Homemade Peeps
Posted by Brian April 11, 2007 4 comments so far
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Posted by Brian April 08, 2007 No comments yet
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
More from Frederica:
Atonement, again
Posted by Brian April 03, 2007 3 comments so far
Actually, I wasn’t worrying about it this Sunday; my Dad has been with me at church for the past several weeks. So I was caught off guard when Ed said, “Jesus did not die for your sins.” Yikes! (Though Dad didn’t say anything about it; maybe he didn’t hear. 
)
I think what Ed was really trying to do was to deny the Penal Substitution theory of the Atonement. I’ve mentioned before my own discomfort with this theory, which says that an angry God could not forgive our sins without punishing somebody, and so he killed Jesus as our substitute.
Apparently there’s been a flap in England over this very topic recently, so I guess it’s a good time to revisit it, especially since it’s Holy Week, with the Great Three Days of our redemption coming up.
The bottom line is, even though it’s very popular today, the idea of Penal Substitution as the meaning of the cross has not always been the dominant idea in Christian thought. In fact, it’s fairly new.
Father Jake has a good synopsis of some of the various atonement theories which have been proposed through the years. Here’s another summary. And here’s an article I like by Frederica Mathewes-Greeen discussing Orthodox ideas of the Atonement.
Father Jake quotes C.S. Lewis:
We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. Any theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did all this are, in my view, quite secondary: mere plans or diagrams to be left alone if they do not help us, and, even if they do help us, not to be confused with the thing itself…
(I might humbly suggest that saying “Jesus did not die for your sins” is not the best way to phrase a denial of penal substitution.)
Uh….
Posted by Brian March 15, 2007 3 comments so far
Christ’s Family Church in Hastings, MN is really excited about their bathroom.
Visit their site, and scroll down on the front page(!) to see a movie about their “Men’s Room Extraordinaire“.
“Need an oil change?”
“Flames!”
“Viper!”
A Gospel rule of thumb?
Posted by Brian March 05, 2007 1 comment so far
“Gospel” means “good news.” I’ve been toying around with the idea of a rough rule-of-thumb way to tell if what somebody is preaching is the Gospel or not.
It goes like this:
If you can’t preface what you’re saying with “Good News!”, then it probably isn’t the Gospel.
For example
- “Good News! Unless you believe these seemingly impossible things I’m telling you, you will burn in hell forever!” Doesn’t quite work.
- “Good News! Unless you submit to our interpretation of the Bible, you will be Left Behind in a world of terror and despair, after we Christians get Raptured!” Doesn’t seem like good news.
- “Good News! God hates you, but if you follow these steps, you can make him stop hating you and love you instead!” Odd good news, to say the least.
I guess it’s not a perfect rule. Some aspects of the Gospel may not seem completely appealing on the surface. Jesus did say things like, “take up your cross and follow me.” Also, not everything that sounds good is the Gospel, either (”Good News! Jesus will definitely heal you and make you rich!”).
What do you think?
Fun with the Church Sign Generator
Posted by Brian February 27, 2007 3 comments so far
A Lenten conversation made with the Church Sign Generator:
New Year Plans
Posted by Brian January 08, 2007 2 comments so far
On another website in which I participate, someone asked us to list our “plans” for the New Year.
Here are some of the things I wrote:
In the long term:
I plan to save enough money for (deleted).
I plan to walk at least three mornings a week.
I plan to attend Morning Prayer regularly.
I plan to fast from meat on Fridays.
I plan to have the outside of my house painted.
In the short term:
I plan to take my Christmas trees down promptly after January 6.
I plan to see Hairspray at the Robinson auditorium January 18.
I plan to clean all the Christmas leftovers out of my fridge within the week.
Some of this I’m doing pretty well on, so far. Some of it, not so well.
Christmas Meme
Posted by Brian December 15, 2006 1 comment so far
I’ve never been “tagged” to do a meme (possibly because I never update my blog). However, Christopher said anybody could join in on this one, so I decided I would. Feel free to do the same.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Why not both? But I guess I’d have to pick egg nog if forced to choose. Oooh, but what about hot spiced apple cider?
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
The presents I wrap are always prettier than Santa’s!
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I grew up with the fat colored kind. On my tree, I put small white ones. On the tree I stole from Jeanette, I put small colored ones. I have no lights on the house, though most of my neighbors do - white ones.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
They aren’t up yet, but they will be soon. A more interesting question is when do they come down? One year, I spent a long time in New Zealand for work. I didn’t have the time/energy to take my tree down during my brief time home for Christmas, so it stayed up till I was done in NZ - around June, I think.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Grandma Harmon’s homemade bread. I’ll eat it whenever she makes it, even if it’s not a holiday.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
I always enjoyed decorating the tree. Mom always got a new ornament for me and my sister every year. And we had plenty of home-made ornaments, too. It was always fun to go through the ornaments every year and remember the stories about them. One of my favorite ornaments was one I made out of the white piece of card from a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I drew some greenery and holly berries on it, and wrote “Merry Cristmas” (yes, misspelled like that).
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don’t think I ever believed in Santa. I think my Mom has said that one time I saw a TV commercial with Santa, and asked her if he was real. She asked me what I thought, and I replied that I thought Santa was really her and Dad. She said I was right.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
My sister and I always begged to be allowed to open ALL our presents on Christmas Eve. Dad was usually more in favor of this than Mom was, if I recall. Sometimes we got to do it, sometimes not, and sometimes we just opened one, I think.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
My tree the past few years: red-and-gold. Glass ball ornaments, bells, ribbons, and pine cones I spray-painted gold. Actually, I just cleaned up the place upstairs where I spray-painted those pine cones years ago, so that some of the hundreds of people who are coming to my house this year could sleep up there.
The tree I stole from Jeanette: blue-and-silver (except for the colored lights).
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I like it until it gets all piled up and dirty by the side of the road. Then I just want it to go away. But we rarely get much here in Little Rock.
12. Can you ice skate?
The only time I went ice-skating, I did manage to make my way around the rink without killing myself.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
That might be the Commodore 64 computer I got when I was 8 years old. I had a lot of fun with that thing.
This year, somebody has already given me a Tivo, and I have to say it’s pretty awesome, too.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
The family.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Pumpkin pie, what else?
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
We always make an obscene number of pies. Some years, we have had more pies than people. Yes, some of us are slightly chubby.
17. What tops your tree?
I’ve had a big bow, but I think I’m tired of it. Maybe I’ll get something else this year.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Probably receiving, but only because of the low stress levels involved. I like giving presents to people, but for some reason, I often freak out about WHAT I should give them.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
“O come, O Come, Emmanuel”. But that’s really an Advent carol, isn’t it? So let’s go with “O Holy Night”.
But I also really like “Virgin Mary Had One Son” from this album of Christmas Spirituals by Odetta.
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Anything with mint in it is a definite yum! In fact (excuse the mention of another holiday here), I used to ask for York Peppermint Patties in my Easter basket.
Mmmmmmmmm……
Posted by Brian November 11, 2006 1 comment so far
You know what’s good?
A float made from Peach Nehi and Yarnell’s Real Vanilla ice cream.
Thanks, David!
Thank goodness for Arizona!
Posted by Brian November 08, 2006 2 comments so far
Finally, a state has done the right thing.
Is it too much to hope that this means that a few people are starting to realize what a true “pro-family” position is? Gay people aren’t going to stop forming families and having kids just because the conservatives don’t like it. Gay families are here to stay. So the real pro-family thing to do is to support these families, not try to pretend that they aren’t really families at all.
