Last year I ventured into a theology class at a local seminary. My father was taking a few classes in his retirement and I decided to join him for one on a promotional scholarship, Trinitarianism 402.

I must admit, I entered the class with a casual sophomoric confidence… the abstract paradox of the trinity is something I had been swallowing as a basic “truth” about God since I was probably 7 years old. The class structure was fast paced academia from the get go, there was lots of material, terminology, and history to get through in our once a week 4 hour lecture sessions… and our professor was not going to waste any time with a drawn out setup.

To be fair, this is a 400 level class, and most folks attending a seminary long enough to get to this class have had plenty of time to ponder a more holistic reality of God… so diving into the specifics of the content is pretty reasonable.

However, my father (a self proclaimed evangelist and exhorter) begged to differ. After reading what seemed like a random collection of esoteric theology discussion books and enduring several weeks of long lectures laden with ancient insider terminology… he was out. I didn’t blame him, but I was down for finishing off the class and I think I was even learning something. Strange new words like “Perichoresis” offered entrance into a very old conversation about God and His triune nature.

The ancient theologian John of Damascus (c.675-c.749), may have been the first to coin the term “Perichoresis” as an reference to the mutual indwelling of persons described in this passage.

John 17:20-26

20″My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24″Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25″Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

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Categories: Eugene Peterson, C.S. Lewis, Scripture, Art, Bible Study, Mars Hill Audio, Theology
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One of the strangest aspects of religious faith is how old ideas, truths, and lessons are continually reborn with new significance as life is experienced and reconsidered, the arts have a wonderful way of forcing us to pause and take time for this moment.

I am sure I had the ten commandments described to me succinctly when I was 5 years old or so in Sunday School. At that time I most likely was focused on the 5th commandment (4th if you are Catholic) “Honor your mother and father”. The presentation was probably accompanied by some exposition to the pointed application of not talking back to my parents and otherwise being a compliant child in order to fall in line with this positive directive from the overall collection.

Over the years I may have come across a good number of references to the ten commandments in order to enforce a particular point of morality, behavior, or theological inquiry. But more often than not, the ten commandments was not something that I regularly thought about or considered to be even a worthwhile structure for working through my faith… after all, didn’t Jesus get us beyond all those stodgy and definitive statements of the old Jewish religion?

In light of that general posture, I am willing to bet it would have been very difficult for me to even enumerate the ten commandments in the most simplistic list just a few weeks ago. Having recently attempted to do so with a small group of friends, we found ourselves at a questioning loss as to what the definitive collection of the ten commandments actually are. Different religious traditions create slightly different subsets based on the following breakdown, taken from Wikipedia… please forgive my violation of perhaps the 8th and 9th commandments.

This rediscovery of the ten commandments comes through the good fortune of my neighbor speaking very highly of a certain polish film maker who created what many consider to be the only television masterpiece of film work, The Dekalog.

Krzysztof Kieślowski is quickly becoming a distant mentor and example of handling great mysteries with exceptional honesty, respectful care, subjective content and still within the most daring and brave artistic expression.

Each one of these films has an amazing mixture of pointed story telling and still manages to reveal a huge area of honest discourse concerning the ambiguity of living with and without the observation of divine revelation. The timeless nature of the ten commandments reaches well beyond religious circles trying to figure out if the ten commandments are still relevant in a particular form of dogmatism. This is the power of film to weave reason, emotion, history, and story together into something that directs us to the transcendent and forces us to slow down, know ourselves, and perhaps see a glimpse of God’s intent towards and for us.

• The Dekalog on IMDB
• Krzysztof Kieslowski

Categories: Film, Faith, Art, Bible Study
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To say it, then, as plainly as I can, this book is an inquiry into and a lamentation about the most significant American cultural fact of the second half of the twentieth century: the decline of the Age of Typography and the ascendancy of the Age of Television. This change-over has dramatically and irreversibly shifted the content and the meaning of public discourse, since two media so vastly different cannot accommodate the same ideas. As the influence of print wanes, the content of politics, religion, education, and anything else that comprises public business must change and be recast in terms that are most suitable to television.

If all of this sounds suspiciously like Marshall McLuhan’s aphorism, the medium is the message, I will not disavow association (although it is fashionable to do so among respectable scholars who, were it not for McLuhan, would today be mute). I met McLuhan thirty years ago when I was a graduate student and he an unknown English professor. I believed then, as I believe now, that he spoke in the tradition of Orwell and Huxley–that is, as a prophesier, and I have remained steadfast to his teaching that the clearest way to see through a culture is to attend to its tools for conversation. I might add that my interest in this point of view was first stirred by a prophet far more formidable than McLuhan, more ancient than Plato. In studying the Bible as a young man, I found intimations of the idea that forms of media favor particular kinds of content and therefore are capable of taking command of a culture. I refer specifically to the Decalogue, the Second Commandment of which prohibits the Israelites from making concrete images of anything.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, any likeness of any thing that is in heave above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath the earth.”

I wondered then, as so many others have, as to why the God of these people would have included instructions on how they were to symbolize, or not symbolize, their experience. It is a strange injunction to include as part of an ethical system unless its author assumed a connection between forms of human communication and the quality of a culture. We may hazard a guess that a people who are being asked to embrace an abstract, universal deity would be rendered unfit to do so by the habit of drawing pictures or making statues or depicting their ideas in any concrete, iconographic forms. The God of the Jews was to exist in the Word and through the Word, an unprecedented conception requiring the highest order of abstract thinking. Iconography thus became blasphemy so that a new kind of God could enter a culture.

People like ourselves who are in the process of converting their culture from word-centered to image-centered might profit by reflecting on the Mosaic injunction. But even if I am wrong in these conjectures, it is, I believe, a wise and particularly relevant supposition that the media of communication available to a culture are a dominant influence on the formation of the culture’s intellectual and social preoccupations.

~Neil Postman; Amusing Ourselves to Death, The Medium Is the Metaphor

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  Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
  Author: Neil Postman

Categories: Communication, Media, Culture, Bible Study, Books
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When is the last time you read something out of Leviticus, specifically chapter 14? It reads like something straight out of the screenplay from Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail.

23 “On the eighth day he must bring them for his cleansing to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, before the LORD. 24 The priest is to take the lamb for the guilt offering, together with the log of oil, and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering. 25 He shall slaughter the lamb for the guilt offering and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 26 The priest is to pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, 27 and with his right forefinger sprinkle some of the oil from his palm seven times before the LORD. 28 Some of the oil in his palm he is to put on the same places he put the blood of the guilt offering—on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 29 The rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the LORD. 30 Then he shall sacrifice the doves or the young pigeons, which the person can afford, 31 one [e] as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. In this way the priest will make atonement before the LORD on behalf of the one to be cleansed.”

~Leviticus Chapter 14

And that is the NIV version, if you are really feeling adventurous, try out the KJV. I sympathize (perhaps too much) with people who find Christianity to be a strange mutation of a Jewish tribal religion with all of its strange practices, laws, spirituality, and approach to knowing God. When I meet “modern” authors like C.S. Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and even Søren Kierkegaard I am routinely invited into an understanding of my own person, psychology, and relationship to mankind that more or less makes sense to me. These authors work backward through observation, experience, and the long conversation of history in an attempt to reasonably comprehend how it is that Jesus Christ is truth personified.


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Categories: Monty Python, Bible Study
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Or are you so well satisfied with what you are, that you have never sought eternal life, never hungered and thirsted after the righteousness of God, the perfection of your being? If this latter be your condition, then be comforted; the Master does not require of you to sell what you have and give to the poor. You follow Him! You go with Him to preach good tidings!–you who care not for righteousness! You are not one whose company is desirable to the Master. Be comforted, I say: He does not want you; he will not ask you to open your purse for Him; you may give or withhold: it is nothing to Him…. Go and keep the commandments. It is not come to your money yet. The commandments are enough for you. You are not yet a child in the kingdom. You do not care for the arms of your Father; you value only the shelter of His roof. As to your money, let the commandments direct you how to use it. It is in you but pitiable presumption to wonder whether it is required of you to sell all that you have… for the Young Man to have sold all and followed Him would have been to accept God’s patent of peerage: to you it is not offered.

~George MacDonald; Carrion Comfort

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  George MacDonald
  Author: C. S. Lewis

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Categories: Money, George MacDonald, Quotes, Bible Study, Books
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1. Eat
2. Drink
3. Do good work

There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.

~Solomon (the smartest dude ever)
Ecclesiastes 2:24

I tend to make things more complicated and difficult than they need to be. When times get really strange, which they most certainly are now, I find myself holding on much tighter to simple wisdom.


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Categories: Work, Food, Bible Study
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I believe many Christians have a difficult time striking a reasonable balance between business ambition and motivating first principles. I am one of them. I want to make a lot of money someday, although I would settle with paying the bills for now. In light of that, most of the time, an Ecclesiastical aphorism will do…

Ecclesiastes 2:24
A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God

There are a lot of sayings and inspirational quotes about how adversity reveals character… but I think the spotlight of success, especially in today’s culture of celebrity, is a much better litmus test…

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
~Albert Einstein

The goal of working more hours to make more money can suffice for a few years, but before long, the suspicion that there has to be something better as a foundational work ethic creeps into view. As a new business owner, I find myself with the real responsibility of asking questions like; “Why am I doing this?”


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Categories: Ethics, Business, Work, Bible Study
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With the loss of a day job… my daily routine is now completely up to me. It’s true that I usually did not get to work before 10:00 am anyway, but nevertheless its now my time to waste.

How do you make the most of a morning when you don’t have to particularly be anywhere on time and the morning commute consists of walking down stairs to the basement…
… enter DISCIPLINE, or is it habit?

I am currently taking a small class through my church designed to help me understand their particular blending of all things Christian. A couple weeks ago the discussion arrived at the practice of prayer and Bible reading as the mainstays of Christian disciplines. The word DISCIPLINE was introduced as a baggage laden piece of wince inducing verbiage that has more than earned its negative connotation.

I am learning that my new Church is very sensitive to folks who may have been abused in some way or another by other, less cordial, Church communities and traditions that may have attempted to force you to do things like… read the Bible or pray as a DISCIPLINE (doesn’t it look extra scary in all caps?)… versus the whimsical happenstance of arriving at certain habits through blissful experiential exploration. (I believe the later happens, sure is nice that way…)

I have to appreciate this sensitivity, since I am admittedly one of those beat down souls seeking a kinder and gentler Christian experience than what I have known in the past. But then I have to be even more honest with myself, its true that in my up bringing rarely did a Sunday go by that I was not reminded of the importance of daily prayer and Bible reading.

So did I ever do it, was it worth it? I did, but probably never long enough for it to become a habit, I think I did it just long enough for it to harden into a good old fashion begrudged DISCIPLINE.


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Categories: Discipline, Bible Study
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I recently finished reading a book that made me think a little bit…

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  Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology
  Author: Eugene H. Peterson

I bought it from Amazon about 2 years ago now, I have a collection of books waiting to be finished dating back better than 5 years now, and I am quite glad that I took my time with this one. I believe what recently spurred me on to finish was a series of interviews with the author, Eugene H. Peterson, through Mars Hill Audio. Peterson has a grandfatherly voice that comes through in his writing, but it is even thicker in his speech. I found myself suddenly trusting him, and looking for some grandfatherly advice.

Peterson is the author of The Message, a contemporary and somewhat controversial translation of the Bible (there are no verse numbers, after all). This tid bit of background information had covertly formed Peterson into a maverick Christian by my estimation. Coupled with my ignorance in never reading The Message, or any other of his books, I had assumed him a pragmatic revolutionary with post modern sympathies. He is nothing of the sort. The one thing he may share with the current bread of post modern Christian authors, i.e. Brian Mclaren, is a decidedly conversational tone and approach to theologically centered discourse. He routinely surrounds Spiritual discussions with the context of “ordinary” life: you know; eating, sleeping, working, and playing.

Peterson speaks with a careful yet firm voice seasoned with a pastor’s experience. When I finished reading, I realized that I had just taken in a thorough description of what it means to be a properly motivated and postured Christian community leader. If I aspire to this calling I will do well to listen to some advice from an old wise sage.

We live in a culture that has replaced soul with self. This reduction turns people into either problems or consumers. Insofar as we acquiesce in that replacement, we gradually but surely regress in our identity, for we end up thinking of ourselves and dealing with others in marketplace terms: everyone we meet is either a potential recruit to join our enterprise or a potential consumer for what we are selling: or we ourselves are the potential recruits and consumers. Neither we nor our friends have any dignity just as we are, only in terms of how we or they can be used.
pg 38

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Categories: Community, Mars Hill Audio, Bible Study, Books, Theology
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http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/gospel/

Are they from Judas?
Does he lie in them?
If they are true, what problems / inconsistencies does it pose for the rest of the gospels / bible?
How is / should the church responding?
Does it matter?
What else is there to ask?

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Categories: Bible Study, Theology
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We’ve been going through Job for the past couple months now. Started reading about the same time Katrina hit New Orleans. One day I happened to be listinening to the local Christian radio station 103.5 (The Light) They had a preacher who was explaining quite confidently how the disaster of Katrina could have been averted if the people of New Orleans did not live such sinful lives. In his opinion it was quite obvious that katrina was a well deserved punishement for all the debauchery of New Orleans and the surrounding communities.

Job 4:7-8
“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
Where were the upright ever destroyed?

8 As I have observed, those who plow evil
and those who sow trouble reap it.

9 At the breath of God they are destroyed;
at the blast of his anger they perish.

This radio preacher seemed to have a similar perspective to that of Eliphaz, Job’s first friend to offer advice and an explanation as to why he had recently lost everything he owned, all of his workers were killed, his family died, he is covered with puss oozing boils, and his wife hates him. Job is an especially interesting story because we are invited to a very special meeting between the super powers of the spiritual world, God and Satan. At this unlikely get together God shared this tidbit with the evil one…

Job 1:8
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

Perhaps there have been other impromptu discussions between God and Satan…

Fictitious Revelation 1:8
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my city of New Orleans? No where on earth is like it; there are people there who enjoy life, love each other, and fight injustice.”

Categories: Bible Study
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