Posted by Brian September 28, 2006
Here is the blanket which I made for my new nephew, Bryce. I delivered it a couple of weeks ago. Wallow in the cuteness. Bryce didn’t appreciate it, of course, but Mom and all the old aunts and grannies cooed over it.
Oh, and yes, I took pictures of the kid, too. 
But that was a different camera, and I don’t have access to those just yet.
The patterns for the animals came from the book Color-Bright Creatures Afghans, though the final product is not exactly like any of the afghans in the book.
You can click on the images for a larger version.
Here is the whole thing.
The turtle may be my least favorite.
The pig was the favorite of several people. Unfortunately, it’s the only animal which only appears twice on the blanket.
The lion was the easiest to make.
Frog. Look at his squiggly legs!
The dog is cute, but it was the most annoying to make. Lots of little pieces to sew together. I hate sewing together lots of little pieces.
The bear may be my favorite, though I don’t think I took a picture of the best bear.
I think I liked the bird better than everybody else did.
Posted by Brian September 23, 2006
Last night, I was bored with the program on TV at David’s apartment (Celebrity Duets), and picked up a book to read instead.
The book was The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation, by Barbara Rossing. I know this book is old news by now, but if you’re ever tempted to read those Left Behind books and take them seriously, then I recommend reading this instead.
Rossing writes about how a major theme in Revelation is Victory - “Nike” in Greek. The Romans worshipped Nike as a goddess. In Revelation, John asserts that the Romans are not the true Victors, Jesus is. But Jesus’ victory comes about not by imperial might and domination through war. Instead, Jesus conquers (”nike” can also mean “conquer”) by his own blood, shed in self-giving love on the Cross. Jesus is pictured in Revelation not as Lion, as John first leads us to believe, but rather as a vulnerable Lamb.
Interesting, but I didn’t decide to post about it until I remembered something else.
A few months ago, St. Michael’s was moving the furniture around, trying out new arrangements. Around that time, I guess somebody found an old altar vestment in a closet somewhere, and placed it on the altar. It had the letters “IC XC NI KA” all over it. Sadly, nobody really knew what that inscription meant. My rusty Greek was still good enough that I knew it was about Jesus and victory. I looked up further details.
The traditional translation of the phrase is “Jesus Christ conquers.” But here’s the interesting part (to me, at least): Orthodox Christians stamp this phrase on the top of the bread which they consecrate during Holy Communion. There is actually other bread which is also used during an Orthodox service, but the bread which will be consecrated as the Body of Christ is special. It gets this stamp, and it also has a special name: It is called The Lamb.
Remembering this in the context of the rich imagery in the book of Revelation, I was struck by the beauty of it all: the Victorious Lamb, who Conquers by the giving of his Body and Blood for the life of the world.
Our Church of Christ brothers and sisters sometimes like to talk about “calling Bible things by Bible names.” I think our Orthodox brothers and sisters are pretty good at that.
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,
‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!’
Posted by Brian September 21, 2006
There were services of blessing for two couples at St. Michael’s recently. One was a wedding, and one was a “Covenanting and Blessing of a Union”. They both made me glad to be an Episcopalian.
I’d never been to an Episcopal wedding before, so maybe these two services weren’t typical. But here’s what impressed me most about them: They were worship services.
We (the congregation) sang, we prayed, we read Holy Scripture, and at the Covenanting ceremony, we celebrated Holy Communion. Just like we do on every Sunday. And in the middle of all that, we gave thanks to God for the relationship between the couple, and asked God’s blessing upon them.
Even though it was their wedding/blessing, the focus of the service was God, not the couples. Ed’s homilies emphasized the idea of covenant. Covenant is how God relates to us - with a devoted love that does not give up. He thanked both couples for being a sign for us - a glimpse of insight into the way that God deals with us. It was beautiful.
One member of the second couple referred to the service as “placing the sign of the Cross over our relationship.” I like that.
That person regularly bakes the bread which we use for Holy Eucharist, and made the loaves which we used at the blessing service, as well. Maybe I’m sappy, but I really like that, too.
There have been some nasty things written about the second service on the internet. I’m not going to link to them. But I will say that they are all wrong. The service was not about thumbing our noses at anyone. It was not about being the first in Arkansas (though it was), nor about making some kind of point to the outside world. It was about thanking and praising God, asking for God’s blessing. And to me, it’s a reminder that all of our relationships could use a bit more of the sign of the Cross.
Posted by Brian September 07, 2006
Have you ever played that road-trip game where you try to find all the letters of the alphabet on signs/cars/whatever outside, before the rest of the people in the car find them?
“Q” has traditionally been a hard one to find. You always have to be on the lookout for a BBQ restaurant or something, and those aren’t that frequent.
But recently I’ve noticed that “Q”s aren’t that hard to find any more. Lots and lots of semi-trailers now have the words “Air-Ride Equipped” printed on the side.
I shouldn’t have pointed this out to David on our recent trip. Even so, I managed to win more games than he did.
Posted by Brian September 01, 2006
If you are scheduled to read a Bible passage in church, here’s the best thing you can do to improve your reading:
Arrive at church 10 minutes early. Then read the passage aloud to yourself from the actual paper or book you will be reading from during the service.
It’s even better if you read it to yourself a few times the night before. But if you don’t read it from the actual page you will see on the podium/lectern/ambo, then a weird spelling mistake or unexpected line- or page-break can throw you off.
At St. Michael’s, somebody always prints out the readings and leaves them on the ambo before the service. Last Sunday, part of one of the readings was cut off. The lector reached that point, got a confused look, and paused for several seconds. Luckily, he had brought up his service sheet, which had the whole passage. He was able to finish, but not before announcing, “Sorry, it got cut off.”
I repented later for whispering “that’s why you read it beforehand” snarkily to David during church.
