along the road

Where did the Resurrection go along the Roman Road?

If that image confuses you and does not send a shiver down your spin, consider yourself lucky. I still remember being taught at the Student Union how to use this bridge illustration to walk people along the Roman Road: (Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 5:1, 10:9)

But recently I have began to wonder where does the resurrection fit into all of this. I am going to try and tackle this for a final paper in Christology, should be interesting.

I heard a sermon last week from W242 called, "Why Did Jesus have to Die?" In it, Bruce preached a normal explanation of the substitutionary atonement (Seminary language for Jesus had to die in place of my sins.) Also Bruce said that the centerpiece of the Christian faith is the Cross.
Then, I remembered that blockbuster movie by Gibson. 2 hours and fives of Jesus suffering and death, and then a brief head nod to the resurrection right before the credits rolled.
It has made me wonder, why is the resurrection important in our evangelical tools. Does it really matter?
Even though Jesus said that "It is finished," while on the cross, was it completed?

Clearly for Paul, the engineer of the Romans Road, it does matter: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins." 1 Corinthians 15:17

I wonder where the Roman Road and the Road to Emmaus intersect

Preseason begins today

Thank goodness the Off-season of football is about over, and we can start focusing on February 4th, 2007 in Miami for XLI.

The NFL has released a few games to tantalize us with the revamped schedule:
Remember 1) to see MNF you now have to have cable; 2) NBC is now in the NFL mix with Sunday Night games, first time since 1997.

Thursday Night [September 7th]
Steelers versus Dolphins
Sunday Double Header [September 10th]
TO and the Cowboys versus the Jags of JAX.
Sunday Night Primetime
Eli vs. Peyton
MNF Double Header(?) [September 11th]
Vikings versus the Skins (7:00)
Chargers versus Raiders (10:15)

Looks like NFL forgot something when they created this opening schedule.

The fans.

• First you take MNF off of ABC and put it on ESPN. Then you add Kornhauser to Theisman.
• Next you let NBC come onboard so that Gregg Gumble or Bob Costas or whoever has been doing the weekly Figure Skating commentaries can host with John Madden?
• Third you feature the Dolphins against the Super Bowl Champs? How about a team with some relevance. Then squeezed into a hectic Opening Sunday is America's team versus another irrelevant team.
• Sunday Night has an intruiging matchup-Brother vs. Brother-but it is almost too cheesy for NBC's first real sporting event (minus NASCAR of course). I picture them using the fireplace set from Torino to have Katie Couric interview Archie Manning, "So Arch, you are you pulling for?"
• And then in an attempt to recuscitate MNF on ESPN they feature the Vikings...Uh, ESPN-Daunte and Moss no longer play there.
• Finally near MIDNIGHT, they get something right and feature two rivals with interesting QB situations, too bad 93% of America will be asleep because we don't care about the PST.

What happened Teaglibue? Decide that your predecessor should have it just as difficult as you did?

blast from the past

Once again I am amazed and worried about the power of Google. You can find anyone "hip" enough to be on the internet. Old gfriends, roommates, and youth leaders. Little un-nerving what may be out there. Google Wesley Barry and you will discover that I was also a freckling child actor from the 30s.

I just found my old youth pastor's publicity website. I should shoot this guy an email because it was through his ministry that pushed me towards ministry. He was very encouraging of my faith journey and my interests--in fact my only commercial art deal was taking his album cover photo for him.

Subtle reminder that there is a legacy component to this whole ministry thing.

Steve Lindsley, if you google yourself and find this site: thanks (hopefully one of these days I will get around to that email).

peace,
wb

the lowest shelf

So, I made it over to the library for the second time this semester.

And I am still baffled by something: it seems like the books I always want are on the bottom two shelves.

worth a thousand words

...where are you going...

Year to Date

Distance: 220.33 miles
total time: 29 hours, 49min, 30secs

(11 weeks)

my running goal this year is make 1000miles in the year. 11 weeks in, and on pace. places I could have gone...Baltimore, DC, Hershey-PA, Providence (why I am not sure), Syracuse, and very strangely: Speculator, NY is 218 miles from my Princeton Apartment as the crow flies.

Dangerous Texts

     Recently I have been confronted by two "dangerous" texts in scripture. One I heard in class, the other was preached today.
Romans 5:3-5a
let us rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance; character and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us...

     This often quoted text is dangerous because it has been used to "keep people in their place." Abused women are told to suffer because eventually they will receive the hope that does not disappoint. The marginalized are told that they gain character by learning how to withstand injustice. The poor are told they can persevere if they would really just try harder.
     Hopefully you can see the how that may be dangerous. It gets--not to be too dramatic--deadly when we point to our Savior on the cross and say, see what Christ has done, now take up your cross, submit, suffer and die.
     If we are not careful with how we use our words regarding Christ's sacrifice and our call to submission--which I do think is a valid and necessary call--we could turn the transformative and radical Gospel into deadly propaganda that keeps things as status quo.
     The same can be said about the sermon text I heard preached today: Matthew 6:25-34. Granted the audience was white, mid-to-upper class Americans.

[--stepping upon soapbox--]

     But my concern is that it is precisely these folks, the ones with the resources and the tools to help, who are failing to help feed and clothe the hungry in Africa, in Haiti, in our freakin' backyards!
     Therefore, how can we expect those who do not have the luxury of going to a grocery store not to worry about what they will eat.
     Instead we use this text to tell us not feel pressured about deadlines or homework or what our friends may think of us, and instead we should be prioritizing God on our to-do lists. Which is great and an occasionally needed message, but by ceasing our own self-worry we better start worrying about our brothers and sisters whose lives are lacking because we live in excess
(Irony-honesty alert: I type this on my laptop, ten feet from my second computer, while eating a bowl of ice-cream, with a $100 plane voucher before me, in the subsidized seminary housing the married students all bitch about...)
     Therefore both of these texts can be very dangerous if we--the safe, the established, the empowered, the white, the wealthy, the male--do not stop and take some self inventory and recognize the tremendous damage we can/are causing.

[--exiting soapbox--]

Uninvited Dance Partner

     Apologies for the length, but it is warranted.
     As most of you know, I am predicting the Davidson upset special. Of course come 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, I will be singing the "Well at least we made the tournament" song.
     Anyway: Here is a great snoobery article regarding Davidson College for those who don't know about us.
     Think of us as David's Son and Ohio State as Goliath. See it's Biblical, and the upset tomorrow will be of Biblical Proportions.

One for the Books: Davidson a Team to yell for

DAYTON, Ohio -- Davidson has no business being here. This is America, land of the free and home of the brave and open to underdogs and everyone and so on and so forth. Got it. But this is also college basketball, land of the giants and home of the cheaters and open to academic misfits and sloths and ... just win, baby.
Davidson's Ian Johnson makes a layup during practice Thursday in Dayton. (AP)
     Davidson has no business winning. Not with this playing field. The average student at Davidson came to college with an SAT score of 1,360. Of course, it's different for the average Davidson student-athlete -- their SAT score was 1,370.
     In Bob McKillop's 17 years at Davidson, 53 of his 54 seniors have graduated. McKillop has been all over that 54th senior, and in May, the unnamed non-graduate will get his Davidson degree. McKillop's players have become cardiovascular specialists, neurologists and poets. Pastors and Ph.D. candidates and executive headhunters.
     Basketball players? OK, fine. Davidson has basketball players, too. But they have no business doing this, being in the NCAA Tournament, because that requires winning the Southern Conference Tournament. And trust me when I say this: Davidson has no business winning the Southern Conference Tournament.
     The Southern Conference has a number of fine academic institutions, but nothing like Davidson. Few leagues beyond the Ivy have anything like Davidson. For years, the Southern Conference bully has been College of Charleston, where Division I transfers are always welcome and where players who can't get eligible elsewhere, including one current freshman, can find a home. A school like Charleston, or other SoCon teams like Georgia Southern, Chattanooga and Appalachian State, can look at the pool of qualified recruits nationally and know, just know, they can admit almost any of them.
     Davidson? Get serious.
     Every year, Davidson assistant Matt Matheny goes to the summer meat markets of Nike or Adidas or Reebok. Hundreds of college coaches watch hundreds of high school players. Not Matheny. He doesn't watch hundreds. He doesn't watch tens.
     "If I'm going to the Nike camp and there are going to be 300 guys, I've got to do a ton of work before the camp," Matheny said. "When I get there, out of those 300 guys I can say, 'These are the 10 -- or really five -- who have the academics where we can recruit them.'"
     Davidson is to the South what Stanford is to the West. You have to admire what Mike Montgomery did at Stanford, and what Trent Johnson is trying to do there now. The academics at Stanford aren't at the Ivy League or Davidson levels, but they're closer to those levels than, say, the Southern California or Oregon levels. Unless you went to Cal, Stanford's a school to root for.
     Same with Davidson. Who else would you root for? Michigan? Eight years ago, Michigan beat Davidson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, a win the Wolverines later vacated because of NCAA violations. Four years ago, Davidson returned to the NCAA Tournament and lost to Ohio State. Earlier this month Ohio State vacated that win because of major violations under the previous coaching staff.
     To recap: The last two teams to beat Davidson in the NCAA Tournament were cheaters who had to give those wins back. But that's college basketball. Davidson? Davidson isn't college basketball. Davidson is a fable, or a Bible story.
     "We like to refer to it as the 'Davidson vs. Goliath' syndrome," said Davidson athletics director Jim Murphy. "Whether it's academically or athletically, we tell our student-athletes to extend beyond their ability, and perform over their heads. At first glance we may not belong on this basketball court, but in reality that's where we belong."
     Strange but true. If you're not careful, Davidson will beat you. McKillop is the all-time Davidson and Southern Conference leader in wins, and every year his teams play a non-conference schedule that would make schools like Florida State, Colorado and Texas A&M quiver. Michigan knew. In 1998, even with the best roster money could buy, Michigan had the ethical audacity to dispatch three assistant coaches to scout Davidson's final NCAA Tournament practice in Atlanta.
McKillop doesn't have to be here, at Davidson. Not after 17 years. You don't read his name every offseason when coaching moves are discussed, but not because McKillop isn't pursued. You don't see his name because he's not a self-promoter. St. John's once pursued him. Richmond. There have been others. He doesn't talk about it. Good for him.
     Here he is at Davidson, winning games he shouldn't win, about to play a game he can't win. No. 15 seed Davidson can't beat No. 2 Ohio State on Friday in the Minneapolis Region. You know that, right? Davidson doesn't have one player who would start for the Buckeyes, though senior guard Brendan Winters would play off the bench. Because the mismatch is so severe, Davidson's players have spent the days since Selection Sunday studying nothing but Ohio State.
Just kidding.
     Wednesday, nearly half the team took a brutal test on Chinese culture. "The last three days I was more focused on that test than on Ohio State," said senior guard Matt McKillop.
Matt's father, the Davidson coach, doesn't bemoan his difficult job. He embraces it.
"In the words of Hyman Roth in The Godfather,, 'This is the profession we chose,'" Bob McKillop says. "And this is the school I chose. If I felt I was at a disadvantage, I didn't have to choose Davidson. I didn't have to stay here. But I wouldn't trade my guys for anybody. I'm delighted to be table to walk into the locker room and have a discussion with my guys. I'm delighted to step onto the court and coach them."
     And you, whoever and wherever you are, should be delighted to root Davidson onward

I've heard of Water into Wine

Miracles do happen...

Woman Gets Beer From Her Kitchen Faucet
OSLO, Norway - It almost seemed like a miracle to Haldis Gundersen when she turned on her kitchen faucet this weekend and found the water had turned into beer.

Two flights down, employees and customers at the Big Tower Bar were horrified when water poured out of the beer taps.

By an improbable feat of clumsy plumbing, someone at the bar in Kristiandsund, western Norway, had accidentally hooked the beer hoses to the water pipes for Gundersen's apartment.

"We had settled down for a cozy Saturday evening, had a nice dinner, and I was just going to clean up a little," Gundersen, 50, told The Associated Press by telephone Monday. "I turned on the kitchen faucet and beer came out."

However, Gundersen said the beer was flat and not tempting, even in a country where a half-liter (pint) can cost about 25 kroner ($3.75) in grocery stores.

Per Egil Myrvang, of the local beer distributor, said he helped bartenders reconnect the pipes by telephone.

"The water and beer pipes do touch each other, but you have to be really creative to connect them together," he told local newspapers.

Gundersen joked about having the pub send up free beer for her next party.
"But maybe it would be easier if they just invited me down for a beer," she said

...Or the sadder fact; We throw the word miracle around too often, making us more skeptical that real miracles do not exist. Instead we find things that "seem like miracles" and then explain them way by clumsy behaviors.
But why limit God's in breaking into human history to the time of Scriptures? Why establish a linear understanding of time that says that we live in the already-not yet? Why relegate miracles to an underdisgusted, unrefined, uneducated sector of Christianity?
I think there is value in the Early Church perspective that waking up in the morning is a miracle.

Dancing 'Cats

Just a quick heads up for those seeking a gauranteed bracket buster.
2002 Davidson played Ohio State in Albuquerque and it came down to the final few minutes for the Buckeyes to escape. This year they won't be so fortunate and will fall prey to the Wildcats of Davidson.
The Cats come to Dayton with 7 seniors with postseason experience.

This 15-2 seed upset is a lock.

reminder: March 2006

Just a subtle reminder, as Aramark tosses most away our uneaten meals each day. Or as we walk into the WaWa and see more selection than most of the world could ever imagine.
Kenya is in desperate need of food and clean water; cannot get much more basic than that?

USA Today

Official: U.N. food agency to run out of food
EL WAK, Kenya (AP) — The U.N. food agency will soon run out of food necessary to feed some 3.5 million Kenyans facing shortages caused by prolonged drought because it has received just over a tenth of required funding, a spokesman said Saturday.

Three Masaai women collect food at a feeding centre in Kijiado, southern Kenya.
Anthony Mitchell, AP

The World Food Program has enough cereals to last until April but will run out of other staples by month's end, program spokesman Peter Smerdon said.

The agency has a shortfall in funding of $197 million in its food aid program for Kenya, Smerdon said.

"If we don't get any more food aid it will be a catastrophe," Smerdon said. "We are already on the edge because food is running out and we are supposed to be feeding people until February next year."

World Food Program Executive Director James Morris is expected later in El Wak, 420 miles northeast of the capital, Nairobi. El Wak is seen as illustrative of the effects of prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa, where a total of 11.5 million people need food aid.

El Wak resident Mohamed Ibrahim, 55, said that during the current drought he has seen his camels reduced to 40, from 200.

"We don't just need food, we need other kinds of help as well," Ibrahim said. "People say we should change the way we live but there are no towns, no businesses, no agriculture that we can do. And so we use our animals as banks."

Ibrahim Younis, emergency coordinator of a feeding center in El Wak run by a Belgium aid agency, said more children are coming to the group for help.

"The key problem is water because these children are malnourished and a lack of hygiene means they get diarrhea, which pushes them over the edge," he said.

thou shalt not steal (public service announcement)

I don't see how people can not consider "piggybacking" onto someone's wireless connection as stealing?

"No one is being harmed" is a useless excuse, "I am not actually 'taking' anything from them" (technically you are taking bandwidth if you want a technicality). "I am just borrowing it and will give it back," nice try.

It some ways it is said how much time we spend on the internet and when we travel away from home or work we desperately seek a connection for email, or blogs. And it will get only more addictive as our country mushrooms the land with hotspots.

Great article from New York Times today.

Also just wanted to remind people who do have wireless routers, you must encrypt the wireless for your own protection. It does not take the most sophisticated person to "piggyback" and the holes in most systems are scary.

1) The most obvious is that people will use open connections for illegal behavior such as child pornography and mp3 downloads (yes, I am in the process of repentance to my MP3 perspective).
2) If you network your home computers through the net, you are opening up the possibilty of hackers being able to get into your system.
3) Sophisticated hackers can "mirror" your keystrokes and "borrow" your passcodes to important sites.

Therefore, you must encrypt your router.
It is fairly easy with most routers
type in
192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1 (general private router ips)
into your explorer address bar and you should be able to navigate from there.

new hobby (habit?)

The Coolest Looking
Arturo Fuente Hemingway "Between the Lines"