treating good media like cod-liver oil

"Wagner's music is better than it sounds" - attributed to Mark Twain, but actually spoken by Edgar Wilson Nye, a fellow humorist. (snopes.com)

Die Walküre/Ride of the Valkyr...

basically: don't be arrogant, you're not as smart as you think you are

(amazon)

nt wright and women

I met a Canadian seminarian at the Urbana conference in December who recommended that I read NT Wright's take on women in ministry. You can find the article (here), his website (which might be a fan site, which is adorably nerdy).

Wright gives a huge introduction on what he thinks was going on culturally when Paul wrote about womens roles in the church and then translates 1 Timothy 2 as follows:

So this is what I want: the men should pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, with no anger or disputing. 9In the same way the women, too, should clothe themselves in an appropriate manner, modestly and sensibly. They should not go in for elaborate hair-styles, or gold, or pearls, or expensive clothes; 10instead, as is appropriate for women who profess to be godly, they should adorn themselves with good works. 11They must be allowed to study undisturbed, in full submission to God. 12I’m not saying that women should teach men, or try to dictate to them; they should be left undisturbed. 13Adam was created first, you see, and then Eve; 14and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived, and fell into trespass. 15She will, however, be kept safe through the process of childbirth, if she continues in faith, love and holiness with prudence.

This is how the ESV translates it:

8 I desire then that j in every place the men should pray, k lifting l holy hands without anger or quarreling; 9 likewise also m that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10 n but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. 11 Let a woman learn quietly o with all submissiveness. 12 p I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 q For Adam was formed first, r then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but s the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through t childbearing—if they continue in u faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

this almost made me cry

i almost always tear up when people at church lay hands on other people in prayer. for some reason that image really gets me.

From Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster

Talking about him praying with a nurse in the mornings at church..."Then we would often discuss issues of theology , of faith, of life. And whatever we talked about Beth tested out at the hospital. If we discussed the Bible's teaching on 'the laying on of hands,' at work Beth would put her hands into the rubber gloves of an incubator and place them on a premature infant, praying silently and lovingly, and watch that little one increase in health and well-being. These were the kinds of things Beth would do, not just now and again, but repeatedly. Through Beth I learned the necessity of bringing spiritual realities into the press of raw humanity." (p.xvi)

nerd-dom...

i love my seminary professors. [insert nerdy expression of glee here] like, I wrote a ten page paper last semester and my prof sent me back two pages of insight on the paper. wtf. wonderful. so i was thinking and writing about generational sin a lot last semester and included some thoughts in my paper. in his response, my prof included this section from a commentator, Douglas K. Stuart, from his commentary on Exodus (p.454). (forgive the typos, i'm transcribing it)

"This explanatory section of the second commandment, with its assertion that God is 'jealous...punishing the children for the sins of the father,' has been widely misunderstood. [what a relief that can be!] It does not represent an assertion that God actually punishes an innocent generation for the sins of a predecessor generation, contrary to Deut 24:16 ('Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin'; cf. 2 Kgs 14:6). Rather, this oft-repeated theme speaks of God's determination to punish successive generations for committing the same sins they learned form their parents. In other words, God will not say, 'I won't punish this generation for what they are doing to break my covenant because, after all, they merely learned it from their parents who did it too.' Instead, God will indeed punish generation after generation ('to the third and fourth generation') if they keep doing the same sorts of sins that prior generations did. If the children continue to do the sins their parents did, they will receive the same punishments as their parents.

But to this is contrasted his real wish: to show 'covenant loyalty' [NIV 'love'] to 'a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.' By the greatest numerical contrast in the Bible (three/four to thousands), God identified eloquently his real desire: to have his people remain loyal forever so that he might in turn show them the rich blessings of his resulting loyalty to them."

Wonderful!

i wish someone had told me this in high school...

...it would have saved me a lot of confusion and self-loathing.

"First we need to remember that as their identities are being formed during adolescence, most young people live out of 'multiple selves.' Kids will have one 'self' they live out of at school (actually several, because in each class and activity they need to live out of the 'self' that's safest for them at the time), another 'self' at home, and still another 'self' at your ministry. They also feel the need to express these selves differently in the various roles they assume in their lives - such as with sports, in different classes, at church, and at home. This in turn causes them to stay on guard constantly to determine which role is the most appropriate to 'put on' in any given setting."

Deep Ministry in a Shallow World - "Deep Communication: Why Doesn't our teaching change kids' lives?" by Chap Clark

There's more of this in his book Hurt.

The youth worker's openness to the adolescent must be balanced with closedness. As Bonhoeffer says, 'The "openness" of the person demands "closedness" as a correlative, or one could not speak of openness at all.' WE must be able to say, 'Sorry, I am on vacation. I will get back to you.' 'Please don't stop over at dinner time, my family and I are eating.' 'It's late. Call me in the morning.' Or simply, 'I am not available, I need some time away.'

to be closed to the adolescent is to be for the adolescent. In being closed, we allow the adolescent to recognize us as other, not as a personal possession but a distinct human being who is complicated and beautiful in our won right. Being able to say no to young people communicates that ministry is a person to person and not producer to consumer."

- Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry