Archive for December, 2008

This is a light “What’s Cookin’?” because of the holidays. But here you go…

Highlight(s) of the week: (1) This holiday called Christmas. Maybe you’ve heard of it? (2) Giselle’s first Christmas. She got so many toys she didn’t know what to do with them. (3) Spending time with family is always terrific. (4) The Eagles are in the playoffs after a spanking of the Cowboys! Gotta love that. (5) Advent fast is over! We ate meat and sweets. Feasting away. Oh, cookies, how I missed you.

It is popular this time of year to try to prove/disprove many of the aspects of the Christ’s birth such as the virgin conception, Caesar’s census, two stories or one, and so forth, as events that actually happened. I do find myself on one side of the spectrum in those arguments, but I think these arguments actually are ways of distracting us to such a point that we actually miss what is going on at Christ’s birth. Here’s a few examples:

• The Magi ask, “Where can we find the King of the Jews?” This would have sent up red flags for all the people, and I think the story shows this. Who’s the King of the Jews? Well, Herod is. Thus, Jesus challenges Herod.
• The angels call Jesus the “Savior.” In the Roman world, the “savior” was Caesar. He saved the world. He fixed it. The early readers would’ve clearly understood this as a challenge to Caesar. Jesus is the real Savior.
• Along the same lines, the angels say that this child brings “peace on earth.” If you asked the citizens of Palestine, who brings peace on earth?, the likely answer would be Caesar (i.e., pax romana). Jesus again challenges Caesar. Only Jesus truly brings peace.
• Other challenges to Caesar would be Jesus’ “stealing” of his titles - son of God, Savior, Prince of Peace, etc.

These are just a few examples, but my point is this, when we focus on arguing what actually happened or didn’t happen, we miss the point that Jesus challenges the rulers of the earth. The rulers of the earth think they know how to bring peace, and they do it through violence (how do we keep a crazy dictator quiet? Kill him, of course). That’s how the world handles things. Jesus, on the other hand, brings peace through justice to every person. When we are distracted, we miss these things. We miss the beauty.

The beauty - God decided to live with us, and he’s setting up a new way of doing things, not through violence, but through justice for all people. Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is a different way of doing things.

Therefore, Christmas is a reminder that there is a different way of doing things. Life is no longer as it was. The world is no longer as it was. It is different. Swords are turned into pruning hooks; justice is given to all; the wolf lies down with the lamb. Peace on earth, and goodwill to all people.

I’ve recently started re-reading Peter Enns’ book Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. Enns’ “incarnational analogy” of Scripture is basically that Christ being the “Word of God” is equally fully man and fully God, and so is Scripture being the “Word of God” is equally fully human and fully God. I have been moved by the following:

Enns explains that the difference between Jewish interpretation and Christian interpretation of Scripture is that Judaism engages tensions and ambiguities and even suggests that Scripture allows for tensions in order to invite the interpreter to “problem solving.” On the other hand, as so in my experience, evangelicals tend to sweep tensions “under the rug” (so to speak). About evangelical Christian interpretation, Enns correctly states:

As quite distinct from Jewish interpretation, the history of modern evangelical interpretation exhibits a strong degree of discomfort with the tensions and ambiguities of Scripture. The assumptions often made are that Scripture should have no tensions and that any such tensions are not real but introduced from the outside, namely, by scholarship hostile to evangelical Christianity. Whatever tensions remain are addressed either by posing some direct solution (however ingenious) or by moving the problem to the side (”We know it has to fit somehow; we just aren’t sure how”).

p. 72, Enns, P. (2005). Inspiration and incarnation: evangelicals and the problem of the Old Testament. Baker: Grand Rapids.

For more quotes, which I found noteworthy, go here.

I don’t write about sports too much on this blog, but I do pay close attention to it so maybe I will write more about sports in the future.

So, apparently, the Yankees, after signing CC Sabathia for $161 million and signing AJ Burnett for $82.5 million, are now signing Mark Teixeira paying him $180 million for 8 years. All I have to say is, “Enough is enough.”

Maybe, I understand this a little more now than I did before because I recently lost my job. The Yankees’ administration, in their high spending, is what’s wrong with humanity when it gets loads of cash — we think we can always buy what we want. In their case, it’s a world championship. The economy as it is, and unemployment as it is, the Yankees have the audacity (yes, audacity) to throw this amount of money to baseball player (people who get paid to play a game 12 year-old boys play for fun, mind you).

It’s not just the Yankees. Professional sports just go way to far with this. I don’t claim to know anything about economics, but what about who produce so much more than what they get paid for? Like farmers? What about janitors? Or factory workers? What about inner-city teachers? Or social workers? (Or pastors?) Or my mailman? Or police officers? These people pour their hearts out (many of which simply support multi-million dollar companies somewhere) and get little return for what they produce. I suppose, what I am saying is that our economy needs to be turned on its head, and we need to spread some of the wealth (this isn’t an Obama plug, but, if you want it to be, then, I’m OK with that). I mean, seriously, my junior high janitor cleaned the whole school, and what did he get paid? Minimum wage?

I know I have friends who are fans of the Yankees. My main argument is not against the Yankees (necessarily; If the Phillies did it, it would be a problem, too), but against (a) the continual “fiscal flaunting” of the “haves” when the economy is in shambles and (b) our upside-down economy where the “have-nots” produce way more than what they get paid for.

Dear Yankees, Dear CEOs, Dear America, Dear Obama, Dear President Bush, Dear World, enough is enough.

Highlight(s) of the week: (1) Family Christmas party at the Cock & Bull in Peddler’s Village this past Sunday. (2) Amanda and I were able to hang out with Jon (brother) & Katie (his fiance) and Phil (brother) & Arielle (girlfriend) afterward at TGI Friday’s. (3) Both Amanda and I are now off from work for Christmas break! (4) Another person and I did the Call to Worship at church on Sunday. It was a responsive “singing.” We read verses from Psalm 13 (How long? passages), and everyone responded by singing the lines “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. And ransom captive Israel.” Didn’t tell Todd we were going to do this ahead of time, but it actually fit into his sermon. Cool. (5) Won our fantasy football league saving me from paying someone else $60! Spanked Aaron 127-67 (at this point, unless his kicker can make up 60 points tonight. I’m calling it a win!).

I’ve recently started re-reading Peter Enns’ book Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. Enns’ “incarnational analogy” of Scripture is basically that Christ being the “Word of God” is equally fully man and fully God, and so is Scripture being the “Word of God” is equally fully human and fully God. I have been moved by the following quotes:

On the interpretation of Scripture: “To put it succinctly: the Spirt leads the church to truth–he does not simply drop us down in the middle of it. To say this is not a low view of Scripture or the role of the Holy Spirit. It is simply to recognize what has been the case throughout the history of the church, that diverse views and changes of opinion over time have been constant companions of the church and that God has not brought this process to closure” (p. 49).

On the uniqueness of Scripture: “What makes Israel’s law and wisdom literature unique is not so much what it says (although that is certainly true with various laws), but Israel’s claim to be connected to the one true God who alone has the right to lay these claims upon them. That is the message to the other nations: This is the law of God who delivered us from Egypt; this is the wisdom of God who created heaven and earth. We worship him. The similarities between Israel’s conduct and that of the other nations does not make Israel less unique among the nations any more than Jesus’ sharing in the customs of practices of first-century Palestine makes him less unique. Rather both Israel’s practices and Christ himself are evidence of ‘God with us’” (p. 59; bold mine).

Enns, P. (2005). Inspiration and incarnation: evangelicals and the problem of the Old Testament. Baker: Grand Rapids.

Aren’t they great?! I think so.

It would be better if when offering people advice, we’d, instead, offer them stories. I tried to think if I ever remember Jesus giving someone what we typically would call “advice.” He told people parables, or stories, if you will. Stories resonate with the human-ness of an individual or individuals. We understand them better because we can live within the story the person is telling us. When Christ told parables, the characters represented something other then themselves, and you could see yourself as the prodigal son or the rich man (even if Jesus was trying to paint a picture of something else entirely). Also, the individual could see themselves playing a different character within the same story. For instance, in accordance with the holiday, have you ever watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I prefer, the Jim Carey version)? At times, you see yourself as the Grinch; other times, the Whos; other times, Max the dog (?, or at least, I have). Depending upon where you are at the moment, you could be anyone of them.

So, next time your friend is struggling with an addiction or a sickness, put down your college psych textbook and offer him or her a story to ease his or her pain.

Highlight(s) of the week: (1) Amanda and I took Giselle to get her pics with Santa (because we’re pagans like that). (2) We also had a chance to go to Longwood Gardens with our friends, Ron and Juli. (3) 3 semesters of my MDiv have been completed. 3 to go!

“1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born…”

-Matthew 2v1-4 TNIV

I had been reflecting on this verse in light of Charlie’s and my conversation about Obama’s possible Department of Peace and Non-Violence. I took one side of the argument, that is, don’t trust the D of P & N but trust Jesus, the author of true peace. I still agree with this, and I think Charlie does, too (?).

I would also like to add another point to the conversation, that is, there have been times in the history of God’s people that the “outsiders” had to remind the “insiders” what they are looking for. During Advent, we are looking forward to celebrating Jesus’ first coming and his second. Perhaps, much like the Magi, who reminded the Jews that they should’ve been looking for the true King of the Jews (where they had trusted other things to save them), we, as Christians, could be reminded that we too should’ve been working for Peace and Non-Violence.

You can almost see the look on the face of the people in Matthew chapter 2. They were disturbed (!) by what they heard. “Uhh…where was that Messiah guy supposed to be born? Oh yes! That’s right - Bethlehem. We forgot.” Perhaps, they were troubled because they forgot? Perhaps, they were troubled because it took these pagan magi to remind them?

Either way, we could learn from them - sometimes it takes our “Gentile magi” (in this case, those proposing the DP&N?) to remind Christians that we should’ve been working for peace and non-violence, but instead, we were too busy looking and placing our trust elsewhere.

Highlight(s) of the week: (1) Giselle started to crawl this week! She is slightly unorthodox in her approach; oftentimes, going sideways, but it is exciting. (2) We made it one week meat- and dessert-less for our Advent fast. Our family has really been enjoying Advent together. We also bought an Advent calendar house yesterday. Not sure what to fill it with yet. Any suggestions?