Outpostings

Why Myron Rolle is morally superior...

2010-04-20T14:22:00.001-05:00

My brother in law and I have had an ongoing discussion about what it would mean to be a pro athlete and a Christian. Part of the discussion stems from our own crushed dreams, and part of it stems from a comment a professor made to me once, “I am not sure a person can be a Christian and a professional athlete.” Being raised in a sports addicted family, this sounded like anathema to me, and I have been trying to parse it out ever since. I will avoid the whole discussion of positives and negatives, though that may show up some day, and rather point out two unique stories from this year’s NFL draft. Consider the case of Tim Tebow and Myron Rolle. The coverage and questions of Rolle have been fascinating to me. If you don’t know, Rolle is a Rhodes Scholar who has hopes of becoming a doctor and wants to model scholarship and professionalism to young urban students. He gave up his last year of eligibility to study in England and has now returned to try his hand as an NFL safety. The major question is whether Rolle can take the NFL seriously enough to play for a long time and stay committed. Here’s a great blog post that spells this out (http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college_fsu/2010/04/former-florida-state-safety-myron-rolle-too-smart-for-the-nfl.html). Now Tebow. There are also a ton of questions about Tim Tebow, the mechanics of his throwing motion, his ability to take snaps, how quickly he can release the ball, how accurate can he be, etc… Not once though has anyone mentioned his Christianity as a possible drawback. No one has said, “Doesn’t your commitment to Christ make this game a bit irrelevant? How do we know that you are going to play like football is the most important thing in your life, especially when you claim to follow Christ?” In short, if scholarship and medical missions can get in the way of a productive NFL career, why can’t Jesus?

Story Worth Sharing

2010-04-15T14:30:00.002-05:00

Recently, I was driving my children through the McDonalds drive-thru, and this prompted Colette to proclaim, "When I grow up I want to work at McDonalds." Uh-oh. "And I am going to work in the drive-thru." Oh no. "Then I can give away a bunch of money." Yes! Of course, Calvin would not let this go without commentary, "You can't work at McDonalds and give a lot of money away, you need to make a lot of money so that you can keep some money for yourself, and still give a lot away." Uh-oh, again. As I am rattling through possible responses, Josh decides to resolve the debate by dropping this bomb, "I think Jesus told a story about this. There is a rich guy who gives a lot of money away and an old lady who is poor, but gives away her last penny. Jesus says that the poor lady actually gave more." Wow. Just as I am about to break my arm patting myself on my back for my amazing parenting, Calvin humbles me with, "That's right, I remember seeing a video about that." Yuck. Curse you VeggieTales. Oh well, back to trying to teach kids about Jesus, and also learning from them.

Prayer for Easter Week 2

2010-04-13T13:46:00.002-05:00

Rising from the dead God,
In a world full of earthquakes, coal mines, drug cartels, disease and death, you call us to believe that you have conquered such things. We confess that this sort of believing is not easy for us, and yet, you have called us to something far more difficult than just belief. You have sent us into this very same world. The only way we can even imagine attempting such a terrifying task is if you go with us Lord, if you lead us forward in the freedom of your cross and resurrection. In our world captured by the tyranny of cause and effect, make us crazy enough to be your resurrection people. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Introducing the Missional Church

2010-02-01T20:24:00.001-06:00

In a great new book by Alan J. Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren there is this great idictment of the church in the West:
We are not focussed on Gods mission but on how God meets our needs. Jesus a packaged choice in the spiritual food court. We have a debased, compromised, sterilized Christianity. The biblical narratives revolve around God's mission in, through, and for the sake of the world. The focus is towards God.

Fun with an iPhone app

2010-01-23T12:52:00.001-06:00

Here are a couple of pics through a filter:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New Beginnings in '10

2010-01-06T15:17:00.001-06:00

Welcome back to the blogging world. This is a first attempt at blogging from my phone. Once I get all of this synced up, I will go back to writing on sports, theology, unemployment, and a host of other thoughts. Peace and blessing in the new year.

Best Invention Ever

2009-10-14T09:07:00.002-05:00

As many of you know, I love to watch//read//think//talk//write about sports, and I have not done very much of that lately on this space, because I have been trying to use this space to share more theological thoughts, talks, and ideas. Every once in a while, though, all of these passions overlap, and today is just such a day. To begin, I want to turn your attention to google reader, which is an invention that does exactly what it promises. It delivers information and makes that information easier to access and use. Basically, google reader lets you subscribe to blogs you are interested in (which you can do without google reader), and keeps all of those blogs in one easy screen which updates as those blogs do. If you read more than two blogs this thing is an amazing time saver. I can do in one place, what I used to do in about 35, and I don't miss any updates. Beyond just placing my favorite blogs in one locale, they also give handy summaries of each new post (in some cases) which makes it easier to determine if I want to get into the post or not (this is super helpful for blogs with lots of new content). Aided by google reader, I am now able to scan a ton of blogs, on a ton of topics and themes (everything from sports, to theology, to comedy) and do it all relatively efficiently. In light of this I want to quickly post three links that I think overlap our areas of sports and theology.
1. Malcolm Gladwell's story on football, is one of the most stunning, horrific, challenging things I have ever read. Seriously. This story is enough to make hard/impossible to watch football again with a clean conscience. Read it at your own peril.
2. The best blog on my beloved Milwaukee Brewers is called Brew Crew Blog, and yesterday's post was one of the most transparent, accountable, pieces of sports writing you will see. This is one my favorite differences between blogs and print media or national experts (yes ESPN, I am talking about you). At the beginning of every season, all the experts make predictions for how the season will go, and almost always these predictions are awful. Occasionally ESPN and others are so bad that they joke about it, but nowhere will you see the same sort of honesty you read at Brew Crew Blog. Because the blog writers don't have to be experts, they can admit when they are wrong and actually look at the numbers. Advantage blogs.
3. In a sort of follow up to my post about Josh and Brett Favre, Bill Simmons (ESPN's Sports Guy) has maybe the best three paragraphs on the subject in his mailbag from last week. I would advise skipping right to the last question, unless you read Bill Simmons all the time, just before his picks, to read his thoughts.

Plato, the gospel and Batman?

2009-10-06T09:36:00.001-05:00

Awhile ago I was taught that one of the grave dangers of modernity was its tendency to dichotomize the human person. Following Plato’s idealism, layering it with Kant and America’s rugged individualism creates an anthropology that produces humanity as essentially “thinking things.” When we throw Protestant (particularly) theology into that already potent mix, we develop notions of salvation and doctrine that make almost know sense of the entire person. We find ourselves saying things like this:
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” AW Tozer
When we are radically consistent, we eventually produce a gospel message that sounds like the one I recently heard at a Tenth Avenue North concert, in which the lead singer (inspired by John Piper) talks about this clip from Batman Begins:

After doing a spot on impression of the movie the singer reminds the crowd that the problem with Batman is that he can’t be saved, and here’s the kicker- “He can’t be saved because he things that what he does matters. But its not what he does that’s important about him, its who he is.” Wow. The complete separation of deeds and self. If we take away our actions, how would we even know who we are? Are we only our actions, like Batman seems to imply? No, of course not, but we are way more than just our minds. Compare the earlier Tozer quote with this one,
“We have no idea how to live until we first know who God is. So when we say that God's name is holy, that tells us how we ought to live. Knowing the creator tells us where the creation is meant to move.” Hauerwas and Willimon, Lord, Teach Us. 46-47.
The differences are subtle, but enormous and crucial. For more on some of these connections, check out Jams KA Smith’s latest book Desiring the Kingdom.

Thy Kingdom Come

2009-10-06T08:45:00.004-05:00

I wanted to another little write up about this section of the Lord's prayer to continue our series, but I am having a hard time spitting it out. I will not leave you longing for my thoughts on this, though, as I do have some scattered ideas and a not great talk on this part. First the scattered thoughts:
1. Just as God’s name opens for us the challenge of living holy lives, so to does the prayer for God’s kingdom. To be God’s kingdom people, the people who pray and work and long for the kingdom, means to be a people whose lives are characterized by Kingdom dreams and hopes.

2. “In saying, ‘Your Kingdom come,’ we are acknowledging that faith in Jesus is not simply an idea or an emotion. It is a concrete reality in which we are to become part or else appear to be out of step with the way things are now that God has come into the world in Jesus. When the kingdom comes, we are ‘to repent [i.e., change, let go of our citizenship in the old kingdoms] and believe the good news [i.e., join up, become part of the revolution].” Lord Teach Us. Hauerwas and Willimon, page 51.

And as promised, an entirely mediocre talk on the Kingdom of God:

Vikings, Loyalty and Racism with an 8 year old

2009-10-06T08:40:00.003-05:00

I have been conflicted with the whole Brett Favre Fiasco for quite a while and it is coming to a head tonight. I will not delve too far into it, but my biggest struggle has been how do I talk to my oldest, son, Josh about it. Josh was sad when Favre retired the first time, but he was able to deal with it pretty well. The Favre ended up playing for the Jets and Josh felt OK about this also, because he could root for Favre to do well and it wouldn’t affect the Packers in really any way whatsoever. When Favre retired again it wasn’t a big deal for Josh, and he was glad Favre was done. One morning, though, I came out of my bedroom to a very teary eyed Josh, sitting on the couch watching Sportscenter, and his only question was, “Why would Favre want to play for the Vikings?” Of course I didn’t have a great answer, but I tried to explain a bit about a desire to keep playing, and the possibility of greed and vanity, but at the end of this conversation, he just looked at me and sighed, “But why does he have to play for the Vikings?” All of this of course does not endear Brett Favre to me, and this past Saturday, Josh and I were looking at football figurines at the store we started looking for Packers players. I said, “If they have any Packers its probably just Brett Favre anyway.” To which Josh had this great reply, “As long as he’s in a Packer uniform that’s fine by me.” There it is, in the words of Seinfeld, he’s loyal to laundry. Somehow this makes me proud, and I am looking forward to Monday night’s game.

What followed this conversation, though, made me even prouder. Josh finally settled on a Vince Young figurine (remember an entire year and three games ago when Young was a mega-superstar) and we went to check out. As we were in line, he mentioned how excited he was to get the figurine, and I asked why. His response, “Well, he’s a black quarterback, and there are hardly any black quarterbacks Dad. I wish there were more.” It is worth mentioning that he and I have never discussed the number of black quarterbacks in the NFL-ever. If you have never met Josh, this sort of comment is not unheard of for him, and neither are racial questions. Martin Luther King, Jr. is his hero, and he has also been fascinated by Jackie Robinson. Maybe my favorite thing about Josh’s worldview around race is that it is punctuated with his odd brand of humility, observation, and service. He knows that he is white. He also knows that there are other races. When he puts these two pieces together then he is able to ask and figure out what loving his neighbors look like. His honesty about this reminds me that the two dominant models I have been given for dealing with race- race doesn’t exist and race is the most important thing about us- are lacking precisely because they rob us of the chance to serve and love each other. Thanks Josh.

Introducing the Bridge

2009-10-01T13:07:00.005-05:00

Thw Bridge has been a big part of my life for the last two years. The Bridge is a worship service I direct at St. Mary's every Wednesday night throughout the school year. My main jobs are preaching and building relationships. I have recorded my sermons for the last year or so, and I think I have finally figure out how to embed them here. This is my first talk from this year:

If you are really interested in hearing these talks, take a look at the previous posts, I have updated the one's on the Lord's prayer by inserting audio of those talks as well.

Hallowed Be Your Name

2009-09-10T14:25:00.007-05:00

The first point to make about this line is that it serves as a bridge between the first phrase we talked about last week (Our Father in heaven), and the phrase (your Kingdom come) that immediately follows it. Our separating out this phrase, and all the phrases for that matter, is simply an effort to explore more deeply some of the individual pieces of the prayer, but we should always be aware that these phrases make up one, beautiful, cohesive prayer.
We begin by admitting that we almost never use the word "hallowed" unless we are a sports announcer talking about Lambeau Field or Cameron Indoor Stadium. For our purposes it will do to simply mean "holy" when we think of hallowed. As is often the case, by defining the one difficult word, with another difficult word we have gotten really nowhere at all. A quick survey of college students yielded these definitions of holy, "happy," "blessed," "special," "sacred," and "something about God." All of these touch on an element of the way we use the word, but the etymology of the word goes to something like "separate, different, other." Holy be you name becomes a short hand way of saying that God is different than us. Our father who is in heaven is not us. In fact, God is not us too such a degree, that even God's name is holy.

We have no idea how to live until we first know who God is. So when we say that God's name is holy, that tells us how we ought to live. Knowing the creator tells us where the creation is meant to move...The Lord's Prayer us like a bomb ticking in church, waiting to explode and demolish our temples to false gods." Hauerwas and Willimon, Lord, Teach Us. 46-47.

Once we begin to trace the idea of God's name being holy, we open up a ton of interesting stories and images from the Scriptures. We are reminded of Moses meeting God in the burning bush, and quickly recognize how holiness works in Exodus 3, when even the ground near the bush is considered "holy" just because of God's presence. God's presence doesn't just make the ground holy, but also causes Moses to hide his face. As we trace God's holy presence, we begin to see a pattern of people encountering God in God's holiness and being left silent. God's holiness is where our language goes to die. In even naming God's name, we have reached the limits of language. In the face of this limiting, we are forced into the most basic of Christian practices- confession and prayer. Here again we notice that throughout the New Testament there is an understanding that some day, all will bow before the name of God. Just on hearing God's name, all of creation, humans, whales, trees, turtles, everything will bow in reverence. The Christian life then is a call to live this now. Contrary to the often misunderstood command about taking the Lord's name in vain, when we pray the Lord's prayer and ask God to make God's name holy, we are attempting to bow our lives to God's will. This finally is the picture of God's name being made holy. All of creation bowing before a loving creator. This is God's kingdom coming on Earth as it is in Heaven. More on that next week.
UPDATE Here is the audio of this talk.

Our Father In Heaven

2009-09-02T10:21:00.005-05:00

Over the next few months, I am going to be posting some reflections on the Lord's prayer that are the basis of a sermon series I am giving at St. Mary's University on Wednesday nights. Tonight we begin with, "Our Father in heaven." The designation of God as "Father" is always a bit of an issue, and particularly so right now at places like Princeton where the gender inclusive language sprung up again. Is this prayer claiming that God is a man? What about the other questions for people who have serious "Father" issues? Is this prayer somehow a painful reminder for those who have been abused or abandoned? Perhaps. Lets look a bit at the prayer, and see what we can see. To begin with, Jesus is not calling us to pray to an abstract, ideal, Platonic, Father. Rather, the opening of this prayer surprising tells us something of ourselves- we are God's children. The "our" in this prayer is significant. We are God's children, and through Jesus we can call God Father. This leads to the next observation, namely that the designation of Father, is uniquely Trinitarian. Without the Son, there is no Father, and in fact without the relationship between the two that allows them to communicate as Father and Son, there is no Spirit. All of this to say, that while we sometimes hear "Father" and cringe at our own histories of violence and neglect, we are challenged to overcome those histories. We are called to witness this specific Father, of this specific Son, and in the strength of the Holy Spirit, proclaim our Father.

"When Christians pray, 'Our Father,' we are not merely declaring that God created us. We are saying that, in Jesus Christ, God has saved us." (Hauerwas and Willimon, Lord, Teach Us)

The second point worth unpacking a bit is the "in Heaven" portion of our prayer. I believe that when Christians pray the Lord's prayer, to the extent that they ever think about the "in heaven" part, they think of this as a designation of place. We tend to hear "in heaven" as God's address. This is, of course, no doubt true on some level, but we miss the wealth of Scripture's witness if we are content to simply stop here. I am convinced, that if we take some more time with our Old Testaments, we will uncover that "in heaven" is not simply a designation of God's place, but also of God's person. Heaven moves from simply being where God dwells, to being intimately connected to who God is. The Hebrew God of Abraham (Gn. 14:19-22), Moses (Ex. 20:22, Dt 4:39) and Ezra (Ezra 1:2, 5:11-12) is the God who is "in heaven." When Jesus invokes this phrase, and we follow his lead in repeating it, we are conjuring up all of these Old Testament stories right into our simple prayer. Jesus has masterfully carried in the whole of the Old Testament with two simple words: in heaven. It is not simply where God is, it is who God is.
We began by acknowledging the difficulty around this phrase, "Our Father in Heaven," by hearing the real concerns about God being a man's name, and by acknowledging the terrible images that can come flooding in on us when we even mention the label Father. I think the Lord's prayer is able to hear these criticisms, and hurts, and respond in love. To the question of gender the Lord's prayer says lets not talk about all men every where, lets talk about Jesus' father. To the children of absentee Dad's the Lord's prayer tells story, after story, after story of our Father working on behalf of his children. To the victims of abuse at the hands of fathers, we catch a glimpse of our Father in heaven, and are reminded that heaven is not only the place of comfort and hope, but also of justice and judgement. Our Father in heaven will side with the victims, and God can not be bribed or bought off. This God is not an abstract unknown deity, but rather has a long history, a people, has been faithful even unto death, and is more than worthy of being prayed to as "Our Father in heaven."
UPDATE Here is the audio of this talk:

The Economic Crisis

2009-08-11T08:50:00.004-05:00

Despite the fact that I have no money, I have been terribly interested in the current state of the economy on theological and ethical grounds. In early Spring this year I was asked, "Do you think the recession is God's punishing us?" My knee jerk reaction was that this could only be punishment if our economic boons were God's blessing, and I am just not sure we can say that either. I don't deny that for many Christians in America we have assumed that economic prosperity has been a direct result of God's blessing, but I do deny that anything like this comes to us from Scripture. Rather we have another classic example of the American church hearing America everytime a blessing is promised to Israel. Ironically, we do not here America when there is punishment or blame to go around in the Prophets, particularly for things like unjust scales and economies that destroy poor people, but there is still something to commend in the question. This question assumes that God is wrapped up in and concerned about the economic life of the world/country/church/his followers (depending on how you read the "us" in our question). While I like that we see God working, I am uncomfortable with the thin categories we have for naming God's work. Going forward, I want to suggest that before we get into the habit of naming blessings and curses we do at least two things:
1. Know the situation we are attempting to name. Have cogent account of how we have contributed to what is happening around us and know why it is happening in human terms. Be able to describe the situation clearly. In keeping with our current topic of the economy, there are least a a few articles we should be reading, and here are two of my favorites: Matt Taibbi and Michael Lewis.
2. Take the time to do thoughtful theological reflection. Don't be limited to the sort of rhetoric we constantly encounter on talk radio and television news shows. There is no need for the Church, and its members, to make sure it is the first voice people hear on issues, but rather it is time to demonstrate a thorough, consistent, faithful, theological, response to a wide range of issues we face currently.
For an absolutely fantastic example of how to do both of these practices well, listen to William Cavanaugh accomplish just such a feat in his presentation at the Eklessia Project Gathering.

Maundy Thursday Thoughts

2009-04-10T17:10:00.003-05:00

For some reason, I always love our Maundy Thursday service. The liturgy is beautiful, and the readings are amazing. I have preached at this service, and listened to other really good preachers preach at this service, and I am pretty sure the sermon needs to go. I think the act of foot washing, essentially reencating the gospel text is more than enough. The other observation is that the John reading is a great place to turn for the wedding of both doctrine and embodiment. We are all aware of the embodiment piece, but there is this great nugget, "Jesus, knowing, that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself." (Jn 13:3-4) I guess if you were going to preach you could preach something on that relationship.

Fear and Loathing in Piedras Negras

2009-04-03T15:08:00.001-05:00

For those of you wondering, our mission trip went well, and here is the piece I wrote about it for the newsletter:

On March 7 a small team of five left San Antonio, TX and headed to Piedras Negras, Mexico. It was a short two and a half hour drive, but to hear the media talk about it, our team was risking life and limb to enter a battle zone. Mexico had been captured by drug lords and corrupt cops, and was allegedly on the brink of civil war. You can imagine our shock when we were greeted with a warm smile and bear hug by a Danny Devito-esque Mexican priest, Padre Miguel.
Padre Miguel is the priest of El Buen Pastor, a congregation that has grown exponentially and considers its mission to be very simple: tell people about Jesus and help whoever you can. This church stood in stark contrast to everything we had been prepared to encounter in Mexico. Where we were expecting to see pain, suffering and death, we instead encountered hugs, smiles and vibrant life. The whole time we kept thinking, these people live where we are afraid to go.
Our team spent four days in Piedras Negras building relationships in the church and digging a ditch that will be used to lay the foundation for an addition to the church. This addition will be used as a computer lab/ sewing center and will give El Buen Pastor even more ways to serve its city. We saw the living conditions of many of the poor, the dirt floors, the crate walls, no heat, and no water. Even these poor welcomed us, and rather than being angry or dejected they were hopeful that perhaps these American Christians could help.
Maybe we can help. That question has haunted me since we returned to San Antonio. Maybe we can help. We should be able too. We have the means, the talent and the energy. But we are also gripped by fear. Unlike past years, the overwhelming response to this trip, was, “Don’t go, its too dangerous.” We took the media descriptions of violence to be gospel truth. We took general government warnings to be specific calls on our life. Maybe we can help. Maybe, but it is going to take trusting Jesus more than our local news anchor, and loving our neighbors more than we love our own safety. Maybe we can help. Our team prays that we can.

Lenten Vows Revisited

2009-04-01T11:38:00.003-05:00

I am still rocking on the things I gave up for lent: candy bars and soda. I have managed to stay faithful to that vow by embracing a perhaps worse vice: sweet tea. While I am thinking about it, it really should be noted that all other iced teas should just go away. Sweet tea has clearly taken tea as far as it can go, and I just don't get the need to keep making inferior teas. My current store bought favorite is Arizona Southern Style Sweet Tea. While I am doing alright on the things I gave up, I very clearly have not followed through as well for the positive thing I wanted to add- more blogging. This will change though, because I have been doing quite a bit of writing and speaking over lent, so I will work on getting those posted here, and also fill in some new thoughts. I also promised a big announcement, and I am only a few short days away from unveiling that, so stay tuned.

B-day Bash

2009-03-14T19:54:00.000-05:00

Lots of videos lately, and one more today. Josh turned 8, and we have some footage of the kids with cupcakes and candles. Also, the movie debut of Ellen Jan. Enjoy:

Monday in Mexico

2009-03-09T09:11:00.002-05:00

Greetings again. All is well. Here is a quick video greeting to fill you in on some stuff:

Tonight we hope to post a couple of videos of our group working so check back in.

Hello from Mexico

2009-03-08T10:54:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone. I am trying to upload a short video for Abby and the kids, but it is taking a bit longer than I planned. Hope this works, and if not check out gregrichards77 on youtube.

Cigarettes and Flossing

2009-03-04T10:12:00.003-06:00

Alright, one week in, and I have done a far better job with the things I am giving up than the things I am taking on. A full week of no soda or candy has passed, and has gone fairly well. The task of attempting to blog more frequently (while not a total failure- once a week is still pretty decent) has not flourished with the same level of success. I am reminded of a line I heard from a friend of mine (Dan McCarthy), which I am sure he swiped from someone, that he shared when the lead singer of a band asked if anyone had tried to quit smoking, because it was the hardest thing he had ever done. Dan replied, "No way, have you ever tried to start flossing? That's way harder."
Also, I am excited about an upcoming project that I will reveal on this site once we get it going, and I am confident we will have it in place before the end of Lent, so stay tuned.

Ash Wednesday

2009-02-25T09:29:00.003-06:00

Lent is upon us again and it begins with Ash Wednesday. I am really excited this year to be taking Josh and Calvin out school to bring them to our noon service for Ash Wednesday. We gave them the option of being able to go tonight at 7, or going during the day and then having to go back to school with the crosses on their heads. Josh's response was both typical (of him) and amazing, "That would be great, because then everyone would be able to tell we were Christians just by looking." On my personal list of Lenten vows, no soda and no candy. I am also adding in that I will blog throughout Lent, so hopefully you find something mildly interesting back on this site soon. In other news, I have a side project I am working on, that I think a number of you may find really interesting, and as soon as I figure out the technology I will be making a big announcement about it here. For now though, I will close with one of the oldest Lenten prayers,
Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, that by the observance of this Lent we may advance in the knowledge of the mystery of Christ, and show forth his mind in conduct worthy of our calling; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Politics of Jesus: Chapter 1, Part 2

2009-01-13T12:32:00.000-06:00

Before we move onto the next major section surrounding this messianic ethic, I want to quickly explain what Yoder means by “politics.” He doesn’t bother to explain the term in Politics of Jesus, but he does take the time to walk through what he means by “politics” in one of his other books, Body Politics. In his Body Politics Yoder acknowledges that we tend to think of politics as “what governments do or what ‘politicians’ do, and ‘church’ people can avoid that.” In contrast to this way of thinking about politics, Yoder wants to recognize that, “The Christian community, like any community held together by commitment to important values, is a political reality. That is, the church has the character of a polis (the Greek word from which we get political), namely a structured social body. It has its ways of making decisions, defining membership, and carrying out common tasks. That makes the Christian community a political entity in the simplest meaning of the term.” Put a touch more simply, “To be political is to make decisions, to assign roles, and to distribute powers, and the Christian community cannot do otherwise than exercise these same functions…” While the church is and must be political in the simplest sense of this phrase, the church must also be political beyond the simplest meaning. “Politics affirms an unblinking recognition that we deal with matters of power, of rank and of money, of costly decisions and dirty hands, of memories and feelings. The difference between church and state or between a faithful and an unfaithful church is not that one is political and the other not, but that they are political in different ways.” This understanding of politics is key for us to understand how Yoder thinks of Jesus being political in the Politics of Jesus. For Yoder it is not simply that the church cares about money, power, relationships and costly decisions, it is that the church cares about these political things because Jesus did and does.
With that in mind, we return to the second part of chapter one. By functioning with the aforementioned “Eight ways of making Jesus Irrelevant” our current situation creates a giant need. Because Jesus is fundamentally irrelevant to how we make decisions or live in the world (think about the definition of politics here) the result is we need “Some kind of bridge or transition into another realm…” Yoder uses the image of a bridge to hint at how precarious our situation is without Jesus. The bridge itself is too narrow and rickety to do a lot of good, and if we are to live well than “the substance of ethics must be reconstructed on our side of the bridge.” When we must construct an ethic on our side of the bridge, with little to no help from Jesus, then we will almost always choose “either common sense [or] the nature of things” as the basis for moral living.
Once these foundations for ethics are mixed with a Spiritual Jesus we are left with “a kind of negative feedback into the interpretation of the New Testament itself.” Put another way, this dangerous mixture is self perpetuating. Once you decide Jesus was not political, and you must view the world through either common sense or natural law you begin to develop practices for reading Scripture that make it very difficult to ever hear Jesus as political at all. Yoder rightly warns that if this mixture is permitted to run rampant we will eventually be forced to ask honestly, “Is there such a thing as a Christian ethic at all?” Yoder of course will say that there is. He will attempt to argue “the hypothesis that the ministry and the claims of Jesus are best understood as presenting to hearers and readers not the avoidance of political options, but one particular social-political-ethical option.” In short Yoder will attempt to argue throughout Politics of Jesus that Jesus “is not only relevant but also normative for a contemporary social ethic.” If there is a coherent Christian ethic, then Yoder expects to be able to find it in the gospel accounts of Jesus, and this is precisely where he turns in chapter 2.

Politics of Jesus: Chapter 1, Part 1

2008-11-17T15:48:00.002-06:00

This is the second part of our series reading through John Howard Yoder's Politics of Jesus John Howard Yoder’s initial chapter begins with, “the observation that Jesus is simply not relevant in any immediate sense to the question of social ethics.” Yoder recognizes that neither the academy, nor the Church has been able to hear Jesus in any discussions around politics or how one acts in the world. Not much has changed. We are still in a very similar predicament, even in a church culture that “values Scripture” we have been unable to make the jump to connect our social lives with the Jesus of the Bible. Yoder rightly decries this situation and blames it both of Biblical scholarship, and their intense naval gazing, and on Church leaders who refuse to do the Biblical work necessary to hear Jesus speaking to us now.
Yoder spends a significant amount of space in this chapter laying out ways in which we miss Jesus all the time. Yoder wants us to understand better how it is that we come to expect Jesus to be irrelevant. Yoder initially recognizes six key ways in the first edition of Politics of Jesus and then adds two more ways in the second edition.

Eight Ways of Making Jesus Irrelevant (In some particular order)
1. First amongst these is what we will call, “Temporary Jesus.” This argument assumed that Jesus thought He would be gone for a little while, only to return after a brief hiatus. Because of how temporary the in between time was, Jesus simply had no stake in the overall health and stability of society as a whole.
2. Second is what we will call “Farm Boy Jesus.” Jesus was an essentially rural figure who never saw fit to involve himself in the political systems of his day. “There is thus in the ethic of Jesus no intention to speak substantially to the problems of complex organization, of institutions and offices, cliques and power and crowd.” In asking Jesus to speak about politics, we would be asking him to do something he is unqualified for.
3. Third is what we can call “Powerless Jesus.” The option for any sort of political power never existed for Jesus, and thus he is unable to speak to politics today in which the church has some sort of power. This is particularly problematic for those of us in democratic societies where we are convinced political power lies with the individual.
4. Fourth is what we will term “Spiritual Jesus.” This is perhaps the most insipid version of Jesus we have. Central to this picture is “the inwardness of faith” in which Jesus is really only concerned with our hearts (More on the dangers of this version in just a bit). Because of this radical spiritualizing, Jesus simply has nothing to say physical, political sort of things.
5. Fifth is what we shall name “Theological Jesus.” This one on the surface does not seem so bad, but when it is finally completed is quite dangerous. This version of Jesus emphasizes the “radical discontinuity between humanity and God,” and distinctly because of this difference it makes all human ethics flawed. We must never accept a finite system of action in place of God’s infinite hopes for the world. The infinite hopes are almost entirely expressed as principles and values.
6. Sixth is what we can call “Sacrificing Jesus.” This picture of Jesus emphasizes the truth that Jesus came as a gift of grace and sacrifice for our sins. The key piece here is that because the work of Jesus is grace for us, it would be wrong to turn his life into something like a work that must be followed politically or otherwise. “How the death of Jesus works our justification is a divine miracle and mystery; how he died, or the kind of life which led to the kind of death is therefore ethically immaterial.
7. Seventh is what we can call “Cloudy Jesus.” This picture of Jesus is way less prevalent in evangelical circles, though it does seem to be on the rise. This version says that Jesus is irrelevant simply because we do not have a clear enough picture of who Jesus was and what he did. The accounts we do have are sparse and at times contradictory, and this is certainly no way to build a coherent set of political actions.
8. Eighth is “Overly Important Jesus.” This version is related closely to “Theological Jesus” and centers on an odd bit of Trinitarian logic. Trinitarian means relating to the Trinity, which is the Christian way of speaking about who God is in himself, namely Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the Western church we speak of God in this language and acknowledge that all three “persons” of the Trinity are equally God. The argument then comes that to privilege Jesus above the other two members of the Trinity is to give him a status that is inconsistent with who God is.
These eight pictures of Jesus taken together can be a bit daunting, though the response I tend to get from other evangelicals is simply that none of these categories actually apply. Before we move away from this series of pictures and onto what Yoder has next, lets take this objection seriously by looking at a specific passage. Turn to Luke 6:27-31 and let’s see what Jesus says about money. In this passage Jesus says “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”
The question we must ask is, “Does Jesus mean it? Is it relevant for what we do with our money now? Why not?” Whatever we answer to the why not question, is our picture of Jesus that makes him irrelevant. Whether its because Jesus is talking about our spiritual heart attitude towards money (Spiritual Jesus) or he is simply giving us a principle like be generous (Theological Jesus) or Jesus’ teaching here is interesting but it actually gets trumped by Paul’s teaching on money because of dispensations (A combination of Spiritual Jesus and Sacrificing Jesus) or maybe because there is a huge translation question (Cloudy Jesus). When really pushed on this, it seems that Yoder may be right after all.

Politics of Jesus: An Introduction

2008-11-11T17:18:00.002-06:00

In September 2001, most of our lives, particularly in the United States, were altered forever. For the first time my generation could remember, we clearly understood that some in the world hated us. It was a time to ask serious questions about what it means to be Americans, and for some of us what it means to be a Christian. For me, questions centering on violence, enemies, politics, Jesus and the gospel all came together in one place. This one place, was not Ground Zero, the Pentagon or a farm in Pennsylvania, it was in a little book written by a Mennonite in 1972. Just over 25 years after it was first written, John Howard Yoder’s seminal work, The Politics of Jesus, provided me with the crucial tools necessary to salvage my faith and engage this new world breaking in all around me.
During the seven plus years that have followed my first reading of Politics of Jesus I would guess that I have read through it at least ten more times. It has also been my practice to convince as many people as possible to read through it, though this has been a largely unsuccessful effort. Along the way I have had the chance to teach some of the material in this book to youth and college students, particularly in Sunday School classes and have learned a great deal in doing so. One of the consistent responses to Yoder’s work has been that it is simply too difficult to get into. Whatever value there is in Politics of Jesus is lost amongst my well meaning friends, because Yoder is operating with categories that they can not move around in. After years of hearing this criticism, and a number of pleas from the aforementioned friends, I have finally decided to attempt something like a brief, guided tour through The Politics of Jesus. I will attempt to point out any crucial places, while highlighting key ideas for how we might think through what it would look like to call ourselves Christians in the times we find ourselves.
One final note, The Politics of Jesus once in a while gets easily dismissed as a book about pacifism. Yoder no doubt feeds this misconception in his preface to the first edition when he claims that the meaning of the book is, “On the least sophisticated, most argumentative level, it is the simple rebound of a Christian pacifist commitment as it responds to the ways in which mainstream Christian theology has set aside the pacifist implications of the New Testament message.” Despite Yoder’s intentions otherwise, I am going to respectfully disagree. This book I believe is only secondarily about pacifism, it is in fact much more so about Jesus. A book only on pacifism would certainly not stick around and continue to have the sort of impact this book has had two generations later, but a book that speaks the truth about Jesus might in fact have that sort of staying power. This point is poignantly made in the final line of the book:
Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur: Our Lamb has conquered; him let us follow.
The Politics of Jesus is fundamentally about what it might look like to follow our Lamb, Jesus who was crucified and resurrected to conquer death and bring reconciliation to the world, and that sort of book is well worth reading through.

Remembering A Saint on All Saints

2008-11-04T15:24:00.004-06:00

This summer I watched my Aunt Janis die. She had cancer which grew at an uncontrollable rate in the final weeks of her life. After complaining of a soar back, originally misdiagnosed as bursitis, she made it seven more weeks before dying. I keep using the words death and die, because somehow the euphemisms we have for it are too tame. My aunt, after all, did not succumb to cancer, she died, and I suspect she would be mad at me for saying otherwise. This is meant to be a bit of a reflection on my life with Aunt Jan, and who she helped me to become. It’s worth noting that if there is a danger here it is that this is more of a caricature of my aunt than an effort at an over accurate depiction, and is a totally biased one sided account of my life with her. She was not just my aunt, there are many others who would have even better stories of my aunt, and who in fact may find my themes at least a bit surprising, and would probably have better suggestions of their own. Nonetheless there is something to be said for reflecting, and I suppose even Aunt Jan would not have minded me writing something down, so here goes.

Aunt Janis was proud of being Irish, and nowhere was she more Irish than in her lightning quick wit. She was incredibly sharp and loved to hear people laugh. Often you learn to admire things because people you admire respect and admire those things, and this is how I learned to admire and respect my aunt’s wit. While riding in the car with my family an ad, which I can no longer remember, came on the radio and within a half second my aunt had made a witty retort, which I also can not remember. While the retort was unmemorable, I distinctly remember my father, who is still one of the wittiest people I know, being amazed at how “quick” my aunt Jan was. That picture of my father being impressed with my aunt’s mental speed has never left me, and no doubt influences the way I still interact with my world.

One of the key pieces of my aunt’s wit was her love of language. This love of language could be clever, in the way she could turn around an argument, or often it was imaginative. She was always crafting stories to entertain us, to scare us, or to simply surprise us. I have been on the receiving side of my aunt’s love of language my entire life, as both a child learning how the world works, and as a parent seeing my own children light up at one her crazy stories. From Jedi trails to talking rabbits, from scissors to smacks and from poetry to Roger Rabbit my aunt loved language, and she shared that love with everyone she met.

I loved to introduce my friends to my aunt, and I still think this is the best part of being from a huge family. Small families feel like families are great because they are private, and there is this closed circle of memories and people, but large families know that families are great because anyone can belong. If my aunt had an irritating quality, it was that she simply refused to believe there was much difference between strangers and family. This meant there were very rarely private meals or holidays where you knew everyone, and many times you had to weigh out the options of what crazy person Jan may have invited. It never occurred to you that you may be the crazy person she invited, but this was only because she was incredibly good at making you feel like your presence made all the difference.

If all this were not enough, my aunt passionately loved Jesus. This may be the wrong order to put things, because after all my aunt would confess that this love of Jesus is what made the other things I have mentioned, language and hospitality, mean anything. I find myself reflecting on my aunt’s life, realizing how true that objection is. I also find myself a bit surprised that these are likewise the themes in my own work and life.

Perhaps my favorite theological axiom is that, “We can only live in a world we can see, and you can only see in a world you can say.” My Aunt taught me to “say.” She helped me see the world that is there, and never let me forget that there is more to the world than there appears at first glance. As Christians, we are forced to imagine and see our world differently. Because of the cross and resurrection of Jesus, we learn the skills of radical hospitality that my Aunt practiced her whole life, namely the discipline of recognizing strangers as family. I was taught to sing very early on that, “Jesus Loves Me, for the Bible tells me so” and while this is true, I know the Bible tells me so because people like my Aunt Jan loved me. If my primary job description as a Christian minister is to love people, then the top of my resume aught to read, Nephew of Janis Routh.

The Favre Fiasco

2008-08-04T17:55:00.003-05:00

As I hide away in San Antonio, I am anxious for this Favre mess to go away. I distinctly remember how mad I was at Favre for the second half and over time of the Giants game, and I think the thing that made me most angry was that it was a feeling I thought was gone forever. I guess then I was relieved when Favre retired in March, I mostly believed him and like a battered souse was ready to start my life with out him. My oldest son almost cried, but I convinced him (with very little effort) that the Packers (and we) may be better off. I reminded him about the young receiving corps, the stellar defense and improved special teams last year. I also told him that we had another QB who might be alright, especially if he can avoid throwing interceptions. I still believe all of this to be true, and am convince that the Packers management has handled this pretty well (minus a few public relations mistakes). I think what really bothers me is that I assumed now that I am an adult I wouldn't feel the way Josh did about Favre retiring. I thought I was past getting that emotionally caught up in pro athletes. Favre once agian has proved me wrong. Here are a couple of the best bits of reporting on the Favre Fiasco. The only guy at ESPN who has got it right so far:

A nice look at recent history:
Cold Hard Football Facts
Always on the ball sports reporting from the Onion:
Favre's Passion

The Rest is for Remembering

2008-07-14T17:00:00.002-05:00

Today was maybe the hardest day so far, but not physically. We only worked for half the day, though we were doing some of the worst of the painting, but in the afternoon we took a guided tour of New Orleans, particularly paying attention to the damage the flood did. This is the second time I have had the tour, but it still grabs you in a weird way. I was struck between the time Katrina hit, and the time the levees broke. Our guide said it was something like 12 hours, and people had actually begun to put lawnmowers and outdoor work equipment back outside. Then the levees broke. The tour made me wonder and pray for the Midwest and the flooding there. New Orleans has begun to come back, but it is long and slow and urban. I wonder what will happen to those small towns in Wisconsin and Iowa. As I saw the places again I was reminded of my reflection a year and a half ago. This is what I wrote then, still in pretty rough form:

What makes you feel safe? What do you rely on? Who do you trust?

Our Psalmist raises these same questions when he asks (Ps. 20:7)

The right answer to these questions according to this psalm is the name of the Lord.

But, in the light of our trip to New Orleans, and all the devastation we witnessed, that answer, although theologically accurate is not quite as appealing as we once may have thought. We now have another question, “Why did God allow this to happen?” There is not a simple answer, but I would like to look at two scriptures to begin to form something of an answer. Turn with me to Luke 13.

The first part of the answer according to this passage is that we are all asking the wrong question. The flood in New Orleans should drop us to our knees in repentance. We are to repent of those things we trust too much. Those things that can not bear the weight of our trust. Popularity. Boyfriends, girlfriends. Jobs. Parents. Our stuff. All of these are misplaced trusts.

The second part of the answer to “Why God would…” involves something larger and more cosmic. Namely, part of the answer is the end of the world. (Revelation 21)

THE END IS LIKE THE BEGINNING

Is. 25:1-9 as background to Revelation 21.

The honest answer as to why God allowed New Orleans to be flooded is that we don’t know 100% why. But, what we do know 100% is how we are to respond to it. Repent- trade in your false trusts and BELIEVE- fully rely and be confident in God’s ability to bring about His plan.

Tuesdays are for Painting

2008-07-01T16:50:00.004-05:00

Lots of work today. Most of today was filled with painting, the inside and outside of a house in Broadmoor. The painting was for an older woman who had to leave New Orleans by helicopter after the levees broke. She got to her local Catholic church, and then her and a few other were helicoptered to safety. Afterwards she spent the next year or so in Cottage Grove, MN.

I have learned a bit about myself over the last two days. One, I hate window glazing as much as I have ever hated anything. Second, I don't mind painting- too much. Third, I don't mind heights. Also, I have a couple of more insights from Acts, but no time to share them now, I will share them later. Take a look at this picture:

The dark parts of the shirt are sweat. The humidity was brutal, but you actually felt like you did work, which was nice.

Monday is mission day

2008-06-30T21:01:00.004-05:00

Long day today. Our group is staying at an awesome church in the neighborhood of Broadmoor in New Orleans, and you can check out the way they work in their community at their website: http://www.annunciationbroadmoor.org/ To me these people represent the best of Christian political involvement (particularly check out the way they are aiding Midwesterners who have been flooded and their Broadmoor Improvement Associastion). This church has responded to adversity, tragedy, and huge amounts of sorrow by reimagining what it means to be a church at all. Our lessons for this week are focussed on the end of Acts 2, and tonight we asked the big question, "How do you become part of this people?" By looking back at Peter's sermon, particularly, the conclusion, we realized that one of the key pieces of being the Church is recognizing who Jesus is. Asking and answering the question of what it means for Jesus to be the Lord and the Christ. The immediate response is to repent of our misunderstandings of Jesus. This, it seems to me, is exactly what has happend here in New Orleans. The Free Church of the Annunciation, has repented of false ways of viewing Jesus, particularly ways that allowed them to be oblivious and seperate from their neighborhood. In what can only be described as providential irony, here is the stained glass from their previously flooded altar:

Jesus pulling Peter from the surging water while the rest of the disciples look on, realizing that Jesus is the Christ, Lord of this sea. When Peter turns back to Jesus, he represents exactly the repentance he will commend to those on Pentecost. Beautiful really. Our God does move in mysterious ways.

2008-06-28T21:40:00.000-05:00

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Mission Month

2008-06-28T21:30:00.003-05:00

As seems to happen, I have somehow gone a month without posting. I am not one hundred percent sure that this is going to get better, but I will give it my best effort. My plan is to blog my mission trips over the next month. Tommorrow I leave for New Orleans with a group of high schoolers from the Diocese of West Texas. I was hoping to get more participation from our group, but the week turned out to be a tough one scheduling wise. I am excited about my lessons for the week, and I am praying that God will work in our service and fellowship. The focus for the week is Acts 2, and in particular the picture of the early church. Anyway, tommorrow is our travelling day, and Monday we begin to work, so keep checking back to get updates.

Now thats playoff basketball

2008-05-27T23:08:00.004-05:00

Its that time of year, the time of year when the Pistons make basketball almost unwatchable and the refs decide the outcome of so called crucial games. Several things after tonight's game:
1. Why does Joey Crawford ever get to officiate a Spurs game? Just avoid the appearance of impropriety on this one. Ridiculous.
2. Clearly Barry was fouled. Inspite of obvious video evidence the response from the TNT studio crew (normally the best in the buisiness) took the company line. Reggie says "Its a good no call." Barkley argues that its not a foul because Barry did not sell it. Kenny admitted that it was a foul, but Barry should have sold it more.
3. Next, the worst line of reasoning in the whole world spews immediately from Barkley, "I am glad they didn't call the foul because I don't want the refs to decide the game." This to me is the dumbest response to a play like this, and I have lamented this point previously, because by not calling an obvious foul, the refs are also deciding the game. If you do not want refs to decide games, then do not let them officiate games in the first place. Every call all game effects the outcome, and this is nowhere more true than the NBA. The NBA, where no calls deciding playoff games happens.

That's not fair...

2008-05-08T16:45:00.002-05:00

If you list all (or even a few) of our mistakes in order it looks bads, but c'mon...I mean one at a time...errr...well....they probably made sense at the time....right...I mean....man I hate being a Brewers fan some times.

If you want to relive the pain, check out this new article:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=3384356

Pennsylvania on my mind

2008-04-25T21:30:00.004-05:00

Tonight was a good sports night. Stanley cup hockey and NBA playoffs are both awesome, factor in that tonight is the eve of the NFL draft, and I simply had to provide a sports post.
Hockey
Hockey first. If you have not been watching the playoffs, then you have been missing some of the most exciting hockey I have ever watched. The pace and intensity of the Penguins v. Rangers and the Avs v. Red Wings is unmatched. There is so much fire power and they all play so fast that these are the type of series' that could teach you to like hockey. If you are looking for a team to root for, I vote for one of the two Pa. teams- the Penguins. They are simply a really, really, really, good offensive team (this equals goals) and a super young team (this equals underdogs). One other note, Crosby gets all the press, but watch Malkin closely, this guy is ridiculously good.
Basketball
Now onto the roundball. I would be remiss if I did not express my glee with the Detroit Pistons lack of showing up. No doubt that all the stories will read that the Pistons just are not showing up, that they are flat, that they are waiting to flip the switch, but I think all of those observations are a bit short sighted. During game one I had the distinct impression that stylistically the Pistons are going to hate this series. The Sixers force them to work constantly, and the Sixers love to run. The Sixers are too young to know that they can't beat the Pistons, so they are almost impossible to discourage. All of this adds up to a rotten match up for the Pistons.
Second, the most anticipated series so far is Spurs v. Suns, and rightfully so, two very good teams that are always competetive. Last year I mentioned that contrary to popular opinion, the biggest match up problem for the Suns is not Duncan, but is Parker. Nash can not guard him because he can not take away the jumper, and whoever else they put on him can not stay with him quick-wise. If you are doubting my ability to call these things, re-look at my writings from last years playoffs (note to CW, you may not want to read all of the comments).
NFL Draft
The Packers have 8 picks this weekend including four on the first day. If history is any indication, Thompson will end up drafting quite a bit more than eight players. I would look for the Packers to move out of the first round and grab a couple of extra second or third round. I expect us to draft at least one CB and TE early. I would also not be surprised to see Thompson try to solidify the O-line, and probably even add a receiver. Every year Wolf used draft a QB, and he is still one of the best evaluators of QBs. I think a few years from now, people will say the same thing about Thompson and WRs. He has a nack for picking really good receivers, particularly ones people don't know about. Of course, I do think that we should draft a QB, but you just never know with crazy Ted (crazy like a fox).

The Lordship of Christ

2008-04-18T09:37:00.003-05:00

In my discussions around why I do not vote, I consistently try to argue that somehow my following Christ as Lord rules out my voting. I am currently working through a book called The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch which is a dramatic call for re-thinking and imagining what the Church should look like. It is a fascinating book, and I may have more to share as I finish it up, but there is a great section on what it means when the Church confesses Jesus as Lord. I thought you may enjoy this bit:

"There will be different gods that rule different spheres of our lives, and the God of the Church in this view is largely impotent outside of the privatized religous sphere. Christocentric monotheism demands loyalty precisely where the other gods claim it, and this is true for us as it was for our spiritual forebears" (Hirsch, 97)

He then goes on to quote Lee C. Camp:

"'Jesus is Lord' is a radical claim, one that is ultimately rooted in questions of allegiance, of ultimate authority, of the ultimate norm and standard for human life. Instead, Christianity has often saught to ally itself comfortably with allegiance to other authorities, be they political, economic, cultural, or ethnic. Could it be that 'Jesus is Lord' has become one of the most widespread Christian lies?"

Be Nice or Else...

2008-04-17T21:59:00.005-05:00

I had a professor once who was fond of saying that Southern hospitality is often just a cultural form of lying. As way of example he would mention the phrase, "Well bless their heart." If you have never lived in the South, this phrase is usually preceded by all the things you do not like about someone. I was struck again today by how tyrannical "nice" can be. Being nice can simply be a way of getting what we want, whether at work or in a restaurant. Being nice just seems to make our lives run smoother. I think that I am not quite so nice as most people, and this can lead to the misguided notion that I am mean or enjoy conflict. I don't believe that either of these are true, but the emptiness of being nice wears on me over time. Worse than the emptiness of being nice, is the attempt of niceness to control the outcome. It is interesting that niceness is not one of the fruits of the Spirit, but kindness is. One of the biggest problems my church has with the Old Testament, and with Jesus for that matter, is that "God is not loving." I think this is most likely a mis-speak on the part of my church, because if we are really honest, it is not that God is unloving, its that His love is rarely nice. How do we talk about love without it being limited to mere niceness? What do we do with kindness if it doesn't mean being nice? Still praying.

A Small Sample

2008-04-08T16:32:00.003-05:00

I have been going back over some of the work and reflections I have done over the last few years, and one of the fun things I stumbled across were some audio versions of a few sermons I gave. Also there is a short reflection on the Trinity that takes place during our jazz mass. That one cuts off the very end, but the end is basically the whole church saying the Nicene Creed together. Anyway, I would welcome any feedback, have fun:

http://www.drop.io/sermonstuff

Opening Day 2008

2008-04-01T16:14:00.005-05:00

The Brewers got a big win, though in an entirely different way than last year. After two games I noted this last season:

The Brewers are 2-0 again this year. The first game they looked dominant, and their second game they looked dominant in a different way. This is what I love about baseball, the Brewers are going to have at most 15-20 games like their first win, where they score runs at will and the other team can't get hits. But, if their bullpen holds they could 60-70 wins the way they did this game. Last night they got a lead in the sixth, gave the ball to Matt Wise for the 7th, Derrick Turnbow for the 8th and Francisco Cordero for the 9th. Expect to see a variation on this pattern, over and over again.

This time I have different emotions. I am way less confident in our bullpen, and even less confident in our manager's ability to handle our bullpen than I was a year ago. It would be great to get off to a fast start again, but man, Gange looked like he was throwing batting practice to Fukudome. Go Brewers.

Oooooo...Mexico

2008-03-26T11:44:00.002-05:00

Damning America and Running for President

2008-03-26T11:08:00.004-05:00

By now, all of you have no doubt run across the story of Barrack Obama and his Pastor Jeremiah Wright. While I was away in Mexico, this story was blowing up. To be completely honest, the first time I heard the story, I only saw the "God bless America...no, no, no..." bit, and thought to myself, if he's preaching out of Amos this sounds good.

Having heard more of his sermons, there are clearly things that make me nervous about Reverand Wright, particularly some of his conspiracy theories (the HIV one for sure), and there are a ton of theological points I would love to take up with him, but I do not think the right response is something like fear. Speaking of responses, here is Barrack's:

If you do not have the 36 minutes neccesarry to watch it, it is interesting read, and you can get the full transcript here: A More Perfect Union.
I am going to leave all of the political (and maybe historical) implications of the speech for right now and focus in on two theological/ecclessiological observations:
1. I wish Obama would have stood up and said, "My pastor's job is to speak prophetically. Whether I agree or disagree with him, his job is to share with me those things God wants me to hear. I can reject my pastor's teaching only with serious prayer in community, and only at severe risk to myself." This to me is a much more faithful Christian response than, "We all disagree with our spiritual leaders sometimes." Having said this, I do appreciate that Obama has not entirely distanced himself from his pastor of twenty some years. Also, how cool would it be if the skeleton in everyone's closet was that their Pastor was too unAmerican because he called out America for injustices?
2. As well contrsucted, and well written as this speech was, the central theme was that we should be nicer to each other and more tolerant. While I am in favor of being nicer to each other, this is the American gospel, and not the gospel of Christ. The gospel is not that we overcome differences and get past years of hostility by agreeing in a common goal, it is that in the cross and resurrection, Jesus tore down these dividing walls. It is that in Christ, things like nationalities and race are no more. My biggest problem with Obama's speech, was that while claiming to be a Christian, Obama can paint a picture of a more perfect union that doesn't need Christ to make it work and at the end of the day, at least Jeremiah Wright's sermon needed Jesus.

Sweet 16

2008-03-26T09:06:00.003-05:00

I am not entirely sure what you learn about a team or a conference when they make the Sweet 16, but I am positive that two teams in the Sweet 16 is two more than any pundits gave the Big Ten a chance of having. Everyone had the Badgers in the first or second round. I really do not understand, if it is your job to watch basketball shouldn't you be able to watch a good team and realize that its a good team. My Dad said it best, "Whenever the Badgers are good, it means the Big 10 is bad." It sure seems that way. Go Bucky!

Certifiable?

2008-03-07T19:27:00.003-06:00

Mad props to Chris Frank for catching this crazy banner. How does one become a certified Christian? I received a certificate of baptism, of confirmation and of marriage, maybe that's what they are talking about...except the marriage one.

Our new QB

2008-03-05T11:32:00.003-06:00

I can't decide if this video makes me really excited, or really nervous about our new QB in Green Bay:

De-Christianization

2008-03-05T10:34:00.005-06:00

This is precisely the sort of impulse I have been trying to fight in my election series. Here are some highlights from an email I received today:
Underneath the above picture was this caption:
At the tragic historical moment when...
Then there follows a series of grave attrocities, including Western World de-Christianizes itself, countries forsake centuries old soveriegnty, the Catholic Church undergoes its worst crisis of faith and morals, Protestant fragmentation, doctrinal chaos and Islamic immigration. Followed by this brilliant summation (which I mostly agree with):

At the twilight of this century, Europeans risk being reduced to minorities in their own countries.
THIS COMBINATION OF TRAGEDIES WILL SERIOUSLY AFFECT THE WHOLE WESTERN WORLD.
Thus, the re-unification of Christians under one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism (Eph. 4:5) in the one Church of Christ, the foundation and mainstay of the Truth (1 Tim. 3:15) is of paramount importance.

This conclusion is followed by, yeah you guessed it, Jesus in front of a US flag and a bald eagle. It all makes perfect sense.....ugggh.

The End of an Era

2008-03-04T09:19:00.004-06:00

It appears that Brett Favre is retiring. First reported by Jay Glazer, and then followed by quickly by Dan Patrick and Sports Illustrated. Really interesting interviews. Keep watch for a ton of Favre stuff on SportsCenter and ESPN and pretty much every where else.

An Election I can Endorse...

2008-02-28T15:44:00.003-06:00

Except that its not an election, I would love it if this happened:

Bill Simmons=Bucks New GM

Resident Aliens Chapter 1

2008-02-28T07:45:00.004-06:00

Chapter one begins with a John Wayne movie and ends with a bomb. In between, Hauerwas and Willimon deconstruct the myth of a Christian America. They recount the shift in their own lives, and name the new reality that we are all now living in a post-Christian America and world. After a brief (but quite stunning) critique of Paul Tillich as an accommodationist (really big word for about the worst kind of theologian imaginable, see key words), Hauerwas and Willimon move into what they are really concerned with: following Jesus. They remind us that, “In Jesus we meet not a presentation of basic ideas about God, world and humanity, but an invitation to join up, to become part of a movement, a people. By the very act of our modern theological attempts at translation, we have unconsciously distorted the gospel and transformed it into something it never claimed to be- ideas abstracted from Jesus, rather than Jesus with his people.” (21) In contrast to Jesus we find the modern, liberal project, and by liberal they do not mean Democrat. They mean children of the enlightenment (and Schleiermacher in particular) who believe that “faith” and religion are fundamentally about belief and are simply natural characteristics. It is here that the chapter hinges, and the reader is reminded that “The Bible’s concern is not if we shall believe, but what we shall believe.” (23)

At this point the real hero of this book is revealed, namely Karl Barth. It is Barth, finally who names our reliance on the state as an idolatry, “For Barth taught that the world ended and began, not with Copernicus, or even Constantine, but with the advent of a Jew from Nazareth. In the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, all human history must be reviewed.” (24) Barth reminds us that, “The theologians job is not to make the gospel credible to the world [hear translate/relevant/accommadationist in place of credible], but to make the world credible to the gospel.” (24) All of this is meant to remind us of the incredibly important truth, “Right living is more important than right thinking. The challenge is not the intellectual one but the political one- the creation of a new people who have aligned themselves with the seismic shift that has occurred in the world since Christ.” (24) So, what then is our task? Is it to be more liberal? More conservative? May it never be. “In the church’s view the political left is not noticeably more interesting than the political right; both sides tend toward solutions that act as if the world has not ended and begun in Jesus…In Barth we rediscovered the New Testament assertion that the purpose of theological endeavor is not to describe the world in terms that make sense, but rather to change lives, to be re-formed in light of the stunning assertions of the gospel…This we know, not through accommodation, but through conversion.” (28) This bit crescendos into what is really the summary of almost all of Hauerwas’ ethics, “We cannot understand the world until we are transformed into persons who can use the language of faith to describe the world right.” (28) In a slightly different way, you have Hauerwas’ axiom, “You can only live in a world you can see, but you can only see in a world you can say.” The church’s job is to raise up these transformed persons who can see the world, specifically because they can say the world. The shocking example given in chapter one is the dropping of the atomic bomb, and the haunting reminder that, “One cannot know what the world is without knowing that the ‘greatest thing in the history of the world’ is not the bomb but the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.” (28) The myth of the Christian nation, or the Constantinian world, has come crashing down, and has left in its fallout the need to re-imagine what the church can be. Hauerwas and Willimon do not stand in the midst of this fall out terrified and afraid, nervous for what might lie ahead, rather you get the distinct impression that they are giddy about the “marvelous opportunity” (29) that awaits the church. It is while standing amongst the wreckage of the modern, liberal, enlightenment project, that Hauerwas and Willimon will point towards a new direction for the church, a new direction that is in fact a recovery of a very old direction, in chapter two.

Just what I always wanted

2008-02-27T10:50:00.006-06:00

I just got my new US Passport, and with it came an amazing little brochure. Here's the cover of the brochure:

Its hard to believe other countries don't like us so much. On a happy note, I finally got the world!, which means all those Christmas and birthday wishes have paid off. I wonder what Miss South Carolina thinks about all of this.

What Matters Most

2008-02-27T10:45:00.003-06:00

I just ran across this new ad campaign for Chase Banks. The over arching theme is, "Chase what Matters," and the slogan for this ad is "Complete Control Matters." I just found it interesting in light of the discussions around voting and our desire for control. I couldn't find the ad anywhere on line, so I scanned it in here:

Outpostings?

2008-02-25T15:18:00.005-06:00

I have gotten this question more and more frequently, so I figure I might as well explain the name of my blog. To begin with it is meant to be clever, so if you do not find it clever, we are just going to have to work harder at being friends I suppose. An outpost is something like, " A usually small military base established in another country," at least according to this site. That idea, coupled with the blogging also being known as "posting," and you get the name of my blog. This is the actual quote that got me going on this:

A colony is a beachhead, an outpost, an island of one culture in the middle of another, a place where the values of home are reiterated and passed on to the young, a place where the distinctive language and life-style of the resident aliens are lovingly nurtured and reinforced. We believe that the designations of the church as a colony and Christians as resident aliens are not too strong for the modern American church- indeed, we believe it is the nature of the church, at any time and in any situation, to be a colony.

William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas
Resident Aliens, pg 12.

I agree with those guys, and my hope is that once in a while this blog does the nurturing, training and reinforcing talked about in the quote.

A Christian Response, pt 3

2008-02-25T13:57:00.006-06:00

We are just about finished with our brief, very broad stroked, discussion of voting and our role as Christians. I have begun, almost accidentally, with two key parts of a Christian, namely discipleship and idolatry, that really seem to be grounded in individual Christian lives and choices. It seems to me, however, that really the most important reasons for Christians not to vote stems not from the first two points, but mostly from what we will discuss here: the Church. There are a number of faithful, honest ways to imagine the Church, and Scripture uses a number of images (like body and building) to get at the heart of what it means to be the Church. Depending on your tradition, the Church may be a place, a dispenser of Sacraments, a collection of the elect, people filled by the Holy Spirit, an Institution, or any number of combinations of these and other ideas, but almost every church everywhere will agree that the Church is catholic. By catholic we mean the Church is universal, it knows no national boundaries. The Church is not American, Canadian or British, nor is it Roman or Greek. As a result of this, it is very difficult for the Church to get excited about specific national claims and ideas (for a very brief excellent article that struggles with this point, click here). The Church historically has made this mistake of tying itself to a nation, and that nation's success, and the results have been far less than fantastic (we are looking at you Germany).
Beyond being catholic, the Church also has very distinct practices and traditions. For example, when people decide they want to follow Jesus, we get out the water and make it official. We pray and we sing. We recite confessions and read from a very old book. As the Church, we want to remember that these are not simply things we do on Sunday morning, but rather they are the way in which the Church is political in the whole world. This is an extremely crucial point in our overall discussion of voting, so let me repeat it a bit differently, all of the ways we have of being together that are distinctly Christian, are all the ways we can faithfully be political in the world. It is not that instead of voting Christians do nothing, it is that Christians can think of nothing more faithful than actually being the Church. The irony is that while voting purports to be the way we should be active in the world, it actually stunts the Church's ability and imagination to help the world. Put another way, Christians do not vote to eliminate poverty, the Church provides food for the least of these. Christians do not sign petitions to make the government acknowledge traditional marriage, we confess our own sin and remain faithful to our spouses. Christians do not outlaw abortions, we adopt children into homes shaped by baptism. The degree to which we trust our government to transform the world, is generally the same degree to which we believe God is not already doing it.
One final note on voting as a practice foreign to the Church, namely that we tend to think of voting only as a good. In fact, though, there are a number of very serious assumptions underlying voting that make it very dangerous for the Church. The esssential premise of voting seems to be that the side with the most votes is the side that is most right, most true, most reflective of the community, etc... For the Church, those attempting to follow Jesus, this valuing of the majority over against the minority should send up huge red flags. The gospel simply is not concerned with who can get the most votes. The picture for resolving conflict and "electing" leaders in the New Testament church is radically different from this model of voting. Voting does not demand that I die to myself, or that together we might be wronged for the sake of the gospel. Voting does not force us to rely on the Spirit to come together in unity and to be of one mind.
Over these three posts, I have attempted to provide some framework for rethinking the assumption that it is the Christian's responsibility to vote. I have attacked this assumption first by challenging the notion that effectiveness is what ought to motivate Christian living. Second I have argued that voting really names a number of our idolatrous habits, particular our impatience with God and our attempt to control history, and finally I have argued that our Church membership is far more significant than our nationality. Beyond this, I have tried to articulate the point that there are a number of very Christian alternatives to voting. The point to be made in all of this is that not voting is not a strategy for withdrawal from the world, simply a challenge for the Church to more faithfully model lives of cross and resurrection.

A Christian Response, pt 2

2008-02-23T23:16:00.005-06:00

This is part two of our series related to voting and being Christian. As we move into the second piece, lets quickly remember part 1, where we decided that the Christian life at its core is about following Jesus. This following Jesus is about letting Christ have control of all aspects of who you are and learning to follow Jesus' example. This qualification reminds us that faithfulness to Jesus is our primary concern, and means of determining successful Christian living. Because faithfulness is primary, arguments for voting centered around effectiveness and responsibility are left wanting.
As all of us know, we are not particularly good at this "following Jesus" stuff. There are a myriad of ways we trip ourselves up, or get tripped up along the way. One of the major ways we get tripped up is called idolatry. Idolatry in essence is making something that is not God into a god- letting something besides God, try to be what only God can be. Scripture is littered with stories of idolatry and countless admonitions against it, mainly because we are so prone to idolatry. Idolatry, though, can still be a bit abstract, so lets unpack it a bit. In Scripture, one of the first pictures of idolatry is the first sin, wanting to become like God, particularly in knowledge. Shortly after this we read the story of the tower of Babel, where humans got together and decided to try to build their way to God. Soon after this we discover that the people of Israel who had spent a generation in Egypt had discovered how to worship foreign gods. Two of the first three commandments are meant to keep God's people from idolatry (have no other gods and do not make idols). No sooner than this command is given, then the need for it becomes obvious by creating a golden calf. The people of Israel wonder if Moses is going to return, and in their impatience decide that having a tangible god is more important than following the real God, who rescued them out of Egypt. As we move forward through Scripture we discover that idols are not simply carvings or foreign practices, but can even be our desires. Our own desires can take us captive, particularly sexual desires and the desire for power. In really broad strokes, it seems that there are several important characteristics about idolatry:
1. God despises it.
2. We are prone to it as people.
3. Idolatry tends to feed off of our impatience, lust, and desire for control.
4. Idolatry often stems from our desire to "be like the other nations."
5. Idolatry tends to be more comfortable than the faithful following of Jesus.

Lets take just a bit to examine how voting might pair up with this broad list in terms of idolatry. Let's take these in reverse order. Number five, how comfortable is voting as a Christian in the US? Quite. The alternative is far more uncomfortable, having to tell people you don't vote, and then walk them through why following Jesus may mean you shouldn't is way harder than researching a candidate and making an informed decision. This however is not a litmus test for whether or not voting is idolatrous, its simply important to be aware of how easily we assume voting is a normal Christian act. Number four, how does this voting help Christians relate to the state and then to other nations? Voting is a very simple way for Christians to be "active" and "involved" on the world's terms. We can express our Christian "values" exactly the same way Muslims, Jews, Atheists, and everyone else can express their values, through the liturgy of election (Part 3 of this series will unpack this point in more depth). Number three, does voting look/feel like lust, desire for control or impatience? It seems to me that voting is easily characterized by these descriptions. Voting becomes a short-cut for us to attempt to gain control. As we talked about in part one, this gaining control, or becoming effective, is directly opposite of our call to follow Jesus with our whole lives. Nonetheless, it is widely assumed that voting is our responsibility, because it is the way we can change the world. We have repeatedly been told, even from the pulpit, that voting is how we create change in the US. We vote to change laws, we vote to change officers, and now even Obama has utilized this as a campaign slogan. In short, voting is how we attempt to control our world. While we all may agree that voting is probably a better way than military upheaval to bring about change, it may be idolatrous to assume to assume that we are called to bring about such change. In fact, following Jesus and being characterized by his cross and resurrection may stop up from attempting such a project on the grounds of idolatry. When signing a petition is more significant than praying, when sending missiles makes more sense than sending missionaries, and when voting is more responsible than dying to ourselves and our desires, than at exactly this point we have gone too far and are at least flirting with idolatry.

A Christian Response, pt 1

2008-02-22T08:40:00.008-06:00

There are a number of people in my life, who I care deeply about, who are all struggling with some basic questions of faith in relation to the presidential primaries, and the upcoming elections. The questions are generally framed something like this, "As a Christian, how do I determine who I should vote for?" I want to give an answer to that question, but I want to do it over the course of several posts. My answer to the question is basically, Christians should not vote at all. This answer of course is deeply offensive to a number of people (shockingly, both liberal and conservative) and deserves to be unpacked a bit more. Before I begin, I need to express my debt to Stanley Hauerwas, John Howard Yoder, and William Cavanuagh in particular on this issue. For a basic, fairly easy to understand argument about how Christians should interact with the state, pick up a copy of Resident Aliens, as much of what I lay out follows their basic argument.
Let's begin at the beginning, what does it mean to be a Christian? At its most basic, it means to be a follower of Jesus. As we unpack what this "following Jesus" means we run into popular biblical words like Lord, King, disciple and Christ. All of these ideas, while full of nuance and individual meaning, push us towards the old evangelical phrase that "Jesus has control of all areas of my life." To follow Jesus is to admit that there is nothing in my life that Jesus does not rule and control, and if there is, those areas must be confessed and repented of. There is more though, to follow Jesus also means not simply to allow Jesus to rule all parts of my life, but also to live like Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate teacher who challenges us not simply to do as he says, but do as he does, primarily because he does what he says. The ultimate example (as I have noted here) is when Jesus dies on the cross to save the world. Following Jesus then, means living a life shaped by his cross and resurrection.
The implications of this sort of following Jesus, this acknowledging Jesus' control in all areas of our lives, this following Jesus' example, and this being shaped by cross and resurrection, are wide ranging. To begin with, this following Jesus means that the measure for success and failure in our lives is faithfulness to Jesus. This claim is absolutely crucial so I will repeat it a bit differently, Jesus calls us primarily to be faithful to him. For us, this call to faithfulness most clearly attacks our strong desire for effectiveness. If we are honest, most of us tend to judge our own success or failure, primarily by how effective we have been. A diet is the best diet if it is effective in losing weight, a savings plan is the best savings plan if it saves the most money, a church may well be the best church if it has the most people, a discipline is the best discipline if I grow the most. Many of us have inheireted this framework (most of us unknowingly) from the philospher Immanuel Kant and his ultimate/categorical imperative which slowly becomes something like, "Your responsibility is to do the most good for the most people." This sort of effectiveness as the measure of all moral choices is pervasive in much of our political discussion, and is rampant in the arena of why Christians should vote. This becomes the "Christian responsibility." When we start from the place of our Christian responsibility to vote, and then begin to sort through issues and values (both of which we will deal with later) we have already set ourselves up to fail, not because we are unloving or poorly intentioned, but because we have allowed something other than faithfulness to Jesus be our determining factor. However, if we begin with faithfulness to Jesus, as opposed to anything else, you may find that the notion of voting is at best irrelevant, and at worst a bit repulsive.

Ned is back at it

2008-02-18T14:07:00.003-06:00

Is Ned Yost trying to give us a reason to fire/hate him? Here is his quote today in a story about new closer Eric Gagne:

"You have to understand the psyche of a closing pitcher," Yost said. "They are creatures of their routine and he was totally thrown out of his routine when he went to Boston. We feel he'll be a big pickup.

"We're a young team and it's of the utmost importance that you have a solid closer. There is nothing more demoralizing than losing games late."

Yes, Ned, we are the ones who have to understand. We are not the ones who kicked 15 games last year because of mismanaging the pitching staff. It good to know we agree that there is nothing more demoralizing, now if you could just go about making sure it doesn't happen, that would be great.

Another reason to like Steve Nash

2008-02-18T09:24:00.004-06:00

Steve Nash had a mildly amusing interview with the TNT cast during the all-star game on Sunday, but he dropped this surprise nugget- his shoes were completely recycled. I double checked the Nike website and sure enough, here's the write up:

Steve Nash – Zoom BB II Low Trash Talk:
Nash goes ‘green’ with his All-Star shoe. The upper is made of recycled scrap leathers and synthetics which have been cut into individual pieces and cross-stitched together. Foam scraps were ground to create the midsole and the outsole is formed from reground rubber.

and here's one of the pictures:

Friends

2008-02-16T07:39:00.005-06:00

I wanted to take just a couple seconds to send a few links your way. One of my good friends, Greg Gilbertson, has begun a series of newsletters that are laugh out loud funny. Jump over to his site and take a look: Greg in the News.

Second, I have a long time friend who consistently challenges and encourages me when we chat named Dave Stolpe. We were actually roommates for a big chunk of one summer at Mont Lawn Camp, and he is an awesome guy, trying to follow Christ with his family in Milwaukee. The really cool news in Dave's world is that after a couple of years of trying, they are finally getting a baby from China! In a few short weeks they are set to fly over and go through the last stages of the process, and come home with Elizabeth. Anyway, check out their site, and if you live in Milwaukee and are in the education field, drop him a line and take him out for breakfast some time: Stolpe's Adoption

Finally, one of my best friends in the whole world happens to be a very good songwriter, and after years of pleading he has finally recorded some of his stuff to be heard by the rest of the world (many, many, thanks to Sarah for your crucial role in making this happen). These are not overly produced recordings, more like once straight through, but they are a joy to listen to. Go check out: Phil's Music
You can thank me later.

Steroids and Baseball

2008-02-15T10:42:00.003-06:00

I have blogged about this before, and it is an issue I care about for some reason. Beyond my love of baseball, I am fascinated by what happens when a lie spins out of control. The Roger Clemens vs. Brian McNamee Saga has been riveting. As much as the actual accounts of what happened, I have been unable to ignore the coverage of this story. I listened to almost every minute of the congressional hearings and have come to two conclusions- 1. Congress is a joke and 2. American media outlets are equally ridiculous. The two sources of decent commentary on this saga are Dan Patrick, who has been great on this from the beginning, and very surprisingly the Daily Show. I love the Daily Show, but it always saddens me a bit when they make the most sense. Here is there coverage which is far and away better than anything I have seen on ESPN or the news networks:

Really Good Article

2008-02-14T07:05:00.004-06:00

One of my favorite things about sports is when there is a convergence details and seeming coincidences behind the scenes that you only come to realize later. I watched this game and remember the hit, but the back story is absolutely amazing. This kid played great for the Brewers his first three months of last season, and then they sat him the rest of the year- they call that the Ned Yost special. I am pulling for him to get off to another good start. Here's the story:
"The Most Intriguing At Bat of 2007."

More on American politics

2008-02-11T08:14:00.001-06:00

Really good article on the reality of American politics and the role of Evangelicals. This guy's take that the religious right has been made to look foolish during the primaries is spot on. Here's an excerpt:

But the worst scenario is to expose yourself as just another cynical pol. Any success Huckabee has had, he obviously had without their help — in fact in spite of it — thereby exposing just how little clout, judgment or principle they have.

Those who claim to be in public life to promote and defend certain values can least afford to look craven. We may expect that from the every-man-for-himself plutocrats; but the virtuecrats are supposed to believe in something. So when Robertson et al ignored the conspicuous apostasies of Rudy and, in his earlier more liberal life, Romney, in order to jump on the bandwagon, they exposed a much less lofty agenda: they just liked their seat at the table, they didn't want to lose, and they didn't seem to realize that by signing on with a frontrunner, they were following, not leading; demonstrating weakness, not strength.

Enjoy the rest here:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1711615,00.html

Why I Hate American Politics

2008-02-06T09:24:00.001-06:00

In a word: idolatry. Here's a fun game we can all play, spot the idolatrous statement. It is so easy to play, listen closely for when you hear candidates attribute to America things which Scripture teaches are reserved for God. I emboldened a few places for convenience. Here is an easy one from Mitt Romney's speech last night (if you want more of the speech here is where I got it from):

This is about whether or not Washington will finally deal with the challenges we face, whether Washington is up to the task of helping solve these problem, taking advantage of opportunities, making sure that our kids and their kids live in an America that's the greatest nation on Earth. It must be. It has always been.
The world depends upon our sacrifice, our commitment, and dedication to peace and prosperity and to liberty. This is the greatest nation in the history of the Earth. We will keep it the hope of the Earth. With your help, we'll do it together.
Thank you so much!

10 Years ago...

2008-02-01T10:28:00.001-06:00

Sorry Abby, but its another sports posting. It has been ten years since the Packers played the Broncos and lost. I watched that game in an apartment in Moose Jaw with two people who did not watch a lot of football, but nonetheless rooted for the Broncos. This was my first experience with those odd people in the world who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. I try not to think of that game very often, but a couple of years ago I saw Keith Jackson in an interview say that if he had come back for that season, he really felt the Packers could have exploited the Broncos. I never really understood what he was talking about, but here is an excellent piece in the Journal Sentinel. The comments from Chmura and Butler are absolutely astounding. It may change your whole opinion on that game, and on Favre for that matter.

I wish I drank...

2008-01-20T21:29:00.001-06:00

Sort of. I guess this is the night where I wish I had a way to not hate life for the next hour or two, which is where the alcohol could come in handy. In the end, though, I suppose I can get through the night without it. What a crummy way to lose though. Favre has a shot with 2:46 to play in regulation and does nothing. The Giants fumble the punt- and we don't recover. The Giants miss a field goal, we get the ball first, and Favre throws a pick. In the broad scheme of things, the Packers were better than they should have been all year, but you just can't let these chances slip away. Crummy game, crummy way to lose, and I blame Greg Gilbertson. Please email him your hatred and spite, he laughed in the face of football destiny and now the Packers are done for the season. While you are there also buy a CD, because besides being a Packers karmic nightmare, he is also a ridiculously talented musician. Only three months to the draft, and seven months to training camp. Go Brewers.

Final Edition

2008-01-10T09:02:00.000-06:00

This is the last listing in our year end review. We have already covered a series of things that I think were the best last year. Mostly these have been entertainment related and that continues with this edition.
Best Waste of Time: I wasted a lot of time this year (as in most years), but this year I was able to take it to a whole new level. Without question the best waste of time this year for me was the first six seasons of Scrubs. I had avoided this show for quite some time because of the perceived sexual and off color content. First, my perception if the show initially was based on only a couple of episodes I saw five or six years ago. In the context of the entire series, I think the show does a much better job than I originally gave it credit for. The whole show, as a series, is really, really, well done. It has a unique way of dealing with real issues like grief, loss, faithfulness, marriage, love and just growing into adulthood.

Best Theological Insight: This award goes to my wife while we were travelling to northern Wisconsin. On the road we noticed a car with a bumper sticker that read, "Try Jesus." When I passed this nugget on to Abby, she immideately responded with, "That's dumb. That's like saying 'Try marriage.'"

Best Theological Illustration: Since Bible College, I have been fond of referring to an imaginary list of things least effected by the fall of man. Most people probably know that for me, Coke Slurpees are very near the top of that list. I shared this nugget of joy with a group of college students, and one of them asked, "But how are Slurpees effected?" "What do you mean?" "Well, if they are least effected, that means there is still an effect, so what is the effect?" Before I could get an answer out, another college student without missing a beat says, "Brainfreeze." There you have, brainfreeze is a result of the fall.

BCS Blogathon the Conclusion

2008-01-08T19:43:00.002-06:00

The pain has finally ended. The college football season is over, and we can move past a sham system and forget about this nonsense until next August. A final note on the standings, Josh finished a strong 4-5 by getting the last three games right. This means he correctly picked the two big upsets- WVU and Kansas. Calvin and I fell apart, going 3-6. What a crappy bowl season.

Third Edition

2008-01-06T20:09:00.000-06:00

We are back with our third edition of my year end review, where I am essentially naming my best and worst (but mostly best) things during the year. We have gone through several sort of shallow topics, but now we will move slowly into more substantial things.

Best Movie of the Year: This is a bit of a tricky category, and I may be forgetting another great movie from earlier in the year, but the best movie of the year for me is Juno. I won't ruin this movie for you, but if you have not seen it yet, find everyone who remotely enjoys your company and take them with- this is that good a film.

Best Book I Read this Year: This is really way too broad a category, and there were about twenty books that could have one this heading, so I have come up with a few more categories:
Christian Ethics- Improvisation by Samuel Wells. Absolutely fantastic.

Theology- I loved Simply Christian by NT Wright and Robert Jenson's Systematic Theology Vol 1, but I just had to go with Will Willimon's Conversations With Barth on Preaching. This book was amazing and radically challenged how I think about preaching, and how I preach.

Fiction- I have already talked about how much I enjoyed Deathly Hollows, and I have said elsewhere how much I liked Gilead, but at the end of the day I am going to go generally with Flannery O'Connor, particularly her short story "The Violent Bear It Away."

Best Chronic Disease I was Diagnosed With: This is a super easy one, lets hear it for Ulcerative Colitis (UC for insiders). Nothing new here, but if you want to learn more about my fun new illness you can check out this site.

Boel Game Blogathon 4

2008-01-05T10:14:00.001-06:00

Here are the current standings (I am ashamed to admit):

Greg is sitting at a whopping 2-6 record for the bowl games so far.

Calvin is also rocking the the 2-6 record.

Josh is proudly sitting at 3-5 and is riding a rocking BCS winning streak of two games.

Bowl Game Blogathon 3

2008-01-01T15:30:00.001-06:00

3:19pm-The Capital One Bowl is fantastic, the Gator Bowl is not that interesting and the Cotton Bowl is finished. The Florida and Michigan game has been a blast to watch. Whatever you think of Urban Meyers, he is an amazing play caller with almost no conscience. His fake punt call in his own zone has given Florida a chance to win this game. Another odd observation, what’s up with big kickers? A lot of these guys look like out of shape golfers more than like college scholar-athletes. Take a look at these guys from the games today:

My favorite is the Michigan kicker because he has a pot belly.

Greg- 1-1

Josh 0-2

Calvin 0-2

Bowl Game Blogathon

2008-01-01T11:37:00.003-06:00

In the sporting world, January 1 is really the only day that remotely rivals the first weekend of March Madness, and this year I decided to spice it up by giving my picks and keeping a blog. Welcome to the first ever Bowl Games Blogathon. Let’s begin by picking the games remaining. All the guys in my house went through the remaining games and are giving you the winners:

Wisconsin vs. Tennessee- This is the first game of the day and the one we care the most about. We are unanimous in our selection of Wisconsin, and I would add that I think they will win going away.

Arkansas vs. Missouri- Both of my boys picked Arkansas in this game, but I am going to have to pick Mizzou- in a fun game to watch.

Michigan vs. Florida- We are again split on this one, Calvin stays with the Big 10 picking Michigan, while Josh and I both pick Florida.

Texas Tech vs. Virginia- The boys both like Tech, and they are a blast to watch, but I like VA’s defense.

Illinois vs. USC- I don’t think there is anyway USC can lose, but the boys are holding the Big Ten line and picking the huge upset.

Hawaii vs. Georgia- We are a house united behind Hawaii. I fully admit this is a heart pick, but so was Boise State last year.

Oklahoma vs. West Virginia- Calvin and I both like OU, but Josh is going with West Virginia.

Virginia Tech vs. Kansas- Calvin and I go with VA Tech while Josh likes Kansas.

Ohio State vs. LSU- In the championship game we again have a split house. Calvin and I go with the OSU upset, while Josh picks LSU.

Bowl Game Blogathon 2

2008-01-01T11:37:00.002-06:00

Halftime, 11:40 am- Not the first half I envisioned, but there are several rays of hope for Badger fans. First, we clearly have the edge in special teams, and it seems as though the Badgers offense can move the ball. The negatives of course are that the Badgers are losing, they seem unable to tackle, and Donovan very well might die in the second half if he’s not careful. If they tackle better in the second half, they have a very good chance to win this thing.

8:30 left in the 3rd Quarter, 12:18 pm- The good news is that our defense seems to have remembered how to tackle, and I feel better about that. On the offensive side of the ball we have inexplicably decided to pass on almost every down. On a personal confession note, I love the Outback song, absolutely love it. Great return from the Badgers! Now let’s run the football. Yes!! The Outback song, you know you love it.

Game Over. 1:35pm- Badgers lost on a horrific pass. Really a pretty good game and it’s too bad the Badgers lost. The play that will stick in my mind is the 4th and 2 from the Tennessee 12. Why pass? The Badgers just ran the ball down the Volunteers throat, and when thy get to 4th and 2 they run a roll out pass? Seriously? It’s too bad Donovan goes out that way. The play reminds me of a 4th and 1 a few years ago with Ron Dayne when the coaches decided to run an option pitch- that play previously marked the worst play call in Badger history.

Now I am 0-1 in bowl predictions, but things look up for me in the Cotton Bowl.
Calvin 0-1.
Josh 0-1.

Second Edition

2007-12-30T09:58:00.000-06:00

We continue our trek through the best and worst of 2007, this time with slightly more difficult categories.

Best Season Finale: This choice was basically between three shows for me- House, The Office and Lost. All three are favorites of mine, and all three were particularly good in their finales. For my money though, only one of them was revolutionary. Only one kept me wondering all summer, "Where will they go from here?" That one was of course Lost. The twist in this episode was one of the best things I have ever seen, and to make matters better, I called it about 12 minutes in. Kudos to Lost.

Best Sequel: In a year filled with sequels, there were three that stood out- Spiderman 3, Ocean's 13 and The Bourne Ultimatum. The best in this category had to be Bourne. Again, all three were good in their own right, but the latest installment of Bourne was flat out awesome. Its also the one sequel that made me wish the series would continue. Both Spiderman and Ocean's were good, but if there are no more of either, that's fine too.

Best Rash Decision: Years ago I read an essay by GK Chesterton entitled "A Defense of Rash Vows" and I have occassionally tried to make rash vows so that I might intentionally keep them. This year's rash act was my favorite of all time (probably, though Andrea Bailey's refusal to buy me Coke is a close second). In a rash move I decide to read all of the Harry Potter books, and I managed to do it in a week. This is a spectacular series of books, particularly when you read them in one shot. The growth in the characters and in the writing are phenomenal, and the seventh installment was superb.

First Edition

2007-12-29T08:26:00.000-06:00

What will follow will be a series of bests and worsts from 2007. There may also be a few reviews and rememberances but lets not get ahead of ourselves. We shall begin small:

Best Reinvention of a Board Game

1. First prize here was a no brainer- Uno Attack. While this game was not invented in 2007, this was the first year I ran across it and it was great. I never cared much for the standard Uno game, but this new version is great.

2. This is the board game I was most excited about- Monoply with an Electronic Banker. I was excited because I assumed this new banking system would eliminate confusion, speed the game up, and greatly decrease the chance of cheating. While the new banking system is fun, it really didn't do any of those things, and I think it actually makes it easier to cheat. The novelty of the banking is still pretty cool though, and there is a ton less mess.

Best New Television Series

In this category you should know that I did not watch very many new shows this year at all. The only two new shows I tried, Chuck and Life, I liked quite a bit. Of these two new shows the only one I made sure I watched consistently was Life. The acting on this show was great and I always found the sublots intriguing. I tend to enjoy conspiracy theories, and this show has them by the truckload. Also there is something really consistent about the main character, particularly in a great scene with a kidnapped boy, "You and I, we will never be normal...We will never be like everyone else." NBC has a pretty good collection of these online, so if you haven't seen the show yet, go take a look.

Steroids and Self Righteousness

2007-12-13T14:33:00.001-06:00

In a funny coincidence, I happened to be off on this Thursday- the Thursday when George Mitchell changed baseball. This isn't a blog about who was guity or who wasn't guilty, but is rather a question about who knew. As I was watching the ESPN coverage, I realized that there two in studio analysts were John Kruk and Steve Phillips. Both guys who were active, either playing or general managing during the "steroids era." How in the world do they get off being "analysts" when they both act surprised that steroids were rampant in the late 90's. If you watched any baseball during this period without wondering about steroids you ought to have a brain transplant. My Dad and I used to joke that the reason the Brewers were bad is because we didn't have enough steroid users on our roster, and that was while I was in high school (I graduated in 1996). Now that the paper work and check stubbs are coming out, I want one person to just stand up and say, "I should have known. It was my job to analyse players and player development and I clearly had my head in the sand. Here is the money back that you paid me to pay attention to baseball." The excuses that there was nothing they could do because everyone else was doing sound even more ridiculous coming form grown men then it does coming from my five year old. If you get the chance, try to watch Buster Olney's feature on the rise of steroids in baseball, he dates it as far back as 1988 when Ben Johnson lost his gold medal. Reknowned baseball columnist Thomas Boswell called out Jose Canseco that year, and called for testing, 17 years later baseball finally agreed. I love baseball, I hate steroids, and I am progressively more bitter at those men who given charge of the game and failed.

Sunday Night with Wright

2007-11-27T21:50:00.001-06:00

So for the past 48 hours I had the chance to hang out with about 60 other pastors and Bishop NT Wright and a beautiful retreat center in the hill country of west Texas. Here are my thoughts from Sunday night, with more detail about the rest of Wright's lectures to follow.
Sunday Night
After two hours of driving away from my home (currently known as MASH Unit 111) and jamming out to Bill Mallonee’s stuff, I arrived at Laity Lodge. The road that leads from the highway to the actual lodge is insane. Besides razor sharp turns and ridiculous inclines and descents, the is quarter mile trek up river- in the actual river. You read this correctly, the road is underwater, and everyone here seems to be ok with it. Dinner starts in about ten minutes, and I believe NT Wright is up shortly after that.
Dinner was excellent, followed by introductions and some introductory remarks from Bishop Wright. For the most part this evening was just a chance to give us an overview of what we will be doing tomorrow. Apparently he is going to give four talks over the next day and a half, three tomorrow and one on Tuesday morning. Two quotes from the introductory stuff stands out, they are not new if you know NT Wright’s stuff, but helpful for discussion at the very least: 1. “Resurrection is about life after life after death.” This is a really profound and simple way of explaining that our soteriologies and our eschatologies are far too narrow. One of his example passages is Luke 23 and the dialogue between the thieves and Jesus. Pay close attention to the timeline and the fact that Jesus rises from the dead three days later.
2. “The role of post modernity is to preach the fall to arrogant modernists.” This seems to me to be spot on, and seems to be my primary task over and over again in my church. The postmodern gets evil, and can see past the lies of modernity, and our task ask is to name that evil as sin. If the evil is sin, then the gospel gets to be genuine good news again.

this time last year

2007-11-24T10:17:00.000-06:00

Its always about this time of year that I get really worked up about college football and all the injustices inherent in the BCS system. This year is of course no different. Can you imagine if teams one through four played teams five through eight? I am not sure any of the top four would even be favored at a neutral field, let alone win a game. Its a mess, to be sure, and is only going to get messier today when Missouri beats Kansas and leaves Hawaii as the only undefeated team left in D-I. The BCS will demonstrate that it learned nothing from last years Boise State beating of OU, and the Warriors will get dropped to a lame bowl somewhere around new years. All I know is that I would not want to have to play Hawaii, and you could give me two months to prepare for them.

This however is not the lone sham in college football, because there is always the Heisman "race." I have my own special criteria for the Heisman, and it is simply the player you are most afraid to play. This accounts for why defensive players so rarely win the award. I want the Heisman to go to the guy who keeps coaches awake the week before a game trying figure out how to stop him, and keeps his own coaches awake trying to figure out ways to get the ball in his hands more. That is why for me the Heisman is only a two man race, Tebow and McFadden. I raved about McFadden all last year, to no avail, but there is no question he is the player who would make me the most nervous to play against. Tebow I would also rank very closely behind McFadden, and if there is anyone else even in the discussion the award is a joke.

Rocktober

2007-09-28T10:10:00.001-05:00

September is almost finished, and with it marks the end of one season and the beginning of another. First, the end of one season. My beloved Brewers end the season with three straight against the Padres (who they always play poorly against) but they are at home (where they have the best record in baseball). At worst the Brewers ought to win two of these last three, but most likely that will not be good enough. Despite the fact that the Cubs have not won since Sunday, we have helped them trim their magic number to two. Basically if we win two games and they win one, they win the division. Earlier this year I was very clear about my feelings towards Ned Yost, and this last month of the season has only solidified my sentiments. It is time to move on. The manager of a major league baseball team has two things they must be really good at: 1. Filling out a lineup card. 2. Managing the bullpen. Yost has been all over the map on the first one and repeatedly seems like he is trying to put together the worst possible lineup. If Gradzulanek does not get hurt, its quite possible that Weeks is still on the bench somewhere. As to point two, Yost is historically bad at this. The Brewers have managed to blow 16 games where they had a three run lead or better after the seventh inning. This is unacceptable. I used to think it was because Yost just did not have a short leash with his pitchers, but now I am not sure he has a leash at all. If we had back even three of those 16 losses we would be in the playoffs. Someone needs to be penalized for this, and for my money it ought to be Yost.
Now to new beginnings, the NHL season starts very soon, and I have managed to get myself roped into a fantasy league with a bunch of friends from college. This is the same league where I was humiliated this spring during the playoffs, but they have invited me back anyway. I watch no where near enough hockey to make informed decisions, so alas I will be that guy who picks straight from the list and never knows when to trade or move players around. More updates as events warrant.

Really Cool

2007-09-24T15:50:00.001-05:00

I am really tired. Its been a long two weeks, but now my schedule should become quite a bit more manageable/normal, which means i may be updating this thing more frequently. A couple of things that I should catch everyone up on. I am now officially 30, which is actually pretty exciting, I feel like a may finally be catching up with myself. Also, as of last Tuesday, I have dropped 6 pounds, and there is plenty more where that came from. In other news, Calvin is now 5, and this is very exciting news. Finally, I have thought long and hard about this, but I still have not figured out which new shows to watch and which ones to avoid. For sure the Office and House will be main stays that I watch consistently, but everything else is open. Part of me thinks "Chuck" and "Bionic Woman" both look watchable, but after Studio 60 I no longer trust NBC. I am also tempted to start watching "Back to You" but the time it is on is just brutal schedule-wise. All of this to say I am looking for advice on what shows everyone is excited about. Let me know. Finally, the best tribute to September 11th is here. I am partial to the film maker, but I think the music and the filming work perfect to name the tensions of remembering that day. Its really, really, really, good, and also only about two minutes long. I'm out.

Update on Jaurez

2007-09-05T09:04:00.001-05:00

Here is just a quick update on the Weight Off for Jaurez Campaign. So far the response has been really positive. I have about 11 people, so far who, are participating with me, and three sponsors. Plus, many of those 11 are seeking out sponsors, and one of the participants is giving up smoking, which seems like a good idea to me. As this moves forward, I have started another blog for more updates, and as a place for other participants to keep us all posted, an that site is: wo4j.blogspot.com
Not much there yet, but we should be adding more as we get closer.

Return of the Badgers

2007-09-01T18:20:00.001-05:00

Well, that was mostly interesting. I am not sure how much we learned about the Badgers today, but a win is nice. Several observations:
1. Our defense will get better. They seemed rusty to me, and I want to start the re-instate Cooper campaign right now.
2. Donovan will be alright, but he has got to hit open receivers. He played better than he did at the end of last year, but we had receivers running free everywhere, with the ball getting there just a bit late.
3. Running game will be fine. We'll get this rolling in the next few weeks, and Smith looks like a legit back up for the first time since he's been on campus.
4. The illegal batting of the ball is the dumbest penalty I have ever seen/heard of. Also, I think Beilema last year would have gone for that fourth and 2 in that situation, I hope he doesn't lose his aggresiveness.
5. Michigan was overrated. While this is a kick to the junk for the Big 10 as a whole, it still makes me happy...is that wrong? It was nice while it lasted Lloyd Carr.

Weight Off for Juarez

2007-08-31T06:52:00.001-05:00

As most of you know, this last Spring I was in the hospital a bit and diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. While this sounds like lots of fun, I assure you that it in fact is not. Almost as much fun as colitis is the initial treatment for it which is a strong dose of prednisone. Besides the rash of pimples, fits of rage and lack of sleep, prednisone also has the fun side effects of bloating and weight gain. All of this to say that at my appointment at the end of August I weighed in at a whopping 229 pounds, which puts me conservatively at between 60-80 pounds overweight. To be fair to fine makers of prednisone, I was well on my way to this problem anyway, as I had managed to put on about 50 pounds of non-muscle since I was married 8 1/2 years ago, but the rapid wieght gain (30 pounds) over the summer has been enough to spur me to action.
If you know me at all, you will also know that losing weight just for the sake of losing weight makes sick to my stomach (and not in the helpful losing weight way). I am convinced that our host culture has made an idol out of body appearance and "health" to a point where "health" is now almost undefinable apart from the icon of the six-pack abs and worshiping at the gym. Here's some really interesting (and already outdated) data on consumerism and weight loss:
Taken from the Margo Maine book, Body Wars: Making Peace with Women's Bodies,
"The dieting Body Wars are great for the economy, as the majority of discontented dieters repeatedly invest their resources in shedding pounds. Figures from the late 1990’s showed that Americans spent $50 billion annually on diet products. This exceeds the projections for the entire federal Education, Training, Employment and Social Services budgets by five to ten billion dollars. In fact, this figure is the equivalent of the gross national product of Ireland. The price per pound lost is enormous, with one study of Optifast dieters reporting the cost to be $180 per pound."
Here then is the rub, the call of Christ on my life will not allow me (I believe) to be one of those people who is so obsessed with food, exercise, etc... that they can not help be overly self centered. This sounds a bit harsh, I know, but there it is. The flip side, of course, is that the call of Christ on my life means I must not be so lazy and ignorant of health that I become equally selfish in my poor eating choices (insert fair trade arguments against fast food here, more on this piece in a later blog).
So then, how can I put these pieces together, recognizing a base level call to take better care of the gifts Gd has given me, without becoming so myopic that I believe my body to be not the temple of God (in conjunction with the rest of the Church by the way) but simply my temple. The answer for me is two-fold: 1. Stop making excuses for being unhealthy. Done. 2. Make health less individualistic. This is where all of you, and hopefully more, come in. As an attempt to connect my own health, to my family, to my own Christian community and to the Church in the world, I have created "Weight Off for Jaurez".

This is essentially a fund raising program for the next six months, with the goal of raising money for our mission trip this spring to build a house (or perhaps 2) in Jaurrez, Mexico for a some needy families. There are several ways you can participate in WO4J:
1. Pray. Covenant to pray for me as I attempt to strike this balance and try to lose this weight. Pray for my family as they have to live with me while I attempt to lose the weight, and pray for my church as they participate with me. Also pray for Jaurez, Gateway Mission Training Center, and the families who need these houses.
2. Pledge. Pray about donating money for every pound I lose. My goal is to lose between 30-50 pounds before March 1, and every little bit helps. This works like a walk-a-thon, and I will keep you posted throughout the next six months.
3. Participate. This is an option some members of our church are picking up. If you have extra weight you wanted to get rid of anyway, use this as a chance for accountability and to do something bigger than just lose weight. Also, I know that many of you do not need to lose weight, or already participate in healthy practices, and for those of you in this boat I commend you, and ask that you think about ways of participating. Ask for donations for the number of miles you walk, or bike, or run between now and March 1. One interesting number is that it is 560 miles from our church to Jaurez, so some of you may be able to "Walk to Jaurez" before March. Either way, keep up the good work.

Penance and Power Forwards

2007-08-30T18:25:00.001-05:00

Today marked the beginning of a long road of dental rehabilitation for me, with the help of Dr. Steve Edwards. I am still mostly numbed and very drugged up, but seems to me that the sort of pain involved is something like a penance for my sins of sloth and gluttony, particularly regarding my oral hygiene. Well, one filling, one root canal and one extraction later I am cursing laziness, and am optimistic that God is teaching me something through this after all. This is always one of those remarkable dynamics of our great God, that even our sin becomes used for His purposes. St. Paul is quick to remind us that this is no reason to sin more, rather to rest in God's grace in utter amazement.
In substantially less amazing news, the Bucks have still not traded Yi, but in fact were able to sign him to a standard NBA contract. I think I am excited about this, an I am know I am looking forward to the offensive fire power the Bucks can throw out there. In a related note, and excellent 30th birthday present for yours truly could be the Bucks hat you see in this picture:

And there is an outside shot it can be purchased at this site. Stay posted for more updates this week, including the Badger game on Saturday as well as an opportunity to give to missions.

Any Resemblance

2007-08-20T16:41:00.000-05:00

Be careful what you name your children:

Barclay and the Bible

2007-07-25T16:54:00.000-05:00

It has been a bit, but as promised there will be a series of reviews coming your way in the next few days. While there is a very good chance I am the only one who cares, I am treating this as a disicpline in which I practice summarizing the arguments of a work, and remembering the work itself. This time through I want to strongly endorse John Barclay's work entitled Colossians and Philemon which is a very aptly named study guide. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Barclay's work, he is an excellent New Testament scholar, currently in Brittain at the University of Durham. He has siginificant knowledge of the New Testament, early Christianity (he is one of the leading Josephus scholars), is well versed in postmodern lit-theory and looks just like this photograph: His work on Colossians is primarily focussed on the first two of these gifts, although there are hints of the third throughout. This book is tough to summarize for several reasons, first being that it is not really a commentary of Colossians. Barclay does not go verse by verse throughout the book and give us background, or his personal reading of the text. Rather, and this is the second reason this book is tough to summarize, Barclay attempts to give an overview of the scholarship surrounding Colossians while providing insight to the debates in Pauline scholarship. For example, Barclay begins by giving a very lucid reading of how Pauline Colossians really is, is Paul the author or not? Barclay while admitting that there is no real, clear cut, historically viable solution to this problem, rightly calls the entire debate into question, "Perhaps with our intense concern to demarcate a 'Paul' from 'non-Paul' we are working with an artificial or anachronistic notion of individual uniqueness..." Throughout this work Barclay is able to provide key pieces of historical research, combined with larger argument, to help his readers navigate through the scholarship. This book is an excellent resource for any pastor who wants to know where to situate the commentary's they are using, or who would like to better understand the "big picture" of Colossians. Very, very, helpful book that reads quickly and makes you wish more of this sort of work were available.

2007-07-08T05:01:00.001-05:00

I am a week into my vacation and it has gone very well so far. As per usual the week with the Arvolds was fun, busy, exhausting and amazing. Such a good week of hospitality and family. Also, this year we added to the mix by hosting a conference on Christian Community which was a huge blessing to me. It was so encouraging to be part of what God is doing, and to hear the ways that he is working in Milwaukee and dream of possibilities. Much. much, much thanks to Bill and Laura (Mom and Dad) for being gracious with their time and property to host the group. Last night also marked my wife's 10 year reunion which was way more fun than mine. I knew almost no one at the party, which was incredibly freeing. The overall lack of expectations made the night a total success from my side, and on top of this I got to see a lot of cool people who really impacted and respect my wife. This last part was an added bonus I hadn't anticipated at all, but a very pleasant surprise. We start our week with my family by going to the church we got married at this morning, and I suspect updates will be scarce for a few more days. Still no news on the Yi front.

Delayed Draft Blog

2007-06-28T21:13:00.001-05:00

8:00 PM So I am about an hour and a half behind the beginning of the draft, but I am fully committed. I have my ice cream, a coke, a new book (For the Life of the World by Alexander Schmemann) and a series of five or six sites I will jump around for draft coverage.
8:01 PM Seriously. We drafted Yi? The Bucks, who were short on rebounding and defense drafted a 7 footer whose major weaknesses are rebounding and defending? This pick is tough to swallow even without the news that he in no way wants to play in Milwaukee. Hmmmm.

8:17 PM I am going to with hold judgment until tomorrow morning and just assume there is more going on here. For sure Yi was rated as the best talent on the board, but was there anyone in the draft more likely to be an absolute flop? I wonder if a deal is in place, or if Larry Harris thinks there will be one? Must be patient. Also, don't Ray Allen and Paul Pierce play the same position? That would have been a good trade five years ago. My new book is brilliant by the way.
9:20 PM Still no word on trades out of Milwaukee. I am beginning to believe that they really want Yi. Still reserving judgment. Wish we had our second right about now. Let's see what the spurs do. Also am bummed because I just read about a rumor that had Devin Harris coming to the Bucks for the 6th pick, but apparently that did not happen (Christian you are off the hook for now). Along these lines, if you root for every other Wisconsin team and are a tax payer and homeowner in the city of Milwaukee, don't you almost have to (out of civic pride) pull for the Bucks now? That last bit was totally hypothetical.
9:31PM Alando Tucker just got drafted, and to the Suns. This seems like a good fit to me, the Suns are smart enough to be able to use Tucker's skills and create mismatches. Hope this goes well for the Badgers' all time leading scorer. Still no word on the forthcoming (I hope) Bucks trade.
9:45PM Sixers finished the first round by picking the Finnish point guard. Yo is growing on me slightly, and I still have not heard any more trade rumors. Also, I just read a quote from Yi that said he would be happy to play in Milwaukee (cha-ching, trade value sky-rocketing).
9:57 PM ESPN just reported that the Warriors made a trade, adn I got my hopes up, but alas it was not to be. Just a lame trade with the Bobcats. Still no trade with the Bucks, and this news makes that trade all the more unlikely.
10:16 PM Still no trade involving Milwaukee, and the Trailblazers look tough. Derrick Byars is my Michael Redd/Gilbert Arenas special from this draft. First round talent who got passed up for some reason. They also have the same type of player in Josh McRoberts. Good night for them it seems. My hope is that Jared Jordan is still here when the Bucks pick next. We'll see.
10:27PM Well Jordan is gone, and still no Bucks trade. I am beginning to drink the Yi kool laid (or green tea perhaps?). The Bucks could be a really interesting team to watch and have now a formidable front court. They can run out Bogut, Yi, Villenauva and bring in Simmons off the bench. We are still a good point guard away. Maybe its time to bring in Chauncey after all, even if its only for a few years. He can certainly pass the ball and run the show. The Bucks have a chance to take a big leap forward in the next year or two if they can get their hands on a real point guard. Too bad we traded Ford and Blake last year, either one would be a nice fit.
10:45 PM Portland just took Taurean Green from Florida. Any chance we swoop in and take one of there 6 point guards off their hands? Still no trade rumors, and I am almost completely on board the Yi train now. Also Sessions and Dowdell are both still on the board, and either would be great at our spot I think.
10:54 PM The Bucks pick Sessions from Nevada, someone I saw going in a lot of Mock Drafts in the first round. Good point guard with some size. Its going to be an interesting couple of weeks in Milwaukee with free agency. I still don't know what they will do with Mo Williams.
11:08 PM The draft is completed. One of my favorite players, Dowdell from VA Tech never got drafted, which is shocking to me, because he can flat out play. Oh well, thats how it goes I guess. Good draft for the Bucks, the get Yi-J (I think this ought to be the nickname) who potentially solidifies their rotation (either by playing or by being traded for a key piece) and added help to an absurdly thin backcourt. Good night now.

Heading Out

2007-06-28T14:40:00.001-05:00

So I am about one day away from vacation. I am excited about this, but also terribly apprehensive. My main apprehension is the drive, which measures somewhere between 21 hours and indefinitely. This coupled with the whole family being in the car, the recent flooding in Texas and having to spend any amount of time in Kansas makes me quite un-easy. All of this should be worth it when we arrive for a couple of weeks of relaxation, rest and family. We get to see a lot of old friends, and reconnect with extended family we have not seen in about a year.
This year also comes with a special treat, I get to bracket my vacation with two conferences. On the frontside, I am helping to host an informal conference on Christian Community which will hopefully bear much fruit for the long haul, while on the back end I get to attend the annual Gathering of the Eklessia Project, which is always three of my favorite days of the year.
Blogs over this next couple of weeks will no doubt be sporadic at best, although I do plan on recording some thoughts around the NBA draft tonight and the future of the Milwaukee Bucks, so check back for that.

Fletch

2007-06-24T23:20:00.001-05:00

My Take
So this is my 100th post. I struggled long and hard to male this post noteworthy or exceptional for some reason, but alas it is not to be. Instead I am going to continue my series of book reviews no seems to care about. The books this time are three parts of the series of mysteries centered around "Fletch" created by Gregory McDonald. I have read a total of four Fletch mysteries, and also son of Fletch. The film version only vaguely resembles the books, while Flitch Lives is entirely outside the scope of McDonald's work. On the whole, McDonald is gifted, his second Fletch novel was the first sequel to ever win the Edgar Alan Poe Mystery Writer's Award after the original had one. To give a bit more sense, I read the first three Fletch novels in a span of about 72 hours, or approximately a book a day. Good, fun, fiction with a likable (by almost everyone) hero.

Summary
The Fletch novels are John Grisham novels with better dialog. They are fast paced, involve conspiracies, plot twists, foreign affairs, scandals, the government and serve as an insider's critique of the press (particularly print media). McDonald has a knack for dialog. He is capable of writing the way people speak which is quite a gift. You do not get long, flowing accounts of setting or character, but you do get the terse, rapid description of a former journalist. It seems that any writer who has worked as a journalist, or as a printer, has a more innate sense of the value of words. They are surprisingly efficient. McDonald is adept at juggling more than one story line at time and allowing the reader to slowly unwrap the mystery. None of the Fletch novels end with a twist that was unforeseeable, but they all end with a twist that males good sense with the rest of the story. As a reader you never feel cheated because all the information you need is there all along.

Reflection
The books, not surprisingly are far superior to the movies, although I must confess that Chevy Chase was almost the perfect casting choice for Fletch. If I were going to recast it now I think perhaps Topher Grace, of he could pull of the sense of cool necessary to be Fletch. It turns out there are nine total Fletch novels, and I hope to get through the rest at some point. For now I will just have to enjoy the one's I've got and watch clips on you tube. I thought you might all enjoy this trailer at the top, funny how these have changed.

Rogue Unicorns

2007-06-21T07:39:00.002-05:00

This is one of the funniest things I have seen. Really, really good satire and music.

Consuming Health Care

2007-06-19T05:27:00.002-05:00

It may be that I am the only one remotely interested in the health care/ health insurance/ medical ethics/ American consumerism racket that I have been posting on periodically, but I keep seeing it. In an excellent little blog by Brian Volk he explores a bit about health care in other countries and his changing understanding of North American care. One of the pieces of his blog that is so helpful is that unlike Michael Moore's new movie (which I am very excited to see still) Volk does not start from the standard, American myopia. Volk does not assume that Americans ought to have the best care system in the world, or that the best health care system in the world would continue to strive for the best consumerist options that make people look the best and generate the most cash. Still praying.

The Urge to Post

2007-06-18T18:17:00.000-05:00

I have not posted in a few days, and suddenly I feel the need. I really have nothing spectacular or insightful to post, but that has not stopped me before. It has been a while since I reviewed a book, and it looks like that trend will continue. I am working my way through Repentance in Christian Theology, which is a fairly lengthy collection of essays by some quite gifted scholars. Also in the loop right now are Colossians Remixed which started strong, but is starting to weigh me down, Robert Jenson's Systematic Theology, which is brilliant but slow going for me so far and A Long Obedience in the Same Direction which I am reading with an amazing group of college students. All of this reading at the same time insures two realities, 1. No book reviews for a while, and 2. Once one of the reviews posts, there will two or three more shortly thereafter. In the meantime two quotes I found particularly insightful:

1. In describing the emergence of post-modernism, Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat give the best, succinct account of the motivating forces:
"We live inside the future of a shattered past because that past told grand stories proved to be destructive lies. The grand story of a Marxist utopia collapsed with the Berlin Wall. The heroic tale of tecnological progress blew up with the Challenger explosion. The progress myth of democratic capitalism that promised economic prosperity and social harmony strains under the weight of economic contraction, ecological threat, and an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, both domestically and internationally. The postmodernist ethos insists that stories such as these- stories that have so shaped our lives- are not stories of emancipation and progress after all but stories of enslavement, oppression, and violence." Colossians Remixed, 23.

2. Terence Fretheim in his essay makes this very crucial point about repentance in the OT: "[T]he former prophets understand that repentance is possible, finally only because of God's promise. Human repentance constitutes a gift of God in view of the promise; indeed , repentance is not possible without the promise being understood as directly applicable to the one who would repent." Repentance in Christian Theology, 33.

More to come.

Completion

2007-06-15T22:28:00.001-05:00

Hell week is finished. My wonderful wife is home. The Brewers have won three in a row and are finally scoring runs again. Pro golfers can not break par. Everything is right with the world. Things I learned this last week, in no particular order:
1. I should never (and I am tempted to say no one should ever) parent by myself for any prolonged period of time. This, it seems to me, is something the Church must respond to in creative ways.
2. I waste a lot of time.
3. Life is easier with a buffer. Whether it be money, time, space, when one must live on the edge with no room for error, life is almost impossible. The Church may need to think creatively about this as well.
4. I am a morning person.
5. I really enjoy hot tea, and thanks to my wife, I am discovering that I really, really, enjoy red tea.
6. I love my kids. I can be easily frustrated by my kids. These are not mutually exclusive.
7. The connection between right worship and right living is so obvious in the Scriptures that it is easy to miss. This is why the first commandment comes first. It is also why theology has a role in ethics.
8. Our lives our only enhanced by rejecting the notion of privatized, individual, isolated spirituality. Open, public lives full of stress, joy, anger, exhaustion are still more honest, faithful expressions of the kingdom of God than the alternatives.

No Hitter

2007-06-12T20:22:00.001-05:00

So the Brewers just lost to the Tigers (not a terrible shock) but the way it happened was atrocious. If you have not seen it yet, they were no hit by Justin Verlander. As you watch the highlights of this game, there are at least four points that need to be made:
1. The Brewers put their absolute worst line up on the field against the best pitcher the Tigers have going this series after a day off. This is inexcusable Ned Yost.
2. From the first strikeout of the game on, the ump gave Verlander a good 4-6 inches off the corner of the plate. For someone with Verlander's stuff this is way too big an advantage to overcome.
3. Verlander brought the junk. He was in a zone and had everything working. This was not a fluke no hitter, he was dealing and the Brewers were overmatched.
4. Jeff Suppan pitched five innings of one run baseball. He then gave up a triple, after an absurd walk (see previous note on strikezone for Verlander) to lead off the inning. Yost not only let him give up two runs that inning, but then brought him back for the seventh. All of this on a night when the opposition is throwing a no hitter against you. Your starter gets you to six with only a one run deficit and you repay him by letting him get exposed? The third run sealed it. Either pitch the whole game at that point, or pull him after the triple and try keep it close.

Bottom line, if the Brewers (who are 10-21 in their last 31) are below .500 at the all star break with only one injury to this roster, Yost is gone. Too bad, but he has been a train wreck the last two months, and there were some serious questions before that. I am not sure its Yost fault we don't have timely hitting and our pitching occasionally lets us down, but the Brewers need to do something, and this line up tonight only highlights the point. He DH'd the worst hitter on our team, and then placed the next two worst hitters in the 1,2 spot in the order. Also, how do you not once get in trouble for arguing the strikezone? I thought he was a Bobby Cox disciple, but he just does not have the back of his players. This was obvious during the Rangers series, and it is more obvious after tonight when he did not back up his hitters or his pitcher. Pick up the technical early in the game, set the tone for your team and this may not be a no hitter tonight.

Hell Week Continued

2007-06-12T14:01:00.001-05:00

Only two days left until my beautiful, wonderful, incredibly helpful, wife returns from gallivanting across the country, and it can not happen soon enough. We have done a remarkably decent job of keeping up with everything, the house is mostly clean, the kids have eaten mostly healthy meals and we have actually had a lot of fun. I am running on empty however, just too much to do, and too much to be responsible for. One of our fun things was seeing the movie Surfs Up yesterday which was actually a really good time. A couple of our youth went with and the movie was a lot of fun. The trick to the movie is that it follows the form of every skate/surf video documentary ever, and nails it. The point of the movie is a ton better than Happy Feet, Meet the Robinsons and Shrek 3, and it is immanently more watchable. On top of all of that, both Josh and Calvin loved, so that's a big bonus.
While I am in a praiseworthy mood, you must check out singer songwriter Joe Pug. My buddy Greg played a show with him the other night and called raving about how great he was. I took a listen, and Greg is right, this guy is the "real deal." Brillian lyricist, and vocally not hard to listen to. He only has a few tracks out right now, but you heard it here first.
My friend Lee is about to embark on a canoe trip with his father for a week. If you know Lee you are probably still chuckling to yourself (I am and its been days since I heard), if you do not know Lee, too bad for you. Anyway, follow the antics on his blog.

More on Insurance

2007-06-10T19:26:00.002-05:00

Still praying, thinking, deliberating on insurance and the idea of making boatloads of cash while attempting to do no harm. Still no answers, although after a bit of browsing I am more encouraged that this debate is coming to the fore a bit. You should know that I was raised in a military family, which meant that I was provided with military insurance until I was 21 (I think), which covers pretty much everything and is a type of "universal care." In 1993-1994 health care reform was the debate topic for the National Forensics League so the questions have been on my radar for at least 13-14 years although I am no closer to a solution. Since turning 21 I have had I believe ten total doctor appointments, three of these were physicals and seven were either emergency or follow up appointments. I am married and have three children, all of whom have been to the doctors a number of times. I did my undergrad in Canada and participated in their universal health care by breaking my wrist and impregnating my wife. My wrist treatment, including the ER was great, and the birth of our first child went pretty well. On the whole the biggest difference between the systems was a general sense of entitlement that was lacking in the Canadian people. This is an overall trait, but speaks specifically to the way Americans consume health care (for an absolutely brilliant book on this, see Carl Elliot's Better Than Well : When American Medicine Meets the American Dream). There is a ton more here to develop and talk through, but one of the fun pieces is that Michael Moore is releasing a new documentary entitled "Sicko," I do not know how to embed this, but here is a link to the official trailer, and an interview with Moore and Bill Maher (this one is a bit racy in places, but Moore comes across as a grown up who is a bit humbled). The discussion has been started, and I will be weighing in as I can.

Kick to the Groin

2007-06-09T22:18:00.001-05:00

Brewers 3 and Rangers 4
This one hurt a lot. I have already mentioned the need to win at least two against the miserable Texas Rangers and last night we came out of the gates and flopped. Tonight though looked like vintage Brewers, Sheets pitched brilliant for seven innings and then we found a way to lose. This was CoCo's first blown save of the season, and it was a head scratcher. He got the first two outs of the inning, one strikeout and one groundout to himself. He then let the next four batters score after being ahead 0-2 to all of them and only one of them hit him hard. This is one of those sucker punch games, not just because of the loss, but because of the way we lost and when. With Sheets on the mound we had managed to avoid a prolonged slump, but this doesn't look good now. If your team starts 24-10, and is only at five hundred at the all star break, can you get fired? Yost has to shake some things up, we need some confidence from somewhere.

Ways to Ressurect the NBA

2007-06-09T12:34:00.000-05:00

So recently, I posted a letter to the NBA to announce my resignation as a fan. I still stand by that, but have been thinking long and hard about what it might take to bring me back. The honest answer is that the product simply has to be better, from style of play to officiating. On top of this, there are some organizational things that could help. Take this proposal by the Golden State Warriors play by play guy. Its really interesting, and would be a good step in the direction of my becoming a fan again. Also, I discovered a Milwaukee Bucks blog that if it stays updated would be fun to have around. Finally, if my brother in law who is moving to Milwaukee is finally ready to wear the green and red, then I suppose I would have to join him.

Brewers Baseball

2007-06-08T12:18:00.000-05:00

It has not been a spectacular month for the Milwaukee Brewers. We had a pretty nasty road trip and we have struggled to put together more than two or three wins in a row lately. This weekend we get three against the Rangers, which we pretty much have to win at least two of these. The Rangers are exactly the type of team we have been clobbering this year and we need to continue that trend. We follow that up with a series at Detroit, and then we go to Minnesota. If we could get some momentum and win 6-8 of these games that would be huge. Even if we can just figure out a way to go .500 on this trip that would be great. Essentially though, we have to take two or three from the Rangers to have a chance for a special trip.
Two other Brewers notes:
1. I can not figure out how to find this, but I think the Brewers record with Rickie Weeks in the lineup since he came into the league is leaps and bounds better than there record without him in the lineup. We have to get this guy healthy.
2. I have stumbled across some really good Brewers blogs, in no particular order:
Brewers Fanantics
Brewcrew Ball
Breaking Down the Brewers
From the Uecker Seats
Right Field Bleachers
Enjoy them.

Life sans Wife

2007-06-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

Every semester in college you have the one week affectionately known as "hell week," "miracle week," or "suicide week" depending on the institution, in which every paper you have ever had assigned to you is due. Somehow you do end up getting through it, hand in your work and then forget that the week ever happened, and vow to get further ahead the next semester so that semester's hell week will not be so crazy. Believe it or not, being away from hell week for a few years now, I sort of miss it. I miss the rush, the testing your limits, the complete closure of the whole thing. Perhaps its the misplaced nostalgia, or the lack of memory, or the plain ignorance on my part, but this week for me is the married with children equivalent of hell week. My wife has fled the state for a week to go to two very important weddings and we collectively decided that I should watch all the children while she is gone. We are about six hours into that decision and there is a small nagging voice in the back of my head saying, "Oops."
I have approached this week like an end to semester, to be as prepared as possible I sat down and figured out a schedule of activities, a menu, even when the Brewers are on the radio, so I have a plan. Just like in hell week though, I know this plan is doomed to failure. I won't do everything on the list, I'll forget something really important (like laundry or sunscreen) and in the end I will have a sense of completion. After all, hell week is never perfect, you never write the paper you really wanted to, you never ace the test the way you thought you might, but when the week is over you can't help but feel like you've accomplished something. Next Thursday at around this time, I will be precious few hours from finishing out the week and will no doubt be tired, drained, longing for my wife and overall just plain spent, but for now, "Bring it on."
A couple of other unrelated thoughts, congrats to the Mighty Ducks (I hate that name by the way). A classic example of a talented team who just put the pieces together at the right time. Really good effort in net, leaving the Sens hurting. The series was very fast and very watchable. Apparently watchable does not equal watched however.
Great line in Pirates of the Carribean Three that sort of reminded me of the famous Jim Elliot quote, (spoiler alert) "Ten years for one day seems like a heavy price to pay." "It depends on the one day." Really good line that also gets to the heart of Samuel Wells point, "Faithfulness is but effectiveness measured against a much longer timescale." Also why eschatology is so crucial to proper theology and Christian living.

Rediscovering the Triune God

2007-06-07T09:02:00.000-05:00

My Take
This is an excellent example of the work of the late Stanley Grenz. Rediscovering the Triune God is complete with all the helpful insight and generous spirit Grenz is well known for. This work demonstrates an overall breadth of knowledge and an acute sense of the pulse of contemporary theology. Like much of Grenz' work, what he lacks in rhetorical power or nuance he more than makes up for in research. Not a fun or easy read, but an excellent place to begin an informed discussion of trinitarian theology.

Summary
The book is split into five chapters and an epilogue. Grenz moves the reader briskly through a history of trinitarian theology before the 20th century in chapter one, focuses in on Barth and Rahner in chapter 2, and then moves into more contemporary theologians in 3-5. On the whole, the structure of the book is methodical and makes good organizational sense, but it leaves the book feeling a bit like an extended syllabus on the Trinity. On the whole though this is a broad stroked treatment of a number of key figures in theology and the import they continue to play.

Reflection
This is one of those books that I can only recommend with a huge disclaimer, if you are not a theology nerd you will hate this book. If on the other hand you have some background with the material and want a way to fill in some of the blanks in your own reading, and want a systematic overview or large map of the theological landscape, then this book is quite good. As I read through this book, I was time and again struck by two alternate thoughts: 1. It is amazing to read someone who devoted so much of his life to a particular field. Grenz never accidentally stumbles onto this material. He is clearly a skilled and generous thinker, teacher and reader. I know this not simply from this book, but also from taking classes with some of his previous students, who share these same marks of academic integrity. Grenz is the epitome of an envagelical scholar who actually does the work, which is far to rare. 2. Grenz for all his brillance, generosity, insight, and ability (not to mention his genuine humility as a person) is almost unreadable. I keep running into this problem with his work. He is clearly passionate and encyclopedic in his knowledge, but this does not translate well to his writing. It sort of makes me wish he had found a friend who was a gifted writer who could help make his work more accessible (in fact he did do this from time to time but I can't speak to the results). In the end what you get with Rediscovering the Triune God is an excellent theological history/ manual which will hopefully spur on creative, faithful thinking and preaching on the Holy Trinity.

Potpuri

2007-06-04T06:37:00.000-05:00

Several things:
1. While I am pleased that the NBA is still dead to me (perhaps mostly dead) I am also pleased to announce that the two teams I picked at the beginning of the playoffs are the two left. I thought it would take the Cavs seven games to beat an aging, fractured shell of a team, and I thought that team would be Miami, but whatever. My pre-playoff prediction was the Spurs in 6 which does not look too bad, though the series could go much quicker than that.
2. Page 2's Mike Philbrick has put together one of the funniest things you may ever see with his ultimate sports movie commencement address. The address itself is funny, but the idea is brilliant.
3. While at Burger King the other night, Josh and I began talking about happy meals, and why we weren't getting any. Once in a while the kids get happy meals and get really excited about it, and sometimes the toys seem worth the money, but on the whole Happy meals just seem wrong somehow. My whole family, sans happy meals, was able to eat for $9.42, or less than $2 a person. This lead us to ask, why is it our other fast food trips are usually in the $12-17 range (for example, earlier that same day we ate at Chick File for a whopping $23.08), and the answer is usually that we are not careful in how we order or what we waste. While I am willing to concede right off the top that the best alternative would be to give up fast food entirely (this is a no brainer, but also a no happener), we have begun to discuss how we might eat more faithfully on the rarer occassions we do eat out. This birthed the idea of restraining from happy meals to raise money for missions. By ordering meals a bit differently, being willing to share fries and drinks, and not buying happy meals, we realized we can save almost $2-5 every time we eat out. The more careful approach to ordering and eating allows us to help stunt some of the consumerism involved in fast food, train them to say no to certain desires, and teaches them to share. Also, by putting the money we save back towards mission we can make a small dent in hunger around the world. Kick this idea around with friends and we'll see how it goes. Also, we could use a really cool name for the idea.