TV and music, TV and music

So, I’m sitting here at work listening to my iPod shuffle through all thirty-four of the songs on Sarah Harmer’s albums (with the exception of Songs for Clem), and it is nice. I remember the first time I was exposed to her music. It was some time last fall, I’d just been released from a relationship and needed something to calm my nerves. That something ended up being Sarah Harmer’s All of Our Names, an album that can transform the thoughts and temperament of its listeners and the world around them. In a way listening to it reminds me of the time I got an MRI, only there were no annoying clicks or bangs to distract. When Sarah’s music is on I can lay still and let my mind be searched and checked for anything that might bear my health ill will. It feels like, especially with the above mentioned album, you are surrounded on all sides by a solid warm light beckoning you to sleep a slow, deep sleep. Buying this album was like a drool nap on the couch, the best of its kind slowly and softly surprising you when there’s not a lot going on in the world around you.

I know that what I’m saying is pretty vague. I haven’t spent a single word on any one of her songs, and shouldn't I do that if I want to recommend an album? I’m sure I will at some point, but right now I just want to tell you that I love her music.

On a completely different note; Laura and I recently watched the first season of Rome together. I’d already watched the whole thing while I was in Ecuador this summer, but I was looking forward to watching it at home too. I’m happy to say though that Laura really liked the show. I could tell that she was getting swept up in the drama when she called Attia a few choice names. It was also nice to see that she was conflicted when Caesar was murdered. She’d said that it was sad, but I could tell that there was part of her that understood that Brutus et al didn’t have a whole lot of choice. We were both really disappointed when we realized that we wouldn’t be able to watch the second season for a while, since we don’t have HBO. But then I found out a few minutes ago that since we just got digital cable we’ll have access to HBO on demand. Put more plainly, Laura belle and I will be watching Rome whenever we like. (whispers) Nice.

I think my next blog will actually be more on both of these things.

Grace and Peace,
Jared

If I can remember the way...

LongDistanceConversations

Andrew Osenga has a song called Broadway Bartender about a bar full of sad and lonely people. Andy's (I feel that he and I are so close that I can call him Andy) last line is that he's tired of the bar and wants to go home. Well, I'm not in a bar right now. I am in Ecuador though, and I'm tired of this country and I want to go home. I leave here on the eighth of next month. That's only a week from Friday, but it's not soon enough. I miss Laura the cats and I'm anxious to get home and take care of them and our unborm child (it's Laura's and mine, not the cats').

Don't get me wrong, please. This is not the worst place to be. I could be sitting in the desert with sand in everything, living in a tent. But I'm not, I am where I am. I got to stop in Quito for a night, it's a beautiful city. I only have to have one room mate, that's pretty nice. I just want to go home and not have to call or e-mail any more. It gets old when your only source of communicaton with the person you want to talk to is over the phone. At any rate, if you're looking for a good DVD, watch the HBO series Rome. It's a great look, throught the lives of individuals, at the civil war in Rome. They always manage to show how some personal conflict can shape a huge empire. Check it out.

Grace and Peace

Thoughts without conclusions II: More conclusive than the first

TheFarSideOfCrazy

Three months ago, to the day, I was talking about how many of Israel's stories (i.e. The Old Testament) are not their stories. But, it turns out, that they are. I read a book about early Israel by an archaeologist named William G. Dever; in it he lays out his belief (based on decades of research and field work) that Israel descended from a group of people indigenous to Canaan. These proto-Israelites probably formed a new community from their subversion of the old, pagan, monarchical order of Canaan. Many of the stories in the OT may actually be, historically, a part of their past, only numerically embellished.

This actually makes sense to me. I recently read a book review by Craig Blomberg about a topic realting to what I'm thining on right now: Inspiration. Was it a one time thing. Did YHWH only inspire one author for every book of the Bible, or did he inspire whole communities and generations of scribes in the transmission of stories and texts to form a gradually inspired scripture? In Blomberg's words: "It would have been a far greater miracle to supernaturally guide every copyist and translator throughout history than to inspire one set of original authors, and in the process it probably would have violated the delicate balance between the humanity and divinity of the Bible..."

While I think that the issue here is far greater than jsut texts, Blomberg's thoughts still resonate with me.

Grace and Peace,
Jared

Places for people

LongDistanceConversations: TheFarSideOfCrazy

I think that it's possible for someone to be miserable for losing a place that they couldn't earn or keep on their own. I know I have. When my mom and step-dad divorced I lost my home, and consequently my place in that home. I was a son one day and nothing the next. That's enough to make you miserable, or to make me miserable. And the fact that there are so many other people going through the same thing and still thinking that they're their own person is laughable. It could be said in two ways: Life's never so easy as to be just you. Life's never so hard as to be just you.

The only thing is that people with any amount of perspective will know that their lives are not in ruins when there are more people than just them. Or that they are when no one else is around.

Grace,
Jared

Dispensationalism: Putting Caesar where he wants to be

TheFarSideOfCrazy

I just read an article that Jerry B. Jenkins, co-author of the Left Behind Series, wrote about Paul. In it he returns again and again to the raptre. In fact, the main body of the article is basically a series of atempts to show the similarities between Rayford Steele, the protagonist in Left Behind (although it seems like the anti-Christ would be the protagonist, or maybe Jesus is-who knows.) At any rate, my instant reaction to this article and the underlying hermeneutical model that shaped it [dispensationalism] give the distinct impression to adherents that there is a way to tell these times from some other (or end) times. That persecution will exist at that point, in sharp distinction from now. And that this persecution will be waged only, or at least primarily, against Christians for their resistance to this man who'll come to set himself up instead of/against Jesus. I suppose my beef, as it were, with this way of thinking is that it projects an already as a not yet. The elevation of an idolotrous and wicked "king" is not yet to come; it's here now.

This can be seen in any part of the world in a way that is completely unique to each culture. But the same charactersitics have always made it easily identifiable. I would use the name empire for this "beast." Empires exist for their own benefit, and anyhting that they have to take from their subjects is just par for their course. When the people of Israel cried out to YHWH to make them like the nations around them, he warned them that if they had a king who was any other than him would:

...take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle [b] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

Thus Israel wanted, for some reason, a life totally contrary to that which YHWH had promised to provide. It's clear in this picture that justice and mercy would not be representative values in their world without YHWH as king. And so the ever-descending spiral of sinful and idolatrous Israel went. Into the captivity under several diffierent cruel kings and emperors and ultimately into the most methodically cruel yet; Rome. And it's within this world of a people in mourning for their exile into captivity under wicked, dehumanizing forces that the king came. Jesus walked into that world and challenged Caesar as well as the frustrated attempts to violently overthrow him waged by a Jewish people trying to bring YHWH's kingdom about.

Jesus didn't merely bring a message but a new way of living exemplified in his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension; in a word his vindication. And consequently the people that follow him are to exemplify that way of living as well. But men like Jenkins, Tim Lahaye, Hal Lindsey, John Hagee, Jack Van Impe, etc. give their reader and viewers the impression that the life of a typical American is okay. That the world built by western civilization is okay to be a participant in. And in doing so they put Caesar right where he wants to be, on his throne and in his people's hearts. To watch the popularity of these men is a very depressin thing indeed... If I didn't know any better, I'd think that Winston alwasys ends up loving Big Brother. But in the end Caesar won't be victorious. The very fact that that name is a metaphor for empire in general is a reminder that none of the Caesar's lived forever. But Jesus is still the same man. He doesn't need a dynasty to follow in his wake.

Words for Loss for Words

TheFarSideOfCrazy


Tonight we were discussing Psalm 117. Scott pointed out that it's the shortest Psalm. But despite the fact that it's so shprt it has a pretty heavy eschatalogical meaning. The translation that I had was the King James, Which was my favorite of all the other translations that people had their. Here it is:

1O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.

2For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.

All of the nations are called to praise YHWH. Not just Israel, but all of the world. The men and women of YHWH's creation were called to their purpose as creatures made by YHWH. Praising YHWH for nothing more than what he is. This is a pretty New Testament picture. Paul took up a collection from gentile churches that he oversaw for the Christians in Jerusalem who were suffering from a famine. The ineresting thing about this collection is that it was more than just a way of helping people in need (thought that was there) Paul saw the opportunity to stage a microcosm of the eschatalogical kingdom that Jesus initiated with the Cross (and by 'the cross' I mean crucifixion, resurrection and ascension; the things that, with much irony, vindicated Jesus as king.) The eschatalogical expectaion of many first century Jews included the inclusion of the gentiles into the new creation that YHWH had promised.

In fact the New King James version uses the word gentiles instead of nations in the first line. So, for his goodness and mercy demonstrated to us in, if nothing else, our being in the church. The fact that we have been called into community with one another in faith is evidence of YHWH's goodness, faithufulness and the list goes on.

Thoughts without conclusions I

I've been thinking a lot lately about so many of the Old Testament's stories having been, in short, pirated from other cultures in a way that was intended to subvert those other cultures. And the queston of exactly how much of the OT consists of stories that are not necessarily indigenous to Israel. It's a vexing question that I can't answer. Damn that Brueggemann!

I'm movin't too slowly

There'll be stuff here soon. I've just been reading a lot lately and I'm trying to gather my thoughts together. More to come soon.