A few new beginnings

Among the other things that are going on in my life right now, I've recently bought the Canon EOS T1i. I've been looking at this camera since it came out but just found it for a steal on craigslist. Rather impulsive, but, as Shannon and Neil know, an impulsive purchase that I've been considering for years. So rather than recount the last couple years of my life, I'm just going to get back into this by posting photos I've taken that I like. Maybe after a little while I'll start to say some things on occasion.

The first photo is of some yellow plum tomatoes that I got the other day at this farmer's market that is about eight blocks or so from my apartment. They're yellow plum tomatoes and aren't nearly so tasty as the sungolds I had a couple weeks back. They sure looked good though, don't they? The second photo is of my local. It's called Garnett's, as you can see. They serve great sandwiches, well priced, basic coffee, and they have a good happy hour with a small but great beer selection. If anyone is in Richmond, give me a call and we'll hit up Garnett's.

The Purpose of the Church, Christmas and Creation

Today I turned in a pretty crappy paper. It was actually really interesting reading for it, but I just didn't devote enough time to it. "Technology, the Bible and the Church." That was the title, so it was about how we in the church should think about technology. I did rock a test this morning though which which made up for not feeling all that great about turning in my paper. I should've probably spent the afternoon studying for my last final of the semester that I will take Monday morning. It's for "E & E," or, Ecclesiology and Eschatology. I've had a really bad attitude about this class. Honestly, it's the only class ever in which I've spent the better part of the hour working on other assignments or working on bibliographies for other classes. Really, get this, we had three quizes on different books that we read and two "paparettes" along with a couple tests. I'm pretty sure that I spent, oh, five hours on the three books for the quizes and a total of one and a half hours on the two papers combined. I got perfect scores on all of them. That's pathetic! Anyway, I'm going to spend the day tomorrow studying for that final. I really am. I just don't want to do it right now.

It's supposed to snow tonight. That should nice.

This evening I went to an advent vespers service and then came home and went through Sufjan Stevens Christmas songbook with one of my new roommates, Neil. I told him that a few of Sufjan's original Christmas songs are going to be sung by my kids and he told me I need a family. I agreed. Oh yeah, I moved. I'm stoked about it. I live just a mile from church and the park and the art museum and a whole lot closer to the Walkers and the Bechtels and other folks. Nate and I have commuted together a few times this week which has been nice. I'm heading over to their house Sunday for a Christmas feast. I love their feasts! Wine and singing and dinner and wine. Good times.

Ok, so I read this from Mere Christinity this evening and really thought that it was a good reminder, so I thought that I would share it:

"It is easy to think that the church has a lot of different objects - education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects - military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in hi own room or digging in his own garden (or getting together for Christmas feasts) - that is what the State is there for...
"In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose."

A connection between lots of drinking and lots of sexual activity? No way!

So I thought that I would share two things that I heard on the way to school this morning on the local college radio, 89.1 “The Wood.” It’s the only St. Louis station that plays any rock that is outside the mainstream, and even then they don’t do such a hot job. The good thing about them is that they have no commercials and they don’t talk too much. Anyway, to the two things that I heard on their short news section.

First, a study came out yesterday that was done at Washington University that says that we now know that there is a connection, a “strong” connection, between those who have a high level of drinking and those who have a high level of sexual activity. It therefore said that if you are someone who is given to drinking you ought to go get yourself checked out for STD’s. Now, personally, I always wondered what universities do with all of the money that they get from charging students 40 grand a year (or something like that; I don’t really know how much it costs to go there), but now we know. They do studies to tell us stuff that we know already. Well, ok, I’m sure they do loads of other good studies, but common! The local bum could have told us that!

Second, and this is a lot more positive, the St Louis government will be taking initiative in the city to promote the National Fatherhood Initiative. This is an initiative to promote the importance of Fathers in the development of families and particularly the health of their children. Good job St Louis.

Turkey

This afternoon I went and picked up leaves in this guys yard that I work for accaisionally. When I got there these turkeys were hangin' out. I don't ever remember seeing wild turkeys, so it's kinda cool for me. I know the image carity isn't very good, but it's the best picture that I got.

A Unifying Meal

Ok, another quote from Leithart's book:

Private dinners in the Greco-Roman world were used to inflate the honor of the patron and frequently displayed social divisions in the arrangement and fare of the meal. Pliny was opposing a common custom when he complained that the host of one banquet and his social equals were given food and wine, while those of lower social status were seated at a seperate table and givven ordinary foor and bad wine.

The Corinthians were, in short, simply following standard custom when they introduced social and other divisions into the meal.

But Paul condemned this "standard custom."

Paul did not permit the Corinthians to organize their festivals like the banquets of Roman aristocrats. He did not allow the rich and powerful to take the head seats at the table. He insisted that the meal of the new city should reflect the civic order of the new city. The meal of the new city manifests the perichoretic unity of the members of the Church in one another, which reflects and participates in the eternal perichoretic koinonia of Father, Son, and Spirit.

Me:

In other words, the Eucharist, the meal of Jesus, is socially subversive in that the Greco-Roman society, and, let's face it, our society, divides people by money, education, family ties. But the gospel of Jesus unites. Those who were prohibited from the table are invited as they find their common bond in their relation to the Triune God rather than how much money they make, school they went to, or...

The Last couple of Weekends

So the last post I just mentioned today. I actually meant to mention the last two weekends while I was at it. They were great! Though I have to say, it kinda messed with my school routine, and the last few days, thought I have spent the time in the library, have been really unsuccessful as far as productive studying goes. Anyway, two weekends ago my older brother, who is one of the greatest guys I've ever known, had a competition for lineman's (which is basically high-power electricians) out in Kansas city. So my dad flew into the Lou and he and I made our way over to KC. It was a fun time. I got a little taste for what Jeremy does for work and I got to hang out with him and my dad. They came back to St Louis with me and spent a couple of days here. I really love those guys. It's hard to get better.

Here's a few pictures from our time in KC:

The next weekend my good friend Patrick was out here for the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Conference. There's nothing really like speading time with someone who really knows you. But I didn't take any pictures - pathetic, huh? - and it's time to go to bed, so that is all I'm going to say about that .

Today's Table

So today is the Lord's Day. I haven't written on this blog about anything that is going on in my life for a long while. Well, since about April. I've just given you (whoever that really is, since I lost any sort of regular reader due to my six month hiatus) some highlights from some "fun" reading that I've been doing. I really don't have the time for any of fun reading except for the first in seven days when I'm commanded to do stuff that is restful. I thought that I might mention what I did today. I do this out of a desire to be encouraging.

This morning I went to church to worship the Triune God. It was glorious, as usual. About ten months ago I started going to Memorial Presbyterian Church, which calls itself "an urban evangelical church seeking to renew the city spiritually, culturally and socially." I loved going to Cornerstone but wanted to join one of the churches that is seeking to the city. Today I went to a couple's house in the church for lunch. It was fantastic! We sat down at the table at about 2:00 and got up at 5:15 - not that I was timing it or anything, i just have a good clock in my head. This was a really wonderful time of eating delicious food (Jenny made pumpkin lasagna, which was really wonderful even though I wasn't expecting it to be all that great) and having great conversation. When I left I made my way over to Crossroads Fellowship where my good friend Nate Walker was going to give the sermon for the evening worship. Crossroad's evening sermons this month are on a theology of food. He had some great things to say and did a really wonderful job at explaining some helpful things for people to understand. There are two holy places in the house, he said, the bedroom and the dinner table. It's in the bedroom where the husband and the wife show that they are not just friends or not just family members or not just brothers and sisters in Christ, but they are one body as husband and wife. It's at the dinner table where people move from acquaintance to friends. One is exclusive while the other is inclusive. I think that I experienced the truth of this today. It's incredible what having a meal with someone does to the relationship between the people that have the meal together. I don't what having the meal this afternoon did for my hosts, but for me it made me feel more like a part of Memorial, glad to be part of the body of Christ, and interested in how Gary is doing in his new job. I moved from someone who care from a distance to someone who cares from across the table. I feel closer and it feels right.

We are not invited into one of the holy places of the house, nor should we be. It has it has its own way of building people together, which is limited to the one that said "I do" to the other. But the dinner table is open. I was one who was blessed today to be invited to sit around one of the holy places of another's house, and it encouraged me to be more intentional in having people join me in the formative act of eating.

Up above is a painting by Mattise entitled "Dinner Table."

Two quotes just because I read them today and I think that Chesterton is brilliant:

"A man's soul is as full of voices as a forest; there are ten thousand tongues there like all the tongues of the trees: fancies, follies, memories, madness, mysterious fears, and more mysterious hopes. All the settlement and sane government of life consists in coming to the conclusion that some of those voices have authority and others not."

"A man dying for his country does not talk as if local preferences could change. Leinidas does not say, 'In my present mood, I prefer Sparta to Persia.' William Tell does not remark, 'The Swiss civilization, so far as I can yet see, is superior t othe Austrian.' When men are making commonwealths, they talk in terms of absolute, and so they do when they are making (however unconciously) thsoe smaller commonwealths which are called families."

Both of these come from his essay "Questions of Divorce," found in The Uses of Diversity, which is the best collection of his essays that I've read.