fun with alarms and their verbs

 

 Yesterday evening in class, a dear elderly gentleman, one of the most diligent students I've had, had a new question for me. The text in the book was having the students use 'phrasal verbs', those amusing two-word, one-meaning verbs like 'get up' or 'go ahead'. The text was specifically using them in the context of alarms, like smoke alarms. He wanted an explanation for the phrasal verb used when an alarm sounds. 

Why do we use 'goes off' to say that an alarm 'turns on'?

 After asking his question, he carefully stared off into the middle distance so as not to put me on the spot as I publicly and verbally pondered the ridiculousness of this linguistic oddity for the first time. "Your alarm is going OFF; please turn it OFF, or it won't go OFF... er, ahh, I mean it won't stop going OFF."

 After a bit, I readily admitted to the class that this certainly had the potential to throw off (!) a night's sleep, at least until my alarm...

A Recommendation, a Waxwing, and a... well, one more surprise

  The smallest graces and beauties in life often arrive quite unexpectedly. I truly love birds and seeing a variety of them. One result of this is that my current favorite game is Wingspan, a beautifully drawn and well-designed board game which a friend gifted us a few months ago. Somehow competition is combined with beauty and a pinch of education to make a thoroughly enjoyable game experience, although it's too complex for the kids still. But I digress...

  Last week on a walk along a bike trail I saw a flock of Bohemian waxwings. I wouldn't have known their name if I hadn't happened to see this article about it in the Denver Post a few days before, "A rare and beautiful bird is turning up all over Denver this winter." Apparently these waxwings haven't been to Denver since I was a toddler. They were far more beautiful than the rather distant picture below suggests. The two colorings, presumably male and female, were both lovely; and the dozens of waxwings were in no rush to go anywhere else. But this morning...!

Bohemian waxwing

 Driving down Holly Street to drop kids off for school, I saw a bald eagle! I have loved eagles since I was very young, and they always make me think of my granddad because he had a house full of bald eagles (pictures, sculptures, and whatnot). Again, the picture quality below is lacking, but the gift of seeing beautiful birds wherever I'm at was not lacking in any way. Thankfully, we had a couple minutes to get out and take pictures of the bird before I dropped the kids off. Then I went back to look at it again in quietness.

A bald eagle, in Park Hill, Denver

 I said 'quietness', but actually you may notice in the video below that the crows and magpies were thoroughly disturbed that the eagle had entered their normal space. That's what the racket is, but the eagle seems unconcerned with it. And well he should!

 Actually this is the second time in the last several months that we've seen eagles. In November, driving back from Thanksgiving, we saw some bald eagles in Kansas, but they were away across a field. So even though we trespassed into a corn field, we still couldn't get particularly close.

 

Philippians and the Presence

 

The Albanian Alps

 

  That the Maker of this unimaginably great universe would approach -draw near to- creatures he made is one of the great mysteries and realities in the Bible. What kind of God cares about minute creatures on a tiny planet in the midst of this stunning magnificence, especially ones who have rejected his lordship? Yet, throughout Scripture, we do not only find the Maker coming as a Judge of rebels, though that is certainly part, and we do not only find a Presence through pure symbol like fire or cloud or dove, but we also see the approach of intimate call to relationship and friendship with the One. Of course, this was manifested ultimately when God became human enfleshed. [This is not the often-accused impossibility that a human should somehow became GOD, but the belief that GOD stooped low to become one of us.]

  As I've been reading in Paul's letter to the Philippians, I was struck by the practical relevance of the Lord's presence for the Jesus-follower. In 4:5-6 (below), the soon-coming or approach of the Lord is the basis for not worrying. In other words, don't worry about the future because the Lord will be there. Several verses later, Paul says, the way to practice right thought and action is with the knowledge of the God of peace's current presence with you. In other words, you can live in God's way now because the God who will gives peace is actually with you. 

  Since these verses about the presence of God in the future and the present came so close together, I wonder if this letter mentioned the presence of God in the past with these sorts of practical implications. And it does. In chapter 2:4-8, Paul writes that Jesus-followers are to have a sacrificial and unified attitude towards each other and others. Then he gives the basis of this as such an attitude is already 'yours in Christ Jesus' because of Jesus' past presence in coming and dying, along with his exaltation. From other Scriptures, we can see that being 'in Christ Jesus' relates directly to our being in the Presence. So, we have here the past presence of God enabling a God-ward present inner life and attitude. 

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil 4:5-9, ESV)

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:4-8, ESV)

a thought on sabbatical, from pre-sabbatical reading

 We've been encouraged and enabled to take a time of sabbatical soon. Along with that, we've had various reading offered to us. The following quote comes from one of them in which Eugene Peterson compares academic and ministerial sabbatical's purpose and methods. The quotation below caught my attention in the former context.

The life of the mind, teaching and thinking, is strenuous. The mind tires, grows stagnant, begins to repeat itself. The annual invasion of students, their curious and questioning minds strangely mixed with ignorance an sloth, constitutes a formidable challenge to a professor.

~ Eugene Peterson, "Sabbatical is not Study Leave"

2022 Reading

2022 included three features that guided much of my reading. First were the two excellent classes on Christianity and Islam which I took from ISRME, as well as the resulting book club. These launched me into readings on religion and religious thought as well as by a couple of authors from the Middle East. The second feature was packing up for a year in the States, and the third was the excellent inter-library loan system in Denver.

The goal of sorting through various books I'd been given or bought very cheap means that I flipped through, skimmed, or got gradually drawn into various books too, such as LaHaye's How to Win over Depression or Watson's The Godly Man's Picture. Although LaHaye's book has a few insights of value, mostly it just seemed very dated and insensitive in many comments. Watson's book had various thought-provoking aspects. Reading older (17th century) writers has that beauty of showing both how things (including language) change and how things (especially human beings) remain the same.

For ISRME, our first classes' reading involved complementary selections from Religious Affections (Edwards) and The Faith and Practice of al-Ghazali and James' Varieties of Religious Experiences. These authors formed a surprisingly cohesive dialogue in spite of the fact that they wrote centuries apart and in vastly different cultures. (previous post, another one)

City of Wrong by Kamel Hussein (on Archive) - A fictionalized meditation on the crucifixion and its surrounding events by a Muslim author. The version with the introduction by the translator Kenneth Cragg is particularly helpful as Cragg, a Christian friend of the author and respected scholar of Islam, offers a Christian perspective on the book which reflects their apparent friendship and dialogue and brings up the key issues in sympathetic discussion. Highly recommended for those interested in this area! (previous post)

Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz - This book by an Egyptian author is an allegorical consideration of the Prophets, prophethood, and societies responses to them. It is an insightful fictional consideration from the Muslim perspective. Fascinatingly, there is also a 'prophet of modernity' as such. (previous post)

Prophetic Precursors by Wilson - a useful comparative study of the different histories and interpretations of the prophets in Christianity and Islam

T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets - With the encouragement of two dear friends, this poem has become an increasingly dear friend itself. This year I finally got a hard copy and read it through. Much marking up of it occurred.

Epidemics and Society (Snowden) - I'm only part way through this 2019 book on epidemics, but it's proven fascinating, particularly so given that Snowden wrote it pre-COVID. The section on the non-medical issues which epidemics create in societies was particularly interesting.

Whispering the Word: Hearing Women's Stories in the Old Testament - Jacqueline E. Lapsley - I've done a lot of reading in stories centered on the end of Judges and the book of Ruth this year. Lapsley's book was one of the most beautiful to read. It was scholarly, empathetic, and devotional all in one. Critically it engaged with the real critiques of feminists (Christian and otherwise) regarding these stories in substantive ways, which I found helpful in both their honesty and their faith-perspective. It's worth getting and reading.

The Sultan of Byzantium by Selçuk Altun - This was a 2021 Christmas gift after I'd come across it in a bookstore, and it has easily become my favorite novel by a Turkish author. It's themed a bit like a Byzantine version of Da Vinci Code, although it includes the episodic nature of other Turkish novels that I don't really love. It often lacks linkage between the various scenes. Anyways, it was quite enjoyable, and I'd recommend it for those looking for a new author: even my Turkish friends hadn't heard of this author. 

Iron Dragon series (all 5 volumes) - I read the entire series for the first time this year: eighth century Viking, sci-fi, space saga involving futuristic and past time travel. Very fun!

The Lonely Sea by Alistair MacLean - short stories by a favorite fiction writer!

The Mysterious Mr. Quin (Harley Quin Mysteries) by Agatha Christie - I'd never heard of these, but really enjoyed the spiritual-mystery writings by this beloved author. Excellent short stories!

The Gift of the Stranger by David Smith and Barbara Cavill - a book that considers language education from a Christian perspective; I have really enjoyed reading the thoughts of others thinking about what I spend my job hours doing.

Albert Luthuli: Bound by Faith by Scott Couper -  I already posted about this informative biography and what I learned here.

Audiobooks: During our various travels in the last months, we have enjoyed various audiobooks. The key to a great audiobook is great content tied to a great reader  Here’s the ones we’ve most enjoyed as a family, enjoyable for all!

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place (series) - written by Maryrose Wood, brilliantly read by Katherine Kellgren - accessible, humorous, mysterious, and educational as the author regularly uses and defines high-level vocabulary cleverly

The Tale of Despereaux - written by Kate Dicamillo, read by Graeme Malcolm - an exciting tale of a mouse, a serving girl, and a princess

Reread: The Simarillion (Tolkien) & The Eleventh Commandment (Archer)

Recommendations from years past: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

Culture's Effect on Theological Development

 In many ways, every generation has the task of reiterating or re-understanding the beliefs they have received for the world they live in. (Indeed, reiteration is not simple repetition.) However, it seems that certain eras may require a greater re-consideration of the expression of a faith than others. Thanks to inter-library loan, I have been reading the fascinating book by Sidney Griffith, The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam. It's been really instructive, and surprisingly readable, regarding the early history of Christian-Muslim interaction. (It reminds me of Jenkins' Lost History of Christianity, with a different focus.)

 Anyways, Griffith describes Theodore bar Koni's 8th century theological-apologetic work Scholion on Christianity which interacted with Islam. In the chapter responding to Muslim challenges, bar Koni addressed "the Scriptures and Christ; Baptism; the Eucharistic mystery; the veneration of the Cross; sacramental practice in general; the Son of God; and, of course, interwoven with all of them, the all-embracing doctrine of the Trinity." (pg 43)

 Griffith continues, "These same issues are the ones that will appear in the topical outlines of almost all of the apologetic tracts written by Christians living among the Muslims for the next five hundred years." Not much has changed in my experience; these topics are mostly still central in Islam's questioning of Christian beliefs.

 But, the next part is what I actually wanted to post; it expressed the generational and contextual call for both thinking and practicing in both old and new ways. "What is evident in the list of them is the obvious intermingling of questions of faith and practice in such a way that it is also clear that the shape of theology itself is determined in this milieu by the apologetic imperative to justify the reasonableness of religious beliefs in virtue of the public practices they entail." (pgs 43-44)

 It seems to me that we also live in a time where new thought and expression is needed to publicly walk in a faith which may seem unreasonable or impious to the reigning worldview.

 ***

Bonus quotation: bar Koni says of his purpose that he is writing "against  those who while professing to accept the Old Testament, and acknowledging the coming of Christ our Lord, are nevertheless far removed from both of them, and now they demand from us an apology [written defense] for our faith, not from all of the scriptures, but only from those which they acknowledge." Griffith summarizes, "Clearly he had the Muslims in mind." (pg 43)

A Splendor of Change

Is it strange that this time of great beauty precedes inevitably the frost, the time of apparent death? Not that the tree corps is truly lifeless - say rather that a starker grace and fiercer outlines succeed splendor.

Where went the new growth and the flourishing of spring and summer? What travails are presaged by these swirlings and coolings?

Yet, could the knowledge of coming hardship or apparent fruitlessness be bathed in greater glory? Is there aught to warrant despair in autumnal majesty or sudden flurries?

Does not the return of golden treasure to the earth forecast a coming dawn, investing so that spring may follow frost? Indeed, it does. This is each sunset writ large, stretched from moments to fortnights.

Oh soul, wrapped in glory, resplendent within change, do not fear the doubts and struggles forecast by chilling winds. Each season gifts life, in its right time, as ordered by the Maker.

Though the maple knows not her crimson beauty, nor the aspen his golden crown, their gift is undiminished. When the sap shall barely flow and the passerby no longer pause to glance, hope shall be no less certain, ‘while the earth remains’.

Thus, each season of the earth or soul may be embraced. And, thus, in awe and thanksgiving may each trail be walked, no matter the season.

Krameria St., Denver, CO - the day of the poem

I-70 near Vail, CO

Fish Creek Falls, Steamboat Springs, CO

written October 23, 2022

Luthuli - Bound by Faith to struggle against apartheid

 I don't remember who recommended Albert Luthuli's biography to me, but it was eye-opening and instructive across a variety of fronts. It seems like he could fairly be described as South Africa's MLK or Gandhi, a leader of a great struggle who consistently applied the principles of non-violence despite tremendous pressure to do otherwise.

 In Albert Luthuli: Bound by Faith, Scott Couper details the life of Albert Luthuli, the long-time leader of the ANC who led the resistance against apartheid in South Africa on non-violent terms and was the first African to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. 

 

Albert Luthuli, 1961 (britannica)

 The political aspects of his life were somewhat interesting, though he died decades before apartheid was broken down. However, the background of his life and family, along with his thoughts and commitment to a genuine biblical faith in the public square and while seeking both peace and justice, were more interesting to me. The biographer quotes him in various places, and it is beautiful to see how Luthuli's understanding of Scripture both catalyzed, organized, and 'bounded' his public work. His 'social activism' sprang from his beliefs about the divine-image-bearing of all the humans around him. On the one hand, it caused him to pursue comprehensive change in the way that non-Europeans were treated in South African society. Yet, on the other hand, it stopped him from pursuing violence as a means to achieve that good end. Others decided to use violence and sought his support, but his record stands remarkably clearly about his own convictions. (You can read some of Nelson Mandela's defense of the use of violent sabotage here as recorded at his trial in 1963-1964.) 

 Couper quotes from Luthuli's autobiography, Let My People Go, regarding Christian living, being part of society, and work:

Adams [College] taught me what Edendale did not, that I had to do something about being a Christian, and that this something must identify me with my neighbor, not dissociate me from him. Adams taught me more. It inculcated, by example rather than precept, a specifically Christian mode of going about work in a society, and I had frequent reason to be grateful for this later in life. [italics original, bold mine]

Elsewhere, Luthuli spoke of the fact that living as a Christian was 'not a private affair without relevance to society'...

It was, rather, a belief which equipped us in a unique way to meet the challenges of our society... which had to be applied to the conditions of our lives; and our many works - they ranged from Sunday School teaching to road-building - became meaningful as the outflow of Christian belief.

 

 Listen to these powerful lines from his Nobel Peace Prize speech in 1961.

I also, as a Christian and patriot, could not look on while systematic attempts were made, almost in every department of life, to debase the God-factor in man or to set a limit beyond which the human being in his black form might not strive to serve his Creator to the best of his ability. To remain neutral in a situation where the laws of the land virtually criticized God for having created men of color was the sort of thing I could not, as a Christian, tolerate. (Source)

Moses' poem about life's brevity and futility (Psalm 90)

With its introductory note, Psalm 90 is placed in the context of Moses’ life, you can easily see how Moses could write a psalm like this as he lived to watch nearly all of the adults around him age and die in the wilderness. The brevity of life and its difficulty and the wrath of God must have often seemed very near to him.

As I read this beloved poem again this morning, I was struck by themes that echo within it, like mortals' troubles and divine responses. As you can see in the diagram, it seems to me that the first 2 verses form a sort of introduction of praise establishing the setting of God’s eternality or existence beyond the clutches of time. In verses 3-4, humans’ return to dust is mentioned and given as a command; this is matched in verse 13 by a call for God’s return, and both are followed by a concern for length of time.

Following that, there is the issue of being swept away in the temporary, dreamy, impermanent joy (of life’s morning) followed by the fading, withering sorrow of the evening, in verses 5 and 6. The response to this in verse 14 is that the Lord who is our dwelling place can satisfy us not only in the morning, but also the whole day long with joy.

Verses 7 to 11 directly bring out the theme of God’s anger and our unhidden sins, and we learn that the brevity of our lives is connected with these points. (In my opinion, the KJV translation draws out the emphasis in verse 10 on the extreme brevity of mortal life better, reflecting the Hebrew as ‘the days of our years’. In other words, even if  we count each individual day of all of our years, life’s still naturally going to end very quickly and sadly.) The response to this in verse 15 is that the Lord can give gladness to offset the affliction and evil of many days and many years.

Finally, there is a response to the ‘toil and trouble’ of verse 10 at the end of the poem (verses 16 and 17). Instead of us wasting our energy in meaningless, quickly-ended toil, may the Lord work on behalf of His servants. (Isn’t that beautifully backwards!) Beyond that, God’s favor can turn our toil and trouble into meaningful work.

The psalm hinges on 2 points in this way of organizing it. After the foundation of God’s immovable reality outside of our temporal troubles and our living within the Great Reality has been laid, verse 12 summarizes the first part of the psalm by asking that God teach us to count each day in order to gain wisdom through acknowledging life’s passing nature. Such an awareness of our mortality and futility can lead us away from futility. Secondly, in verse 17, we find that the favor of our Lord can reverse life’s futility and actually establish the work of our hands! Life can not only be joyful; it can also be meaningful when the Lord’s face shines on us. What stunning grace!

 

NOTE: Not all the psalms end in such a happy resolution; for example, Psalm 88 does not exude any explicit hope, at least when considered on its own. 

Children of the Alley - thoughts and quotes

  In our ISRME book club, we just finished discussing Naguib Mahfouz's Children of the Alley this week. It's an interesting book, and it might help you to know that it is an allegory before it starts. I didn't figure that out for over 150 pages. Then things started making more sense. 

 

 The book  considers a variety of themes related to life and religions (and their similarities and differences). These include our human addiction to numbing ourselves against reality and a regular returns to the question of injustice and why the Almighty does not intervene with it more directly. As well, the book seems to me to have a special focus on the human desire to 'return to Eden', though of course that's not the way it's labeled. In the quotation below, 'the mansion' is that allegorical equivalent for an Edenic closeness to beauty, rest, and the divine.

 If the past could be forgotten, the present would be wonderful, but we will keep on staring at that mansion, which gives us the only glory we can claim, and causes all the misery we know.

There is also an interesting progression of thoughts about the nature and place of work in human life:

Working to eat is the worst curse of all.
...

Then [Adham] yawned more deeply. “Work is a curse!” 

“Maybe so,” whispered Umaima, “but it is a curse that can only be defeated by more work!”

...

Arafa’s eyes were bright and he spoke intensely. “But leisure isn’t the ultimate goal! Imagine spending your life free and at leisure. It’s a beautiful dream, but it’s so ludicrous, Hanash. It would be so much better to be freed from work so that we could work marvels.”
...

“So why are you so hard at work?” 

“Because work is all I have,” Arafa sighed.

One final tidbit...

"But every tragedy, however great, eventually becomes a mere fact of life."