conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

fini

I am done.

Yep. I just finished writing my last paper for seminary. I realize that there still is the matter of the thesis, but I will celebrate this great moment nonetheless!

So, unless something horrible and unexpected surfaces, I need only sit through two more classes, clean the apartment for the arrival of my mother and father, sing Evensong on Wednesday, and pray to Jesus that I get to the church on time Friday.

June 4th

10:30 am

Graduation

Why do I have Boston's Final Countdown running through my head. Someone make it stop!

sermon for memorial day

Follow the link below for the text to the sermon. It is a bittersweet Sunday.

This is my last sermon as the intern here at North Shore Baptist Church. It seems appropriate somehow that I have you all to myself on some level. Doug and Carol are not here to catch me if I falter. Brothers and sister, it appears that the training wheels have come off.

Lord, help us all.

A week ago, I was in Washington DC for the Festival of Homiletics. It is a preaching conference held every year in a different part of the U.S. The host church for this years conference was The First Baptist Church of Washington D.C. It was a glorious time. And, just so you know, I took a bunch of notes. I wanted to make sure that I came back to Chicago with as much as I could. One preacher in particular helped me see something different about a sermon. Rev. Beecher Hicks of the Metropolitan Baptist Church preached a sermon that just blew me away! His choir sang. His band played. He got us up on our feet and literally had us in the aisles singing.

Don�t worry, I won�t ask you to do that, but if you feel so moved, never think that I would be the one to stop you.

I remember almost every word of that sermon. It was a powerful word about Noah and his call. The message was succinct and thorough�the sermon just the right length. I left the conference that night feeling like Rev. Hicks preached to me, that he had remembered me and that I was transformed by his word. It was a monumental sermon, one fitting for a city of monuments.

In the style of Rev Hicks, I want to tell you up front what today�s sermon is about: It is about remembrance. There is Jesus in the upper room asking to be remembered. There is Jesus in the upper room remembering all of us in the generosity of his gift of the Lord�s Supper. We remember Him and Christ remembers us.

Washington, DC is a city of monuments and memorials. The First Baptist Church is one of them. Jimmy Carter worshiped in that church. It has been a presence in DC since 1802. It helped establish George Washington University. It is a monument.

While in the city, my friends and I visited the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial and last, but certainly not least, the World War II Memorial.

I mentioned last year on Memorial Day weekend that my grandfather and his two brothers fought in WWII. I brought the hat again in case you needed the reminder. So, it was for them, and for my father, that I went to the memorial.

Why my father? I remember my grandfather�s funeral in 1991. I remember my father and my uncle sitting by the graveside as the undertakers folded the American flag that draped my grandfather�s coffin. My father is not one given to great emotion, at least not to expression of grief or sadness. His face reddened as they folded the flag. He wept when they handed it to him.

This is a difficult memory for me. My grandfather�s death was not an easy one. Nor was his life after his return from Europe back in the 1940�s. Our relationship was uneasy. The memory of his funeral is frustrating and painful. But somehow, I knew that going to this memorial was something I needed to do.

If you have the opportunity, watch some of the news coverage about its commemoration. The monument is huge, its symbols generous. A large pool is surrounded by pillars�one for each state that sent its children to serve. One of my friends remarked that it resembled Stonehenge. It is that impressive.

The pool in the center calls to mind the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii. But, in DC, you can wade in the pool. Children played in the pool. It seems inappropriate at first, until you realize that the men and women who served and died did so for that very thing: for a future for their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Children are supposed to play in those waters.

I thought of my grandfather and of his older brother who passed just a couple of years ago. I miss them. It saddened me to think of them. But as troubled as I was, the faces of the veterans told of even more difficult stories. Men in wheelchairs�their medals displayed on their chests or the brims of their hats. Hearts, stars and ribbons all signs, symbols and memorials to a time I do not know and only can remember through the memories of others and monuments built in cities.

These monuments often call us to remember things we would often rather not. There were over 400,000 American casualties alone. These are sometimes difficult memories. The can be memories of death and loss. There are also often memories joy and happiness that attend. In either case, it takes courage to recall these things, to stand in a public place, a place set aside for such memories and simply remember, remember the faces and the names. It takes courage to move on. It takes courage to allow them to change our present. It takes courage to take these memories with us into the future. They are sometimes burdensome, but we are to take courage and to remember.

This same kind of thing happens all the time for us. It does not necessarily take a monument to get us to remember. Sometimes the memories come flooding in unwanted and uninvited. Sometimes these memories, positive or negative, transform us as well. They call us to be different people than we may have anticipated. We change careers and relationships because of these memories. Sometimes the transformation is involuntary.

You know the kind of memories I am talking about? I have this memory of my mother�s parents� house in Arlington, VA. Arlington is a suburb of Washington. When I was small we would visit fairly often. I remember the glass bottles my grandmother had. Their colors would shimmer in the sunlight. I remember conversations and toys. I also remember the chimes at the nearby Lutheran Church. In the afternoon, at 5:00, those chimes would play. Every day. I did not know the tunes then, but my grandmother did. She would sing them. She would walk my brother and I around the block and we would sit on the stoop across the street and listen to the chimes. This is a powerful series of memories for me, and I assure you they have a lot to do with my being a musician and (hopefully) a pastor. I am trying hard to take courage and live into these memories of chimes, simple chimes.

Do you have a memory like this? Do you have a memory of something that seems small, maybe inconsequential, that you have had the courage to live into or that have gradually transformed you?

From the upper room Jesus gave us memorials, monuments if you will of Bread and Wine. We are asked to remember these things, but to what purpose? We are asked to �do this in remembrance� of him. Again and again we do this. Once a month in some traditions, weekly or even daily in other traditions. Whatever the tradition, there is a remembrance of this upper room. There is a remembrance of Christ.

I dare not become sentimental. I dare not declare what is a right or a wrong memory. But I must declare that our remembering Christ is more than just an exercise of the gray-matter. It is more than a casual recollection. No. It is, in stead, a re-entering the story. Christ remembers us by giving us this moment. This is an ordinance but not in the sense of a "blue law." It is not a parking regulation. It is not empty by any stretch. It is rife with the grace and love of Jesus.

There he sits with his friends asking that they remember him. How could they forget? How could they ever forget the one who has changed them so? Yet, they would. They would deny him. They would run off into the hills to hide from those who might hurt them for being the friend of Christ. One would even betray him utterly. He would give his life for the memory of His friends and the promise of God to always love God�s own creation.

Then he appears to them again. By the sea over breakfast, in a conversation on the road to Emmaus, in a room to Thomas�sharing again Christ�s own vulnerability, �Touch my side, Thomas. Remember me. Do not forget me.� This is God grace pouring out upon us all. For this grace, the grace of memory, the followers of Christ took courage and came out of hiding. They took courage and proclaimed God�s love to the ends of the earth. It is this we remember.

Our remembrance of the upper room, Christ�s sacrifice and his resurrection is a grace from God. It puts all our recollections, our seemingly unimportant memories, in the context of the upper room. Our acceptance, our participation, our adoration and even our betrayal are gathered into this one room, into this one meal, into the memorials of wine and bread. When Jesus said, �do this in remembrance of me,� his words cut through time and are spoken to us here. In this, God's Son came to save us.

Like the memories that shape us on a daily basis, this remembrance does the same. We may celebrate it monthly, but it echoes through our lives, claiming us slowly and inexorably. We are to do this in remembrance of God. Christ institutes them in remembrance of us. Christ has not forgotten us. We can take courage and come out of our hiding places. We can take courage and proclaim the love of God to the world.

Our very lives can speak to our remembrance of Christ. How we love one another, how we work, play, raise our children�

This is a fearful world. Some of you know of the three children found dead in Baltimore. It is a grizzly tale. It boggles the mind. It is impossible to imagine, like death on a cross is impossible to imagine. Can we come out of hiding and speak love into this world? Dare we take courage? Dare we stand like Christ, share our vulnerability and say, �I remember you?�

Standing at the WWII Memorial, it was hard not to think that we are again a nation at war. We are again a nation trembling. We are afraid of the dark places of the world. We are even afraid of our own power. As the followers of Christ, can we take courage in this as well? Can we stand in a world where doubt thrives, where fear and violence appear to rule, and proclaim the wounds of Christ? Do we have that kind of courage? Can we remember the upper room? Can we remember the bread and wine? Brothers and sisters, we can. For God has promised to be there with us. God will actually precede us into those places of darkness. God�s light already shines there, proclaiming release to the captives, hope for the dying and love for the world. Proclaim that love. Proclaim that hope. Proclaim that release. You are the light of the world.

Take courage.
Remember.
For God is with us until the end of the age.

sermon

I am working on my sermon for north shore. This will be my last as the intern there. This is bittersweet. It seems that much is these days.

This makes the sermon title I have chosen...well, it sorta chose me...even more appropriate.

The courage to remember. My scripture is the institution narrative. I Cor. 11:23-26.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, �This is my body that is for* you. Do this in remembrance of me.� 25In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, �This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.� 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord�s death until he comes.

There is no other scripture for the service this time. Usually I include as much of the lectionary for the day as North Shore's liturgy will allow. This time, I am taking a cue from Rev. Beecher Hicks. This is this passage that has called me. "Remebrance" is the word. This is the text for this Sunday's sermon: remembrance.

I dare not become sentimental. I dare not declare what is right and wrong memory. But I must declare that our remembering Christ is more than just an exercise of the greymatter. It is more than a casual recollection. No. It is, in stead, a re-entering the story. It is we who Christ remembers by giving us this institution. This is an ordinance, not a "blue law." Our remembrance is a grace from God. It puts all our recollections in the context of the upper room. Our acceptance, our participation, our adoration and even our betrayal is remembered...and it is for all these things that God's Son came to save us.

[cont?]

awards night pictures

Dave posted these on his page.

Oh my.

LINK

I look like Cindy Lou Who.

photo by dave hedges

oh, right...

I won two awards last night.

The Cantor's Award Given for the greatest proficiency in leading a community chant bu a student in the final year of a program.

The Mahlon Norris Gilbert Book Award Given for the three highest academic records of final-year M.Div. students, not including the Whipple scholar (The Very Smartest Smartypants).

So, there you go. We graduate next Friday. I am wearing my Seabury cross right now. It is heavier than I imagined.

headline: st jerome is the patron saint of swts awards night

Micah Jackson, the Dissiminary librarian, put together a script for the graduating class' tomfoolery last night that boggles the mind. It was great fun. It is my hope that Micah will post the vast majority of it on his site. For your enjoyment, here are the lyrics from the three songs the band played last night.

But first, a word from our friend, Capt. Pacifist...

"You always say that, Calvinist Lad! 'Ooo, it was predestined!' Couldn't you have a superpower that was slightly more useful, like being able to see things BEFORE they happen!?"

Yep. It was like that all night long...

Short Skirt, Long Cassock (ala Short Skirt, Long Jacket by Cake)

Short Skirt, Loooooong�Cassok

I want a girl with a cross of diamond
I want a girl who knows what's blessed
I want a girl with doctrine that cuts
And eyes that burn like charcoal briquettes

I want a girl with the Rite One proper
Who's reformed and catholic
And dresses in black
She's ironing her surplice
She's putting up her hair
She's touring the sacristy
And picking up slack

I want a girl with a short skirt and a lonnnng cassock...

I want a girl whose Matins is early
I want a girl whose Compline's late
I want a girl with a hotline to the Bishop
Who uses a machete to cut through red tape
With candlesticks that shine like justice
And a voice that is bright like good stained glass

She's reformed and catholic
And dresses in black
She's touring the sacristy
And picking up slack

I want a girl with a short skirt and a lonnnnng... lonnng cassock

I want a girl with excellent diction
I want a girl whose chant is strong
At General Convention we'll meet accidentally
We'll start to talk after Evensong

She wants a parish with a 20/20 vision
She tells the vestry "we're growing fast"
She's changing her name from Kitty to Reverend
She's raising attendance at early Mass

I want a girl with a short skirt and a lonnnnggggggggg cassock!

***

Tippet, ala Whip It! by Devo

Crack that whip! Give the past the slip! Step on a crack! Break your momma's back!

If your stole is black and long, its a tippet! When you're singing Evensong, wear your tippet! If you're preaching all alone, you must tippet!

Now tippet - into shape! Dress it up, get it straight! Lean forward, genuflect! Try to discern it - its not too late! To tippet! Tippet good!

If you're an Anglo-catholic, wear a tippet! You will never be dressed right unless you tippet! No one gets to pray until they tippet!

I say tippet! Tippet good! I say tippet! Tippet good!

If your stole is black and long, its a tippet! When you're singing Evensong, wear your tippet! If you're preaching all alone, you must tippet!

Now tippet - into shape! Dress it up, get it straight! Lean forward, genuflect! Try to discern it - its not too late! To tippet! Tippet good!

Now tippet - into shape! Dress it up, get it straight! Lean forward, genuflect! Try to discern it - its not too late! To tippet! Tippet good! Now tippet - into shape! Dress it up, get it straight! Lean forward, genuflect! Try to discern it - its not too late! To tippet! Tippet good!

***

Bill, ala "I'm Just A Bill" from Schoolhouse Rock fame...

{Woof! You sure gotta climb a lotta steps to get to the National Cathedral here in Washington! But I wonder who that sad little man is?}

I'm just a Bill,
Yes, I'm only a Bill,
And I'm sitting at St. Luke in the Hills.
Well, it's a long, long journey
To the capital city,
It's a lot of meetings
With the Standing Committee,
But I know I'll be a priest someday...
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I'm still just plain Bill.

{Gee, Bill, you certainly have a lot of patience and courage!}

{Well I got *this* far. When I started, I wasn't even a *postulant* - I was just a fully initiated member of the Christian community by virtue of my baptism. Some folks back home decided I should be a priest, so they called a parish discernment committee and they said "You're right, he ought to be a priest."Then they wrote a letter introducing me to the Bishop, and I became a postulant. And I'll remain a postulant until they decide to make me a candidate.}

I'm just a Bill,
Yes I'm only a Bill,
And now I'm here in Evanston, IL (pronounce "ill").
Well now I'm stuck in the seminary
And I sit here and wait
While a few key professors
Discuss and debate
Whether they should
Let me be a priest...
Oh how I hope and pray that they will,
But today I am still just a Bill.

{Listen to those professors arguing! Is all that discussion and debate about you?}

{Yes. I'm one of the lucky ones. Most bills never even get this far. I hope they decide to write strong canonical evaluations, otherwise I may die.}

{"Die?"}

{No, not really. Oooh! But it looks like I'm gonna live. Now I go to the Commission on Ministry and they vote on my candidacy.}

{If they vote "yes", what happens?}

{Then I go to the Standing Committee and the whole thing starts all over again.}

{Oh no!}

{Oh yes!}

I'm just a Bill,
Yes I'm only a Bill,
And if they vote for me it'll be such a thrill,
Well then I'm off to the Bishop
Where I'll meet with the shrink
With a lot of other Bills
While the Bishop just thinks.
And if he ordains me then I'll be a priest...
Oh, how I hope and pray that he will,
But today I am still just a Bill.

{You mean even if the whole Standing Committee and the Commission on Ministry says you should be a priest, the Bishop can still say no?}

{Yes, that's called getting screwed and it happens all the time. If the says no, I have to go back to the beginning, and can start all over again, but by that time it's...}

{By that time, it's very unlikely that you'll *become* a priest! It's not easy to become a priest, is it?}

No! But how I hope and I pray that I will,
But today I am still just a Bill!

{He ordained you, Bill! Now you're a priest!}

Oh Yeah!!!

frankenstein's laptop

You know...I think I am beginning to see a frightening resemblance between my computer and the Frankenstein monster. Only one hinge now attaches my monitor to the keyboard, so it rests crookedly. And finally the "n" key has officially died. There is no n-ness left n-it. I have attached my external keyboard (This involved a 90 minute trip where I went home, rummaged through the closet and wrestled the small furry deamons that are my cats.) and it seems to be working well, though getting used to a full-sized keyboard is taking some doing. I type, reach up to the computer to use the touchpad...go back to the keyboard to type...it is a great thing. It just looks silly.

At least now I can continue to write my Sex Ed paper.

prooftexting

Revelation 21:22-26, 22:1-4

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day?and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

forbes and riverside church

I told Cliff I would post this stuff from Riverside Church.

?At no time in the nation?s history has our witness been more urgently needed than it is now. The year 2004 is a critical one for our congregation to come together and create a collective witness to reconnect America with its moral, spiritual, and democratic values."
-Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr., Senior Minister

(Here is an interesting Moyers interview.)

P R O P H E T I C -- J U S T I C E -- P R I N C I P L E S

A set of public policy guidelines inspired by Dr. James A. Forbes' sermon - " The Plumbline Principles " - November 2003

Does or Is the policy :

1. Represent the common good of society rather than the interest of an elite few?

2. Based on a true analysis and does it disclose its true intention? How likely is the outcome to achieve its proposed purpose?

3. Hold the prospect of reducing the polarization and fragmentation of the society due to race, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation or national origin?

4. Have the capacity to be good news for the poor? Does it reverse the trend toward widening the gap between rich and poor?

5. Good for children, the elderly, and the disadvantaged? Does it show sensitivity to the spirit of the golden rule?

6. Refrain from the arrogant assumption that the powerful have the right to ignore the interests and subsistence needs of the less advantaged segment of the society?

7. Provide for free press, free discussion, and the expansion of dissent along with fair and just methods of participation in the democratic process?

8. Encourage respect for persons and nations other than our own? Does it respect the right of self-determination of other nation-states?

9. Based on commitment to a global vision of cooperation and mutuality of respect rather than relying on unilateral military actions for empire-building and domination strategies? Does it use diplomacy as a valued instrument of statecraft in resolving international conflicts?

10. Supportive of strong measures to insure ecological responsibility and sustainability?

kindness...a la tolstoy

This came to me through my Bruderhof "Daily Dig."

Evil Allures, but Good Endures
Leo Tolstoy

Excerpted from Walk in the Light.

There lived in olden times a good and kindly man. He had this world?s goods in abundance, and many slaves to serve him. And the slaves prided themselves on their master, saying:

?There is no better lord than ours under the sun. He feeds and clothes us well, and gives us work suited to our strength. He bears no malice and never speaks a harsh word to any one. He is not like other masters, who treat their slaves worse than cattle: punishing them whether they deserve it or not, and never giving them a friendly word. He wishes us well, does good, and speaks kindly to us. We do not wish for a better life.?

Thus the slaves praised their lord, and the Devil, seeing it, was vexed that slaves should live in such love and harmony with their master. So getting one of them, whose name was Aleb, into his power, the Devil ordered him to tempt the other slaves. And one day, when they were all sitting together resting and talking of their master?s goodness, Aleb raised his voice, and said:

?It is stupid to make so much of our master?s goodness. The Devil himself would be kind to you, if you did what he wanted. We serve our master well, and humor him in all things. As soon as he thinks of anything, we do it: foreseeing all his wishes. What can he do but be kind to us? Just try how it will be if, instead of humoring him, we do him some harm instead. He will act like any one else, and will repay evil for evil, as the worst of masters do.?

The other slaves began denying what Aleb had said and at last bet with him. Aleb undertook to make their master angry. If he failed, he was to lose his holiday garment; but if he succeeded, the other slaves were to give him theirs. Moreover, they promised to defend him against the master, and to set him free if he should be put in chains or imprisoned. Having arranged this bet, Aleb agreed to make his master angry next morning.

Aleb was a shepherd, and had in his charge a number of valuable, purebred sheep, of which his master was very fond. Next morning, when the master brought some visitors into the enclosure to show them the valuable sheep, Aleb winked at his companions, as if to say:

?See, now, how angry I will make him.?

All the other slaves assembled, looking in at the gates or over the fence, and the Devil climbed a tree near by to see how his servant would do his work. The master walked about the enclosure, showing his guests the ewes and lambs, and presently he wished to show them his finest ram.

?All the rams are valuable,? said he, ?but I have one with closely twisted horns, which is priceless. I prize him as the apple of my eye.?

Startled by the strangers, the sheep rushed about the enclosure, so that the visitors could not get a good look at the ram. As soon as it stood still, Aleb startled the sheep as if by accident, and they all got mixed up again. The visitors could not make out which was the priceless ram. At last the master got tired of it.

?Aleb, dear friend,? he said, ?pray catch our best ram for me, the one with the tightly twisted horns. Catch him very carefully, and hold him still for a moment.?

Scarcely had the master said this, when Aleb rushed in among the sheep like a lion, and clutched the priceless ram. Holding him fast by the wool, he seized the left hind leg with one hand, and, before his master?s eyes, lifted it and jerked it so that it snapped like a dry branch. He had broken the ram?s leg and it fell bleating on to its knees. Then Aleb seized the right hind leg, while the left twisted round and hung quite limp. The visitors and the slaves exclaimed in dismay, and the Devil, sitting up in the tree, rejoiced that Aleb had done his task so cleverly. The master looked as black as thunder, frowned, bent his head, and did not say a word. The visitors and the slaves were silent, too, waiting to see what would follow. After remaining silent for a while, the master shook himself as if to throw off some burden. Then he lifted his head, and raising his eyes heavenward, remained so for a short time. Presently the wrinkles passed from his face, and he looked down at Aleb with a smile saying:

?Oh, Aleb, Aleb! Your master bade you anger me; but my master is stronger than yours. I am not angry with you, but I will make your master angry. You are afraid that I shall punish you, and you have been wishing for your freedom. Know, then, Aleb, that I shall not punish you; but, as you wish to be free, here, before my guests, I set you free. Go where you like, and take your holiday garment with you!?

And the kind master returned with his guests to the house; but the Devil, grinding his teeth, fell down from the tree, and sank through the ground.

1885

*

I have a new friend. *

Yes, the Great Asterix! *

It will appear beside my name when I walk at graduation on June 4th. The MDiv. is complete (I am dern near done with the existing papers), but the MTS* is not so much. That thesis still plagues me. I cannot seem to focus. It is always the way. I am thinking and writing in circle. Yay.

So, *.

orchestral communities

My friend Teresa sent this my way. She cited this website: http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily

I suggest also that we reflect upon the original musical meaning of this term. An accompaniment is "a subordinate instrumental or vocal part designed to support or complement a principal voice or instrument." The purpose is to give fulness and completion to the whole musical piece. Again, each of us can ask ourselves holy questions like this: Am I an instrument that allows the principal Voice to be heard? Do I try to harmonize or stand out? What is my contribution? What do I desire to offer the great symphony of love that is our Church? What is still needed in the Church today that I can provide?

And if we need encouragement, inspiration, conviction that we are truly
desired, called, missioned, needed, cherished by God to complete the Divine
Love Song, all we have to do is attend carefully to the words of Jesus in
today's Gospel: "Remain in my love ...so that my joy might be in you and
your joy be complete... Love one another AS I LOVE YOU...You are my
friends...It was I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that
will remain." And whatever we find lacking in ourselves, we simply ask God
to provide: "Whatever you ask the Father in my name" will be given to you.
Let all of us ask, and we shall all receive.

Back to the mines!!!

back from d.c.

We played around in DC. We heard some AMAZING preaching. Oh. My. Gawrsh. (Glory!) It was outstanding to say the least. Next year the Festival of Homiletics will be in Chicago. I will be there to be sure.

We did play. Mom put us up. This was generous. Friday we had some free time, so we wandered around town. The monuments in DC are always impressive. The Lincoln is one of my favorites. It is an education in the politics that still surround the Civil War, racism and regionalism in the US.

We saw the new WWII memorial. It is stunning. If you get out east to DC, make the effort. They simply reappropriated part of the reflection pool. It is quite lovely.

This is the view from the Washington Monument.

The preaching conference was incredible. It is ironic that I have no words to express how glorious it was. Suffice it to say that I am inspired. I have been given a more complete understanding of the place of the sermon in the life of the Christian. I have been inspired to work even harder on my sermons. The bar has been raised, brothers and sisters. It is pentecost in the pulpit!

calvin and the great roadtrip

So, was it an abysmal failure of a reading week? Nope. I got a lot done. I am just not finished. Well, no where near finished, really. So, on my way to DC with some friends (Jane Ellen, Susie, Micah and Judy) I'll work. While in DC, I'll work. On my way back from DC, I'll work. Sigh.

Now, if I could just keep myself from using procrastination as an anxiety relieving technique, that would be good.

Pray for traveling mercies. Pray for guidance in this academic mess.

media blackout

So, I am gonna try it again. I will be taking the week off of blogging in order to finish the first draft of my thesis. Egads. This is gonna be Hell. But one of my own making, and thus in it I will lie. So, no more posting. Little to no IM. Pray that I get this thing done. I am at a place where this ammout of work it totally doable, but I keep making distractions for myself.

I praise Thee while my days go on;
I love Thee while my days go on:
Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost,
With emptied arms and treasure lost,
I thank Thee while my days go on.
-E.B. Browning

See you all in a week!

Oh, just for fun, go here ("As religions adapt and arise to reflect the changing times, NPR begins a four part series on new religious movements. NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty introduces the series with a look at the trends, and why new religions may be influential, even if short lived.").

links of note: feminist theology

Camassia is finally continuing her thoughts from the other day. She has asked some interesting questions about gender, person and power that bear reflection. I have a question for the so-called biblical standard non-sacramental traditions seem to wrestle with, but I do not believe that this is Camassia's baliwick.

Sappho is also blogging about the ordiantion of women. I am glad that they are doing this work. I am too tired to do it. Calvin has my brain in his skinny little hands. Sigh. We are all depraved, now accept God's grace and get on with it already!

Justin, not a feminist theologian, has something else to share about apologies and your neighbor, King Abddllah

Have a great day.

darkness and light

Hasidic parable

A rabbi asked his students, When is it at dawn that one can tell the light from the darkness?

One student replied, When I can tell a goat from a donkey. No, answered the rabbi. Another said, When I can tell a palm tree from a fig. No, answered the rabbi again. Well, then what is the answer? his students pressed him.

Only when you look into the face of every man and every woman and see your brother and your sister, said the rabbi. Only then have you seen the light. All else is still darkness.

ecumenical

adj 1: concerned with promoting unity among churches or religions; "ecumenical thinking"; "ecumenical activities"; "the ecumenical movement" [syn: ecumenic, oecumenic, oecumenical] 2: of worldwide scope or applicability; "an issue of cosmopolitan import"; "the shrewdest political and ecumenical comment of our time"- Christopher Morley; "universal experience" [syn: cosmopolitan, oecumenical, general, universal, worldwide]

o-dark thirty

So, once upon a time, when I lived in a retreat center, there was this guy amed Walter. We called him "Walt." Walt was the Executive Director and a pretty amazing man. He was also a retired Lt. Col from the Army. He was discharged when he was diagnosed with diabetes. At any rate, Walt always called this time of day "o-dark thirty."

I woke up at 4:00 and was unable to sleep. Trish was awake with the TV on. She too was sleepless. She is now asleep in bed. I managed to get her to fall back asleep, but am not up all on my own. Maybe I'll get a chance to sneak back to bed later. Who knows.

Today is Saturday. Something about the streetlights and what I think is an overcast sky (I'll know more soon enough.) make it look like we got a dusting of snow. It's that early morning gray. It has always fooled me like that. So, welcome to the first snow of May for this year.

Well, we had our first pre-marital counseling session last night. There will be three...not including the worship planning stuff. It should be fine. It is not one of those "really thorough detail oriented" models where in one session you talk about money and then in the next you talk about family yada yada yada. It is more like this: The wedding itself is a microcosm of your life together. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about how connflict comes. Let's talk about how people are changed by marriage but not changed into the person you sent away for from the 'design your own spouse' catalogue.

This will do just fine.

Cliff and I are meeting today to write. I hope I can get back to sleep. There is some good news though...I managed to find a book! It is not the one that sprouted wings sadly. It is one by a guy named Max Thurian. In The Eucharistic Memorial he suggests that Calvin's theology of the Holy Spirit in the eucharist is taken "from a sermon attributed to Chrysostom by Erasmus and printed in the edition of his works published at Basel in 1530." That'll do. God bless Martha Moore-Keish for her help. This book will help tons.

links of note

Rubber Hoze is at it again. Wahoo?! He must like worms to keep opening those cans.

And CYSI Online has a strange little poll. who thinks that a progressive President can be elected in this country? To be honest, I am not even sure what progressive looks like.

Alice's Restaurant

This is for Rev Ref.

By Arlo Guthrie ...

This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the
restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant,
that's just the name of the song, and that's why I called the song Alice's
Restaurant.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on
Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the
restaurant, but Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the
church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and
Fasha the dog. And livin' in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of
room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Havin' all that room,
seein' as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't
have to take out their garbage for a long time.

We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it'd be
a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So
we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW
microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed
on toward the city dump.

Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the
dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving." And we had never heard of a dump
closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off
into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.

We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the
side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the
cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile
is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we
decided to throw our's down.

That's what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving
dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the
next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, "Kid,
we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of
garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And
I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope
under that garbage."

After speaking to Obie for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we
finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down
and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the
police officer's station. So we got in the red VW microbus with the
shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the
police officer's station.

Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at
the police station, and the first was he could have given us a medal for
being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and
we didn't expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out
and told us never to be see driving garbage around the vicinity again,
which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer's station
there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, and we was
both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said "Obie, I don't think I
can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on." He said, "Shut up, kid.
Get in the back of the patrol car."

And that's what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the
quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of
Stockbridge, Massachusets, where this happened here, they got three stop
signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the
Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars,
being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to
get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of
cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer's station.
They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and
they took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each
one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach,
the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to
mention the aerial photography.

After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Obie said he was going to put
us in the cell. Said, "Kid, I'm going to put you in the cell, I want your
wallet and your belt." And I said, "Obie, I can understand you wanting my
wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you
want my belt for?" And he said, "Kid, we don't want any hangings." I
said, "Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?"
Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the
toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown, and he took
out the toilet paper so I couldn't bend the bars roll out the - roll the
toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape. Obie
was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Alice
(remember Alice? It's a song about Alice), Alice came by and with a few
nasty words to Obie on the side, bailed us out of jail, and we went back
to the church, had a another thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat,
and didn't get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court.

We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten
colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back
of each one, sat down. Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up,
and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he
sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the
twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows
and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog.
And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry,
'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American
blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it, and the
judge wasn't going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each
one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And
we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but thats not
what I came to tell you about.

Came to talk about the draft.

They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street,
where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected,
neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one
day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so
I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. `Cause I wanted to
look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted
to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York,
and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all
kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave
me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604."

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

Didn't feel too good about it.

Proceeded on down the hall gettin more injections, inspections,
detections, neglections and all kinds of stuff that they was doin' to me
at the thing there, and I was there for two hours, three hours, four
hours, I was there for a long time going through all kinds of mean nasty
ugly things and I was just having a tough time there, and they was
inspecting, injecting every single part of me, and they was leaving no
part untouched. Proceeded through, and when I finally came to the see the
last man, I walked in, walked in sat down after a whole big thing there,
and I walked up and said, "What do you want?" He said, "Kid, we only got
one question. Have you ever been arrested?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the Alice's Restaurant Massacre,
with full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that and all
the phenome... - and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, did you ever
go to court?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the twenty seven eight-by-ten
colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on
the back of each one, and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, I want
you to go and sit down on that bench that says Group W .... NOW kid!!"

And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's
where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after
committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly
looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father
rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And
they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the
bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest
father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly
'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me
and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay
$50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?"
And I said, "Littering." And they all moved away from me on the bench
there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I
said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand,
and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing,
father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the
bench. And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of
things, until the Sargeant came over, had some paper in his hand, held it
up and said.

"Kids, this-piece-of-paper's-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna-
know-details-of-the-crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-
you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting-
officer's-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say", and talked for
forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had
fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there,
and I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony, and wrote it
down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the
pencil, and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the
other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on
the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the
following words:

("KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?")

I went over to the sargent, said, "Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to
ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm
sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin here on the Group W bench
'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women,
kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug." He looked at me and
said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send you fingerprints
off to Washington."

And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a
study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I'm
singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar
situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a
situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into
the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say "Shrink, You can get
anything you want, at Alice's restaurant.". And walk out. You know, if
one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and
they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an
organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and
walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

And that's what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and
all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the
guitar.

With feeling. So we'll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and
sing it when it does. Here it comes.

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

That was horrible. If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud.
I've been singing this song now for twenty five minutes. I could sing it
for another twenty five minutes. I'm not proud... or tired.

So we'll wait till it comes around again, and this time with four part
harmony and feeling.

We're just waitin' for it to come around is what we're doing.

All right now.

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Excepting Alice
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

Da da da da da da da dum
At Alice's Restaurant

birthday

Today is Trish's birthday. I love her. We are to be wed* in September.

I like how we hold hands when we sleep.
I love her laugh.
I love her spirit and her desire to do right.
She's intelligent, creative and just crazy enough to keep me coming back for more.

I love you, Trish. Happy Birthday.

*email me if you would like the password to the wedding website

good sex?!

Go here.

"Instead, we did what any producer does - we researched the demographic and looked at the carry-over audience from Sports Tonight. We were looking at men between the ages of 25 and 35. What is it that captures the attention of men in this age group? We thought, hey, we'll put on a program about sex."

Props to Micah.

thesis

Dating...it is all about dating with Calvin and our understanding of his use of Chrysostom.

Whew!

So, one part of my thesis seems done. I sent it to an editor. We shall see what comes back.

Now on to the next. "How did Calvin use Chrysostom" in which I argue that Calvin was a classical humanist. Of course he's only going to use Chrysostom in as much as Chrysostom supports his own claims. Ad fontes, brothers and sisters!

pings

It is always interesting to me when I get a ping...a trackback...to my site. Someone is talking about what I talked about. Facinating.

So, two sites have liked to my treatment on I Timothy. Very cool. Keep an eye open toward their sites. There will likely be good conversation.

Camassia
Noli Irritare Leones

the listening bar: Styx - Sing for the Day; Seven Nations - Train; Styx - Reprise

ethics

Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote.

The great masquerade of evil muddles every concept of ethics. Evil appears in the form of light, as good works--even as an historical necessity--or as justice, and utterly confuses one who comes from the traditional world of ethical ideas. For the Christian who lives by the Bible, however, these forms of evil simply confirm its abysmal wickedness. Who is able to withstand this evil? Only he to whom the last measure is not his own reason, his principles, his freedom or even his conscience--but rather his readiness to sacrifice all of these: only he who is called to deeds of obedience and responsibility in faith and single-minded communion with God; only he who will let his life become nothing, as answer to God�s request or call.

You can get something like this daily from Bruderhof. Their site is interesting.

a couple of interesting articles

This is an interesting article on liberalism. I wonder the same about capitalism. Really, are either of these two particularly new? I know that globalization may be rather new, but then again, if your wolrd is the Pacific Rim or the Mediterranean then "globalization" is not new. All this as we wonder if Iraq can sustain democracy.

So, here are a couple of questions.

What is the importance of Iraq sustaining democracy? We know that the history around this is complicated. Our track record is less than stellar. But what is the hope for Iraq?

For those interested in the socio-religious issues, I wonder if we plan on "Christiaizing" Iraq next. Note: Christianity has been in Iraq for about 1500 years longer than the US has existed. Knowing this makes me a little fearful of some of the missionary efforts in Iraq (saith the Baptist).

Time to write...thesis...thesis...

library woes

So, for the one or two (more?) people who remember me from waaaay back in college, you may recall that I seldom studied. This is the truth of it. I simply did not do it often. It was not that I did well without the studying, I just always found a happy distraction. This meant that I may have ventured into the library a dozen times in the 4 years I was there.

Well, let me tell you that seminary is a different beast. I am oft in the library! I have my own carrel with orange lights hanging in the window. It is a lovely place with musty books and a wireless network. I love it here.

But there is a dark side to the library...fines. Yes. That and the Case of the Mysterious Missing Book! Killian McDonnell's book John Calvin, the church and the eucharist has gone missing. It has been a while at that. Fines. So, to check out more books I needed to settle up with the librarians, those godly women of the sacred microfilm. I have settled up and am, with the cost of the book, $70 poorer. That is actually quite the break. There are some thigs they simply forgave. Repentance has its virtue.

I, this library sinner, repent of my tardiness! And, if anyone sees McDonnell's book a'wanderin' about, please send it my way.

frustration

Bummer.

I can't seem to retrieve the file I need for my class.

I wonder if I can get at it another way.

Sigh.

http://www.submission.org/

"Surely, those who believe, those who are Jewish,
the Christians the converts; anyone who
(1) believes in God and
(2) believes in the Hereafter, and
(3) leads a righteous life,
will receive their recompense from their Lord;
they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve."
[Quran 5:69, 2:62]

This is a cool site.

is it really spring?

Well, in Chicago it is. This is the trouble with the renter's life in this blustery city. It is May. No more heat. It is 38 degrees. Of course, when it gets up to 80 this week (well above normal, btw), the heat will come on. It is just that way. So, I put another blanket on the bed and use the cats to keep me warm.

I love Chicago!

Oh...um...will I be excommunicated from the Church Universal if I decline to watch the last episode of FRIENDS? I am not sure I will be around to watch it...and, honestly, I never really go into the show. I know that it is "about my generation." I had just graduated college when it came out. All my friends watched it. Eh. Me, well, not so much. I am some kind of sinner.

boring

Really, I just could not do it justice. I think I have whined myself out.

1 Timothy 2:11-15

11Let a woman* learn in silence with full submission. 12I permit no woman* to teach or to have authority over a man;* she is to keep silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

This is the question: Does I Timothy state that a woman has no place in the ordained ministry because they are not to teach in the assembly? Or, in stead, is I Timothy addressing a specific pastoral concern in the church at Ephesus? This essay will be an exploration of possible ways of engaging this passage from traditional to modern feminist critique. We shall see that this passage has several possible interpretations ranging from the strictly didactic to an engagement in a wider narrative. There may be no single way to read it. Yet, we will discover a common theme of the interaction of normative societal structures and gender roles and Christian revelation.

An example of a traditional exegesis of this passage can be found in J. Ellicott's commentaries. Verse eleven, according to The Very Rev. H.D.M. Spence D.D., is a clear instruction of the role of women in the community at Ephesus. He reminds us that this injunction was questioned and eventually supported in Carthage (385 CE) with the further defining of the role of women as teachers. Women were allowed to teach other women in private. The public forum was relegated to men. It is unclear if he supports this stance. He simply mentions that it was the practice of the Eastern Churches.

In his exegesis of verse twelve, Spence suggests that this is actually an elevation of the status of women. By giving women a place to teach, that is, in the privacy of their own homes, they are elevated "out of the position of degradation and intellectual inferiority they had occupied in the pagan systems of the East and the West, and taught with all the weight of an Apostle." This is the fruition of "no male nor female," and yet it still upholds the cultural norms of the Greco-Roman tradition in Ephesus.

Verses thirteen through fifteen are Paul's exegesis of Genesis 3:14-20. Spence extols Paul's ability to enter such a discourse. According to Spence, Paul is once again upholding the right place of a woman in the cultural milieu of the time. This is a divine arrangement and not just a cultural accident. God first created Adam and then Eve. Throughout the three verses, Adam is given primacy. It is even stated that Adam, though he sinned, was not deceived by the serpent. This too, elevates the status of Adam and all men through him. Woman's salvation is through childbearing. The curse of Genesis is now the place of women in the world. They must "acquiesce." This curse, however, is rescinded through the divine Birth of Christ, through the motherhood of the Virgin. Spence equates salvation through the incarnation with the role of motherhood.

Luke Timothy Johnson, in his exegesis, has an interpretation that may be more palatable to the modern ear. Though he says that the injunction is clear, we must read I Timothy in its context. It is a letter to the church in Ephesus. So, Ephesians 5:21 must also play into an understanding of the role of women. This complicates matters immediately. If men and women (perhaps only husbands and wives) are to be subject to one another, what then is the purpose of this social ranking in the liturgy and teaching of the church?

Johnson has a couple of ideas. First, he suggests that there were specific troubles with the Gentile women in Ephesus and the popularity of an Artemis cult at the same time. It may simply be that Paul had a specific concern for these women in this community and how they may or may not conflate the various cultic practices and beliefs with Christianity. This is speculative, according to Johnson, and perhaps unsupportable. If this were the case, however, it would shed some light on the strength of the decree. This is the only reason it bears mentioning.

The second contextual option for Johnson is simply within the Pauline corpus itself. How is this letter consistent with the rest of Paul and his correspondence with the church in Ephesus specifically? For Johnson, it is another example of Paul's desire to demonstrate good social ordering. "[Order] in the household and the church is essential for witness into the world. He clearly perceives the issue of female leadership as fitting into this some way."

Thus, Paul's desire for structure is a reflection of culture and that culture is given a theological framework which redefines it. This still does not answer some questions that Christian feminist interpreters of scripture may ask. For Paul, it appears to be enough to theologically redefine the social ordering alone and not restructure the same order. Thus, for feminist interpreters, the question is: Is this cultural/social ordering one that Christianity has mistakenly proponed since the Greco-Roman structure has been conflated with the theological understandings of Paul? Perhaps it would make more sense to apply Ephesians 5:21 to our own context and redefine our current social order to reflect it. Perhaps an appropriate Christian action would be to have a social ordering that would reflect the theology of Paul and not continue to live into an existing social ordering with a theological redefinition.

This brings us to recent feminist critique on the role of women in the church ad how I Timothy has been used to deny women an ordained role. There are many critiques available. For the purposes of this essay, we will focus on two. The first is the place of "female eroticism" within how Christians view the ministry. Is ordained ministry asexual, masculine or feminine?

In Sex in the Parish, we read testimonies from various ordained women that their ministry is effected by their gender and what cultural expectations gender may play into people relating to them as pastors. How female ministers relate to parishioners in times of crisis may differ from how their male counterparts would. How women may engage in crisis or simply manage pastoral work may differ from how their male counterparts engage and manage the same situations. This plays out in liturgy as well. This is one woman's testimony.

As a female pastor I have become aware that I have been trained to be a priest, but I actuality, I am a priestess. I mediate Goddess, not God, and there are o guides within Christianity - no protections - no sanctions - that help me deal with Her power when it is unleashed. I feel as though I could spend the rest of my life exploring/rediscovering the art of being a priestess. Maybe then I could better understand the truest, deepest power of my own sexuality and the One who lies at the heart of it.

Gender may play a large role in how we view the qualities and virtues of the ordained vocation.

Mary Stewart Van Leeuwenn gives us a different read of Timothy (and Genesis) and the place of women in society. In her address to Wheaton College, she urges students to realize that issues around gender are going to be the cornerstone to how they live out their vocations either ordained or not. "[Your] Christian liberal arts education is going to be incomplete if you do not respect, ponder, and struggle with both the idea and the concrete realities of gender - whether or not this topic is acknowledged in the structure of the formal college curriculum."

Her exegesis states that neither male privilege nor female submission are the results of salvation through Christ and are, instead, signs of the curse in Genesis 3. The current social ordering is a sign of original sin. It is not the fulfillment of the Kingdom. The desire of many conservative evangelical Christians for a return to an era of "family values" is also a sign of original sin. Why would the gospel call humanity to a way of life that, per her argument, encourages absentee parenting by fathers and allows for women to escape responsibility for the decisions made on their behalf? This is not a sign of the Kingdom; instead, it is a sign of the curse.

What she appears to be attempting here is encouraging the students to move out of their particular polemic and ask deeper questions as they become the next generation of moral Christian thinkers. We cannot conflate American social structures with the Kingdom of God. They are not the same. Is this, however, contradictory to Paul's understanding of "right" social structure and the place of women in relationship with men? Not necessarily. It appears to be a conflation of Pauline ideals. This is, perhaps, how one can speak from the entire Pauline corpus at once as Johnson would desire. Van Leeuwenn is suggesting that we allow Paul's understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven ("neither male nor female") guide and critique how we create our social structures, and not simply redefine those orders without changing them.

In all four interpretations of this passage of scripture and the corresponding attitude regarding the place of women in society, we witness attempts to bring culture and revelation together. The more traditional view will conflate the two almost entirely, suggesting that both the structure and the theology are the results of Christian revelation. Other interpretations will attempt to extract the theology of Paul from its societal context to a greater or lesser degree. This is our task as interpreters of scripture. How will the revealed world of scripture be manifest in our societal structures? Will we attempt to replicate those structures? Will we allow them to simply inform our existing structures, or will we model our social structures after the theologies our communities glean from scripture. No matter where we find ourselves theologically, this is our task.

gitali 43

If you don't endure sorrow,
the when will your sorrow elapse?

You have to burn out the poison
with the itense heat of poison.

Let your fire burn,
Don't fear it at all.

When it turns to ash and dies out,
then it will never burn again.

Don't run away while trying to evade Him,
Don't be reluctant to surrender to him.

Running away down the long path,
you only prolong your suffering.

Finish off death completely
by dying.

Only then
will that Life come
and take His own seat.

image from www.artlebedev.ru/studio/posters/.

first annual virginia woolf lecture series*

Here at the Sjlbvdnzv Campus of the University of Blogaria, we occasionally stumble upon conversations that lend assistance to understanding the way the church and the world interrelate. These are, of course, by accident. Nevertheless today we celebrate the first in a series of annual lectures. There are two topics being presented in this year's series.

1. Christian Capitalism: The Church in Relationship with Systems of Economic Power

faculty lecturers: Tripp Hudgins, Geoff Holsclaw, Robyn Henderson

2. Christian Community: Identification Through Shared Dialogue or Shared Opinion?

faculty lecturers: Tripp Hudgins, Todd Young
guest lecturer: Ryan Whitley (scroll down to "community forum")

The goal is that I will participate in fewer of these.

*The reason for naming the lecture series after Virginia Woolf has nothing to do with anything. I am just watching The Hours. I admire her greatly, but it is a total non sequitor.

capitalism

This is an assignment from Geoff.

How does the Church break out of capitalism, or capitalist ideology?

Are we on the verge of re-creating Christian Socialism? Uh oh. This is an interesting question to ponder.

I think the issue centers on power and where Christians assign and then embody power. Since this is not my doctoral discertation, I will just skim the surface and let the professionals (here or here)handle the sordid detals.

Before this becomes an opportunity to lambast a political/ecoomic framework, can we suggest that Capitalism does some good things? It allows for opportunity for most (current US system) or all (laize fiare?) in the system to make money and perhaps even a better life for themselves. We have to wonder here in the US why it is that so many people wish to live here. This is the land of opportunity. Our representative democracy and the capitalism we try to live into allows for a lot of this. The wealth generated has also afforded this nation, sometimes in the name of Christ, to do some good stuff. All this is great.

But the question is not whether or not Christ can be perceived within the system of capitalism, is it? How does the Church break out of capitalism, or capitalist ideology? I assume Geoff wants it to. Not that I disagree with him, but that is the presupposition.

Capitalism is about competition. Is there a Christian attitude about competition?

I think chapter 20 of Matthew is a good place to start. If scripture is to be a guide (prescriptive prooftexting to narrative ethics), then Matthew may have something to share. First we have the parable about the workers in the vineyard, and how this may be a reflection on the nature of Christian commuity. Time logged does ot afford one greater "rank." There may be such a thing as Christian maturity (sanctification, theosis), but there is no ranking that is competition based. And the time we log does not make us more or less saved.

Second, is the dialogue begun by the mother of the Sons of Zebedee. She wants to assure that her children receive top billing, that they will have places of honor. Jesus then describes that place of honor. It is the exact opposite of what I imagine Mom expects. It appears to be the opposite of what the apostles expect.

The nature of greatness in Christianity, atleast in Matthews gospel, is one one of servitude, sacrifice, the loss of self and not the elevation of self in social status and wealth. In fact, here, greatness is found in death. The same will be found in John's gospel (those who will lay down their lives for their brother or sister).

So, can capitalism replicate this eithic? Can it be a tool to be used in this? Maybe only if we are all willing to give what we make away, to sacrifice our selves, our wealth completely. But this is a harsh ideal, no? How deo we get a good education for our children? We live in the US. We are simply enjoying the advantages of the system already. Can we separate ourselves at all without moving to Madagascar? I don't know if that is what Geoff is after. But these are the questions I come up with.

I think that capitalism is not Christian. Though they have been conflated in this country, I am pretty much convinced that is inappropriate. On that note, let me post this on my website with my computer while sittig on my couch all purchased with my hard earned dollar so that I can participate in conversations like this one.

again with the faculty appointments

This was Thomas' acceptance letter.

Tripp,

Oh my, this is all so sudden. I would be honored to be the only true Ice
Cream Orthodox on the faculty. I suggest a chair in Anti-Radical-Orthodoxy
Studies and Iconographical Poetry. My first lecture shall be on why Milbank is
overrated, and why Pickstock would probably be a boring date.

Peace,

Thomas

Let it be so.

Kate Kamphausen has been added to the Phillips Brooks faculty. This is a great thing, as she is most likely to make pink vestments wirth having. Let us welcome the Chair of Theological Catering and Exultant Gatherings.