[LIF] Kenny!!!!

Yes, I blame Kenny. As if I didn't have enough ways to procrastinate.

[REV] Little Mosque on the Prairie

I heard about this show on CBC radio one day, the interview was hilarious. So I've been wanting to catch a few episodes. Holy Mackeral it is a great show! Little Mosque on the Prairie is one of the best sitcoms I've seen in a long time. Not only is the show a brilliant expose on ridiculous Moslem stereotypes it occasionally makes a wonderful and playful jab at Christianity. Personally I think humour is one of the best entrance points for ecumenism, we take ourselves far too seriously too often. The other wonderful aspect is the absolute diversity of the Moslem community. It reminds me all too much of about every local church I've ever been a part of. I highly recommend it.

[THO] Moltmann and the Resurrection of Christ

I'm just about to write my Christology paper on Resurrection in Moltmann's Theology of Hope. Not just the book of that title, but that is what I would label his whole theology. Moltmann read Bloch's The Principles of Hope and realized that the category of hope had been lost to Christianity. In fact we were discussing in Liberation Theology class today how the early church practiced hope, yet we tend to practice systems of belief (dogma). Moltmann's response was his groundbreaking book The Theology of Hope, which is a profound read that I've worked with the last two semesters (last semester as a critique for the evangelical vision of grace). This time I did a survey of Moltmann's major works (Crucified God, Coming of God, Church in the Power of the Spirit, The Way of Jesus Christ, etc.) as well as some of his applications of the Theology of Hope (In the End...the Beginning, Future of Creation, etc.) Honestly I think I overdid it, but it isn't that easy to stop once you get started. I found that Moltmann is consistant all through this theology, at least in terms of the Resurrection. He brilliantly exposes why this foolishness about the Platonic Immortality of the Soul is a blight on modern Christianity and how the remedy is Resurrection faith. And Moltmann masterfully exposes the whole understanding of Resurrection in the langauge of promise, that is enough to give me goosepimples! But the best is his understanding of Resurrection as the inbreaking of the future into history in a way that re-makes history! This is such a profound insight that almost every text I looked at tried to unpack this idea. Just as Volf [Correction: it was Geiko Muller-Fahrenholz not Volf] says the theology of the Resurrection is the hinge on which the Theology of Hope turns, this understanding of the Resurrection builds the anticipation of Kingdom Inbreaking in the believer and becomes the imperative for our lived faith in this world. It is just so good.

Well I better get writing.

[LIF] Küng Foo

I went to hear Hans Küng last night. It was a bilingual event, which apparently means something other than parallel translation, doh! But thankfully Hans made some comments about his French in French and continued almost exclusively in English. I still have a long way to go this summer to pass the French competancy. I was struggling with only getting the smallest bits of the spoken French, so frustrating. Küng was very interesting, it was basically his life's work in brief. I think if I were Roman Catholic I would have appreciated it more, he talked about the issues post-Vatican II of only instituting 'yes' men bishops and of refusing to deal with the law of celibacy. I didn't see a lot of recognizable clergy though, so I suspect Hans is a Catholic Theologian for the lay person who longs for semper reformation in the Catholic Church.

[THO] Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Working hard on my papers I decided my light break reading would be Michel Foucault's little book "This is Not a Pipe". I barely broke the second chapter and I am struck by how well he describes the power of the aphorism. We go to such great lengths to reconcile discrepancies in our minds, we don't let them hang out in their paradoxical way and work their magic on us. We instantly say, of course this is not a pipe! It is a picture of a pipe, then we are done and can walk away undisturbed. Unfortunately we've completely missed the point and robbed the aphorism of its real meaning. I think this is why we can create such comfortable messages from the word of Jesus.

Jesus spoke often in aphorisms. Disconnected word pictures designed to shake us up and reveal the Kingdom. But when Jesus tells us the mustard seed grows into the biggest tree we don't cry out "bullshit!" we accept it and somehow construe that in Jesus day they must have desired these plants. But the reality is mustard is a weed. It spreads easy and grows into a shrub. But we don't like that kind of disconnect. It makes us uncomfortable (probably as uncomfortable as my use of the BS phrase made some of you).

I am often asked why people just don't get Jesus' message. We try to break it into simple moralisms or truisms. We want it to all match reality in a "reasonable" way. In doing so we rob the gospel of its power, a power to reorient us and break us out of the patterns of thinking that frankly no longer function for our good. The gospel is powerful if we are willing to let it linger untamed in our midst. Like any untame beast it will tear us apart, ripping away all that ultimately holds us back. We will stuff it into a cage, we always do, but the longer we can hold the tension, the longer we can allow the fangs of scripture to tear away our false ideas, the more transformative it will be. If someone told you God was safe, don't buy it. God is as dangerous as his Word, and the Kingdom of God advances with violence!

[THO] Boehme's Panentheism

In preparing my paper on Jacob Boehme I have run into the pantheism/panentheism debate. Pantheism is pretty easy to understand, it is the idea that God is the sum of all that is. But panentheism is often confused with the heterodox pantheism even though nothing could be further from the truth.

For Boehme there is a wisdom (word) present in all things which has two functions. First it is the suffucing of nature with the divine giving the potential for salvation to all of creation, this he gets at using hermetic philosophy. But more importantly for Boehme, and others who take panentheism seriously, creation itself is able to convey understanding about God and life. Creation becomes a book of God. These ideas also come out in a panentheistic reading of the New Testament.

Boehme lived in the time when the Medieval Synthesis was crumbling. We were moving from a geocentric view of creation to a heliocentric view. And everything needed to be rethought. From a 21st century perspective many of Boehme's ideas seem quite profound and orthodox, but in his time cages were being rattled.

[THO] Jacob Boehme Redux

I can't imagine a more complicated time to be writing about than turn of the 17th century Upper Lusatia. Religiously you have the enforced Lutheranism (house by house baby!), duplicitious Crypto-Calvinists and Phillipists, wandering Anabaptists, entrenched Catholics, artillery inventing Hussites, hopeful Humanists and enough Silisian mystics to fill a large bathtub! Politically it is even more of a mess, the Turks at Europes doors, the inability of the Protestants to get along with each other, let alone the Catholic. This is the time of rising German nation states and the decline of the Holy Roman Empire. It is also a time of apocalyptic expectation, what Luther had done for the Gospel, science would soon do for philosophy, or so they though (Weeks, Boehme, 48). Now throw into this mix a self-taught cobbler mystic who felt compelled to put his thoughts to paper. At least I have no shortage of things to write about for this paper - the hard part is trying to tame this unruly beast!

[THO] The Problem with Personal Salvation

I wrote a paper last year which uses Moltmann's theology as a critique of the Evangelical vision of grace. I did really well on it and the professor, Ken Melchin, agreed to help me work on it some more in hopes of finding it a home in a scholarly journal of some sort. I just finished reading it and it was really encouraging. If I were to nutshell my argument I would say that Evangelicals consistantly have an orientation towards personal salvation that blinds them to constructive participation in the world. The hard part is that this insight of personal salvation is important and worth protecting. But when our focus on personal salvation becomes an escapist philosophy then we miss the incarnational insight of Christ's life. I tackle some of the issues that flow out of this like the breakdown of medieval synthesis and the prevalence of apocalyptic decline narratives in the article, I think it will be a worthwhile read if I can find it a home.

[THO] Jacob Boehme

I'm really enjoying Andrew Weeks book Boehme. He does a great job of surveying the theology of this influential mystic. The more I get a handle on Boehme's ideas the more of his influence I can see in philosophy and theology. Not bad for a cobbler with no formal theological education. Perhaps that is exactly why he dared integrate theosophy, alchemy and mysticism into his ecstatic influenced theologizings. Boehme took chances with mixed results. After reading the Confessions of Jacob Boehme I was struck by just how devotional his text was, not at all what I expected after reading snippets of the Aurora. Especially towards the end Boehme called the Christian to integrity and piety, lest they bring upon themselves condemnation (wrath is one of the two experiences of God, love is the other). At the same time this text offers some interesting views of God (borrowing from his three principles of God) including a denial of creation from nothing (Boehme discards this idea as foolish) and a careful tread along the edge of pantheism. I appreciated the trip along that edge though as this is the insight that mystics often bring us back to - God is closer than you think!

I've almost compiled enough data, I'm just reading a few great articles Kenny's buddy pointed me to regarding 16th Century German socio-economic situations. Sometime this weekend I'll sketch out my paper and identify the missing holes in my research. I haven't decided if I will read a substantial portion of Aurora or not. At this point I have a pretty good sense of Boehme's theology, confusing though it is. And I am missing more mundane information like the name of his wife? Ah the joys of preparing papers.

[LIF] Wahoo!!!!!

I just got my letter of acceptance for the Masters programme at St. Paul next semester! Plus my marks earned me a bursary! I'm so stoked! Got to run, church in just a bit.

[LIF] Midterms Back

I'm doing well this semester. I did really well on my paper concerning the historic Jesus, Wright would be proud. My English exam was my lowest score (possibly my lowest score ever - a B!), I thought I did poorly on it because I became disillusioned with my thesis statement midway through writing. But that isn't why I lost points, mostly it was because I was trying to work within structural constraints that my thesis was too complex to remain within - I bit off more than I could chew in a sit down exam! Not a bad lesson to learn.

I have to keep my nose buried in books all the time now, I have three major papers coming up real quick. On another note though, I have an appointment to review some work I did last year in hopes of trying to get it published. That is exciting. And I confirmed that my application for the Masters programme has gone up and is waiting for the committee to make their decision. Oh the tension!

[THO] Wrestling with the Text

I'm guest preaching tomorrow at Hosanna Vineyard. I could speak on anything, but I really feel that it is important that I stick with the lectionary. So tomorrows gospel reading is the Temptation of Jesus from Luke. I've read, re-read, examined key passages in the Greek, compared Luke with Matthew and Mark (;-)), read the context, made a few pages of notes, prayed through the verse, read the accompanying texts from the lectionary and I have a direction but I'm arriving with fear and trepidation.

This is a special community and they are used to a different style of preaching. I'm not going to be hoping from verse to verse here, I'm going to deal with the text. My heart is that my message will be life giving to a congregation that has had a rough go of it the last year or so. I really don't care if my message is "polished" as long as it breathes something of the life of the Spirit in them. But having said that, I don't want to pull any punches. This is a tough text and I think they need a tough text. This is the text that situates Jesus' whole ministry - and those are the insights I want to draw from.

So here I am blogging and praying my way through the text. Trying to name some of my hesitations so that I can face them head on. If this text is what takes the newly baptised Jesus to the point of launching his public ministry then it has that same potential in us. At the very least it can direct us to the areas God wants us to mature in as we seek to be faithful to the calling on our own lives.

I have to be careful, in my community I can talk easily about political activism and social engagement. I know we've spent enough time talking about such things that people will get it. But here I am stepping into a conservative neo-pentecostal setting and bringing a message in a format they might not expect and with content that will challenge their worldview. Is it any wonder I am a bit timid? I want to be careful though, these are great people and a great church. I've hung out with them many times in the past which has been great. And they are a mixed community, my challenge will be to preach a message that engages with each of them, challenging them all to take a step further into a Kingdom lifestyle.

It is going to be fun, I better get my notes sorted out and practice my message. Please pray for me.

[THO] Ash Wednesday Celebration

Our community celebrated Ash Wednesday this evening, it was a delightful service. I normally speak on the gospel readings, but tonight I spoke on the reading from 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2. Here Paul calls us to question out of what core our ministry flows. I identified a different question for each of these four verses.

First, that any ministry we do must come authentically from our own being ministered to. That is evident even at the start of this epistle with Paul's discourse on comfort. He urges us to be reconciled to God because to minister from any other place is sadly lacking in authenticity.

Second, that our ministry is compelled by our recognition of the sheer greatness of God's love for us. The kenotic act of Christ becoming sin for us has only one reasonable response - total self-sacrifical worship. As Paul explains earlier in this same chapter, it is Christ's love that compels us to the ministry of reconciliation.

Third, that our ministry is a grace and not a legalism. This colours our ministry in the world, we are not coming in trying to impose a new legalism or process of salvation. No we are proclaimming the same grace we have received. To do anything else kills the grace aspect of it. We spoke about evangelism as our example. I didn't mention it to the group, but in my own reflection I was struck by just how different Jesus ministry looked to what passes for evangelism today. This is passionate and deliberate, but it is not goal oriented rather it is people oriented.

Fourth, that our ministry is grounded in a conviction that salvation is the imminant reality. God wants to step into history, and has. God is not willing that any should perish is not about lining up convert on benches, it is about God's desire to be real and present to all people everywhere. When we minister out of a lesser vision and a lesser conviction we not only rob the gospel of its power, we preach a whole other gospel than the one Paul is talking about here.

When I was reading through the epistle in preparation for this message I was struck by how passionate Paul's writing is. My excitement was renewed, and I was quite happy to share that with my congregation.

[FUN] Help Desk

Hey I found it again!

[REV] Luther

Having just covered the section on Luther in my Modern Church History course I thought it would be fun to watch the movie Luther (2003) starring Joseph Fiennes. So last night Sharon and I sat down to watch this delightful film. The films treatment of Luther was engaging and modern. In fact if I had any complaint it was that they modernised some of the language too much. Also I think they fudged in a few things around Carlstadt seem blurred together and all the dead bodies no longer make sense (wasn't there a plague around that time as well?). Also Martin quoting verses by chapter and verse struck me as odd, IIRC chapter and verse comes much later, but I could be wrong. The movie avoided making Luther into an uber saint which was good. There is much that is questionable in Luther's theology. And I was hoping they would cover some of the debates post Augsburg, but alas those would be of more interest to me as a theologian than the typical movie viewer. Tetzel is done brilliantly, but it is obvious that the actor borrowed from pop-evangelical fervour for this role (he actually confirms this in his interview). All in all it was a very fun movie, a worthwhile view.

[LIF] Young Exorcists

The girls (4 & 6) were running into our room saying there was a dog under their beds. Sharon calmly tells them that it has to be a stuffed animal. Then she thinks to add, "if it is a spirit dog then ask Jesus to get rid of it for you." We have been teaching our kids to call on Jesus when they have bad dreams. So then we over hear the oldest leading the youngest in a prayer for the spirit dog to go away in Jesus name. Yeah it was cute. But then a few seconds later they are jumping around yelling, that the dog is gone forever! "We did it!" reminds me of the Dora the Explorer victory song, which I promptly make up a version about kicking out spirit dogs to get Sharon laughing. We are folding clothes when the "we did it"s ended, a pause and then Elyssa tells her little sister, "Chelsea, now that we did it, let's go get our reward from Jesus."

I guess I need to work on the theology, but that was a heck of a lot funnier than my lame Dora song.

[RPG] Dungeon Crawl

I started playing in a Dungeon Crawl run by my buddy Richard. We are a massive group of adventurers all at really low levels. We played so late last night that it was just silly. This was the second session I have made it out to, I play a priest of a war god named Marin (the picture is the miniature I use except I repainted his robes orange). I love to shoot my crossbow more than heal up people, so I take lots of buffing* spells and go in loaded for bear. It is great fun as the party tries to convince me that it is more important for me to heal up the front line fighter than it is to take a shot. Fortunately for the party there is another priest who happens to be more into the healing thing. We finished our session at 2AM, mainly because we were in an uber battle at the end of which two of our party lost their lives, despite my occasional breaking down and healing up folks. Finishing at 2AM and remembering that I still needed to get gas before I got home made for little sleep for me. Oh well, this group doesn't meet that often, once every month or so. That meets my quota for gaming this week - now back to reading.

*buffing spells are spells that enhance abilities like making your stronger, better protected or even more attractive.

[LIF] Reading Week begins!

Because I front loaded my week with classes I end up with an extended reading week! Unfortunately I forgot my chequebook yesterday when I was at the school so I had to go back today. I did get to attend a student council meeting, but the whole day I've been stumbling around making little progress. Part of the problem is that I'm still a bit stunned. Today I submitted my application for the Masters of Theology with a concentration in Systematic and Historic Theology. What is scary is that the faculty head thinks they will accomodate my course mix-up, they think my work shows I'm ready for this step. I only needed two profs to write me letters of recommendation, the first two I asked were very eager to help. I've been dreaming of this since 2000 when I started and now it is finally happening.

I need to be competent in French by September, I have signed up for help with that. That is daunting but very doable, I have lots of support with friends and we can switch to French at home between me and Sharon. Sharon emailed me a lot of great links for French resources, what a great wife. It will be important to come up to speed in French fast because as soon as I start my Masters I am also going to start German.

Kenny was asking what my focus will be on, I don't have to choose right away and the methodology course will also help me narrow my subject. The Masters at St. Paul is an interesting programme, basically it is a course to see if you are ready for the Doctorate programme. You write maybe a chapter's worth of a thesis - 40-60 pages. And you work in all the disciplines attached to Theology: Spirituality, Ethics, Systematics, Biblical Studies, etc. They want to make sure you don't narrow your studies too soon. It is completable in a year and I know a bunch of the other students applying this year. Soon as I narrow it down I'll let everyone know.

I feel like a chapter of my life is closing, and in fact it is. I know that this transition is from a wide focus to a more narrow focus. This is good, but it is hard to choose. I love so much about many aspects of thoelogical studies. I really enjoy history and biblical studies. I am going to miss taking Political Ethics with Ken Melchin (that was going to be my last required course in my undergrad degree). I am going to miss Spirituality with Heather Eaton, she has opened me up to more diversity than any other professor at St. Paul.

The good side is that as one chapter closes another opens, and with it new possibilities. I've come to expect that God is in the possibilities so that is exciting. Please pray with me that everything will work out for me to graduate this Spring and start right in on the MATh degree. And yes, it is really funny to me that the degree is named that when I have trouble with simple arithmetic at times.

[LIF] Distractions, distractions, distractions...

I think Ze Frank's vidpost on procrastination the other day was appropriate for me. Or rather it discribed my present state to a tee. I am 1/2 a page from completing the paper due tomorrow and I still have to re-read the short stories for my English midterm. I fell asleep trying to do the reading and now am late making supper. Last night I was up until 2AM working on the paper and managed to grind out a mere 4 pages??? I was scattered. This is that unrefined moment in every semester when the immensity of the workload (no matter how heavy or light it actually is) hits me. I always make it through, but it isn't pretty. I can usually grind through papers a lot faster than that and I am actually clocking some impressive reading speeds this semester (thanks Kenny). The problem is I've seen an entire season of Kenny vs. Spenny, surfed the majority of the blogs listed on this site - daily, and read almost all of the novel for my English class. Grant it the novel is reqired reading - but not just yet. It is just so well written. Medicine River if you are wondering, laugh out loud funny in places gripping with its realism.

Well, my wife is on her way home from work and I need to finishe supper, pack up my study materials and head out to the coffee shop where it is harder to procrastinate.

[LIF] I'm in Shock!

I was under the impression that I had two full semesters left on my degree, but it turns out that I had some advanced standing for my College course! So I'm two courses away from a BTh!!! Now one of them is an ethics course and I won't get that until the Fall, but wow that is amazing. Next week I'm meeting with the faculty head to discuss moving right into a Masters. That means I will need to do langauge studies this summer - French to start then I'm hoping to do German in the not too distant future. I'm still in shock!