No, it's really simple

If there is one thing I know it is that theology, understanding, and frankly, life is always more complicated than we think. In honour of this discovery, I offer you the following tee, available in all sizes, pink for ladies, white for boys from badscience.net. This was on my Christmas wish list. Now, it is on my St. Patrick's Day wish list. I will be envious if you get one first, but it is not for the reason you will think. It is far more complicated!


A special thanks to Dr. Brooke Lester of Anumma for putting me on to this little gem!

Dictionary Addition

We at the Blogfire of the Vanities humbly propose to you, the gentle reader, the following term for addition to your theological vocabulary. This word is sinfusion.

Sinfusion: [sin-fyoo-zhuh n]
- noun
1. the coercion of a derogatory or sinful behavior into another person's soul
2. peer pressure
3. the act of a steeping or soaking of one's soul in temptation by one's friends: Here Steve, have another beer!
4. attempting to corrupt another into committing sin against themselves or others
5. the care, feeding and nurture of preexisting and or hidden sinful behavior in another person

There went the pipe theory...

Biblical Archeology Review just posted the following:

Results from recent DNA analysis performed on the mummy of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun have revealed that he was a product of inbreeding, disabled and suffered from malaria. By mapping chromosomes from the DNA of various mummies, researchers were able to link family lines and found that King Tut’s parents, Akhenaten and a woman whose mummy is known as “Younger Lady,” were in fact brother and sister.

The larger article is fascinating and is provided by National Geographic entitled, "King Tut Mysteries Solved: Disabled, Malarial, and Inbred". Enjoy!

Ideas on Ideology

Something with which I am playing for a class exploring sin and evil… I fully reserve the right to reverse, adapt, erase, eliminate, edit, junk, utilize, revise and or eat the following words. Thank God they are virtual as paper is hard to digest.

Religious Ideology is the reflection of our transformed experience as a result of biblical interpretation, created and understood in the context of our social world in which we were raised and now live.

I think it safe to say that the development of an ideology is always done with good intention. However, it is not always done responsibly. From “slave master theology” to “Christological enslavement”, human error in reason produces faulty results. The check and balance is done by a given community (family, church, corporation, government, academia, etc .) to ensure protection against a faulty ideology. I acknowledge that communities can error too, but that is a matter beyond the scope of this inquiry. When an ideology is adopted without critique by that community (perhaps the sin of omission), great evil can and does result (sin of commission).

Antithetically, a “good” ideology, when adopted in community, produces great fruits. Yet, the check and balance is still a necessity for two reasons. First, evaluation of ideology is a responsible discipline, valuable not just in the current moment, but in the future. “Life”, in all its challenges, pressures, socio-economic and political circumstances change, makes the necessity and or influence of an ideology in its original form, relevant or irrelevant. Secondly, a review of the belief system as it is enacted, prevents deterioration of its intention for the good or for the bad. This assumes that any ideology, or for that matter theology, can be enacted in perfection. Sadly, as fallen beings, we are not only incapable of a perfect theology, ideology or worldview, but we are also incapable of carrying it out. This again reinforces my admiration for the remarkableness that is Christ, both human and divine.

Open My Eyes

I'm writing my reflection paper for Rome and listening to the broadcast of worship from my home church, Southminster. They are snowed in and as such, the children's choir who was to perform was unable. Instead, there is a child who was selected to sing the piece solo. She's the voice of an angel.

For healthy churches with members who love worship and fellowship, the investment of the internet is so very meaningful. I was unable to make it to worship today so I logged on to the worship service hundreds of miles away and was able to hear the familiar voices of people whom I love, enjoy the musical gifts of child and adult alike, hear the Gospel message and celebrate the community that was my family for over a year and remains my family in my heart.

My experience in Rome was a miracle. A year prior, I was surrounded by the love of Southminster in a world that had failed me. A year later, I stood among the men who were in discussion with the Vatican for church unification, working tirelessly to build trust and to find ways where we can celebrate our mutual love and adoration of Christ. The year prior, I was under five different roofs, being fed by friends. A year later I ate gelato and drank espresso in Rome. The message today for the children's sermon is that God is in control. He is indeed.

Today's sermon is on Luke 5:1-11 - "Jesus causing mischief". The message is, roughly, that God works in odd ways to bring about His intentions. She calls it "God's Serendipity". His touch of light in your life is reflected in your changed soul. Interesting really, as it was His act of serendipity that brought me to Rome, to witness the unification of our Church, to bring the message of encouragement to those what stick with the work, to thank them and to find my own healing. And all it required was a step of faith, of trust, and of love in our Lord. Thank you, Lord for Opening My Eyes.

The Anti Christ of Painting

Many of us are preparing for our J-Term which means I am doing some extensive prep work on Rome. This past semester left me up to my eyeballs in the ashes of 64 AD. But now, I jump ahead to the 1500s and take a peak at Caravaggio, a painter from northern Italy.

Caravaggio disdained the classical painters, so much so that one called him the "Anti-Christ of Painting". He drew criticism from some who suggested that his work would bring down the entire school of the Classical tradition, and compliments from others who admired his work and borrowed from it, using light and darkness in their work. This despite his anti-social life filled with everything from assaults to murder, produced a man who painted astonishing works full of depth, richness, and even, at times, torment. Perhaps it was this life of darkness that prevented him from embracing the light of the Renaissance - beauty, form, and faith.

One of his best known works was the Conversion of St. Paul, painted for the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. To me, the work depicts the events in an earthly sense, singing in my heart the hand of God as Paul looks up from the ground beneath the horse. Many probably found this to be in terrible taste in the time and the painting certainly does not host the brightness nor colours of the period. But then again, none of Caravaggio's paintings really do. They are dark with sporadic bits of colour which draw your eye away from the dark places. In The Calling of St. Matthew for instance, your eyes are drawn away from the subtle Christ to the red sleeves of the tax collector, in a tavern. A tavern. Yes, a tavern.

Caravaggio's work, dark as it is, oozes feeling. Study one painting for a moment and you'll experience a depth of emotion - a sense of being seen, of being of this world - all the while being called apart from it. His reflection of faith, intentional or not, leaves one to drool, and not one bit like the Dormition of the Virgin.

Wandering

So there were these a people who wandered. They wandered a lot. In the desert. It was hot. Really hot. And dusty. They carried around this big box marked by winged creatures. It had a few stuffs inside. These people wandered around the hot, dusty, desert carrying a few stuffs in a box. (Who are these crazy people?)

These are our ancestors of faith.

You may be wondering a lot of things, among them why the heck we Christians consider a bunch of wandering people who carry a box through the desert our ancestors or maybe why they bother to put braille menus on some drive through windows, but more specifically, what was in the box.

Everyone always wants to know what's in the box. Ask Pandora.

The box was special. In fact, it was so special that the people who carried this thing around raised tents to host the thing. So as they went, they carried the box and when they rested, they built a tent that held the box. (You're kidding me, right?)

No, really! These are our ancestors!

When they raised these tents, they built out special places in them to hold this box. And, since it was special, special people were chosen to wear special clothes and do special things to the special box in the special room. The special clothing included an apron adorned with ornamental pomegranates and golden bells along the hem and semiprecious stones at the shoulders with a bunch of names engraved on them. They also got to wear cool hats. Oh! And they got to bathe frequently because they had to be clean. (Bathe, really?)

Yes, really.

And they did it all because God told them to.

(I'm not gonna ask.)

Seriously.

These are the people who God chose as his own. These are the fore fathers of David, and as such Christ. These are the dudes and babes who will inherit the land. And they did it simply because God told them to.

Yet sin crept behind. It doesn't take much to mess it up (just ask Eve). After all the lallygagging in the desert (okay, so it wasn't really lallygagging), the ancients settled and built a temple in the same style as the tent. They placed the arc of the covenant in the temple in a sacred space. And thy purified and anointed the priests who wore pomegranates to protect and serve Yahweh. Then, Moses departs for forty days. Like a child whose babysitter falls asleep and then gets into trouble, so did the ancients. And what do they do? They make golden calves fully breaking the commandment. This ticks Moses off and, coincidentally, begins the path of the sin of Jeroboam. Nice kick off for the DtrH. Idol worship!