Peaches, Strings, and Straw

This weekend I went to an orchard with my small group. It was deemed our "summer day". During this time of year peaches are in season in addition to Tomatoes, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Green Beans, Squash & Cucumbers, and this is what they had. If it was peach they had it. Peach salsa, peach ice cream, peach slushies, and it was all delicious. I got my peach slushy, sat down on a bale of hay, and listened to a bluegrass band, after eating three peaches. The Little Mountain Boys, as they called themselves, consisted of an upright bass, a mandolin, steel guitar, acoustic guitar, and a banjo. In this moment all was right with the world. There is something to be said about the hillbilliy way of life, not very complicated and not bogged down. It feels more connected to me. It felt less pretentious, stripped down, and obviously slower.

Enjoying and drinking in is something I don't do enough. Thinking of this striped down, country way of life where people of the past and people here, without digital entertainment, share earths good food and the pride of their work, their own crafted music, and conversation. If all things are road signs as it were, to heaven, this was a good pointer and opportunity to again get in touch with my own longing, not for the Appalachian mountains, but for the city of God.

Thank God for peaches, strings, and straw.

Missing Link?

Christine Dao writes:

Scientists and media outlets around the world are praising “Ida,” the primate fossil hailed as the long-sought-after “missing link” in the human evolutionary theory.

In a major public relations campaign, Ida was unveiled in New York City yesterday, May 19, 2009, and will make a stop in London May 26 before returning to its owners at the University of Oslo’s Natural History Museum. BBC1 will air a documentary based on the fossil the same day as its UK unveiling, and Little, Brown—publisher of the popular Twilight fiction series—put out a book about the find today. Even Internet search engine Google posted a special banner in Ida’s honor.

But despite the hype, a whirlwind of questions still surrounds the discovery. First, the environment in which the fossil was kept for 20 years is unclear. Ida, who bears the technical name Darwinius masillae in honor of this year’s 200^th anniversary of British naturalist Charles Darwin’s birth, was found in 1983 by an amateur fossil hunter at Germany’s Messel Pit. He kept it in unknown conditions before deciding to sell it through a dealer two years ago.

Second, the purchaser’s stated motivation for obtaining the fossil seemed to emphasize business over research. University of Oslo paleontologist Jørn Hurum nicknamed the fossil “Ida” after his own small daughter and told UK news outlet The Guardian, “You need an icon or two in a museum to drag people in…this is our Mona Lisa and it will be our Mona Lisa for the next 100 years.”¹Hurum purchased the fossil for an undisclosed sum from the dealer based on seeing only three photographs and not the actual fossil, a “huge gamble” that suggests pressure to make some kind of return on the university’s investment.

Third, the fossil was hailed as humanity’s missing evolutionary link before the technical details of the find were published. This strategy effectively prevented the scientific community from evaluating the data and possibly calling a halt to the campaign on account of the fact that Ida has no transitional features and is therefore irrelevant to the evolutionary hypothesis of human development. Paleontologists are speaking out, but their voices are thus far being drowned out by the hype. Richard Kay from Duke University told Science that “the data is cherry-picked.”²

Ida, though an amazingly well-preserved fossil, will prove to be another Lucy, Java Man,Archaeopteryx, Confuciusornis, Pakicetus, and Eosimias. It will undoubtedly join the growing collection of fossils that were once thought to be missing links, but that upon further study turned out to be extinct creatures with no transitional features.

Update: “Revolutionary” Fossil Fails to Dazzle Paleontologists

Supremacy

On March 30th President Barack Obama addressed Turkish parliament and stated that the United States is not at war with Islam.  Albert Mohler posted a great response to Obama's statements.  I have taken some excerpts from his blog in an attempt to dispel pop cultural naivete concerning the compatibility and reconcilability of world religions, namely Christianity and Islam. 

  Islam is, in effect, the single most vital competitor to Western ideals of civilization on the world scene.  The logic of Islam is to bring every square inch of this planet under submission to the rule of the Qur'an.  Classical Islam divides the world into the "World of Islam" and the "World of War."  In this latter world the struggle to bring the society under submission to the Qur'an is still ongoing.

This ambition drives the Muslim world -- and each faithful Muslim -- to hope, pray, and work for the submission of the whole world to the Qur'an.  Clearly, most Muslims are not willing to employ terrorism in order to achieve this goal.  Nevertheless, it remains the goal.

I heard an interview this past week on NPR where the interviewee stated that Islam is not a threat to society and poses no harm to western civilization.  Moreover he stated that those within Islam who are violent have misinterpreted the Qur'an.  Although the latter statement may have some warrant it does not detract from the fact stated above, that Islam is still about world domination.  Whether those adherents to Islam believe that this comes from conversions or violent means.

The Judeo- Christian belief is also a belief in world dominion.  The difference in the Christian worldview is that the earth will be ruled by Christ and his Saints.  Jesus is coming back and waging war on his enemies.  His wrath will be poured out on his enemies.  Christians are about world domination, bringing the rule of Christ to all peoples in all places though the gospel.  

Mathew 28:18, And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [2] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Every square inch of the globe belongs to Christ.  It is our goal, as it is the Muslims to subdue the earth-except our subjugation is through gospel means to the glory of the Son of Man (Daniel 7).  In no way are these views reconcilable or compatible and neither is any other view that would state otherwise.

Coexistence is a pleasant thought however, concerning our religious ideologies it is, frankly, an impossibility.

St. Patrick- A man to be esteemed.

I just read a biography on St. Patrick by Philip Freeman.  Patrick was a man who devoted his life to the spreading of the gospel.  We celebrate him every year on the day that historians think he may have died.  However, St. Patrick's day has nothing to do with the man, his passion, or his mission, which is sad.  He is a man to be esteemed as he lived and died bringing the gospel to the people of Ireland.

In A.D. 410 Germanic Visigoths sacked and burned Rome.  This event 

marked the end of a 500 year reign by the Roman Empire spanning, what was then much of the modern world.  Just prior to this event in the last 4th century a boy named Patricus was born to a local Roman Decurion and his wife.  Patrick was born into a family of prominence and had all of his needs taken care of. His father was not only a magistrate but also a deacon and his grandfather a priest. In spite of Patrick and his family's social standing when Patrick was 15 years old something tragic happened.  Patrick who lived in Britain under Roman rule was kidnapped out of his villa by Irish raiders who sold him in Ireland as a slave.  Although a tragic event here, in Ireland, is where Patrick began hearing the voice of God in dreams and visions and consequently, had a spiritual awakening.  After six grueling years tending sheep under harsh conditions on the Irish countryside, he had a dream from God telling him to go to the coast where he could escape back to Britain, and this is exactly what he did.  However, after returning home the Lord continued to speak to Patrick and called him back to Ireland to be a missionary to the very people who enslaved him.

Patrick brought the 

gospel to Ireland and was a profound missionary.  Patrick would set up churches in small towns, combated the Druids and their paganism, converted sons and daughters of kings, and had a large following of women slaves.  Patrick devoted his life to bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth.  In the context of the Roman Empire Ireland was thought to be just that.  It was believed by some in the empire to be a cold, almost inhabitable wasteland.  It was here that Patrick gave his life.

Patrick in his own words:

"I declare in truth and with joy in my heart-before God and his holy angels- that I have ever had any motive in my work except preaching the good news and his promises.  That is the only reason I returned to Ireland-a place I barely escaped alive."

My favorite prayer attributed to Patrick:

"Christ protect me today.  

Christ with me/ Christ before me/ Christ behind me/ Christ below me/ Christ above me/ Christ to the right of me/ Christ to the left of me/ Christ where I lie/ Christ where I sit/ Christ where I stand/ Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me/ Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me/ Christ in every eye which sees me/ Christ in every ear which hears me."

"Patrick gave his life to the people who had enslaved him until he died at 77 years of age. He had seen untold thousands of people convert as between 30-40 of the 150 tribes had become substantially Christian. He had trained 1000 pastors, planted 700 churches, and was the first noted person in history to take a strong public stand against slavery."

Patrick is indeed a man to be esteemed in a long line of men who faithfully have preached the gospel and, with us are a part of the communio sanctorum (communion of saints) namely, the saint alive and dead who make up the single "mystical body" of Christ.

Dirt

“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” Martin Luther

A friend of mine has provided me with some land to try my hand at husbandry. It is not a huge plot but seems to be just the right size for a novice like myself. There are some profound lessons that have come while I have been planting, digging, and tilling these past few weeks. These lessons have come in thinking about my solidarity with nature in worshiping, waiting, and responding.

Romans tells us that man is without excuse in the final judgment because the creation speaks clearly of the Creator; Romans 1:18-20 says,
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Creation reflects the beauty of its Creator, it is a form of revelation. I also am commissioned to bring revelation, the revelation of God’s good news to the ends of the earth. Psalm 19:1, “the heavens declare the glory of the Lord.” It is my primary occupation to make known the glory that creation is “pronouncing.” I am in collaboration with nature and the created order, we are of a similar task.
I share with creation in the worship of the creator and the reflecting of his majesty.

We worship together.

In addition to this I am linked to creation in waiting to be redeemed.  Romans 8:19 & 21, For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 21, That the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God “Every created thing animate and inanimate, awaits the splendor of this freeing this revealing of God’s adopted son’s, because the universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and the splendor of the children of God. And all of nature will acknowledge in praise and adoration its creator.”

We Wait Together

God is the prime mover he is the ultimate masculine he initiates both in life as creator and in salvation as redeemer. So in relation to him we are all feminine, we are responders, and so is the soil. It is feminine; it waits to respond to seed that is sown. She is called mother earth. She is a responder to the sowing and work of the husbandman. She is a responder, like us, to the creator and as it is our mandate to rule over her, to subdue her, she responds to us. The new age movement calls the earth our mother, as if we are birthed from her and her alone and this is to be rejected for sure. However, there is a truth that from her, from the dust, we have been created. As I crouch in the dirt I look at the very substance from which man was formed. And dirt man was until, God initiated and sowed life into Adam; Gen 2:7, “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
In relation to Salvation Jesus said in Jn 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

 He initiated, he chose us, that we might, like the soil, bear fruit; he sowed his life and spirit in our hearts.


We Respond Together

Scripture connects us, Isaiah 64:8, But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
 we are the clay, and you are our potter;
 we are all the work of your hand. As well as 2 Corinthians 4:7 stating that we are earthen vessels that are inhabited by the power of God.  To quote a line from Jacob Zachary, "we are nothing but souls in God thirsty bowls of divinity and dust."

I am more connected to her then I think about and probably can imagine. We are connected. I am to Glorify my creator with her and through her as we await our mutual redemption and re-creation.

“Blessed are those who get the joke.”

I just finished Frederick Beuchner's book and found it to be very good.  This post is based on this book.  If this post strikes your interest I would encourage you to check it out.

Genesis chapter 17 tells us the story of a geriatric couple who were childless. Two oldies that stopped dreaming a long time ago. What it would be like to have kids? And now, in their late nineties, what it would be like to have grandchildren. Their dreams filled with youngsters who would sit in their laps to hear their stories. Children who would fill their home with laughter and run and play at their feet. The sound of laughing, and playing children didn’t seem to be in the cards for these two old folks. The embarrassment; living in a time where having children was such an honor and such a sign of favor. Yet, in spite of all their wishful thinking, and all of their hopes, Sarah was today like she had been yesterday, barren.

But this is not the end of the story. In their old age they have a visitor, an angel as a matter of fact. He comes baring news, ridiculous news actually, the news that Sarah will actually conceive. This news, so ridiculous that we are told Abraham fell on his face laughing. He did not give just a little belly laugh; he falls on his face knowing how incredibly preposterous a hundred year old man having a baby is. The Lord appeared again some time later we are told in Genesis 18 and Sarah overhears the Lord talking about this, wore out women, as she calls herself, having a child. What is her response? She laughs! When asked why she was laughing, she denies it, and the Lord says no, you did laugh. And because this is all so ridiculously funny, these old bags having a child, they wind up naming him Isaac, which means laughter-- “And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”


We are apart of this promise to Abraham. We are the heirs as well—“ And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29). So you see, their joke is our joke as well because it is just as ridiculous that God would send his only son to die for lowly sinners. It is the unbelievable news that in our state of hopelessness, in our tragedies, when we are at out wits end and we are done hoping and longing that God steps in and makes us laugh with delight. In the midst of our sinful tragedy we can laugh because we are among the redeemed, we have been brought in on the joke, “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles “ (1 Corinthians 1:23). It is this lunacy that saves us , this foolhardiness is the power of God. It is a fairly tale that God will come for us his bride, breaking into our existence and take us away to his kingdom.

Blessed are those who get the joke!

Leithart on Lent

I saw this post and thought I would share it.

Lent is a season for taking stock and cleaning house, a time of self-examination, confession and repentance. But we need to remind ourselves constantly what true repentance looks like. “Giving up” something for Lent is fine, but you keep Lent best by making war on all the evil habits and sinful desires that prevent you from running the race with patience.

Going through the motions of Lent without turning to God and putting our sins to death is hypocrisy, and few things rile our God so much as hypocrisy. “Rend your hearts and not your garments,” Joel says.

So: During this season, don’t just give up soft drinks; mount a concerted campaign against impatience. Don’t just put aside your favorite TV show; subdue your anger. Don’t just fast; kill your self-centeredness.

This doesn’t make Lent a season for gloominess and defeat. On the contrary, during this season we celebrate the victorious suffering and death of Jesus, and we should enter the season trusting in the Spirit of Jesus, who subdues our flesh and molds us to the image of Christ.

Lent is a season for joy also because it is a motif in a larger composition. The rhythm of the church year follows the rhythm of the Lord’s day service. Each week, we pass through a small “Lenten” moment in our liturgy, as we kneel for confession. But we don’t kneel through the whole service, and in the same way we don’t observe the fast forever.

Jesus tells us to fast with washed faces and anointed heads, that is, to fast as if prepared for a feast. We fast properly when we fast not only in humility but in hope; we keep the fast when we fall before God full of repentance but also full of confidence that our Great King will raise us up.