- C. Wess Daniels, a Quaker, discusses Denominations and Traditions: Thoughts on Differences. Just for the fun of it, I’ll replace the word ‘Quaker’ in a section of his post with ‘Lutheran’: “I have very little interest in Lutheranism, in as much as it is an ism. These things that are the “way we’ve always done them” can actually becomes obstacles to our believing in the power of God’s Spirit. The denominational nitty gritty, when it is left to its own devices and not rooted within the life of the tradition, only sustains structures often reinforcing the church’s role as a placeholder for our belief rather than a bottom-up community of people following God’s mission in the world. I want to be a part of a community that not only tells but also lives into the stories of those we call Lutheran.” 04/30/2009
- Nate Phelps, the son of faux-Christian hate peddler Fred Phelps, recently presented a paper at the American Atheists Convention titled The Uncomfortable Grayness of Life. There is simply too much good stuff to quote here, so just go read it for yourself (it’s lengthy, but totally worthwhile). Oh, heck, here’s a tasty morsel:
His desire to get back in shape was, in and of itself, a good and even necessary thing. However, true to his character, my father took a personal desire to improve his health and turned it into an obsession that impacted the entire family. Soon, we would arrive home from selling candies, only to get back in the cars and head over to the high school to run 5 or 10 miles around the track. Charts were hung up all around the house, tracking progress and setting new distance goals. Running the marathon became my father’s Holy Grail; learning of a marathon that was coming up nearby, he stepped up our training to run 15 and then 20 miles. As grueling as this regiment was, none of the children dared complain.
Related: The Church of Hate and Westboro Baptist Lawsuit 04/28/2009
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April 21st, 2009 | 
Goodmorning (45/365), uploaded by jakebouma on flickr.
- Philosophy’s great experiment. “A dynamic new school of thought is emerging that wants to kick down the walls of recent philosophy and place experimentation back at its centre. It has a name to delight an advertising executive: x-phi. It has blogs and books devoted to it, and boasts an expanding body of researchers in elite universities. It even has an icon: an armchair in flames. If philosophy ever can be, x-phi is trendy. But, increasingly, it is also attracting hostility.” 04/13/2009
The Monday brief
Highlight of the week: The First Annual St. Mark Sale Barn & Silent Auction was an amazing success. In addition to raising 20% more than our goal, the event was unbelievably fun — at one point I was laughing so hard I was in tears. Oh, and it’s wonderful to have the Cubs playing regular season baseball.
Book(s) I’m reading: I finished The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson which was interesting but not incredible, and I’m now reading The Chemistry of Joy: A Three-Step Program for Overcoming Depression Through Western Science and Eastern Wisdom by Henry Emmons. I wrestled with depression in college, and never took the time to actually understand the disease. I’m only 60 or 70 pages in, and it’s already eye-opening. I also picked up Bill Bryson’s A Walk In the Woods for my bedtime reading.
Music I’m digging: Three Flights from Alto Nido (link opens in iTunes) by Greg Laswell. If you like indie rock, you’ll like this album.
Something(s) that blew my mind: This video of a guy beatboxing while playing a kalimba.
Ministry update: As I said earlier, the auction was a total success. And since we just served our annual Easter breakfast, all of our fundraising for the summer trip to New Orleans is finished. Phwew!
Seminary/ordination update: Nothing new to report.
Looking forward to: I am extremely excited for the silent retreat at the end of this week. I’ll post more on it later.
Photo of the week:
Opening day (34/365), uploaded by jakebouma on flickr.
That’s it for the Monday brief. Feel free to leave a comment, and if you’re feeling extra frisky, check out the Monday brief archives.
A Holy Week parable from Peter Rollins
The Last Supper
It is evening, and you are gathered together with the other disciples in a small room for Passover. All the time you are watching Jesus, while he sits quietly in the shadows listening to the idle chatter, watching over those who sit around him, and, from time to time, telling stories about the kingdom of God.
As night descends, a meal of bread and wine is brought into the room. It is only at this moment that Jesus sits forward so that the shadows no longer cover his face. He quietly brings the conversation to an end by capturing each one with his intense gaze. Then he begins to speak:
“My friends, take this bread, for it is my very body, broken for you.”
Every eye is fixed on the bread that is laid on the table. While these words seem obscure and unintelligible, everyone picks up on their gravity.
Then Jesus carefully pours wine into the cup of each disciple until it overflows onto the table.
“Take this wine and drink of it, for it is my very blood, shed for you.”
With these words an ominous shadow seems to descend upon the room – a chilling darkness that makes everyone shudder uneasily. Jesus continues:
“As you do this, remember me.”
Most of the gathered disciples begin to slowly eat the bread and drink the wine, lost in their thoughts. You, however, cannot bring yourself to lift your hand at all, for his words have cut into your soul like a knife.
Jesus does not fail to notice your hesitation and approaches, lifting up your head with his hand so that your eyes are level with his. Your eyes meet for only a moment, but before you are able to turn away, you are caught up in a terrifying revelation. At that instant you experience the loneliness, the pain, and sorrow that Jesus is carrying. You see nails being driven through skin and bone; you hear the crowds jeering and the cries of pain as iron cuts against flesh. At that moment you see the sweat that flows from Jesus like blood, and experience the suffocation, madness, and pain that will soon envelop him. More than all of this, however, you feel a trace of the separation he will soon feel in his own being.
In that little room, which occupies no significant space in the universe, you have caught a glimpse of a divine vision that should never have been disclosed. Yet it is indelibly etched into the eyes of Christ for anyone brave enough to look.
You turn to leave – to run from that place. You long for death to wrap around you. But Jesus grips you with his gaze and smiles compassionately. Then he holds you tight in his arms like no one has held you before. He understands that the weight you now carry is so great that it would have been better had you never been born. After a few moments, he releases his embrace and lifts the wine that sits before you, whispering,
“Take this wine, my dear friend, and drink it up, for it is my very blood, and it is shed for you.”
All this makes you feel painfully uncomfortable, and so you shift in your chair and fumble in your pocket, all the time distracted by the silver that weights heavy in your pouch.
Commentary from Peter Rollins:
This reflection was on outworking of my first interaction with the enigmatic figure of Judas. Here I wanted to play with our tendency to identify with the favorable characters in the Bible. For instance, when reading about the self-righteous Pharisee and the humble tax collector, we find it all too easy to condemn the first and praise the second without asking whether our own actions are closer to the one we have rejected than the one we praise.
Judas is here a symbol of all our failures, and Christ’s action to demonstrate his unconditional acceptance. Judas helps to remind us of Christ’s message that he came for the sick rather than the healthy, and that he loves and accepts us as we are.
Be sure to check out Peter’s forthcoming book, The Orthodox Heretic: and Other Impossible Tales which is available from the publisher at 40% off if purchased before April 15.
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