Category: Personal

sk

Daily writing prompt
If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?
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Without a doubt Soren Kierkegaard. Perhaps in a coffee shop? I know he takes his espresso with seven sugars.

Besides the language barrier—I don’t speak Danish—I think we could have a nice conversation. Or, I could simply listen. From what I have read about him, I think we have a lot of things in common. We could talk about irony, faith, despair, or perhaps the state of the modern sermon. Of course, we could talk about Christology, one of my favourite topics, or the power of abstractions in the modern age. I would love to ask his take on social media, modern democracy, or the state of the church.

Why Kierkegaard? He has been the most interesting and insightful person since Augustine of Hippo in the last 1500 years. And he is not the “same-same” as the majority of thinkers.

bookS

Daily writing prompt
What book are you reading right now?
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I never read just one book. I have multiple books on the go at once in multiple locations. So …

In the chapel:
Common Worship: Daily Prayer and NRSV Bible. (This is not technologically true. I use a version of Common Worship that I have adjusted to my needs, but the outline is there.) I also use several different prayer books for other devotions.

In the dayroom (that is, the inner cell):
This Is Epistemology: An Introduction by J. Adam Carter and Clayton Littlejohn.
Also:
Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs by Douglas Smith
Also:
The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism by Douglas Burton-Christie

In the parlour (main room where people can visit):
The Nature of Biblical Criticism by John Barton
Also:
The Word in the Desert: Anglican and Roman catholic Reactions to Liturgical Reform by Barry Spurr
Also (and, to be honest, I like to have this book on hand to “soothe my soul”):
Anglican Papalism: A History: 1900-1960 by Michael Yelton

I am also reading a novel:
The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel

On my Kindle (that travels with me):
Introducing Medieval Biblical Interpretation: The Senses of Scripture in Premodern Exegesis by Ian Christopher Levy

Now that was real fun! I love talking about books.

somewhere alone

Daily writing prompt
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
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I love where I live now. It is more than a house; it is a “home for a solitary”. To be honest, I am thinking of moving. Maybe it is simply my state of mind at the moment? I am disappointed in people. I can only change “me” so. I need to lower my expectations. That does not change the darkness within at the moment. Being a nobody with no history and no story would be magic. So the option is moving to somewhere to be alone.

But it must be Merton’s hermitage if I could live somewhere else. In pictures, it looks so idyllic. It has a chapel, an altar, a stove, and an open fireplace. So that is where I would live if I could.

alone

Daily writing prompt
What part of your routine do you always try to skip if you can?
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As an enclosed solitary, I live alone to not skip any part of my routine. The space it gives me, the solitude and silence, is the freedom to be present in the moment to Jesus. The routine is to return – to return to Jesus in the now.

The life I lived before was all about skipping that moment of return. It was about other people, and, as I have realised, it was spent chasing other people’s affection.

But, on a purely practical level, I try to skip housework!

me!

Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?

Not a meeting people kind of person. I once knew a bishop who was in the news. He was mentioned in Parliament. He ordained me. Apart from him, no one famous.

But infamous! That would be me. Well, at least in some people’s minds.

maybe?!

Sometimes, I wonder if the modern church could make me a follower of Jesus. Some of the things I hear from “church people” are completely disconnected from everyday life. (That includes my everyday life! And, honestly, I get more push-back from church people to living as an enclosed solitary.) Maybe the best way is to say that the church is very good at answering questions that no one asks.

I am just a voter, a consumer, or a “parishioner,” and I should behave accordingly. Sometimes, I am told that I am very privileged to be a voter, a consumer, or a parishioner. The message is that I am called to surrender me for the community.

Maybe the following quote makes the point much better:

It is frequently said that a reformation has to begin with each person’s reformation of himself, but it has not happened that way, for the idea of reformation has given rise to a hero, who very likely bought his license to be a hero very dearly from God.

A little further, Kierkegaard writes:

… the abstraction of leveling is a principle that forms no personal, intimate relation to any particular individual, but only the relation of abstraction, which is the same for all. No hero, then, suffers for others or helps others; leveling itself becomes the severe taskmaster who takes on the task of educating.

Two Ages

In the end, I am stuck. Forward or backward? Prophesy or escape? Should I risk all (including me) for a community with little interest in me?

Anyway …

shibboleth

Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.

Judges 12:5-6

can Jesus hit a curve ball?

I watched Major League last night. It is one of my go-to movies when I want to just “chill.” In the movie, one of the characters, Eddie Harris, asks, “Are you saying Jesus cannot hit a curve ball?“

I think the question centres on Jesus’ humanity – as the God-Man, is he perfect in skill? Is “hitting a curve ball” part of perfection? Did Jesus ever burn the breakfast for his disciples? Or, to put it negatively, is it “sinful” not to be able to hit a curve ball?

Does this involve the communicatio idiomatum (communication of attributes)?

So, can Jesus hit a curve ball?