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| My Xanga is feeling neglected. I've actually written two fairly lengthy Facebook notes since posting anything substanian here last. I'm not sure I want to transfer them though. Xanga is like an old friend. Maybe we can renew our relationship with different material. Here is a cool portion from Isaiah (or deutero-Isaiah if you like). They've caught my imagination the past few days. Isaiah 54:1 - 55:13 Sing, O barren one who did not bear; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married, says the LORD. 2 Enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will settle the desolate towns. 4 Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more. 5 For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. 6 For the LORD has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like the wife of a man's youth when she is cast off, says your God. 7 For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. 8 In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer. 9 This is like the days of Noah to me: Just as I swore that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. 10 For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you. 11 O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I am about to set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.1 12 I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all your wall of precious stones. 13 All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the prosperity of your children. 14 In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. 15 If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. 16 See it is I who have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and produces a weapon fit for its purpose; I have also created the ravager to destroy. 17 No weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, says the LORD. NRS Isaiah 55:1 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 6 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. I long for the peace of Lord YHWH. Let it rain down from heaven, O God. | | |
| started to post something I'd found but couldn't get it formatted rightthen realized it wasn't really that funny anyway =0 | | |
| LoveIt's Valentine's Day. I used to have a tradition some of you might remember, the Valentine's Day Mass Email. Recently it's been sort of a bi-yearly thing. Now I don't even have Outlook Express anymore. So this is a note to all my Facebook and Xanga friends, whether you're tagged or not!
This is the day we celebrate and talk about and think about Love, whatever that means to us. It's always been a special day for me - for some reason I can look back on so many Valentine's Days and remember what I was doing, what I was feeling, the wry jokes I made, and who I was with. Like the year me and Travis went to Burger King in Adams (was that '04?). Or the first time I sent out that email ('00), hangin' out with Neal and APack in the Honors dorm. Or my senior year in high school ('98) when I was so pleased with the fact that the thought of Valentine's Day didn't even occur to me until the middle of the afternoon on the way back from some music thing (Tim, were we maybe with Kirk trying out for OU or OCU?). Before that it gets kind of blurry...
Have you ever noticed how so often the words we say or hear the most just lose their power? "I love you!" ...whatever. "God loves you!" ...*yawn*, I've heard that one before. "Love your neighbor as yourself!" ...when I get around to it. Words get dull with repetition. Sometimes we need to hear it with different words, or in a different language.
I've been reading Genesis 22 in Hebrew - the part where the LORD tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac - "your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac." This was not a remarkable thing for a deity to ask, by the way, but that's another story. What gets me about that narrative is its matter-of-factness (Isaac carrying the wood and Abraham carrying the fire and butcher knife) combined with its gratuitous use of repetition. It never mentions Isaac without appending "his son." Over and over again, you hear "Isaac, his son, Isaac, his son." "And they walked on, the two of them together."
On that day, *The God* revealed himself to be very different from all the other gods with which Abraham and his world were already familiar. He himself saw to the sacrifice for His offering, just as Abraham had said. And so the Father still does for us. He asks us to sacrifice *everything* to serve God, to know God, to be faithful to God - but the Father has made the real sacrifice, the true sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice, of the perfect Son, already. What do we do when this call comes? What did Abraham do? We may just shy away, afraid to give up our favorite things. Or we may move forward, grimly expecting the worst. Or we may already know how good and loving the LORD is, knowing the end of the story, and assume we won't have to make any real sacrifice after all. None of those are quite the right answer. So what is? Well, I'll leave that open for now, since this isn't a sermon; it's just a Valentine, so, back to the point...
God loves you.
As someone said in chapel this morning, the creator of the universe, the one who spun the stars, saw fit to stoop down and become one of us, one of *us*, these little vulnerable creatures that we are. And that's how God shows his love. For you. For me. For everyone we've ever loved or been loved by, hurt or been hurt by. He took all our loves and hurts upon Himself. Jesus Christ took all the consequences of all our evil ways upon his own body and suffered death in the grand irony of the only human being who never deserved death conquering death for us poor and helpless sinners.
And all that so we might have life, abundant, wonderful, amazing, full, awesome, astounding, never-ending, bona-fide LIFE, full of peace an serenity, free from the shackles of fear.
Maybe you yourself are celebrating this good news today. Maybe you don't believe it, or you used to believe it, or maybe you think the whole story is positively barbaric. But I'm telling it anyway, cause it's the story of my life, a story for all of us, a story that is being told and believed and shared all over the world every day. And though my mind and heart may become fearful, worried, and discouraged when the Church on earth is embroiled in strife and beset with failures, in my deepest spirit I know that the Holy Spirit is at work in all of our hearts, and those who are truly *hungry* and truly *thirsty* will eat, and drink, and live.
[finally, since this thing wouldn't be complete with at least one hymn or song...]
Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
though stretched from sky to sky
(Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai)
A happy Valentine's Day to you all, what is left of it =) May your day and your week and your month and year be filled with love of all sorts.
-James | | |
| My Xanga deserves an update. Maybe later ;] | | |
| Thank youLord you are good, and I want to thank you For those little bits of encouragement sent at the right time That remind me that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand It is right here, right now You are right here, right now In this very room, with me and working in my friends and family The time is coming quickly 2000 years is but a day So thanks for the reminders that it's worth the higher life laying down the things of this world for what cannot pass away | | |
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