New Friends …Again

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blogrollIt’s that time again.  Time to add some new friends to the blogroll.  New on the blogroll at this time is New Creation Person, a.k.a. Carl.  We think a lot alike.  He’s a bit new to the blog thing, so pay him a visit and share a comment or two; I already have. 

And new in the Useful Resources list is Catholic Answers.  Check out their forums.  This is the self proclaimed largest network of Catholics on the net, and Protestants alike are invited to join in and comment.  I found out about them when a member linked to a post I wrote months ago.  The thread on Christians struggling with homosexuality was sending traffic my way, so I joined as a member.  Anytime you happen to wonder what our Catholic brothers and sisters believe about a particular subject, this is the place to start.  Even if you believe Catholicism is wrong, I want you to do the research and be able to say why it is wrong.

Warning:  If you are entering the URL yourself to visit Catholic Answers, be sure  to type  http://catholic.com   and not catholics.com, with an “s.”  This site will download malicious code (a trojan) to your computer.  I was fortunate that McAfee caught it.

Rethinking the Angelic Choir

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the-angels-song-and-the-shepherds-visitAnd in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babywrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”(Luke 2:8-14, ESV)

When we read any type of narrative, it is normal to picture how we think the scene might have looked in the mind’s eye.  There are numerous portraits of Jesus, the Apostles, Joseph and Mary, Old Testament characters, and so forth, but the only thing we know for certain is that we do not know what any of these people looked like.  Some things we do know; Jesus did not have blue eyes.  When artists of the Renaissance created Biblical portraits, they unashamedly made the characters look like twelfth century Europeans.  We can accurately predict Jesus would have been short, dark skinned, dark eyed, and looked very Hebrew.  Scripture teaches he looked pretty much the same as every other adult Jewish male of his time.  Just like there are certain things we know are not exactly right about the most popular images of Jesus, we can safely say that certain artistic liberties have been taken with the portrayal of angels. Continue reading →

Advent Candles

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advent-wreath

This is the Advent wreath that my wife put together.  When I wrote my post What is Advent, the greenery hadn’t been added yet.  The wreath is a combination of cedar, pine, holly and one other everygreen plant (sorry).  We also collected a few very small pine cones.  The candles are traditional purple and pink, though the center candle should probably be white.  The red candle was taller, and looked good in the arrangement.

What is Advent?

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advent_wreath_06The advent of something refers to its first appearing.  In our culture, Christmas has turned into the Christmas season.  This year it started about a week before Halloween, and will run until December 25th.  The “Holiday Season” will actually extend until January 1st.  All of this “Christmas creep” has a quite a negative effect on Christmas.

If we are celebrating the incarnation of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day, the two-month Christmas season detracts from the actual day itself.  I respond to the notion that our society stole Christmas from Christians and turn it into a secular holiday here.  What I would like to do in this post is comment on a purely Christian tradition of celebrating Advent. Continue reading →

It’s been a good day.

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This has been a really good day.  (Thanksgiving Day, 2008)  I started it off by sleeping in.  Continue reading →

Happy Thanksgiving

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“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…”  -James 1:17

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  We may not have every single thing we might wish for, be we have been richly, richly blessed.  The unemployment rate is up to 6%, but in some nations the unemployment rate is typically 96% or so.  Over half of the world’s population lives on less than the equivalent of $2 per day.  We’re doing pretty well.  Let’s remember where blesings come from.

You can read my Thanksgiving sermon from Sunday.  I’ve also started blogging Christmas.

Santa Claus Has Not Sold Out

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r_santa-claus-ad-coca-colaOne of my favorite quotes might need some explaining.  “The Fourth of July is not now, nor has it ever been, what it used to be.”  If you get it, move on to the next paragraph.  If not, it’s another way of saying that memory is generative.  Imagine being 9 years old.  4th of July is a magical time of hotdogs, baseball, fireworks, camping, cookouts, and it seems like nothing could make that holiday better.  The truth is, there were also social evils in the world, unemployment, crime; you just did not know about it.  Some people hated Independence Day with an undying passion, perhaps hated America.  But over the years, you remember how great it was, and any problems you were aware of at the time have vanished from your memories.  When you hear someone say “The 4th of July is not what it used to be,” they’re right.  It’s not.  And it never was what they remember. Continue reading →

A Thanksgiving Sermon

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Tomorrow is Sunday, November 23, and Thanksgiving Day is the following Thursday.  I will be preaching this sermon in the morning, perhaps it will be a blessing to someone here as well.  Anyone may feel free to use this material in a way that brings glory and honor to God.

We are going to begin with 4 scripture readings, used at different times during the service.  You will note that there is one reading each from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and a Gospel.  The final reading is the text of the sermon. Continue reading →

The Abbreviated Jesus

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bargainjesusWhen I started this blog, one of the secret little promises I made myself was that it wouldn’t be an Internet Monk fan site.  Listening to his podcast is one of the reasons I started blogging myself.  If you read this blog, you know that from time to time I link other blogs with posts of interest.  Michael Spencer wrote a piece on the “abbreviated Jesus” this week, here’s a snippet that made me laugh out loud:

“The abbreviated Jesus can convincingly seem like the real Jesus, until you look and listen closely. Then it appears that he’s lost his laptop, his luggage and his cell phone. So for right now, he’s reading it all off the teleprompter.”

Read Do You Trust the Abbreviated Jesus?  at internetmonk for the full story.

PBS Documentary on Martin Luther

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martin-lutherOver the years, PBS has produced a series of programs on the history of empires.  In 2003, they made 2 special episodes on Martin Luther.  (Liam Neeson provides the narration.)  Thanks to Hulu, these are available for your viewing pleasure at any time.

UPDATE: These were available for a very long time but have finally been removed from Hulu’s library. 3/31/14

The PBS website for the the films is still up at this address for the time being. I don’t know about getting the video but there is plenty to read.