Make[1] the chain![2]
For the land [is] full of bloody verdicts[3]
And the city [is] full of violence.

24) I will bring in the most wicked[4] of nations, and they will take possession of their
houses;
I will destroy the arrogance of the strong, and their sanctuaries[5] will be
desecrated.

25) Shuddering horror has come; they look for peace, but [there is] none.

26) Disaster upon disaster will come!
And rumor [will follow] upon rumor.[6]
They will seek[7] for a vision from the prophet,[8]
Instruction perishes from the priest, and wise advice from the elders.

27) The king will mourn[9], and the prince will clothe himself with desolation,
And the hands of the people of the land will tremble
I will do to them according to their ways,[10]
And I will judge them with their own judgments,
And they will know that I am Yahweh.

(Now here is a more “creative” paraphrase, completely separate from the defended translation.)

Forge a chain around Jerusalem! Nobody’s getting out now.
For the land is full of bloody murders (though they call it “justice”),
And the city is full of violence.

So I am going to bring in the vilest people you’ve ever seen, to clean you out;
They’ll take over your pretty houses.
I, I will grind your proud defenses into dust,
And the abomination that you call a “holy temple” will be desecrated.

Makes your skin crawl, just thinking about it, doesn’t it?
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
You’ll want to crawl into a hole to get some peace, but even there you’ll find horror.
One disaster will follow another so fast
that even the wildest rumors of bad news will sound believable.

Go on, ask the futurologists for favorable projections.
Ask for some comforting religious words from the pastors.
Call in the professors and the diplomats for advice.
They’ll all be mute.

(The president is bawling like a baby;
The CEO’s are shredding their documents.
The people stand rooted to the ground, unable even to move for the terror of it all.)

I will give you a taste of your own ways,
I will judge you the way you’ve been judging.
Then you will know,
Really know,
The dark, double-edged truth that those old Sunday-School stories warned you about:
I AM Yahweh!

[1] The MT’s imperative, “make the chain!” is rejected by many scholars. LXX reads “and they shall cause disorder,” a continuation of verse 22. Greenberg, like several others, follows the LXX in large part because the fetters of exiles seem out of place in this description of the city’s fall. Greenberg, Moshe. The Anchor Bible: Ezekiel 1-20: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co, 1983), page 154. But this is tenuous, as Greenberg himself admits. Ezekiel knew from experience what everyone in the Ancient Near East knew in theory: that an assault on a city was followed either by slaughter or enslavement for the inhabitants. Prophetic poetry doesn’t need to follow strict chronological order, and there is nothing preventing the author from doing some heavy foreshadowing. Make a chain, he says: the city will fall very soon, and then fetters will be needed.

[2] qAT+r is unusual. BDB references Nahum 3:10 and Isaiah 40:19, where “chain” is the best translation. Block cites the Targum of Ezekiel which reads, “make bonds!” Block, Daniel. NICOT: The Book of Ezekiel, Vol. I . (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), page 263.

[3] This unusual phrase leaves commentators with no clear consensus. Block’s suggestion of “judicial murders” probably gets at the sense. [Block, page 263]. For a similar phrase, see Ezekiel’s condemnation of “perverted justice,” in 9:9. The theme of violence in the land is also pervasive in Ezekiel (see 11:6; 12:19, etc.)

[4] For the nominal use of a construct adjective, see Davidson’s Introductory Hebrew Grammar Syntax (JCL Gibson, ed., Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994) subsection 42 Rem. 4.

[5] MT vocalizes this as the piel participle, so reading “those sanctifying them.” LXX, as well as most modern versions and commentators, revocalize this to read, “their sanctuaries.” This would then refer to the holy places in and around the Temple (see Ezekiel 21:7 and Jeremiah 51:51). Greenberg, page 155.

[6] Or, “Bad news follows after bad news,” as Zimmerli puts it. [Zimmerli, Walther, trans. Ronald Clements. Ezekiel 1: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapters 1-24 (Hermeneia Series). Fortress, 1979, page 200.]

[7] LXX zhthqh,setai,, “one will seek”

[8] BHS suggests that the reader understand “and they will not find it,” in order to make this line be in balance with the following one. I find this to be overly wooden. In context, most readers should have little trouble understanding that the prophets’ visions, too, will fail.

[9] LXX omits the first clause of v. 27, “the king will mourn.” Brownlee notes that the case for our deleting it is “not compelling,” because the LXX often deletes references to kings. In addition, he notes, keeping it would give v. 27 a threefold-office structure (king, princes, citizens) which would then balance v. 26 (prophet, priest, elders). After affirming all this, he deletes the clause anyway in his own translation! [Brownlee, William. Word Biblical Commentary: Ezekiel 1-19. (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1986), p. 114]

[10] Here I am following LXX kata. ta.j o`dou.j auvtw/n, “according to their ways,” which reads the text as kedarkam rather than middarkam, “from [out of] their ways.” But the sense seems to be much the same. Greenberg offers the robust “I will give them a taste of their own ways.” (Greenberg, page 145).

Wood, Wax, Tears, and Fire

2006-11-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Our good friend, up-and-coming artist Erica Brown, will be featured in a show this month in West Chester. Her work, done mostly in the ancient medium of encaustic, offers glimpses of beauty in the midst of chaos (in other words, it's a lot like life). Great stuff. You can see some examples for yourself by going here.
Her recent works will be displayed at The Three Little Pigs (131 North High Street, West Chester) until November 30th, but the opening reception is this Friday, November 3rd, from 5-9pm. Come meet the artist, enjoy wine and tasty treats, and see some wonderful new creations from a young talent. In twenty years, you'll be telling people "I knew her before she was famous." Really.

To the Westminster community

2006-10-16T10:01:00.000-04:00

Though I love this place, today I am more than a little bit ashamed of it. Once again, some male members of the Westminster community are making noises about how women “shouldn’t be here” at the seminary. Oh, they don’t usually come out and say this to the women face-to-face. But they make it clear, nonetheless, in various ways:

“Why would a woman be in the M.Div. program?” (said in a condescending or hostile tone)

“The women in the MA program are only here to find husbands.”

“The MA program isn’t real work…but it least it has brought lots of pretty girls to campus.”

There are other forms, less blatant ones, like a resentful attitude towards women who dare to ask too many questions, or who raise too many tough issues in class.

We have put Christian women in a no-win situation: if they don’t go to seminary, they can be condescended to because they “don’t know the Greek” or “haven’t read theology” (as if those were the only requirements for wisdom). And if they do come to seminary, to acquire the tools that we say will make them into more thoughtful Christians, then they meet with hostility and stupid statements such as the ones listed above.

Brothers, we must repent of such words and attitudes. Throughout the Bible, God has nothing but harsh condemnation for those who oppress the undefended—especially when those oppressors are the leaders of his people. (Not that women themselves are defenseless—far from it—but in this institution, they are more vulnerable because they are a minority, surrounded by male students, male elders and pastors, and male professors. Try asking a challenging question in a classroom where no one looks like you, and where 1/3 of the students roll their eyes whenever you raise a hand.)

If we are training to be elders, pastors, or other Christian leaders, we ought to remember that the majority of our congregants and workers will be women, if present statistics are any indication of future ratios. If we are dismissive of women during our time in seminary, then how will we treat them with respect in our ministries? I refer you to Isaiah’s blasts against those who show partiality, and to Jesus’ words about how we treat “the least of these.” We've been warned.

If we truly believe that biblical truth is capable of changing hearts and lives, then shouldn’t we be rejoicing that so many godly and intelligent women are coming here to learn that truth, and to tell others about it? Shouldn’t we be overjoyed that the church is being strengthened as more women learn how to study the Bible, how to interact with unbelievers, and how to share the Good News more clearly and accurately? Women in our churches are often looked down upon because they don’t “know theology,” or because their Bible studies are too “lightweight” and “fuzzy.” There is some truth to that charge; many a harmful heresy has been spoken or published in a women’s class or devotional book. But we will not cure such faulty theology by barring women from the places where careful study is being taught and encouraged! One way that it may be cured, though, is by the powerful work of women who have studied here and at other institutions. Today’s female MA, MAR, MDiv, ThM, and PhD students will write tomorrow’s Bible study guides and will teach tomorrow’s Sunday School classes.

And lest we think that women’s study at Westminster will only benefit other women, may I remind us all that they enrich us and our school right now. Women students consistently raise some of the best questions, and do some of the best work, in every class I’ve been a part of. Women students have, by their patient explanations in the study groups, saved many of us from failing our exams. Some of my most enlightening conversations have been with women students who are reflecting on what we’ve been taught here. They bring experiences and insights that men just don’t have. Because that’s how the Body of Christ works: each part plays a unique role in teaching the other parts about Christ. (Women enrich Westminster in non-academic ways, too: for instance, a woman student has organized the Culture Night for the past couple of years, and I haven’t seen any men complaining about this wonderful event.) And it certainly doesn’t end when they leave here: female Westminster graduates are currently serving God in a myriad of vocations around the world.

And as for the charge that the MA classes aren’t “real work”: first, remember that MA students take some M.Div classes, and they don’t seem to be floundering those. Second, though MA classes don’t have the language requirements or workloads of most M.Div courses, they are aimed at a different goal, anyway: not at producing PhD students or candidates for ordination, but people who can better serve the church in non-ordained, but vital, functions. So the MA-M.Div comparison is apples-and-oranges.

Also, if I may raise a point that is often unmentioned, MA students are sacrificing two years, and thousands of dollars, to learn more about God and his word. They do not get tuition discounts for being “under care,” as many male pastoral-track students do. And many of them do not have spouses working full-time to help them through Westminster, as is the case with some of us. Let me say it plainer: the MA students, and their full-price tuition, are keeping this place in business. Do you want your professors to continue receiving paychecks? Then stop insulting the students who contribute so much of that pay! They’ve sacrificed just as much as any of us to be here…more, in some cases.

I could go on, but for now I’ll just say, to my sisters who are studying here, in whatever program: thank you for your presence, for your patience with us, and for all you have contributed. Please continue to teach us about Christ. I repent of any ungraciousness or condescension I have shown you—even, inadvertently, in this essay.

To my brothers in the student body: please don’t dismiss what I’ve said. Ask yourselves if you are contributing to a hostile atmosphere, and if the answer is Yes, then throw yourselves on the mercy of the One who forgives bullies. And then welcome the women of Westminster, so that together we can get back to the task of extending the knowledge of God’s glory in Christ, until that knowledge covers this poor broken earth “as the waters cover the sea.”

Thank You

2006-10-10T10:04:00.000-04:00

Last night, while I was sitting in class, something the professor said set off a cascade of thankfulness in my mind. "You 70 people," he told us, "are the 1% of folks in your church who are privileged to be able to set aside a semester or a year or four years in order to think and read and discuss this stuff more deeply. Most people don't get the chance to do that, even if they want to."

He was right; being here, and getting to spend half my day studying what God is doing in the world, is an amazing privilege. Like so much else in my life, this time at seminary is a gift. So I just want to say Thank You to parents, friends, and church members who have made it possible for Melissa and I to attend seminary. We both feel that we've grown and have been changed for the better in our time here, and we hope to use our training faithfully and well, in Virginia and wherever else God puts us.

Denise and the Basilea

2006-09-01T09:32:00.000-04:00

I'm adding another name to my blogs list, over on the left: Denise is a fellow Westminster student, but her current and former occupations also include Security Guard, Lifeguard, Barista, and Jeon-do-sah-nihm (sort of like an assistant pastor) for children's ministries at a Korean church. In five years you might find her in the remote hinterlands of the world, doing the preliminary research that will allow Bible translators to create Bibles for people who've never had the Scriptures in their own language before. Or maybe not. But wherever she ends up, it's fun to keep up with her adventures and to get her unique and incisive perspective on WTS, theology, and life.
Oh, and basilea is a great blog title. It's a new-testament Greek word meaning "kingdom," and using it as her blog title hints at Denise's excitement about seeing the kingdom of heaven, God's healing reign, spread throughout the world. (See, i knew that all those hours of flipping through Greek vocabulary cards would pay off for me!)
(and for you nitpickers: yes, she knows that it's not really spelled basilea, but it's close enough, and transliteration is a tricky business anyway).

Some French Words

2006-08-21T19:49:00.000-04:00

So, the Foolish Sage has tagged me, and I must respond to the following meme:

Summer is a time when I feel an especial joie de vivre, so this meme is in honor of celebrating and loving life. If you could pick one photo that epitomizes joie de vivre, or quote one short piece of prose or poetry, or write one, what would it be? Don’t think about it long and hard, just do the first thing that comes to mind.

So, here's my response: Dancing has always been an activity that embodies joy for me (though I'm sometimes too self-conscious to cut loose fully). That was one of the many things Mel and I loved about our wedding reception: all our friends and family dancing to our favorite tunes, in a room that was, unfortunately, only 8 degrees cooler than the surface of the sun.

Here we are at the reception, dancing to (I think) the Proclaimers' "500 Miles," a song which has goofy lyrics and a beat that is so simple as to border on moronic, and which I can never resist cavorting to.
Look closely. I'm spinning Mel; bridesmaid Andrea is clapping us onward; and friends Tom and Achsa are just laughing at the fun of it all. This isn't a good picture of some of us, but that's part of the point. When you're really enjoying the dancing, you forget to take yourself seriously, or to pose.

Right, so that captures joie de vivre for me. Now I'm tagging the crew at Icarus Fallen.

Stoop to my Weakness, Mighty as Thou Art

2006-07-24T10:39:00.000-04:00

Note to preachers: remember which pocket your sermon notes are in, and take them out before you start your sermon.
Yesterday morning I was in the pulpit, plowing ahead, midway through the first point of a 3-point sermon, when i realized: 1)that my notes were still in my pocket, and 2)that i didn't know which pocket: pants left front, pants right front, left rear, right rear, shirt front, jacket side, jacket inside... I didn't want to break the flow of things by stopping, fumbling around in multiple pockets, and then pulling out my crumpled notes, so i just went on ahead from memory.
On the downside, this probably made the sermon a little longer, and less "tight" than it would have otherwise been, since i had to pause at times and remember what else i wanted to say, but on the upside, i was able to keep eye contact with the congregation the whole time, instead of staring down at a manuscript. That felt right: it felt more like a conversation(albeit a one-sided conversation) than like a speech.

The internship at Trinity has been going well, on the whole: the pastors are working to make it an educational and useful time for me, and are giving me plenty of different opportunities to observe and take part in the day-to-day work of the church. I've been stretched, for sure: I've found myself leading a worship service with nursing home patients who gave no sign that they could actually hear me; composing prayers for various needs in the church and in the world (what exactly does one pray for the leaders of North Korea? That they would have a change of heart? That they would have heart attacks?); and playing the role of the Starfish in a children's skit (my long-suffering wife graciously agreed to play the Oyster). I've also been able to do lots of sitting and observing: watching the elders and pastors and behind-the-scenes folks as they pour their time and energy and emotional resources into the people of the church and the community--a task that comes with at least as many defeats and dead-ends as it does with victories.

It's been frustrating, at times, too: the part-time nature of the internship means that i'm still working at other jobs, and so my attention and energy are splintered in a dozen different directions. If my future includes work as a "part-time pastor," I'm going to need to learn from this summer's experiences in order to avoid going nuts.

As i walked up to the front of the church yesterday morning, to begin the service, the organist was playing the hymn, "Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart." I remembered the line, "stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art," and the thought flashed through my mind that it would make a pretty good prayer for me during this internship. I'm weak in just about any way you could name, and so it makes no sense for me to rely solely on my own talent or wit or patience.
With the living God providing the strength, though, good things can happen.
Even when i lose my notes.

Matti's contribution to the public square

2006-07-06T17:03:00.000-04:00

Hi all,
It's been quiet on this blog lately...mainly because the summer has been just as busy as the schoolyear! I'm part of the way through my summer internship at Trinity, and have continued with my tutoring and library jobs.
In the next week or so, i plan to do a post on the summer internship, and what that's like. In the meantime, though, I encourage you to check out Icarus Fallen, a news, politics, sports, and culture discussion run by my good friend Mattias and several other folks.

Disclaimer: Many of the contributors (though by no means all of them) come from a classical/Catholic conservative position (think Russell Kirk, First Things magazine, the Great Books Seminar, or Pope John Paul II). They're smart and opinionated, and I disagree with about half of their posts in any given week. Feel free to chime in, but be prepared for a rigorous argument either way.

Must-See TV

2006-06-13T16:45:00.000-04:00

Hi all,
If you have cable, watch the Food Network at 9 PM tonight (Tuesday). The best ice-cream parlor in Philadelphia, The Franklin Fountain, operated and owned by my friend (and fellow W&M alum) Eric Berley and his brother, will be featured during a program in that time-slot. I don't know many details about the TV show, but i do know that these guys run a wonderful establishment and serve ridiculously good ice-cream in an old-fashioned atmosphere. Check it out!

Graduation, part II (pictures)

2006-06-02T10:12:00.000-04:00

As promised, here are some of our pictures from Mel's Westminster graduation last week. Mel will probably be posting some others at her blog soon. I wish i had time to come up with snappy captions, but alas, I do not. Enjoy the pics, though...hurray for Mel! Here is the graduate-to-be marching in to the ceremony, looking ever-so-thrilled that we're waving and taking pictures in an embarrassing fashion. Directly in front of her is our friend Jeff Monk.

Skipping ahead...here's the proud husband and both sets of proud parents with the Woman of the Hour.
Mel with Old Testament professor Doug Green. Mel, Liz, and Dave with OT professor Mike Kelly, a.k.a. "the guy who lays down funky beats for the Westminster Brass."

Liz and Mel with professor Al Groves.A couple of suspicious characters: Doug Green with our Virginia pastor, Peter Bauer.

Accomplishments large and small

2006-05-31T09:29:00.000-04:00

Some quick, unrelated updates:

My beautiful genius of a wife now has her Master's degree! Huzzah! Let me take a minute to say how proud I am of this woman. In six years, she finished Westminster's rigorous and course-heavy Master of Divinity (Counseling) degree program (which includes a strong dose of two ancient languages as well as a constellation of other subjects), and the whole time she was also working 35 to 45 hours a week at a demanding job, staying actively involved in her church, writing wicked haiku, and (in the last few years) meeting and enchanting and building a marriage with a high-maintenance guy from down South. Feel free to be jealous of this lucky guy :)
The WTS graduation ceremony was beautiful and bittersweet (lots of friends graduating, but tears for a student recently dead and for a beloved professor fighting terminal cancer). Both my parents and Mel's came to town for the weekend, our Philadelphia pastors were both present, and Peter, our pastor from Virginia, was able to come up as well. We got some nice snapshots, and i hope to post them in the next few days.

The Jeopardy! thing: the audition was a ton of fun, with me and a few other twentysomethings joined by lots of teachers and librarians (and at least one defense attorney, who claimed that he would use any game-show winnings for debauchery and vice. Hmmm). The folks from the show knew that we were all a bunch of geeks, and they jumped right into the geekiness with us--whipping us into a frenzy like a bunch of gladiators about to enter the Colosseum, etc. We took a 50-question written test, which i think i did really well on; then we played a brief practice game (maybe 5 minutes for each set of three people). It really is a lot harder when you're standing in front of an audience than it is when you're just yelling out the answers at the TV screen. Also the buzzer strategy is key. But i did pretty well; i correctly answered a question about Virginia Woolf, one about U2, and a couple others. Then we had to tell a little something about ourselves, and MAN! there were some good stories. One lady had recently donated a kidney to save her husband's life, another said she would give all her winnings to help refugees...and there was the usual assortment of weird talents.
Anyway, they won't tell us how we did. We just have to wait for a phone call that says, "We're taping your episode in L.A. in 3 weeks. Get out here." That call could come tomorrow, or at any time up to one year from the date we auditioned. So i've decided to put it out of my mind and not pin any hopes on it. If they call, they call.
Oh, and i got a cool "Jeopardy!" pen.
And no, Alex Trebeck was not there.

Art's confession

2006-05-17T21:55:00.000-04:00

Ancient language scholar, fitness instructor, and new urban missionary...my friend Art has a lot on his plate. But he's got his priorities straight. Take two minutes to read why he cries in church every week.
(and i'm going to embarrass him by saying right here that he's single, ladies...)

Exam update: 4 down, 1 to go (on Friday morning). I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

...if it ain't got that swing

2006-05-05T15:43:00.000-04:00

I'm back after a short pause. Mel and I have just turned in our last papers of the school year (for Mel, the last one of her whole Master's degree---Hurrah!). Copies available upon request, for those of you who are interested in our humble opinions on Joshua 6 or the Song of Songs.
in the meantime, here's a fun event for anyone who's in the area (and as my wife points out, it's a great free date, hint hint):

On the Off Beat:Jazz and the Gospel

An evening of performance and commentary
on the music and origins of Jazz
with Bill Edgar (Professor at Westminster Seminary, and accomplished jazz pianist)

Thursday May 11, 7:30pm
Trinity OP Church, 151 W. County Line Road, Hatboro

The music and culture of Jazz derive from the life of African Americans whose historical context was both immensely difficult and, at the same time, spiritually powerful. On May 11th all are invited to learn and to enjoy a medley of lecture and performance that will take you into the spiritual power of this amazing music and the history that lies behind it.

All welcome; light refreshments provided; discussion to follow; nursery available for young children.
For more info, visit www.trinityopchurch.org