Friday, April 30, 2010
My Primordial Post! (at Evolving Christian blog)
Rod Dreher has a good piece today about a new book that just came out called Science vs Religion. I haven't gotten this one yet myself, but I hope to and it sounds quite promising. These are exciting times to be a scientifically literate Christian. More resources are coming out every day and the evangelical church really needs to take notice if it hopes to have any future as a viable voice to the next generation.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
So a nice Jewish dentist goes to a folk music show...
Last night I attended a folk concert in Marblehead featuring a couple of folk singers I've enjoyed for over twenty years now. The coffee house, actually a Unitarian Universalist church, was packed and was overflowing. But thankfully I was allowed to sit up front because I was taking pictures and was videoing the show. So I got myself over there just behind the massive piano and got my various accoutrements together before the show began. As I set up I started talking to an older couple sitting right behind me in the second row of pews. We chatted for a few minutes before the show started and they seemed quite nice.
Then the show began. The artists before us sang their hits and a few lesser known tunes that meant something to them. All in all a wonderful first set. Then they took a 15 minute break between sets so they and us could all stretch our legs and maybe buy some CD's or whatnot. I had already bought what I wanted before the show had even begun, smart cookie that I am, so I had the luxury of being able to just hang out and hobnob. It was during this time that I got to talk more at length with the husband of the couple. I was so glad I did. He was a joy to talk to and had many a story to tell. Not just about the folk music scene of Boston, though he did have a treasure trove of that as well. But stories of his own life and of his meeting his wife and courting her in the fifties and getting married in 1960 and all of the pictures and video he had taken during that time. Still all stemmed from his seeing my own video equipment. He mentioned artists I knew all too well as well as several I had never heard of, though I'm sure they were all just as good. We even talked politics after he realized I was safe to share his opinion with! It was funny, because he almost said this in a hush. His wife, standing not too far off, didn't like him talking politics, since he got so worked up over it.
The second set began and it was as good if not better than the first one. They all sang old favorites that the crowd, including me, sang along with them. I dutifully continued to record the show for posterity's sake. Who's posterity I have no idea. I just know I love this kind of music and apparently others do too. So the set came to the end that it must with one encore for old time's sake. My equipment did its job, just barely. One battery gave out just before the end of the show. Then the other used up its memory as the last song ended. All in all, not a bad evening.
In the course of the conversation with my second row interlocutor, I found out that he is a retired dentist who is Jewish. We talked about my attempt to learn Hebrew this upcoming summer and the Hebrew his grandchildren had to learn for their Bar Mitzvahs. I shared that I'm a seminary student at Gordon Conwell Seminary who is theologically traditional in my beliefs, but who nonetheless is quite liberal in my social views. As I said earlier, all in all, a very nice evening. I hope I meet him again. He was a real blessing to me.
Then the show began. The artists before us sang their hits and a few lesser known tunes that meant something to them. All in all a wonderful first set. Then they took a 15 minute break between sets so they and us could all stretch our legs and maybe buy some CD's or whatnot. I had already bought what I wanted before the show had even begun, smart cookie that I am, so I had the luxury of being able to just hang out and hobnob. It was during this time that I got to talk more at length with the husband of the couple. I was so glad I did. He was a joy to talk to and had many a story to tell. Not just about the folk music scene of Boston, though he did have a treasure trove of that as well. But stories of his own life and of his meeting his wife and courting her in the fifties and getting married in 1960 and all of the pictures and video he had taken during that time. Still all stemmed from his seeing my own video equipment. He mentioned artists I knew all too well as well as several I had never heard of, though I'm sure they were all just as good. We even talked politics after he realized I was safe to share his opinion with! It was funny, because he almost said this in a hush. His wife, standing not too far off, didn't like him talking politics, since he got so worked up over it.
The second set began and it was as good if not better than the first one. They all sang old favorites that the crowd, including me, sang along with them. I dutifully continued to record the show for posterity's sake. Who's posterity I have no idea. I just know I love this kind of music and apparently others do too. So the set came to the end that it must with one encore for old time's sake. My equipment did its job, just barely. One battery gave out just before the end of the show. Then the other used up its memory as the last song ended. All in all, not a bad evening.
In the course of the conversation with my second row interlocutor, I found out that he is a retired dentist who is Jewish. We talked about my attempt to learn Hebrew this upcoming summer and the Hebrew his grandchildren had to learn for their Bar Mitzvahs. I shared that I'm a seminary student at Gordon Conwell Seminary who is theologically traditional in my beliefs, but who nonetheless is quite liberal in my social views. As I said earlier, all in all, a very nice evening. I hope I meet him again. He was a real blessing to me.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Michael Spencer 1956-2010
Michael Spencer, also known as the Internet Monk, has passed away today; his body finally succumbing to cancer. His work as a writer in the last several years blessed thousands of fellow Christians with his raw honesty and truly prophetic voice which challenged a church he loved enough to confront. Please keep his wife Denise, his daughter Noel, his son Clay, and his son in law Ryan in your prayers. Michael's suffering has ended and he now stands before Christ our Lord, and the day will come when he stands again in the flesh. But it will be a renewed flesh that will never again see decay.
Let us remember back to when Christ arose from the dead, thus conquering death forever. When we look back to that day, we are reminded that in Him, we will also, though we die, also rise again. I am saddened at losing such a dear friend as Michael even though we never met in person. But my sadness is tempered by the knowledge of Christ's victory over death. Thus I know that death is but a temporary parting for those whose lives are hidden in Christ.
Yesterday we called out to each other christos aneste, alithos aneste! The day will come when we will call out to Michael with new eyes and with new mouths and with new ears Michael aneste, alithos aneste! And it will be a day of great rejoicing and of ultimate and total fulfillment of God's design and desire for this broken world. I long for that day when our lives will be revealed at the revelation of Christ.
Michael, rest in peace.
Let us remember back to when Christ arose from the dead, thus conquering death forever. When we look back to that day, we are reminded that in Him, we will also, though we die, also rise again. I am saddened at losing such a dear friend as Michael even though we never met in person. But my sadness is tempered by the knowledge of Christ's victory over death. Thus I know that death is but a temporary parting for those whose lives are hidden in Christ.
Yesterday we called out to each other christos aneste, alithos aneste! The day will come when we will call out to Michael with new eyes and with new mouths and with new ears Michael aneste, alithos aneste! And it will be a day of great rejoicing and of ultimate and total fulfillment of God's design and desire for this broken world. I long for that day when our lives will be revealed at the revelation of Christ.
Michael, rest in peace.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
christos aneste!
This day
This day long ago
Long ago a tomb broke open
A tomb broke open from within.
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen indeed!
This day I am here
because of
This day long ago.
This day long ago
Long ago a tomb broke open
A tomb broke open from within.
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen indeed!
This day I am here
because of
This day long ago.
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