Rebecca Chopp’s Definition of Church
Note: The following is a short piece I wrote for a leadership class at my seminary. I very much appreciate my seminary setting. It is liberal, I am not. This real-time juxtaposition has proved to be the catalyst for more than a few very, very edifying conversations. I have learned more than a lot here! Yes, ideas are born in the midst of friction. My faith is stronger as a result. So, I am thankful, even if stuck in perpetual disagreement with most of my present academic community. God is good, even at seminary. Read More »
Tennessee Center for Policy Research On Al Gore
MORE POWER: GORE MANSION USES 20X AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD; CONSUMPTION INCREASE AFTER TRUTH: Al Gore’s mansion, [20-room, eight-bathroom] located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES). In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006. Tip: Cawley Blog.
Note to Mr. James Cameron
Note to James Cameron: C’mon man, Mel Gibson and Dan Brown already cashed this check, twice. Do you always show up this late to parties? Your calculating is more obvious than Hillary Clinton’s. You are so, so telegraphing your moves. DNA researchers? That’s rich! The new Hollywood equation: Jesus Movie + Controversy = Tons O’ Capital. Hooray for Hollywood! Ah, thank goodness Christianity has wrestled with and triumphed over real challenges over the course of 2000 plus years. Today’s are just so pallid and predictable. It’s kind of embarrassing, no? Anyway, off you go Mr. Cameron! Shoo! Shoo! UPDATE: This just in! Cameron told NBC’S “Today” show that statisticians found “in the range of a couple of million to one in favor of it being them.” Simcha Jacobovici, the Toronto filmmaker who directed the documentary, said the implications “are huge.” Wow! Too, Cameron says: “I’m not a theologist. I’m not an archaeologist. I’m a documentary film maker.” A theologist!?! LOL! This is kind of entertaining. Tip: Get Religion.
Picasso as Church Planter
I ran across the following quote attributed/from Picasso during my readings for an independent study re: Christianity and the Visual Arts: “If you know exactly what you’re going to do, what’s the use of doing it?” That’s my new favorite quote, especially as I move forward into my ministry. Picasso gets it.
Lo-Fi Tribe: Fourteen Stations of the Cross
First Station: Jesus Is Condemned to Death
ASV Mark 15:1-5 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole Council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Idealists, preachers, magic workers, and zealots were a dime a dozen in the Mediterranean world of the 1st century. This world was not short of religious, political, or social idealism, by any stretch of the imagination. Read More »
Second Station: The Cross is Laid Upon Him
The abuse of Jesus began long before his actual crucifixion. The abuse, according to the Synoptic Gospels, actually begins with the Council (i.e., high priest, chief priests, elders, and scribes), and their mocking, spitting, blindfolding, taunting, and punching. Jesus was then delivered to Pilate for further mistreatment before he was carted off to Herod and finally shipped back to Pilate where he became the recipient of a serious scourging.
Roman flogging was brutal and often resulted in the death of the individual. The practice was used in the attempt to speed up the end-result of crucifixion. Read More »
Third Station: Jesus’ First Fall
Jesus fell. This event is not recorded in the gospels, but in Christian legend and memory. Is it hard to imagine? No. Jesus of Nazareth, at this point, would have been seriously injured and extremely weak from the beatings, scourgings, and subsequent loss of blood. Jesus would have found it very, very difficult to just walk to the place of his crucifixion, let alone carry his own cross.
He falls, once, twice, three times. The continued snap of a Roman whip pushes him forward. Read More »
Fourth Station: Jesus Encounters His Mother
Docitism minimizes the human drama between mother and son. Jesus of Nazareth was a son, in the fullest sense of the word. He most assuredly lived his life as a son. His mother lovingly cleansed him when he soiled himself miserably as an infant. She fed him when he stomped and screamed for nourishment with all the fierce, selfish, and necessarily instinctive temper displayed by infants to this very day. She nursed his bloody elbows and knees on more than a few occasions when his outside play was performed with too much reckless but youthful abandonment. Mary was mother. Jesus was son.
The encounter of Mary and Jesus, which is not attested to by scripture, but by Christian legend, as he was being forced toward his crucifixion, must have been heart-wrenching. Read More »
Fifth Station: Simon Carries Jesus’ Cross.
Exhaustion is the human body’s way of telling us it needs a break. We all are incurably strapped to physical limitations. A serious lack of sleep magnifies these limitations. Jesus of Nazareth is no exception. He must have been incredibly exhausted. The weight of his cross must have been steadily multiplying as his flayed arms, shoulders, and back struggled wearily beneath it. How much further could he be pushed, physically speaking? Not much further …
Jesus was beaten and ferociously lacerated by a gruesome Roman scourge. He was also deprived of sleep. Read More »
