Name:Matt Country:United States State:North Carolina Metro:Durham Birthday:1/2/1983 Gender:Male
Interests:Biblical studies, theology, sports, my woman, King of the Hill, Simpsons, St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues Expertise:I think someone can only be called an expert if that person is the greatest at what he or she does. Therefore, there are only a few experts: Wayne Gretzky, Richard Hays, Albert Puljols, Will Ferrell, Whitey Herzog, Coach K, and Hank Hill (in no particular order). Occupation:Student
I have created a new blog with wordpress. I'm going to see if I can't keep up a decent blog for a change. The new link is mattheweaster.wordpress.com. I am going to start by cutting and pasting a few edited versions of what I have posted here and on facebook. I'll see you there!
So, I am extremely bored and I'm tired of working on my 'ethics' paper. So I did my typical tasks: checked for new podcasts on iTunes, checked espn.com, did the facebook thing, read the news online, checked my email, and so on. I'm still bored, and I'm too lazy to get up from my chair and do something else. So I Googled myself. Arrogant and self-centered? Yes, admittedly. However, I am humbled, and frankly, quite embarrassed with what I found. I typed "Matt Easter," and a ton of stuff came up that didn't relate to me. Fair enough. So I tried, "Matt Easter SBU." What came up made me sad. I remember that I wrote about three articles for the SBU school newspaper, the Omnibus. The topics were given to me, but I am ashamed of what I wrote. Mostly, I am ashamed of my article, "Patriotism calls us to action," where I essentially said something like we have to support the US government's plans to invade Iraq. (I think I did something similar with N. Korea, but I don't remember for sure.) Geez. I'm really sorry. God has really worked in my life in the past few years, and I am now a pacifist who finds such violent Americanistic opinions absolutely horrid. I am so embarrassed. I would provide the link to the forsaken article, but you'll have to find it on your own. :)
This makes me think. Perhaps I should be a little more careful with my words nowadays. I write enough (here, on facebook, or for class), and I need to be more careful. I remember how sure of myself I was in high school and early on in college. I have changed my mind or moderated on so many issues (dispensationalism, inerrancy, patriotism, just to name a few), so what makes me so sure that I have the answers now? I need to be a more careful, I think. God forgive me.
Today I was struck by a difference between my experiences among "mainliner" Christians at Duke Divinity School and the more "conservative" friends from my youth group years.
At Duke, many people talk about humanity's "brokenness." "We are a 'broken' people," I often hear from from students and teachers. Heck, in my first year here one person leading the Eucharist had the audacity to break the bread while listing off different countries and people who are broken. She stood in front of us, grabbed one of the many loaves/crackers and proceeded to break one after another. I remember her breaking the first piece while saying, "Iraq...broken." Then, "America...broken." Eventually, it came down to, "We are ... broken." Okay. What about Jesus? I thought that this bread/cracker and wine/grape juice were supposed to be for us the body and blood of Christ? Not Iraq. Not America. Not ourselves. Whoa. Anyway, I say all of this as an example of how some here talk about humanity being broken. Even tonight in one class the teacher talked about the general condition of humanity's brokenness and Christians' call for reconciliation.
Then, I start driving home. I was listening to the O.C. Supertones' live CD. They were totally one of my favorite bands back in the day, and I admit to still listening to them quite a lot. I think they have some of the most profound, thoughtful, and intelligent lyrics in all of Christian music. Anyway, on their live CD they have a few songs where they lead the group in worship songs from my youth group memories. One of these songs is "Holiness." You probably remember the song: "Holiness, holiness is what I long for, holiness is what I need." Then, a verse that follows is: "Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for, brokenness is what I need." Wow! What a difference! Here we have people singing to God for brokenness. Now, I always sang this verse with a bit of hesitation, but I still sang it. These conservative Christians certainly look for reconciliation (although others may try to say they don't), but they leave room for brokenness. This is a significant difference.
Now, I must admit that these two groups are probably meaning something different by "brokenness," but I think this variation may point to a deeper difference between the two parties. It seems to me that most mainliners look for a kind of Christianity that speaks mostly to the current situation of the human. If a person is hurting, then God wants them to feel better. If people are trapped in what I may call a sin, many mainliners speak of this as just evidence of the world's brokenness. On the other hand, most others think of humans needing to be broken so that their perspectives might be changed. We need to be broken because we are too selfish. We need to be broken so we crawl to God as our only hope. I still relate more to this latter understanding, but I also recognize that this may not fall well on the ears of certain people or groups of people who have experienced significant suffering. I do not need to go to a Native American or a disabled person and convince her that she needs to be broken. She probably is already. But I do need to go to the spoiled teenager or the frat boy and convince him that he needs to be broken.
Might this be a difference in groups to which these two parties are ministering? I certainly do not think so, although that is probably what the mainliners would want to tell us. Mainliners get off on thinking that they care for the poor and disenfranchised, and yet many or most mainline churches are filled with the rich, powerful, and arrogant who are nominal Christians at best. Granted, many seeker churches are filled with middle class American-loving people, but many conservative churches also have powerful ministries to the poor and disenfranchised - just as much as any mainline group would hope to have. I have seen a deep and sincere care for the disenfranchised in conservative churches. So, I don't think this is the cause of the difference.
No, I think we have a good ol' theological difference on this matter. What is our focus? Like I said, I suppose I tend to side with the Supertones on this one, and this is probably informed by my theological bent. I am a Baptist who understands baptism and salvation as dying and rising with Jesus. We are called to be crucified with Christ and forsake ourselves for the cause of Christ. Therefore, I see a call to brokenness. Let my arrogant and selfish spirit be broken so I may fall into deeper devotion to Jesus' call.
So, I will hesitantly, fearfully, and boldly continue to sing along, "Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for" (and even more honestly), "brokenness is what I need."
I'm starting to get pretty excited about moving to New Zealand for Ph.D. work. I think I'm going to make a great rugby fan. I told Andrea that I'm probably going to break my other leg playing rugby down there, but it'll be worth it. New Zealand has state health care, and health insurance for foreigners is cheap.
Here's a video of the New Zealand All Black's traditional Haka dance. Very cool:
I think I may abandon Xanga for a while. I have been checking my subscriptions to read a few different people's blogs, but I personally don't have too much interesting to say. To those of you who read and care, I will devulge that I have recently been accepted into the Ph.D. program (uh, "programme") at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. I will be studying under Paul Trebilco. I will be investigating the pistis langauge in Hebrews, with a particular eye toward a "faith[fulness] of Jesus" reading similar to a subjective genitive reading of pistis Christou in Paul. We'll see where that takes me, I guess. As you might imagine, Andrea and I are totally stoked. We hope to move down there sometime around August 2008. Now we just have to get our visas, figure out Andrea's teaching license stuff, and buy plane tickets (that one hurts).
