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feeling blue: Donald W. Stokes, The Bluebird Book. The Complete Guide to Attracting Bluebirds (A Stokes Backyard Nature Book)

June 7, 2008 by David Baer

The Stokes bird books major in the sheer delight of discovering the bird in question. The 1991 Stokes Bluebird Book carries this tradition forward without missing a step.

The book’s three sections explore ‘The Birds’, ‘Attracting Bluebirds’, and ‘Bluebird Behavior’. The first section introduces this captivating bird by way of poetry and observations made about it, mostly when the species was more plentiful than it is today. The Stokes then present the ‘Eastern’, ‘Mountain’, and ‘Western Bluebird’ varieties. Continue Reading »

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lethal deafness: 2 Chronicles 23-25

June 6, 2008 by David Baer

It seems at first odd that a history of Israel that reserves an exalted space for good-hearted monarchs should clear a circle also for the rogue prophet who strides into the king’s courts to denounce his behavior. This scenario represents the narrative version of the more abstract declaration that Israel must not have kings like those of all the other nations.

Israel, and then the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, are summoned to a new kind of kingship whereby the royal figure maintains a respectful subservience to YHWH’s instruction, whether this is delivered in the ‘law of Moses’ or by the words of a prophet. The dynamic this establishes sets up some of the more dramatic moments of the Bible’s twin histories of Israel. Continue Reading »

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leaning and seeking (II): 2 Chronicles 16-18

June 4, 2008 by David Baer

Asa’s own political machinations come under the disapproving gaze of the prophet Hanani, who again takes up the language of leaning or relying. By persuading the king of Aram to open a northern front against the Asa’s Israelite nemesis, the Judahite king successfully wards off pressure from that quarter.

Yet YHWH’s prophet, for all the apparent success of this stratagem, is not amused. Continue Reading »

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leaning and seeking (I): 2 Chronicles 13-15

June 3, 2008 by David Baer

The story of the Judahite kings Abijah and Asa is perforated with observations about two human endeavors towards YHWH: leaning upon him and seeking him.

Neither one of these activities is transparent to the modern reader. Continue Reading »

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when priests cannot stand: 2 Chronicles 4-6

May 31, 2008 by David Baer

It is a good day in Jerusalem when the priests cannot stand. It means that YHWH has appeared in force.

If any biblical text places supreme confidence in the potency of organized worship, it is the twin books of Chronicles. The microscopic detail of this  book’s passion for genealogical and cultic order is fascinating for those whose temperament aligns with its idiosyncrasy, offputting for others. Continue Reading »

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swallows!

May 29, 2008 by David Baer

Twenty years ago, one of the early-evening joys of coming home to our little house on the southeast side of San José, Costa Rica, with the coffee fields gracing the hills across the river like tightly-braided hair on a handsome head, were the swallows.

Something about that cool, clear hour of the day brought them into close-order, cartwheeling, exuberant view as they plucked insects from the air and entertained my admiring eyes.

I have always missed the swallows. Continue Reading »

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if: 1 Chronicles 27-29

May 29, 2008 by David Baer

YHWH’s promises to David are so lavish that they often accrue the adjective ‘unconditional’. Declared primarily in the Bible’s two great histories of Israel (Deuteronomy-2 Kings and Chronicles-Nehemiah) and then reflected upon in the Psalms and Prophets, YHWH commits himself to David’s ‘house’ in seemingly open-ended manner. Continue Reading »

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a drawer-full of squirrels

May 26, 2008 by David Baer

My early mornings and occasional other moments in our family’s life on Indianapolis’ north side have been punctuated for about a year by noisy chewing. Apparently, this toothy romp takes place in crawl spaces and attics.

Squirrels have been the main suspects, so I’ve been consulting the half-hopeless writings of blogs and web pages where strategies against these relentless foes are mounted, critiqued, and abandoned. Continue Reading »

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new(ish) visitors

May 26, 2008 by David Baer

This Memorial Day weekend has provided the time and energy for a major restock of my bird supplies.

The result has been some new visitors:

A Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker has made brief, resplendent visits for seed and peanuts. He’s stayed long enough for this novice birdwatcher to mark the distinction between him and his suspected alternative identity, the Redheaded Woodpecker. Continue Reading »

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assuming the story: John 11

May 26, 2008 by David Baer

Though the Johannine Jesus’ response to news of Lazarus’ illness suggests a startling conflict of emotions, the equanimity of his conversation with Martha and Mary hews to a more placid line. I find the whole picture anything but posed and ungenuine. If Jesus is the person the Fourth Gospel has been suggesting, one might almost anticipate such experience and behavior in the context of the sickness and death of ‘the one whom (Jesus) loves’.

Deep friendship is the backdrop of this story. Those who have known this gift understand something of its potency, something of the forcefulness one confronts when its riches have been invaded by the contrary force of death. Continue Reading »

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