The First British Lutheran Blog Ever

Yes

John D is the king of posting pictures of cute puppies, and my blog has been pretty free of any cute pictures at all. I got this pic from my recent trip to Sri Lanka developed and I thought I'd share it with you all. I look pretty much awful in this pic, being very tired, having lost quite a bit of weight from not eating as much as I'm used to and being heavily mosquito- (and other random insect) bitten, but it's still the cutest pic with me in it because of my youngest cousin Dilisha, who is here trying to copy my "mean and angry" face:




Ok, and here's a pic of myself (I'm honestly not a Columbian drug lord despite my appearance in this pic), Dilisha, and her sister Manjula:

Strong Bad's Exhaustive Concordance.



Does anyone still read my blog?

I'm speaking for me here, no one else.

I really like the Old Testament lesson for this past Sunday, Ruth 1:1-19a. It gives a good picture of how the faith is spread for a large part of evangelism: in spite of, and sometimes even through, horrible things we do. "Go back to your land and your gods" Yet God used those words to bring about a Yahwistic confession from the mouth of Ruth, a confession which at the time may have meant she starved to death as a poor widow in a strange land with no one to take care of her. Then there's the magi... They mixed astrology with the Scriptures -something which God forbade. God used their sinful syncretism to lead them to Christ, literally. God's people, as they are going, make disciples of all nations, sometimes when its what they least want to do, sometimes with no real effort. In much of the Old Testament times, the people of God were in a separate country with their own language, and if anyone was interested, they would have to go out of their way to learn about this little country's religion. Similarly, when speaking about your faith could bring about an unpleasant meeting with fire or a lion, the Church was extremely secretive. And yet, their numbers swelled so much that even Rome could not eradicate them.

What am I saying here? Perhaps I don't know it all myself, but I just know that God is greater than Church-growth programs. He uses real people, not salesmen.

Upadate everybody: iMonk being relevant and excellent again... quote: Here. Quote me. There is no urgent concern for converting people in the New Testament. Did you get that down? There is also no urgent concern for the numerical growth of churches by the efforts of members to convert others. There are no burgeoning church programs. There are no plans to train everyone to door knock and sell Jesus. There is an urgent concern for doctrinal and personal Christ-likeness. There is a concern for leadership, integrity, honesty and obedience to Christ in our personal lives. The idea that we are here to "win souls" and not to know and show God is bogus.

(if no one does a decent job of it before me)

You know, I think it's impossible for me to pick 1 thing I want to someday write my PhD thesis on. It WAS the relationship in Christology and Eucharistic theology in the Assyrian Church pre- and post-Chalcedon, now I'm finding myself drawn to the Christological significance of the Book of Enoch and other inter-testimental literature.

Anyways, I've been thinking, I'd like to eventually write a book suitable for laypeople on the theological background to the New Testament. People know verses from the Old Testament, but they don't know the Old Testament, nor the non-canonical documents the ideas of which Jesus and the first Christians drew upon in identifying who He is. I'd like to provide some sort of theological background to the New Testament since it evokes and draws upon so many ideas which the average layperson is not aware of and simply breezes by or misunderstands. I don't like writing long-winded essays (yes, and I'm still considering writing a 300,000 word PhD thesis... let's play "spot the irony") when things can be said, in a homiletical way, much more simply and clearly.

Another thing I wouldn't mind working on, and the comments on Pastor Joel Humann's recent blog entry "Who Killed Latin" has given me an idea of, once (if) I've actually done it myself, books on teaching Hebrew and Greek to kids. (I seriously would also like to be able to encourage people in my congregation to learn the languages themselves, doing my best to make time to be available to guide them in their learning. It really isn't as difficult as people might imagine. I'm not that intelligent, but more tenacious enough to keep throwing myself at it until I understand and know it).

Then again, no one might care for either book or the idea of learning to read the Bible in color, rather than black and white with a bad signal, to use a metaphor.

I know lots about stuff people don't want to know.

CCM artists have taken quite a bit of critique from the Lutheran blogosphere, and with good reason. Christianity just isn't like what they're singing. But sometimes, when they're not producing "worship" stuff, they can come out with some pretty decent songs, which at least resonate with how I look at life. One of my favourite artists is Derek Webb, formerly of Caedmon's Call. He is most definitely a talented singer, guitarist and songwriter... which I am not (as my recent attempt to write a song which ended up grinding to a halt has proven -I think I might just stick to poetry). Anyways, one song which I'm very impressed with simply because it transports you so well to where he is coming from is "The Center Aisle". It was written after the first funeral Derek had attended, the funeral of one of his friend's sisters, who had committed suicide.

Thank God I'm back in my car, and drivin' home, I'm drivin' home.
'Cause the air was thin and so cold back in there.
It was my first time, won't be my last time
And the questions rise, expectations fall in light of it all.

There aren't words to say; words aren't remembered, but presence is.
A good friend once told me, and he was there, he was there.
But she wasn't there. And it's not fair, and it's not fair.

What crimes have you committed, demanding such a penance,
that couldn't wait for five more minutes and a cry for help?
'Cause this room is so peaceful and this room is so quiet.
And I hate the silence, and I can't walk the center aisle.

Well, I've been here for over three hours,
behind the flowers,
so beautiful and young. And so alive, and so in need of someone,
someone to talk to them. 'Cause theirs are fragile lives.

And I think about my brother,
and how i just stood there
with my hands in my pockets and my heart in my throat.

Thank God I'm back in my car and drivin' home, and drivin' home.
But in that place I leave all my days of taking life for granted
and the words I wrote for her and my best friend crying,
and a young girls lying on all our hearts.

Speaking of which, Michael Spencer has written about this here. He's also used the theology of the Cross and a Sasse quote here.

Other good songs by Derek include Wedding Dress, The Church and The Truth. He's Reformed which means at points I take a step back and say "....nguh", but a lot of his material has plenty of redeeming quality to them.

Ok, today has been a LONG day. Using 7 languages in one day, arguing that Paul actually really did disapprove of homosexuality in any context, plus planning and giving a mini-lecture on the trends within scholarship in 1st century Judaism is extremely exhausting mentally. I'm not even getting "idle thoughts" right now. If I have any time at the end of the week, I'll do a real blog post. Til then, since I've been involved in debates with dispensational premillenialists lately, my attention has been drawn to this. If it ever becomes a useful public tool, I REALLY want one, preferably in my hand... having a lump in my forehead would be a little unnecessary... just to annoy the dispies.

Found from a search for "Welsh Lutheran" on Google:

OUR SAVIOR WELSH LUTHERAN CHURCH,
2400 EAST MECHANIC STREET, HARRISONVILLE MO 64701

Welsh migrants fleeing persecution for their Lutheran beliefs set up home in Missouri? Umm.... no

So, someone come up with a good reason why "Welsh" is included in that church name and I'll buy him/her a pizza.

So this has been the first week of formal classes for me. My head hurts. After 3 hours of Arabic lectures we were writing in Arabic, and we were reading the Doctrine of Addai in Syriac in the second lecture of that class too. Thinking this intensely really makes me tired. I'm gonna go sleep for a while.

One thing my Greek lecturer said just made me appreciate how great a job the Holy Spirit had in guiding the Church into the truth with regards to the canon. We're studying 1 Peter and I just don't think I ever appreciated how much stuff the early Church had to sift through between genuine and forged documents. How did they distinguish between the genuine Petrine letters and "the Apocalypse of Peter", "the Gospel of Peter", "the Acts of Peter", and various other documents signed Petros Apostolos, some of which contained words true to the Gospel. It's very easy to see things in black and white, that the apostles faced all of their opposition from unbelievers, but it might be true that well-intentioned and well-reasoned believers made their mission just as difficult.

I don't think much has changed.

I could resign my knowledge
As foolishness
Discard my faith
As madness
Yet my own irrationality
And capacity for destruction
Against my own decision
Makes me sure as hell
That I am still a sinner
And still in need of my Saviour.