Make!
High!
School!
Musical!
Two!
Stop!
Now!
Please!
It is driving me crazy. And I can’t get that one blasted song out of my head.
OK, continue on with your day.
Browsing Posts in Asides
I plan to make this a semi-regular feature of my blog: things about my new town and church family that I love. And what better way to start with the fact that I don’t have to wear a tie when I preach.
I hate ties. I hate them in all their permutations. The greatest evidence of the dupe-ability of the human race is the PR guy who was able to convince people that this is a good idea despite the fact that it is akin to auto-asphyxiation.
Seriously, the most wide-spread form of torture today is a neck-tie. You should only wear a tie if you are going to a funeral, if you are getting married or you have been invited to the Hilary Clinton Inaugural Ball.
When I interviewed at Agape the elders told me not to mess with wearing a tie on Sunday morning. I was already in town, it was late on Saturday night and I didn’t have anything but a shirt and tie. I was only too happy to make a late night stop at Wal-Mart and buy a shirt.
I hate ties. Just hate them. I believe they are perpetuated because it is the closest thing that men can experience that relates to the female pain of childbirth.
When I was in Michigan I didn’t wear them preaching. In Waco, I had to despite the great risk of a tie being wrapped around the mike stand while preaching.
No more. Death to ties. I love that about my new church families.
I have 3 Sundays with no place to go. I hope to use that as an opportunity to check out some of the other faith traditions in the area.
I really hope to visit our cousins at a Disciples congregation.
There is an Anabaptist church that looks cool but it’s about 30 miles away.
There is a church near us that is offering 30 minute worship services but, really, what’s the point?
Where would you go? Any suggestions?
so much to tell
but no time to tell it
be looking for an important update very soon
So, what are you guys doing for Ramadan?
All contacts in my email address book that use gmail are gone. All my chat friends raptured into the air. What is going on?
Jesus never placed doctrine at the center of his good news. If anything he marginalized notions of doctrine (e.g., the sabbath is made for man). Thus, IMHO, I think any talk about doctrine (as typically conceived in our fellowship) as a central concern is a grave error. Wrong right out of the gate. If Jesus is our hermeneutic then doctrinal conversation should always be a marginal conversation. The early church was called The Way. Not a way of believing but a way of living. To miss that point is to, well, miss the entire thrust of Jesus’s life.
–Richard Beck
This is a three hour class. I don’t know if I’m continent enough to sit her through this.
I may have had the best barbecue ever at lunch.
JTB is teaching this class with 3 white guys.
OK, I’m bored with this.
We will see how this goes:
Amos: Experiencing God’s Lament
Reassuring thought: God’s primary characteristic is NOT anger.
As a matter of fact, God’s anger in scripture is out of character.
Question: How does a preacher communicate God’s anger without being dismissed.
Amos 1-2: God’s Oracles Against the Nations (Aram, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Judah)
Aram–Ethnic Cleansin
Philistia–International Slave Trade
Phoenicia–Slave Trade
Edom–Trying to eliminate Israel
Ammon–Ethnic Cleansing
Moab–Post-death atrocities
Judah–Disobedience? He doesn’t say.
This moves into the oracle against Israel.
Leaving my Bible in the hotel room leaves me at a disadvantage.
Israel’s sins were doubly tragic (2:6-16). They knew better.
Israel repeats the cycle of abusive nations. They had come from an abusive nation and now they are doing it themselves.
The difference is it is against their own people.
God is not mono-ethnic despite what Israel believed.
God works on an international basis and an individual basis.
He cares about the nations and the house-servant girl.
How do you apply Amos’ thoughts as a military chaplain?
Focus: Because God expects all people to treat others with respect, he is especially angered when Christians dishonor each other.
Function: To enable the congregation to sense God’s anger and to feel the burden of standing under his judgment.
Amos 4:1-3 and 8:4-6: Parallel Oracles (Indictments against wealthy women and wealthy businessmen)
Man, I love a good prophet. Cows of Bashan! Living the good life. They are living their best life now.
It’s a lifestyle that oppresses the poor. Beef–food of the wealthy. Fish–food of the poor.
Let’s get the Sabbath over so we can fleece the poor.
8th century B.C. is more like 21st Century America than any other time in Scripture–Due to wealth–the gap between the haves and have nots.
How do we oppress and pad our pockets at the expense of others:
Price-gouging
Deceptive tricks of the trade–thumb on the scale type tricks.
Non-reporting of income
Padding mileage
Insurance fraud
Golfing on a work day?
Amos 6:1–7: When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough
17% of the world’s population controls 80% of the world’s wealth and most of these 17% claim some kind of Christian affiliation (Note: these figures are 40 years old.)
