A word from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Those who remain alone with their evil are left utterly alone. It is possible that Christians may remain lonely in spite of daily worship together, prayer together, and all their community through service - that the final breakthrough to community does not occur precisely because they enjoy community with one another as pious believers, but not with one another as those lacking piety, as sinners...However, the grace of the gospel, which is so hard for the pious to comprehend, confronts us with the truth. It says to us, you are a sinner, a great, unholy sinner. Now come, as the sinner that you are, to your God who loves you. For God wants you as you are, not desiring anything from you - a sacrifice, a good deed - but rather desiring you alone."

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

New Camera, cont.

Here is a place to sample some pictures that I took with my new camera.

Overrated Item of the Day: Pretzels

I could live without them. They are completely useless to me except as a conduit for salt. So why don't I just eat salt? At least salt won't make me quite as unnecessarily thirsty as pretzels do.
Some people really like pretzels, and I think that's great for them. But as far as I'm concerned, pretzels are nothing more than the stuff that gets in the way of the good stuff when I'm trying to eat Chex Mix.

Changing Paradigms in Camera-ology

My Nikon D40 came in the mail a few days ago and I've been really having a great time figuring out how to use it.

I took this one with my new camera (which needs a name) resting on a playground set at a dog park a few blocks up from my apartment. If I owned a tripod then that building might not be in the way. This picture is way better than what my old point and shoot would have taken under the provided lighting conditions. Speaking of which, maybe now would be a great time for a moment of silence to honor my old 2.0 Megapixel Canon Digital Elph.

She took many an amazing photo, and I'd pit her against any other point and shoot out there when it comes to quality of print.

Overrated Item of the Day

Seattle's collective taste in coffee.

Generally speaking, Seattle, in spite of its reputation as a city of coffee, has horrible taste in coffee. Starbuck's sucks and Tully's is worse, and both chains are wildly popular and well thought of by the average Seattleite. I'm more and more convinced everyday that very few of them have any idea what good coffee tastes like. I bet you could take Folger's, or maybe that stuff they brew at 7 Eleven, slap a green circular logo with some smiley lady with a crown on it and most people here would think it's delicious.

Not to say that Seattle isn't well above average when it comes to the availability of good coffee: Cafe Vita and Zoka's are both of high quality, and I've heard great things about Uptown Espresso and several other places, but it could definitely be said that largely the average resident of Seattle couldn't tell a good cup of coffee from a good cup of water.

Some Thoughts from Heschel's The Prophets

"The principle to be kept in mind is to know what we see rather than to see what we know." (p. xi)

"It is not a world devoid of meaning that evokes the prophet's consternation, but a world deaf to meaning." (xiii)

"Prophecy, then, may be described as exegesis of existence from a divine perspective." (xiv)

"Instead of showing us a way through the elegant mansions of the mind, the prophets take us to the slums." (3)

"Of what paltry worth is human might - yet human compassion is divinely precious." (6)

"Instead of cursing the enemy, the prophets condemn their own nation." (12)


From The Prophets: An Introduction Vol. I by Abraham Heschel

A recent return to meditating with Meister Eckhart

"Apprehend God in all things,
for God is in all things.

Every single creature is full of God
and is a book about God.

Every creature is a word of God.

If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature -
even a caterpillar -
I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God
is every creature."


"Now I shall tell you something I have never
spoken of before.
God enjoys him/herself.
In the same enjoyment in which God enjoys him/herself,
S/he enjoys all creatures.

God
finds joy and rapture
in us.

All that is good in creatures -
all their honeysweetness -
comes from God.

All things are pure and noble in God."


"God's being is my being

and God's primordial being
is my primordial being.

Wherever I am,
there is God.

The eye with which I see God
is the same eye with which God sees me."


"God created all things in such a way
that they are not outside himself,
as ignorant people falsely imagine.
Rather,
All creatures flow outward, but nonetheless remain
within God.
God created all things this way:
not that they might stand outside of
God, nor alongside God,
nor beyond God,
but that they might
come into God
and receive God
and dwell in God.
For this reason everything that is
is bathed in God,
is enveloped by God,
who is round-about us all, enveloping us."


"If you were to let a horse
run about in a green meadow,
the horse would want to pour forth its whole strength
in leaping about the meadow.

So too
it is a joy to God
to have poured out
the divine nature and being
completely into us

who are divine images."


"The seed of God is in us.
Now
the seed of a pear tree
grows into a pear tree;
and a hazel seed
grows into a hazel tree;

a seed of God
grows into
God."

Taken from Matthew Fox's Meditations with Meister Eckhart

"Jesus Camp", Shame and Fundamentalism

I just watched Jesus Camp and one word sticks out for me: shame.

A lot of what was said I would agree with at some level, but for all the shame that was involved. I saw that shame in these children's tears. They internalized all the sin they were told was in them and in the world, and the it seems like it was that burden that caused the intense emotions that expressed itself as tears. They cried because they had been named as evil, and then told that it is their responsibility to tell everyone else they are evil. Shame is naturally evangelistic, and so it's not much of a stretch for these kids to easily become evangelists of this bastardized "gospel" of shame. When a person is consumed with shame, they cannot love, all they can do is shame others.

Speaking of shame, I don't want to vilify the specific people who were portrayed in this movie. Instead, I would like to ask broader questions about what should be taught to children, both in the church and in the home. Or, perhaps more foundationally, how is your theology different than that which was portrayed in the film (or is it?) and why? And what part do you think shame plays in fundamentalism as a whole?

a wedding

This past Sunday, a wedding was a part of the church service. The liturgy just sort of stopped after the offering, and a guy in a tux and a woman in a wedding dress got up and were married. Then the wedding paused while the bride and groom served us communion, then the pastor did the whole kiss the bride thing, then the benediction and that was the end. It was easily the simplest wedding I've ever been to, and it was incredibly beautiful. I'll bet this was cheaper than a Saturday wedding too. And what a great theology of church. I don't even know these people, but I was invited to their wedding because they chose to have it in the middle of a church service that I happen to be attend. This has changed my entire hermeneutic for what a wedding should be. What a great thing, not to invite only close family and friends, but to invite your local instance of the body of Christ to attend your wedding.

See you later, Billy

This made my day/month:

Kentucky welcomes new coach Gillispie

Congratulations, and Bon voyage! Go beat Florida for me.