On liturgy

Hughes Oliphant Old in Guides to the Reformed Tradition: Worship That Is Reformed According to Scripture (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1984), p. 162 (quoted in Jeffrey Meyers, The Lord's Service, p. 152):

There are good reasons for having an established liturgy.... In the first place liturgical forms are a good means of teaching the essentials of the Christian faith. When familiar liturgical forms and texts are used again and again, it gives us the opportunity to meditate on them and to penetrate their meaning more deeply. When there are well established procedures with which everyone is familiar, it makes it easier to concentrate on content rather than on outward from. Any athlete understands the importance of mastering form. Such simple things as breathing must be done correctly, but this is essential so that eventually they can be done spontaneously, without effort, without thinking about them. The concentration must be on other things. Forms are a means to an end, and if they are constantly changing they obscure the end rather than lead to it.

The athletic analogy is a good one. When I triple jumped in high school, I always started with my left foot at 84 feet, 4 inches from the board and took 7 strides before taking off. I rehearsed this over and over until I could do it with my eyes closed without even having to count or think. It wasn't because I wanted to zone out or relax during a jump--it was because I needed to focus my thoughts and efforts on jumping higher and farther, without being worried about shortening or lengthening my stride to hit the board just right.

A litergy includes (traditionally) several elements. In a Latin Mass you would commonly have kyrie, gloria, credo, sanctus, and agnus dei. In a Reformed church you are likely to have some variation on call to worship, response, hymn of praise, confession, declaration of pardon, creed, offerings, doxology, congregational prayer, exposition, and benediction. Even the most "informal" of churches has some kind of liturgy, even if they eschew the term. There are times of singing, of prayer, of thinking, of communicating. Whatever the liturgical form chosen, it does seem to me that its predictability would add to its usefulness. The congregants, rather than worrying about when they should stand or sit or what element of worship comes next, may focus their thoughts and energies on actually praying or listening or thinking.

Quote of the week

"We’re no-point Calvinist: there’s no point in talking about it"~ Bible College President in publicized address.

Cute, but stupid. This is the Biblical scholarship of the fundamentalist bible college movement. It also explains why so many bible colleges are slowly dying their necessary deaths.

The president of the college in his lecture to unsuspecting students also talked about “Hyper-Calvinists.” By implication, a “hyper-Calvinist” is one who talks about his Calvinism. He claimed to know many of them.

But “Hyper-Calvinism” is actually a theological conclusion and not the status of a Calvinist who has consumed too much caffeine. By his unmistakable implication one who talks about Calvinism, thinks it’s important, and is unashamed of the label is a “Hyper-Calvinist.” Thus, Spurgeon and Edwards, the very men that he admiringly spoke of in his short address, were “Hyper-Calvinists.”

Taken from Pensees: Bible College Scholarship and One More Reason Why They Are Losing Influence in a Fading Movement. The rest of the post is worth reading as well.

Grace and growth

It's hard for me not to find tension between the concepts of absolute justification and incomplete sanctification. If I am completely redeemed, through no work of my own, what is the importance of trying to become more holy? Doesn't that undermine the freedom of grace? The church I've recently started attending has been examining that apparent tension, lately making the transition between Romans 5 and Romans 6. J.C. Ryle (Anglican bishop) addresses it too, in his sermon "Growth":

When I speak of growth in grace, I do not for a moment mean that a believer's interest in Christ can grow. I do not mean that he can grow in safety, acceptance with God or security. I do not mean that he can ever be more justified, more pardoned, more forgiven, more at peace with God, than he is the first moment that he believes. I hold firmly that the justification of a believer is a finished, perfect and complete work; and that the weakest saint, though he may not know and feel it, is as completely justified as the strongest. I hold firmly that our election, calling and standing in Christ admit of no degrees, increase or diminution. If anyone dreams that by growth in grace I mean growth in justification, he is utterly wide of the mark, and utterly mistaken about the whole point I am considering....

When I speak of growth in grace I only mean increase in the degree, size, strength, vigour and power of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in a believer's heart. I hold that every one of those graces admits of growth, progress and increase. I hold that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage and the like may be little or great, strong or weak, vigorous or feeble, and may vary greatly in the same man at different periods of his life. When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this--that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual-mindedness more marked. He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart. He manifests more of it in his life. He is going on from strength to strength, from faith to faith and from grace to grace.

J.C. Ryle, Holiness: its nature, hindrances, difficulties, and roots (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2001), pp. 81-82.

By faith

On the promise of an heir to Abraham:

Abraham became old and Sarah was mocked in the land, and still he was God's chosen heir to the promise that in his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed. Would it not be better, then, were he not God's chosen? What is it to be God's chosen? Is it to be denied in youth one's youthful desire in order to have it fulfilled in great travail in old age? But Abraham believed and held firm to the promise. Had Abraham wavered he would have renounced it. He would have said to God: 'So perhaps after all it is not your will that it should happen: then I will give up my desire, it was my only desire, my blessed joy. My soul is upright, I bear no secret grudge because you refused it.' He would not have been forgotten, he would have saved many by his example, yet he would not have become the father of faith: for it it great to give up one's desire, but greater to stick to it after having given it up: it is great to grasp hold of the eternal but greater to stick to the temporal after having given it up.

Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (New York: Penguin Books, 1985), pp. 51-52.

Soli Deo Gloria

Recently posted on BJU's website:

At Bob Jones University, Scripture is our final authority for faith and practice and it is our intent to have it govern all of our policies. It teaches that God created the human race as one race. History, reality and Scripture affirm that in that act of creation was the potential for great diversity, manifested today by the remarkable racial and cultural diversity of humanity. Scripture also teaches that this beautiful, God-caused and sustained diversity is divinely intended to incline mankind to seek the Lord and depend on Him for salvation from sin (Acts 17:24–28).

The true unity of humanity is found only through faith in Christ alone for salvation from sin—in contrast to the superficial unity found in humanistic philosophies or political points of view. For those made new in Christ, all sinful social, cultural and racial barriers are erased (Colossians 3:11), allowing the beauty of redeemed human unity in diversity to be demonstrated through the Church.

The Christian is set free by Christ’s redeeming grace to love God fully and to love his neighbor as himself, regardless of his neighbor’s race or culture. As believers, we demonstrate our love for others first by presenting Christ our Great Savior to every person, irrespective of race, culture, or national origin. This we do in obedience to Christ’s final command to proclaim the Gospel to all men (Matthew 28:19–20). As believers we are also committed to demonstrating the love of Christ daily in our relationships with others, disregarding the economic, cultural and racial divisions invented by sinful humanity (Luke 10:25–37; James 2:1–13).

Bob Jones University has existed since 1927 as a private Christian institution of higher learning for the purpose of helping young men and women cultivate a biblical worldview, represent Christ and His Gospel to others, and glorify God in every dimension of life.

BJU’s history has been chiefly characterized by striving to achieve those goals; but like any human institution, we have failures as well. For almost two centuries American Christianity, including BJU in its early stages, was characterized by the segregationist ethos of American culture. Consequently, for far too long, we allowed institutional policies regarding race to be shaped more directly by that ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures. We conformed to the culture rather than provide a clear Christian counterpoint to it.

In so doing, we failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry. Though no known antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a personal level have ever been tolerated on our campus, we allowed institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful.

On national television in March 2000, Bob Jones III, who was the university’s president until 2005, stated that BJU was wrong in not admitting African-American students before 1971, which sadly was a common practice of both public and private universities in the years prior to that time. On the same program, he announced the lifting of the University’s policy against interracial dating.

Our sincere desire is to exhibit a truly Christlike spirit and biblical position in these areas. Today, Bob Jones University enrolls students from all 50 states and nearly 50 countries, representing various ethnicities and cultures. The University solicits financial support for two scholarship funds for minority applicants, and the administration is committed to maintaining on the campus the racial and cultural diversity and harmony characteristic of the true Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

Please Reconcile: What this is about

Joy McCarnan wrote the note I really wanted to write regarding the letter over at http://www.please-reconcile.org/. Rather than try to rewrite what she has already so eloquently said, I asked her if I could just copy her post here. The original is at her blog, karagraphy.

I rejoice and cringe at this excerpt from the 2006 Together for the Gospel statement of Affirmations and Denials (Article XVII). Thabiti Anyabwile cited these words in his T4G’08 sermon that I recently recommended, Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church:

We affirm that God calls his people to display his glory in the reconciliation of the nations within the Church, and that God’s pleasure in this reconciliation is evident in the gathering of believers from every tongue and tribe and people and nation. We acknowledge that the staggering magnitude of injustice against African-Americans in the name of the Gospel presents a special opportunity for displaying the repentance, forgiveness, and restoration promised in the Gospel. We further affirm that evangelical Christianity in America bears a unique responsibility to demonstrate this reconciliation with our African-American brothers and sisters.

We deny that any church can accept racial prejudice, discrimination, or division without betraying the Gospel.

My skeptical fellow-alumni who hold views similar to mine about the ungodliness that comprises racism, about the private interpretations and cruddy exegesis that spawn ungodly racist theology, and about the ungodly shame it is to "sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate"--those who hold these views in common with me, yet who refuse to have anything to do with this open letter soon to be presented to the administration of Bob Jones University--this note’s for you. (Some of you may've already read my verbose, if not so eloquent, signature.) Now I want to answer some questions I’ve been asked since I signed on. And then, I think you already know what ONE question I still am asking you--I’ll ask it again.

Please note that the site's FAQs page would be very helpful for those who still have questions.

1. You have asked me why a public letter is a legitimate approach. I have answered that, for years, members of the administration have been pled with and confronted privately by fellow-administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends --yet have apparently dismissed these attempts as insubstantial, anti-Scriptural, over-reactionary, disloyal, or unimportant. Whatever the rationale, previous efforts have gone unheeded. As an institution, BJU’s past racist posture and policies have become what put BJU on the map. The stories have had time to pass down a couple of generations and to wrap around the globe. To say that BJU’s reputation for sinful attitudes and actions against minority ethnicities is widely-known and even more widely rumored is to understate grossly the reality. The ramifications of this poor testimony (including its ongoing diminishing of the Gospel) are still on the rampage. Especially when news of the damage done is already so publicly published, the normal parameters of biblical "due process" (as seen within an ecclesiastical context in Matthew 5, Matthew 18, Galatians 6, etc.) become difficult to navigate in the context of a para-church organization whose leaders have subjected themselves to ecclesiastical accountability only in varying degrees and in varying relationships. Other approaches have been tried. The mess is a public one and no less messy for all the fuss it’s stirred up over the years. This, an open letter from a coalition of likeminded and loving alumni, IS the best next step.

2. You have asked me what possible good could come of alumni’s calling further attention to BJU’s past failures. A family’s dirty laundry is embarrassing, and it is never a fair or whole representation of the family itself. But it can’t go on hanging out forever, and the lingering stench of it prevents a permanent cover-up. Love covers a multitude of evils, but family members do one another injustice (and Christians do Christ’s Gospel an injustice) when we turn a blind eye to unrepented-of sin, including the sinfulness of refusing to acknowledge sin or to attempt to make amends. Some might argue that "it’s not my place" (as a plebeian nobody, as a woman, etc.). Others (pastors and so forth) "whose place it might be" may argue that they don’t want to abuse their positions of influence or speak on behalf of their congregations. But--like it or not, cognizant or not--I made a statement of individual assent when I chose to attend BJU. And I made a promise of individual responsibility when I left BJU with my degrees in hand. It is my duty to say something. The pledge we made upon graduation is actually one thing that very much compels me to get behind what some have called a "disrespectful" and "pointless" cause. The pledge was NOT to keep BJU from changing per se; in fact, part of the pledge was that we would do the best within our power to confront the university when we find it to be in known error, and that we would do our best either to see error righted OR else to see to it that the university shuts its doors! An interpretation of that pledge as merely preventive of change is in itself an egregious misunderstanding of the point for which the pledge exists. I can completely identify with the sadness you might feel and the regret that people we love and admire (godly people!) may be disappointed or hurt by this letter. But the letter was written truthfully and faithfully and lovingly--with an overarching commitment to God and God's people in mind. Better are the wounds of a faithful friend than the embrace of an enemy.

3. You have asked me (seeing as I’m so enthusiastically on board the “racial reconciliation” bandwagon now) how I went to BJU in good conscience and how it could be that I said nothing at the time. Personally, I can plead “ignorant white girl” to some extent because I was largely unaware of what had gone on and what was still going on during my years at BJU. I was not cool enough to be looped into the circles of the “elite” during my undergrad years, and I had few occasions to mingle with the few minority “poster children” because everybody wanted a piece of them. They were popular novelties, and I wasn’t therefore privy to their more private stories of the prices they paid, the remarks that scathed, the emotions they felt as they endured the reconstruction of their cultural backgrounds and watched their unique identities forcibly lumped into differentness/discrimination or melted into sameness/assimilation. For non-minority ethnicities to generalize that "racism wasn't that bad when I was there" or "racism's not happening now" or "everybody's blowing this out of proportion" is poor reasoning and presumptuous thinking! How can Caucasians pontificate about what life was like behind the scenes or in the P.O. boxes of the "others"? This is where our liberal arts education ought to come in handy--thinking through what we say, recognizing and dismissing false syllogisms and groupthink ideologies. What little racism I did hear about, I failed to recognize for what it was. I never researched or verified. I pooh-poohed. I procrastinated. I dismissed. I skeptically speculated about the motives behind complaints. And I would have to say that my understanding of the Gospel has morphed dramatically in the last ten years to the point where I am only now beginning to see how gravely it’s been trampled upon. Tim and Rebecca and Jon and Beth and others who helped to draft this letter have gifts of articulation that many of us do not. They have compiled the documentation. They have collated the thoughts of countless alumni (since we know that those of you who think this way must number far more than 500). I wish I had been on the bandwagon sooner, but the fact that I am only just now getting on doesn’t invalidate the cause of racial reconciliation.

4. You have asked me whether I have time to pour into defending and promoting and praying over this campaign. Frankly, I don’t; and neither did anyone else involved. The few hours I have invested in it will not be enough, but I don’t regret what I and others have spent. It should’ve been more; it may’ve been more if more of you had taken time out to read and consider more seriously, earlier on. I regret that I didn’t have more time, and I regret that more of us didn’t use the time we had.

5. You have asked me how a public statement of apology and resolve from BJU could possibly NOT be received as too little, too late. For one thing, I’ll reiterate that the end--whatever comes of this--does not determine the validity of the cause, and a projected negative outcome could not absolve me of the responsibility to join the effort that the folks who put together www.please-reconcile.org initiated. The Gospel has been publicly undermined, and this is a chance to broadcast a just-as-public declaration of genuine regret for the past and God-focused, others-conscious resolve for the future. The media’s/public-access perception of the reality (whether real or perceived reality) is precisely what this plea for a counteractive statement is all about. The media’s/public-access documentation of how the university currently stands (if indeed it has moved positions and would refute racist attitudes now) and of why it currently stand there (if indeed the previous rationale has been vanquished) ought to be just as public in scope and just as accessible as the public documentation available to the contrary. Sure, it may very well be "too little, too late." A public statement of apology could never begin to make literal amends for the wrongs done. But "too little, too late" does not amount to a legitimate reason to continue skirting the issue. It is pretty literally clear in the Bible that racism and racist transgressions against people are blatantly AGAINST God’s Word to us, and that calling for demonstrations of humility and grace and love and faithfulness is calling for something far more in tune with God's character and commands. For the university’s administration to put itself forward in an act of willing vulnerability and humility to say "we were wrong; please forgive us" would do only good for the testimony of Jesus Christ, would do only good for the testimony of the university, and would do only good for the Church. I can’t think of one bad thing it would accomplish!

Again: Racist principles supposedly derived from God’s Word, no matter how faithfully desired or sincerely held, are indefensible when they tread all over God's glory and God's people and God's agenda as laid out clearly in black and white in God’s Word! Our allegiance to those latter causes--God's clear self-revelations of His own character, God's clear mandates for how to treat one another, especially one another in the household of faith!--ought to take precedence over lesser allegiances. I am profoundly grateful for my alma mater, but I do not "stand firm with the university" across the board. This is definitely an instance where the university is best served by alumni who are willing to be faithful to causes greater than the university.

So, yeah. That one question I have for those who still doubt that lasting good could possibly come of a plea like the one detailed on www.please-reconcile.org, here goes: Have you ever actually, personally, thoughtfully read the contents of that website?

First cast out the beam.

This morning I visited a church here in the west suburbs and heard a sermon that really jarred me. The preacher spoke on original sin, from Romans 5:12-14.

He pointed out that when we are confronted with the evilness of human nature, we tend to shy away from it. We don’t want to be confronted with it. It makes us uncomfortable. We even attack people who bring it to our attention. When victims of atrocities come forward, they are often shunned for making accusations—we don’t want to hear these things, they don’t concern us. Either we blame the victim, or we try to distance ourselves from the situation (They’re the perpetrators—I have nothing to do with this!). Neither of these reactions admits the basic flaw that philosophy has suffered from for centuries (since Genesis 3?): We are evil. Not they, not our surroundings. We.

And I recognized something. I’ve been involved in an effort to draft a letter to my alma mater in support of a statement that their policies and (more importantly) their teachings on race were wrong. God has blessed this effort. Through prayer and contemplation, and a lot of input from many different people, a letter was drafted that I really believe reflects the sincere support, gratitude, and conviction we wanted to convey. Almost 500 students and alumni have signed it.

While I’ve been involved in this effort, I have had a lot of occasions to be confronted with evil. Some of the words and actions that evidenced racism at the university were truly hateful and hard to reconcile with respect for another being created in the image of God. While some of the people who have written us to oppose this letter on various grounds are sincere and kind, others have attacked us with a viciousness that surprised me. Some believe the university was right in its stand against integration. Others just label us “worldly liberals,” or assume we are disrespectful punks looking for trouble. And among those who both oppose and support the letter, I have seen heartbreaking ignorance, bitterness, anger, and fear.

In each of these scenarios, my reaction has been to either blame the victim, or to distance myself from the evil. They are racist. They taught error. They have an axe to grind. They are proud. They fear man more than God. Can you hear the self-righteousness?

At Notre Dame we had this cheer we would do at football games: The whole stadium would chant over and over in unison, “WE ARE ND!” You know what? We are Bob Jones University. All of us who are there, went there, taught there, worked there. When people ask me how I could go to a school that stands for something so repugnant as racism, and I answer, “I didn’t know. It wasn’t a big deal. I never saw it,” that’s a cop-out. I am BJU. I was a part of what went on there. I didn’t speak out, I didn’t even see it, even though it was happening to people I knew. I was afraid. I was ignorant. I was angry. It didn’t concern me. When I sign that letter, asking for a statement that BJU was wrong, I am asking for a statement that I was wrong. Well, here it is:

I was wrong.

Stepping back a few feet

A good friend of mine gave me a book recently and wanted to know my reaction to it. The book is Rapture Ready! by Daniel Radosh. From the inside cover flap: "Written with the perfect blend of amusement and respect, Rapture Ready! is an insightful, entertaining, and deeply weird journey through the often hidden world of Christian pop culture. This vast and influential subculture--a $7 billion industry and growing--can no longer be ignored by those who want to understand the social, spiritual, and political aspirations of evangelical Christians."

The book delivers on that promise. Each chapter describes the author's exploration of a different facet of American Christian culture, from Christian bookstores to CCM to Christian theme parks. Radosh, a self-identified liberal New York Humanistic Jew, is self-aware enough to acknowledge that there are nuances of this world that he simply cannot "get" as an outsider, but his insight is often painfully keen:

"The largest subset of Christian gifts is apparel. Christian T-shirts are the uniform in which evangelicals under thirty suit up for battle, and the companies that make them are constantly scrambling to come up with slogans and designs that appeal to today's youth, generally to embarrassing effect: 'God is my DJ'; 'Jesus has skills'; 'I'm like totally saved.' The marginally more ambitious shirts attempt to impart a lesson: 'Life would be so easy if everyone read the manual'; 'Friends don't let friends go to hell'; 'Modest is hottest.' The tangled rationale of that last one--we can persuade girls to dress in a way that does not attract sexual attention by telling them that doing so will attract sexual attention, especially if they wear this form-fitting shirt--begins to hint at the tension in bending Christian messages to pop-culture forms." p. 12.

Radosh raises an obvious question that Christians themselves seem to be too close to see: What is the relationship between the gospel and the medium? Where does one end and the other begin? Is there even a line between them?

I don't know the answer to those questions, but I have to wonder whether in the context of the gospel, distinctions between message and medium are irrelevant, or at least futile. I'm no rhetorician (and some of my friends are, so I have to tread lightly here), but it makes sense to me that a "message" addressing fundamental world-view carries with it so many basic assumptions even about media that its very expression begs questions it seeks to answer. I know that sounds vague, but I'm not sure I understand it precisely enough to describe it better. Maybe it can be likened to cross-cultural communication barriers: two people speaking the same language from different backgrounds and with different life experiences attach different assumptions and nuances to words, so that they can carry on a whole conversation and each come away thinking that they understood each other, but have entirely different ideas of what the conversation was about.

The conversation Christians are trying to have with nonchristians, and vice versa, is just like this--the proverbial two ships passing in the night. Radosh starts to see the distance between the ships when he chats with a fan at a Frank Peretti book-signing:

"'What do you think of the villains in his books?' I braced myself for a blast of vitriol.

'I think he has a little bit of mercy towards them. He doesn't really paint them as totally evil.'

What?

'It's the perspective he brings,' Terri explained. 'They just, you know, are pawns. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers.'

I had been reading Peretti through secular eyes. To a Christian, the dastardly liberals are not so much villains as victims. It's not their fault they're possessed by demons. But if I felt a slight diminishing of hostility, I also saw any hope of mutual accommodation go up in a blast of sulfurous smoke. It may shock Peretti, but these days, much of what liberals really anguish about behind closed doors is how to find common ground with people of faith. And now I realized that for at least some people, common ground will never be possible because they don't object to specific ideas that can be reframed or adjusted. They object to Satan, whose bidding we are doing. They may not hate us--they may believe they love us--but they hate him, and they won't negotiate with him either. We want to persuade them, reason with them, listen to them, and accommodate them. They want to save us. It's not even the same playing field." p. 110-111.

If you've ever wondered what "we" look like to "them," this book is my number one recommendation. If you haven't, well, you should. You might learn something.

HT to Eric G. for the book. Thanks a ton. So far I think it's spot-on.

Grab a paddle.

From WNDU:

New all time records were set for rainfall this weekend in Michiana:

Friday rain: 0.23"

Saturday rain: 6.58" (all-time record....the rainiest day ever!)

Sunday rain: 4.07" (record for the date)

3 Day total: 10.88" (this beats the rainiest month ever...in 3 days!)

September rain so far: 13.65" (record for any month...the rainiest month ever)

The old monthly record for South Bend was June of 1993 when we had 10.86" of rain. We have now obliterated that number in the first 14 days of September, 2008. But, the incredible part is that we beat the old record in only 3 days...Sept. 12, 13, 14, 2008.

Props to the Fighting Irish for pulling off a very exciting win over Michigan in what turned out to be half a football game and half a mud-wrestling match. You guys are troopers!

It's good to keep them a little peckish.

more music charts

Welcome to Itasca

This weekend was the Weekend of Paint. Buckle your seatbelt for a virtual tour:

The kitchen is no longer an eye-crossing blend of white walls and off-white cabinets and counters. We went for a color called "nutmeg" that we saw in a paint brochure and fell for at first sight. It makes me want to eat something.
The entry hallway no longer looks like the entrance to a sanitarium. Eventually we'll break up that very brown wall with a mirror. The thing on the left wall there is a mail holder Gena picked up in Kyrgyzstan.

The living and dining rooms are mostly sunflower yellow with a dark brown accent wall. I was afraid it would turn out looking like a butterfinger, but it's actually not bad. As a bonus, the brown wall manages to make the very unattractive wall unit air conditioner less conspicuous.

My room is mostly "parchment" with an accent wall in "oatmeal." The cooler tones work well with the Asian theme.
Also I found the perfect frame for this lovely wedding picture of my great-grandparents that I acquired at the recent family reunion. You can't tell from this resolution, but they were a handsome couple. Athena moped through the weekend. She had to get some booster vaccinations on Saturday, and so she was sore and sleepy and just generally miserable. I think she's back up to speed today, judging by the way she was tearing around the house this morning.

A scene often repeated

more cat pictures

Study Aids for the Desperate

My Evidence prof showed this in class to introduce this particular class of hearsay exceptions. Laugh away, but this is actually the only reason I can remember them. So if you see me singing during the bar exam, you know I'm on a hearsay question.

Andrew Lloyd Webber - Requiem concert - Part 4

This has been my latest study music of choice. Couldn't tell you why. I'm especially fond of the Hosanna, beginning at about 3:00. Who puts a drumset in a Requiem, honestly? (Um... Andrew Lloyd Webber? Who else?) But it works. There's a joyful abandon to it.

T minus 5 days

Pie Jesu

Pie Jesu, qui tollis peccata mundi
dona eis requiem.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi
dona eis requiem sempiternam.

(Merciful Jesus, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest.

O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
grant them eternal rest.)

Share the Road

Bikes are a great way to get around, but South Bend and the surrounding areas could do more to make it less hazardous. Yesterday I biked to Osceola, about 9 miles from my apartment, and encountered not a single bike lane. I'm not above riding on a sidewalk if one is provided and the road is narrow and busy enough, but even the few sidewalks I encountered were in such bad shape I was better off on the road.

Last week a South Bend man on a bike was injured in a hit and run on Cleveland Rd. He died from the injuries on Monday, leaving a wife and four young children.

I hope his death wakes up locals to the need for better bike infrastructure, since it is a fairly popular form of transportation around here. Meanwhile, I think it's time I stop putting off the purchase of a helmet.

Fun with herbs

One of my favorite things about not winter is fresh herbs, particularly basil. Basil leaves make an excellent garnish on everything from fried eggplant (which I made last Friday) to corn from the frozen veggie section (a regular in my apartment). Once you get used to the full, sweet flavor of the fresh stuff, it's hard to feel the same way about dried basil. The problem with basil, though, is that 40 degrees and a strong breeze will kill it; it doesn't do winters (or even late falls) very well. This summer my basil plant is growing spectacularly (thanks to daily waterings and plenty of full sun), and I was trying to find a way to preserve some of that bounty for the winter. [That's the basil AFTER I cut off about a third of it. Also a zinnia--ain't it cute?] Here's one excellent method I came across:

Gather 3-5 branches of basil, 2-4 stems of fresh mint, a few sprigs of parsley, and a small handful of fresh oregano. Rinse them all,shake dry, and de-stem. Dump all the leaves in a blender and blend on high. Add chopped or crushed garlic to taste. Add extra virgin olive oil and blend until it turns into a paste. Add grated Parmesan cheese and continue to blend. You'll need a lot of cheese-probably at least a cup, and you may need to add some more oil to keep the consistency. I also added a bit of garlic salt, but I think I wouldn't next time. Some people also like pine nuts or other kinds of nuts, but I didn't have any. I'm sure it's good. I've also heard of adding lemon juice.[clockwise from top: parsley, catnip, thyme, oregano, garlic chives]

The resulting pesto is excellent over pasta or on just about any form of carbohydrate you can think of. I mixed mine with some vermicelli and topped it with a few of the cherry tomatoes off my tomato plant. It made an excellent side for the broiled salmon. I poured the leftover pesto into an ice tray. When it's frozen I'll remove it to a freezer bag and in the winter I can just add a cube to a pot of pasta for a taste of fresh summer! I can't wait for my basil plant to regrow so I can make another batch![To the left of the tomato plant is the mint that has crept in from the neighbor's yard. I'm not complaining.]

Pretty pictures

Go treat your eyes to the pictures at Light and high beauty, Brendan's photoblog. Seriously, it's good stuff.

The Best Advocate

I've taken to listening Tim Keller's sermons in the car and at the gym sometimes. Unfortunately they have to be purchased, but they are well worth the money. Lately I've been listening to Keller's series on Hebrews. This excerpt is one I listen to over and over again. I don't think it will ever get old:

When I first became a Christian, I heard of this, that Jesus Christ intercedes for us before the Father, and it was of no comfort to me at all, and one of the reasons was it sounded bizarre. And it was also of no comfort to me, partly because, I think, of some of the ways in which I had seen lawyers profiled in court. And because of what I saw in some of those high profile trials, I really misunderstood what this was all about. And here’s what I thought was happening, and here’s why it wasn’t any comfort to me:

I figured every day Jesus came before the Father with a kind of case load. And He’ll pull out a folder, “Keller.” So He looks up and He says, “Ah, yes, Father, You know all these promises he says he’s made to change and change, and he’s doing it again anyway… But please give him a break. For My sake… Give him one more chance. I know he means well. This one more time, this could be it, and You owe me—I went to Earth and all those things. So, pretty please, I ask for mercy for my client. I throw myself on the mercy of the court.”

And then I expected, I guess, that the Father would say, “Well, all right.”

And here’s the reason why that was of no comfort to me: Because I understood that what Jesus was doing—if that’s the intercessory work of Jesus Christ—spinning to get mercy out of the Father, I thought to myself, how long can He keep that up? Because why wouldn’t one day finally the Father—there’s no particular reason why one day the Father couldn’t just say, “Look, he’s a minister now! It’s too late. I’ve had it—he can’t keep doing things like this.”

But that’s not at all the kind of advocate Jesus is. You see, an effective attorney doesn’t just wheedle and cajole and emotionally manipulate the jury and the judge—sometimes that might work, but actually, frankly, how long can you keep that up? An effective attorney has a case. And according to this passage [Hebrew 7], Jesus Christ is not up there asking for mercy. When you ask for mercy, that means you’ve lost the case. Do you know what He’s up there doing? Look, verse 27 and 28: "Unlike the other high priests who does not need to offer sacrifices day after day first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, rather, He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself.”

This is what Jesus is saying, as it were (it’s metaphorical, but I’ll get to that in a second): “Father, You demand justice. You are a just God. And my friends here, the people on whose behalf I’m speaking, are guilty. But I have made payment—there is my blood—and it would be unjust to get two payments for the same debt. Therefore because I’ve made payment for this debt, I am not here asking for mercy for my brothers and sisters. I am not here asking for mercy—I demand justice. Your very justice, Your very righteousness demands Your complete embrace and acceptance of them throughout eternity.”

That’s an infallible case! The book of Isaiah says that righteousness and justice, the divine justice and righteousness of God is inexorable so that the mountains are like dust in a scale by comparison.