Existential Moments In Line

I went grocery shopping last night and was asked by the checker: "Did you find everything that you were looking for?" Hmmm... I know that she was talking about eggs and bread and cabbages, but that question always makes me stop and wonder. I never know how to answer...

John Updike: In Memoriam

It is always a sad day when a great story-teller and chronicler of our lives passes away. Today is such a day. I just heard that John Updike died today at the age of 76.

So, to honor him, I thought that I would post a theologically provocative poem by the late chronicler of small town, middle-class America. Peace to you, Mr. Updike. Thank you for being a mirror for our lives.

Seven Stanzas at Easter

By John Updike (from Telephone Poles and Other Poems)

Make no mistake
If he rose at all it was as his body;
If the cells' dissolution did not reknit,
The amino acids rekindle,
The church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
Each soft spring recurrent,
It was not as his spirit
In the mouths and fuddled eyes
Of the eleven apostles;

It was as his flesh: ours—
The same hinged thumbs and toes
The same valved heart that pierced, died, paused
Then gathered again out of enduring might
New strength to enclose.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb
Make it a real angel,
Opaque in the dawn light,
Weighty with Max Planck's quanta,
Robed in real linen spun on a definite loom.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Transcendence, making of the event a symbol,
A sign painted in the credulity of a vanished age;
Let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back:

Not papier-mâché, not a stone in a story,
But the vast rock of materiality
That in the slow grinding of time
Will eclipse for each of us
The wide light of day.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous
For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
Lest awakened in an unthinkable hour
We are embarrassed by the miracle
And crushed by remonstrance.

Music and Thoughts from the Jan 23rd & 24th Class

I will be putting various things up on the class blog over the next few weeks as I think through how the class went last weekend. I will also be writing random thoughts as I read and write in preparation for the next theology weekend. Read or ignore at will.

Here are some of the questions that arose during class:

• What does it mean to be saved? Redeemed? Forgiven?
• What is a Christian?(Small question!)
  
• What does it mean to be the pneumatikoi?
• If the Holy Spirit is in the world, does the Spirit exclusively dwell with Christians? (Hidden behind this question: who are the 'elect'?)
  
• What is redemption? Do you believe in redemption?
• Do you believe in the promises of God? What are those promises?
  

Were there other questions that arose for you? I would love to hear them.

Here's a bad joke (I told you I had random things for you!):
What do you call a female owl sitting in the rain? (See below for the answer.)

OK, improv music from Saturday afternoon:

• The first example that I played was the Holy Spirit portion of "In the Sweet embrace of Life Sermon" from In This House on this Morning by the Wynton Marsalis Septet.
• The next example was Jan Gabarek and the Hilliard Ensembles Officium CD. They spent a year in dialogue before recording this. And yes, Jan Gabarek is improvising everything he plays on this album.
• I also played a few songs from Appalachia Waltz with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor.
• The final example I played was Ella Fitzgerald with the Count Basie Orchestra. (A classic recording!) However, I would really recommend, if you want to hear Ella at some of her improvisational best, her Ella in Rome recording.

There is so much other great improvisational music out there, but this gives you a few very different examples of improv. Of course you all could tell me other great examples. Improv tends to push the boundaries!! Great stuff.

And, the answer to the joke? "A moist owlet"!!

Peace,
Chelle

Some Vids

Here is Joshua Redmond.

Here is the vid that Ed was going to show as an example of violence.

Schedule for January 23rd & 24th

Hello all,

I thought that I would post the approximate schedule for the class this weekend, so you know what to expect. I say approximate because things always come up, don't they?

Friday, Jan. 23rd
10 -- Go over syllabus

11:15 -- Lecture: "What is Pneumatology?"
12:30-- Small Groups: Karkkainen
1 -- Lunch
2 -- Lecture: "Different Trends in a Theology of the Spirit"
3:30 -- Small Groups: Karkkainen

Saturday, Jan. 24th
10 -- Ed Traub, Lecture: "Atonement, Hospitality and Resurrection"
12:30 -- Small Groups: Boersma
1 -- Lunch
2 -- Lecture: "The Spirit in Creation"
3:15 -- Short Lecture/Discussion: "Inspiration and Revelation"
4 -- Class Discussion: "What do we want from the Spirit?"

Peace,
Chelle

Welcome to a New Term!!

Hi ho all you theology students!!

I am looking forward to this weekend's class on Pneumatology. (Theology of the Holy Spirit, that is.) I have lots of good stuff planned. Come with your reading done, prepared to wrestle with theology.

Just to warm up your theological brains, you might want to check out this article on Mars Hill Church in the NY Times. Here is another one that compares Mars Hill Church with Mars Hill Graduate School. I guess the question that always floats in my brain is, does theology really matter all that much? If it doesn't then what is all the fuss about? Style? Hmmm... (Thanks to Nathan Hollifield for sending me the NYT article.)

I'm looking forward to great conversations!!

Peace,
Chelle (a.k.a. Dr. Stearns)