Friday, March 09, 2007
I thought I had an idea, but ...
an hour ago, I logged onto to blogger because there was something on my mind to share with all of you wonderful people. But after an hour of messing around with the "new" blogger, I have all but forgotten what I was going to say. So that's kind of frustrating. But in any event, I thought I would at least put something mundane and meaningless down.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
knock, knock. who's there?
okay, I've been keeping this blog for over two years now, and gotten bits and pieces of comments in that time, but little in the way of sustained dialog or conversation. I know people read these thoughts intermittently - I get emails here and there, or even passing comments from the people who are local. And I appreciate each and every one.
When I first started this blog, I had two ideas at the forefront. The first was that I wanted a new way to "jot" down my thoughts, my struggles, my joys, and my growing and ever-evolving thoughts on God - in essence, I saw (and still see) the way I was living as an on-going commentary on my theology of God - who He is, what He has said, and what He is calling the world, and specifically the people He continues to call to be part of the Church to be doing. Life is theology.
Secondly, I wanted to create some space for people to consider my thoughts, and offer their own (yes, I realize that there are many such forums, and who am I to expect that this particular stop on the blogosphere would be any more enticing than any of the others available).
All of that's to say, that if you're reading this, please feel free to interact. Leave a message. I blog as I feel personally (and perhaps divinely) inspired. I don't do it every day; nor even every week. The fact that I am blogging today has little to nothing to do with the fact that I blogged yesterday. There is no system to my blogging. I'm not trying so much to convince people that I'm "right", as much as just tell people what I have come to believe, and am struggling to believe. Faith is like that, I think. I'm not entirely interested if someone is "liberal" or "conservative". In point of fact, I consider those categories, those labels to be misleading. I'm seeking to be Biblical in the context where God has placed me. I want to explore the strange new world of the Bible in the context of the strange new world in which we live.
Are you out there? Are you offended? Are you bored? Are you put off? Are you willing to think? Or are you so full of blind faith, or perhaps oppositely atheistic, that you have a box so small there's no room to by which to grab hold and crawl out into the light? That's not an insult, but it is a call to wake up, to see that God is bigger than we often allow Him to be. He's dangerous. He's threatening. And most of all, He loves us.
Join this conversation. I'm holding the door for you. Come on in...
When I first started this blog, I had two ideas at the forefront. The first was that I wanted a new way to "jot" down my thoughts, my struggles, my joys, and my growing and ever-evolving thoughts on God - in essence, I saw (and still see) the way I was living as an on-going commentary on my theology of God - who He is, what He has said, and what He is calling the world, and specifically the people He continues to call to be part of the Church to be doing. Life is theology.
Secondly, I wanted to create some space for people to consider my thoughts, and offer their own (yes, I realize that there are many such forums, and who am I to expect that this particular stop on the blogosphere would be any more enticing than any of the others available).
All of that's to say, that if you're reading this, please feel free to interact. Leave a message. I blog as I feel personally (and perhaps divinely) inspired. I don't do it every day; nor even every week. The fact that I am blogging today has little to nothing to do with the fact that I blogged yesterday. There is no system to my blogging. I'm not trying so much to convince people that I'm "right", as much as just tell people what I have come to believe, and am struggling to believe. Faith is like that, I think. I'm not entirely interested if someone is "liberal" or "conservative". In point of fact, I consider those categories, those labels to be misleading. I'm seeking to be Biblical in the context where God has placed me. I want to explore the strange new world of the Bible in the context of the strange new world in which we live.
Are you out there? Are you offended? Are you bored? Are you put off? Are you willing to think? Or are you so full of blind faith, or perhaps oppositely atheistic, that you have a box so small there's no room to by which to grab hold and crawl out into the light? That's not an insult, but it is a call to wake up, to see that God is bigger than we often allow Him to be. He's dangerous. He's threatening. And most of all, He loves us.
Join this conversation. I'm holding the door for you. Come on in...
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Perfect Peace and My Melacholy Feelings
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in You.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD
is the Rock eternal.
- Isaiah 26:3-4
This is one of those days where I just feel down, and have little to no reason to feel so. Maybe it's merely seasonal depression. Maybe it's that deep in my heart I feel like I don't love You enough, Lord. I sit here at the seminary, day after day, learning, reading, and I wonder why am I here?, and what am I doing this for?, and who am I really doing this for? Is this my personal existential crisis? I don't know, and am not sure. Deep down, I do believe that God loves me, and saved me. God saved me almost twenty-two years ago when He could've let me die. Sure His purposes for my salvation are ongoing. Why, I cannot truly say, except that there is great mystery woven into my story - mine and everyone elses. The salvation and love God has for us in Jesus Christ must effect more than just bringing about a positive attitude. I would just like to wake up, never ever again to feel the weight of the wil-o-the-wisp melancholy upon my being. Instead, I embrace for myself the joy of God's presence, that fellowship with our Triune God of grace. So I sit here, in the seminary library, writing these concluding thoughts, getting ready to translate parts of Matthew into English, bibliograph some books on Karl Barth and his Christology, read about Job and suffering and evil, and I really want to just meet with You, Lord God, a little longer.
Amen.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Wake Up???
Someone forwarded this to me - my reply follows...
CHEAP LABOR? Isn't that what the whole immigration issue is about? Business doesn't want to pay a decent wage Consumers don't want expensive produce Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs But the bottom line is cheap labor. The phrase "cheap labor" is a myth, a farce, a lie...an oxymoron. There is no such thing as "cheap labor."
Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He takes a job for $5.00 or $6.00/hour. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an "earned income credit" of up to $3,200 free.
He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent He qualifies for food stamps He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care .
His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.
He requires bilingual teachers and books .He qualifies for relief from high energy bills.
If they are or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI.Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare.
All of this is at the taxpayer's expense.
He doesn't worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance.
Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.
He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.
Working Americans are lucky to have $5.00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his.
The American taxpayer's also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean up.
Cheap labor? YEAH RIGHT! Wake up people! Kind of scary, isn't it when you think about it?
My Response:
Actually, illegal aliens don't really qualify for many of those "incentives". For one thing, to "apply" for any number of those benefits, they would end up having to show proof of citizenship, thus tipping their proverbial hand that they're here illegally.
However, the most compelling issue for me is the one that comes from Jesus. Actually, there are many issues, but let's talk about just two. For one, I'm forced to ask where's my first loyalty. To country? I like the U.S. alot. But no. It's to God. So we're really dealing with an issue of what is the greatest commandment: love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, etc. From there, the issue moves onto the second greatest commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. Now, here's where the guy who orginally asked caused this issue got into a mess. He asked Jesus who's his neighbor - the Bible says he wanted to justify himself. Jesus used a parable that I think is succinctly at the heart of this anti-hispanic message: Jesus uses several characters; the first, a Jew, who's traveling between Jericho and Jerusalem. The second (group), a bunch of robbers and thieves. The third (group), a priest, a levite, and a scribe. And the fourth character, a Samaritan.
For those who don't know, the Samaritans were a despised people, and the Jews considered them at best half-breeds, and at worst, heretics and squatters. It's for this reason that Jesus uses the character of the [Good] Samaritan as the one who rescues the Jewish traveler after he gets beaten up and left for dead by the robbers - not the priest; not the levite; not the scribe - all very religious and upright people.
The bottom line for those of us who even remotely consider themselves Christians, we should care about our neighbors, whether they're from "south of the border" or not, and whether they speak english, spanish, or spanglish.
Oh, and maybe a refresher history lesson would help, too. It wasn't until the mid-19th century, that is the mid-1800's that California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas were under the authority of the United States. All of that belonged to Spain, and subsequently Mexico. And then it was only taken away by a most immoral, if not illegal war whose only purpose was to provide for new slave states at the congressional urging of Southern Democrats.
If that's the attitude you want to align yourself with, by all means, go ahead. It's a free country.
CHEAP LABOR? Isn't that what the whole immigration issue is about? Business doesn't want to pay a decent wage Consumers don't want expensive produce Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs But the bottom line is cheap labor. The phrase "cheap labor" is a myth, a farce, a lie...an oxymoron. There is no such thing as "cheap labor."
Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He takes a job for $5.00 or $6.00/hour. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an "earned income credit" of up to $3,200 free.
He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent He qualifies for food stamps He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care .
His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.
He requires bilingual teachers and books .He qualifies for relief from high energy bills.
If they are or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI.Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare.
All of this is at the taxpayer's expense.
He doesn't worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance.
Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.
He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.
Working Americans are lucky to have $5.00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his.
The American taxpayer's also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean up.
Cheap labor? YEAH RIGHT! Wake up people! Kind of scary, isn't it when you think about it?
My Response:
Actually, illegal aliens don't really qualify for many of those "incentives". For one thing, to "apply" for any number of those benefits, they would end up having to show proof of citizenship, thus tipping their proverbial hand that they're here illegally.
However, the most compelling issue for me is the one that comes from Jesus. Actually, there are many issues, but let's talk about just two. For one, I'm forced to ask where's my first loyalty. To country? I like the U.S. alot. But no. It's to God. So we're really dealing with an issue of what is the greatest commandment: love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, etc. From there, the issue moves onto the second greatest commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. Now, here's where the guy who orginally asked caused this issue got into a mess. He asked Jesus who's his neighbor - the Bible says he wanted to justify himself. Jesus used a parable that I think is succinctly at the heart of this anti-hispanic message: Jesus uses several characters; the first, a Jew, who's traveling between Jericho and Jerusalem. The second (group), a bunch of robbers and thieves. The third (group), a priest, a levite, and a scribe. And the fourth character, a Samaritan.
For those who don't know, the Samaritans were a despised people, and the Jews considered them at best half-breeds, and at worst, heretics and squatters. It's for this reason that Jesus uses the character of the [Good] Samaritan as the one who rescues the Jewish traveler after he gets beaten up and left for dead by the robbers - not the priest; not the levite; not the scribe - all very religious and upright people.
The bottom line for those of us who even remotely consider themselves Christians, we should care about our neighbors, whether they're from "south of the border" or not, and whether they speak english, spanish, or spanglish.
Oh, and maybe a refresher history lesson would help, too. It wasn't until the mid-19th century, that is the mid-1800's that California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas were under the authority of the United States. All of that belonged to Spain, and subsequently Mexico. And then it was only taken away by a most immoral, if not illegal war whose only purpose was to provide for new slave states at the congressional urging of Southern Democrats.
If that's the attitude you want to align yourself with, by all means, go ahead. It's a free country.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
God is more ...
God our King is
more affectionate than any friend,
more just than any ruler,
more loving than any father,
more a part of us than our own limbs,
more necessary to us than our own heart.
- St. Nicolas Cabasilas
more affectionate than any friend,
more just than any ruler,
more loving than any father,
more a part of us than our own limbs,
more necessary to us than our own heart.
- St. Nicolas Cabasilas
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