Sniffing out the work of God in the world…
I know you’re anxiously waiting for picks from blog central before placing your office bets.
So, here they are:
UNC
Kansas
Texas
Duke
UNC
Texas
UNC
Note: never trust the picks of someone who puts his three favorite teams — Duke, Texas, UNC (in that order) — in the Final Four.)
Click on the ESPN link on the right column, then go about halfway down the page to where it says “Holy Trinity.” Click again and see if that isn’t the most amazing play you’ve ever seen in football. Count the laterals. I got thirteen.
We joined 15,000 of our closest friends last night to watch two undefeated teams, Odessa Permian (as in “Friday Night Lights”) and Abilene High, play at Shotwell Stadium. The game had been promoted in this week’s Sports Illustrated. It’s hard to describe what that experience is like. We came up on the short end of a 28-21 game, however, breaking AHS’s eight-year dominance over Mojo.
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Have you ever noticed how Matthew’s gospel blocks together the words of Jesus? If you’re reading Mark with a red-letter Bible, it’s constantly red-black-red-black-red-black. But in Matthew there are large chunks of the red. Scholars have noted that it probably isn’t accidental that there are five of those teaching sections (chapters 5-7, 10, 13, 18, and 23-25) — likely corresponding to the five books of the Law.
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is the fulfiller of and authoritative interpreter of the Law. All things point to him, as you can tell immediately from the genealogy and from the many statements that say “and so was fulfilled.” Often, these “fulfillments” are surprising — until you understand how Matthew understands the Old Testament and Jesus.
E.g., Isaiah 7 had said that a young woman (a Hebrew word that doesn’t necessarily mean a virgin) would conceive and give birth to a son. It was a sign that applied to the people in the looming days of the 8th century. But now, Matthew says, those words find their deepest sense in the one who was born of a virgin. (He uses a Greek word that specifies that THIS young woman is a virgin.)
Similarly, when Joseph and Mary take their newborn to Egypt because of the madman Herod the Great and then return after Herod’s death, this fulfilled the words of Hosea 11:1: “out of Egypt I called my son.” But when you’re reading Hosea, it’s clear that’s a reference initially to the exodus. However, now in a deeper sense they point to Jesus, the one who fulfills all those dreams.
He came as the faithful Israelite. He was the new Moses. (Maybe it’s not an accident that Matthew moves from Egypt to water to desert to teaching — the same as you find in the story of Moses.)
Here now is the one who speaks authoritatively. Here is the one who fulfills God’s dreams for Israel. All of scripture points to him.
Check it out here and then here: what happens when university students become involved in the deeper issues of poverty.
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Rick Reilly recently wrote about the wait — the painstakingly long wait! — for Packers fans to get season tickets. That’s the only way to get in since they don’t sell single-game tickets.
The current waiting list is about 37 years. That’s right. The 47 people who just got their Green Bay Packers season tickets have been waiting since 1970.
Reilly calculates: “If you put your name on the waiting list today, you would be number 74,659. An average of 70 people give up their tickets every year, which means you’ll have your tickets by the 3074 season. Luckily you’ll still catch Brett Favre’s last year.”
What’s perhaps most amazing is that Green Bay is the 257th largest city in the U.S. “The Packers are a franchise that couldn’t be, shouldn’t be, but miraculously is. It’s not just your team, it’s your life.”
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There’s an interesting debate between Dinesh D’Souza and Christopher Hitchens here.
I know you’re waiting for my predictions before you place your bets. So here they are.
Red Sox over Indians.
Rockies over D’backs.
Red Sox over Rockies.
Take it to the bank.
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Just in case you didn’t know, the Cowboys are 5-0. You know you’re on a roll when your QB throws 5 interceptions and you still win.
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Here was my evening: the Yankees lost . . . the Cowboys won with two seconds left . . . and my granddaughter was in our arms. Now THAT is a good evening.
Yankees vs. Indians. Yankees
Angels vs. Red Sox. Angels
Rockies vs. Phillies. Phillies
Cubs vs. D’backs. Cubs
Yankees vs. Angels. Angels
Phillies vs. Cubs. Phillies
Angels vs. Phillies. Angels
Now . . . you?
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If you haven’t been to Larry James’s blog recently, check out this wonderful piece. Also, for a bit of irony, check this out.
All I want for my birthday (51 today, thank you very much) is a trip to Grand Junction, Colorado.
After winning yesterday, 7-6, we play today for the championship in Waco. The winner will advance to the Southwest Regional tournament in Grand Junction — playing for a chance to go to the World Series.
It was great coming here last year, but we lost two straight games and had to go home. This year we’ve won a couple games. It won’t be easy. We have one loss and Laredo Del Mar has none, so we have to beat them twice.
Someday maybe this blog will return to more substantive material. Like guacamole recipes. But for now, it’s junior league baseball.
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Someone mentioned in the comments from the last post that their favorite part of Leaving Church was the “baptism” scene. It’s also my favorite part. After she resigns from ministry, she’s invited to a pool party when people begin throwing one another in.
“I stood back and watched the mayhem that ensued. All around me, people were grabbing people and wrestling them toward the water. The dark night air was full of pool spray and laughter.”
Some looked at her but decided, in light of her past “position,” to leave her alone. “I still looked waterproof to them,” she remembers.
But then . . .
“Two strong hands grabbed my upper arms from behind, and before I knew it I was in the water, fully immersed and swimming in light. I never found out who my savior was, but when I broke the surface, I looked around at all of those shining people with makeup running down their cheeks, with hair plastered to their heads, and I was so happy to be one of them. If being ordained meant being set apart from them, then I did not want to be ordained anymore. I wanted to be human: I wanted to spit food and let snot run down my chin. I wanted to confess being as lost and found as anyone else without caring that my underwear showed through my wet clothes. Bobbing in that healing pool with all those other flawed beings of light, I looked around and saw them as I had never seen them before, while some of them looked at me the same way. The long wait had come to an end. I was in the water at last.”
This open note of apology to my buddy Richard:
The NBA playoffs are not as bad as I have always claimed. At least this year. Lebron last night? A game to remember! And the Spurs . . . . All right, the Mavs stunk up the place, but that contributed to an element of unpredictability.
I’ll still take March Madness any day. The worst March Madness game is better than the best NBA playoff game. But, still. I have enjoyed watching a few of the games with my son.
So this note to Richard: It doesn’t stink as badly as I had said. There you go.
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Last night was little league baseball at its best. We had to beat the 15-0 team to stay in the running for the tournament. We won in the bottom of the 10th inning, 3-2. I wouldn’t want to play that team again. But for one night, we came out on top.
I always love that game. But some nights I really love it!
I was only two for four on my picks for the Final Four. UNC lost in OT, and A&M was a point short. However, check out the third comment from that post. Congrats, Randy, for getting all four!
We’re also not having much luck guessing the date of our granddaughter’s arrival. She was due the 19th, but we’re still waiting for THE CALL . . . .
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Here’s perhaps the biggest change in my understanding of preaching through the years.
I used to think that I was supposed to make scripture relevant. It’s an old book speaking to a modern world. Now, however, I see that this is too low a view of scripture and too high a view of our “modern” world.
Now I see my job as inviting people to enter into the world of scripture — a world that is hauntingly familiar and yet mysteriously dissimilar.
The key is imagination. I think I’m to help people (including, of course, myself) imagine what a truly human life might look like in light of Easter. What might a gospeled life look like?
I used to flatten scripture, I think. It became a sermon source of rules and regs. It was full of insightful points waiting to be made.
Now as I get to live inside the story world of the Bible, I realize even more why one could say that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword.
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When I agreed to spend an hour in the dunking booth for our youth group’s Mexico missions fund-raiser, there are three things I didn’t know:
1. How cool Saturday would be with overcast skies;
2. How frigid the water would be; and
3. How many kids would have “unlimited” bracelets, allowing them to throw as many times as they want.
I have a great picture of one of our third graders holding up all ten fingers — to represent the ten times he dunked Preacher Mike.
I need to thank Randy Harris, who offered to pay for the first 50 throws by any of our ACU students who wanted to dunk me. I heard a couple of our students mumbling something about the first exam as they fired away.
Please don’t worry about me. Hypothermia lifted after a water-heater-emptying shower.
Florida, UCLA, North Carolina, Texas A&M.
Florida, Texas A&M.
Florida.
I so want to say Texas (too young) or Arkansas (I know, I know, 13 losses). But I won’t. I certainly wouldn’t bet against Coach K.
Your picks?