Eight Random Things

Mark at Pseudo-Polymath tagged me with the "8 random things meme". The rules:

1. Let others know who tagged you.
   
2. Players post 8 random facts about themselves.
   
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules with their 8 facts.
   
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.

So here are my 8 random facts:

1. I'm way too fond of my fig tree. Early July is always full of fresh figs, and I've already put back a good supply of fig jam for this coming year. I don't even eat store-bought jam anymore.
2. When I was a kid, my first TV-star crush was on Col. Hogan from Hogan's Heroes. Later I came to think that Newkirk was a much more interesting character.
3. I'm fond of Jewish mysticism. I loved Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath. (Heschel was Professor of Ethics and Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.) In mysticism, Jewish thought often approaches Messianic and "Trinitarian" themes in an indirect way that Christians would recognize as the native soil from which grew Christianity's understanding of God and of Messiah as the Incarnate Torah.
4. I've been known to use guacamole and baklava as proofs of God's goodness. (I heard later that Ben Franklin used beer as proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.)
5. I have my kitchen and living room decorated to look like I'm outdoors because I'm not an indoor person. The tops of 4 consecutive bookshelves are lined with pine cones, the wallpaper border has seagulls flying overhead against a partly cloudy sky ...
6. No matter how many bookshelves I get, it seems like I never have enough room for all of my books.
7. Although most of my books are either theology, history or philosophy, I have read all 6 (so far) Harry Potter books, all 13 Lemony Snicket books, and all 54 Animorphs books with my kiddos. And I liked them all. And yes, I'm getting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the day it comes out.
8. I enjoy embroidery as a creative outlet. My favorite piece that I've done so far is cattails in a marsh up (done on the edge of a pillowcase).

Who to tag? Some people I'd like to tag have mentioned they don't usually do memes *(though I'd be glad if you played). Some of my blogging friends have very serious blogs where a meme might seem out of place (though again I'd be glad if any of you played). A few people have already played, and a couple of people I'd like to tag are out of pocket for vacation. So if you're on my blogroll and I didn't tag you, it's because I think you fall into the categories above. If I'm wrong on that, consider yourself tagged. People I'm officially tagging:

1. Jeff Pinyan
2. Dan and Elle
3. Codepoke
4. Proclaiming Softly
5. Barb the Evil Genius
6. Bryce Wandrey
7. Singing Owl
8. Kansas Bob

Why I Like Icons

I've always been an admirer of art. The icon pictured here hangs on my bedroom wall. I bought it at the local Eastern Orthodox church's annual festival a few years back. I have a couple of other small icons as well, beautiful icons of the creation.

Mark at Pseudo-Polymath has been discussing icons, among other things. Protestants have not disowned religious art completely, but religious art certainly holds a much smaller place in Protestantism. Each of the different major groups in Christianity have different artistic styles for devotional artwork. Protestants seem to specialize in pastel pastoral scenes. Roman Cathlolics tend to specialize in the bare-chest/heart revealed artwork. And here I will give the Eastern Orthodox their due, I think they do the best at sacred visual art. They show little interest in realism; the holy cannot be directly drawn so realism does not help in representing it. But icons have been made of nearly every major scene in the Bible, carefully crafted so each color, each hand position, each element of the picture carries theological weight. The various elements of the drawing have been discussed and studied and have taken traditional forms over the centuries. The traditional forms are well-developed so that if you see Peter in one icon, you can easily recognize Peter in the next icon, even when drawn by another artist in another nation in another century. This allows a tremendous community and rich tradition within the artwork that is not really available when each artist re-imagines what each person looks like or how each building might have looked. This standardization has freed the artist from decisions about such details and allowed the artist to focus on communicating the holy. Some of the Eastern Orthodox icons are breathtakingly beautiful. And the range and variety of icons available is extensive. If you had to find Protestant renditions of every major scene in the New Testament, it might take some time and still be incomplete; for those you did find, the representations of certain people might not be recognizable from one artist's conception to the next. If you had to find Eastern Orthodox renditions of every major scene in the New Testament or likely even the entire Bible (along with parables and picturesque sayings), you could contact any of the major carriers of icons and place your orders and hope you had enough wall space for them all. The breadth of material covered is impressive.

I'm aware of the objection that Eastern Orthodox icons show no innovation in style, that they do not allow the artist much range or freedom, that the basic forms and even the representation of certain scenes may not have changed for a thousand years. To me, that's almost like complaining that the Psalms are poems that rely heavily on standard themes and internal parallelism; that's half their charm and all of their claim to unity. It's what creates the artistic impression of belonging to a set, representing a single vision of the world where they communicate with each other, grow and build from each other, each forming the background to the next. The unbrokenness of the tradition and style across many nations and many centuries has been the key to creating that unique richness of the icon tradition.

Icons and Devotion
I find icons useful in devotions in the same way that visualizing a scene from Scripture can be useful in devotions. A good set of icons can easily serve as a Bible for someone who cannot read or who does not have a Bible immediately available. They can serve as a focus for pondering Scripture, for meditating, for prayer. The "prayer" part may make some people uncomfortable. On occasions when I look at an icon while praying, I'm certainly not praying to the icon; the icon is simply useful in helping me focus on prayer. Neither would I choose to look at an icon while praying every time that I pray. It's simply helpful, an aid to devotion. And when visiting sites around the confessional Lutheran blogroll, I notice a good number of other Lutherans showing their appreciation for Eastern Orthodox icons.

Icons and Veneration
I've been to Eastern Orthodox worship services where the icons are venerated. That is to say, a line forms and each person is expected to join a line and kiss the icon. As a visitor, I've always been free to pass. And looking in from the outside, it feels as if here the Eastern Orthodox may have crossed a line. It's not the line of idolatry; they do not honor the pictures in their own right, but as visually helpful stand-ins for the realities they represent. The icons are not idols and are not used as such. The reason that I dislike the veneration of icons has nothing to do with any suspicion of idolatry. No, the reason that I dislike the veneration of icons is that it takes something which probably should be an acceptable practice (someone honoring the memory of one of the apostles by venerating their icon) and turns it into a commended practice, something very close to obligatory. There is a suspicion among the Orthodox that those who do not use icons in some sense dishonor the Incarnation in which the Word of God condescended to become visible and therefore representable in art. While it is probably helpful to almost any Christian to see icons, it does not follow that it is helpful to everyone to venerate icons, less still that it should be required. And there is an unfortunate after-effect to the ancient disputes over the place of art in the Christian community. If a thing has been disputed and has fought for acceptance, it is common afterwards that this view sees itself as "defeating" the alternative. A view which once fought to be permissible, after earning its rightful place, now increasingly sees itself as mandatory and obligatory. That is the perception I have of Eastern Orthodox veneration of icons, of a practice whose hard-fought fight for acceptance has eventually been interpreted as a something close to a mandate.

Icons and the Church Universal
If you have ever been inside an Eastern Orthodox sanctuary, you will have seen that each church has a collection of icons from the large and prominently-displayed ones of Christ to less large but still prominent ones of the apostles and the holy family and John the Baptist, and on to other icons representing the prophets of Israel and other people who have a key place in the history of the church. In such a setting, it is far easier to remember that we are part of a larger community, that there is an unbroken chain from Abraham, from Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah, through Christ, to Peter and James and John, and down to our age. It is easier to remember the whole sweep of church history, the great cloud of witnesses, the saints triumphant, when it is represented before your eyes with the exact point of calling it to mind. In such a setting it is much easier to recognize ourselves in living community with the church universal, in fellowship with the believers of all ages.

Bono's Acceptance Speech at the NAACP: Transcript

See the video at the Thinklings, it's much better as video than as transcript. But it's good enough to be quoted, so it needs a transcript. I typed the transcript myself so let me know if you see any corrections that need to be made. I numbered the paragraphs for just one reason: so I could tell you, maybe you can skip paragraph #1 (possibly) without missing too much, but by the time you get to #7 you'll be hearing one of the more stirring Christian speeches of our generation. If you don't have time for the video, you should at least know that the audience gave him an impromptu standing ovation. I've italicized the part that had the audience spring to their feet -- in case it wasn't obvious.

Bono’s Acceptance Speech 2007 NAACP Image Awards
Bono Accepts NAACP Chairman’s Award
March 2, 2007

1. Wow. Shee! Tyra Banks you are gorgeous! I was a finalist in Ireland’s Next Top Model. I look up to you. Literally. You’re beautiful. You’re beautiful too. I of course am so truly humbled to share the stage with the great Julian Bond. Just, wow. Cool customer. I’m also – you know, when people talk about the greatness of America, I just think of the NAACP, that what I think of – it genuinely comes to my head. And I’m also honored to be on the same stage as the other honorees, Sold Out, Bill Cosby, Prince. So cool, so cool.

2. See, I grew up in Ireland, and when I grew up, Ireland was divided along religious lines, sectarian lines. Young people like me were parched for the vision that poured out of pulpits of Black America. And the vision of a Black reverend from Atlanta, a man who refused to hate because he knew love would do a better job. These ideas travel, you know, and they reached me clear as any tune and lodged in my brain like a song, I couldn’t shake that. This is Ireland in the 70’s growing up, people like me looked across the ocean to the NAACP. And I’m here tonight and (?) feels good, feels very very good.

3. Well today the world looks again to the NAACP. We need the community that taught the world about civil rights to teach it something about human rights. Yeah! I’m talking about the right to live like a human, the right to live period. Those are the stakes in Africa right now. Five and a half thousand Africans dying every day of AIDS, a preventable, treatable disease. Nearly a million Africans most of them children dying every year from malaria. Death by mosquito bite. This is not about charity, as you know here in this room. This is about justice, it’s about justice and equality.

4. Now I know that America hasn’t solved all of its problems and I know AIDS is still killing people right here in America, and I know the hardest hit are African-Americans, many of them young women. Today at a church in Oakland, I went to see such extraordinary people with this lioness here, Barbara Lee, took me around and with her pastor J. Alfred Smith – and may I say that it was the poetry and the righteous anger of the Black church that was such an inspiration to me, a very white, almost pink, Irish man growing up in Dublin.

5. This is true religion. True religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedom. “Love thy neighbor” is not a piece of advice, it’s a command. And that means in the global village we’re going to have to start loving a whole lot more people, that’s what that means. That’s right. “His truth is marching on.”

6. Two million Americans have signed up to the One campaign to make poverty history. Tonight the NAACP is signing up to work with us, and so can you. “His truth is marching on.” Because where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.

7. And to those in the church who still sit in judgment on the AIDS emergency, let me climb into the pulpit for just one moment. Because whatever thoughts we have about God, who He is, or even if God exists, most will agree that God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives. God is under the rubble in the cries we hear during wartime. God, my friends, is with the poor. And God is with us if we are with them.

8. This is not a burden, this is an adventure. Don’t let anyone tell you it cannot be done. We can be the generation that ends extreme poverty.

9. Thank you.

Posada: Mary and Joseph's Journey

The posada is a centuries-old New World Christmas tradition with figurines of the holy family being housed in a new home in the community each night. Traditionally done as a novena starting on December 16th, it has been been expanded and adapted for on-line use. Tonight I am hosting the holy couple on their way.

---

"No room, no room. Sorry, try somewhere else." God has been hearing that from the dawn of humanity. So have all kinds of strangers in need. Tonight, let me be glad that God takes time for us, and welcomes us. May we all have the heart of God and the Spirit of God.

Take care & God bless

---

Mary and Joseph's hosts
Yesterday Anne Gogh
Tomorrow Dave

Whole Chain:
Mon 04 Dec Chris Munroe aka Desert Pastor
Tue 05 Dec Jem Clines
Wed 06 Dec Alistair
Thu 07 Dec Lydia
Fri 08 Dec Jennie Swanson
Sat 09 Dec Psalmist
Sun 10 Dec Dr Platypus
Mon 11 Dec Sally Coleman
Tue 12 Dec Jim Palmer
Wed 13 Dec Anne Gogh
Thu 14 Dec Weekend Fisher
Fri 15 Dec Dave
Sat 16 Dec John Cooper
Sun 17 Dec Sue Wallace at Abbess of Visions
Mon 18 Dec Lucas
Tue 19 Dec Joanna at Keeping Feet
Wed 20 Dec Adrian at Emerging Church info.
Thu 21 Dec Ian Mobsy at Mootblog
Fri 22 Dec Bob Carlton
Sat 23 Dec Chelley at Chelley's Teapot
Sun 24 Dec Abbey Nous

Community and Love of Neighbor

If loving our neighbor is our #2 priority in Christian service, how are we doing? Dan over at Cerulean Sanctum has been blogging about community. Because I think it's a worthwhile topic, I'll pick up on it here. My main focus is on how our choices of where to live affect our efforts to love our neighbors and our families, and what message we send if we do not know our neighbors.

Why Move?
Have you ever moved from one town to another? People do it all the time. Sometimes we move for family, sometimes for job or money, sometimes for education or other reasons. But if we move for job and money, that says something about our priorities in life. Are friends expendable? What about family? Sometimes we've done so badly at healing old wounds that we'd almost like to get away. Is moving a polite excuse to abandon a messy cleanup job in the family? How close is that to abandonment?

I am not saying that moving is always bad; but on some occasions it is bad, ordering our lives around money or prestige, and we shy away from facing that honestly. Whether moving is good or bad in a certain situation, it is always a disruption to our lives and the lives of everyone who cares about us where we are. That should be weighed as a legitimate consideration. "I can make new friends" is fairly dismissive of the old ones and whether they really mattered to us. Some moves come uncomfortably close to saying "My career is more important than the people I know." It doesn't always mean that, of course; but sometimes it does. As Christians, we say love of money or prestige doesn't call the shots in our lives ... but does it?

Community
Have you ever read about places where everybody knows everybody, and the families have known each other for generations? It's because they stayed put for generations. I hear from people who have lived in those places that they are definitely not a cure-all for society's problems, so don't take me wrong there. But there is a depth of caring, of knowing when your neighbor is distressed, that is much easier in a community where people know each other.

Try a thought experiment: imagine that your children grow up and start families and live within walking distance of where they grew up. Imagine you stay in the same neighborhood. Imagine that everyone in the neighborhood has children who, when grown, make their own home in the same neighborhood, and encourage their children to do the same. Fifty years from now, there would be a real community in that neighborhood. Everybody would know everybody, and would have known each other from time immemorial as far as the youngest generation was aware. Putting down roots means to stop moving. Belonging in a place means to have been there and made it home. Loving your neighbor involves knowing your neighbor. That's easier with time and continuity.

Of Gnats and Camels
I think, in trying to transform our lives, renewing our minds in the image of Christ, we generally start small. Sensing our lives' brokenness, a certain percentage of people become obsessive about rooting out sins, and typically this seems to be obsessive about rooting out little sins, or things that may not be sins in the first place. Smoking, cardplaying, gambling, makeup -- I would compare this fixation on small things to someone who buys a home that's a fixer-upper, and begins by vacuuming and dusting. There's nothing wrong with vacuuming and dusting; nothing wrong with chasing after small problems ... unless it's keeping us from taking care of bigger problems.

Sooner or later, bigger problems come to light. Unkindness to various relatives, impatience, resentment, arrogance, coldness, bad self-control, apathy, short-temperedness, even an unwarranted or aloof distance from those who might hope for our kindness, these are the next things that often catch our eye as needing our attention. After we have the small things in our lives in order and we're casting around for more we can do, there is a nasty temptation to overlook the deeper problems in our own lives and settle on fixing someone else's sins instead. We easily recognize Jesus' comments about the person with a log in one eye trying to take a mote out of someone else's eye. We are told to first take the log out of our own eye, first reconcile with our brother, and remember God's desire for our mercy towards each other.

Hospitality
Loving our neighbors is our #2 priority in service, right behind love of God -- and it's a necessary extension of loving God. I'd like to make love of neighbor higher on my own priority list. I think the New Testament writers were correct to put hospitality as one of the signs of a true community leader and a true servant of Christ. We have to create the occasions where we're going to get a chance to know our neighbor. And it's good to remember that we're called to love and serve them as much as we are to let them know about Christ; in fact serving and honestly caring are probably the best "show me" evangelism.

For some innovative ideas along those lines, if you're not familiar with Dawn Treader's Pigfests, those are worth a read.

The Point
I'm only saying one obvious thing here: Our love for our families and neighbors includes remaining (or becoming) a part of their lives. Our choice of where to live matters for that. Of course we're called to make all people our family and treat all people as neighbors. But that's no excuse for us to treat the ones we know as if they did not matter. Just the opposite: it's reason for us to treat the ones we know that much better.

Christian Carnival #138

Christian Carnival #138 is up at Thoughts of a Gyrovague.

My favorites of the week (in the order in which I happened to find them again):

• Confession is Good for the Soul at A View From Her
• The Saints Wear Prada Too at Every Thought Captive
• The Martyrs of Memphis, Tennessee (actually Christians who died serving the ill in an epidemic more than proper martyrs) at From the Anchor Hold.

Are you a church member?

Dr. Pursiful has some refreshingly honest comments about church membership when he reviews something he was sorely tempted to say when a woman called him to determine whether she was still a church member:

"I can have our church clerk examine the membership roll and determine whether your name is present, but theologically I can tell you that in no meaningful sense are you a part of this church family. I have been the pastor here for several months. I did not recognize your name and you did not know mine. By your own admission you have not attended here in quite a while, and you are not on our list of homebound members. No, Mrs. _____. Biblically speaking, you are not a member of this church, regardless of what our official rolls may say.”

I'm with him in not knowing whether it would have been the right thing or the wrong thing to say to the woman at the time, but he does have a point. That one left me laughing.

Afterthoughts ...
I wonder if church membership rolls should have a "lost sheep" category ...

Christian Carnival 137

Christian Carnival 137 is up at Brain Cramps for God. My favorite post this time around: A book review, of all things, by Tom Gilson of Thinking Christian on A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature. I don't remember ever linking a book review before ... but the book has an interesting approach.

Tagged! "One Book" Meme

I hadn't been going to play the "one book" game, but then Dr. P. tagged me and ... I may be lazy but I'm not a complete spoilsport. By the way Dr. P. has moved from Disert Paths to a new spot, if you see "Dr. Platypus" in my blogroll now, that's still him. I'm adopting a modification to the meme that came to me well recommended: don't answer 'the Bible' for any question since it's too much of a cop-out.

So here goes:

1. One book that changed your life: The only real answer here is ruled out in the meme ... The distant second: The Icon: Window on the Kingdom by Michel Quenot, translated by "A Carthusian Monk". Why? For the baptism of the imagination, opening doors in my mind.
2. One book you've read more than once: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
3. One book you'd want on a desert island: A blank book and a pen.
4. One book that made you laugh: A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket, and MAD Magazine: Spy vs. Spy series by Antonio Prohias. (So that's more than one. I like books that make me laugh.)
5. One book that made you cry: The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
6. One book you wish had been written: Filling the World by John the Apostle et al.
7. One book you wish had never been written: What if a major world religion had "authoritative Scriptures" written by a "religious leader" who routinely ordered assassinations, raids, and attacks, who was known to order torture of his enemies? What kind of effect would that book have on any area of the world where that book was widely held as holy? And what would it do to the peoples' souls and their moral compass?
8. One book you're currently reading: God Here and Now by Karl Barth; but his sentences are like packs of Ramen noodles ... you know there are only two of them in a pack and they just keep going and going ... and you keep coming back for more, half because it's good and half because you can't very well stop in the middle of a long string like that, can you?
9. One book you've been meaning to read: The Arabian Nights
10. One book you wish you could write: The History of the Astounding Reconciliations and Renewals of Christ's Followers in the 21st Century
11. Now tag five people: Aww, I hate to pick and choose. If you've ever commented on my blog, I'd be glad for you to consider yourself tagged.

A Thinkling Hits A Nail on the Head

Over at Thinklings, De has given a full-length blog piece to a passing comment many of us have made from time to time: Must we Christians be always at each others' throats? Read his thoughts on Christian brotherhood.

Imagine (in your mind, queue up music to "Imagine") ...

Imagine Christendom where those who are best at serving the needy could serve the needy without being told they are neglecting preaching.

Imagine Christendom where those who are best at preaching the good news could preach the good news without being told they are neglecting the needy.

Imagine a body of Christ where the hand did not say to the foot, "I do not need you."

Imagine those of different gifts serving as a team.

St. Paul to the factions in the church

I wonder how much the church in Corinth was like the church today. Fractured. Divided. Some followed this leader and some followed that leader. What is most important: is it speaking in tongues, or knowledge, or giving to the poor? It was like he was looking ahead to our own day.

If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

I think he's talking to all of us.

Carnival #103 is exceptionally good

Christian Carnival #103 is up at Miserere Mei. The carnival has an exceptional number of strong entries so that I had trouble picking a favorite. Maybe people had more time to write, more time to reflect, or more time to savor the holy during the holidays, but this is the best carnival in recent memory for number of high-quality of entries.

Christian Carnival #102

This week's carnival is up at The Secret Life of Gary. My favorite of the week: Touching the Face of God over at Penitent Blogger. Maybe just because I've been reading Coleridge again ...

Christian Art Carnival ... er, Round Up

Awhile back I mentioned starting a Christian Art Carnival, to be posted December 28th. I suppose if I got out of my theological ghetto more often, I'd have known that there are Christian art contests already. Thanks to the kind people who pointed me the right direction. Along the way I made some good discoveries -- not the least of which is that artists are more likely to insist on being paid than bloggers -- but the better finds were in the artwork.

Christian Art Contest
Artists for God already has an art competition which would make a mere carnival superfluous. Some of my personal favorites are 0 A.D. by Isaac Waupio and The Invisible Kingdom by Jason Roberts. You have to click the "Close up" button above the pictures to get a decent view. And IMHO they missed the best pick for winner in Camille Barnes' entry.

But there was more good stuff than just the art competition. I've divided up my finds into popular iconography, noteworthy amateurs, professionals, and miscellany.

Popular Iconography
Besides my own roundup, Matt Stone has been doing a roundup for awhile. He has collections of African icons, Asian icons, Native American icons and a few other categories if you have the time. My favorite of them all was a Madonna and Child by Gary Chu in Hong Kong. This Asian resurrection icon by He Qi is a close second.

I should note that, if you really want African Christian art, nobody beats Vie de Jesus Mafa. The cover page is an African rendition of the Lord's Supper. In honor of Christmas, I'd like to highlight one of the Nativity pictures. Their whole collection is well worth the time.

Noteworthy Amateurs
The blogger Alexandra at All Things Beautiful has a gorgeous original graphic to head her open-thread conversation on the Trinity. It makes my little candle look like my children's fridge art.

Poyema has a modernist / symbolic style.

Those into synergism and symbolism will enjoy Messiah Song over at BAMGallery.

Yvonne Bell also does a fresh take on icons, of which my favorite is "He Took the Cup". She might possibly belong in the professionals category ...

Professionals
Eldona Hamel does some very impressive bronze sculptures.

David Hetland has a beautiful collection of murals with a liturgical emphasis.

John August Swanson's style is more of a nouveau icon approach.

Miscellany
For those who want to bring the art home, Domestic Church has a do-it-yourself Christmas triptych for crayons, children, and the art's ultimate home on your refrigerator. (You have to click on page 1, page 2, and page 3 separately to get the full picture of the triptych.)

For other modern uses of art, there are clipart galleries such as Watton on the Web.

And that's it
If you know of other good sites and artists, please drop me a note.

The Merry Christmas Meme

Darrel Pursiful of Disert Paths has started a "Merry Christmas" meme. He gave me a great Christmas present by way of a very generous review of my blog. He was very lavish with the praise and I'll have to admit that my head was in the clouds until I started trying to think about my next post, still half-finished in the Drafts area. (And Susan, until today I didn't even know you knew I had a blog, thank you for the kind comments.)

He invited me to pass along the Christmas cheer to two other blogs, preferably ones that are smallish and might like a traffic boost. So that means not you or you or even you since you probably have way more traffic than I do and all five of my readers already read your blogs. It's likely enough that the blogs I'm tagging also have more traffic than I do since I don't bother with stats ... but I am tagging: (see next posts)

Merry Christmas Metacrock

Darrel Pursiful tagged me with his new Merry Christmas meme.

Meta is the first friend I made on-line and has been with me through thick and thin for nearly a decade now. Don't let the dyslexic spelling fool you, he's done his homework in apologetics. His Doxa website has an incredible amount of original writings on it, product of Meta's decade or so of active on-line Christian apologetics. Highlights include the resurrection pages, the King Messiah pages, and the historical Jesus pages. His blog, like his website, often delves into new ground and original thought such as his recent post on God's love as the basis for being, motivation for creation, and basis of morality. Awesome post. It needed saying and he said it well. He makes a valuable contribution to the Christian blogosphere.

The celebration continues
You're invited to tag two other bloggers that you enjoy reading and wish them a Merry Christmas with a link from your blog and a comment on theirs.

Merry Christmas Steven H.

Darrel Pursiful tagged me with his new Merry Christmas meme.

Sven first caught my eye back when he was doing some of those on-line quizzes. He put out the theology quizzes that were all the rage for awhile earlier this year. If I had seen a "quiz of the year" award, those would have gotten my vote. He has a great sense of humor, which is probably his strongest suit of all. My favorite of his recent posts shines the spotlight on the theological watchdog phenomenon. He has a passion for honest conversation and writes with earnestness. He's willing to tackle controversial material and willing to stand his ground against pressure-tactics. He has good instincts theologically.

Now, it was not part of the original meme but I thought I'd mention: if I were to really go Christmas-shopping for you (SH), I'd have gotten you A Short History of the Atonement from my favorite Christian book order firm, Eighth Day Books. Why would I recommend it? Because you're obviously interested in the subject and you obviously like to read; natural fit.

The celebration continues
You're invited to tag two other bloggers that you enjoy reading and wish them a Merry Christmas with a link from your blog and a comment on theirs.

Christian Art Carnival

I'd like to see more on-line Christian art in the blogosphere. To that end, I will be hosting a Christian Art Carnival for this season of Advent/Christmas. Entries should be your own work created in the calendar year 2005 and should be related to Christmas. Artwork should be in jpeg or gif files hosted on your own web space (I might not have enough room to host everybody's artwork). Links are due by the end of the day on December 24, 2005 and should be submitted by email to christianartcarnival@yahoo.com. Please use the email subject "Christian Art Carnival Entry" and include the URL of the artwork, your name as you would like it listed, a description if you'd like one to appear with your artwork, copyright/permissions info, or whether public domain.

I will post the Christian Art Carnival at the new Christian Art Carnival blog on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005, God willing. Please no more than one entry per person. Since no prizes are on the table, no other restrictions apply. In the unlikely event of inappropriate submissions, I'll retain the decision on whether to link to a piece in the Carnival.

All you artists out there, hope to see you at the Carnival! If you're friends of an artist, please help spread the word.

Update 12/02/2005
The email address above has been changed to a new email account specifically for the Christian Art Carnival. A new blog has also been created to hold the results, though a link to the Carnival will be posted here.

Fellowship and Fulfillment

Fellowship is a deeply Christian concept. Outside of Tolkien, in modern times there is not much focus on it. But consider this: Without fellowship, a friendship is shallow, a marriage is a failure, a family is a shell; without it, we count our days as empty. Fellowship is an abiding type of love that comes near to a union of the souls. When looking at ultimate satisfaction in life, fellowship is our deepest need.

Like too many matters of the heart, it has been relegated to an area of things feminine and optional. The early church saw things differently:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayers -- Acts 2:42

The early church had the same commitment to fellowship as to the teachings of the apostles, breaking bread, and prayers. Most of the Christians I know are very aware of the need to devote themselves to the apostles' teachings and to prayers. Depending on the group of Christians, they may or may not devote themselves to breaking bread. But it is rare to meet a group that devotes itself to fellowship. It is neglected; we neglect our brothers sitting next to us in the pews. Some have ceased to come entirely.

Fellowship with God Himself

And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. -- 1 John 1:3

God chooses to give the world something we would hardly dare to hope: to have fellowship with God himself. God Himself is present in our world. He has bound himself to be present in his word, and in the breaking of bread, in prayers, and when we gather together in his name. In the Holy Spirit, God Himself is present even within us.

This is just a small part of what the Scriptures say about fellowship. My hope for now is this: to reclaim the rightful place of fellowship in Christian talks as the first step to reclaiming its rightful place in Christian life.

I've been tagged

And a kind thank-you to Sven/Steven for something a little lighter to blog about today. He tagged me with this "Seven by seven" meme:

1. Seven things to do before I die
2. Seven things I cannot do
3. Seven things that attract me to (...)
4. Seven things I say most often
5. Seven books (or series) that I love
6. Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would if I had time)
7. Seven people I want to join in, too.

Seven things to do before I die
I'm such a dreamer but as Popeye used to say, I yam what I yam.
1. Write the definitive, God-honoring work on comparative religion
2. Restore respectability to an orthodox Christian mystic tradition
3. See my children become mature, God-loving adults instilled with a love of truth, a sense of humor, and a deep sense of fairness
4. Arrange for Chinese translations of Athanasius' On the Incarnation and Eusebius' History of the Church
5. Establish mercy missions in my city to be "hands of Christ" for providing medical care for the poor and for meeting the needs of local people hurt by any disaster that was worthy of making the news (e.g. house fire)
6. Improve my proficiency in Arabic.
7. When I find my days are numbered shortly anyway, go recite the Sermon on the Mount and other selections from the gospels in Arabic in Mecca during the annual pilgrimage. It won't be a pretty end, but who wants to go out in a nursing home anyway?

Seven things I cannot do
1. Be satisfied with only the 7 things on my "to do before I die" list
2. Pass up chocolate
3. Spend less than an hour inside a book store
4. Care whether the garage is clean
5. Get the hang of knitting, no matter how patiently BH tries to teach me
6. Stay awake through another chapter of Brothers Karamazov
7. Quit blogging at a reasonable hour

Seven things that attract me to (...)
Now, since my husband left me and has since remarried, I don't think I can remarry in good conscience. So these comments are on a man that I admire very much, though I keep that to myself since I wish him the best and don't want to waste his time.
1. He is the most forgiving person I have ever met
2. Honest
3. Outgoing
4. Fun-loving
5. Knows a hundred good movies to watch
6. Doesn't take himself too seriously
7. Passionate about taking good care of people

Seven things I say most often
1. Don't interrupt your brother.
2. Don't interrupt your sister.
3. Stop picking on each other.
4. Much better.
5. Not again.
6. Really, just stop it.
7. Thank you.
(Entire sequence is repeated at odd intervals during the day.)

Seven books (or series) that I love
1. LOTR (J.R.R. Tolkien)
2. Travels (Marco Polo)
3. Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
4. A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
5. Dilbert (series/Scott Adams)
6. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham; #1 childhood favorite)
7. Indian Captive (Lois Lenski; #2 childhood favorite)

Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would if I had time)
1. LOTR
2. Apollo 13
3. Wrath of Khan
4. Riverdance (Michael Flatley/Jean Butler)
5. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6. Monk (TV mystery series)
7. Gilligan's Island re-runs (don't know if TV series count but I hope so)

Seven people I want to join in, too.
1. Metacrock
2. Dawn Treader
3. The guys over at the CADRE
4. Darrell Pursiful
5. Richard Hall
6. Diane
7. Silas Jones
(Some of you are old friends, and some of you are commenters or people I've met around the blogosphere and just wanted to meet.)

And as they say no offense taken if you don't join in.