I came across an interesting and concise article by N.T. Wright regarding the issues of women in ministry. He has some good thoughts. You can read it here .
Cleaning Out the Idols
So I was reading in 2 Kings the other night and read the part about Josiah discovering the book of the law. Here was a culture that claimed to follow God, but they had essentially lost the scriptures as they collected dust in the temple. So of course they had let in all kinds of strange ideas and interpretations of following God. One thing that I found interesting about this passage is who they had to go to to explain what it was they had found. The priests no longer knew what the law was about, so the King found a prophetess named Huldah the wife of the grandson of the keeper of the wardrobe. So in all of Jerusalem only a young woman knew enough about the supposed faith of the people to explain it to the King and was the prophet appointed by God to deliver the message about what he was to do now. Interesting.
So Huldah basically tells the King that God will bring disaster on his people and stuff. Then Josiah read the book of the covenant aloud to all the people and renewed the covenant. Then he went about clearing out the idols from the land and from in the temple. He removed the idols to Baal, Asherah, and the starry hosts from the temple and tore down the quarters of the male prostitutes that were in the temple.
Jerusalem still got their butts kicked by God, but this event should have some implications for today. Many in the emerging church are attempting to read the scriptures anew and to see the idols we have let creep into our faith. The call is to do what we can to remove those idols (while humbly acknowledging that there will always be lenses of our culture through which we view the faith and therefore give us a proclivity towards idols).
So what idols do we worship in the church? Besides the ubiquitous greed/consumerism/capitalism that is the bane of the American church – I see dangers in upholding reason above God and faith, in pledging worship to a flag of a political entity in our church (or schools for that matter), and in pursuing power and not caring for justice, mercy, and humility. Just a few thoughts here… anyone else care to comment or add to the list?
Bono at the National Prayer Breakfast
The comments Bono gave at the recent Nation Prayer Breakfast plead our government to acknowledge the biblical call to justice. Many,including Bono himself, have questioned his right to make such a call. But too often those of us who live in a country of wealth and democracy forget that millions in this world have no voice – they need as loud as a voice as possible to speak for them. And in this day and age a rock star fits the bill. I appreciated his reminder that a country can make laws but that God’s law is higher. I highly recommend reading the prepared (apparently there was some ad-libbing) transcript of what he said here .
Marriage
So recently I have had a number of conversations among different groups about the nature of sex and marriage. Most of the conversations are with people that make certain assumptions about the two and call those assumptions biblical. While I agree for the most part with the general conclusions that are reached, it troubles me when people assume that their 21st century, American, evangelical ideas are the true biblical ones or “the way it has always been.” How we view marriage today (a loving covenant between a man and a woman that implies longevity, commitment, submission, and love)is a fairly recent concept. For most of Western history marriage was based more on political and economic forces than personal choice. To assume that what we mean by marriage is what the bible means by marriage disrespects history and the context of the biblical writers.
For a brief and interesting overview of the history of marriage in western society check out this article.
As a tangent, one of the historical facts I discovered that fascinated me was the existence of compulsory marriage in Imperial Rome. Augustus imposed fines on single people and thus made marriage a political and economic transaction. So when Paul talks about remining single, he is not just referring to sexual and spiritual issues, but taking a stand against the empire.
Just some thoughts to ponder.
Chocolate Crap
So for the last day or so I have been attempting to make holiday goodies with chocolate and have had mixed results. Recipes that I’ve never had issues with before went seriously wrong and (sin of sins) I have ruined a decent amount of chocolate. For example – I made three batches of fudge with differing results (none of which were the outcome I was looking for). One batch is a smooth truffle like candy – yummy, but not really fudge like. Another batch is very soft with toffee like consistency. Then the final batch is brick hard. Then I was melting chocolate to dip things in (like nilla wafers and pretzels) and one batch burnt. It makes no sense given that I did everything exactly the same for every batch! Anyway, so we had this mass of burnt chocolate with peppermint undertones and I was getting quite upset about how I kept ruining the chocolate. So we started playing with the chocolate and since it looked pretty much like a giant turd, Mike took it outside and dumped it in the snow (see picture below). So there is a very large turd-like piece of burnt peppermint chocolate in our yard which was really silly at the moment but yeah…. anyway the point is I need to stop making crap and actually get some edible stuff made sometime soon!
Tis the Season
So its finally December and therefore one can celebrate Christmas without the “shouldn’t we at least wait until Thanksgiving is over” guilt trip. So far its snowed each day this month but I think there is still only about an inch of snow on the ground (even so I still got made fun of by complete strangers for wearing my birks out in the cold and the snow…). But it makes things pretty.
This past week has been crazy. Emma decided not to take naps – which made her less than happy most of the time. I think we also scared her for life with the whole taking a christmas picture thing. First – I took her to the mall to get her picture taken at The Picture People. Well they tried to have her stand up next to a chair and she managed to fall down pulling the chair down on top of her. She was okay, just really frightened and needless to say we didn’t get the pictures taken that day. Then we tried to do the whole family picture thing in front of the chistmas tree and the whole tree fell down on top of me and her. We are both okay – but the tree has issues and is currently being held together by superglue and duct tape… its okay as long as you don’t touch it or breath anywhere near it.
So that has been December so far. we have half of our christmas lights up and those look great (just a bit lopsided until the rest go up…). anyway… thats my life.
Julie Needs…
So there is this blogger game I saw recently. You google your name followed by “needs” and post what comes up. Its surprising what the internet thinks I need!
1. Julie needs to work on her parenting. (ouch!)
2. Julie needs to be on her own for a while.
3. Julie needs complete access to the hallway.
4. Julie needs your help.
5. Julie needs to show off her womanly figure.
6. Julie needs to scedule another meeting.
7. Julie needs some real hands-on comforting.
8. Julie needs one more qualification to complete her Junior AKC hunter title.
9. Julie needs a caring, nurturing placement with consistent boundries.
10. Julie needs sleep.
Things Overheard at Walmart
So I was at Walmart yesterday and as I was shopping I overheard part of a conversation between two employees. One was a white women and the other an Afgani woman. The Afgani women was telling her coworker about a recent incident in Afganistan in which some American soldiers were walking through a residential area. A small boy came to the door of his house and begged them for some food. A soldier then pushed him and slammed the door on him – breaking the boy’s hand as he did so. The women then said that stuff like that happens all the time over there, but that Americans have no clue about what’s going on. She then said that things were better under the Taliban.
I moved on at that point, but that snatch of conversation made me think and ask a lot of questions. I knew that American arrogence exists – it has to for us to just go in and impose our will on other countries. But this personal “I am above the law and morality” attitude of soldiers is just sad. Does being in the army give a person a power trip where they feel like they can do stuff like that? Or are the people who join the army the type people who like violence and would abuse children anyway? What standards are they held to or does anyone even care? just some random questions…
What is Evil?
So I just finished reading The Sundering series by Jacqueline Carey . There are just two books in it so far (although she is being begged to write more!) Banewreaker and Godslayer . It was a fasinating read that really delved into the nature of good and evil. The series is obviously similar to Lord of the Rings – similar mythology, characters, and quest to destroy the bad guy. But in Carey’s series the tale is told from all points of view. One gets the back story of the “bad guy”, one hears about the orc-like characters’ families and why they chose the side they did. For although the book starts with a very black and white / good vs. evil mythology one soon realizies that reality exists more in the shades of gray. The characters themselves realize such as well. For when people are exposed to the other side of the story they can sympathize – or at least put a human face on the enemy and realize that he is not so very different from themselves. Also played up are how minor choices and true coincedences can have major effects in the outcome of things.
But beyond exploring the vague ambiguities between good and evil the reader is also confronted with the subjective nature of defining what is evil. As the book’s cover asks – “if all that is good says you are evil – are you?” We are so preconditioned to assume that certain things are good and others evil that if things come with those labels we don’t question the rightness of those labels. So in approaching a book with characters like Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo – we assume that their side is right and good and the guy they are fighting and calling evil is just that. But Carey turns everything upside down in the end when the “bad guy” become the Christ figure who lays down his life to help others. He is the one who cares for the world – not just for the rich and the powerful – but for the poor, the oppressed, the disfigured, the unwanted. He loved and helped them. It really drove home to me the question of what we as Christians in America support and call good. Perhaps the issues are bigger than we think.
Anyway – this is a great series that is really a well written fantasy story with these deeper elements woven in. I highly recommend it for a fun and thought-provoking read.
Hurricane Thoughts
Watching the news over the last few days has been overwhelming. The horror of what these people are going through is unimaginable. What is most sad is how little is being done. People are dying because there is no way out, they don’t have food or water, and the hospitals can’t care for the sick. This is America – we have the resources to do more. Instead if you even suggest that enough isn’t being done your allegience to the country (actually to Bush) is questioned and its the questioning and not the real issue that is given attention. Why does it have to be political??? I understand that there are dangers to be considered, but helping people is dangerous, its hard. All of our lives are affected. What really gets me are the people who are complaining about gas prices and not being able to drive through the area over the holiday weekend. How selfish can you get!? If this is really America – the “its all about me and my needs” crowd, then no wonder so little has been done. And the blogs where I have read such sentiments are written by Christians – people who are supposed to follow the whole “whatever you did to the least of these my brothers, you did to me” idea.
Its hard to know what to do. Donating money and praying at this point seem to be the only options. Here are links to World Vision and World Relief if you are looking for a way to donate. Sorry this was more of a rant – but its all a bit emotional overload…