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.