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Archive for December, 2007

winds of change: Zechariah 1-3

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »

From the late biblical book of Zechariah emanates the spirit that has made ‘Second Isaiah’ the most quotable row of the Old Testament vineyard. ‘Second Isaiah’ is a scholarly term referring usually to chapters 40-55 of the book of Isaiah, and sometimes to 40-66. There the hope-drenched, restorative message of Isaiah is writ large. (more…)

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rum pum pum pum …

Posted in denkschrift, my hometown, paterfamilias, tagged on December 25, 2007| Leave a Comment »

2007 has been an exhausting, occasionally degrading year.

This Christmas morning, following upon the heels of one of my middle-sized life’s sweetest worship experiences last evening as a guest at Indianapolis’ East 91st Street Christian Church, breathes comfortably in the pleasant bosom of family and God’s tenderness.

But oh, what a year!

From my morning’s easy chair, waiting for Christmas Day’s sun to rise, I cannot bear to think of another target aimed at, let alone hit. I am stripped bare by expectations and the drivenness imposed upon me by my peers and boiling up from within as from a poisoned spring. (more…)

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well placed: Third Day, Offerings II. All I Have to Give

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on December 24, 2007| Leave a Comment »

I suppose the best evidence of how I view this album would be to confess that I’ve sat here through the morning with tears on my cheeks as I absorb the potency of its tribute, truly a well-rendered offering.

Third Day, a band of gravelly-voiced, southern-fried rockers in alignment with their Maker offer up a slough of worship songs possessed of an edgy sweetness. (more…)

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a South African mine: South African Baptist Journal of Theology

Posted in missio dei, reseña on December 24, 2007| Leave a Comment »

South African institutions exert an inordinate influence over the African continent, often for good and occasionally for ill. If this is true in the economic and political arenas, it is doubly the case when one considers Christian theology and the preparation of an emerging generation of African Christian leaders. When it comes to influence, the center of gravity of this enormous continent swings low and slightly to the west. (more…)

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divine perspective nor experience with death required: Mozart, Requiem / McNair, Watkinson, Araiza, Lloyd; Marriner

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , , on December 24, 2007| Leave a Comment »

When the Carmelite priest Roland Murphy penned an exquisite commentary on the amorous biblical book called the Song of Songs, it was observed that this might well stand as final evidence that experience is not a prerequisite of true knowledge.

From what this non-professional reviewer has gleaned of Mozart’s life, the colorful composer was unacquainted both with penitence and the spiritual sublimities of which this Requiem sings. Ditto the experience of death, though he (rightly) believed his own was impending. (more…)

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metropolitan pride: Zephaniah 1-2

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 24, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The ire of biblical prophets is not seldom directed at those who are ‘at rest’. What is in play here is not restorative inactivity much less that deep contentment that often passes under the Hebrew descriptor shalom. (more…)

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the militant new song of the shattered: Revelation 14

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 23, 2007| Leave a Comment »

There seems to be an inverse relationship between the repugance we feel over bloody scenes of vindication, on the one hand, and the weight of evil’s crush that we have known or observed from close corners, on the other. It is easy to become too precious about gore when life has not pressed our noses into the human cost of evil unbound. When oppression is just a notion, the blood of vindication running up to the horse’s bridles seems per se a grotesque and unnecessary image. (more…)

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rejoicing too early over the corpses: Revelation 11

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 20, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The funerals of judgmental prophets often attract applause. Their death is good news. Their stillness means we can get back to what we were about. The shadow of doubt regarding their potential credibility is lost in normalcy’s reassuring brightness.

It is this way with prophets. They are mortal. They bother us for a time, then move on. Some become irrelevant, others discredit themselves and their message, still others overreach and become absurd. Some of them we kill. It seems continuity’s only option. (more…)

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the surprise of nations: Micah 4–5

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 20, 2007| Leave a Comment »

What can be expected of small things?

What promise derives from little-ness?

The biblical logic delights in undermining the realistic answers to such questions, forged as they are by the hammer of probability, a tool that knows only how to work its materials with a rhythmic swing that is entirely constrained by extrapolating out into the future what it has known in the past. Probability revels in likelihoods as thought it were quite sophisticated. With supreme self-confidence, it is never surprised. (more…)

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anger, healing, harvest: Hosea 11-14

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 12, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The words bear the weight of scandal:

I will destroy you, O Israel;
who can help you?
Where now is your king, that he may save you?

Where in all your cities are your rulers,
of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and rulers’?
I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath. (more…)

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