just a little bohunk for you guys!
Thursday, March 02, 2006
BCP- (sort of) "This is getting good"
All my blogging companions know how to post really neat Jesus pictures in their responses. I thought I knew all about blogging but, alas there is more to learn...
I'm a geek. I admit it. One might say "king of the dorks" but I'm not even cool enough to be king. Here I type/blog about the lectionary...Fool for Christ does not do it any justice.
The line that goes through my head after reading the ash Wednesday responses and admiring the Jesus photos is a line that imprinted itself on my psyche in my prepubescent state. Somewhere in my 12 to 14 year old life I must have watched the movie 16 Candles as many times as it was on HBO (which was a lot). I loved it. I thought at the time (and still like it even now) that it was simply the best movie. High culture was not something that I have ever been able to break into. The movie itself was crass, full of toilet humor, drinking teens, and underpants. I can't exactly remember where the line is in the movie but at some point in the movie the "king of the dorks" (Michael Anthony (?)) looks into the camera and announces "This is getting good." as he moves closer to the opportunity to "score" with the opposite sex. Needless to say for a boy of 12 to 14 full of the idiocy of youth and untried talents, any exposure to the opposite sex even via the movies was better than I was doing on my own. The movie for me captured the excitement of potential. Even the dorks score and there is a message of hope hidden there.
Yet I was even attracted to the sappy side of the movie. It was also a movie about holding out for your dreams. It told the story of a girl (who while tolerating the collection of geeks who followed her about) who desperately wanted to believe she was good enough for the "bohunk" who seemed out of her league. It ends of course with the girl getting the bohunk and the King of the dorks riding off in the great car with the blonde bombshell. What is not to like about this movie?
I'm not all that sure where I am going with all this. I barely know how all of this relates to the lectionary. My guess the line of the movie and the memory is tied to my sense of excitement (not the prepubescent kind...the spiritual kind) about being a part of this blog thing. I read two random responses about Ash Wednesday from persons I admire and while on the surface, blogging about scripture out into the websphere ranks pretty low on the "cool" meter, I could not help but get excited about the transformational quality of what we are doing. I could not help but feel that we are doing something important. We are doing something that reveals the spirit. We are, step by step, becoming. I could not help feel just a little that what we are doing here means something beyond the scope of our understanding here and now. So like the prepubescent kid looking out toward the hope and excitement of life of an adult, I look out to the hope and excitement of a life in Christ. The world may view me as a dork but I say,
"This is getting good"
I'm a geek. I admit it. One might say "king of the dorks" but I'm not even cool enough to be king. Here I type/blog about the lectionary...Fool for Christ does not do it any justice.
The line that goes through my head after reading the ash Wednesday responses and admiring the Jesus photos is a line that imprinted itself on my psyche in my prepubescent state. Somewhere in my 12 to 14 year old life I must have watched the movie 16 Candles as many times as it was on HBO (which was a lot). I loved it. I thought at the time (and still like it even now) that it was simply the best movie. High culture was not something that I have ever been able to break into. The movie itself was crass, full of toilet humor, drinking teens, and underpants. I can't exactly remember where the line is in the movie but at some point in the movie the "king of the dorks" (Michael Anthony (?)) looks into the camera and announces "This is getting good." as he moves closer to the opportunity to "score" with the opposite sex. Needless to say for a boy of 12 to 14 full of the idiocy of youth and untried talents, any exposure to the opposite sex even via the movies was better than I was doing on my own. The movie for me captured the excitement of potential. Even the dorks score and there is a message of hope hidden there.
Yet I was even attracted to the sappy side of the movie. It was also a movie about holding out for your dreams. It told the story of a girl (who while tolerating the collection of geeks who followed her about) who desperately wanted to believe she was good enough for the "bohunk" who seemed out of her league. It ends of course with the girl getting the bohunk and the King of the dorks riding off in the great car with the blonde bombshell. What is not to like about this movie?
I'm not all that sure where I am going with all this. I barely know how all of this relates to the lectionary. My guess the line of the movie and the memory is tied to my sense of excitement (not the prepubescent kind...the spiritual kind) about being a part of this blog thing. I read two random responses about Ash Wednesday from persons I admire and while on the surface, blogging about scripture out into the websphere ranks pretty low on the "cool" meter, I could not help but get excited about the transformational quality of what we are doing. I could not help but feel that we are doing something important. We are doing something that reveals the spirit. We are, step by step, becoming. I could not help feel just a little that what we are doing here means something beyond the scope of our understanding here and now. So like the prepubescent kid looking out toward the hope and excitement of life of an adult, I look out to the hope and excitement of a life in Christ. The world may view me as a dork but I say,
"This is getting good"
But what about ourselves? - BCP
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
I spent Shrove Tuesday with a friend of mine discussing the unfortunate situation the Episcopal Church finds itself in heading toward General Convention 2006. What I realized is two-fold.
1 - Seminary, specifically my experience at VTS has done something I wouldn't have imagined, it has, for some tempered the polemic. As Peter mentioned below he believes he has been transformed. I too feel as though God has used seminary to move me forward. I was once a fundamentalist (or as close as you can get in ECUSA). Today I feel like I'm more of a post-conservative than anything else. But I have been tempered and my mind has been opened.
2 - And more to the point of this post, We have spent a lot of time trying to seperate one another from the love of God. In all the rhetoric and posturing of the past 3 years, it seems to me, that all we have accomplished is seperating ourselves from the love of God. In pointing out the speck in our brother (or sister)'s eye we become sinners, we turn from God. While I cannot cause you to be removed from the love of God, I sure as hell can do it to myself. I vow here to turn back, to face God, and to trust in his faithfulness. For it is through the faith of (in) Christ that we are saved.
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the Christian Year. I feel that it is a day in which we can actually claim the fact that we all sin, that we all are broken, and that we all fall short of the perfection of God. For me as well, it is a day when the claims made that Christians are "Good" and must be of some sort of Dana Carvey-esque (Saturday Night Live Reference for all you people under 23) "Churchlady" are broken open. It is a day when we can claim that we are sinners, that we have darkness, that we are low at times, when we don't need to be happy, perfect, well-adjusted little campers. It is a day when we can claim the fact that our very lives are dependent upon God's gift to us, that we are flawed creatures that somehow find ways (sometimes) to let God's light shine in the work we do, and in the things we say.
I really loved reading Steve's reflection (below) about Ash Wednesday, and whether we should wear our ashes as a sign of our witness to our God, and to our faith. Or, whether we should wipe off the ashes so that we don't try to trumpet our own piety (or our sorry attempts at it!). I feel like our wills are probably flawed and so I say that whichever makes us most uncomfortable we should probably do. For me, as a recovering knee-jerk theological liberal it is probably good for me to smear some ashes on my head every day (of Lent, and beyond) and to wear a big old cross....for others who might desire to show their piety, and for whom witness and mission come easily, perhaps for them wiping it off will work best.
But, what do I know really? Nada.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Ash Wednesday - BCP
"Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
The Anlgican News Service put out a press release written by the Rector of a big church in Manhattan called "Why all the Ashes?" In it he ponders whether he should have a washing station at the back to the church to wipe the ashes of parishoners foreheads before they return to work. In doing so he is attempting to live out the Gospel lesson for Ash Wednesday which calls us to live our fait without being showy.
On the flip side, in the Gospel for Lent 2, Jesus is very straight forward with Peter and the rest. Do not be ashamed. Wear the ashes on your forehead not for your own glory but for the Fathers. Deny yourself and pick up your cross so that God might be glorified in all you do. Being a "good" Anglican I appreciate the tension Jesus sets up here. Living faith without being showy vs. living faith to bring about conversion and transformation. Tough stuff.
The Anlgican News Service put out a press release written by the Rector of a big church in Manhattan called "Why all the Ashes?" In it he ponders whether he should have a washing station at the back to the church to wipe the ashes of parishoners foreheads before they return to work. In doing so he is attempting to live out the Gospel lesson for Ash Wednesday which calls us to live our fait without being showy.
On the flip side, in the Gospel for Lent 2, Jesus is very straight forward with Peter and the rest. Do not be ashamed. Wear the ashes on your forehead not for your own glory but for the Fathers. Deny yourself and pick up your cross so that God might be glorified in all you do. Being a "good" Anglican I appreciate the tension Jesus sets up here. Living faith without being showy vs. living faith to bring about conversion and transformation. Tough stuff.
BCP- What was Abraham thinking?
"The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.
Reading this caused me to understand a little bit Kierkegaards dilemma when reading of Abraham. What was he thinking here? Was he telling Isaac that God will provide a lamb meaning that Isaac was that lamb or was he holding out in hope that God would provide a lamb in exchange of Isaac?
And what was Isaac thinking here? You can almost see him put two and two together. It is kind of like him going "Hey Dad there is no lamb here? I don't really like where this is going."
My hope is that Abraham lived into the hope trusting in God's providence. One image that just popped into my head is that the Passion is part two of the drama that ends with Abraham's upraised knife.
Reading this caused me to understand a little bit Kierkegaards dilemma when reading of Abraham. What was he thinking here? Was he telling Isaac that God will provide a lamb meaning that Isaac was that lamb or was he holding out in hope that God would provide a lamb in exchange of Isaac?
And what was Isaac thinking here? You can almost see him put two and two together. It is kind of like him going "Hey Dad there is no lamb here? I don't really like where this is going."
My hope is that Abraham lived into the hope trusting in God's providence. One image that just popped into my head is that the Passion is part two of the drama that ends with Abraham's upraised knife.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Who is to condemn? (BCP)
"It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?"
I am condemned. I am convicted. I admit it. I have said the words, in fact you can read the words here.
(You'll note I may have been in this place before as well)
I have said of other faithful folk that I'm not sure they are Christians. And I stand here today convicted by the words of Paul, those same words I used in the past to assert my own orthodoxy over and above another's. It is God who justifies. Jesus Christ "stretched out [his] arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of [his] saving embrace." (BCP 101).
I'm sitting in this deep mire of a changing theological understanding. I have nothing. I don't own truth. God justifies. God holds Truth. My sinful eyes are as blind as the sinner next to me. It is not wishy/washy for me to ascribe to the motto etched on the front of our library, "Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will."
Yet I know there still exists Truth. Through the conviction of God's holy Scripture today I feel like I've seen a bit of that truth. Will you someday over lunch, or on this blog site, point to your bit of truth so that I might continue to grow in faith and believing? I hope you will.
I am condemned. I am convicted. I admit it. I have said the words, in fact you can read the words here.
(You'll note I may have been in this place before as well)
I have said of other faithful folk that I'm not sure they are Christians. And I stand here today convicted by the words of Paul, those same words I used in the past to assert my own orthodoxy over and above another's. It is God who justifies. Jesus Christ "stretched out [his] arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of [his] saving embrace." (BCP 101).
I'm sitting in this deep mire of a changing theological understanding. I have nothing. I don't own truth. God justifies. God holds Truth. My sinful eyes are as blind as the sinner next to me. It is not wishy/washy for me to ascribe to the motto etched on the front of our library, "Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will."
Yet I know there still exists Truth. Through the conviction of God's holy Scripture today I feel like I've seen a bit of that truth. Will you someday over lunch, or on this blog site, point to your bit of truth so that I might continue to grow in faith and believing? I hope you will.
BCP- Paul was not kidding around
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul was a player. Not player like high school kids these days understand Player but player in that he lived the walk. Paul was convicted. It is funny, there is a sense where I wonder if modern folks live as convicted. I heard recently that the only type of conviction some modern church goers believe in is the type that occur through courts of law.
Paul was a player. He believed. He set out. He was taunted, arrested, beaten, scorned, starved, and almost drowned convinced of the gospel. And I wonder what came first, the conviction which led to his great travels or the travels based on a smaller conviction which grew into the conviction that is revealed here. He states that "I am convinced". Now it is obvious that as a Pharisee he was not convinced in Christ. One can even posit the idea that he becomes convinced through his conversion. His conversion would lead to a stronger state of conviction. But how much of his conviction as he expresses in the Epistle, grows out of his experience of living a Christian life and trusting that God would provide. I would guess that Paul was not as convinced when he first came to the faith as he was at his death.
Conviction I believe grows. I believe we are led to conviction.
Paul was a player. Not player like high school kids these days understand Player but player in that he lived the walk. Paul was convicted. It is funny, there is a sense where I wonder if modern folks live as convicted. I heard recently that the only type of conviction some modern church goers believe in is the type that occur through courts of law.
Paul was a player. He believed. He set out. He was taunted, arrested, beaten, scorned, starved, and almost drowned convinced of the gospel. And I wonder what came first, the conviction which led to his great travels or the travels based on a smaller conviction which grew into the conviction that is revealed here. He states that "I am convinced". Now it is obvious that as a Pharisee he was not convinced in Christ. One can even posit the idea that he becomes convinced through his conversion. His conversion would lead to a stronger state of conviction. But how much of his conviction as he expresses in the Epistle, grows out of his experience of living a Christian life and trusting that God would provide. I would guess that Paul was not as convinced when he first came to the faith as he was at his death.
Conviction I believe grows. I believe we are led to conviction.
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